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ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Α major fire has broken out in southern Greece, burning homes in villages not far from the famous archaeological site of Ancient Olympia and prompting the evacuations of six villages.
The fire broke out Sunday afternoon near the villages of Krestena and Skillountia, which are south and southeast of Ancient Olympia. Authorities messaged residents there and in four other villages to evacuate quickly.
Fire Service spokesman Yannis Artopoios said 125 firefighters and 43 fire engines were operating in the area, as well as four planes and four helicopters, but the aircraft can’t operate at night. On a positive note, the prevailing northwesterly winds were pushing the fire to the southeast, up a mountain and away from Ancient Olympia, authorities said.
At least six more significant fires were burning across the country Sunday, according to the fire service, with three of those burning for several days. Artopoios said 141 wildfires had started in Greece over the past three days.
The fire on the Greek island of Lesbos, which required the evacuation of over 450 tourists and locals Saturday, is slowly being controlled, with only scattered blazes late Sunday afternoon, local authorities said.
But two fires still threaten Greek nature reserves, one in the northeastern region of Thrace, close to the Turkish border, and another in the region of Western Macedonia.
Three other fires erupted Sunday, one in Western Macedonia, another in central Greece and the third on the island of Crete.
In the Dadia Forest, which hosts a number of rare bird species, firefighters and aid workers rescued injured animals and took them in for treatment. Late Sunday that blaze expanded again, forcing residents of the village of Dadia to evacuate for the second time in three days.
Hot and dry conditions, along with gusty winds, have prevailed for weeks in Greece. A heat wave that arrived Saturday pushed temperature past 41 degrees Celsius (105.8 degrees Fahrenheit) in some places. The heat is expected to persist for several days.
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Follow all AP stories on climate change at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/fire-damages-homes-in-southern-greece-more-blazes-active/ | 2022-07-25T14:01:41Z | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/fire-damages-homes-in-southern-greece-more-blazes-active/ | false |
Out of 500-plus companies that raised seed and Series A rounds over the past year, Will Reed named Rocketlane an employer of choice based on mission, culture, growth trajectory, and founding leadership
SAN MATEO, Calif. and CHENNAI, India, July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Rocketlane, a leader and innovator in customer onboarding, announced today that they have been named one of the Top 100 Early-Stage Companies to Work for in 2022 by executive search firm Will Reed.
Rocketlane is a leader and innovator in customer onboarding that helps accelerate value delivery and streamline customer onboarding and implementation journeys. It creates on-demand visibility, elevates the onboarding customer experience, and helps run transparent and consistent implementations.
"We've worked with hundreds of early-stage B2B tech companies who are on-mission to transform the way we live and work," said Paige Robinson, founder and CEO of Will Reed. "We believe the most successful companies are those like Rocketlane, who are committed to building human-first cultures that offer meaningful work and support the full employee experience."
"Every day, we strive to uphold our company values, and we are very proud to be recognized as one of the top 100 Early-Stage Companies to Work for in 2022", said Srikrishnan Ganesan, co-founder and CEO of Rocketlane. "For a company born in the pandemic, we have successfully solved the challenges of a remote work environment and built a leading product in customer onboarding without compromising our ethos. We are committed to a culture that encourages innovation, strives for inclusivity, and values empathy."
Since inception, Rocketlane's in-person team has successfully collaborated to reach a number of milestones, including receiving a $3 million seed round and an $18 million Series A funding round just seven months apart; their emphasis on weaving innovation into their culture has helped them gain recognition as a G2 category leader in client onboarding, as well as a 2022 Gartner Cool Vendor in the Technology GTM category. It has also helped them build and release industry-first capabilities such as native forms and a Slack integration that makes project communication seamless, among others.
Rocketlane has also been investing in creating learning avenues for their domain: This year saw them launch their maiden Propel event, the first and only dedicated conference for customer onboarding and implementation which attracted 1,300 attendees and 3,000-plus registrations. They also launched well before Rocketlane Preflight.cx, a 1,900-plus member Slack community that offers opportunities to network and learn for customer onboarding leaders and practitioners.
Along the way, Rocketlane has developed a highly-connected team through fun and differentiating experiences, including a viral rap video to announce their series A funding, weekly 'Curiosity' lessons where team members share their personal passions with colleagues, participation in the Start-Up Premier League cricket tournament, off-sites, and more.
Rocketlane is a collaborative customer onboarding platform that helps you accelerate value delivery and streamline customer onboarding and implementation journeys. It creates on-demand visibility for leaders, helps you elevate CX for your onboarding, helps you run transparent and consistent implementations, and unifies the collaboration, project tracking, and communication into a single tightly knit experience.
Will Reed is the only executive search firm built exclusively for early-stage founders. Founded in 2015, the firm recruits go-to-market (GTM) and People leaders for Seed thru Series C companies backed by leading venture capital firms like a16z, Accel, Bessemer, Insight Partners, Lightspeed, New Enterprise Associates, Sequoia, etc. Will Reed believes early-stage founders are responsible for shaping our collective future, so they couple search with founder enablement curriculum and coaching to ensure their B2B tech clients can compete against the giants for top talent.
- Website: https://www.willreed.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/9234593/admin/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/willreedhq?lang=en
Media Contact: Courtney Merolle
Phone: 754.715.0747
Email: courtney@bospar.com
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SOURCE Rocketlane Corp | https://www.wkyt.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/rocketlane-among-100-early-stage-companies-work-2022/ | 2022-07-25T14:02:32Z | https://www.wkyt.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/rocketlane-among-100-early-stage-companies-work-2022/ | false |
Shale Brewing Co. in Jackson Township announces permanent closure
JACKSON TWP. — Shale Brewing Co. has permanently closed.
In an announcement posted Friday to Facebook, the brewery thanked staff, customers and friends for their support.
"We have greatly enjoyed being a part of the fabric of this community and all the good that came out of it," the post said.
The post urged followers to continue to support local business, specifically local breweries, and the North Canton Cares Food Pantry, as well as other causes in the area.
The post garnered about 400 reactions, many of which were sadness and shock. Comments flowed in stating how people loved the brewery and would miss it, and how people were shocked by the news.
Shale Craft Coffee still open:Tremont Coffee, Shale Craft Coffee open in North Canton; M&H Beans to open roastery
New brewery:77 Brew House wants to be catalyst for bringing more visitors to Navarre
One questioned whether Shale Craft Coffee would stay open. A reply from Shale Brewing said: "Shale Craft Coffee is a separate business. It will continue to operate."
The Shale Brewing page confirmed that Shale Brewing gift cards can be used at the coffee shop.
Shale Brewing’s history
Shale Brewing opened in a former foundry in downtown Canton and flew under the radar until it relocated to the 7253 Whipple Ave. location, former home to Scenic Brewing Co., in 2018. This allowed Shale to have a full brewery operation and open a taproom.
Shale expanded to open a second location in Oakwood Square in 2020. This variation was Shale Craft Beer + Barbecue, a full-service Texas-style barbecue joint. Next door, they launched Shale Craft Coffee.
Shale Craft Beer + Barbecue closed its doors on Dec. 30, 2021. Shale Craft Coffee closed its doors at Oakwood Square the same month and relocated to 1160 S. Main St. in North Canton, opening April 27, 2022.
Stark County is home to 11 craft breweries, with others such as The Brew Kettle at the Hall of Fame Village in Canton and New Berlin Brewing in North Canton in the works.
This story will be updated. | https://www.cantonrep.com/story/news/2022/07/25/jackson-townships-shale-brewing-company-announces-permanent-closure/10142115002/ | 2022-07-25T14:03:29Z | https://www.cantonrep.com/story/news/2022/07/25/jackson-townships-shale-brewing-company-announces-permanent-closure/10142115002/ | true |
Organs of brain-dead person donated in Salem
The family of a 25-year-old IT employee donated his organs here on Monday.
K. Nivas of Allikuttai in Salem met with an accident on July 15 and was admitted to a private hospital. Later, he was referred to the Salem Government Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College Hospital on July 21 and on July 24, he was declared brain dead.
His family expressed willingness to donate the organs. The organ harvesting process started at the hospital at 9.30 a.m., on Monday and lasted till 1.30 p.m. His heart valves were donated to a private hospital in Chennai, his liver to the Government Stanley Hospital in Chennai, one kidney to a patient at the Salem Government Hospital, another kidney to the Coimbatore Government Hospital, and his skins to a private hospital in Coimbatore.
After the post-mortem, the body was handed over to family members. Hospital Dean Dr. Valli Sathyamoorthy and doctors paid their last respects.
According to Dr. Valli, the kidney was transplanted successfully to a patient in the hospital in the afternoon itself.
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CINCINNATI (AP) — Two of the St. Louis Cardinals’ best players, third baseman Nolan Arenado and first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, won’t be making the trip to Toronto for a short series with the Blue Jays because they haven’t received the COVID-19 vaccination.
The Cardinals announced Sunday that catcher Austin Romine also will not be going to Canada with the team for its Tuesday and Wednesday games.
Canada has restrictions on travelers who aren’t vaccinated against COVID-19.
Arenado, Goldschmidt and Romine will be placed on the restricted list and forfeit pay and major league service time in accordance with the terms of MLB’s collective bargaining agreement. Arenado will lose $384,416, Goldschmidt $241,758 and Romine $10,989.
Goldschmidt leads the Cardinals in most offensive categories, including batting average (.333), home runs (22), RBIs (74), on-base percentage (.416) and hits (116). Arenado has 102 hits, 18 home runs and 59 RBIs.
Romine joined the Cardinals earlier this season as backup for the injured Yadier Molina, who is expected to rejoin the team next month.
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.wowktv.com/sports/arenado-goldschmidt-unvaccinated-wont-make-toronto-trip/ | 2022-07-25T14:03:30Z | https://www.wowktv.com/sports/arenado-goldschmidt-unvaccinated-wont-make-toronto-trip/ | false |
Director Noah Baumbach’s adaptation of Don DeLillo’s 1985 novel “White Noise” has been selected to open the Venice International Film Festival in August, festival director Alberto Barbera said Monday.
Baumbach wrote and directed the film, which looks at the contemporary American family through the lens of a professor, Jack Gladney, and his fourth wife, Babette. Greta Gerwig, who has a child with Baumbach, stars alongside Adam Driver, Don Cheadle, Raffey Cassidy and Jodie Turner-Smith.
“It is a great honor to open the 79th Venice Film Festival with ‘White Noise,’” Barbera said. “Baumbach has made an original, ambitious and compelling piece of art which plays with measure on multiple registers: dramatic, ironic, satirical. The result is a film that examines our obsessions, doubts, and fears as captured in the 1980s, yet with very clear references to contemporary reality.”
The Netflix-produced film will be among those competing for the Golden Lion award, selected by a jury led by Julianne Moore, and a likely player in the awards season to come. It'll screen for festival goers at the Sala Grande at the Palazzo del Cinema on Aug. 31 on the Lido.
Baumbach previously debuted his film “Marriage Story” at the festival in 2019. It would go on to pick up six Oscar nominations, including best picture, and one win for Laura Dern.
“It is a truly wonderful thing to return to the Venice Film Festival, and an incredible honor to have ‘White Noise’ play as the opening night film,” Baumbach said. “This is a place that loves cinema so much, and it’s a thrill and a privilege to join the amazing films and filmmakers that have premiered here.”
The rest of the slate for the 79th Venice International Film Festival will be revealed this week. The festival runs from Aug. 31 through Sept. 10.
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Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr | https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/entertainment/article/Noah-Baumbach-s-White-Noise-to-open-Venice-17326873.php | 2022-07-25T14:03:39Z | https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/entertainment/article/Noah-Baumbach-s-White-Noise-to-open-Venice-17326873.php | false |
LE CASTELLET, France (AP) — Max Verstappen won the French Grand Prix on Sunday after Charles Leclerc crashed out while leading, a mistake that dropped the Ferrari driver 63 points behind the defending Formula One champion.
Verstappen’s seventh win through 12 races this season upped his career total to 27 victories, all with Red Bull. He said his lead in the title race is misleading because Red Bull and Ferrari have been fairly even this season.
“Of course it’s a great lead but a lot of things can happen. It’s probably a bit bigger than it should have been when you look at the performance of the two cars,” Verstappen said. “We still need a bit more one-lap race. I think Budapest (Hungary) will be a bit of a struggle for us and Ferrari will be really, really quick.”
Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton finished second in his 300th grand prix — his fourth consecutive podium and highest finish in what’s so far been a winless season — while teammate George Russell passed Sergio Perez of Red Bull following a late restart to give Mercedes its first double podium of the year.
“That’s an incredible result for the team, great job George,” said Hamilton, who estimated sweating out “about three kilos” as track temperatures hit 51 degrees Celsius (124 Fahrenheit) at the Paul Ricard Circuit in southeastern France.
“It was a tough race because my drinks bottle didn’t work,” Hamilton said. “But what a great result considering we’ve been so far off these guys all weekend.”
Hamilton lay on his back in the cool-down room as Russell watched a replay of the action.
“By Lap 20 I was like, ‘I really could do with a drink,’” Hamilton said. “Maybe the water evaporated.”
Hamilton’s first win with Mercedes came in Hungary in 2013. H e’s won a record eight times at the Hungaroring, twice as many as Michael Schumacher, and F1 races there next week.
“I hope the car feels good there,” Hamilton said. “I so love that track.”
Leclerc’s race ended on Lap 18 when he lost the rear of his car coming out of Turn 11, spinning 360 degrees before crashing into a tire wall. Leclerc could not speak at first, breathing heavily in his helmet before telling his team the mishap was caused by a throttle problem.
He then screamed a furious “Noooooooooo!”
It’s the third time this season Leclerc has failed to finish a race, while Ferrari has had seven DNF’s through 12 races. Leclerc’s failure Sunday came two weeks after a throttle problem almost cost him victory at the Austrian GP.
Leclerc, who is only seven points ahead of third-place Perez in the title battle, later said the crash was driver error.
“We’ll add things up at the end of the season, but if we’re 25 or 30 points short at the season I can only blame myself,” Leclerc said. “I couldn’t go into reverse, but those are small details. You just can’t put a car into the wall.”
Verstappen was tentative early and Leclerc held him off, but the Dutchman went for an undercut on Lap 17 with hard tires. Ferrari didn’t attempt to counter Red Bull’s strategy, only for Leclerc to crash one lap later.
“It was an error. It was a bit strange how I lost (the car),” Leclerc said. “If I stay at this level I certainly don’t deserve to win the championship. Two mistakes, here and Imola, that’s a bit much.”
Verstappen asked over radio if Leclerc was all right.
“I’m told he is, Max, thanks for asking,” his team replied.
As drivers switched tires under the safety car, Ferrari’s mistakes continued. Carlos Sainz Jr. received a five-second penalty for an unsafe release that almost led to a collision with a Williams car.
Sainz had passed Russell and Perez when his team told him to pit for new tires with 10 laps left.
“Come on, guys, I can’t believe you told me to box then,” Sainz grumbled. “I don’t know why we boxed. I don’t understand.”
After the race, he explained his position.
“At Ferrari we get super criticized for things other teams might go through in their pit stop window. We are not the disaster people seem to say we are,” Sainz said. “Yes I wanted to stay out, I maybe saw a podium position. The team has a lot more data on their screens. They did it with the best intentions and best spirit.
“My point of view is that if I couldn’t pass Checo, I would box. The moment I passed him, I thought ‘See if I could pull away.’ At that stage, the numbers said it was impossible I would make it to the end. In the moment my feeling was different but I didn’t see the numbers.”
Meanwhile, Russell tried to squeeze past Perez on the inside and they touched wheels. Perez went off and cut the corner to come back ahead with Russell asking for the position back. Stewards deemed it a racing incident, and Russell eventually passed him anyway.
“The restart was tasty,” Russell said. “I got a really nice run and timed it perfectly. It was pretty sweet.”
Perez finished fourth ahead of Sainz, who earned a bonus point for fastest lap.
Fernando Alonso of Alpine finished sixth, followed by Lando Norris of McLaren, Esteban Ocon of Alpine, Daniel Ricciardo of McLaren and Lance Stroll of Aston Martin rounding out the top 10.
Approaching the midway point of the 53-lap race, Mick Schumacher’s Haas was clipped by Zhou Guanyu’s Alfa Romeo and Zhou received a 5-second penalty.
Sainz started at the back of the grid with Kevin Magnussen as penalty for changes to their engines ahead of the race.
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More AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.wowktv.com/sports/verstappen-wins-french-gp-as-leclerc-crashes-hamilton-2nd/ | 2022-07-25T14:05:29Z | https://www.wowktv.com/sports/verstappen-wins-french-gp-as-leclerc-crashes-hamilton-2nd/ | true |
Shelley Hunter says she had a meltdown before a recent flight from Reno, Nevada, to San Diego. The reason? She had forgotten one of the basic travel requirements: a picture ID.
“While I was in the security line, I could not find my wallet,” she remembers. “I thought, ‘That’s it, I can’t go.’”
Hunter is one of perhaps hundreds of thousands of travelers relearning travel essentials this summer. After enduring shutdowns and travel bans, Americans are vacationing again. Along the way, they’re discovering that they’ve forgotten things they used to know — and that there are some new things they need to know but don’t.
I get it. I’ve overlooked so many basic travel practices in the past few months, it’s embarrassing. I’ve forgotten to check in for a flight, neglected to print out my hotel confirmation and returned a rental car without filling the tank first.
So did Hunter make her flight? She phoned her daughter, who remembered that the Transportation Security Administration would accept several forms of ID. “I had my Costco card,” says Hunter, an innkeeper from Quincy, California. That worked. “I got on the flight with my Costco card.” (Your mileage may vary; the TSA’s website does not list a Costco card as a valid form of identification, but you may still be allowed to fly if your identity can be confirmed by a TSA officer.)
She notes, though, that it wasn’t a pleasant experience. A TSA agent searched her belongings and gave her a pat-down before she could get through security. And she almost missed the flight.
She’s not alone. Kimberly Davis says her clients’ travel skills have deteriorated dramatically during the pandemic. “I have had to walk clients through some of the most basic travel questions,” says Davis, founder and CEO of the travel agency Trouvaille Travel International. “I now insist on seeing their passports before working on a trip with them. That’s because of the number of lost, expired or close-to-expiring passports I’ve encountered.”
Her customers have basic questions about changing money, packing, getting through immigration and booking tickets. “And those are the experienced travelers,” she says. “It’s like everyone is starting over.”
One of the most common things travelers overlook: visa and passport requirements.
Christina Tunnah, general manager of the Americas for travel insurance company World Nomads, says people are forgetting to check their passport renewal dates. “With many passports sitting idle for years due to border closures, travelers haven’t noticed they’ve expired,” she says.
Even Steffanie Rivers, a veteran flight attendant, neglected to look up the visa rules when she recently flew to Dubai with her mother.
“Before takeoff, I got a text from a company with a name that appeared to be from the Dubai government that said I needed a visa,” recalls Rivers, author of “The Do’s and Don’ts Of Flying: A Flight Attendant’s Guide To Airline Travel Secrets.” “So I scrambled to pay upward of $500 for my mother and me to have the visas they told me I’d need.”
It turns out she didn’t need a visa, which a quick look at the State Department site would have verified. Rivers tried to dispute her credit card charges but was unsuccessful.
Why are people becoming travel-illiterate?
“We’ve been out of the travel flow for so long that it was easy to forget certain things that would ensure we were at the top of our travel game,” says Thomas Plante, a psychology professor at Santa Clara University. Working from home didn’t help either, Plante says. Americans “lost step with their day-to-day preparedness and sense of timing.”
But it’s not enough to relearn the old travel rules, experts say, because there are a few new ones, too.
“Although travel is back, it is not back to normal,” says Helen Prochilo, owner of the travel agency Promal Vacations. “This summer, we’re seeing cruises canceled at the last minute because there are not enough staff on board. We’re seeing slow service at resorts and restaurants. And we’re seeing massive airline cancellations.”
Industry watchers such as Alan Fyall say people have a lot of new information to remember. “Travelers are on information overload, with changing coronavirus test requirements, local mask mandates, flight schedule changes,” says Fyall, associate dean of academic affairs at the University of Central Florida’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management. “They have too much to think about.”
Consider what happened to one of Marissa Prejean’s clients, who recently tried to enter the Dominican Republic. At the time, the country required a QR code as part of a traveler’s customs declaration.
“Authorities denied her entrance into the Dominican Republic because she didn’t submit her documents into their online customs declaration portal that generates a QR code,” recalls Prejean, owner of Castles and Cruises Travel Company. “She had not thoroughly read her travel documents before she left.”
Prejean sent her customer a link, and she completed the form while she waited in the customs area at Punta Cana International Airport.
How do you get back into the groove? Make a packing list. Check your document requirements. Double-check to make sure you have all of your essentials, including documents, IDs, visas and chargers. Assume nothing. And don’t be overconfident about your travel skills.
Even experts have lost some of their travel mojo during the pandemic.
“I have gotten out of practice,” admits Harshvardhan Joshi, a mountaineer from Vasai, India. “Particularly in packing.” On a recent excursion, he left his iPhone charger at home. “Without the charger, my phone would be dead,” he recalls. “And without the phone, I would have no money, since I only use digital currencies and also keep all my documents on the phone.”
The solution: He borrowed someone else’s charger. Then he ordered a new one online and overnighted it to his location.
Joshi shouldn’t feel bad. As I wrapped up this story, I received an urgent text message from my wireless company. My SIM card expired, and now I’m in a foreign country without a phone connection.
Oops. Maybe I’d better work on my travel skills. | https://www.seattletimes.com/life/travel/have-people-forgotten-how-to-be-good-travelers-during-covid-travel-troubleshooter/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all | 2022-07-25T14:09:12Z | https://www.seattletimes.com/life/travel/have-people-forgotten-how-to-be-good-travelers-during-covid-travel-troubleshooter/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all | true |
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Over time, hair becomes more susceptible to heat damage as it becomes drier and more fragile with age. Fortunately, you don’t need to give up your beloved blowouts or sleek, straight looks. The best heat protectants are designed to shield your strands from the potentially damaging effects of hair straighteners, blow dryers or curling irons and keep it healthy-looking, even if you regularly use a hot tool. By coating hair with a protective barrier before applying heat, you can prevent visible dryness and frizz, allowing your locks to look their best. Formulated as sprays, serums and oils, these products can also help detangle hair and decrease blow dry time.
We spoke to industry experts like hair and makeup artist Wout Philippo and hairstylist Devin Graciano about finding the right heat protectant product for every hair type. Below, find the best heat protectants to keep your look in mint condition.
This brand is beloved by salons everywhere, and many stylists claim this as the very best heat protectant they’ve used. The company’s ethos is all about what’s good for you and the planet. The hair mist is formulated with clean, farm-sourced ingredients like organic black quinoa to strengthen and protect strands from temperatures of up to 437 degrees.
Best Heat Protectant For Fine Hair
A Blowout Booster From A Cult Favorite French Brand
Those with thin hair are often wary of adding any product at all, as so many can weigh hair down. This lightweight leave-in conditioner is ideal for fine strands because it adds volume and shine while keeping hair bouncy and soft. It also helps prevent snags during brushing so that unnecessary shedding (and flyaways) don’t occur.
Best Heat Protectants For Blowouts
A Protective Mist That Helps You Kiss Split Ends Good-Bye
Kristen Ess Blow Dry Mist
A blowout can do a number on your hair, thanks to the combo of heat being applied close to your strands while a hairbrush is simultaneously tugging on the roots. This mist is ultra lightweight, and helps to smooth split ends using a proprietary strengthening complex. At the same time it targets weak areas of the hair, smoothing the appearance of damaged cuticles and helping to protect from environmental stressors.
Best Heat Protectant For Dry Hair
A Restorative Spray To Keep Hair Strong And In Tip-Top Shape
Balmain Thermal Protection Spray
This pro vitamin B5 and silk protein enriched formula is an excellent match for parched hair. Together the ingredients nourish, strengthen and repair brittle strands. And its anti-tangle and softening effects allow heat stylers to glide through without adding further damage. (Fun fact: Every styling product from this line has heat protection in it.) We recommend combing it through damp hair prior to applying heat.
Best Heat Protectant For Curly Hair
A Serum To Help Calm Frizzies When You Want To Smooth Your Waves
Mixed Chicks Straightening Serum
Make no mistake—curly hair is fabulous, period. But sometimes even those with amazingly natural ringlets want a sleek style, which calls for a heat protectant that can seriously tame flyaways (often a downside of having curly hair). This one, which includes chamomile, goldenseal and rosemary extracts, should be applied on wet strands for a smooth, frizz-free styling session.
Best Heat Protectant For Colored Hair
A Floral-Scented Pick That Protects Hair Health
Ouai Heat Protection Spray
This heat protectant spray is great for color- and keratin-treated hair thanks to thermal polymers, and it feels super luxurious without breaking the bank. The product is scented with Ouai’s signature Rue St. Honoré fragrance, which includes notes of violet, gardenia, ylang-ylang and white musk.
Best Heat Protectant For Natural Hair
A Top Pick For Adding Definition To Natural Hair
Gisou Honey Infused Leave-In Conditioner
We love this brand for its signature honey and propolis blend that nourishes natural textures while adding shine. Rich in vitamins, minerals, amino acids and antioxidants, sustainably sourced honey repairs and restores while propolis (this one is sourced from the founder’s family bee garden) enhances hair texture and definition. As a bonus, it shields against harmful UV rays.
Best Drugstore Heat Protectant
A Protein-Infused Blowout Balm
IGK Good Behavior Blowout Balm
IGK’s blowout balm has a thick texture upon application but rest assured it will not weigh down locks. The creamy heat-activated formula coats hair and protects it against temperatures of up to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. We love the strengthening protein and moisturizing shea butter in this heat protectant. Pro tip: Start with a pea-sized amount on wet air and add more as needed. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbes-personal-shopper/2022/07/25/best-heat-protectant-sprays-and-serums-for-damaged-hair/ | 2022-07-25T14:09:20Z | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbes-personal-shopper/2022/07/25/best-heat-protectant-sprays-and-serums-for-damaged-hair/ | false |
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden continues to “improve significantly” despite a lingering sore throat from his coronavirus infection, according to an update Sunday from his doctor.
“The president is responding to therapy as expected,” wrote Dr. Kevin O’Connor in his latest note. Biden has been taking Paxlovid, an antiviral drug that helps reduce the chance of severe illness.
O’Connor wrote that Biden still has a sore throat, though other symptoms, including a cough, runny nose and body aches, “have diminished considerably.”
Biden tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday morning. O’Connor said Saturday that the president likely became infected with a highly contagious variant, known as BA.5, that is spreading throughout the country, and Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator, said Sunday, “It is the BA.5 variant.”
“Thank goodness our vaccines and therapeutics work well against it, which is why I think the president’s doing well,” Jha told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Jha also gave a positive update on the president’s health.
“I checked in with his team late last night. He was feeling well. He had a good day yesterday,” Jha said.
That variant is an offshoot of the omicron strain that emerged late last year. It is believed responsible for the vast majority of coronavirus cases in the country. He has been isolating in the White House residence since then.
Administration officials have emphasized that his symptoms are mild because he has received four vaccine doses, and he started taking the antiviral drug Paxlovid after becoming infected.
The White House has not released any photos or video of Biden since Friday, when the media watched him participate in a virtual meeting with economic advisers.
Jha pledged that the White House would keep giving updates on the president’s condition and whether he might have long-term symptoms.
“We think it’s really important for the American people to know how well their president is doing,” he said.
“Obviously if he has persistent symptoms, obviously if any of them interfere with his ability to carry out his duties, we will disclose that early and often with the American people. But I suspect that this is going to be a course of COVID that we’ve seen in many Americans who have ben fully vaccinated, double boosted, getting treated with those tools in hand,” Jha said. “The president’s been doing well and we’re going to expect that he’s going to continue to do so.’’
Biden’s press secretary has said 17 people, including members of the president’s senior staff and at least one member of Congress, were determined to have been in close contact with Biden when he might have been contagious. None has tested positive so far, Jha said on “Fox News Sunday.” | https://www.pahomepage.com/news/biden-improves-significantly-throat-still-sore-from-covid/ | 2022-07-25T14:09:59Z | https://www.pahomepage.com/news/biden-improves-significantly-throat-still-sore-from-covid/ | false |
Membership Pre-Sales Begin Winter 2022 at Newly Designed $4.5MM Fitness Club
TULSA, Okla., July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Crunch Franchise and Undefeated Tribe today announced the planned opening of a new $4.5 million, 30,000-square foot, 24/7 gym with state-of-the-art equipment and amenities in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The modern, expansive club, located at 7827 E. 91st Street, will begin pre-selling memberships at a discount this winter.
Crunch Tulsa is locally owned and operated and will be located in the former Stein Mart building. Fusing fitness with entertainment to make serious exercise fun, Crunch will offer top-quality cardio and strength training equipment, half-hour circuit training, a functional HITTZone™ training area with indoor turf, Ride spin classes, a dedicated group fitness studio, Kid's Crunch babysitting services, tanning, HydroMassage® beds, Red Light Therapy, personal training and full-service locker rooms with showers and a sauna.
"We are so excited to bring an outstanding and affordable fitness offering to Tulsa," said Crunch Franchisee Tony Hartl. "With world-class-equipment and amenities, round-the-clock hours and memberships that start at $9.99 per month, we can't wait to open our doors to Tulsa residents."
Crunch is known for its innovative group fitness programming and will offer a wide range of classes every week including BodyWeb with TRX®, Zumba®, Cardio Tai Box, Yoga Body Sculpt, Fat Burning Pilates and more in the gym's group fitness studio.
Crunch Tulsa will offer an exclusive, limited-time promotion for founding members, with the first 500 members joining for only $1 and receiving their first month free. Founding members will also receive one free personal training session and a free Crunch swag bag. For more information on this promotion, please visit https://info.crunch.com/rate-reservations.
If you are interested in employment with Crunch Tulsa and Working Hard, Having Fun and Making History please apply today at epiccrunchjobs.com
Crunch is a gym that believes in making serious exercise fun by fusing fitness and entertainment and pioneering a philosophy of 'No Judgments.' Crunch serves a fitness community for all kinds of people, with all types of goals, exercising all different ways, working it out at the same place together. Today, we are renowned for creating one-of-a-kind group fitness classes and unique programming for our wildly diverse members. Headquartered in New York City, Crunch serves two million members with over 400 gyms worldwide in 34 states, the District of Columbia, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, Portugal, Puerto Rico, and Spain. Crunch is rapidly expanding across the U.S. and around the globe.
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SOURCE Crunch | https://www.mysuncoast.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/crunch-franchise-undefeated-tribe-announce-new-location-tulsa-ok/ | 2022-07-25T14:11:32Z | https://www.mysuncoast.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/crunch-franchise-undefeated-tribe-announce-new-location-tulsa-ok/ | true |
The NFL is making its move into offering its own media streaming platform.
The league announced that “NFL+” launched on Monday. Owners were briefed about it during the league meetings in May, while Brian Rolapp, the NFL’s chief media and business officer, confirmed in a column for “Sports Illustrated” last week that it would be starting this season.
Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a phone interview with The Associated Press that the direct-to-consumer offering gives the league the ability to understand what fans and non-fans are seeking in terms of content and customize it for them.
“We think this is a major step forward. It will evolve, build and get better as more and more content becomes available on this platform. The work that we’ve done either with other offerings or research has helped us sort of frame this in a way that we think would be very attractive and engage our fans.”
The launch of “NFL+” comes as 15 games on Thursday night will be carried exclusively on Amazon Prime Video. The “Sunday Ticket” package of out-of-market Sunday games currently will expire at the end of this season. Amazon, Apple and Google have emerged as the frontrunners to take over the rights that DirecTV has held since 1994.
“NFL+” will allow fans to view out-of-market preseason games on all devices; local and national regular-season and postseason games on mobile devices; team and national radio feeds, NFL Network shows on-demand along with the NFL Films archive. It could also include content produced by teams. It will be able to be accessed through the NFL app and website.
It is an upgrade of the “Game Pass” service that has been available to fans in the United States since 2015. The league began offering a package in which fans could watch replays of games online — appropriately called “Game Rewind” — in 2009. It started to gain favor among fans and analysts in 2012 when it added coaches film, including two angles where all 22 players on the field could be viewed.
The league has also offered out-of-market preseason games either through a separate package or “Game Pass” in previous seasons.
The key to the package is the live regular-season and playoff games. The league regained the mobile rights after its contracts with mobile carriers expired at the end of last season.
“NFL+” will be available for $4.99/month or $39.99/year. A premium package — which includes full and condensed game replays as well as the coaches film — is $9.99/month or $79.99/year. The “Game Pass” package was previously available for $100/year. “NFL+” will part of fans who purchase season tickets for their teams.
“We’ve had our toe in the water with ‘Game Pass,’ but this is our next step forward,” said Hans Schroeder, the executive vice president of NFL Media. “We think this will be attractive for fans and sort of bring down the price point for fans on a monthly basis. There is an eye on future content down the road. We’re excited to see where this can go this year and beyond.”
Goodell said recently the league is hoping to make a decision about “Sunday Ticket” and possibly selling an equity stake in NFL Media properties by the end of the year. | https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/u-s-world/nfl-debuts-nfl-streaming-service/ | 2022-07-25T14:12:54Z | https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/u-s-world/nfl-debuts-nfl-streaming-service/ | true |
MORRISTOWN, N.J., July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L), FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE:FE) utilities, have hired 20 graduates of Power Systems Institute (PSI), award-winning, two-year educational program that helps prepare the next generation of line and substation workers for FirstEnergy's 10 electric utility companies.
The new employees include 10 lineworkers and 10 substation electricians who are graduates of the Power Systems Institute (PSI) training programs at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft and Raritan Valley Community College in Branchburg.
"Our Power Systems Institute develops top-quality, well-educated men and women for the electric utility industry," said Jim Fakult, president of New Jersey Operations. "We look forward to these graduates joining our workforce to help continue providing safe and reliable electric service for our customers."
The new lines employees and hometowns are:
- Andrew Alberalla, Clinton
- Scott Baghsarian, Freehold
- Dominic Cavallero, Howell
- William Ditchkus, Point Pleasant
- George Dounis, Brick
- William Frederick, Morris Township
- Jacob Gross, Belvidere
- Aaron King, Parlin
- Gregory St Luce, Hackettstown
- William Stepanovsky, Frenchtown
The new substation employees and hometowns are:
- Seamus Duddy, Phillipsburg
- Mateo Huerta-Lopez, Perth Amboy
- Dashon Jones, Easton, Pennsylvania
- Christopher McGackin, Morganville
- Jeffrey Noll, Toms River
- Joseph Polomchak, Easton, Pennsylvania
- Jorge Shimokawa, Fairfield
- Shawn Stillwell, Browns Mills
- Shane Therien, Toms River
- Matthew Wikfors, Manahawkin
All the graduates will be assigned to line and substation shops across JCP&L's service area. Their work assignments will rotate as part of the training program.
PSI students split time between classes at the two colleges and JCP&L training facilities in Farmingdale and Philipsburg. Since the program's inception, FirstEnergy has hired more than 2,400 line and substation personnel who completed PSI programs in Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
For information about the PSI program, call 1-800-829-6801, or visit www.firstenergycorp.com/psi.
JCP&L serves 1.1 million customers in the counties of Burlington, Essex, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren. Follow JCP&L on Twitter @JCP_L, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/JCPandL or online at www.jcp-l.com.
FirstEnergy Corp. is dedicated to integrity, safety, reliability and operational excellence. Its 10 electric distribution companies form one of the nation's largest investor-owned electric systems, serving customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, Maryland and New York. The company's transmission subsidiaries operate approximately 24,000 miles of transmission lines that connect the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions. Follow FirstEnergy online at www.firstenergycorp.com and on Twitter @FirstEnergyCorp.
Editor's Note: Photos of FirstEnergy's Power Systems Institute training program are available for download on Flickr.
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SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp. | https://www.mysuncoast.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/jcpampl-welcomes-new-line-substation-employees-power-systems-institute-training-programs/ | 2022-07-25T14:13:57Z | https://www.mysuncoast.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/jcpampl-welcomes-new-line-substation-employees-power-systems-institute-training-programs/ | true |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/mlb/philadelphia-phillies/articles/40172960 | 2022-07-25T14:15:53Z | https://sportspyder.com/mlb/philadelphia-phillies/articles/40172960 | true |
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — A bus fell off a bridge Sunday in Kenya and plunged into a river along the highway, killing at least 21 people, police said.
The bus, traveling from the central town Meru along the highway to Nairobi, the capital, “must have developed brake failure, because it was at a very high speed when the accident happened,” said senior police official Rono Bunei.
The accident occurred about 6:30 p.m. and Red Cross officials said the rescue operation was suspended after nightfall.
Alex Mugambi, the manager of a community rescue team, said he believes the death toll is likely to rise.
The accident is the latest in a series of deadly crashes in Kenya — and across the wider East African region — where roads are often narrow and police blame speeding drivers for crashes.
At least 20 passengers were killed on July 8 in a crash along the highway from Nairobi to the coastal city of Mombasa. | https://www.myarklamiss.com/news/international/bus-falls-off-a-bridge-in-kenya-leaves-21-dead/ | 2022-07-25T14:15:56Z | https://www.myarklamiss.com/news/international/bus-falls-off-a-bridge-in-kenya-leaves-21-dead/ | false |
"USHER X RÉMY MARTIN 1738 A TASTE OF PASSION" Marks A New Milestone in Innovation with A.I. Powered Technology and First of its Kind Multi-Sensory Experience in Las Vegas to accompany Usher's My Way Residency in Las Vegas
NEW YORK, July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Rémy Martin, Cognac Fine Champagne, and Grammy award-winning musical artist Usher have teamed up to launch the "Usher x Rémy Martin 1738: A Taste of Passion" global campaign, featuring a limited-edition bottle and NFT, whose design was inspired by A.I. integrated technology. The new Rémy Martin 1738 Accord Royal bottle entitled "Usher x 1738 A.I. Powered," touts a new-age bottle design and is coupled with the debut of "A Taste of Passion Experience"– a multi-sensory, immersive experience that will accompany Usher's My Way Las Vegas Residency.
"For nearly 300 years, excellence has been at the core of Rémy Martin, and through this partnership we've reached an incredible milestone, where we see brilliance breakthrough at the intersection of art, fine cognac, and technology," said Amaury Vinclet, Global Executive Director of Rémy Martin. "As a brand that has been a long-time collaborator with Usher and shares the same values, we are proud to have him launch the first limited-edition bottle design for Rémy Martin 1738 Accord Royal. This bottle is a first for the spirits industry in how the technology was used and gives spirits aficionados and Usher fans alike a rare collectible they'll treasure forever."
When creating the "Usher x 1738 A.I. Powered" limited-edition, Usher used his own musical vocabulary to describe his olfactory experience with the renowned Rémy Martin 1738 Accord Royal, a smooth Cognac characterized by notes of toasted bread, vanilla and brioche. Fed through A.I. technology, known as Generative Adversarial Neural Networks and Contrastive Language-Image Pre-Training, the avant-garde depiction of tasting notes transformed Usher's words into artwork that makes the invisible, visible. Reimagined in black and featuring a special seal that celebrates Usher's 25th anniversary of My Way, the emblematic 1738 Accord Royal bottle brings Usher's "Taste of Passion" to life with a design that now aptly embodies the harmony of music, technology and art.
"I'm an artist at my core, so transforming an abstract sensory experience like taste into something visual really spoke to my creative process," says Usher. "I leaned into the exemplary Rémy Martin 1738 Accord Royal that flowed through me and am so impressed by the visuals that came out of the A.I. process – they truly represent the medley of tasting notes captured in the flavor. It's rewarding to see those words translate to real-world artwork that my fans can engage with while bringing taste front-and-center."
A total of 50 limited-edition bottles were created as part of this latest collaboration. 25 Usher x 1738: A.I. Powered limited-edition bottles will be available to purchase exclusively on BlockBar.com, the world's first direct-to-consumer NFT marketplace for luxury wines and spirits. The drop goes live at 10AM EST on Friday, July 29 on a first come, first served basis. Priced at $500*, each NFT is available to purchase with ETH or credit card. At 10AM, the first users to reserve the bottle will then have 10 minutes to checkout. Users who successfully check out will receive an NFT proving ownership of the physical bottle, which is stored with BlockBar until the bottle owner is ready to redeem. The remaining 25 bottles will be gifted to Usher and his team to celebrate the 25th anniversary of My Way.
Each NFT is uniquely marked, and each purchase comes with the option of keeping the NFT, reselling it on BlockBar.com's marketplace, gifting it, or redeeming it for the physical bottle beginning in October 2022.
"We're very excited to be part of such a big moment for Rémy Martin as they enter the world of NFTs and launch a new limited-edition bottle which will be our first ever music collaboration to drop on BlockBar.com," says Dov Falic, Co-Founder and CEO of BlockBar. "As a globally recognized brand known for craftsmanship and excellence, we are honored to have the opportunity to offer a rare collectable item that has been created by one of the world's most celebrated artists, Usher."
The Usher x Rémy Martin 1738: A Taste of Passion partnership will go beyond the bottle to showcase a world of opportunity and excitement at the intersection of music, technology, art and cognac, which will vividly come to life through the launch of "A Taste of Passion Experience" in Las Vegas. By harnessing A.I. technology to visually articulate the taste of the Usher x 1738 Accord Royal A.I. Powered offering, "A Taste of Passion Experience," will usher in spirits and music lovers alike, where the brand will host a multi-sensory experience while nodding to Usher's illustrious career. To build on the splendor of the evening, attendees will savor an array of Rémy Martin 1738 Accord Royal cocktails specially curated by Rémy Martin and Usher, including The Rémy Roller, brimming with an effervescent blend of Rémy Martin 1738 Accord Royal, aromatic notes of ginger ale and angostura bitters, and finished with a lemon wedge garnish.
The longstanding partnership between Rémy Martin and Usher, who both share a quest for excellence and innovation, first began over a decade ago when Rémy Martin became an official partner of the OMG World Tour. This latest collaboration not only celebrates excellence in music, technology, and art, but also the 25th anniversary of My Way, Usher's breakthrough album that catapulted him into stardom. The celebration of excellence goes back centuries for Rémy Martin and Rémy Martin 1738 Accord Royal, which is a unique blend of eaux-de-vie that commemorates the reward of excellence bestowed on Rémy Martin by King Louis XV of France in 1738. Rémy Martin Cellar Master Baptiste Loiseau has inherited the savoir–faire of the House from previous generations of cellar masters, and through this transmission of knowledge, Rémy Martin 1738 Accord Royal continues to encompass the spirit of celebrating depth of character and the excitement of indulging in moments of collective success.
On July 29, the Usher x 1738: A.I. Powered limited-edition bottle will be sold exclusively on BlockBar.com. The immersive 'A Taste of Passion Experience' is running on select nights from July 15 through October 29, in tandem with Usher's My Way Las Vegas Residency, with tickets available for purchase HERE.
For more information, please see HERE and follow along on social media at:
Instagram @RemyMartinUS | Twitter @RemyMartinUS | Facebook RemyMartinUSA
#TeamUpForExcellence #ATasteOfPassion
Since 1724, the House of Rémy Martin has produced premium spirits that consistently appeal to the world's most discerning connoisseurs. A profound love of the land, a continuity of family ownership and a passionate commitment to excellence has sustained Rémy Martin for nearly three centuries. As a result of its masterful production and generations of tradition in Cognac, the House of Rémy Martin today produces Cognacs Fine Champagne, including Rémy Martin® XO, Rémy Martin® Tercet®, Rémy Martin® 1738 Accord Royal and Rémy Martin® V.S.O.P. For additional information, visit www.RemyMartin.com
Born from the cask and named after a royal approval, Rémy Martin 1738 Accord Royal is a truly distinctive cognac. Its exceptional smoothness and rounded oakiness starts with the toasting of the casks, before the eaux–de–vie even begin to mature. This unique aromatic profile is then revealed through a rigorous selection of eaux–de–vie. Recognized for its outstanding quality year after year in international competitions, Rémy Martin 1738 Accord Royal celebrates true depth of character and the sheer indulgence of sharing good moments.
Usher has changed music, culture, and countless lives. Beyond selling over 80 million records worldwide and collecting dozens of awards, he has simultaneously lit up the small screen on NBC's The Voice and the big screen in blockbusters such as Hustlers. He has also tirelessly distinguished himself as a devout humanitarian, raising tens of millions of dollars for various causes and uplifting youth via his New Look Foundation since 1999. A true outlier, he was equally at home on the stage of his blockbuster 2021 Las Vegas residency as he was on a 2016 government cultural mission to Cuba as part of President Barack Obama's Presidential Committee for Arts and Humanities. The multiple GRAMMY® Award-winning diamond-selling international megastar, actor, dancer, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and proud Atlanta resident inspires change yet again in 2022 and beyond.
Thus far, he has gathered eight GRAMMY® Awards and emerged as Billboard's "#1 Hot 100 Artist of the 2000s," "#2 most successful artist of the 2000s," and "one of the best-selling artists in American music history," according to the RIAA. He catapulted four consecutive albums to #1 on the Billboard Top 200, beginning with the landmark diamond-certified Confessions in 2004. He continued to push boundaries with a series of singles and shows including Usher - My Way the Las Vegas Residency before setting the stage for his ninth full-length offering in 2022.
Most importantly, Usher gives back at every turn. Under his leadership, the New Look Foundation provides opportunities for young people in underserved communities, enabling them to flourish and achieve seemingly impossible dreams. He has contributed to numerous philanthropic causes and historic advancements. He penned a moving essay in The Washington Post, lobbying for the recognition of JUNETEENTH as a holiday in 2020. Fostering the national and eventual congressional conversation, he attended the signing of the bill making JUNEETEENTH a federal holiday at its passage during 2021. He has achieved recognition and various honors from the Boys & Girls Club of America, the Trumpet Foundations, and Do Something. The NAACP selected him as its 2010 Ford Freedom Award Scholar, and Morehouse College honored him with the prestigious 2014 "Candle Award." In 2022, he also took the stage at The Beloved Benefit, which exists to fortify and transform communities throughout Atlanta.
Founded in October 2021, BlockBar is the world's first NFT DTC marketplace that connects consumers and collectors with the owners of luxury wine and spirits brands by providing the opportunity to exchange NFTs for unique products. Having been in the spirits industry for many years, co-founders Dov and Sam Falic noticed the issues consumers and brands were facing in the world of wine and spirits, so launched BlockBar to provide transparency, authenticity, quality assurance and storage. BlockBar's proprietary platform allows consumers to purchase asset backed NFTs directly from the brand owners themselves. BlockBar's proprietary smart contracts verify authenticity, and its partnership with top cyber- and crypto-security firms ensures that transactions are fully protected and transparent. Consumers are able to transact directly with the brands and no longer have to worry about authenticity or storage. The physical bottles are stored in a secure facility in Singapore with 24/7 security, motion sensors, and temperature control. Buyers can pay for products via credit card or Ethereum and have the option to either burn the NFT to redeem the physical product or resell the product through the BlockBar.com marketplace.
* Suggested Retail Price.
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SOURCE Rémy Martin | https://www.mysuncoast.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/rmy-martin-teams-up-with-grammy-award-winning-musical-artist-usher-ai-technology-reveal-invisible-taste-1738-accord-royal-presented-rare-limited-edition-coupled-with-immersive-experience/ | 2022-07-25T14:16:34Z | https://www.mysuncoast.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/rmy-martin-teams-up-with-grammy-award-winning-musical-artist-usher-ai-technology-reveal-invisible-taste-1738-accord-royal-presented-rare-limited-edition-coupled-with-immersive-experience/ | false |
ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday criticized Greece for allegedly violating a settlement that has governed relations between the rivals for nearly a century.
In a statement released on the 99th anniversary of the Lausanne Treaty, Erdogan accused Athens of undermining the rights of the Muslim minority in Greece’s Thrace region. Muslims in Thrace make up about 32% of the province’s population and consist of ethnic Turks, Roma and Bulgarian-speaking Pomaks.
“The conditions registered in the treaty, especially the rights of the Turkish minority, have been ignored or deliberately eroded,” the nationalist leader said. “It is not possible for our country to accept this situation, which is incompatible with good neighborly relations and loyalty to the treaty.”
The 1923 treaty was signed by the new Republic of Turkey to settle disputes with the Allies, including Greece, following World War I and the Turkish War of Independence.
It outlined the rights of the remaining Muslim minority in Greece and Christians in Turkey after a bitter conflict between the countries, which was followed by a population exchange. It also set out conditions for Greek rule of the Aegean islands that lie off Turkey’s coast.
Ankara has recently complained that Greece has violated the treaty by militarizing the islands. Athens says it is acting according to international law and is defending its territory in the face of constant Turkish hostility.
On Friday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry condemned the closure of four Muslim minority schools in Thrace, saying it demonstrated “discriminatory and oppressive policies” by the Greek government.
The Greek Foreign Ministry rejected the “unsubstantiated” allegations, saying the schools were suspended because student numbers fell below minimum requirements.
NATO members Greece and Turkey have been at loggerheads for decades over a series of issues, including disputes over undersea exploration rights in the eastern Mediterranean and the sovereignty of uninhabited Aegean islets. The two neighbors have come to the brink of war three times in the past half century.
Erdogan last month broke off high-level talks with Athens. | https://www.myarklamiss.com/news/international/turkeys-erdogan-rails-at-greece-over-muslim-minority-rights/ | 2022-07-25T14:16:46Z | https://www.myarklamiss.com/news/international/turkeys-erdogan-rails-at-greece-over-muslim-minority-rights/ | true |
(Motor Authority) Volkswagen Group in February announced it was considering spinning off Porsche to help raise funds for investment in the key areas of electric vehicles, self-driving technology, and software development.
A lot has changed since then. There’s the ongoing war in Ukraine, worldwide political strife, raging inflation, rising interest rates, an energy crisis, and stock markets declining across all sectors.
Despite these challenges, VW Group will go ahead with a planned initial public offering of Porsche in the fourth quarter of the year, Arno Antlitz. VW Group’s chief financial officer, said late last month during an investor presentation in Germany.
Citing people familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported VW Group is lining up investment banks to serve as underwriters of the IPO and is considering launching the IPO as soon as September, with an aim to list in October.
Bloomberg also reported in March that the IPO could value Porsche at 90 billion euros (approximately $90.6 billion).
Should the IPO prove successful, VW Group may follow it with an IPO of recently established battery company PowerCo. Speaking at the investor presentation, Antlitz said VW Group’s battery unit has been set up in a way to make a listing next year or 2024 possible. PowerCo is responsible for VW Group’s global battery activities and has announced plans for six battery plants in Europe and is considering establishing plants in North America as well. | https://pix11.com/news/local-news/automotive/vw-group-sticks-to-porsche-ipo-plans-despite-stock-market-rout/ | 2022-07-25T14:16:49Z | https://pix11.com/news/local-news/automotive/vw-group-sticks-to-porsche-ipo-plans-despite-stock-market-rout/ | false |
HERNDON, Va., July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Constellis joint venture Northern New Mexico Integrated Security (N2MIS) was awarded a $592 million five-year contract for protective services. N2MIS was selected by Triad National Security, LLC (Triad), the Maintenance and Operations provider for the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Triad awarded the contract on July 13, 2022, and services will commence on October 1, 2022.
The N2MIS Joint Venture consists of Centerra Group, a Constellis company, and Tsay Construction and Services. N2MIS provides a highly experienced and qualified team, ensures continuity of service, improves tribal participation and economic opportunities for Native Americans, and continues our long-term investment in the LANL mission, global security concerns, and the communities we serve.
N2MIS will provide protective force and training at LANL, working with Triad to ensure mission success and protection of critical assets with strategic national importance. The new contract includes a five-year base with two one-year options, reaffirms long-term commitment, and maintains the company's long-standing DOE portfolio.
"We are proud to partner with Tsay to continue our work supporting the U.S. Government and the Department of Energy," said Gerard "Jerry" Neville, President of North American Operations at Constellis. "Constellis companies have supported DOE for the past six decades, and we are excited to provide a highly-trained protective force at LANL."
"As a global leader providing high-end security services, N2MIS will be part of the Constellis enterprise that provides a full spectrum of turnkey security solutions to our customers," said Terry Ryan, Chief Executive Officer of Constellis. "We are honored Triad has given us the opportunity to secure LANL's mission with the Department of Energy."
About Constellis
In an ever-changing and complex world, security concerns are paramount. Enhanced security requires education, training, and specialized skills. Constellis provides end-to-end risk management and comprehensive security solutions to safeguard people and infrastructure globally. Our team of strategic problem solvers has a steadfast moral compass and unwavering dedication to creating a safer world. Constellis is committed to the success of our customers and partners.
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SOURCE Constellis | https://www.kmvt.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/n2mis-constellis-company-joint-venture-wins-592m-protective-services-contract-los-alamos-national-laboratory/ | 2022-07-25T14:19:00Z | https://www.kmvt.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/n2mis-constellis-company-joint-venture-wins-592m-protective-services-contract-los-alamos-national-laboratory/ | true |
Meet the first three artists at the newly opened art gallery Chemould/Shift
Chandigarh-based artist Gurjeet Singh’s soft sculptures and Delhi-based artist Tarini Sethi’s iron-and-shadow sculptures are on show at Chemould Shift, a newly-opened art space in Mumbai that supports breakthrough young artists on the cusp of fame
At Mumbai’s Chemould/Shift, a gallery space, which is an extension of 59-year-old contemporary art gallery Chemould Prescott Road, textile artist Gurjeet Singh makes emotive soft sculptures out of discarded pieces of printed cloth.
A metaphor for rejection of the flawed, his choice of material manifests emotions triggered by childhood memories of bullying and harassment. Born and raised in Punjab’s Algon Kothi, a village nearly 50 kilometres from Amritsar, Gurjeet shares how he relates to the feeling of being ousted, just like the rejected pieces from the flawlessly consistent bolts of fabric. “They called me girlish. They would tease me, forcibly kiss me, touch me and harass me. Often, I would go home and cry,” recalls the 27-year-old Chandigarh-based artist.
The youngest among his siblings (four sisters and a brother), Gurjeet feels he’s lucky to have studied at Chandigarh’s Government College of Art. “In cities, it feels like you’re living in the 21st century, which is not the case in villages. They are centuries behind us, as far as people’s thinking goes. Art is a vent to my experiences, especially the ones I went through in school. It has saved me from getting buried under the weight of my emotions,” he says, at Sugra Manzil, a century-old residential building in Colaba, which houses Chemould/SHIFT that was started in March by Atyaan Jungalwala and Sunaina Rajan.
A platform for young artists
“Through this new gallery space, we want to support breakthrough young artists at the start of their careers. For our first set of resident artists, we wanted to have people who are working with different materials and mediums. We wanted them to share the same space and experiences ,” says Sunaina. The gallery has decided to host a summer residency programme, spanning eight to 12 weeks every year. “The artists are provided with a place to stay and a studio space where they can work,” she adds.
As one of the three artists invited for the gallery’s first three-month residency, Gurjeet says he has made about five soft sculptures since he moved to Mumbai in May for the residency. “The story behind the sculptures is about a Punjabi boy who I call Kirat. Kirat writes about queer people of Punjab. One of his stories is about a dream. It’s about how the smallest of experiences leave a lasting impression on the subconscious. I am recreating the expressions of characters in the dream with rejected pieces of fabric from thaans (bolts). I feel the material is much like me,” he says. Gurjeet doesn’t just want to question gender norms and perceptions, but also the idea of beauty and perfection. “From where I come, dark-skinned people are often told they won’t get married. I want to question the idea of beauty, not just gender perception through my work,” he says.
A utopian space
At a visible distance from Gurjeet, Delhi-based visual artist Tarini Sethi (32) is making iron-and-shadow art installations at the gallery, using acrylics, welded iron and laser-cut metal. Art runs in her family. “My father is a product designer and my mother runs an NGO that revives languishing crafts. I have always been eccentric and strange. Through art, I express imaginative spaces where everything is almost perfect,” she says. Most of her art revolves around the idea of utopia. She draws inspiration from myths and folk tales. “A lot of my work is based on my dreams. I express the imbalance of human relationships and create installations where sculptures cast shadows of a utopian space, sort of an alternate realm, on the wall,” she says. A commentary on human-nature relationships, Tarini’s art reflects the idea of a perfect world, where love and kinship take centre stage.
While Gurjeet and Tarni continue their residency at the gallery, Mumbai and UK-based visual artist Rithika just completed her residency a few weeks ago. Her art draws from the personal, the mythological, and the scientific to navigate the mystical spaces of human entanglements. Portraying issues around hybridity, displacement, futurity and femininity, her painted worlds become sacred spaces holding events where boundaries are transgressed, and transformations are imminent. These imagined worlds propose interstellar realities, occupied by potent psychological tropes. Her work highlights the nature of companionship, recovery and opens up allegorical possibilities of a future that goes beyond apocalypse as an endpoint.
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When Jeff Bezos was CEO of Amazon, he took an arm’s-length stance toward the company’s affairs in Washington, D.C. He rarely lobbied lawmakers. He testified only once before Congress, under the threat of subpoena.
Andy Jassy, Bezos’ successor, is trying a different approach.
Since becoming Amazon’s CEO last July, Jassy, 54, has visited Washington at least three times to traverse Capitol Hill and visit the White House. In September he met with Ron Klain, President Joe Biden’s chief of staff. He has called Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., the majority leader, to lobby against antitrust legislation and talked with Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., about Amazon’s new corporate campus in the state.
“He was very inquisitive,” said Kaine, who met with Jassy at the Capitol in September and spoke with him by phone last month. Jassy was diplomatic rather than out to “bowl you over” by “force of personality,” Kaine said, and came prepared with knowledge of the lawmaker’s committee assignments.
Jassy’s actions in Washington are a sign of a new era taking shape at Amazon. The executive, who joined the company in 1997 and built its Amazon Web Services cloud-computing business, followed Bezos’ footsteps for years and was viewed as one of his closest lieutenants. The succession last year was largely seen as a continuation of Bezos’ culture and methods.
But Jassy has quietly put his own imprint on Amazon, making more changes than many insiders and company watchers expected.
He has drilled into key parts of the business that Bezos pushed off onto deputies, especially the logistics operations. He has admitted that Amazon overbuilt and needed to cut costs, closing its physical bookstores and putting some warehouse expansion plans on ice. He has started a tumultuous overhaul of leadership. And while he has reiterated the company’s opposition to unions, he has also struck a more conciliatory tone with Amazon’s 1.6 million employees.
The starkest difference with Bezos may be the new CEO’s far more hands-on approach to regulatory and political challenges in Washington.
Jassy has engaged more with the scrutiny of Amazon’s broader role as an employer and in society beyond serving customers, said Matt McIlwain, a managing partner at Seattle’s Madrona Venture Group, an early investor in the company.
“I think those kinds of things do matter more to Andy,” said McIlwain, who has known Bezos and Jassy for more than two decades. “Jeff has more of a libertarian mindset.”
Jassy’s efforts may be born of necessity. Political leaders, activists and academics are taking a closer look at Amazon because of its dominance. The company has responded by expanding its lobbying apparatus in Washington, spending $19.3 million on federal lobbying in 2021 compared to $2.2 million a decade earlier, according to OpenSecrets, which tracks influence in Washington.
Amazon’s challenges are mounting. The Federal Trade Commission, led by legal scholar Lina Khan, is investigating whether Amazon violated antitrust laws. Last year Biden threw his support behind Amazon workers who were trying to unionize; he has since hosted in the Oval Office a union organizer from an Amazon warehouse. And Congress may vote soon on an antitrust bill that would make it tougher for Amazon to favor its own brands over those offered by competitors on its site.
An Amazon spokesperson, Tina Pelkey, pointed to a previous company statement that said Jassy “meets with policymakers on both sides of the aisle regarding policy issues that could affect our customers.” The company declined to make Jassy available for an interview.
Bezos’ ambitions in Washington, D.C., used to be largely social. His ownership of The Washington Post brought him to the city, where he bought a mansion in the Kalorama neighborhood. But Amazon’s Washington office staff sometimes didn’t know when he was in town. An Amazon team led by Jay Carney, a former White House press secretary, fought to insulate Bezos from the company’s critics.
Jassy — who was in the Republican Club as an undergraduate at Harvard and has donated in recent years to business-friendly Democrats — made helping Amazon navigate the regulatory landscape a priority right out of the gate. After Bezos announced that he was stepping down as Amazon’s chief last year, Jassy summoned a group of company executives for a briefing on the antitrust fight, two people with knowledge of the gathering said.
In August, Jassy appeared at a White House summit on cybersecurity. In September he crisscrossed Capitol Hill to meet with all four members of congressional leadership. He also called on Democratic senators from Washington state and a Republican senator from Tennessee, where the company has expanded its logistics operations.
Amazon’s most immediate regulatory threat is the proposed American Innovation and Choice Online Act, which would stop large digital platforms from giving their own products preferential treatment.
One of the bill’s Democratic co-sponsors, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, met with Jassy in Washington in December and discussed China’s influence over technology. In another meeting this year in Seattle, Warner said, he told Jassy that he was concerned about how Amazon could copy the products of merchants that used its website.
Jassy is “going to be somebody who will probably be more engaged in these policy disputes with D.C. than Bezos was as founder,” Warner said.
Amazon has opposed the legislation, arguing that the company already supports the small businesses selling products on its site. It has said that if the bill passes, it could be forced to abandon the promise of quick delivery at the heart of its Prime subscription service. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., who is behind the bill, has called the idea that it would “outlaw” Amazon Prime a “lie.”
As Amazon faces the possibility of a federal antitrust lawsuit and continued skepticism of its power, Jassy may be a potent advocate for the company, said Daniel Auble, a senior researcher at OpenSecrets.
“Not many lobbyists would be able to sit down with — or even get a call with — most of the members of congressional leadership at all,” he said. “But of course the CEO of Amazon can get them all on the phone.” | https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/amazon-ceo-andy-jassy-breaks-from-the-bezos-way/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world | 2022-07-25T14:21:26Z | https://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/amazon-ceo-andy-jassy-breaks-from-the-bezos-way/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world | true |
DULLES, Va., July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Unison, the provider of Contract Management software and insight to leading government contractors, today announced that it has acquired the FAR compliance solution, FARclause.com.
FARclause.com helps GovCon Contracts professionals more quickly and accurately:
- Extract and validate clauses from RFPs and contracts
- Analyze risks and identify departments responsible for mitigating risks
- Determine which clauses should flow-down from prime contractors to subcontractors
Unison will continue to operate the FARclause service at FARclause.com. This service complements Unison's Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) solution for government contractors as they seek to comply fully with government regulations reporting requirements.
"Increasingly, large government prime contractors are seeking to deepen their understanding of the clauses that are in their contracts and to mitigate associated risks." said Bill Schroeher, Director, Unison CLM. "FARclause delivers this capability. When combined with CLM's standardized contract workflows and dashboards for audit and data call reporting, GovCons can streamline and automate all aspects of managing awards."
Unison CLM is the only contract management system built from the ground up for Federal government contractors. A secure, configurable, enterprise grade solution, CLM provides comprehensive support to contract professionals by ensuring compliance with FAR/DFARS, making data calls efficient and audits painless.
Unison's secure cloud and on-premise software, marketplace, and information products support more than 200,000 users in leading prime contractors, all cabinet-level agencies, and major DoD programs.
For more than 30 years, Unison has continually advanced its software and insight-generating products to help customers efficiently achieve their missions. Unison is headquartered in Northern Virginia.
For more information, visit www.unisonglobal.com.
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Unison | https://www.kmvt.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/unison-acquires-farclausecom-support-government-contractor-customers/ | 2022-07-25T14:22:43Z | https://www.kmvt.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/unison-acquires-farclausecom-support-government-contractor-customers/ | false |
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A mum says her dream baby name 'won't work' in the UK and has taken to Mumsnet to seek help. "Wondering if this name would work in the UK...." she wrote.
"Selja? Any first thoughts? How would you pronounce it? It means elderflower in my language and I've been encouraged by MN to go with the name that I love despite it maybe being a bit tricky in other countries :)
"My husband is English/French and he seems to like it too." Another replied: "Is it like Celia? No idea about pronunciation tbh."
Another said: "I wouldn’t know how to properly pronounce it, so would have to ask if I met. But I wold imagine something like say-er?" Another said: "No. If we don't know how to pronounce it the poor child is going to have a heck of a time all through life."
READ MORE Cadbury has launched a sickly new chocolate bar set to divide fans
Another said: "I'd pronounce it Sel-ya and I think it's gorgeous. Unless you live in a very insular part of the UK, names from other cultures are generally fine I think - at school the kids are definitely used to names with different pronunciations from the usual English phonics (Alicja, Maja, and a South American-pronounced Julia are all seen as perfectly normal, 'because you see, Mummy, the letter J can make a different sound in different languages'.)
"Selja is short and uncomplicated, it's fairly well understood that 'j' makes different sounds and she will probably spend less time spelling it than I spend spelling out my entirely standard version of a classic ( though a little bit too classical for my tastes ) English name."
Another said: "Britain is a land of hard to pronounce place names (Marylebone, Leicester, Cholmondeley etc). If they can cope with those, they'll manage a Selja. I would guess Sel-ya but I'd be wanting to know how to pronounce it right. Pretty name. Something quite elegant to it."
READ NEXT: | https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/mum-concerned-dream-baby-namewont-7377430 | 2022-07-25T14:25:54Z | https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/mum-concerned-dream-baby-namewont-7377430 | false |
He was recently fined $10 for using a leaf blower. “I’m disabled," he said. "You guys aren’t doing your job and I get a violation?”
The plight of residents at Ridgeview is playing out nationwide as institutional investors, led by private equity firms and real estate investment trusts and sometimes funded by pension funds, swoop in to buy mobile home parks. Critics contend mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are fueling the problem by backing a growing number of investor loans.
The purchases are putting residents in a bind, since most mobile homes — despite the name — cannot be moved easily or cheaply. Owners are forced to either accept unaffordable rent increases, spend thousands of dollars to move their home, or abandon it and lose tens of thousands of dollars they invested.
“These industries, including mobile home park manufacturing industry, keep touting these parks, these mobile homes, as affordable housing. But it’s not affordable,” said Benjamin Bellus, an assistant attorney general in Iowa, who said complaints have gone up “100-fold” since out-of-state investors started buying up parks a few years ago.
“You’re putting people in a snare and a trap, where they have no ability to defend themselves," he added.
Driven by some of the strongest returns in real estate, investors have shaken up a once-sleepy sector that's home to more than 22 million mostly low-income Americans in 43,000 communities. Many aggressively promote the parks as ensuring a steady return — by repeatedly raising rent.
There's also a growing industry, featuring how-to books, webinars and even a mobile home university, that offers tips to attract small investors.
“You went from an environment where you had a local owner or manager who took care of things as they needed fixing, to where you had people who were looking at a cost-benefit analysis for how to get the penny squeezed lowest,” Bellus said. “You combine it with an idea that we can just keep raising the rent, and these people can’t leave.”
George McCarthy, president and CEO of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, said about a fifth of mobile home parks, or around 800,000, have been purchased in the past eight years by institutional investors.
He was among those singling out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for guaranteeing the loans as part of a what the lending giants bill as expanding affordable housing. Since 2014, the Lincoln Institute estimates Freddie Mac alone provided $9.6 billion in financing for the purchase of more than 950 communities across 44 states.
A spokesman for Freddie Mac countered that it had purchased loans for less than 3% of the mobile home communities nationwide, and about 60% of those were refinances.
Soon after investors started buying up parks in 2015, the complaints of double-digit rent increases followed.
In Iowa, Matt Chapman, a mobile home resident at a park purchased by Utah-based Havenpark Communities, said his rent and fees had almost doubled since 2019. Iowa Legal Aid’s Alex Kornya said another park purchased by Impact Communities saw rent and fees increase 87% between 2017 and 2020.
“Many of the folks living in the park were on fixed incomes, disability, Social Security, and simply were not going to be able to keep pace,” said Kornya, who met with about 300 angry mobile home owners at a mega-church. “It led almost to a political awakening.”
In Minnesota, park purchases by out-of-state buyers grew from 46% in 2015 to 81% in 2021, with rent increases as much as 30%, according to All Parks Alliance For Change, a state association.
U.S. Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, speaking at a Senate hearing this year, recalled tenants complaining of repeated rent increases at a Havenpark development in Great Falls. One resident, Cindy Newman, told The Associated Press her monthly rent went from $117 to nearly $400 over a year and eight months — equal to the increase over the previous 20 years.
On top of rent increases, residents complained of being inundated with fees for everything from pets to maintenance and fines for clutter and speeding — all tucked into leases that can run upwards of 50 pages.
Josh Weiss, a Havenpark spokesperson, said the company must charge prevailing market rates when it purchases a park at fair market price. That said, the company has moved since 2020 to limit its rent increases to $50-a-month.
“We understand the anxiety that any rent increase has on residents, especially those on fixed incomes,” Weiss said. “While we try to minimize the impact, the financial realities do not change.”
The mobile home industry argues the communities are the most affordable housing option, noting that average rent increases across parks nationwide were just over 4% in 2021. Spending on improvements was around 11%. Significant investments are needed, they said, to make improvements at older parks and avoid them being sold off.
“You have some people coming into the space that give us all a bad name but those are isolated examples and those practices are not common,” said Lesli Gooch, chief executive officer of the Manufactured Housing Institute, the industry’s trade association.
Both sides said the government could do more to help.
The industry wants Federal Housing Administration financing made available to residents, many of whom rely on high-interest loans to purchase homes that cost on average $81,900. They also want the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to allow housing vouchers to be used for mobile homes.
Advocates for residents, including MHAction, want lawmakers to put a cap on rent or require a reason for an increase or eviction — state legislation that succeeded in Delaware this year but failed in Iowa, Colorado and Montana.
They also want Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to stipulate in loans they back that rents remain affordable. And they support residents purchasing their communities, which started in New Hampshire and has reached almost 300 parks in 20 states.
A Freddie Mac spokesperson said it has created a new loan offering that incentivizes tenant protections and last year made those mandatory for all future mobile home community transactions.
At Ridgeview, it's unclear how the rent strike will be resolved.
Cook, which claims to be the largest operator of mobile home parks in New York and has a slogan “Exceptional Opportunities. Exceptional Returns,” declined to comment. The company closed a $26 million private-equity fund in 2021 that purchased 12 parks in New York, but it was unclear if one of them was Ridgeview.
Residents, meanwhile, soldier on. Joyce Bayles, an 85-year-old resident has taken to mowing her own lawn because crews show up only monthly. Gerald Korb, a 78-year-old retiree, said he's still waiting for the company to move an electric pole and transformer he fears could topple onto his home during a storm.
“I bought a place and now they are forcing all this on us,” said Korb, who stopped paying rent in protest. “They are absentee landlords is what they are.”
One of the entrances to the Ridgeview Homes mobile home community in Lockport, N.Y. is shown June 23, 2022. For as long as anyone can remember, rent increases rarely happened at Ridgeview Homes, a once family-owned mobile home park in upstate New York. That changed in 2018 when corporate owners took over the 65-year-old park located amid farmland about 30 miles northeast of Buffalo. The plight of residents at Ridgeview is playing out nationwide as institutional investors, led by private equity firms and real estate trusts and sometimes funded by pension funds, swoop in to buy mobile home parks. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Credit: Lauren Petracca
One of the entrances to the Ridgeview Homes mobile home community in Lockport, N.Y. is shown June 23, 2022. For as long as anyone can remember, rent increases rarely happened at Ridgeview Homes, a once family-owned mobile home park in upstate New York. That changed in 2018 when corporate owners took over the 65-year-old park located amid farmland about 30 miles northeast of Buffalo. The plight of residents at Ridgeview is playing out nationwide as institutional investors, led by private equity firms and real estate trusts and sometimes funded by pension funds, swoop in to buy mobile home parks. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Credit: Lauren Petracca
Credit: Lauren Petracca
Joyce Bayles, 85, mows the lawn around her home in the Ridgeview Homes mobile home community in Lockport, N.Y. , June 23, 2022. The 85-year-old resident has taken to mowing her own lawn because crews for Ridgeview show up only monthly. Bayles is not participating in a rent strike with other residents of Ridgeview and doesn't want to get involved. "They're going to raise the rent and there's nothing I can do about it," said Bayles. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Credit: Lauren Petracca
Joyce Bayles, 85, mows the lawn around her home in the Ridgeview Homes mobile home community in Lockport, N.Y. , June 23, 2022. The 85-year-old resident has taken to mowing her own lawn because crews for Ridgeview show up only monthly. Bayles is not participating in a rent strike with other residents of Ridgeview and doesn't want to get involved. "They're going to raise the rent and there's nothing I can do about it," said Bayles. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Credit: Lauren Petracca
Credit: Lauren Petracca
Sharon Ruth shows a picture on her phone of water she collected that came out of her faucet in the Ridgeview Homes mobile home community in Lockport, N.Y., June 23, 2022, Since Cook Properties bought the community in 2020, residents complain that it hasn't been maintained as well as it once was and some of the homes are dealing with water and sewage issues. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Credit: Lauren Petracca
Sharon Ruth shows a picture on her phone of water she collected that came out of her faucet in the Ridgeview Homes mobile home community in Lockport, N.Y., June 23, 2022, Since Cook Properties bought the community in 2020, residents complain that it hasn't been maintained as well as it once was and some of the homes are dealing with water and sewage issues. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Credit: Lauren Petracca
Credit: Lauren Petracca
Jahi Black, 7, uses a speed bump as a jump for his bike outside of his grandmother's home in the Ridgeview Homes mobile home community in in Lockport, N.Y., June 23, 2022, Despite 123 mobile homes being occupied in the community, there is no designated play area for kids. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Credit: Lauren Petracca
Jahi Black, 7, uses a speed bump as a jump for his bike outside of his grandmother's home in the Ridgeview Homes mobile home community in in Lockport, N.Y., June 23, 2022, Despite 123 mobile homes being occupied in the community, there is no designated play area for kids. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Credit: Lauren Petracca
Credit: Lauren Petracca
A line of manufactured homes in the Ridgeview Homes mobile home community in Lockport, N.Y., are seen June 23, 2022. For as long as anyone can remember, rent increases rarely happened at Ridgeview Homes, a once family-owned mobile home park in upstate New York. That changed in 2018 when corporate owners took over the 65-year-old park located amid farmland about 30 miles northeast of Buffalo. The plight of residents at Ridgeview is playing out nationwide as institutional investors, led by private equity firms and real estate trusts and sometimes funded by pension funds, swoop in to buy mobile home parks. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Credit: Lauren Petracca
A line of manufactured homes in the Ridgeview Homes mobile home community in Lockport, N.Y., are seen June 23, 2022. For as long as anyone can remember, rent increases rarely happened at Ridgeview Homes, a once family-owned mobile home park in upstate New York. That changed in 2018 when corporate owners took over the 65-year-old park located amid farmland about 30 miles northeast of Buffalo. The plight of residents at Ridgeview is playing out nationwide as institutional investors, led by private equity firms and real estate trusts and sometimes funded by pension funds, swoop in to buy mobile home parks. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Credit: Lauren Petracca
Credit: Lauren Petracca
Jeremy Ward unloads groceries from his car to his home in the Ridgeview Homes mobile home community in in Lockport, N.Y., June 23, 2022. Ward is one of the residents at Ridgeview participating in a rent strike after new owners of the park announced they were raising rents by six percent. "I moved here because it's basically the most affordable living," said Ward, who is disabled and living off of a fixed income. The plight of residents at Ridgeview is playing out nationwide as institutional investors, led by private equity firms and real estate trusts and sometimes funded by pension funds, swoop in to buy mobile home parks. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Credit: Lauren Petracca
Jeremy Ward unloads groceries from his car to his home in the Ridgeview Homes mobile home community in in Lockport, N.Y., June 23, 2022. Ward is one of the residents at Ridgeview participating in a rent strike after new owners of the park announced they were raising rents by six percent. "I moved here because it's basically the most affordable living," said Ward, who is disabled and living off of a fixed income. The plight of residents at Ridgeview is playing out nationwide as institutional investors, led by private equity firms and real estate trusts and sometimes funded by pension funds, swoop in to buy mobile home parks. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Credit: Lauren Petracca
Credit: Lauren Petracca
Sharon Ruth, left, and Sandy Lees pose for a portrait in the Ridgeview Homes mobile home community in Lockport, N.Y., June 23, 2022, Ruth and Lees, president and vice president of their neighborhood association, have organized a rent strike in reaction to a proposed rent increase being introduced by new owners of the mobile home park. "We want change," said Lees. "We need the place to be safe. We need the place to be healthy." (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Credit: Lauren Petracca
Sharon Ruth, left, and Sandy Lees pose for a portrait in the Ridgeview Homes mobile home community in Lockport, N.Y., June 23, 2022, Ruth and Lees, president and vice president of their neighborhood association, have organized a rent strike in reaction to a proposed rent increase being introduced by new owners of the mobile home park. "We want change," said Lees. "We need the place to be safe. We need the place to be healthy." (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Credit: Lauren Petracca
Credit: Lauren Petracca
David Harm waters plants outside of his home in the Ridgeview Homes mobile home community in Lockport, N.Y., June 23, 2022. Harm is one of the mobile home residents participating in a rent strike in reaction to a proposed rent increase being introduced by new owners of the property. "They just want more money and they don't care what happens," said Harm. The plight of residents at Ridgeview is playing out nationwide as institutional investors, led by private equity firms and real estate trusts and sometimes funded by pension funds, swoop in to buy mobile home parks. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Credit: Lauren Petracca
David Harm waters plants outside of his home in the Ridgeview Homes mobile home community in Lockport, N.Y., June 23, 2022. Harm is one of the mobile home residents participating in a rent strike in reaction to a proposed rent increase being introduced by new owners of the property. "They just want more money and they don't care what happens," said Harm. The plight of residents at Ridgeview is playing out nationwide as institutional investors, led by private equity firms and real estate trusts and sometimes funded by pension funds, swoop in to buy mobile home parks. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Credit: Lauren Petracca
Credit: Lauren Petracca
Jill Roberts poses for a portrait in front of her home in the Ridgeview Homes mobile home community in Lockport, N.Y., June 23, 2022. Roberts is one of the mobile home residents participating in a rent strike in reaction to a proposed rent increase being introduced by new owners of the property. Roberts, who has lived in her home since early 2020, says she has thought about leaving and is concerned about the clarity of the water in the park and recurring sewer issues. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Credit: Lauren Petracca
Jill Roberts poses for a portrait in front of her home in the Ridgeview Homes mobile home community in Lockport, N.Y., June 23, 2022. Roberts is one of the mobile home residents participating in a rent strike in reaction to a proposed rent increase being introduced by new owners of the property. Roberts, who has lived in her home since early 2020, says she has thought about leaving and is concerned about the clarity of the water in the park and recurring sewer issues. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Credit: Lauren Petracca
Credit: Lauren Petracca
A child rides a bike down the street in the Ridgeview Homes mobile home community in Lockport, N.Y., June 23, 2022. Some of the residents in Ridgeview are participating in a rent strike as reaction to new owners of the community introducing a six percent rent increase. The plight of residents at Ridgeview is playing out nationwide as institutional investors, led by private equity firms and real estate trusts and sometimes funded by pension funds, swoop in to buy mobile home parks. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Credit: Lauren Petracca
A child rides a bike down the street in the Ridgeview Homes mobile home community in Lockport, N.Y., June 23, 2022. Some of the residents in Ridgeview are participating in a rent strike as reaction to new owners of the community introducing a six percent rent increase. The plight of residents at Ridgeview is playing out nationwide as institutional investors, led by private equity firms and real estate trusts and sometimes funded by pension funds, swoop in to buy mobile home parks. (AP Photo/Lauren Petracca)
Credit: Lauren Petracca
Credit: Lauren Petracca | https://www.springfieldnewssun.com/nation-world/rents-spike-as-big-pocketed-investors-buy-mobile-home-parks/ZJQ6VW7GBFASFGHJYCVIP6Y3RE/ | 2022-07-25T14:28:15Z | https://www.springfieldnewssun.com/nation-world/rents-spike-as-big-pocketed-investors-buy-mobile-home-parks/ZJQ6VW7GBFASFGHJYCVIP6Y3RE/ | false |
Poll finds 2 in 3 Americans favor term limits for Supreme Court justices
WASHINGTON - About 2 in 3 Americans say they favor term limits or a mandatory retirement age for Supreme Court justices, according to a new poll that finds a sharp increase in the percentage of Americans saying they have "hardly any" confidence in the court.
The poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds 67% of Americans support a proposal to set a specific number of years that justices serve instead of life terms, including 82% of Democrats and 57% of Republicans. Views are similar about a requirement that justices retire by a specific age.
The poll was conducted just weeks after the high court issued high-profile rulings including stripping away women’s constitutional protections for abortion and expanding gun rights. The poll also shows more Americans disapprove than approve of the court’s abortion decision, with just over half saying the decision made them "angry" or "sad."
RELATED: Roe v. Wade ruling reflects complex relationship between Supreme Court, public
The court, which is now taking a summer break, will return to hearing cases in October with diminished confidence among Americans. Now 43% say they have hardly any confidence in the court, up from 27% three months ago.
Inez Parker of Currie, North Carolina, said she’s among those who strongly favor limits on justices’ service. "I think some of those people have been up there too long. They don’t have new ideas. When you get a certain age and everything you get set in your ways just like I’m set in my ways," said the 84-year-old Democrat.
Parker said retired justices can "work in their garden, sit on the porch and fan flies or whatever they want to do."
The Constitution gives federal judges including Supreme Court justices life tenure, but there have been recent calls for change. A commission tasked by President Joe Biden with examining potential changes to the Supreme Court studied term limits among other issues. The commission finished its work last year and its members were ultimately divided over whether they believed Congress has the power to pass a law creating the equivalent of term limits.
RELATED: Ketanji Brown Jackson sworn in as 1st Black woman on Supreme Court
Phil Boller, 90, of LaFollette, Tennessee, said he’s not totally opposed to setting a limit on years of service for justices. The Republican who worked in broadcasting and later owned his own lawn care business said that "basically it’s worked the way it’s been going and I see see no reason to change that."
The oldest member of the current court is Justice Clarence Thomas, 74, followed by Justice Samuel Alito, 72. But recent justices have served into their 80s. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg served until her death in 2020 at age 87. Justice Anthony Kennedy retired in 2018 at 81. And Justice Stephen Breyer just retired at age 83.
Ginsburg served for 27 years, Kennedy 30 years and Breyer nearly 28 years.
Four new members have joined the court in the last five years, bringing down the average age of the court’s members. Three justices are in their 60s: Chief Justice John Roberts, 67, and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, 68, and Elena Kagan, 62. The remaining justices are in their 50s. Neil Gorsuch is 54, Brett Kavanaugh 57, Amy Coney Barrett 50 and Ketanji Brown Jackson 51.
RELATED: Clarence Thomas: Roe v. Wade leak has 'fundamentally' changed Supreme Court
Another proposal Biden’s committee studied was increasing the number of justices on the court, and the poll shows that proposal evenly dividing Americans. Overall, 34% say they’re in favor, while 34% are opposed and 32% say they hold neither opinion. Democrats are more in favor than opposed, 52% to 14%, while Republicans are more opposed than in favor, 61% to 14%.
The poll also found increased dissatisfaction with the court since three months ago, before the court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing a right to abortion.
In the April poll, conducted before a draft of the court’s decision was leaked, 18% said they had a great deal of confidence, 54% said they had only some and 27% said they had hardly any. Now, 17% say they have a great deal of confidence, 39% only some and 43% hardly any.
Patrick Allen, a Democrat from Logan, Utah, is one of those with hardly any confidence in the court. Allen, 33, said he feels as though justices generally vote on issues based on the party of the president that appointed them. "They’re sticking more to their guns along the lines of their party instead of the Constitution," he said.
RELATED: Who is Stephen Breyer? A look at the retiring Supreme Court justice
The poll shows the drop in confidence is concentrated among Democrats, adding to evidence that the court’s decision on abortion worsened and polarized already tenuous opinions of the court. A large partisan gap in views of the court that did not exist before the decision emerged; 64% of Democrats say they have hardly any confidence, up from 27% in April.
Another 31% have only some and just 4% have a great deal of confidence — down from 17%.
Among Republicans, however, views of the court have improved. Now, 34% say they have a great deal of confidence, up from 21% in the earlier poll. An additional 47% have only some confidence and 18% hardly any.
Overall, more Americans disapprove than approve of the decision to overturn Roe, 53% to 30%; an additional 16% say they hold neither opinion. On that decision, too, there’s a large divide along party lines — 63% of Republicans approve, while 80% of Democrats disapprove.
The poll of 1,085 adults was conducted July 14-17 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points. | https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/supreme-court-justices-term-limits-poll | 2022-07-25T14:30:23Z | https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/supreme-court-justices-term-limits-poll | true |
SUZHOU, China and ROCKVILLE, Md. and CHARLOTTE, N.C., July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ascentage Pharma (6855.HK), a global biopharmaceutical company engaged in developing novel therapies for cancers, chronic hepatitis B (CHB), and age-related diseases, and Tanner Pharma Group ("Tanner Pharma"), a global pharmaceutical services provider of specialty access solutions, have jointly launched an innovative Named Patient Program (NPP) for olverembatinib. This collaboration will allow access to Ascentage Pharma's novel drug candidate, olverembatinib on a named patient basis in over 100 countries and regions where the drug is not yet commercially accessible. Olverembatinib is currently approved by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) for use in China for adult patients with tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI)-resistant chronic phase chronic myeloid leukemia (CML-CP) or accelerated-phase CML (CML-AP) harboring the T315I mutation as confirmed by a validated diagnostic test.
Named Patient Programs are a mechanism through which physicians can legally and ethically prescribe investigational or approved drugs for patients in need prior to their commercial availability. Under the terms of the agreement, Tanner will be the supplier of olverembatinib to healthcare providers on a named patient basis in countries where the drug is not commercially available. The NPP is being launched globally, giving patients the opportunity to access olverembatinib.
CML is a hematologic malignancy of the white blood cells. The introduction of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) targeting BCR-ABL have significantly improved the clinical management of CML. However, despite clinical benefits offered by the first- and second-generation TKIs, many patients develop drug resistance. Such acquired resistance to TKIs is a major challenge in the treatment of CML. BCR-ABL kinase mutations represent a key mechanism of acquired drug resistance; T315I, which is the most- common drug-resistant mutation, occurs in about 25% of patients with drug-resistant CML. Patients with T315I-mutant CML are resistant to both first- and second-generation BCR-ABL inhibitors, hence presenting an urgent and high unmet medical need for third-generation BCR-ABL inhibitors to more effectively and safely target the T315I mutation.
Developed by Ascentage Pharma, olverembatinib is a novel third-generation BCR-ABL inhibitor that can effectively target a spectrum of BCR-ABL mutants, including the T315I mutation. Currently, olverembatinib is recommended by both the Guidelines of the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology (CSCO) and the China Anti-Cancer Association's (CACA) Guidelines for the Holistic Integrative Management of Cancers, for the treatment of patients with TKI-resistant CML harboring the T315I mutation (while the CACA Guidelines also recommend olverembatinib for the treatment of patients with CML intolerant/resistant to at least two TKIs). As the first approved third-generation BCR-ABL inhibitor in China and the second in any country globally, olverembatinib is currently being evaluated in a Phase Ib study in the US for the treatment of drug-resistant CML. To date, olverembatinib has been granted one Fast Track designation and three Orphan Drug designations by the US FDA, and one Orphan Drug designation by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
Olverembatinib has potential in several other indications as well. It has been included in the CSCO Guidelines for the treatment of patients with Philadelphia chromosome positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (Ph+ ALL). Besides, in an ongoing clinical trial, preliminary results suggest potential of olverembatinib in the management of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST)1 and in a preclinical study published recently, olverembatinib has shown potential in the management of Covid-19 patients2.
Tanner Pharma Group is a specialist pharmaceutical services provider based in Charlotte North Carolina, USA with offices in Europe and Latin America. Through its Managed Access Programs division, Tanner supports manufacturers by providing ethical, controlled and compliant access to their innovative medicines in countries where they are not commercially accessible. Tanner has been enabling patient access to medicines for more than 20 years in over 130 countries and has extensive experience supporting CML patients.
"There is enormous unmet medical need in the treatment of CML globally. As the world's second 3rd-generation BCR-ABL inhibitor entering clinical development in the US, and one of the few China-developed novel drug candidates positioned for the global market from the very beginning, olverembatinib has demonstrated excellent efficacy and safety, leading to the marketing authorization in China last year," said Dr. Dajun Yang, Chairman & CEO of Ascentage Pharma.
He added "Tanner Pharma is a world-leading pharmaceutical services provider with extensive experience in enabling access to innovative therapies when no other treatment options exist. We look forward to partnering with Tanner Pharma to provide this named patient program and expand the access to olverembatinib to patients with CML around the world."
"We are pleased to expand the work we do globally to give hope to CML patients through our partnership with Ascentage Pharma for olverembatinib," said Robert Keel, Executive Vice President at Tanner Pharma Group. "The named patient program will help ensure patients who have no alternative therapeutic options for their disease, receives access to olverembatinib in a manner that is reliable, responsible, ethical and in accordance with all country-specific regulatory requirements."
Telephone: +1 704 552 8408
Email: olverembatinib@tannerpharma.com
About Ascentage Pharma
Ascentage Pharma (6855.HK) is a globally focused biopharmaceutical company engaged in developing novel therapies for cancers, chronic hepatitis B, and age-related diseases. On October 28, 2019, Ascentage Pharma was listed on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited with the stock code 6855.HK.
Ascentage Pharma focuses on developing therapeutics that inhibit protein-protein interactions to restore apoptosis, or programmed cell death. The company has built a pipeline of eight clinical drug candidates, including novel, highly potent Bcl-2, and dual Bcl-2/Bcl-xL inhibitors, as well as candidates aimed at IAP and MDM2-p53 pathways, and next-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). Ascentage Pharma is also the only company in the world with active clinical programs targeting all three known classes of key apoptosis regulators. The company is conducting more than 50 Phase I/II clinical trials in the US, Australia, Europe, and China. To date, Ascentage Pharma has obtained a total of 15 ODDs, 2 FTDs, and 2 Rare Pediatric Disease (RPD) designations from the FDA and 1 ODD from the EU for four of the company's investigational drug candidates.
Leveraging its robust R&D capabilities, Ascentage Pharma has built a portfolio of global intellectual property rights and has entered into global partnerships with numerous renowned biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies and research institutes such as UNITY Biotechnology, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Mayo Clinic, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Merck, AstraZeneca, and Pfizer. The company has built a talented team with global experience in discovering, developing, launching, and commercializing innovative drugs and is setting up world-class commercial manufacturing and sales & marketing teams. One pivotal aim of Ascentage Pharma is to continuously strengthen its R&D capabilities and accelerate its clinical development programs, in order to fulfil its mission of addressing unmet clinical needs in China and around the world for the benefit of more patients.
About Tanner Pharma Group
Tanner Pharma Group is a specialist pharmaceutical services provider based in Charlotte North Carolina, USA with offices in Europe and Latin America. Tanner provides a portfolio of service offerings focused on improving the global access to medicines. Through its Tanner MAP division, Tanner supports manufacturers with ethical, controlled, and compliant access to their innovative medicines in countries where they are not commercially accessible. For more information, visit www.tannerpharma.com and connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
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SOURCE Ascentage Pharma | https://www.wbay.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/ascentage-pharma-tanner-pharma-group-initiate-global-innovative-named-patient-program/ | 2022-07-25T14:30:24Z | https://www.wbay.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/ascentage-pharma-tanner-pharma-group-initiate-global-innovative-named-patient-program/ | true |
CUTE: Tiger cubs get first vet checkup at Oklahoma City Zoo
Published: Jul. 25, 2022 at 10:12 AM EDT|Updated: 17 minutes ago
OKLAHOMA CITY (CNN) - The rare Sumatran tiger twins born at the Oklahoma City Zoo had their first official checkup by the zoo’s veterinarian.
The zoo’s vet gave the tiger cubs – one boy and one girl – a clean bill of health.
Their 11-year-old mother Lola gave birth on the early morning of July 2.
Lola and her cubs will be kept from public view until the twins are old enough to be vaccinated, but tiger fans can continue to monitor their progress on the zoo’s social media channels.
Sumatran tigers are critically endangered, with only 500 left living in the forests of their native Indonesia.
Copyright 2022 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.wsaz.com/2022/07/25/cute-tiger-cubs-get-first-vet-checkup-oklahoma-city-zoo/ | 2022-07-25T14:30:24Z | https://www.wsaz.com/2022/07/25/cute-tiger-cubs-get-first-vet-checkup-oklahoma-city-zoo/ | false |
Kenilworth pulls together to help Ukraine refugees
- Published
The Kenilworth community has been praised for welcoming and supporting refugees from war-torn Ukraine.
Hundreds of people have settled across Warwickshire through the Ukraine Family or Homes For Ukraine schemes.
Businessman Peter Cox is among those in Kenilworth to have helped out, calling locals "absolutely brilliant".
He said as well as opening up their homes, residents had offered support by arranging school places and sourcing jobs.
Mr Cox, who has helped to pair up families, said: "You really can't imagine the trauma particularly the younger children have been through and what I'm trying to do is help them into the community and get them a grounding in Kenilworth.
"The people of Kenilworth have been absolutely brilliant at coming together to do that."
Louise Randsbury, who has hosted a family, said: "As soon as [the war] started, I just wanted to do something.
"My boys have almost left home and they were willing to give up a bedroom, so I just thought 'I can do this'."
Ms Randsbury is hosting student Maria and her mother Tatiana, a primary school teacher from Kyiv.
Maria said the pair spent a month and a half sleeping in a bathroom in Kyiv, sheltering from bombs and rockets.
She added family members remained in the country and she was worried for their safety.
Mr Cox said support for those arriving from Ukraine had often fallen to local community groups, with little backing from the county council.
The local authority has been contacted by the BBC for comment.
As well as buying clothes and shoes for refugees, Mr Cox said members of the community had in many cases helped to appeal over school placement decisions and arrange jobs with local firms.
"[The refugees] have been keen to work, they're very keen to be part of the local community and also give back to the country that has helped them as they've fled the war," he said.
Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-62289920 | 2022-07-25T14:30:44Z | https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-62289920 | true |
9,326, 883 fully vaccinated against coronavirus in Kazakhstan
NUR-SULTAN. KAZINFORM The Ministry of Healthcare has updated the data of those vaccinated against the coronavirus infection in Kazakhstan, Kazinform reports.
Thus, 9,545,704 people have been administered the first dose of anti-coronavirus vaccines in Kazakhstan as of July 25, 2022, the Interdepartmental Commission for the prevention of COVID-19 spread said via Telegram.
9,326, 883 people got the second dose of the vaccines.
1,231,786 people, including 869,775 teens, 41,334 pregnant women, and 145,108 breastfeeding mothers got their 1st shot of the Pfizer vaccine.
1,179,559 Kazakhstanis received their second Pfizer shot. Of them, 850,757 are teens, 39,024 are pregnant women, and 140,434 are breastfeeding mothers.
As reported before, 2,054 people had tested positive for the coronavirus infection in Kazakhstan in the last 24 hours, and 1,083 more had recovered. 18,962 Kazakhstanis are getting treatment for COVID-19 for now. | https://www.inform.kz/en/9-326-883-fully-vaccinated-against-coronavirus-in-kazakhstan_a3958640 | 2022-07-25T14:31:04Z | https://www.inform.kz/en/9-326-883-fully-vaccinated-against-coronavirus-in-kazakhstan_a3958640 | false |
CHINO, Calif., July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Atezr, the innovation-driven global tech brand, has just announced the launch of the P20 Plus laser engraving and cutting machine, a powerful 4-beam diode laser engraver that equals the capabilities of a 300W CO2 laser engraver. The engraving and cutting area of the P20 Plus can reach up to 430 × 430 mm, more than a hundred different kinds of materials can be cut, the engraving accuracy is improved to fall within 0.01 mm, and it makes people's artwork come to life at a resolution of up to 529 DPI.
Laser engraving machines can be used to engrave text, logos, and images onto the surface of various materials and objects (such as wood, bottles, business cards, furniture, and leather) or to cut DIY toys and decorations. The fully aluminum structure of the Atezr P20 Plus ditches the dull industrial aesthetic in favor of a serene and stunning sci-fi blue. The P20 Plus features higher repetition positioning accuracy, motion stability, processing speed, and a longer service life thanks to the brand-new optical axis transmission structure. The high-precision laser spot is reduced to 0.08 × 0.06 mm, achieving a resolution of 529 DPI and assisting artists and engraving aficionados in producing lifelike works or batch art processing. The Atezr P20 Plus is also a reliable option for industrial-strength mass production for small- and medium-sized organizations.
The P20 Plus is a powerful diode laser engraver and cutter, built by the Atezr team after years of research on laser engraving machines, which can meet the needs of large, medium, and small engraving and cutting projects. The newly upgraded Atezr P20 Plus adopts spot compression technology and has four 6W diodes which compress the laser spot to 0.08 × 0.06 mm and have a 99.6% output efficiency. The P20 Plus high-density laser's cutting speed is 40% faster than that of regular laser engraving equipment, and it can readily cut black acrylic that is 25 mm or even 30 mm thick, as well as 0.3 mm-thick metal. Also, it can cut through 12 mm of solid wood at once, leaving clean, fine-cut edges with less residual scorch.
The P20 Plus uses a new panoramic filter glass eye protection design that can filter 97% of UV rays. The glass design and cooling fan housing avoid burns when working at high temperatures and extend the machine's service life. The built-in 256-bit color scale intelligently identifies the proportion of red, green, and blue in the engraving work based on the various grayscales of the image material, producing clear and complete work. The P20 Plus has built-in fume filtration with air assist to properly eliminate the fumes produced during the laser engraving process.
The P20 Plus's 32-bit motherboard allows for faster and more reliable engraving, and it has Wi-Fi connectivity for quicker transmission rates. Both offline engraving and app functionality are supported. People can use a TF card or the Atezr app to complete outdoor engraving and cutting tasks when no computer connection is available.
The P20 Plus is a technological breakthrough by the Atezr team, and Atezr will soon introduce P5 (5W) and P10 (10W) laser engraving and cutting machines. The 5W laser engraving machine is ideal for families to create simple toys for kids on weekends and afternoons, spend quality time together, and inspire kids' creativity. For those who enjoy using laser engraving machines, 10W is another helpful tool for fostering creativity. The 10W laser engraver is useful for innovative teaching strategies in schools. With its quick and accurate laser, projects are simple to implement, and students can actively engage in the course.
For more information, please visit: https://atezr.com/
About Atezr
Atezr is a creative worldwide technology brand. We aim to create wonderful memories for our users with our inventive tools. Our stories originate from discovery and inspire us to create a better life. Your demands are the driving force behind all we do, whether you're an artist, an engineer, a workshop, a small business, or a parent who wants to engrave a beautiful DIY gift for your child. Making everyone's imaginative dreams a reality is Atezr's goal. After many years of research, we have achieved a technological breakthrough in the field of laser engraving machines. In the future, Atezr will continue innovating to help more people realize their ideas.
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SOURCE Atezr | https://www.kait8.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/atezr-announces-launch-p20-plus-20w-quad-laser-engraver-amp-cutter/ | 2022-07-25T14:32:25Z | https://www.kait8.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/atezr-announces-launch-p20-plus-20w-quad-laser-engraver-amp-cutter/ | false |
Automotive marketing agency 67 Degrees has teamed up with Gemini Systems in order to make life easier for UK dealers.
The agency has agreed a ‘mutually beneficial’ partnership with Gemini, which provides cutting-edge dealer management systems (DMS).
The deal will put dealers’ needs first with a focus on efficiency, reactiveness, flexibility, responsiveness and growth.
67 Degrees’ main purpose is to connect its clients to their online audience and convert browsers into buyers.
To complement this, Gemini Systems has pledged to go ‘beyond the DMS’ by providing ‘innovation through integration’.
Laura Coleby, founder and CEO at 67 Degrees, says: ‘As we continue to streamline our services and expand our product offering, now’s the time for us to strengthen our partnership with Gemini Systems.
‘We are confident that they offer one of the best dealer management systems in the industry, so it makes sense we recommend them to our dealers who may require the service or are looking to switch providers.
‘Gemini Systems is a well-established business that puts its customers first – an admirable trait we are very passionate about ourselves – so we’re very much looking forward to what the future holds for us both.’
Craig Hyndman, director of innovations at Gemini Systems, added: ‘Our API partners play a very important role in our business model; by allowing dealers more choice when it comes to their systems without the overhead of double keying.
‘We understand that dealers need flexibility from a DMS provider. Our partnership with 67 Degrees means that dealers can offer an end-to-end online car purchasing experience, 24 hours a day, 7-days a week.
’67 Degrees have won awards year on year for their websites and services, and are a great bunch to boot – we’re very proud to be partnered with the best out there.’
Main image: Staff from the two companies discuss their new partnership at 67 Degrees’ HQ | https://cardealermagazine.co.uk/publish/gemini-systems-and-67-degrees-agree-mutually-beneficial-new-partnership/268910 | 2022-07-25T14:32:47Z | https://cardealermagazine.co.uk/publish/gemini-systems-and-67-degrees-agree-mutually-beneficial-new-partnership/268910 | true |
\\bibname {\\it Slow wave-band amplification induced bipolar superlcucinions } Hagelow{}, R G \\& R Duffey. Physi\\nolate~{\\rm .6}{},\\ \\5402\\, \\else{540~%}\n~{\\tt www.physhelate\\char\"{}2010a~\\aep{}}} and L Speran'au Phys. Two Republican State Senate contenders for the 35th District are being sued by a former Dow employee for defamation.
Sharon Schram is suing Christian Velasquez for discussing a 2016 gender and disability discrimination lawsuit against Dow Corning Corporation alleging she was illegally forced out of job at the company. The case was settled out of court and included a nondisclosure agreement. Velasquez worked for Dow at the time.
State Representative Annette Glenn criticized Velasquez for his alleged role in the lawsuit in her campaign. The suit claims he responded with words like “half-truths” and “lies” regarding Glenn’s comments. He is being sued for discussing the case consisting of a breach of the NDA.
Glenn is also being sued for defamation, allegedly trying to get the Midland Daily News to do a story on the previous lawsuit, saying Schram was dead, when she is still alive. Schram is seeking damages in excess of $75,000 for emotional distress and humiliation. | https://www.wsgw.com/two-state-senate-35th-district-candidates-sued-for-defamation/ | 2022-07-25T14:33:34Z | https://www.wsgw.com/two-state-senate-35th-district-candidates-sued-for-defamation/ | false |
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Is $790 million worth $2?
That’s a good question, given it costs $2 to buy a Mega Millions lottery ticket that could pay off with an estimated $790 million prize, the nation's fourth-largest jackpot, after the game’s next drawing Tuesday night.
ISN'T IT AN OBVIOUS QUESTION?
Not really.
To start with, your chance of winning the grand prize is minuscule, at one in 302.5 million. You have better odds of a smaller payoff, such as winning $1 million for matching five regular numbers but missing the Mega Ball. But even that is one in 12.6 million. To put that in perspective, your chance of dying in a car crash — something to consider as you drive to the mini-mart for a lottery ticket — is around one in 101 over a lifetime, according to the nonprofit National Safety Council.
As lottery officials note, players should think of their $2 bet as a chance to dream while accepting the reality they likely won’t be entering a new income tax bracket Tuesday night.
STILL, A SHOT AT $790 MILLION SEEMS WORTH $2
Ah, but even if you somehow beat the odds you are not going to get $790 million.
First, that’s the amount for winners who take the annuity option, paid over 30 annual payments. But winners nearly always opt for cash, which for this drawing would pay out an estimated $464.4 million.
And then there are federal taxes, which will slice off 37% off that cash prize, so that would leave less than $300 million, though state taxes could cut in to that amount as well, depending on where the winner lives. Still a fortune, but a smaller fortune. That also doesn’t account for the possibility someone else will match the winning numbers, meaning they would need to divide even those smaller winnings in half or more, depending on the number of lucky players.
NEARLY $300 MILLION ISN’T CHUMP CHANGE
It is definitely a big paycheck.
To put that in perspective, consider that the median U.S. household income in 2020 was $67,500, meaning a lifetime of work at that rate would be less than 1% of even the smaller jackpot after taxes.
But sadly, if you had won that same prize a year ago, before the nation endured a year with an inflation rate of about 9%, your buying power would have been significantly higher.
BUT SOMEONE WILL WIN
Eventually, though the reason the grand prize has grown so large is because no one has matched all six numbers since April. That's 28 consecutive drawings without someone hitting the jackpot.
With so many people playing now that the potential top prize is so large, it becomes increasingly likely that someone or multiple players will finally end that streak. Still, past prizes have grown larger, as the biggest payday was a $1.586 billion Powerball jackpot won in 2016.
Mega Millions is played in 45 states as well as Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The game is overseen by state lottery officials.
SO, IS IT WORTH GAMBLING $2
If you have fun dreaming of a massive windfall that most likely won’t actually blow your way, buy a ticket. But if you need to watch your money, consider keeping the $2 in your wallet. | https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Is-790-million-worth-a-2-Mega-Millions-ticket-17326927.php | 2022-07-25T14:36:13Z | https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Is-790-million-worth-a-2-Mega-Millions-ticket-17326927.php | false |
Parking on narrow streets causes congestion
Parking of vehicles in narrow lanes of residential areas has been obstructing the free flow of traffic in Tiruchi, due to the lack of adequate parking space in houses and buildings.
Many residential areas in the city have narrow unplanned roads which are mostly just 20 to 30 feet wide, but they get even more narrow as they are encroached by residents causing inconvenience to commuters.
According to the city residents, traffic snarls in most of the residential areas including K.K Nagar, Crawford, Thillai Nagar, Karumandapam, Varaganeri and Srirangam are becoming a major problem during peak hours.
With the lack of adequate parking space, parking in front of the residences has become a norm. The majority of the apartments have set up designated parking spaces, but a few have hardly any space to accommodate a handful of vehicles. “There is a surge in the number of vehicles, and each household has at least a four-wheeler and two-wheeler,” said Ramkumar, a resident.
“On-street parking makes commuting during the peak hours a nightmare. A similar problem affects school buses as well, therefore we often ask the children to come to the street entrance,” said A. Rafi a school autorickshaw driver.
While it is required that residents leave 5 to 15 feet of space in front of their residences for the road, residents also encroach on the narrow streets by building ramps to their property, which are large, sloping concrete structures to allow entry of vehicles into the parking lot.
“Sometimes even the movement of two-wheelers on these roads becomes difficult when there is a ramp and vehicles are parked opposite it,” said S. Akilan, a city resident.
According to a senior official, “Several resident associations have reported the issue, and the civic authority will act against it sooner, to enable free flow of traffic,” he said.
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CUTE: Tiger cubs get first vet checkup at Oklahoma City Zoo
Published: Jul. 25, 2022 at 10:12 AM EDT|Updated: 26 minutes ago
OKLAHOMA CITY (CNN) - The rare Sumatran tiger twins born at the Oklahoma City Zoo had their first official checkup by the zoo’s veterinarian.
The zoo’s vet gave the tiger cubs – one boy and one girl – a clean bill of health.
Their 11-year-old mother Lola gave birth on the early morning of July 2.
Lola and her cubs will be kept from public view until the twins are old enough to be vaccinated, but tiger fans can continue to monitor their progress on the zoo’s social media channels.
Sumatran tigers are critically endangered, with only 500 left living in the forests of their native Indonesia.
Copyright 2022 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.wagmtv.com/2022/07/25/cute-tiger-cubs-get-first-vet-checkup-oklahoma-city-zoo/ | 2022-07-25T14:38:59Z | https://www.wagmtv.com/2022/07/25/cute-tiger-cubs-get-first-vet-checkup-oklahoma-city-zoo/ | true |
Feds suing poultry producers over unfair worker practices
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is expected to file a lawsuit against some of the largest poultry producers in the U.S. along with a proposed settlement seeking to end what it claims have been longstanding deceptive and abusive practices for workers.
The suit is being filed in federal court in Maryland naming Cargill, Sanderson Farms and Wayne Farms, along with a data consulting company known as Weber, Meng, Sahl and Co., according to three people familiar with the matter. The people could not publicly discuss the specific details of the suit before the filing was made public and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.
In its lawsuit, the Justice Department alleges the companies have been engaged in a multiyear conspiracy to exchange information about the wages and benefits of workers at poultry processing plants to drive down employee competition in the marketplace, the people said. The companies did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
The government contends the data consulting firm helped to share the information about the workers’ compensation with the companies and their executives, the people said. By carrying out the scheme, officials allege, the companies were able to compete less intensely for workers and reduce the amount of money and benefits they had to offer their employees, suppressing competition for poultry processing workers across the board, the people said.
The defendants and unnamed co-conspirators in the lawsuit account for hiring about 90% of all chicken processing jobs in the nation, one of the people said.
The suit is the latest example of the Justice Department’s antitrust enforcement targeting companies the government believes engage in anticompetitive behavior to stifle workers or harm consumers. It also comes as the department continues a broader investigation into labor abuses in the poultry industry.
The suit is being filed with a proposed consent decree — a settlement that would require the companies to pay $84.8 million in restitution for workers who were harmed by the unlawful information sharing network, the people said.
The settlement would also put in place a federal monitor selected by the Justice Department who would ensure compliance for the next decade. The consent decree also would permit Justice Department lawyers and investigators to inspect the poultry processors’ facilities and interview their employees to ensure they are complying with the terms, the people said.
The suit comes as Cargill and Continental Grain — of which Wayne Farms is a subsidiary — formed a joint venture to acquire Sanderson Farms, paying $203 per share in cash for a company that last year processed more than 4.8 billion pounds of meat.
The companies plan to combine Sanderson Farms with Wayne Farms to form a new, privately held poultry business. Operations will include poultry processing plants and prepared foods plants across Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Texas.
Wayne Farms has more than 9,000 employees. It makes products under brand names including Wayne Farms fresh and prepared chicken, Platinum Harvest premium fresh chicken, Chef’s Craft gourmet chicken, Naked Truth premium chicken and Ladybirdy premium chicken.
Laurel, Mississippi-based Sanderson Farms has 17,000 employees and 12 plants. It processes 13.6 million chickens per week.
The proposed consent decree would also resolve allegations that Sanderson Farms and Wayne Farms treated chicken farmers unfairly by using a system that reduced their pay for low performance.
The farmers sign contracts to raise the chickens and the processing companies provide the birds and the feed. Their pay is then determined by how well the farmers perform compared to other chicken growers. The Justice Department alleges that the companies’ use of that compensation method, known as the “tournament system,” resulted in their failure to provide information for farmers to evaluate and manage their financial risk.
Generally, chicken producers enter long-term contracts with meat companies that farmers say lock them into deals that fix their compensation at unprofitably low levels.
As part of that settlement, Sanderson Farms and Wayne Farms would be prohibited from reducing the base payments to chicken growers as a way to penalize them for under-performance, the people said. The consent decree would, though, allow the companies to offer incentives and bonuses to growers, according to the people.
The proposed consent decree is being filed as part of the suit on Monday. Under federal law, the proposal would also be published in the Federal Register and there would be a 60-day period for people to send comments to the Justice Department before a court could accept and finalize the agreement.
___
This story has been corrected to show the settlement calls for restitution of $84.8 million, not $84.4 million.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.weau.com/2022/07/25/feds-suing-poultry-producers-over-unfair-worker-practices/ | 2022-07-25T14:39:05Z | https://www.weau.com/2022/07/25/feds-suing-poultry-producers-over-unfair-worker-practices/ | true |
ORLANDO, Fla., July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NCTC, the National Content & Technology Cooperative, and Power & Tel today announced that NCTC members will receive access to stocking programs and expanded aggregate buying power on a wide selection of quality network products, which are now available at premium prices when purchased through the NCTC Marketplace.
Not only does the upgraded Power & Tel agreement provide buying options for 3,700 SKUs that are specially called out in the new NCTC contract, but they have expanded the relationship to ensure members also get better pricing on all 20,000 SKUs from 800 manufacturers for which Power & Tel serves as a wholesale distributor.
"It comes down to this – if a member taps into the group purchasing power in our contract with NCTC, then they can be confident they will receive a great deal on quality network products. We value the deep relationships we have built with many NCTC members and look forward to solidifying and expanding our relationships," said Kevin Wilkes, VP, Sales, Power & Tel.
Power & Tel is now the primary NCTC supplier for Times Fiber/Amphenol, National Strand, Clearfield, Preformed Line Products, and Maclean Senior Industries. For five decades, they have provided communications innovators of all sizes deep industry relationships with manufacturers offering unparalleled savings.
As an expert in supply chain management, Power & Tel stocks in-demand and highly requested products, which offer members efficiency for managing material and transactions, increasing asset visibility and maximizing resources and facility capacity. Their extensive system of warehouses across the United States provides an effective way to get easy, cost-effective access to products and services that are crucial to NCTC members.
"Power & Tel is a terrific partner that our members can count on to solve supply chain challenges with quality products and an unsurpassed level of service and expertise. They go the extra mile to match the right product and the precise solution to each member's specific needs. NCTC members can be confident that Power & Tel is committed to bringing a wide array of products at cost-effective prices," said Rob Smith VP, Group Purchasing, NCTC.
About NCTC
The National Content & Technology Cooperative (NCTC) was founded as a not-for-profit with one mission: to help members competitively acquire the video programming and vital technologies needed to offer world class services that define their communities' infrastructure with vision, value and purpose. NCTC makes purchasing and implementation easy and affordable for its 700+ independent communications service providers who connect one third of all households and businesses throughout North America and U.S. territories. Going beyond significant cost savings, the organization helps members unlock new revenue through emerging technologies, best practices and new ideas ensuring the profitability, competitive stature and long-term sustainability of its member companies. For nearly 40 years, NCTC has been actively engaged in helping network providers and suppliers evolve their business models to deploy new video/data solutions to match the changes in the media landscape. For more information, visit: www.nctconline.org
About Power & Tel
Founded in 1963, Power & Tel is an industry leader in the material management and distribution of product solutions to the worldwide communications marketplace. Power & Tel's extensive distribution system provides service providers and contractors an effective way to get the wide range of products needed to build and maintain communication networks. As a Certified Woman Business Enterprise and value-add partner, the company also offers efficient solutions for the management of material and transactions, asset visibility, and maximizing resource and facility capacity. To learn more, visit www.ptsupply.com
Contacts:
Pam Gillies
NCTC
pgillies@nctconline.org
(720) 594-8085
Robert Brownlie
Bob Gold & Associates
robert@bobgoldpr.com
(310) 320-2010
Melissa Seibring
Power & Tel
melissa.seibring@ptsupply.com
(901) 866-3250
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SOURCE NCTC | https://www.wagmtv.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/power-amp-tel-offers-nctc-members-buying-power-3700-product-skus/ | 2022-07-25T14:40:11Z | https://www.wagmtv.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/power-amp-tel-offers-nctc-members-buying-power-3700-product-skus/ | true |
American Diabetes Association and DaVita launch a digital experience with resources for preventing and managing diabetes-related kidney complications
ARLINGTON, Va. and DENVER, July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Diabetes Association® (ADA), along with DaVita, are excited to announce the launch of an interactive digital experience aimed at helping those living with diabetes prevent and manage kidney disease. Diabetes affects one in seven adults in the U.S.—and is the number one cause of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Committed to providing the education and resources needed to combat diabetes-related health complications, the ADA recently launched a new kidney care education section under Living with Diabetes on its website.
"Understanding the connection between diabetes and kidney health is a critical first step to preventing and managing diabetes-related kidney problems," said Dr. Robert Gabbay, chief scientific and medical officer for the ADA. "ADA is proud to announce that DaVita is a national sponsor of Living With Diabetes: Kidney Care. We created this interactive, online experience to meet people wherever they are on their diabetes care journey, and empower them with information that's targeted to their specific needs."
Visitors to the site will find advice and guidance aimed at helping to prevent kidney disease for individuals recently diagnosed with diabetes, as well as resources like:
- Kidney Smart® classes – an award-winning, interactive community and virtual education program available at no cost
- Kidney-friendly recipes, meal plans, and eating tips
- Helpful ideas for engaging with their physicians
Because CKD is defined by stages, the site also offers insight and information about how people already diagnosed with both diabetes and kidney disease can manage their health at different stages of CKD.
"Sixty percent of people living with kidney failure have diabetes," says Dr. Jeff Giullian, chief medical officer for DaVita. "Educating individuals about the link between these two diseases can be a key component of managing kidney care and preventing kidney failure. We're thrilled to work with the ADA to help connect this audience with crucial information that can help people enjoy healthier lives, without the need for kidney transplantation or dialysis."
The website aims to provide individuals living with diabetes, small steps they can take that could have a larger, positive impact on their overall health and help to reduce their risk of developing kidney disease. To learn more, visit Diabetes.org/living-with-diabetes.
About the American Diabetes Association
The American Diabetes Association (ADA) is the nation's leading voluntary health organization fighting to bend the curve on the diabetes epidemic and help people living with diabetes thrive. For 81 years, the ADA has driven discovery and research to treat, manage, and prevent diabetes while working relentlessly for a cure. Through advocacy, program development, and education we aim to improve the quality of life for the over 133 million Americans living with diabetes or prediabetes. Diabetes has brought us together. What we do next will make us Connected for Life. To learn more or to get involved, visit us at diabetes.org or call 1-800-DIABETES (1-800-342-2383). Join the fight with us on Facebook (American Diabetes Association), Spanish Facebook (Asociación Americana de la Diabetes), LinkedIn (American Diabetes Association), Twitter (@AmDiabetesAssn), and Instagram (@AmDiabetesAssn).
About DaVita
About DaVita Inc. DaVita (NYSE: DVA) is a comprehensive kidney care provider focused on transforming care to improve the quality of life for patients globally. The company is a leading provider of kidney care services in the U.S. and has been a leader in clinical quality and innovation for more than 20 years. DaVita is working to help increase equitable access to care for patients at every stage and setting along their kidney health journey—from slowing progression of kidney disease to streamlining the transplant process, from acute hospital care to dialysis at home. As of March 31, 2022, DaVita served 200,800 patients at 2,809 outpatient dialysis centers in the U.S. The company operated an additional 346 outpatient dialysis centers in 11 other countries worldwide. DaVita has reduced hospitalizations, improved mortality and worked collaboratively to help propel the kidney care community to adopt an equitable, high-quality standard of care for patients around the globe. To learn more, visit DaVita.com/About.
Contact: Daisy Diaz, 703-253-4807
press@diabetes.org
Megan Anthony, 720-631-2170
Megan.Anthony@DaVita.com
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SOURCE American Diabetes Association | https://www.weau.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/american-diabetes-association-focuses-prevention-kidney-disease-through-collaboration-with-davita/ | 2022-07-25T14:40:11Z | https://www.weau.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/american-diabetes-association-focuses-prevention-kidney-disease-through-collaboration-with-davita/ | true |
NEW YORK, July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Halper Sadeh LLP, an investor rights law firm, is investigating the following companies for potential violations of the federal securities laws and/or breaches of fiduciary duties to shareholders relating to:
Hanger, Inc. (NYSE: HNGR)'s sale to Patient Square Capital for $18.75 in cash per share. If you are a Hanger shareholder, click here to learn more about your rights and options.
Silverback Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: SBTX)'s merger with ARS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Under the terms of the merger agreement, assuming that Silverback's net cash at closing is $240 million, Silverback equity holders are expected to own approximately 37% of the combined company. If you are a Silverback shareholder, click here to learn more about your rights and options.
Unity Software Inc. (NYSE: U)'s merger with ironSource Ltd. Under the terms of the merger, each ordinary share of ironSource will be exchanged for 0.1089 shares of Unity common stock. If you are a Unity shareholder, click here to learn more about your rights and options.
Halper Sadeh LLP may seek increased consideration for shareholders, additional disclosures and information concerning the proposed transaction, or other relief and benefits on behalf of shareholders.
Shareholders are encouraged to contact the firm free of charge to discuss their legal rights and options. Please call Daniel Sadeh or Zachary Halper at (212) 763-0060 or email sadeh@halpersadeh.com or zhalper@halpersadeh.com.
Halper Sadeh LLP represents investors all over the world who have fallen victim to securities fraud and corporate misconduct. Our attorneys have been instrumental in implementing corporate reforms and recovering millions of dollars on behalf of defrauded investors.
Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Contact Information:
Halper Sadeh LLP
Daniel Sadeh, Esq.
Zachary Halper, Esq.
(212) 763-0060
sadeh@halpersadeh.com
zhalper@halpersadeh.com
https://www.halpersadeh.com
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SOURCE Halper Sadeh LLP | https://www.kait8.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/shareholder-investigation-halper-sadeh-llp-investigates-hngr-sbtx-u/ | 2022-07-25T14:40:17Z | https://www.kait8.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/shareholder-investigation-halper-sadeh-llp-investigates-hngr-sbtx-u/ | false |
Rents spike as big-pocketed investors buy mobile home parks
LOCKPORT, N.Y. (AP) — For as long as anyone can remember, rent increases rarely happened at Ridgeview Homes, a family-owned mobile home park in upstate New York.
That changed in 2018 when corporate owners took over the 65-year-old park located amid farmland and down the road from a fast-food joint and grocery store about 30 miles northeast of Buffalo.
Residents, about half of whom are seniors or disabled people on fixed incomes, put up with the first two increases. They hoped the latest owner, Cook Properties, would address the bourbon-colored drinking water, sewage bubbling into their bathtubs and the pothole-filled roads.
When that didn’t happen and a new lease with a 6% increase was imposed this year, they formed an association. About half the residents launched a rent strike in May, prompting Cook Properties to send out about 30 eviction notices.
“All they care about is raising the rent because they only care about the money,” said Jeremy Ward, 49, who gets by on just over $1,000 a month in disability payments after his legs suffered nerve damage in a car accident.
He was recently fined $10 for using a leaf blower. “I’m disabled,” he said. “You guys aren’t doing your job, and I get a violation?”
The plight of residents at Ridgeview is playing out nationwide as institutional investors, led by private equity firms and real estate investment trusts and sometimes funded by pension funds, swoop in to buy mobile home parks. Critics contend mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are fueling the problem by backing a growing number of investor loans.
The purchases are putting residents in a bind, since most mobile homes — despite the name — cannot be moved easily or cheaply. Owners are forced to either accept unaffordable rent increases, spend thousands of dollars to move their home, or abandon it and lose tens of thousands of dollars they invested.
“These industries, including mobile home park manufacturing industry, keep touting these parks, these mobile homes, as affordable housing. But it’s not affordable,” said Benjamin Bellus, an assistant attorney general in Iowa, who said complaints have gone up “100-fold” since out-of-state investors started buying up parks a few years ago.
“You’re putting people in a snare and a trap, where they have no ability to defend themselves,” he added.
Driven by some of the strongest returns in real estate, investors have shaken up a once-sleepy sector that’s home to more than 22 million mostly low-income Americans in 43,000 communities. Many aggressively promote the parks as ensuring a steady return — by repeatedly raising rent.
There’s also a growing industry, featuring how-to books, webinars and even a mobile home university that offers tips to attract small investors.
“You went from an environment where you had a local owner or manager who took care of things as they needed fixing, to where you had people who were looking at a cost-benefit analysis for how to get the penny squeezed lowest,” Bellus said. “You combine it with an idea that we can just keep raising the rent, and these people can’t leave.”
George McCarthy, president and CEO of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, said about a fifth of mobile home parks, or around 800,000, have been purchased in the past eight years by institutional investors.
He was among those singling out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for guaranteeing the loans as part of a what the lending giants bill as expanding affordable housing. Since 2014, the Lincoln Institute estimates Freddie Mac alone provided $9.6 billion in financing for the purchase of more than 950 communities across 44 states.
A spokesman for Freddie Mac countered that it had purchased loans for less than 3% of the mobile home communities nationwide, and about 60% of those were refinances.
Soon after investors started buying up parks in 2015, the complaints of double-digit rent increases followed.
In Iowa, Matt Chapman, a mobile home resident at a park purchased by Utah-based Havenpark Communities, said his rent and fees had almost doubled since 2019. Iowa Legal Aid’s Alex Kornya said another park purchased by Impact Communities saw rent and fees increase 87% between 2017 and 2020.
“Many of the folks living in the park were on fixed incomes, disability, Social Security, and simply were not going to be able to keep pace,” said Kornya, who met with about 300 angry mobile home owners at a mega-church. “It led almost to a political awakening.”
In Minnesota, park purchases by out-of-state buyers grew from 46% in 2015 to 81% in 2021, with rent increases as much as 30%, according to All Parks Alliance For Change, a state association.
U.S. Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, speaking at a Senate hearing this year, recalled tenants complaining of repeated rent increases at a Havenpark development in Great Falls. One resident, Cindy Newman, told The Associated Press her monthly rent went from $117 to nearly $400 over a year and eight months — equal to the increase over the previous 20 years.
On top of rent increases, residents complained of being inundated with fees for everything from pets to maintenance and fines for clutter and speeding — all tucked into leases that can run upwards of 50 pages.
Josh Weiss, a Havenpark spokesperson, said the company must charge prevailing market rates when it purchases a park at fair market price. That said, the company has moved since 2020 to limit its rent increases to $50-a-month.
“We understand the anxiety that any rent increase has on residents, especially those on fixed incomes,” Weiss said. “While we try to minimize the impact, the financial realities do not change.”
The mobile home industry argues the communities are the most affordable housing option, noting that average rent increases across parks nationwide were just over 4% in 2021. Spending on improvements was around 11%. Significant investments are needed, they said, to make improvements at older parks and avoid them being sold off.
“You have some people coming into the space that give us all a bad name, but those are isolated examples and those practices are not common,” said Lesli Gooch, chief executive officer of the Manufactured Housing Institute, the industry’s trade association.
Both sides said the government could do more to help.
The industry wants Federal Housing Administration financing made available to residents, many of whom rely on high-interest loans to purchase homes that cost on average $81,900. They also want the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to allow housing vouchers to be used for mobile homes.
Advocates for residents, including MHAction, want lawmakers to put a cap on rent or require a reason for an increase or eviction — state legislation that succeeded in Delaware this year but failed in Iowa, Colorado and Montana.
They also want Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to stipulate in loans they back that rents remain affordable. And they support residents purchasing their communities, which started in New Hampshire and has reached almost 300 parks in 20 states.
A Freddie Mac spokesperson said it has created a new loan offering that incentivizes tenant protections and last year made those mandatory for all future mobile home community transactions.
At Ridgeview, it’s unclear how the rent strike will be resolved.
Cook, which claims to be the largest operator of mobile home parks in New York and has a slogan “Exceptional Opportunities. Exceptional Returns,” declined to comment. The company closed a $26 million private-equity fund in 2021 that purchased 12 parks in New York, but it was unclear if one of them was Ridgeview.
Residents, meanwhile, soldier on. Joyce Bayles, an 85-year-old resident has taken to mowing her own lawn because crews show up only monthly. Gerald Korb, a 78-year-old retiree, said he’s still waiting for the company to move an electric pole and transformer he fears could topple onto his home during a storm.
“I bought a place, and now they are forcing all this on us,” said Korb, who stopped paying rent in protest. “They are absentee landlords is what they are.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wagmtv.com/2022/07/25/rents-spike-big-pocketed-investors-buy-mobile-home-parks/ | 2022-07-25T14:40:57Z | https://www.wagmtv.com/2022/07/25/rents-spike-big-pocketed-investors-buy-mobile-home-parks/ | true |
For New and Seasoned Investors
HACKENSACK, N.J., July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On July 25, 2022, Veloce Capital, a real estate investment firm, expanded its current offering to non-accredited investors. With over 10 years in the space, Veloce Capital has created a SEC/FINRA regulated equity fund that allows any investor with $5,000 to invest along-side of high-net-worth and institutional investors. Veloce Capital structured this fund to focus on mitigating risk, protecting investors capital, and creating more opportunity for diversification of their investment portfolio.
In addition to the regulated equity fund, Veloce Capital's debt offering is available to accredited investors, in which they offer fixed returns starting at 8% per annum, paying out installments monthly, quarterly, or annually. Veloce Capital also has traditional equity and syndication offerings open to accredited investors.
Formerly restricted to high-net-worth individuals, alternative investments have become more readily accessible to individual investors as part of a diversified investment strategy. As a result, alternative investments in real estate have entered the mainstream and gained popularity quickly for a variety of reasons:
- Real estate investment funds provide investors access to non-correlated assets that aren't affected by public markets.
- Real estate investment mitigates risk by hedging against inflation— when the prices of goods and services increase, home values/rents tend to correlate.
- Real estate options can yield high returns if investors choose to invest with the right company — Veloce Capital specializes in opportunistic real estate projects that seek to revitalize under-developed urban and opportunity zone markets across the United States.
Veloce Capital's sourcing strategy leverages an expansive partner network of high-return real estate projects supporting their central fund. They have access to a robust pipeline of lightly marketed and off-market investment opportunities. This enables tactical allocation of capital in different areas across the U.S. Veloce Capital originates and partners in the development of real estate investment opportunities in the following real estate segments:
- Single-family planned developments
- Multi-family Developments
- Distressed assets or notes
- Ground up construction projects
The team at Veloce has extensive experience in structuring and financing complex real estate transactions. Their process is based on the principle of hands-on entrepreneurship, institutional execution, and data-driven analysis. This allows them to deliver consistent profits for their investors.
About Veloce Capital: Veloce Capital is a full-service investment firm focused on alternative assets backed by real estate. The core focus at Veloce Capital is to source, analyze, and make investments in opportunistic and distressed real estate that offers the potential for growth, capital appreciation, and the preservation of principal. Their expert team is dedicated to generating attractive risk-adjusted returns through the acquisition, redevelopment, and development of high-quality, well-located real estate that has targeted high-yielding returns.
With over 50 years of collective experience in investment management, sourcing, negotiating, and executing private equity and debt deals, their professionals offers a broad range of real estate investments and strategies tailored to the investor.
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SOURCE Veloce Capital | https://www.wsaz.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/veloce-capital-announces-new-flexible-investment-options/ | 2022-07-25T14:41:25Z | https://www.wsaz.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/veloce-capital-announces-new-flexible-investment-options/ | false |
Bob Rafelson, 'The Monkees' co-creator and ‘Five Easy Pieces’ director, dead at 89
Monkees vocalist and drummer Micky Dolenz is final surviving member of the music group
Bob Rafelson, the director, producer and writer who brought a European sensibility to American filmmaking with "Five Easy Pieces" in 1970, died Saturday evening at his home in Aspen, Colorado. He was 89 years old.
Rafelson’s death was confirmed by his former personal assistant of 38 years, Jolene Wolff, who worked under Rafelson’s production banner Marmont Productions. Wolff stated that Rafelson died peacefully, surrounded by his family.
The Monkees vocalist and drummer Micky Dolenz, the final surviving member of the music group, offered a statement on Rafelson’s death Sunday afternoon.
"One day in the spring of 1966, I cut my classes in architecture at L.A. Trade Tech to take an audition for a new TV show called ‘The Monkees.’ The co-creator/producer of the show was Bob Rafelson," Dolenz said. "At first, I mistook him for another actor there for the audition. Needless-to-say, I got the part and it completely altered my life. Regrettably, Bob passed away last night but I did get a chance to send him a message telling him how eternally grateful I was that he saw something in me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, my friend."
MICKY DOLENZ, LAST SURVIVING MONKEES MEMBER, TO EMBARK ON TRIBUTE TOUR: ‘LIKE MY BROTHERS’
Rafelson partnered with Bert Schneider, who died in 2011, to form the production company Raybert, which later became BBS. He was a major behind-the-scenes force in the making of movies like "Easy Rider" in 1969 and "The Last Picture Show" in 1971.
But Rafelson’s production and direction of "Five Easy Pieces," a critical success in America that garnered impressive box office abroad, turned him into a major player among a new generation of directors inspired by the style of the French New Wave. Director Ingmar Bergman voiced admiration for Rafelson’s achievement.
Starring Jack Nicholson as Bobby Dupea, "Five Easy Pieces" was a character-driven road movie reflecting Rafelson’s view of an outsider suffering from deep, undisclosed pain. In an interview, Rafelson, the son of a hat maker and abusive, alcoholic mother, said Dupea was a character in need of escape. "I had been trying to escape from my background since I was 14 years old," Rafelson said.
Rafelson’s first three films signaled a new depth in American filmmaking. He looked at dysfunctional families, thwarted ambition and alienation in "Five Easy Pieces," "The King of Marvin Gardens" in 1972 and "Stay Hungry" in 1976.
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"Five Easy Pieces," nominated for four Oscars, including best picture, also heralded Nicholson’s arrival as a major star, earning him his first best actor nomination. Rafelson would also work with Nicholson as either co-writer or director on films including "The Postman Always Rings Twice" in 1981 and "Blood and Wine" in 1996. The actor said he considered Rafelson part of his "surrogate family."
Ironically, Rafelson’s professional relationship with Nicholson began with much lighter fare. "Head" (1968), which the director co-wrote with Nicholson, starred the Monkees, a fabricated rock group modeled on the Beatles. They were just coming off the hit NBC series of the same name created by Rafelson and Schneider. The show ran from 1966-68, winning Rafelson an Emmy for comedy series in 1967.
Though income from the series would provide financing for "Easy Rider," Rafelson said he hated what the success of "The Monkees" represented. He called "Head," his first feature, a scornful attempt to "expose the project" for its slick, trendy superficiality. Rafelson later explained that he touched on so many genres in the film – adventure, Western, romance – because "I thought I would never get to make another picture."
Robert Rafelson was born in New York City. His uncle Samson Raphaelson ("The Shop Around the Corner") was reportedly Ernst Lubitsch’s favorite screenwriter.
PETER BOGDANOVICH, OF 'PAPER MOON' FAME, DEAD AT 82
Rafelson studied philosophy at Dartmouth College, where Buck Henry became a close friend. He worked as a disc jockey, edited translations of subtitles for Japanese films and, in 1959, became a story editor on David Susskind’s "Play of the Week" TV series, where he wrote "additional dialogue" for writers like Shakespeare and Ibsen. In 1963, Rafelson was fired after a heated dispute with MCA’s Lew Wasserman over the short-lived series "Channing." Reportedly, he was personally escorted off the Universal lot by Wasserman.
Rafelson’s marriage to Toby Carr, the production designer on his early films, ended in divorce. His life was also marked by tragedy when his 10-year-old daughter, Julie, died after a propane stove exploded in his Aspen home in 1973. It "affected everything Bob ever did after that," Henry said about his friend.
After the 1970s, Rafelson turned to moody noir pictures. In addition to "Postman" with Nicholson and Jessica Lange, he directed 1987’s "Black Widow," starring Debra Winger and Theresa Russell. Both films saw healthy box office in Europe, where Rafelson’s reputation remained in high regard. The 2002 crime thriller "No Good Deed" starred Samuel L. Jackson, Milla Jovovich and Stellan Skarsgard but barely opened in the U.S.
Rafelson received some good notices in 1990 for "Mountains of the Moon," about explorer Sir Richard Burton, but 1992’s "Man Trouble," which reunited the director with Nicholson and "Five Easy Pieces" screenwriter Carole Eastman, and 1998 HBO TV movie "Poodle Springs," with James Caan as detective Philip Marlowe, did not fare well with audiences or critics.
JAMES CAAN, 'GODFATHER' STAR, CAUSE OF DEATH REVEALED
Rafelson also directed the music video for Lionel Richie’s 1983 hit "All Night Long (All Night)," matching the infectious pop ballad with a colorful, abstract portrait of a sunset block party.
Along with "Five Easy Pieces," which was selected for preservation by the Library of Congress in 2000, and his work as a producer for BBS, Rafelson will be remembered for boosting the early careers of actors such as Jeff Bridges and Sally Field in "Stay Hungry" and Ellen Burstyn, whom he recommended to Peter Bogdanovich for "The Last Picture Show."
Looking back on his own career in a 2004 interview, Rafelson was philosophical: "If it happens that people respond to your work in your lifetime, well, you’re very lucky… it gives you permission to go on making movies. But if you don’t get the applause, well, there are other things. I mean, after all, there’s your life to live."
Later in his life, Rafelson appeared in the 2010 documentary "America Lost and Found: The BBS Story." | https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/bob-rafelson-monkees-co-creator-five-easy-pieces-dead | 2022-07-25T14:41:46Z | https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/bob-rafelson-monkees-co-creator-five-easy-pieces-dead | false |
Father, attorney blast Maine school district that banned him from meetings: 'Power drunk'
Maine father Shawn McBreairty spoke out against sexualized library books and critical race theory
A Maine father who spoke out against sexualized library books in local schools won an injunctive relief against the school district after it banned him from attending all functions.
Shawn McBreairty of Cumberland County, Maine, recently took the mic to sound off on library books including "The Other Boy," the story of a 12-year-old who tries to conceal from his family that he is transgender, and "All Boys Aren't Blue," which has been removed from libraries in multiple states for reported "sexually graphic material."
Regional School Unit 22 explained it banned the father from school functions "due to Mr. McBreairty’s blatant and repeated failure to comply with reasonable RSU 22 policies regarding meeting attendance," and an audio recording he played at a meeting that the district claimed contained "obscene language."
McBreairty, a volunteer for the conservative Maine First Project, accused teachers in the district of teaching the controversial critical race theory (CRT), which is based on the idea that U.S. institutions are inherently racist.
MAINE FATHER FIGHTS CRITICAL RACE THEORY IN DAUGHTERS' SCHOOL
When the board banned him from meetings, he filed a lawsuit arguing the move violated his constitutional rights. The U.S. District Court for Maine ruled in his favor and issued a restraining order in his favor, voiding the district’s ban.
"Here, it is hard to shake the sense that the School Board is restricting the speech because the Board disagrees with both Mr. McBreairty’s opinions and the unpleasantness that accompanies them," District Judge Nancy Torresen wrote.
Torresen found that McBreairty’s reference to "hardcore anal sex" in a book in the school library was not obscene under the law because it was "not appealing to any prurient interest and [was] offered to make a political or philosophical point."
"This is a huge first step for parents in Maine and across the country to be able to use their protected Free Speech to address the educational issues we are seeing in these public schools," McBreairty told Fox News Digital. "It’s a win for everyone, regardless of political affiliation, sex, race, or sexuality, as the First Amendment speaks for all Americans."
NEW YORK TIMES: REPUBLICANS OPPOSING CRITICAL RACE THEORY ARE ENGAGED IN CULTURE WAR
McBreairty's attorney Marc Randazza commended the judge as "principled."
"Government apparatchiks can’t banish people from public life because they don’t like being challenged," he said in a statement. "Serving in the government means you have to accept criticism. If you can’t do that, you have no business in that position. I’m very impressed with how much work the judge put into her ruling, upholding the First Amendment rights of someone with whom I presume she does not personally agree. But that’s what a principled judge does."
"The difference between me and my client and the defendants in this case is that, in the future, when someone’s trying to stifle their freedom of expression, I’ll be there to defend their rights as well. These censorious communists would never stand up for an opponent’s speech," he continued. "They are not just power drunk, but Peter O’Toole level schnockered out of their minds. I hope that this slap across their totalitarian faces sobers them up and they start behaving like American government officials, not soviets."
McBreairty said he'd been "harmed" by the incident, calling out RSU22 School Board Chair Heath Miller out by name and predicting it would have a negative impact on the community at large.
"This action taken by Heath Miller and the board to attempt to ban me from the public school campus until the end of the year has created even more fear of cancel culture in the region," the father told Fox Digital. "Who would speak up if they are going to be criminalized?"
The father is also facing a lawsuit from the neighboring Hermon School Department, where he's been accused of bullying a teacher and making false statements. That case is pending in Penobscot County Superior Court in Bangor.
McBreairty previously sparred with school officials last year when he said he was banned from his daughters' high school graduation over objections to CRT being taught in their school, telling "The Faulkner Focus" at the time that "we need education, not indoctrination."
"The woke mob, the trolls, they go after everybody," he said. "I got pushed, and I pushed back pretty hard."
The Portland Press Herald reported that officials said McBreairty was never banned from attending graduation, just from being on campus and could request to attend school events on a case-by-case basis. McBreairty asked to attend graduation and MSAD 51 Superintendent Jeff Porter granted approval, the outlet said, citing a statement issued by district officials. Porter reportedly also told the media outlet that district officials "don’t want him to be disruptive at his kids’ graduation."
Porter reacted in a statement to Fox News, rejecting the argument that the district was teaching CRT.
"MSAD #51 does not use CRT in its schools," he said. "We do not teach white children to hate the color of their skin. To the contrary, we teach all of our students the importance of self-worth and acceptance of self and others. We believe that all children are gifts. The narrative that this parent has created is simply untrue and an unfortunate connection to the undercurrent of national political ideology that is not illustrative of our high-performing and well-regarded school district."
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Parents became more vocal the past two years during the COVID-19 pandemic, speaking out against restrictive mask mandates, forced at-home schooling and progressive curricula. A parental uprising in Virginia is credited with helping propel Republican Glenn Youngkin to victory over Democrat Terry McAuliffe in last November's gubernatorial election.
Fox News' Talia Kaplan contributed to this report. | https://www.foxnews.com/media/father-attorney-blast-maine-school-district-banning-meetings-power-drunk | 2022-07-25T14:42:06Z | https://www.foxnews.com/media/father-attorney-blast-maine-school-district-banning-meetings-power-drunk | true |
Notices:
Senile walkback number 5 and counting Last year, Biden or his aides needed to clarify his remarks on Taiwan on at least four separate occasions. Don't hype over fantasy, China's been waiting almost 10 years for US to follow through on rhetoric over SCS construction.
the world is ignoring the western boy who cried wolf for 5 years and counting. Nobody who matters believes any of this. Last time a fake push unfortunately coincided with discovering mass graves at "schools" for Native Americans. Latest push has the sad timing with a mass shooting at a Texas elementary school. Ironic how the West's own atrocious human rights record, especially with children, keeps stealing the spotlight from their own disinformation.
Message the Moderators of r/Sino (bottom of sidebar) for info on discords and telegram. The spaces cater to any regular participant on the subreddit (post history required) and/or any ethnic Chinese (verification required).
Taiwan Losing Faith in U.S. Rescue After watching Ukraine, only 35% believe US would give military support, down from 65% just 6 months ago. Perhaps show them more armchair analysis spam? 🤡
Imagine watching de facto lopsided changes for China in Tibet, SCS, Xinjiang and HK, and still thinking a hot take using the same failed reused reasoning for Taiwan is a good idea. One can't even begin to entertain any of these imagined "reactions" for Taiwan unless you admit backing down on every issue prior despite the very same rhetoric. Imagine watching millions of refugees try to escape, be on an island and think "When's our turn!". 🤡
If a movie about China beating back US forces in North Korea bothers you, do NOT search "longest retreat in US history" and find out it's a movie based on real fact. https://streamable.com/s/nfdt5r. Definitely don't search - why didn't America invade North Vietnam in the Vietnam War. No connection at all.
Groups that bought into "U.S. values" rhetoric, worked for U.S. then got betrayed and left to rot: Hmong (Vietnam), Syrian rebels, Kurds (ISIS), HK rioters, Guaido (Venezuela), Afghan servicemen/translators (Taliban, who are now mocking Iwo Jima photo while wearing US military gear 😂), Ukraine (Budapest Memorandum, NATO membership)
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If you have a idea for r/sino or it's network, make a text submission and get some interested people, when you have something msg the mods (pm or mod message). | https://www.reddit.com/r/Sino/comments/w7lfc6/c919_jet_nears_certification_expected_to_enter/ | 2022-07-25T14:44:57Z | https://www.reddit.com/r/Sino/comments/w7lfc6/c919_jet_nears_certification_expected_to_enter/ | true |
SEATTLE , July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --
IN THE COURT OF CHANCERY OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE
SUMMARY NOTICE OF PENDENCY AND PROPOSED
SETTLEMENT OF STOCKHOLDER CLASS ACTION,
SETTLEMENT HEARING, AND RIGHT TO APPEAR
This notice is for all former record holders and beneficial owners of Class A common stock of Pivotal Software, Inc. ("Pivotal") who received $15 per share in cash in exchange for their shares of Pivotal Class A common stock in connection with the acquisition of Pivotal by VMware, Inc. (the "Class Shares"), in their capacities as record holders or beneficial owners of Class Shares, together with their heirs, assigns, transferees, and successors-in-interest, in each case in their capacity as holders of Class Shares (the "Class").
Certain persons and entities are excluded from the Class by definition, as set forth in the full Notice of Pendency and Proposed Settlement of Stockholder Class Action, Settlement Hearing, and Right to Appear (the "Notice"), available at www.PivotalSoftwareStockholdersLitigation.com. Any capitalized terms used in this Summary Notice that are not otherwise defined in this Summary Notice shall have the meanings given to them in the Stipulation and Agreement of Settlement, Compromise, and Release dated June 2, 2022 (the "Stipulation"), which is also available at www.PivotalSoftwareStockholdersLitigation.com.
Please read this SUMMARY notice carefully. your rights will be affected by a class action lawsuit pending in this court.
YOU ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED, pursuant to an Order of the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware (the "Court"), that the above-captioned stockholder class action (the "Action") has been certified as a class action on behalf of the Class defined above.
YOU ARE ALSO NOTIFIED that (i) plaintiff Kenia Lopez ("Plaintiff"), on behalf of herself and the other members of the Court-certified Class, with the exception of HBK Master Fund L.P. and HBK Merger Strategies Master Fund L.P.; (ii) defendants VMware, Inc., Dell Technologies Inc., Michael S. Dell, and Robert C. Mee (together, "Defendants"); and (iii) Cynthia Gaylor (the "Former Defendant") have reached a proposed settlement of the Action for $42,500,000 in cash (the "Settlement"). The terms of the Settlement are stated in the Stipulation entered into between Plaintiff, Defendants, and the Former Defendant. If approved by the Court, the Settlement will resolve all claims in the Action.
A hearing (the "Settlement Hearing") will be held on October 4, 2022 at 1:30 p.m., before The Honorable Kathaleen S. McCormick, Chancellor, either in person at the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware, New Castle County, Leonard L. Williams Justice Center, 500 North King Street, Wilmington, Delaware 19801, or by telephone or video conference (in the discretion of the Court), to, among other things: (i) determine whether the proposed Settlement on the terms and conditions provided for in the Stipulation is fair, reasonable, and adequate to the Class, and should be approved by the Court; (ii) determine whether the Judgment, substantially in the form attached as Exhibit D to the Stipulation, should be entered dismissing the Action with prejudice as against Defendants; (iii) determine whether the proposed Plan of Allocation of the Net Settlement Fund is fair and reasonable, and should therefore be approved; (iv) determine whether the application by Co-Lead Counsel for an award of attorneys' fees and expenses, including Plaintiff's application for an incentive award, should be approved; (v) hear and rule on any objections to the Settlement, the proposed Plan of Allocation, the application by Co-Lead Counsel for an award of attorneys' fees and expenses, and/or Plaintiff's application for an incentive award; and (vi) consider any other matters that may properly be brought before the Court in connection with the Settlement.
Any updates regarding the Settlement Hearing, including any changes to the date or time of the hearing or updates regarding in-person or remote appearances at the hearing, will be posted to the Settlement website, www.PivotalSoftwareStockholdersLitigation.com.
If you are a member of the Class, your rights will be affected by the pending Action and the Settlement, and you may be entitled to share in the Net Settlement Fund. If you have not yet received the Notice, you may obtain a copy of the Notice by contacting the Settlement Administrator at Pivotal Software Stockholders Litigation, c/o JND Legal Administration, P.O. Box 91321, Seattle, WA 98111, 888-681-2126, or info@PivotalSoftwareStockholdersLitigation.com. A copy of the Notice can also be downloaded from the Settlement website, www.PivotalSoftwareStockholdersLitigation.com.
If the Settlement is approved by the Court and the Effective Date occurs, the Net Settlement Fund will be distributed on a pro rata basis to Eligible Class Members in accordance with the proposed Plan of Allocation stated in the Notice or such other plan of allocation as is approved by the Court. Pursuant to the proposed Plan of Allocation, each Eligible Class Member will be eligible to receive a pro rata payment from the Net Settlement Fund equal to the product of (i) the number of shares of Pivotal Class A common stock held by the Eligible Class Member at the time such shares were exchanged for the Acquisition Consideration and (ii) the "Per-Share Recovery" for the Settlement, which will be determined by dividing the total amount of the Net Settlement Fund by the total number of shares Pivotal Class A common stock held by all of the Eligible Class Members at the time such shares were exchanged for the Acquisition Consideration. As explained in further detail in the Notice at paragraphs 38-47, pursuant to the Plan of Allocation, payments from the Net Settlement Fund to Eligible Class Members will be made in the same manner in which Eligible Class Members received the Acquisition Consideration. Eligible Class Members do not have to submit a claim form to receive a payment from the Settlement.
Any objections to the proposed Settlement, the proposed Plan of Allocation, or Co-Lead Counsel's application for an award attorneys' fees and expenses, including Plaintiff's application for an incentive award, must be filed with the Register in Chancery in the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware and delivered to Co-Lead Counsel and Defendants' Counsel such that they are received no later than September 20, 2022, in accordance with the instructions set forth in the Notice.
Please do not contact the Court or the Office of the Register in Chancery regarding this Summary Notice. All questions about this Summary Notice, the proposed Settlement, or your eligibility to participate in the Settlement should be directed to the Settlement Administrator or Co-Lead Counsel.
Requests for the Notice should be made to the Settlement Administrator:
Pivotal Software Stockholders Litigation
c/o JND Legal Administration
P.O. Box 91321
Seattle, WA 98111
888-681-2126
info@PivotalSoftwareStockholdersLitigation.com
www.PivotalSoftwareStockholdersLitigation.com
Inquiries, other than requests for the Notice, should be made to Co-Lead Counsel:
Edward Timlin
Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP
1251 Avenue of the Americas, 44th Floor
New York, NY 10020
800-380-8496
settlements@blbglaw.com
Joel Fleming
Block & Leviton LLP
260 Franklin Street, Suite 1860
Boston, MA 02110
617-398‑5600
joel@blockleviton.com
BY ORDER OF THE COURT OF
CHANCERY OF THE STATE OF
DELAWARE
View original content:
SOURCE JND Legal Administration | https://www.weau.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/notice-pendency-proposed-settlement-class-action-involving-former-record-holders-beneficial-owners-pivotal-software-inc-common-stock/ | 2022-07-25T14:45:50Z | https://www.weau.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/notice-pendency-proposed-settlement-class-action-involving-former-record-holders-beneficial-owners-pivotal-software-inc-common-stock/ | false |
Out of 500-plus companies that raised seed and Series A rounds over the past year, Will Reed named Rocketlane an employer of choice based on mission, culture, growth trajectory, and founding leadership
SAN MATEO, Calif. and CHENNAI, India, July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Rocketlane, a leader and innovator in customer onboarding, announced today that they have been named one of the Top 100 Early-Stage Companies to Work for in 2022 by executive search firm Will Reed.
Rocketlane is a leader and innovator in customer onboarding that helps accelerate value delivery and streamline customer onboarding and implementation journeys. It creates on-demand visibility, elevates the onboarding customer experience, and helps run transparent and consistent implementations.
"We've worked with hundreds of early-stage B2B tech companies who are on-mission to transform the way we live and work," said Paige Robinson, founder and CEO of Will Reed. "We believe the most successful companies are those like Rocketlane, who are committed to building human-first cultures that offer meaningful work and support the full employee experience."
"Every day, we strive to uphold our company values, and we are very proud to be recognized as one of the top 100 Early-Stage Companies to Work for in 2022", said Srikrishnan Ganesan, co-founder and CEO of Rocketlane. "For a company born in the pandemic, we have successfully solved the challenges of a remote work environment and built a leading product in customer onboarding without compromising our ethos. We are committed to a culture that encourages innovation, strives for inclusivity, and values empathy."
Since inception, Rocketlane's in-person team has successfully collaborated to reach a number of milestones, including receiving a $3 million seed round and an $18 million Series A funding round just seven months apart; their emphasis on weaving innovation into their culture has helped them gain recognition as a G2 category leader in client onboarding, as well as a 2022 Gartner Cool Vendor in the Technology GTM category. It has also helped them build and release industry-first capabilities such as native forms and a Slack integration that makes project communication seamless, among others.
Rocketlane has also been investing in creating learning avenues for their domain: This year saw them launch their maiden Propel event, the first and only dedicated conference for customer onboarding and implementation which attracted 1,300 attendees and 3,000-plus registrations. They also launched well before Rocketlane Preflight.cx, a 1,900-plus member Slack community that offers opportunities to network and learn for customer onboarding leaders and practitioners.
Along the way, Rocketlane has developed a highly-connected team through fun and differentiating experiences, including a viral rap video to announce their series A funding, weekly 'Curiosity' lessons where team members share their personal passions with colleagues, participation in the Start-Up Premier League cricket tournament, off-sites, and more.
Rocketlane is a collaborative customer onboarding platform that helps you accelerate value delivery and streamline customer onboarding and implementation journeys. It creates on-demand visibility for leaders, helps you elevate CX for your onboarding, helps you run transparent and consistent implementations, and unifies the collaboration, project tracking, and communication into a single tightly knit experience.
Will Reed is the only executive search firm built exclusively for early-stage founders. Founded in 2015, the firm recruits go-to-market (GTM) and People leaders for Seed thru Series C companies backed by leading venture capital firms like a16z, Accel, Bessemer, Insight Partners, Lightspeed, New Enterprise Associates, Sequoia, etc. Will Reed believes early-stage founders are responsible for shaping our collective future, so they couple search with founder enablement curriculum and coaching to ensure their B2B tech clients can compete against the giants for top talent.
- Website: https://www.willreed.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/9234593/admin/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/willreedhq?lang=en
Media Contact: Courtney Merolle
Phone: 754.715.0747
Email: courtney@bospar.com
View original content:
SOURCE Rocketlane Corp | https://www.weau.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/rocketlane-among-100-early-stage-companies-work-2022/ | 2022-07-25T14:47:14Z | https://www.weau.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/rocketlane-among-100-early-stage-companies-work-2022/ | true |
WTA Livesport Prague Open Results
Nao Hibino, Japan, def. Mihaela Buzarnescu, Romania, 6-2, 6-2.
Marie Bouzkova (8), Czech Republic, def. Sinja Kraus, Austria, 6-2, 7-6 (2).
Wang Qiang, China, def. Rebecca Peterson, Sweden, 1-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4).
Magda Linette, Poland, def. Elise Mertens (3), Belgium, 6-3, 2-6, 6-2.
Zhu Lin, China, def. Vitalia Diatchenko, Russia, 6-1, 6-1.
Dalila Jakupovic, Slovenia, def. Alison van Uytvanck (6), Belgium, 5-2, ret.
Ekaterina Yashina and Alena Fomina-Klotz, Russia, def. Jessy Rompies, Indonesia, and Peangtarn Plipuech, Thailand, 7-5, 7-5.
Linda Noskova and Lucie Havlickova, Czech Republic, def. Dominika Salkova and Barbora Palicova, Czech Republic, 7-5, 6-4. | https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-11046605/WTA-Livesport-Prague-Open-Results.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490 | 2022-07-25T14:47:20Z | https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-11046605/WTA-Livesport-Prague-Open-Results.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490 | false |
NEW YORK — The NFL is making its move into offering its own media streaming platform.
The league announced that “NFL+” launched on Monday. Owners were briefed about it during the league meetings in May, while Brian Rolapp, the NFL's chief media and business officer, confirmed in a column for “Sports Illustrated” last week that it would be starting this season.
Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a phone interview with The Associated Press that the direct-to-consumer offering gives the league the ability to understand what fans and non-fans are seeking in terms of content and customize it for them.
“We think this is a major step forward. It will evolve, build and get better as more and more content becomes available on this platform. The work that we’ve done either with other offerings or research has helped us sort of frame this in a way that we think would be very attractive and engage our fans.”
The launch of “NFL+” comes as 15 games on Thursday night will be carried exclusively on Amazon Prime Video. The “Sunday Ticket” package of out-of-market Sunday games currently will expire at the end of this season. Amazon, Apple and Google have emerged as the frontrunners to take over the rights that DirecTV has held since 1994.
What can you watch on NFL+?
“NFL+” will allow fans to view out-of-market preseason games on all devices; local and national regular-season and postseason games on mobile devices like phones and tablets only; team and national radio feeds, NFL Network shows on-demand along with the NFL Films archive. It could also include content produced by teams. It will be accessible through the NFL app and website.
It is an upgrade of the “Game Pass” service that has been available to fans in the United States since 2015. The league began offering a package in which fans could watch replays of games online — appropriately called “Game Rewind” — in 2009. It started to gain favor among fans and analysts in 2012 when it added coaches film, including two angles where all 22 players on the field could be viewed.
The league has also offered out-of-market preseason games either through a separate package or “Game Pass” in previous seasons.
The key to the package is the live regular-season and playoff games. The league regained the mobile rights after its contracts with mobile carriers expired at the end of last season.
How much does it it cost?
“NFL+” will be available for $4.99/month or $39.99/year. A premium package — which includes full and condensed game replays as well as the coaches film — is $9.99/month or $79.99/year. The “Game Pass” package was previously available for $100/year. “NFL+” will part of fans who purchase season tickets for their teams.
“We've had our toe in the water with ‘Game Pass,’ but this is our next step forward,” said Hans Schroeder, the executive vice president of NFL Media. “We think this will be attractive for fans and sort of bring down the price point for fans on a monthly basis. There is an eye on future content down the road. We're excited to see where this can go this year and beyond.”
Goodell said recently the league is hoping to make a decision about “Sunday Ticket” and possibly selling an equity stake in NFL Media properties by the end of the year. | https://www.kvue.com/article/news/nation-world/nfl-plus-streaming-service-launch/507-9cfdae64-4aa0-425e-9cef-17f68aafc9f2 | 2022-07-25T14:47:44Z | https://www.kvue.com/article/news/nation-world/nfl-plus-streaming-service-launch/507-9cfdae64-4aa0-425e-9cef-17f68aafc9f2 | false |
CUTE: Tiger cubs get first vet checkup at Oklahoma City Zoo
Published: Jul. 25, 2022 at 9:12 AM CDT|Updated: 35 minutes ago
OKLAHOMA CITY (CNN) - The rare Sumatran tiger twins born at the Oklahoma City Zoo had their first official checkup by the zoo’s veterinarian.
The zoo’s vet gave the tiger cubs – one boy and one girl – a clean bill of health.
Their 11-year-old mother Lola gave birth on the early morning of July 2.
Lola and her cubs will be kept from public view until the twins are old enough to be vaccinated, but tiger fans can continue to monitor their progress on the zoo’s social media channels.
Sumatran tigers are critically endangered, with only 500 left living in the forests of their native Indonesia.
Copyright 2022 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.dakotanewsnow.com/2022/07/25/cute-tiger-cubs-get-first-vet-checkup-oklahoma-city-zoo/ | 2022-07-25T14:47:56Z | https://www.dakotanewsnow.com/2022/07/25/cute-tiger-cubs-get-first-vet-checkup-oklahoma-city-zoo/ | false |
Former "Christmas Tree Promotion Board" is now "Real Christmas Tree Board"
Plus, a look ahead at inflation and supply:
Real Christmas trees may cost more due to inflation, but consumers say, "it's worth it."
HOWELL, Mich., July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- When it comes to real Christmas trees, media and consumers could be forgiven for wondering just who's who and what's what.
A journalist searching for a source is likely to bump into the National Christmas Tree Association (NCTA), the American Christmas Tree Association (ACTA), and the Christmas Tree Promotion Board (CTPB). But in a survey of 26 journalists by communications firm FleishmanHillard, 65% could not name any of those organizations without prompting. And once they saw the names, nearly three-quarters of the journalists said they were confusing and – as far as they knew – all the organizations were the same. Nearly half had no idea the (then) CTPB represented Christmas trees that are grown, not manufactured. The name didn't do anything to make that clear.
Until today.
The former "Christmas Tree Promotion Board" is now "Real Christmas Tree Board."
To bring clarity to the confusion, the former "Christmas Tree Promotion Board" has re-branded itself the "Real Christmas Tree Board" (RCTB). Chartered in 2015, the organization is an expert resource for insights about farm-grown Christmas trees. The RCTB falls under the USDA's purview as a research and promotion program. Its mission is to share the benefits of fresh Christmas trees with consumers through promotion and public relations, while engaging in research to better serve its customers and growers. The USDA provides oversight of the RCTB to ensure transparency, accuracy, and fairness in its communications.
With the new name comes a new logo, which includes an illustration of a real Christmas tree, roots and all. It is distinct from the more generic graphic icons of Christmas trees used by other organizations.
"We're all about 'real' – period," said Marsha Gray, Executive Director of the Real Christmas Tree Board. "Real growers, real trees, and the real joy they produce have always been our focus. Now our name and our logo are just as clear as our focus."
For real insights about real Christmas trees, come to those who grow and know.
Real farmers with real experience are the media's – and the public's – best resource for clarity and context on complex issues affecting the Christmas tree industry. In the past the RCTB has offered research, insights, and commentary on the impact of the pandemic on Christmas tree sales, the multiple factors affecting regional Christmas tree supply, and the effects of extreme weather events.
Later this summer the RCTB will release the findings of its annual consumer survey, along with additional insights from a member/grower survey. Here are two headlines that have already emerged:
Real Christmas tree users believe the trees are worth the price and are willing to pay more this year if necessary to get one.
- According to the survey, consumers expect inflation to increase the price of real Christmas trees compared to last year by approximately $4 to $12 per tree. (NOTE: That is a consumer prediction, not an industry determination.)
- However, the joy of a real Christmas tree appears to trump the prospect of paying more for it as 85% of those surveyed agreed with the statement, "The price of a real Christmas tree is worth it."
- In fact, 79% agreed, "If the cost of a real Christmas tree goes up this year in light of the rising costs of many consumer goods, I will still buy a real Christmas tree."
- 73% went further, agreeing, "If my personal holiday budget is tight this year, I will prioritize buying a real Christmas tree."
The real Christmas tree industry didn't run out of trees last year – again.
- 87% of survey respondents said they got the tree they wanted at the first location they shopped at in 2021.
- In fact, 65% reported "no difficulty at all" in finding and purchasing a real Christmas tree last year.
- Doom-and-gloom predictions about "running out of trees" have become an annual holiday tradition. But the industry didn't run out of trees in 2020 either. Or in 2019. Or the year before that. And it doesn't expect to in 2022.
- To be fair, it can be tempting to represent isolated experiences as trends, even when they're not, and at times supplies of certain trees in certain places can be tight. But no single retailer, lot, nursery, farm, or consumer experience is reflective of the entire industry. The industry has consistently had a real Christmas tree for everyone who wants one. That's why having context from the industry itself is imperative in covering stories like this.
Coming up: Oooooooh that scent …
Look for this summer's release of additional survey results to touch on the desire people have to "return to normal" and how a real tree symbolizes that for them. There will be first-ever data exploring scent in detail – what Christmas trees smell like to people, how it makes them feel, and a surprising ranking of various scents associated with the holidays. And we'll revisit a past finding about those who switched from artificial to real and how many currently say they wish they'd started buying real Christmas trees sooner (it's not a small number).
Until then, Merry Christmas in July from the (new) Real Christmas Tree Board.
Survey Methodology
TRUE Global Intelligence (TGI), the in-house research practice of FleishmanHillard, fielded a survey of n=26 American media journalists, including n=1 journalist FH has previously communicated with. All survey respondents work in media/entertainment in a writing, editing or publishing capacity. The survey was fielded from January 10 to January 18, 2022.
The consumer survey was also fielded by TGI. N=1,500 Americans adults ages 21 to 49 years. All survey respondents celebrate or observe Christmas and either decide or share in the decision of whether and what kind of Christmas tree to put up in their home each year or influence their home's decisionmaker. The survey was fielded from May 26 to June 13, 2022.
Know Your Sources
The Real Christmas Tree Board (RCTB) is the media's expert resource for insights about farm-grown Christmas tree. Chartered in 2015 as the Christmas Tree Promotion Board and renamed in 2022, it is a national research and promotion program whose mission is to share the benefits of fresh Christmas trees with consumers through promotion and public relations, while engaging in research to better serve our customers and growers. The USDA provides oversight of the RCTB to ensure transparency, accuracy, and fairness in its communications. The RCTB provides the media and public with accurate information, added insights, and the latest news and inspiration for the season. It represents real Christmas trees sold in the United States and is supported through annual assessments paid by any business growing or importing 500 or more real Christmas trees. This press release was developed and distributed by the RCTB. Search "Real Christmas Tree Board" online and visit RealChristmasTreeBoard.com
National Christmas Tree Association (NCTA) is the national trade association focusing on policy and regulation issues affecting the real Christmas tree industry. It serves the same constituents as the RCTB but with a different purpose. The NCTA represents members with one voice to protect and advocate on the industry's behalf. It represents state and regional associations and affiliated businesses that grow and sell Christmas trees or provide related supplies and services. The NCTA is known for presenting the White House Christmas tree on display in the Blue Room each year.
American Christmas Tree Association (ACTA) does not represent real Christmas trees or growers. It is a 501(c)(3) corporation established in 2009 and has no known members representing the real Christmas tree industry. Thomas Harman1 is CEO of ACTA and is also the founder and CEO of Balsam Hill, a seller of artificial Christmas trees.2 The majority of artificial Christmas trees are manufactured overseas.3
1 https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/cor/352342528_201912_990EO_2021042017972245.pdf
2 https://www.balsamhill.com/about-us
3 https://www.datamyne.com/blog/indicators/christmas-tree-imports-growers-come-short/
MEDIA CONTACT:
Newsroom@RealChristmasTreeBoard.com
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Rents spike as big-pocketed investors buy mobile home parks
LOCKPORT, N.Y. (AP) — For as long as anyone can remember, rent increases rarely happened at Ridgeview Homes, a family-owned mobile home park in upstate New York.
That changed in 2018 when corporate owners took over the 65-year-old park located amid farmland and down the road from a fast-food joint and grocery store about 30 miles northeast of Buffalo.
Residents, about half of whom are seniors or disabled people on fixed incomes, put up with the first two increases. They hoped the latest owner, Cook Properties, would address the bourbon-colored drinking water, sewage bubbling into their bathtubs and the pothole-filled roads.
When that didn’t happen and a new lease with a 6% increase was imposed this year, they formed an association. About half the residents launched a rent strike in May, prompting Cook Properties to send out about 30 eviction notices.
“All they care about is raising the rent because they only care about the money,” said Jeremy Ward, 49, who gets by on just over $1,000 a month in disability payments after his legs suffered nerve damage in a car accident.
He was recently fined $10 for using a leaf blower. “I’m disabled,” he said. “You guys aren’t doing your job, and I get a violation?”
The plight of residents at Ridgeview is playing out nationwide as institutional investors, led by private equity firms and real estate investment trusts and sometimes funded by pension funds, swoop in to buy mobile home parks. Critics contend mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are fueling the problem by backing a growing number of investor loans.
The purchases are putting residents in a bind, since most mobile homes — despite the name — cannot be moved easily or cheaply. Owners are forced to either accept unaffordable rent increases, spend thousands of dollars to move their home, or abandon it and lose tens of thousands of dollars they invested.
“These industries, including mobile home park manufacturing industry, keep touting these parks, these mobile homes, as affordable housing. But it’s not affordable,” said Benjamin Bellus, an assistant attorney general in Iowa, who said complaints have gone up “100-fold” since out-of-state investors started buying up parks a few years ago.
“You’re putting people in a snare and a trap, where they have no ability to defend themselves,” he added.
Driven by some of the strongest returns in real estate, investors have shaken up a once-sleepy sector that’s home to more than 22 million mostly low-income Americans in 43,000 communities. Many aggressively promote the parks as ensuring a steady return — by repeatedly raising rent.
There’s also a growing industry, featuring how-to books, webinars and even a mobile home university that offers tips to attract small investors.
“You went from an environment where you had a local owner or manager who took care of things as they needed fixing, to where you had people who were looking at a cost-benefit analysis for how to get the penny squeezed lowest,” Bellus said. “You combine it with an idea that we can just keep raising the rent, and these people can’t leave.”
George McCarthy, president and CEO of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, said about a fifth of mobile home parks, or around 800,000, have been purchased in the past eight years by institutional investors.
He was among those singling out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for guaranteeing the loans as part of a what the lending giants bill as expanding affordable housing. Since 2014, the Lincoln Institute estimates Freddie Mac alone provided $9.6 billion in financing for the purchase of more than 950 communities across 44 states.
A spokesman for Freddie Mac countered that it had purchased loans for less than 3% of the mobile home communities nationwide, and about 60% of those were refinances.
Soon after investors started buying up parks in 2015, the complaints of double-digit rent increases followed.
In Iowa, Matt Chapman, a mobile home resident at a park purchased by Utah-based Havenpark Communities, said his rent and fees had almost doubled since 2019. Iowa Legal Aid’s Alex Kornya said another park purchased by Impact Communities saw rent and fees increase 87% between 2017 and 2020.
“Many of the folks living in the park were on fixed incomes, disability, Social Security, and simply were not going to be able to keep pace,” said Kornya, who met with about 300 angry mobile home owners at a mega-church. “It led almost to a political awakening.”
In Minnesota, park purchases by out-of-state buyers grew from 46% in 2015 to 81% in 2021, with rent increases as much as 30%, according to All Parks Alliance For Change, a state association.
U.S. Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, speaking at a Senate hearing this year, recalled tenants complaining of repeated rent increases at a Havenpark development in Great Falls. One resident, Cindy Newman, told The Associated Press her monthly rent went from $117 to nearly $400 over a year and eight months — equal to the increase over the previous 20 years.
On top of rent increases, residents complained of being inundated with fees for everything from pets to maintenance and fines for clutter and speeding — all tucked into leases that can run upwards of 50 pages.
Josh Weiss, a Havenpark spokesperson, said the company must charge prevailing market rates when it purchases a park at fair market price. That said, the company has moved since 2020 to limit its rent increases to $50-a-month.
“We understand the anxiety that any rent increase has on residents, especially those on fixed incomes,” Weiss said. “While we try to minimize the impact, the financial realities do not change.”
The mobile home industry argues the communities are the most affordable housing option, noting that average rent increases across parks nationwide were just over 4% in 2021. Spending on improvements was around 11%. Significant investments are needed, they said, to make improvements at older parks and avoid them being sold off.
“You have some people coming into the space that give us all a bad name, but those are isolated examples and those practices are not common,” said Lesli Gooch, chief executive officer of the Manufactured Housing Institute, the industry’s trade association.
Both sides said the government could do more to help.
The industry wants Federal Housing Administration financing made available to residents, many of whom rely on high-interest loans to purchase homes that cost on average $81,900. They also want the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to allow housing vouchers to be used for mobile homes.
Advocates for residents, including MHAction, want lawmakers to put a cap on rent or require a reason for an increase or eviction — state legislation that succeeded in Delaware this year but failed in Iowa, Colorado and Montana.
They also want Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to stipulate in loans they back that rents remain affordable. And they support residents purchasing their communities, which started in New Hampshire and has reached almost 300 parks in 20 states.
A Freddie Mac spokesperson said it has created a new loan offering that incentivizes tenant protections and last year made those mandatory for all future mobile home community transactions.
At Ridgeview, it’s unclear how the rent strike will be resolved.
Cook, which claims to be the largest operator of mobile home parks in New York and has a slogan “Exceptional Opportunities. Exceptional Returns,” declined to comment. The company closed a $26 million private-equity fund in 2021 that purchased 12 parks in New York, but it was unclear if one of them was Ridgeview.
Residents, meanwhile, soldier on. Joyce Bayles, an 85-year-old resident has taken to mowing her own lawn because crews show up only monthly. Gerald Korb, a 78-year-old retiree, said he’s still waiting for the company to move an electric pole and transformer he fears could topple onto his home during a storm.
“I bought a place, and now they are forcing all this on us,” said Korb, who stopped paying rent in protest. “They are absentee landlords is what they are.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.1011now.com/2022/07/25/rents-spike-big-pocketed-investors-buy-mobile-home-parks/ | 2022-07-25T14:49:07Z | https://www.1011now.com/2022/07/25/rents-spike-big-pocketed-investors-buy-mobile-home-parks/ | false |
SUZHOU, China and ROCKVILLE, Md. and CHARLOTTE, N.C., July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ascentage Pharma (6855.HK), a global biopharmaceutical company engaged in developing novel therapies for cancers, chronic hepatitis B (CHB), and age-related diseases, and Tanner Pharma Group ("Tanner Pharma"), a global pharmaceutical services provider of specialty access solutions, have jointly launched an innovative Named Patient Program (NPP) for olverembatinib. This collaboration will allow access to Ascentage Pharma's novel drug candidate, olverembatinib on a named patient basis in over 100 countries and regions where the drug is not yet commercially accessible. Olverembatinib is currently approved by the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) for use in China for adult patients with tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI)-resistant chronic phase chronic myeloid leukemia (CML-CP) or accelerated-phase CML (CML-AP) harboring the T315I mutation as confirmed by a validated diagnostic test.
Named Patient Programs are a mechanism through which physicians can legally and ethically prescribe investigational or approved drugs for patients in need prior to their commercial availability. Under the terms of the agreement, Tanner will be the supplier of olverembatinib to healthcare providers on a named patient basis in countries where the drug is not commercially available. The NPP is being launched globally, giving patients the opportunity to access olverembatinib.
CML is a hematologic malignancy of the white blood cells. The introduction of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) targeting BCR-ABL have significantly improved the clinical management of CML. However, despite clinical benefits offered by the first- and second-generation TKIs, many patients develop drug resistance. Such acquired resistance to TKIs is a major challenge in the treatment of CML. BCR-ABL kinase mutations represent a key mechanism of acquired drug resistance; T315I, which is the most- common drug-resistant mutation, occurs in about 25% of patients with drug-resistant CML. Patients with T315I-mutant CML are resistant to both first- and second-generation BCR-ABL inhibitors, hence presenting an urgent and high unmet medical need for third-generation BCR-ABL inhibitors to more effectively and safely target the T315I mutation.
Developed by Ascentage Pharma, olverembatinib is a novel third-generation BCR-ABL inhibitor that can effectively target a spectrum of BCR-ABL mutants, including the T315I mutation. Currently, olverembatinib is recommended by both the Guidelines of the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology (CSCO) and the China Anti-Cancer Association's (CACA) Guidelines for the Holistic Integrative Management of Cancers, for the treatment of patients with TKI-resistant CML harboring the T315I mutation (while the CACA Guidelines also recommend olverembatinib for the treatment of patients with CML intolerant/resistant to at least two TKIs). As the first approved third-generation BCR-ABL inhibitor in China and the second in any country globally, olverembatinib is currently being evaluated in a Phase Ib study in the US for the treatment of drug-resistant CML. To date, olverembatinib has been granted one Fast Track designation and three Orphan Drug designations by the US FDA, and one Orphan Drug designation by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
Olverembatinib has potential in several other indications as well. It has been included in the CSCO Guidelines for the treatment of patients with Philadelphia chromosome positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (Ph+ ALL). Besides, in an ongoing clinical trial, preliminary results suggest potential of olverembatinib in the management of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST)1 and in a preclinical study published recently, olverembatinib has shown potential in the management of Covid-19 patients2.
Tanner Pharma Group is a specialist pharmaceutical services provider based in Charlotte North Carolina, USA with offices in Europe and Latin America. Through its Managed Access Programs division, Tanner supports manufacturers by providing ethical, controlled and compliant access to their innovative medicines in countries where they are not commercially accessible. Tanner has been enabling patient access to medicines for more than 20 years in over 130 countries and has extensive experience supporting CML patients.
"There is enormous unmet medical need in the treatment of CML globally. As the world's second 3rd-generation BCR-ABL inhibitor entering clinical development in the US, and one of the few China-developed novel drug candidates positioned for the global market from the very beginning, olverembatinib has demonstrated excellent efficacy and safety, leading to the marketing authorization in China last year," said Dr. Dajun Yang, Chairman & CEO of Ascentage Pharma.
He added "Tanner Pharma is a world-leading pharmaceutical services provider with extensive experience in enabling access to innovative therapies when no other treatment options exist. We look forward to partnering with Tanner Pharma to provide this named patient program and expand the access to olverembatinib to patients with CML around the world."
"We are pleased to expand the work we do globally to give hope to CML patients through our partnership with Ascentage Pharma for olverembatinib," said Robert Keel, Executive Vice President at Tanner Pharma Group. "The named patient program will help ensure patients who have no alternative therapeutic options for their disease, receives access to olverembatinib in a manner that is reliable, responsible, ethical and in accordance with all country-specific regulatory requirements."
Telephone: +1 704 552 8408
Email: olverembatinib@tannerpharma.com
About Ascentage Pharma
Ascentage Pharma (6855.HK) is a globally focused biopharmaceutical company engaged in developing novel therapies for cancers, chronic hepatitis B, and age-related diseases. On October 28, 2019, Ascentage Pharma was listed on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited with the stock code 6855.HK.
Ascentage Pharma focuses on developing therapeutics that inhibit protein-protein interactions to restore apoptosis, or programmed cell death. The company has built a pipeline of eight clinical drug candidates, including novel, highly potent Bcl-2, and dual Bcl-2/Bcl-xL inhibitors, as well as candidates aimed at IAP and MDM2-p53 pathways, and next-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). Ascentage Pharma is also the only company in the world with active clinical programs targeting all three known classes of key apoptosis regulators. The company is conducting more than 50 Phase I/II clinical trials in the US, Australia, Europe, and China. To date, Ascentage Pharma has obtained a total of 15 ODDs, 2 FTDs, and 2 Rare Pediatric Disease (RPD) designations from the FDA and 1 ODD from the EU for four of the company's investigational drug candidates.
Leveraging its robust R&D capabilities, Ascentage Pharma has built a portfolio of global intellectual property rights and has entered into global partnerships with numerous renowned biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies and research institutes such as UNITY Biotechnology, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Mayo Clinic, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Merck, AstraZeneca, and Pfizer. The company has built a talented team with global experience in discovering, developing, launching, and commercializing innovative drugs and is setting up world-class commercial manufacturing and sales & marketing teams. One pivotal aim of Ascentage Pharma is to continuously strengthen its R&D capabilities and accelerate its clinical development programs, in order to fulfil its mission of addressing unmet clinical needs in China and around the world for the benefit of more patients.
About Tanner Pharma Group
Tanner Pharma Group is a specialist pharmaceutical services provider based in Charlotte North Carolina, USA with offices in Europe and Latin America. Tanner provides a portfolio of service offerings focused on improving the global access to medicines. Through its Tanner MAP division, Tanner supports manufacturers with ethical, controlled, and compliant access to their innovative medicines in countries where they are not commercially accessible. For more information, visit www.tannerpharma.com and connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
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Rent Spikes as big-pocketed investors buy mobile home parks
Investors are buying up mobile home parks across the country, leading to significant rent increases and complaints of neglect from residents. The parks, which for decades were mostly owned and operated like small businesses, have proven an attractive investment for private equity firms and large real estate companies. They offer some of the best returns in the property sector, money that is made by raising rent and saddling tenants with a myriad of fees. The industry argues these investments are making parks more livable, but residents, many on fixed incomes, say they can't afford the rent increases and improvements often don't come.
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U.S. settles claims against poultry producers over worker treatment
July 25 (Reuters) - Three of the largest U.S. poultry processors have agreed to settle charges by the U.S. Department of Justice over their alleged longstanding effort to share information about workers in order to drive down compensation.
A proposed consent decree with Cargill, Sanderson Farms and Wayne Farms calls for those companies to pay more than $84 million in restitution to workers harmed by the information sharing.
The settlement was filed on Monday with the federal court in Maryland.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Mark Porter)
Advertisement | https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-11046413/U-S-settles-claims-against-poultry-producers-worker-treatment.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490 | 2022-07-25T14:51:35Z | https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-11046413/U-S-settles-claims-against-poultry-producers-worker-treatment.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490 | true |
President Joe Biden is likely infected with the BA.5 COVID-19 variant, according to his physician.
The Centers for Disease Control says the BA.5 variant makes up about 80% of all new cases. The variant is said to be more transmissible than other variants, but evidence shows it doesn't cause worse outcomes.
The president, who is vaccinated and twice-boosted, is taking Paxlovid, an antiviral medication to treat COVID-19.
"The president is responding to therapy as expected," said Dr. Kevin O'Connor.
Biden's doctor says the president's symptoms include a sore throat, loose cough and body aches, but his lungs remain clear.
The president's Twitter account has shown Biden working while he recovers from the virus. | https://www.3newsnow.com/news/national/doctor-biden-likely-has-the-ba-5-covid-19-variant | 2022-07-25T14:52:00Z | https://www.3newsnow.com/news/national/doctor-biden-likely-has-the-ba-5-covid-19-variant | true |
Chess-playing robot breaks boy’s finger at Moscow tournament
By Masha Angelova and Mitchell McCluskey, CNN
A chess-playing robot broke a boy’s finger during a match in Russia last week, the president of the Moscow Chess Federation told state news agency TASS media.
Sergey Lazarev said the incident occurred at the Moscow Chess Open after the boy rushed the robot.
“A robot broke a child’s finger — this is, of course, bad,” Lazarev said.
“The robot was rented by us, it has been exhibited in many places by specialists for a long time. Apparently, the operators overlooked some flaws. The child made a move, and after that it is necessary to give time for the robot to respond, but the boy hurried, the robot grabbed him. We have nothing to do with the robot.”
The boy continued to compete in the forum after his finger was put in a cast, Lazarev said on Thursday. The incident happened last Tuesday.
“The child played the next day, finished the tournament in a cast, and volunteers helped to record the moves,” Lazarev added.
“We will coordinate to understand what happened and try to help [the family] in any way we can. And the robot’s operators, apparently, will have to think about strengthening protection so that such a situation does not happen again.”
Video published on the Baza Telegram channel shows the robot grabbing the boy’s finger. After a brief struggle, several bystanders help to free the child’s hand and take him away from the table.
“The robot did not like such a rush — he grabbed the boy’s index finger and squeezed it hard. Bystanders rushed to help and pulled out the finger of the young player, but the fracture could not be avoided,” the Baza Telegram channel said in its post.
The Moscow Chess Open took place in the Russian capital from July 13 to 21.
The-CNN-Wire
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JERSEYDALE, Calif. — Firefighters significantly slowed the spread of a smoky wildfire churning through forest near Yosemite National Park that has thousands of residents of remote mountain communities still under evacuation orders on Monday.
More than 2,500 firefighters with aircraft support battled the blaze that erupted Friday southwest of the park near the town of Midpines in Mariposa County. Officials described “explosive fire behavior” on Saturday as flames made runs through bone-dry vegetation caused by the worst drought in decades.
By Sunday night the blaze had consumed more than 24 square miles (63 square km) of forest land, with no containment, Cal Fire said. The cause was under investigation.
Firefighters working in steep terrain on the ground protected homes as air tankers dropped retardant on 50-foot (15-meter) flames racing along ridgetops east of the tiny community of Jerseydale. Personnel face tough conditions that include steep terrain, sweltering temperatures and low humidity, Cal Fire said.
Light winds blew embers ahead into tree branches “and because it’s so dry, it’s easy for the spot fires to get established and that’s what fuels the growth,” said Cal Fire spokesperson Natasha Fouts.
Evacuations were in place for over 6,000 people living across a several-mile span of the sparsely populated area in the Sierra Nevada foothills, though a handful of residents defied the orders and stayed behind, said Adrienne Freeman with the U.S. Forest Service.
“We urge people to evacuate when told,” she said. “This fire is moving very fast.”
Lynda Reynolds-Brown and her husband, Aubrey, awaited news about the fate of their home from an evacuation center at an elementary school. They fled as ash rained down and the fire descended a hill towards their property.
“It just seemed like it was above our house and coming our way really quickly,” Reynolds-Brown told KCRA-TV.
Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency for Mariposa County due to the fire’s effects.
Flames destroyed at least 10 residential and commercial structures and damaged five others, Cal Fire said. Assessment teams were moving through mountain towns to check for additional damage, Fouts said.
Numerous roads were closed, including a stretch of State Route 140 that’s one of the main routes into Yosemite.
California has experienced increasingly larger and deadlier wildfires in recent years as climate change has made the West much warmer and drier over the past 30 years. Scientists have said weather will continue to be more extreme and wildfires more frequent, destructive and unpredictable.
Pacific Gas & Electric said on its website that more than 2,600 homes and businesses in the area had lost power as of Monday and there was no indication when it would be restored. “PG&E is unable to access the affected equipment,” the utility said as flames roared Friday.
The Oak Fire was sparked as firefighters made progress against an earlier blaze, the Washburn Fire, that burned to the edge of a grove of giant sequoias in the southernmost part of Yosemite National Park. The 7.5-square-mile (19-square-km) fire was 87% contained after burning for two weeks and moving into the Sierra National Forest.
___
Weber contributed from Los Angeles. | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/firefighters-slow-growth-of-california-blaze-near-yosemite/2022/07/25/e2fd52de-0c25-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html | 2022-07-25T14:53:26Z | https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/firefighters-slow-growth-of-california-blaze-near-yosemite/2022/07/25/e2fd52de-0c25-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html | false |
American Diabetes Association and DaVita launch a digital experience with resources for preventing and managing diabetes-related kidney complications
ARLINGTON, Va. and DENVER, July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Diabetes Association® (ADA), along with DaVita, are excited to announce the launch of an interactive digital experience aimed at helping those living with diabetes prevent and manage kidney disease. Diabetes affects one in seven adults in the U.S.—and is the number one cause of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Committed to providing the education and resources needed to combat diabetes-related health complications, the ADA recently launched a new kidney care education section under Living with Diabetes on its website.
"Understanding the connection between diabetes and kidney health is a critical first step to preventing and managing diabetes-related kidney problems," said Dr. Robert Gabbay, chief scientific and medical officer for the ADA. "ADA is proud to announce that DaVita is a national sponsor of Living With Diabetes: Kidney Care. We created this interactive, online experience to meet people wherever they are on their diabetes care journey, and empower them with information that's targeted to their specific needs."
Visitors to the site will find advice and guidance aimed at helping to prevent kidney disease for individuals recently diagnosed with diabetes, as well as resources like:
- Kidney Smart® classes – an award-winning, interactive community and virtual education program available at no cost
- Kidney-friendly recipes, meal plans, and eating tips
- Helpful ideas for engaging with their physicians
Because CKD is defined by stages, the site also offers insight and information about how people already diagnosed with both diabetes and kidney disease can manage their health at different stages of CKD.
"Sixty percent of people living with kidney failure have diabetes," says Dr. Jeff Giullian, chief medical officer for DaVita. "Educating individuals about the link between these two diseases can be a key component of managing kidney care and preventing kidney failure. We're thrilled to work with the ADA to help connect this audience with crucial information that can help people enjoy healthier lives, without the need for kidney transplantation or dialysis."
The website aims to provide individuals living with diabetes, small steps they can take that could have a larger, positive impact on their overall health and help to reduce their risk of developing kidney disease. To learn more, visit Diabetes.org/living-with-diabetes.
About the American Diabetes Association
The American Diabetes Association (ADA) is the nation's leading voluntary health organization fighting to bend the curve on the diabetes epidemic and help people living with diabetes thrive. For 81 years, the ADA has driven discovery and research to treat, manage, and prevent diabetes while working relentlessly for a cure. Through advocacy, program development, and education we aim to improve the quality of life for the over 133 million Americans living with diabetes or prediabetes. Diabetes has brought us together. What we do next will make us Connected for Life. To learn more or to get involved, visit us at diabetes.org or call 1-800-DIABETES (1-800-342-2383). Join the fight with us on Facebook (American Diabetes Association), Spanish Facebook (Asociación Americana de la Diabetes), LinkedIn (American Diabetes Association), Twitter (@AmDiabetesAssn), and Instagram (@AmDiabetesAssn).
About DaVita
About DaVita Inc. DaVita (NYSE: DVA) is a comprehensive kidney care provider focused on transforming care to improve the quality of life for patients globally. The company is a leading provider of kidney care services in the U.S. and has been a leader in clinical quality and innovation for more than 20 years. DaVita is working to help increase equitable access to care for patients at every stage and setting along their kidney health journey—from slowing progression of kidney disease to streamlining the transplant process, from acute hospital care to dialysis at home. As of March 31, 2022, DaVita served 200,800 patients at 2,809 outpatient dialysis centers in the U.S. The company operated an additional 346 outpatient dialysis centers in 11 other countries worldwide. DaVita has reduced hospitalizations, improved mortality and worked collaboratively to help propel the kidney care community to adopt an equitable, high-quality standard of care for patients around the globe. To learn more, visit DaVita.com/About.
Contact: Daisy Diaz, 703-253-4807
press@diabetes.org
Megan Anthony, 720-631-2170
Megan.Anthony@DaVita.com
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SOURCE American Diabetes Association | https://www.cleveland19.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/american-diabetes-association-focuses-prevention-kidney-disease-through-collaboration-with-davita/ | 2022-07-25T14:54:24Z | https://www.cleveland19.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/american-diabetes-association-focuses-prevention-kidney-disease-through-collaboration-with-davita/ | true |
The results follow Omnicom Media Group being named a Leader in Retail and Commerce Media
NEW YORK, July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Omnicom Precision Marketing Group (OPMG) today announced it has been named a Leader in "The Forrester Wave™: Marketing Creative and Content Services, Q3 2022" by Forrester Research, Inc. Within the 17-criterion evaluation, OPMG was the top-ranked company in the Strategy category, receiving the highest scores possible in three criteria: execution roadmap, innovation roadmap, and workforce strategy and automation.
The group also earned the highest scores possible for criteria in the Current Offering category, including creative intelligence, dynamic creative optimization technology, and awards and accolades. The evaluation noted OPMG's ability to modernize content with creative intelligence as well as its innovative automation technology and capabilities. The group's ability to use intelligence to drive creativity was attributed to its differentiated investments, including its universal media/content taxonomy, AI-powered creative workflows, and expanded digital commerce partnerships.
OPMG Chief Executive Officer Luke Taylor said, "This recognition from Forrester is a strong affirmation that our investments in AI and machine learning technologies are driving significant effectiveness and efficiency gains across our customer base. It is particularly rewarding that OPMG was recognized for both the quality of its creative talent and the best-in-class deployment of dynamic content delivery techniques that drive better outcomes for our clients."
"OPMG stands apart from others in this evaluation for its creative intelligence, dynamic creative optimization (DCO) services, and caliber of creativity, underscored by significant recognition in industry awards," said Jay Pattisall, Principal Analyst at Forrester. "Clients looking to scale campaigns with audience intelligence and connect brand to performance should consider working with OPMG and its agencies."
This evaluation of marketing creative and content services is a new Forrester Wave and part of a portfolio of five Forrester Wave evaluations. Other evaluations within the portfolio focus on media, data strategy and activation, digital experience, and other marketing services. This newest evaluation follows the recent publication of "The Forrester Wave™: Global Media Management Services, Q3 2022", where fellow Omnicom network Omnicom Media Group (OMG) was named a Leader and the top ranked company in the Current Offering category. OMG emerged with the highest scores possible in the following criteria: retail media, commerce, intelligence and insights, operations, optimization, and innovations road map.
ABOUT OMNICOM PRECISION MARKETING GROUP
Omnicom Precision Marketing Group aligns Omnicom's global digital, data and CRM capabilities to deliver precisely targeted and meaningful customer experiences at scale. Using its universal framework of connected data, connected intelligence, and connected experiences, OPMG provides services that include data-driven product / service design, AdTech / MarTech strategy and implementation, CRM / loyalty strategy and activation, econometric and attribution modeling and digital experience design and development. At the core of delivering these services is Omni, an advanced technology platform that combines a powerful cultural insights engine with massively scaled data insights from first-, second- and third-party sources, including several proprietary Omnicom data partnerships. OPMG is a division of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC).
ABOUT OMNICOM GROUP INC.
Omnicom Group (www.omnicomgroup.com) is a leading global marketing and corporate communications company. Omnicom's branded networks and numerous specialty firms provide advertising, strategic media planning and buying, digital and interactive marketing, direct and promotional marketing, public relations and other specialty communications services to over 5,000 clients in more than 70 countries.
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SOURCE Omnicom Precision Marketing Group | https://www.wbtv.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/omnicom-precision-marketing-group-leads-forresters-creative-agency-assessment/ | 2022-07-25T14:54:48Z | https://www.wbtv.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/omnicom-precision-marketing-group-leads-forresters-creative-agency-assessment/ | true |
Rare 1952 Mickey Mantle baseball card going up for auction
NEW YORK (AP) — A decades-old, mint condition Mickey Mantle baseball card could break records when it goes up for auction next month.
The collector’s item from 1952 features one of baseball’s most celebrated and charismatic legends, and is widely regarded as one of just a handful in near-perfect condition.
It’s estimated the card could exceed $10 million when the two-day auction starts Aug. 27. The record is $6.6 million for a 1909 Honus Wagner card that was sold at auction a year ago, months after another 70-year-old Mantle card fetched $5.2 million.
No matter the final price for the rare Mantle rookie card, it will be a hefty profit for the current owner, a New Jersey waste management entrepreneur who bought it for $50,000 at a New York City show in 1991.
“Every time he got up to the plate, the crowd would go crazy, the roars would be there. And he never disappointed you. ... He had that aura about him,” card owner Anthony Giordano said of Mantle, who spent his entire career with the New York Yankees from 1951 to 1968. “Whether you’re from the New York area or not, or a Yankees fan, it was always Mickey Mantle that was highlighted.”
The switch-hitting Mantle — “the Mick” — was a Triple Crown winner in 1956, a three-time American League MVP and a seven-time World Series champion. The Hall of Famer, who died in 1995, was considered a humble player on the field. When he hit a home run, he would often run the bases with his head bowed.
“I figured the pitcher already felt bad enough without me showing him up rounding the bases,” Mantle once said.
As for the baseball card, its rarity is on par with its subject’s mythical reputation.
“The quality of the card is the key,” said Derek Grady, the executive vice president of sports auctions for Heritage Auctions, which is running the bidding. “Four sharp corners, the gloss and the color jumps off the card.”
Grady said that the collectibles market is having a renaissance, noting that cards that are “the creme de la creme, the best of the best, are still selling despite the economy right now” and that Mantle, “the king” of baseball cards, “has always done well.”
Giordano, 75, said it was time to give the Mantle card a new home.
“It’s the right thing to do,” he said. “My boys and I have had the cards for over 30 years, and we’ve enjoyed it. We’ve enjoyed showing anybody that’s close to me — friends and relatives — and I think it’s time for someone else.”
Before the auction begins, the card will be on display in Atlantic City from Wednesday through Sunday at the National Sports Collectors Convention, and at the New York office of Heritage Auctions the following week.
___
More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wlbt.com/2022/07/25/rare-1952-mickey-mantle-baseball-card-going-up-auction/ | 2022-07-25T14:57:44Z | https://www.wlbt.com/2022/07/25/rare-1952-mickey-mantle-baseball-card-going-up-auction/ | true |
A decades-old, mint condition Mickey Mantle baseball card could break records when it goes up for auction next month.
The collector's item from 1952 features one of baseball's most celebrated and charismatic legends, and is widely regarded as one of just a handful in near-perfect condition.
It's estimated the card could exceed $10 million when the two-day auction starts Aug. 27. The record is $6.6 million for a 1909 Honus Wagner card that was sold at auction a year ago, months after another 70-year-old Mantle card fetched $5.2 million.
No matter the final price for the rare Mantle rookie card, it will be a hefty profit for the current owner, a New Jersey waste management entrepreneur who bought it for $50,000 at a New York City show in 1991.
“Every time he got up to the plate, the crowd would go crazy, the roars would be there. And he never disappointed you. ... He had that aura about him,” card owner Anthony Giordano said of Mantle, who spent his entire career with the New York Yankees from 1951 to 1968. “Whether you’re from the New York area or not, or a Yankees fan, it was always Mickey Mantle that was highlighted."
The switch-hitting Mantle — “the Mick” — was a Triple Crown winner in 1956, a three-time American League MVP and a seven-time World Series champion. The Hall of Famer, who died in 1995, was considered a humble player on the field. When he hit a home run, he would often run the bases with his head bowed.
“I figured the pitcher already felt bad enough without me showing him up rounding the bases,” Mantle once said.
Local
As for the baseball card, its rarity is on par with its subject's mythical reputation.
“The quality of the card is the key,” said Derek Grady, the executive vice president of sports auctions for Heritage Auctions, which is running the bidding. “Four sharp corners, the gloss and the color jumps off the card.”
Grady said that the collectibles market is having a renaissance, noting that cards that are “the creme de la creme, the best of the best, are still selling despite the economy right now” and that Mantle, “the king” of baseball cards, “has always done well.”
Giordano, 75, said it was time to give the Mantle card a new home.
“It’s the right thing to do,” he said. “My boys and I have had the cards for over 30 years, and we’ve enjoyed it. We’ve enjoyed showing anybody that’s close to me — friends and relatives — and I think it’s time for someone else.”
Before the auction begins, the card will be on display in Atlantic City from Wednesday through Sunday at the National Sports Collectors Convention, and at the New York office of Heritage Auctions the following week. | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/sports/rare-1952-mickey-mantle-baseball-card-going-up-for-auction/3792911/ | 2022-07-25T14:58:03Z | https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/sports/rare-1952-mickey-mantle-baseball-card-going-up-for-auction/3792911/ | true |
Parched England could see drought in August if hot, dry weather persists, Environment Agency has warned
Parts of England experiencing prolonged dry weather could tip into "drought" status if conditions remain the same , though chances of rain could wash away those fears.
Monday 25 July 2022 15:39, UK
Swathes of England may face drought as soon as August if the hot and dry weather persists, the Environment Agency has confirmed.
A dry spring and early summer have already withered rivers and reservoirs and watered down water quality in many parts of England, pushing most of the country into "prolonged dry weather" status, the first of four drought categories.
Whether areas will tip into the second "drought" stage hinges on when the rain returns, and whether it adds up to more or less than usual. Chances could be washed away within weeks if it rains, or the risk could remain for months.
Plenty of dry weather is forecast for the next few weeks, with another heatwave on the cards, but chances of rain are increasing during mid August.
If areas did move into the second "drought" stage, last experienced amid similar conditions in 2018-19 and 2011-12, water companies could limit non-essential domestic and commercial water use, or apply for special permits to extract extra water from the environment.
Southern Water last week applied for a drought permit to allow it to continue to use the River Test, whose levels are falling, to supply tap water to the region.
Nick Price, its water resources strategy manager, said "the risk is increasing that we will need to use a drought permit in order to continue supplying water."
The company urged its customers to reduce water use where possible, to help limit the impact on the river's habitat.
Hosepipe bans
Water companies, which can seek to limit demand, may decide for themselves whether to impose hosepipe bans.
The National Drought Group, with members including water companies, the Environment Agency and the National Farmers' Union (NFU), are meeting tomorrow morning to agree how to protect water resources together.
The group meets when circumstances demand, last convening in March and before that throughout 2018-2020 as it handled the last drought.
The NFU said the prolonged dry weather was hitting hardest on farms in central, eastern and southern parts of the country.
"Combines are already rolling in some areas for this year's harvest but it's still too early to tell about quality and yield," its deputy president Tom Bradshaw said.
The lack of rain has hampered grass growth, which could hit feed supplies for the winter.
Farmers have had to irrigate their crops early and the next two months are expected to be critical for their yields.
Evidence of dry weather is already written into the land in the form of browning grass, lower river flows, dried-up ponds, and surges of bright algae.
Last week's mega heatwave - which unleashed record-breaking temperatures of over 40C, the highest ever night time heat, and new records for such large areas of the country - exacerbated the already dry conditions in some areas.
The Environment Agency had to carry out more fish rescues than usual for this time of year, as the animals struggled in higher temperatures and lower oxygenated water.
The East of England is currently particularly dry as the wet spells last week have so far bypassed the area.
Flooding is expected to become more frequent in the UK due to climate change.
But flood water can be harder to retain in the ground if it runs off quickly into rivers. Reservoirs can capture floodwater more easily, but the water tends to be of poorer quality, as intense rain flushes away more nutrients.
Watch the Daily Climate Show at 3.30pm Monday to Friday, and The Climate Show with Tom Heap on Saturday and Sunday at 3.30pm and 7.30pm.
All on Sky News, on the Sky News website and app, on YouTube and Twitter.
The show investigates how global warming is changing our landscape and highlights solutions to the crisis. | https://news.sky.com/story/parched-england-could-see-drought-in-august-if-hot-dry-weather-persists-environment-agency-has-warned-12658923 | 2022-07-25T15:00:47Z | https://news.sky.com/story/parched-england-could-see-drought-in-august-if-hot-dry-weather-persists-environment-agency-has-warned-12658923 | true |
NEW YORK, July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Federman Steifman LLP announced today that real estate finance lawyer Brett D. Hoffman joined the firm as Counsel resident in the firm's New York office.
Mr. Hoffman's practice focuses on representing institutional lenders in connection with the origination of mortgage loans secured by multi-family, mixed-use, retail, commercial and industrial properties primarily in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Mr. Hoffman routinely represents lenders in connection with interest rate hedging transactions, leasehold mortgages, construction and project loans, co-op and other UCC secured loans, unsecured loans and lines of credit, loan participation and intercreditor agreements and the sale of defaulted loans and loan portfolios. Mr. Hoffman also acts as local New York and New Jersey counsel to out-of-state lenders and law firms in connection with the intricacies of lending in New York and New Jersey.
Mr. Hoffman has additional experience representing clients in connection with the acquisition and disposition of commercial properties, development site assemblages and related §1031 transactions.
"Brett came to us in the most flattering way possible. He was independently recommended to us by several of our mortgage lending clients," said Lee D. Edelson a partner of the firm. "Our practices are so synchronous that at any one time we are already working on several transactions on opposite sides of one another. We are, therefore, very familiar with Brett's business sense, legal acumen and the quality of his client representation and know how closely it matches our own," he added.
"Federman Steifman LLP attracted me with their truly unique blend of practical and creative legal representation on sophisticated transactions with a very keen focus on their clients' business objectives," said Brett D. Hoffman. "It is also very rare, at least in my experience, for both borrowers and lenders on their most significant matters to be seeking the advice of the same firm," he added.
Prior to joining Federman Steifman LLP, Brett D. Hoffman was associated with a smaller boutique real estate finance law firm in New York. Mr. Hoffman's recent engagements include the $91,825,000 financing of a portfolio of 19 mortgage loans secured by multi-family assets located throughout New York City and the origination of $55,200,000 loan secured by a leasehold mortgage on a commercial building in Manhattan.
Mr. Hoffman earned a B.A. in Economics from Binghamton University and is a graduate of St. John's University School of Law where he served as a Senior Staff Member on the St. John's Law Review and Journal of Catholic Legal Studies and received both the Beatrice Levine Award and Timothy J. Meehan Memorial Award for his prowess in Property Law.
Federman Steifman LLP is a law firm founded in 2005 specializing in complex and sophisticated real estate, structured finance and corporate transactions. Federman Steifman LLP's attorneys represent major international, national, regional and local underwriters, investment banks, private equity firms, hedge funds, asset managers, governmental and quasi-governmental agencies, Fortune 500 companies, credit enhancers, pension funds, insurance companies, private, public and institutional real estate owners and developers, contractors, tax credit and other equity syndicators and investors, banks, non-bank credit companies, mortgage bankers, savings and loan associations, mezzanine lenders, preferred equity investors, utility companies, cooperative corporations, condominium associations, telecommunications companies, family limited partnerships, trusts and estates, high net worth individuals, executives and state and local governments.
Federman Steifman LLP is headquartered in New York with offices in Chicago, IL, Washington, D.C., Phoenix, AZ, Denver, CO, Short Hills, NJ and Darien, CT. In 2021, Federman Steifman LLP closed over $9,000,000,000 of real estate financings, sales and acquisitions. For more information, visit www.federmansteifman.com
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SOURCE Federman Steifman LLP | https://www.kalb.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/real-estate-finance-lawyer-brett-d-hoffman-joins-federman-steifman-llp-new-york-office/ | 2022-07-25T15:02:24Z | https://www.kalb.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/real-estate-finance-lawyer-brett-d-hoffman-joins-federman-steifman-llp-new-york-office/ | false |
MILWAUKEE, July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A. O. Smith Corporation (NYSE: AOS), a leader in water heating and water treatment, today announced the appointment of Noelle Brigham, P. E., Env. SP. as the Company's Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Director. Brigham will lead and drive all aspects of the ESG initiatives while developing a long-term strategy for the Company's global commitments and strategy in this field.
Brigham is a licensed Professional Engineer and Envision Sustainability Professional with more than 20 years of experience in sustainability and environmental engineering in the consumer products and consulting industries. In her sustainability role at S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc., Brigham created global strategies and led international implementation plans for research, development and engineering for consumer product formulation and packaging. As an Instructor, Professor of Practice in the Opus College of Engineering at Marquette University, she developed a new sustainability management executive education program.
"Noelle's extensive experience in the ESG space will prove invaluable as we continue A. O. Smith's efforts to blend our business and sustainability goals," said Chuck Lauber, A. O. Smith executive vice president and chief financial officer. "Underpinning our corporate values is a commitment to sustainability and we are proud to welcome Noelle to lead this critical initiative as her singular focus."
Noelle is completing her PhD in environmental engineering at Marquette University. She received her master's in environmental engineering and Bachelor of Science in civil and environmental engineering from Marquette University as well. She is a member of the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) and Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) Exam Development committee member, in addition to participating in the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources air management study group.
A. O. Smith Corporation, with headquarters in Milwaukee, Wis., is a global leader applying innovative technology and energy-efficient solutions to products manufactured and marketed worldwide. Listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: AOS), the company is one of the world's leading manufacturers of residential and commercial water heating equipment and boilers, as well as a manufacturer of water treatment products. For more information, visit www.aosmith.com.
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SOURCE A. O. Smith Corporation | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/o-smith-names-noelle-brigham-environmental-social-governance-director/ | 2022-07-25T15:02:34Z | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/o-smith-names-noelle-brigham-environmental-social-governance-director/ | true |
AAPI small businesses to receive a $2 million dollar boost to recover from pandemic losses
Cash payments begin at $10,000.
WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - As Democrats work to revive a slimmed-downed version of the Build Back Better Act, some small business owners are turning to other sources of financial help to lessen the impacts of the pandemic.
Chiling Tong, CEO & President of the Asian and Pacific Islander Chamber of Commerce in Washington, says AAPI business owners across America were heavily impacted by Covid’s economic downturn. Tong explained the biggest hurdles owners are facing.
“Covid and anti-AAPI hate,” said Tong. “Both hit the AAPI business community very, very hard.”
A report from Stop AAPI Hate found there were nearly 11,500 hate incidents reported between March 19, 2020 and March 31, 2022. As the pandemic unfolded, a UCLA report found 233,000 AAPI small businesses closed from February to April in 2020.
“We’ve made a $2 million pool available in grants in amounts from $10,000 to $50,000,” said Tammy Halevy, the Executive Director of Reimagine Main Street. To help counter the financial effects of the pandemic, Halevy says AAPI small business owners are getting a boost.
It’s through the AAPISTRONG: Small Business Grants, in partnership with multiple organizations and with support from Meta, known to most as Facebook.
Forty AAPI businesses who launched during the pandemic will receive $10,000 cash grants. Sixty AAPI businesses who launched prior to the pandemic and survived will receive $25,000 cash grants. “That’s a one cash payment, and applications for the AAPI Strong Program are open until July,” said Tong.
AAPI small business owners can apply on the National Asian and Pacific Islander Chamber of Commerce website. The deadline is July 26th.
Earlier this year, a survey from Small Business for America’s Future found more than 1,700 small business owners across the nation believed childcare and prescription drug policies in the Build Back Better Act would help ease their financial burdens.
Copyright 2022 Gray DC. All rights reserved. | https://www.wflx.com/2022/07/25/aapi-small-businesses-receive-2-million-dollar-boost-recover-pandemic-losses/ | 2022-07-25T15:02:46Z | https://www.wflx.com/2022/07/25/aapi-small-businesses-receive-2-million-dollar-boost-recover-pandemic-losses/ | false |
(The Hill) — Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) fired back at Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Sunday after the Biden administration official called out the Florida senator for saying that legislation protecting same-sex marriage would be a “stupid waste of time.”
Rubio, in a 58-second-long video on Twitter, called Buttigieg a “Harvard-educated Transportation secretary” who, he said, didn’t know the difference between state and federal levels.
The Florida Republican added that, on the federal level, he focuses on “federal problems that matter to real people.”
“I’ll give you a real problem. We have a Transportation secretary named Pete Buttigieg, who believes that highways can be racist. Who believes that $5 gas. which is killing working Americans, is a great thing, because that means people are going to drive less or because everyone’s going to go out and buy a $65,000 electric car with a Chinese battery in it,” he said.
He added that he will focus on “real problems” and not on an agenda that he believes is “dictated by a bunch of affluent elite liberals” and a “bunch of Marxist misfits, who sadly today control the agenda of the modern Democratic Party.”
Rubio posted the video hours after Buttigieg told CNN “State of the Union” host Jake Tapper that he didn’t know why Rubio wouldn’t have time to help safeguard same-sex marriages if he has the time to fight against Disney.
Buttigieg was responding to remarks Rubio made after the House advanced the Respect for Marriage Act, which would codify marriage rights for same-sex and interracial couples.
Democrats introduced the bill after concerns about Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, in which he also called on the court to revisit other rights including marriage equality. | https://cbs4indy.com/news/national-world/rubio-fires-back-at-buttigieg-over-same-sex-marriage-legislation/ | 2022-07-25T15:02:49Z | https://cbs4indy.com/news/national-world/rubio-fires-back-at-buttigieg-over-same-sex-marriage-legislation/ | true |
TORONTO, July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Tropical Forest Products announces that its premium Black Label™ brand of Ipe and other tropical hardwoods has partnered with Dakota Premium Hardwoods, a trusted distributor of high-quality lumber, engineered products and full job packages such as supports and fasteners. With branch locations in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma, Dakota is headquartered in Waco, TX. Dakota Premium Hardwoods will distribute the full line of Black Label's sustainable tropical hardwoods throughout their warehouse locations.
"The Black Label team is excited to continue the expansion of our distribution network in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma with Dakota Premium Hardwoods," said Brian Lotz, Technical Director for Tropical Forest Products. "Dakota's impressive green initiatives, unsurpassed customer service, hardwood expertise and supply chain mastery are essential to the Black Label brand as we grow our distribution footprint."
Black Label is dedicated to offering 100% legally harvested sustainable tropical hardwoods from South America. Every tree chosen to produce Black Label products is carefully selected based on the forest's age, size and productive wellbeing. Black Label features Ipe, Cumaru, Jatoba, Garapa, BulletWood and Tigerwood, with commercial and residential applications ranging from decking, cladding and ceilings to architectural millwork.
"The Dakota partnership with the Black Label brand perfectly aligns with our commitment to offering beauty, sustainability and value across our growing platform," said Ron Mazzarella, CEO of Dakota Premium Hardwoods.
Raising the bar for premium, sustainable tropical hardwoods, Black Label's kiln-dried process enhances every product for strength and stability. Every board and hardware accessory must be Premium Architectural Grade or above to earn the name Black Label.
Black Label provides a complete marketing and promotional support program along with a very strong online presence, with the dealer, contractor, architect, designer and homeowner in mind. Learn more about Black Label, and Tropical Forest Products or call 905-672-8000. And, visit Dakota Premium Hardwoods
Dakota Premium Hardwoods is here to serve you with branches located in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. We have trucks leaving daily to Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, Bryan/College Station, Houston and the Rio Grande Valley as well as Lafayette, Louisiana and Tulsa/Oklahoma City, Oklahoma metro areas. With our staff 's unsurpassed customer service and over a century of combined experience in the hardwood and lumber industry, there is simply no better supplier to purchase your woodworking, cabinetry, manufacturing and millwork materials from.
Tropical Forest Products, a leading hardwood distributor that operates throughout the United States and Canada, was founded with the belief that acquiring lumber of superior quality should be easy and ethical. Its team is made up of passionate people who love everything about forests and their survival. Tropical strives to meet every client's need with quality lumber and deliver products on time, maintain commitment to client service, and maintain the best prices in the market.
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SOURCE Tropical Forest Products | https://www.kwch.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/dakota-premium-hardwoods-distribute-tropical-forest-products-black-label-brand-sustainable-tropical-hardwoods-throughout-texas-louisiana-oklahoma/ | 2022-07-25T15:03:40Z | https://www.kwch.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/dakota-premium-hardwoods-distribute-tropical-forest-products-black-label-brand-sustainable-tropical-hardwoods-throughout-texas-louisiana-oklahoma/ | true |
Second phase of expansion brings the complete 360° digital experience to more brokers and their clients.
DALLAS, July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- As part of its commitment to providing the fastest, easiest, and most trusted benefits selling experience for brokers, BenefitMall, the leading provider of next-generation broker services, is expanding its Marketplace offering to all brokers in its Northeast region and its Power of YOU loyalty program to brokers in all markets.
The expansion builds upon a service rollout that began in mid-2021 with pilot programs and added a wave of new markets in April 2022. Just 18 months out from the initial pilot programs, BenefitMall is on pace with expansion goals for 2022-2023. By rolling out to new markets ahead of the fourth quarter, BenefitMall is making it possible for brokers and their employer group clients to prepare for the busy annual enrollment season with a completely digital experience from benefit quotes to enrollment to year-round benefit administration.
"Our broker partners know it takes time to build strong relationships and that growing a business means staying connected to customers, while also reaching out to new prospects," said Bob Love, president, Benefits Division for BenefitMall. "That's why we've created the industry's premier suite of broker services with a digital experience that helps brokers support customers while still making time to close new prospects. It's less of everything that holds brokers back, with more of everything that makes them great."
Marketplace, powered by Ease, levels the playing field for brokers by giving them access to secure technology that would otherwise be too expensive and time-consuming for them to deploy on their own. A completely digital solution, Marketplace provides a paperless, secure, and seamless experience across every point of client engagement, from new quotes to annual renewals. By providing full-service support that includes pre-sale quoting, point-of-sale enrollment, and post-sale census management support, Marketplace can deliver faster, best-in-class processing and turnaround times due to digital automation and complete enrollment data. With this rollout, Marketplace is now serving brokers across the Northeast, including Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. BenefitMall's broker network already accesses Marketplace in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, and Texas.
BenefitMall's Power of YOU loyalty program is designed to support brokers as they grow their business, with service experience that evolves over time to a concierge approach, with a dedicated team providing white-glove support with faster turnaround times for brokers and access to various product discounts. With three levels of recognition, the loyalty program adds value without taking away traditional, existing service. With this expansion, Power of YOU is now available to brokers in all markets served by BenefitMall.
"At BenefitMall, our goal is to empower brokers with a true General Agency experience that ensures their success," said Love. "Through Marketplace and Power of YOU, BenefitMall is delivering on our promise to provide brokers with innovative technology backed by human expertise, for the fastest, easiest, most secure benefits selling experience."
For more information, please visit www.benefitmall.com.
Headquartered in Dallas, BenefitMall is the largest general agency partnering with a network of 20,000 Brokers to deliver employee benefits to more than 140,000 small and medium-sized businesses. BenefitMall uniquely leverages innovative technology backed by human expertise to provide the fastest, easiest, and most secure benefits selling experience for carriers, brokers, and their clients.
BenefitMall is owned by Management and The Carlyle Group. More information is available at www.benefitmall.com.
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SOURCE BenefitMall | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/benefitmall-continues-expansion-marketplace-power-you-loyalty-program-enhancing-broker-experience-across-all-markets/ | 2022-07-25T15:03:47Z | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/benefitmall-continues-expansion-marketplace-power-you-loyalty-program-enhancing-broker-experience-across-all-markets/ | true |
Grants will help organizations provide housing for local communities
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Housing Affordability Trust (HAT) today, on June 25, 2022, announced the 22 recipients of its 2022 grants. The HAT Board of Trustees was inspired by the submissions from organizations working to improve housing and quality of life in Birmingham. This year's grants total $3.9 million.
The 2022 recipients are:
Amid skyrocketing inflation and rising interest rates, the U.S. economy has impacted countless individuals throughout the state of Alabama and the organizations supporting at-risk communities in and around Birmingham. With housing being one of the most significant expenses for Americans, HAT has distributed annual grants since 2017 to more than 60 local organizations, totaling nearly $23 million for housing-related projects and groups.
One example, AIDS Alabama, continuously supports programs like The Way Station – Birmingham's first shelter for homeless youth. The HAT grants not only keep programs such as this operational but will ultimately assist in building new housing for at-risk homeless people between 18 and 24.
ABOUT THE HOUSING AFFORDABILITY TRUST (HAT): Based in Birmingham, Alabama, the Housing Affordability Trust was established by the Jefferson County Housing Authority and Navigate Affordable Housing Partners. Board members are Chairman Sam Parker, Vice-Chairman Hugo Isom, Michael Davis, and Perry Shuttlesworth. For more information, visit housingaffordabilitytrust.com.
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SOURCE Housing Affordability Trust | https://www.kwch.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/housing-affordability-trust-awards-nearly-4-million-alabama-housing-organizations/ | 2022-07-25T15:04:17Z | https://www.kwch.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/housing-affordability-trust-awards-nearly-4-million-alabama-housing-organizations/ | true |
Industry veteran tapped to lead bank-wide strategic inclusion and diversity initiatives
CHARLOTTE, N.C., July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Truist Financial Corporation (NYSE: TFC) today announced that Dominica Groom Williams will join the company as head of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), effective today.
Groom Williams will be responsible for leading bank-wide strategic inclusion and diversity initiatives, reporting to Chief Teammate Officer and Head of Enterprise Diversity Kimberly Moore-Wright.
"Embracing diversity, equity and inclusion is fundamental to what we stand for at Truist and one of the ways we bring our purpose to life," said Moore-Wright. "I'm excited to have Dominica join our team and build upon the strong progress we've made while continuing to pursue meaningful change for our teammates, clients and communities."
Groom Williams has over 15 years of experience driving innovation and leading global DE&I, change management, communications, and marketing platforms. She most recently served as the chief culture, inclusion and diversity officer at Guidehouse, a leading consultancy and solutions provider to the public and commercial sectors.
Prior to that, she served as the vice president, office of inclusive engagement at Freddie Mac, where she led the company's DE&I and community engagement platforms. Groom Williams previously was the senior director, global supplier diversity and sustainability at Marriott International, where she oversaw the company's award-winning diverse supplier and key environmental platforms.
Groom Williams has been recognized as a "Top Influential Leader in Diversity" by the National Association for Minority Companies, a "Rising Star" by HousingWire Magazine and a "Women Worth Watching" by the Profiles in Diversity Journal.
Groom Williams succeeds Wendy McSweeney, who has transitioned to Truist's new Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) & Impact Advisory Team in the Commercial Community Bank. McSweeney focuses on developing a holistic ESG strategy, including DEI, to deliver the full capabilities of Truist to diverse business owners for privately held companies. As part of the Commercial ESG & Impact Advisory Team, McSweeney helps provide clients with relevant content and capital structure insights to grow their business.
About Truist
Truist Financial Corporation is a purpose-driven financial services company committed to inspiring and building better lives and communities. Truist has leading market share in many high-growth markets in the country. The company offers a wide range of services including retail, small business and commercial banking; asset management; capital markets; commercial real estate; corporate and institutional banking; insurance; mortgage; payments; specialized lending; and wealth management. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Truist is a top 10 U.S. commercial bank with total assets of $545 billion as of June 30, 2022. Truist Bank, Member FDIC. Learn more at Truist.com.
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SOURCE Truist Financial Corporation | https://www.cleveland19.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/truist-names-dominica-groom-williams-head-dei/ | 2022-07-25T15:04:27Z | https://www.cleveland19.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/truist-names-dominica-groom-williams-head-dei/ | true |
GREENWICH, Conn., July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The non-profit Freedom to Operate (FTO) announced today that it has filed requests for reconsideration [PRG2022-00012 and PRG2022-00018] with the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) in regard to its denials of FTO's petitions for Post Grant Review of Compass Pathways' Patents No. 10,947,257 and 10,954,259 directed to compositions and oral dosage forms containing its "Polymorph A" of psilocybin.
"We believe the PTAB has committed major errors in its decisions not to institute our petitions for Post Grant Review of Compass's patents on its 'Polymorph A' of psilocybin," said Carey Turnbull, founder and director of Freedom to Operate. "We maintain our belief that the specifics of PTAB's decisions have rendered the Compass patents of little practical value as a tool to stifle competition. At the same time, an important policy function is advanced when bad patents are challenged and invalidated. On this basis, we are asking the PTAB to reconsider its decisions as is provided for under U.S. patent law."
In its requests for reconsideration of the decisions not to institute Post Grant Review of the Compass patents, FTO has identified two errors central to the PTAB's rulings. First, the PTAB has incorrectly construed the Compass patents claims as permitting a mixture of crystalline polymorphic forms of psilocybin having x-ray powder diffraction peaks as identified in the patent claim. In doing so, the PTAB has ignored the inventor's clear intention and acted contrary to how patents claiming polymorphs are interpreted by courts, which require that a form of a crystalline material be a single polymorphic phase of that material. Second, the PTAB has exceeded its statutory mandate by erroneously discounting the unrebutted testimony of FTO's experts, the veracity of which should be subject to consideration at trial rather than the institution phase of the proceedings. Given the criticality of these two issues to the PTAB's rulings, FTO is submitting that a review and reversal of the decisions not to institute the post grant reviews is required by U.S. patent law.
Irrespective of the outcome of these requests for reconsideration, FTO remains confident that the work undertaken to date in challenging the Compass patents will ensure that manufacturers and sellers of psilocybin will be able to bring treatments to market without risk of infringement.
About Freedom to Operate
Founded by Carey Turnbull in 2020, Freedom to Operate is a registered Section 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to advancing science and education, specifically research, in the public interest and for the public benefit.
"Freedom to operate" is a term of art in the field of intellectual property law, and refers to the ability to develop, manufacture, and market products without legal liabilities to third parties who claim intellectual property rights in those products. There is an important public policy interest in invalidating bad patents and promoting free competition that does not infringe on validly granted patents and other intellectual property rights. Issued patents are presumed valid and so operate to discourage investment by others into the same or similar subject matter. The public is benefited when potentially incorrectly issued patents are challenged or obviated.
For more information, please visit www.freedomtooperate.org.
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SOURCE Freedom to Operate | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/fto-files-requests-reconsideration-us-patent-trial-appeal-boards-decisions-concerning-petitions-post-grant-review-compass-patents/ | 2022-07-25T15:05:18Z | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/fto-files-requests-reconsideration-us-patent-trial-appeal-boards-decisions-concerning-petitions-post-grant-review-compass-patents/ | true |
Unexpected catch marks first time sleeper shark found in Western Caribbean
MIAMI, July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A half-blind shark that is typically thought to live in freezing Arctic waters, scavenge on polar bear carcasses and survive for hundreds of years, recently turned up in an unexpected place — a coral reef off Belize. This marks the first time a shark of its kind has been found in western Caribbean waters off the world's second longest barrier reef.
Devanshi Kasana, a Ph.D. candidate in FlU's Predator Ecology & Conservation lab, was working with local Belizean fishermen to tag tiger sharks when the discovery was made.
"At first, I was sure it was something else, like a six gill shark that are well known from deep waters off coral reefs," Kasana said. "I knew it was something unusual and so did the fishers, who hadn't ever seen anything quite like it in all their combined years of fishing."
Kasana texted Demian Chapman — her Ph.D. advisor and Director of Sharks & Rays Conservation Research at Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium — to share the news. She also sent along a photo. Chapman's response caught her off guard. He said it looked a lot like a Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus).
After conferring with several Greenland shark experts, the final determination was that it was definitely in the sleeper shark family — and because of its large size, it was most likely a Greenland shark or a hybrid between the Greenland shark and Pacific sleeper shark (Somniosus pacificus). The findings were recently published in the journal Marine Biology.
Greenland sharks remain somewhat of an enigma to science. What is known about them is they tend to prefer the frigid waters of the Arctic and North Atlantic oceans. They have been estimated to live upward of 400 years — earning them the special designation of longest-living vertebrate known to science.
While Kasana and the team weren't expecting to ever see a Greenland shark, finding one shows how partnerships can oftentimes pave the way for unexpected and intriguing new discoveries.
"Great discoveries and conservation can happen when fishermen, scientists and the government work together," said Beverly Wade, Director of the Blue Bond and Finance Permanence Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister of Belize. "We can really enhance what we can do individually, while also doing some great conservation work and making fantastic discoveries, like this one."
To read the full release click here: https://news.fiu.edu/2022/greenland-shark
Angela Nicoletti
305-348-4493
anicolet@fiu.edu
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SOURCE Florida International University | https://www.cleveland19.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/whats-shark-ordinarily-associated-with-arctic-doing-around-caribbean-coral-reef/ | 2022-07-25T15:05:18Z | https://www.cleveland19.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/whats-shark-ordinarily-associated-with-arctic-doing-around-caribbean-coral-reef/ | false |
CLEVELAND, July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- CLEANLIFE®, a leading provider of highly customized LED lighting solutions and smart home technology, is moving its operations just south of Cleveland, Ohio to its new headquarters located in nearby Valley View, Ohio.
Located at the intersection of several highways and minutes from Cleveland's Hopkins International Airport, scenic Valley View offers several advantages for visiting customers and suppliers to get to the new location. Moreover, the highway access will improve logistics of shipping and receiving products from around the world. The new space will also include a state-of-the-art showroom and engineering facilities. There will even be a model home display to show off the company's smart lighting and new 24-volt lighting system for residential applications.
Founded by CEO Justin Miller in 2011, CLEANLIFE® has grown from its humble beginnings of selling eco-friendly LED lights for vending machines into a global joint-venture enterprise. The company provides engineering expertise, product design services and LED technology into a multitude of industries around the world for clients such as Amazon, Lowes, Home Depot, Exxon Mobil Corporation, Hilton, IHG, Marriott International, PepsiCo, The Coca-Cola Company, Walmart Inc., Wendy's, Wynn Resorts and other Fortune 500 businesses.
In discussing the move to the new headquarters, Miller noted that "We want to make a commitment to Northeast Ohio because of the people and resources in this area particularly around the lighting industry. We will use the new facility to focus on R & D, increase production capabilities and add to our testing capabilities so they not only meet but exceed international industry standards."
"In addition, the new headquarters will allow our employees the space to collaborate on product development as we are just at the beginning of the business cycle for LED and smart lighting. We searched for more than a year to find the right building to accommodate our continued growth. We are confident that this facility offers the ideal location to provide the best services and products to our customers for many years to come."
CLEANLIFE® was founded in 2011 with headquarters in Valley View, Ohio with a network of manufacturing facilities in the USA, Taiwan, China and Vietnam. While CLEANLIFE® has supplied LED lighting products that improve energy efficiency and the environment, the future of LED lighting is Finding a Better Way™ to connect people with their homes and create productive, comfortable living environments. Smart products developed by CLEANLIFE® will make this connection for consumers by allowing them to control lighting and other aspects of their home with their smart device for a truly personal experience.
For more information, please visit www.cleanlife.com or email info@cleanlife.com
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SOURCE CLEANLIFE LLC | https://www.wflx.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/cleanlife-announces-move-new-headquarters/ | 2022-07-25T15:05:39Z | https://www.wflx.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/cleanlife-announces-move-new-headquarters/ | false |
ORLANDO, Fla., July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NCTC, the National Content & Technology Cooperative, and Power & Tel today announced that NCTC members will receive access to stocking programs and expanded aggregate buying power on a wide selection of quality network products, which are now available at premium prices when purchased through the NCTC Marketplace.
Not only does the upgraded Power & Tel agreement provide buying options for 3,700 SKUs that are specially called out in the new NCTC contract, but they have expanded the relationship to ensure members also get better pricing on all 20,000 SKUs from 800 manufacturers for which Power & Tel serves as a wholesale distributor.
"It comes down to this – if a member taps into the group purchasing power in our contract with NCTC, then they can be confident they will receive a great deal on quality network products. We value the deep relationships we have built with many NCTC members and look forward to solidifying and expanding our relationships," said Kevin Wilkes, VP, Sales, Power & Tel.
Power & Tel is now the primary NCTC supplier for Times Fiber/Amphenol, National Strand, Clearfield, Preformed Line Products, and Maclean Senior Industries. For five decades, they have provided communications innovators of all sizes deep industry relationships with manufacturers offering unparalleled savings.
As an expert in supply chain management, Power & Tel stocks in-demand and highly requested products, which offer members efficiency for managing material and transactions, increasing asset visibility and maximizing resources and facility capacity. Their extensive system of warehouses across the United States provides an effective way to get easy, cost-effective access to products and services that are crucial to NCTC members.
"Power & Tel is a terrific partner that our members can count on to solve supply chain challenges with quality products and an unsurpassed level of service and expertise. They go the extra mile to match the right product and the precise solution to each member's specific needs. NCTC members can be confident that Power & Tel is committed to bringing a wide array of products at cost-effective prices," said Rob Smith VP, Group Purchasing, NCTC.
About NCTC
The National Content & Technology Cooperative (NCTC) was founded as a not-for-profit with one mission: to help members competitively acquire the video programming and vital technologies needed to offer world class services that define their communities' infrastructure with vision, value and purpose. NCTC makes purchasing and implementation easy and affordable for its 700+ independent communications service providers who connect one third of all households and businesses throughout North America and U.S. territories. Going beyond significant cost savings, the organization helps members unlock new revenue through emerging technologies, best practices and new ideas ensuring the profitability, competitive stature and long-term sustainability of its member companies. For nearly 40 years, NCTC has been actively engaged in helping network providers and suppliers evolve their business models to deploy new video/data solutions to match the changes in the media landscape. For more information, visit: www.nctconline.org
About Power & Tel
Founded in 1963, Power & Tel is an industry leader in the material management and distribution of product solutions to the worldwide communications marketplace. Power & Tel's extensive distribution system provides service providers and contractors an effective way to get the wide range of products needed to build and maintain communication networks. As a Certified Woman Business Enterprise and value-add partner, the company also offers efficient solutions for the management of material and transactions, asset visibility, and maximizing resource and facility capacity. To learn more, visit www.ptsupply.com
Contacts:
Pam Gillies
NCTC
pgillies@nctconline.org
(720) 594-8085
Robert Brownlie
Bob Gold & Associates
robert@bobgoldpr.com
(310) 320-2010
Melissa Seibring
Power & Tel
melissa.seibring@ptsupply.com
(901) 866-3250
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SOURCE NCTC | https://www.kwch.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/power-amp-tel-offers-nctc-members-buying-power-3700-product-skus/ | 2022-07-25T15:06:37Z | https://www.kwch.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/power-amp-tel-offers-nctc-members-buying-power-3700-product-skus/ | false |
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A dispute at a Los Angeles park at or near an apparently unpermitted car show led to a barrage of gunshots that left two people dead and five wounded, authorities said.
The LA Police Department said the shooting occurred around 3:50 p.m. Sunday at Peck Park in LA’s San Pedro neighborhood. At the time, an estimated 500 people were in the park and many ran for cover when the shooting began.
“All of a sudden we heard three shots — pow, pow, pow,” witness Dwayne Ellis told KABC. “Then we heard about 50 or 100 more — pow, pow, boom, boom. All kinds of shots. People were running.”
LAPD Capt. Kelly Muniz said during a news conference that a dispute of some kind preceded the gunfire. Police don't know what started the disagreement or how many people fired. No arrests had been made.
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Paramedics from the LA Fire Department responded. Spokesman Erik Scott said four men and three women were taken to hospitals and two of them died. He said the seven victims ranged in age from 23 to 54. No names were released.
Peck Park is about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of downtown Los Angeles. Councilman Joe Buscaino represents the area and said the shooting occurred during an unpermitted car show hosted by gang members.
“Know that this park and many parks across the city have been having issues with these car shows,” Buscaino told Southern California News Group.
Buscaino has since 2020 been pushing a measure to allow Los Angeles park rangers to carry firearms.
“Recreation staff on scene can identify potential issues and coordinate with park rangers,” Buscaino said. “We’ve lost a sense of common sense in the City of Los Angeles.”
Skipp Townsend, a gang interventionist who visits the park regularly, was at the scene with other onlookers Sunday.
“It’s sad and heartbreaking that people still won’t talk,” Townsend told the Los Angeles Times. “You know, instead they pick up guns. So that’s heartbreaking, that we can have peaceful events in this area for, you know, two, three years straight with no incidents, and then one incident like this happens.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wcfcourier.com/news/national/barrage-of-gunfire-at-la-park-leaves-2-dead-5-wounded/article_3426346d-0547-5cb1-9b99-6dce4145db6b.html | 2022-07-25T15:10:16Z | https://wcfcourier.com/news/national/barrage-of-gunfire-at-la-park-leaves-2-dead-5-wounded/article_3426346d-0547-5cb1-9b99-6dce4145db6b.html | false |
Unexpected catch marks first time sleeper shark found in Western Caribbean
MIAMI, July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A half-blind shark that is typically thought to live in freezing Arctic waters, scavenge on polar bear carcasses and survive for hundreds of years, recently turned up in an unexpected place — a coral reef off Belize. This marks the first time a shark of its kind has been found in western Caribbean waters off the world's second longest barrier reef.
Devanshi Kasana, a Ph.D. candidate in FlU's Predator Ecology & Conservation lab, was working with local Belizean fishermen to tag tiger sharks when the discovery was made.
"At first, I was sure it was something else, like a six gill shark that are well known from deep waters off coral reefs," Kasana said. "I knew it was something unusual and so did the fishers, who hadn't ever seen anything quite like it in all their combined years of fishing."
Kasana texted Demian Chapman — her Ph.D. advisor and Director of Sharks & Rays Conservation Research at Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium — to share the news. She also sent along a photo. Chapman's response caught her off guard. He said it looked a lot like a Greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus).
After conferring with several Greenland shark experts, the final determination was that it was definitely in the sleeper shark family — and because of its large size, it was most likely a Greenland shark or a hybrid between the Greenland shark and Pacific sleeper shark (Somniosus pacificus). The findings were recently published in the journal Marine Biology.
Greenland sharks remain somewhat of an enigma to science. What is known about them is they tend to prefer the frigid waters of the Arctic and North Atlantic oceans. They have been estimated to live upward of 400 years — earning them the special designation of longest-living vertebrate known to science.
While Kasana and the team weren't expecting to ever see a Greenland shark, finding one shows how partnerships can oftentimes pave the way for unexpected and intriguing new discoveries.
"Great discoveries and conservation can happen when fishermen, scientists and the government work together," said Beverly Wade, Director of the Blue Bond and Finance Permanence Unit in the Office of the Prime Minister of Belize. "We can really enhance what we can do individually, while also doing some great conservation work and making fantastic discoveries, like this one."
To read the full release click here: https://news.fiu.edu/2022/greenland-shark
Angela Nicoletti
305-348-4493
anicolet@fiu.edu
View original content:
SOURCE Florida International University | https://www.kwch.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/whats-shark-ordinarily-associated-with-arctic-doing-around-caribbean-coral-reef/ | 2022-07-25T15:10:21Z | https://www.kwch.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/whats-shark-ordinarily-associated-with-arctic-doing-around-caribbean-coral-reef/ | false |
Microsoft Azure customers worldwide now gain access to X·CELERATE IoT to take advantage of the scalability, reliability, and agility of Azure to drive application development and shape business strategies.
SUNNYVALE, Calif., July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Xoriant today announced the availability of its X·CELERATE IoT solution in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, an online store providing applications and services for use on Microsoft Azure. Xoriant customers can now take advantage of the scalability, high availability, and security of Azure, with streamlined deployment and management.
Xoriant is a global product engineering, software development, and technology services company headquartered in Silicon Valley. Xoriant customers can rapidly provision the end-to-end X·CELERATE IoT solution and customize it for many industries including manufacturing, transportation/cold chain, and retail to drive operational efficiency, create new insights, lower downtime, and increase business productivity.
X·CELERATE IoT is a low-code solution that integrates data from IoT devices and enterprise data sources enabling sophisticated analytics to provide actionable insights. The solution uses machine learning to detect problems and provide improved visibility into processes. Workflow tools and a role-based interface enable automatically notifying the correct stakeholders when problems are discovered. Individuals throughout the organization are provided with the right data to inform business decisions. The solution leverages Microsoft Azure services including Azure IoT Hub, Azure IoT Edge, Azure Machine Learning, Azure Cognitive Services, Azure Cosmos DB, and Power BI.
Xoriant, a Microsoft gold co-sell partner, is accelerating the deployment, development, and optimization of Microsoft technologies to deliver innovative business-critical technology solutions. With over two decades of partnership with Microsoft, Xoriant has been helping clients across industries with the proven combinations of Azure, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365 services and related Microsoft products.
As a trusted Microsoft Partner, Xoriant's customizable solutions, proofs of concept, and consulting offers are published on Azure Marketplace.
"X·CELERATE IoT being listed on the Microsoft Azure Marketplace as a co-sell solution is a testament to long term partnership with Microsoft and bring the value-add benefits to end customers. Microsoft Azure marketplace allows Xoriant to reach new customers and markets faster by starting with proof of concepts to take solutions into pilots and production, to showcase quantifiable benefits using Microsoft Azure Services and Microsoft partnership," said Rajashree Varma, VP of Alliances, Xoriant.
"Through Microsoft Azure Marketplace, customers around the world can easily find, buy, and deploy partner solutions they can trust, all certified and optimized to run on Azure," said Jake Zborowski, General Manager, Microsoft Azure Platform at Microsoft Corp. "We're happy to welcome Xoriant solution to the growing Azure Marketplace ecosystem."
The Azure Marketplace is an online market for buying and selling cloud solutions certified to run on Azure. The Azure Marketplace helps connect companies seeking innovative, cloud-based solutions with partners who have developed solutions that are ready to use.
Learn more about Xoriant X·CELERATE IoT on its page in the Azure Marketplace. Contact Xoriant directly for information about custom private plans available through the Azure Marketplace.
About Xoriant
Xoriant is a Silicon Valley headquartered product engineering, software development, and technology services firm with offices in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. For both technology companies and enterprises, from startups to the Fortune 100, we leverage our expertise in emerging technologies and our high-performing teams to deliver innovative solutions that accelerate time to market and keep our clients competitive.
Across all our technology focus areas – product engineering, DevOps, cloud, infrastructure and security, big data and analytics, data management and governance, digital, and IoT – every solution we develop benefits from our product engineering pedigree. For 30 years and counting, we have taken great pride in the long-lasting, deep relationships we have with our clients. Learn more at https://www.xoriant.com
For more information, press only:
Ritu Rungta
ritu.rungta@xoriant.com
Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/449859/PRNE_Xoriant_Logo.jpg
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SOURCE Xoriant | https://www.kwch.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/xoriant-xcelerate-iot-now-available-microsoft-azure-marketplace/ | 2022-07-25T15:10:45Z | https://www.kwch.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/xoriant-xcelerate-iot-now-available-microsoft-azure-marketplace/ | false |
Feds suing poultry producers over unfair worker practices
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is expected to file a lawsuit against some of the largest poultry producers in the U.S. along with a proposed settlement seeking to end what it claims have been longstanding deceptive and abusive practices for workers.
The suit is being filed in federal court in Maryland naming Cargill, Sanderson Farms and Wayne Farms, along with a data consulting company known as Weber, Meng, Sahl and Co., according to three people familiar with the matter. The people could not publicly discuss the specific details of the suit before the filing was made public and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.
In its lawsuit, the Justice Department alleges the companies have been engaged in a multiyear conspiracy to exchange information about the wages and benefits of workers at poultry processing plants to drive down employee competition in the marketplace, the people said. The companies did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
The government contends the data consulting firm helped to share the information about the workers’ compensation with the companies and their executives, the people said. By carrying out the scheme, officials allege, the companies were able to compete less intensely for workers and reduce the amount of money and benefits they had to offer their employees, suppressing competition for poultry processing workers across the board, the people said.
The defendants and unnamed co-conspirators in the lawsuit account for hiring about 90% of all chicken processing jobs in the nation, one of the people said.
The suit is the latest example of the Justice Department’s antitrust enforcement targeting companies the government believes engage in anticompetitive behavior to stifle workers or harm consumers. It also comes as the department continues a broader investigation into labor abuses in the poultry industry.
The suit is being filed with a proposed consent decree — a settlement that would require the companies to pay $84.8 million in restitution for workers who were harmed by the unlawful information sharing network, the people said.
The settlement would also put in place a federal monitor selected by the Justice Department who would ensure compliance for the next decade. The consent decree also would permit Justice Department lawyers and investigators to inspect the poultry processors’ facilities and interview their employees to ensure they are complying with the terms, the people said.
The suit comes as Cargill and Continental Grain — of which Wayne Farms is a subsidiary — formed a joint venture to acquire Sanderson Farms, paying $203 per share in cash for a company that last year processed more than 4.8 billion pounds of meat.
The companies plan to combine Sanderson Farms with Wayne Farms to form a new, privately held poultry business. Operations will include poultry processing plants and prepared foods plants across Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Texas.
Wayne Farms has more than 9,000 employees. It makes products under brand names including Wayne Farms fresh and prepared chicken, Platinum Harvest premium fresh chicken, Chef’s Craft gourmet chicken, Naked Truth premium chicken and Ladybirdy premium chicken.
Laurel, Mississippi-based Sanderson Farms has 17,000 employees and 12 plants. It processes 13.6 million chickens per week.
The proposed consent decree would also resolve allegations that Sanderson Farms and Wayne Farms treated chicken farmers unfairly by using a system that reduced their pay for low performance.
The farmers sign contracts to raise the chickens and the processing companies provide the birds and the feed. Their pay is then determined by how well the farmers perform compared to other chicken growers. The Justice Department alleges that the companies’ use of that compensation method, known as the “tournament system,” resulted in their failure to provide information for farmers to evaluate and manage their financial risk.
Generally, chicken producers enter long-term contracts with meat companies that farmers say lock them into deals that fix their compensation at unprofitably low levels.
As part of that settlement, Sanderson Farms and Wayne Farms would be prohibited from reducing the base payments to chicken growers as a way to penalize them for under-performance, the people said. The consent decree would, though, allow the companies to offer incentives and bonuses to growers, according to the people.
The proposed consent decree is being filed as part of the suit on Monday. Under federal law, the proposal would also be published in the Federal Register and there would be a 60-day period for people to send comments to the Justice Department before a court could accept and finalize the agreement.
___
This story has been corrected to show the settlement calls for restitution of $84.8 million, not $84.4 million.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.valleynewslive.com/2022/07/25/feds-suing-poultry-producers-over-unfair-worker-practices/ | 2022-07-25T15:10:50Z | https://www.valleynewslive.com/2022/07/25/feds-suing-poultry-producers-over-unfair-worker-practices/ | true |
Rents spike as big-pocketed investors buy mobile home parks
LOCKPORT, N.Y. (AP) — For as long as anyone can remember, rent increases rarely happened at Ridgeview Homes, a family-owned mobile home park in upstate New York.
That changed in 2018 when corporate owners took over the 65-year-old park located amid farmland and down the road from a fast-food joint and grocery store about 30 miles northeast of Buffalo.
Residents, about half of whom are seniors or disabled people on fixed incomes, put up with the first two increases. They hoped the latest owner, Cook Properties, would address the bourbon-colored drinking water, sewage bubbling into their bathtubs and the pothole-filled roads.
When that didn’t happen and a new lease with a 6% increase was imposed this year, they formed an association. About half the residents launched a rent strike in May, prompting Cook Properties to send out about 30 eviction notices.
“All they care about is raising the rent because they only care about the money,” said Jeremy Ward, 49, who gets by on just over $1,000 a month in disability payments after his legs suffered nerve damage in a car accident.
He was recently fined $10 for using a leaf blower. “I’m disabled,” he said. “You guys aren’t doing your job, and I get a violation?”
The plight of residents at Ridgeview is playing out nationwide as institutional investors, led by private equity firms and real estate investment trusts and sometimes funded by pension funds, swoop in to buy mobile home parks. Critics contend mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are fueling the problem by backing a growing number of investor loans.
The purchases are putting residents in a bind, since most mobile homes — despite the name — cannot be moved easily or cheaply. Owners are forced to either accept unaffordable rent increases, spend thousands of dollars to move their home, or abandon it and lose tens of thousands of dollars they invested.
“These industries, including mobile home park manufacturing industry, keep touting these parks, these mobile homes, as affordable housing. But it’s not affordable,” said Benjamin Bellus, an assistant attorney general in Iowa, who said complaints have gone up “100-fold” since out-of-state investors started buying up parks a few years ago.
“You’re putting people in a snare and a trap, where they have no ability to defend themselves,” he added.
Driven by some of the strongest returns in real estate, investors have shaken up a once-sleepy sector that’s home to more than 22 million mostly low-income Americans in 43,000 communities. Many aggressively promote the parks as ensuring a steady return — by repeatedly raising rent.
There’s also a growing industry, featuring how-to books, webinars and even a mobile home university that offers tips to attract small investors.
“You went from an environment where you had a local owner or manager who took care of things as they needed fixing, to where you had people who were looking at a cost-benefit analysis for how to get the penny squeezed lowest,” Bellus said. “You combine it with an idea that we can just keep raising the rent, and these people can’t leave.”
George McCarthy, president and CEO of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, said about a fifth of mobile home parks, or around 800,000, have been purchased in the past eight years by institutional investors.
He was among those singling out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for guaranteeing the loans as part of a what the lending giants bill as expanding affordable housing. Since 2014, the Lincoln Institute estimates Freddie Mac alone provided $9.6 billion in financing for the purchase of more than 950 communities across 44 states.
A spokesman for Freddie Mac countered that it had purchased loans for less than 3% of the mobile home communities nationwide, and about 60% of those were refinances.
Soon after investors started buying up parks in 2015, the complaints of double-digit rent increases followed.
In Iowa, Matt Chapman, a mobile home resident at a park purchased by Utah-based Havenpark Communities, said his rent and fees had almost doubled since 2019. Iowa Legal Aid’s Alex Kornya said another park purchased by Impact Communities saw rent and fees increase 87% between 2017 and 2020.
“Many of the folks living in the park were on fixed incomes, disability, Social Security, and simply were not going to be able to keep pace,” said Kornya, who met with about 300 angry mobile home owners at a mega-church. “It led almost to a political awakening.”
In Minnesota, park purchases by out-of-state buyers grew from 46% in 2015 to 81% in 2021, with rent increases as much as 30%, according to All Parks Alliance For Change, a state association.
U.S. Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, speaking at a Senate hearing this year, recalled tenants complaining of repeated rent increases at a Havenpark development in Great Falls. One resident, Cindy Newman, told The Associated Press her monthly rent went from $117 to nearly $400 over a year and eight months — equal to the increase over the previous 20 years.
On top of rent increases, residents complained of being inundated with fees for everything from pets to maintenance and fines for clutter and speeding — all tucked into leases that can run upwards of 50 pages.
Josh Weiss, a Havenpark spokesperson, said the company must charge prevailing market rates when it purchases a park at fair market price. That said, the company has moved since 2020 to limit its rent increases to $50-a-month.
“We understand the anxiety that any rent increase has on residents, especially those on fixed incomes,” Weiss said. “While we try to minimize the impact, the financial realities do not change.”
The mobile home industry argues the communities are the most affordable housing option, noting that average rent increases across parks nationwide were just over 4% in 2021. Spending on improvements was around 11%. Significant investments are needed, they said, to make improvements at older parks and avoid them being sold off.
“You have some people coming into the space that give us all a bad name, but those are isolated examples and those practices are not common,” said Lesli Gooch, chief executive officer of the Manufactured Housing Institute, the industry’s trade association.
Both sides said the government could do more to help.
The industry wants Federal Housing Administration financing made available to residents, many of whom rely on high-interest loans to purchase homes that cost on average $81,900. They also want the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to allow housing vouchers to be used for mobile homes.
Advocates for residents, including MHAction, want lawmakers to put a cap on rent or require a reason for an increase or eviction — state legislation that succeeded in Delaware this year but failed in Iowa, Colorado and Montana.
They also want Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to stipulate in loans they back that rents remain affordable. And they support residents purchasing their communities, which started in New Hampshire and has reached almost 300 parks in 20 states.
A Freddie Mac spokesperson said it has created a new loan offering that incentivizes tenant protections and last year made those mandatory for all future mobile home community transactions.
At Ridgeview, it’s unclear how the rent strike will be resolved.
Cook, which claims to be the largest operator of mobile home parks in New York and has a slogan “Exceptional Opportunities. Exceptional Returns,” declined to comment. The company closed a $26 million private-equity fund in 2021 that purchased 12 parks in New York, but it was unclear if one of them was Ridgeview.
Residents, meanwhile, soldier on. Joyce Bayles, an 85-year-old resident has taken to mowing her own lawn because crews show up only monthly. Gerald Korb, a 78-year-old retiree, said he’s still waiting for the company to move an electric pole and transformer he fears could topple onto his home during a storm.
“I bought a place, and now they are forcing all this on us,” said Korb, who stopped paying rent in protest. “They are absentee landlords is what they are.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.valleynewslive.com/2022/07/25/rents-spike-big-pocketed-investors-buy-mobile-home-parks/ | 2022-07-25T15:11:15Z | https://www.valleynewslive.com/2022/07/25/rents-spike-big-pocketed-investors-buy-mobile-home-parks/ | true |
Out of 500-plus companies that raised seed and Series A rounds over the past year, Will Reed named Rocketlane an employer of choice based on mission, culture, growth trajectory, and founding leadership
SAN MATEO, Calif. and CHENNAI, India, July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Rocketlane, a leader and innovator in customer onboarding, announced today that they have been named one of the Top 100 Early-Stage Companies to Work for in 2022 by executive search firm Will Reed.
Rocketlane is a leader and innovator in customer onboarding that helps accelerate value delivery and streamline customer onboarding and implementation journeys. It creates on-demand visibility, elevates the onboarding customer experience, and helps run transparent and consistent implementations.
"We've worked with hundreds of early-stage B2B tech companies who are on-mission to transform the way we live and work," said Paige Robinson, founder and CEO of Will Reed. "We believe the most successful companies are those like Rocketlane, who are committed to building human-first cultures that offer meaningful work and support the full employee experience."
"Every day, we strive to uphold our company values, and we are very proud to be recognized as one of the top 100 Early-Stage Companies to Work for in 2022", said Srikrishnan Ganesan, co-founder and CEO of Rocketlane. "For a company born in the pandemic, we have successfully solved the challenges of a remote work environment and built a leading product in customer onboarding without compromising our ethos. We are committed to a culture that encourages innovation, strives for inclusivity, and values empathy."
Since inception, Rocketlane's in-person team has successfully collaborated to reach a number of milestones, including receiving a $3 million seed round and an $18 million Series A funding round just seven months apart; their emphasis on weaving innovation into their culture has helped them gain recognition as a G2 category leader in client onboarding, as well as a 2022 Gartner Cool Vendor in the Technology GTM category. It has also helped them build and release industry-first capabilities such as native forms and a Slack integration that makes project communication seamless, among others.
Rocketlane has also been investing in creating learning avenues for their domain: This year saw them launch their maiden Propel event, the first and only dedicated conference for customer onboarding and implementation which attracted 1,300 attendees and 3,000-plus registrations. They also launched well before Rocketlane Preflight.cx, a 1,900-plus member Slack community that offers opportunities to network and learn for customer onboarding leaders and practitioners.
Along the way, Rocketlane has developed a highly-connected team through fun and differentiating experiences, including a viral rap video to announce their series A funding, weekly 'Curiosity' lessons where team members share their personal passions with colleagues, participation in the Start-Up Premier League cricket tournament, off-sites, and more.
Rocketlane is a collaborative customer onboarding platform that helps you accelerate value delivery and streamline customer onboarding and implementation journeys. It creates on-demand visibility for leaders, helps you elevate CX for your onboarding, helps you run transparent and consistent implementations, and unifies the collaboration, project tracking, and communication into a single tightly knit experience.
Will Reed is the only executive search firm built exclusively for early-stage founders. Founded in 2015, the firm recruits go-to-market (GTM) and People leaders for Seed thru Series C companies backed by leading venture capital firms like a16z, Accel, Bessemer, Insight Partners, Lightspeed, New Enterprise Associates, Sequoia, etc. Will Reed believes early-stage founders are responsible for shaping our collective future, so they couple search with founder enablement curriculum and coaching to ensure their B2B tech clients can compete against the giants for top talent.
- Website: https://www.willreed.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/9234593/admin/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/willreedhq?lang=en
Media Contact: Courtney Merolle
Phone: 754.715.0747
Email: courtney@bospar.com
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SOURCE Rocketlane Corp | https://www.wlbt.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/rocketlane-among-100-early-stage-companies-work-2022/ | 2022-07-25T15:16:35Z | https://www.wlbt.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/rocketlane-among-100-early-stage-companies-work-2022/ | false |
If you’re a homeowner and haven’t faced a big repair bill yet, just wait. Even in the best-maintained homes, stuff will wear out or break.
Budgeting for these inevitable bills isn’t always easy. One commonly cited rule of thumb — to save 1% to 4% of your home’s value each year for maintenance and repairs — can give homeowners sticker shock as real estate prices soar.
Accredited financial counselor Kate Mielitz recently purchased a home in Olympia, Washington, where the median listing price is $540,000, according to Realtor.com. Saving even 1% of that, or $5,400, would be a stretch for many owners, says Mielitz, who advises low- to middle-income clients. Saving 4% would mean putting aside $21,600 a year.
“I want to cry just looking at that number,” Mielitz says.
HOME COSTS DEPEND ON AGE, CONDITION, CLIMATE
Rules of thumb have limited value, though, because how much you spend often depends on the age of your home, materials used and local climate patterns, among other factors, says John Wessling, president of the American Society of Home Inspectors.
For example, a laminated-shingle roof may last 35 to 40 years in St. Louis, where Wessling lives. But it could survive less than 15 years under Florida’s harsh sun, he says. Extreme weather events can wreak havoc on homes as well.
How well you maintain your house also can have a big impact, Wessling says. Many homeowners don’t notice window caulking that dries out and splits, for instance, but the water that seeps in can cause enormous damage.
“What might be a $12 or $15 repair could turn into spending $15,000 or $20,000 to rebuild that wall below the window,” Wessling says.
Homeowners spent an average of $950 on home maintenance — or 0.6% of the home’s value — in 2019, according to the latest American Housing Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. But the amounts varied considerably based on home sizes and age, among other factors. For instance, the percentage of a home’s value spent on maintenance rose from 0.2% for homes built in the 2010s to 0.8% for homes built before 1960.
DECIDING HOW MUCH TO SET ASIDE
People who prefer to hire others should expect to spend more than do-it-yourselfers, says Mischa Fisher, chief economist for home services referral website, Angi. Angi’s survey of 2,934 homeowners who paid for home improvements last year found that they spent an average $3,018 on home maintenance, Fisher says. Those amounts typically ranged between 0.5% and 1% of their home’s value. In addition, homeowners spent an average of $2,321 on emergency repairs.
Fisher recommends homeowners set aside up to 5% of their incomes for home maintenance as well as $10,000 to cover emergency repairs and system replacements.
Another approach is to save based on the remaining lifespan of your home’s various components, including the roof, the heating and cooling systems, the hot water heater and appliances.
You can search online for charts and articles that estimate how long components typically last, Wessling says. Similar searches can give you an idea of replacement costs.
Alternatively, hire a home inspector to conduct a home maintenance inspection, Wessling says. Like the inspections that precede a home purchase, a maintenance inspection can estimate when various home systems likely will need to be replaced. Wessling says he typically charges $400 to $500 for inspections.
Let’s say you have a 5-year-old air conditioning system, which typically have life spans of 15 to 20 years, Wessling says. If a new system would cost $4,000, you might save $400 a year to cover it. You could add a fudge factor to account for future inflation, which is, unfortunately, unpredictable. Wessling suggests adding 20% to the expected cost and an additional $100 a year to your savings.
OTHER WAYS TO PREPARE FOR HOME COSTS
Consider setting up a home equity line of credit that you can tap if repair bills exceed what you’ve saved. These lines of credit tend to be less expensive than many alternatives, such as credit cards. Just be sure you can make the payments: If you don’t, the lender can foreclose on your home.
People who struggle to save also might consider buying a home warranty, which can cover repairs and replacements for a home’s systems and appliances, Mielitz says. Her current warranty costs about $800 a year, while service visits to fix any problem cost $75 each.
Such contracts have their downsides: The customer doesn’t control who does the repair, for example, and what’s covered depends on the policy’s terms. Consumer Reports recommends that people “self-insure” instead by putting the money they’d spend on a home warranty into a savings account earmarked for home repairs and replacements.
But Mielitz, who has purchased home warranties since 2008, says the contracts give her peace of mind at a reasonable cost.
“It’s kind of like car insurance. Hopefully you don’t need it, but you’ve got it if you do,” Mielitz says.
The State of Home Spending is based on Angi analysis of surveys fielded to 6,400 consumers between October 4 and October 7, 2021. Statistics on home maintenance and repair spending were based on responses of 2,934 homeowners and are a nationally representative sample of the home spending population.
This column was provided to The Associated Press by the personal finance website NerdWallet.
Liz Weston is a columnist at NerdWallet, a certified financial planner and author of “Your Credit Score.” Email: lweston@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @lizweston.
RELATED LINK:
NerdWallet: What is a home warranty, and how does it work?
https://bit.ly/nerdwallet-what-is-a-home-warranty
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/ap-online/2022/07/25/liz-weston-how-to-budget-realistically-for-home-repairs | 2022-07-25T15:16:39Z | https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/ap-online/2022/07/25/liz-weston-how-to-budget-realistically-for-home-repairs | true |
NJ heat wave ends with a bang Monday: Severe thunderstorms likely
The Bottom Line
I'm sure I'm not the only one in New Jersey sick of heat and humidity at this point. Monday will be the 8th day in a row with 90+ degree temperatures in New Jersey. But a cold front is approaching that will provide sweet relief — a taste of slightly cooler and much drier air is less than 24 hours away.
However, as usual, the heat wave grand finale will come with a round of turbulent weather. Thunderstorms. Severe weather. Downpours and wind. Monday is absolutely a "weather aware" and "eyes on the sky" kind of day.
Tuesday and Wednesday will turn "cooler," with seasonable highs in the 80s. But we will maintain unsettled weather throughout the workweek, with hit or miss showers, thunderstorms and downpours possible each day.
Monday
Steamy to stormy.
While I doubt temperatures records will be broken (like on Sunday), we still face dangerous heat for one more day. And the humidity is going to surge again, becoming pretty disgusting.
80 in the morning. Highs in the lower 90s. Heat index in the upper 90s to around 100 degrees. Stay cool, stay hydrated, etc.
We'll start the day with mixed sun and clouds and a stiff southwesterly breeze. Along the Jersey Shore, the surf is a bit churned up with 2 to 4 foot waves and a moderate risk of rip currents posted.
Now let's talk about thunderstorms, driven in by an approaching cold front and fueled by the abundant heat (energy) and humidity (moisture) in the air.
It looks like some showers and thunderstorms may creep into the northwest corner of New Jersey around the Monday midday hours. Those raindrops will actually help to 1.) limit high temperatures, and 2) limit the potential for even more potent storms later on.
The "main event" for strong to severe thunderstorms will be from mid-afternoon through early evening. Let's say 3 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Will everyone in the state see a thunderstorm Monday? Probably not. But everyone - including the coast - should stay alert to changing weather conditions and the possibility of severe weather.
My biggest concern with this line of storms is gusty winds, potentially bringing down trees, causing power outages, etc.
Second big concern is downpours causing ponding and flooding issues. Yes, we need the rain. But 2 to 3 inches of rain in a short period of time is just too much.
The tornado threat is not zero, but it is limited.
After showers and storms exit the coast Monday evening, we'll see partial clearing overnight. Our new air mass will be slow to arrive, so it will still be rather warm and sticky. Low temperatures will bottom out around 70 degrees Tuesday morning.
Tuesday
No more 90s! But highs will still reach the lower to mid 80s — summer-ish and warm. I think the big difference will be in the humidity. As dew points potentially descend into the 50s, the air will become much more comfortable and breathable.
However, that cold front is going to stall just south of New Jersey. That boundary will provide a "highway" for additional impulses and storm systems through the rest of the week.
On Tuesday, that means we could see a few spotty showers around, especially in South Jersey. They'll be very much hit or miss — I think there's a real chance most of NJ stays completely dry. Severe weather is not a concern.
Skies will be mostly cloudy to overcast on Tuesday too.
Wednesday
In terms of temperatures, humidity levels, and cloud cover, Wednesday will be very similar to Tuesday. Mostly cloudy and seasonably warm mid 80s.
Models are picking up on two thunderstorms chances on Wednesday too — one in the early morning, and one in the late evening hours. Either one could be a real soaker
Thursday & Friday
You didn't think we were done with 90s for July, did you?
A west-southwest wind will carry in a wealth of warmth and humidity on Thursday. High temperatures will push into the lower 90s. Even the coast will be toasty. And there could be a late-day popup thunderstorm.
Friday looks very similar. Partly sunny, chance of a popup storm, highs near 90.
The Extended Forecast
If all goes well — if everything plays out during the workweek as I have described — the weekend will be fabulous. Temperatures scale back to the 80s again. (Note: I wouldn't rule out another "technical" heat wave with 90-ish degrees on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.) Partly sunny Saturday, mostly cloudy Sunday, dry weather all around. And manageable humidity. What a great way to close out the month of July.
Next cold front and chance of rain would be early next week. Long-range models suggest that bigtime heat could surge again by next weekend.
Dan Zarrow is Chief Meteorologist for Townsquare Media New Jersey. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter for the latest forecast and realtime weather updates. | https://nj1015.com/nj-heat-wave-ends-with-a-bang-monday-severe-thunderstorms-likely/ | 2022-07-25T15:16:44Z | https://nj1015.com/nj-heat-wave-ends-with-a-bang-monday-severe-thunderstorms-likely/ | true |
Grants will help organizations provide housing for local communities
BIRMINGHAM, Ala., July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Housing Affordability Trust (HAT) today, on June 25, 2022, announced the 22 recipients of its 2022 grants. The HAT Board of Trustees was inspired by the submissions from organizations working to improve housing and quality of life in Birmingham. This year's grants total $3.9 million.
The 2022 recipients are:
Amid skyrocketing inflation and rising interest rates, the U.S. economy has impacted countless individuals throughout the state of Alabama and the organizations supporting at-risk communities in and around Birmingham. With housing being one of the most significant expenses for Americans, HAT has distributed annual grants since 2017 to more than 60 local organizations, totaling nearly $23 million for housing-related projects and groups.
One example, AIDS Alabama, continuously supports programs like The Way Station – Birmingham's first shelter for homeless youth. The HAT grants not only keep programs such as this operational but will ultimately assist in building new housing for at-risk homeless people between 18 and 24.
ABOUT THE HOUSING AFFORDABILITY TRUST (HAT): Based in Birmingham, Alabama, the Housing Affordability Trust was established by the Jefferson County Housing Authority and Navigate Affordable Housing Partners. Board members are Chairman Sam Parker, Vice-Chairman Hugo Isom, Michael Davis, and Perry Shuttlesworth. For more information, visit housingaffordabilitytrust.com.
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SOURCE Housing Affordability Trust | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/housing-affordability-trust-awards-nearly-4-million-alabama-housing-organizations/ | 2022-07-25T15:17:20Z | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/housing-affordability-trust-awards-nearly-4-million-alabama-housing-organizations/ | false |
BEIJING (AP) — Taiwan’s capital staged air raid drills Monday and its military mobilized for routine defense exercises, coinciding with concerns over a forceful Chinese response to a possible visit to the island by U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
While there was no direct link between China’s renewed threats and Taiwan’s defensive moves, they underscore the possibility of a renewed crisis in the Taiwan Strait, considered a potential hotspot for conflict that could envelop the entire region.
Air raid sirens were sounded in the capital Taipei and the military was holding its annual multi-day Han Kuang drills, including joint air and sea exercises and the mobilization of tanks and troops.
In Taipei, police directed people to shelters when a siren went off shortly after lunchtime. Streets emptied and shops closed.
“In recent years, Chinese military planes have frequently harassed Taiwan, and the war between Russia and Ukraine broke out in February this year,” Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je told reporters, referencing concerns that a similar conflict could break out in East Asia. “All these things make us understand the importance of being vigilant in times of peace and we need to be prepared if there is war.”
Pelosi has not confirmed when, or even if, she will visit, but President Joe Biden last week told reporters that U.S. military officials believed such a trip was “not a good idea.” Administration officials are believed to be critical of a possible trip, both for the problematic timing and the lack of coordination with the White House.
China’s authoritarian ruling Communist Party considers democratic, self-ruling Taiwan its own territory, to be annexed by force if necessary, and regularly advertises that threat by staging military exercises and flying warplanes into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone or across the center line of the 180-kilometer (100-mile) -wide Taiwan Strait.
Beijing says those actions are aimed at deterring advocates of the island’s formal independence and foreign allies — principally the U.S. — from interfering, more than 70 years after the sides split amid civil war. Surveys routinely show that Taiwan’s 23 million people reject China’s assertions that the island is a Chinese province that has strayed and must be brought under Beijing’s control.
Pelosi, long a sharp critic of Beijing, is second in line to the White House. She is viewed as a Biden proxy by China, which demands members of Congress follow the commitments made by previous administrations.
Taiwan is among the few issues that enjoys broad bipartisan support among lawmakers and within the administration, with Biden stating earlier this year that the U.S. would defend Taiwan if it came under attack.
U.S. law requires Washington provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself and treat all threats to the island as matters of “grave concern,” but remains ambiguous on whether it would commit forces in response to an attack from China.
Though the sides lack formal diplomatic ties, the U.S. is Taiwan’s chief provider of outside defense assistance and political support, in a reflection of its desire to limit China’s growing influence and maintain a robust American presence in the Western Pacific.
During a visit to Indonesia on Sunday, U.S. Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the Chinese military has become significantly more aggressive and dangerous over the past five years.
Milley’s Chinese counterpart, Gen. Li Zuocheng, told him in a call earlier this month that Beijing had “no room for compromise” on issues such as Taiwan.
On Monday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said Beijing had repeatedly expressed its “solemn position” over a potential visit by Pelosi, who would be the highest-ranking U.S. elected official to visit Taiwan since 1997.
“We are fully prepared,” Zhao told reporters at a daily briefing. “If the U.S. is bent on going its own way, China will take firm and strong measures to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
China has not said what specific actions it would take, although speculation has centered on a new round of threatening military exercises or even an attempt to prevent Pelosi’s plane from landing by declaring a no-fly zone over Taiwan.
“If the U.S. is determined to make (a visit) happen, they know China will take unprecedented tough measures and the U.S. must make military preparations,” said Shi Yinhong, an international relations expert at Beijing’s Renmin University.
“Expect huffing and puffing, maybe some fire-breathing, military posturing, and perhaps economic punishment of Taiwan,” said Michael Mazza, a defense and China expert at the American Enterprise Institute.
The timing of a Pelosi visit, which could happen sometime in early August, is especially sensitive, hinging on multiple factors. Among them is the anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army — the military branch of the ruling Communist Party — which falls on Aug. 1, a date used to stoke nationalism and rally the troops.
Chinese leaders are also under pressure from hardline nationalist forces within the party ranks.
That harkens back to the Taiwan Strait crisis of 1995 and 1996, when China held exercises and launched missiles into waters north and south of the island in response to a U.S. visit by the island’s then-president Lee Teng-hui. The U.S. responded by dispatching two aircraft carrier battle groups to the area, a move that helped spur China’s massive military upgrading in the years since that has radically changed the balance of power in Asia.
Xi is meanwhile seeking a third five-year term as party leader at a congress later this year and needs to show he is in charge amid a slowing economy and a public backlash against his “zero-COVID” policy.
Overall, the situation appears to be more serious than in 1995-96, said Bonnie Glaser, director of the Asia Program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
“If the Chinese want to demonstrate resolve they have many ways to do so,” Glaser said.
China doesn’t want to create a “crisis for crisis’ sake,” but could try to use the possibility of a Pelosi visit to advance its agenda, said Oriana Skylar Mastro, an expert on Chinese military affairs and foreign policy at Stanford University.
China might take the opportunity to test out capabilities through a large-scale amphibious exercise, which it would justify as a response to an “aggressive move” by the U.S., Mastro said.
“So I think they’ll use it as an opportunity to make advances that could be problematic, but (which) they wanted to do anyway regardless of the Pelosi visit,” she said.
___
Associated Press writer Huizhong Wu and videographer Johnson Lai contributed to this report from Taipei, Taiwan. | https://www.texomashomepage.com/news/international/taiwan-holds-drills-amid-pelosi-visit-concern-china-tension/ | 2022-07-25T15:17:33Z | https://www.texomashomepage.com/news/international/taiwan-holds-drills-amid-pelosi-visit-concern-china-tension/ | false |
BENSALEM, Pa., July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Law Offices of Howard G. Smith announces that investors with substantial losses have opportunity to lead the securities fraud class action lawsuit against Digital Turbine, Inc. ("Digital Turbine" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: APPS).
Class Period: February 26, 2021 – May 31, 2022
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: August 5, 2022
Investors suffering losses on their Digital Turbine investments are encouraged to contact the Law Offices of Howard G. Smith to discuss their legal rights in this class action at 888-638-4847 or by email to howardsmith@howardsmithlaw.com.
The complaint filed alleges that, throughout the Class Period, Defendants failed to disclose to investors: (1) that the Company's recent acquisitions, AdColony and Fyber, act as agents in certain of their respective product lines; (2) that, as a result, revenues for those product lines must be reported net of license fees and revenue share, rather than on a gross basis; (3) that the Company's internal control over financial reporting as to revenue recognition was deficient; and (4) that, as a result of the foregoing, the Company's net revenues was overstated throughout fiscal 2022; and (5) that, as a result of the foregoing, Defendants' positive statements about the Company's business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.
To be a member of the class action you need not take any action at this time; you may retain counsel of your choice or take no action and remain an absent member of the class action. If you wish to learn more about this class action, or if you have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to the pending class action lawsuit, please contact Howard G. Smith, Esquire, of Law Offices of Howard G. Smith, 3070 Bristol Pike, Suite 112, Bensalem, Pennsylvania 19020, by telephone at (215) 638-4847, toll-free at (888) 638-4847, or by email to howardsmith@howardsmithlaw.com, or visit our website at www.howardsmithlaw.com.
This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules.
Contacts
Law Offices of Howard G. Smith
Howard G. Smith, Esquire
215-638-4847
888-638-4847
howardsmith@howardsmithlaw.com
www.howardsmithlaw.com
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SOURCE Law Offices of Howard G. Smith | https://www.wymt.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/apps-investors-have-opportunity-lead-digital-turbine-inc-securities-fraud-lawsuit/ | 2022-07-25T15:18:24Z | https://www.wymt.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/apps-investors-have-opportunity-lead-digital-turbine-inc-securities-fraud-lawsuit/ | false |
- Tech entrepreneurs and investors Christian Angermayer, Louise Tabbiner and Henry Chalhoub, unite to launch the first non-profit incubator of its kind, focused on funding the world's leading individuals and NGOs dedicated to solving the mental health crisis
- The event took place in St Tropez on Saturday, July 23 with over 500 international attendees. Celebrity guests, award winners and supporters included: Robbie Williams, Kevin Love, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Rob Raco, Cameron Winklevoss, Lola Tash & Nicole Argiris (@mytherapistsays), Peter Berg, Philippe Parenno, Kate Bock and Queen Latifah
- Live performances, presentations and art installations included Kool & The Gang, Tinie Tempah, BLOND:ISH, master mentalist Lior Suchard, Tino Sehgal, Jeppe Hein, Refik Anadol and the "first cyborg" Nathan Copeland
- In a groundbreaking moment Giannis Antetokounmpo opened up for the first time about his challenges after his meteoric rise to stardom, the pressure of being seen as the best player of his generation and his desire to give back to his community
- Robbie Williams announced the creation of a global concert series, in association with AURORA, to raise funds and destigmatize mental health
SAINT-TROPEZ, France, July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The AURORA Institute launched with its inaugural event honoring the first four AURORA Institute Prize winners. They were recognized for their significant contributions to ending the mental health crisis. Evening of Discovery was a one-of-a-kind celebration, focusing on the new science of mental health, mindful meditation, understanding the science behind psychedelics, and exploring the integration of the metaverse and virtual reality in mental health interventions.
Over USD 8m was committed during the evening, which will be both directed to the charities represented by winners of the AURORA Institute Prize on stage and the the ideas brought forward during the "call to action." Each recipient receives a grant and strategic consulting services for the mental health charitable organization that they represent. This year's winners for each category were:
Athlete: Kevin Love. Olympian and NBA All-Star Kevin Love is basketball's most vocal advocate for mental health. In 2018 he established the Kevin Love Fund to inspire people to live their healthiest lives while providing tools for both mental and physical health.
Science: Dr. Adam Gazzaley, M.D., PhD. Leading global neuroscientist and founder of the Neuroscape Lab at UC San Francisco, bridging technology and neuroscience to create real-world solutions to enhance brain function. Dr. Gazzaley said: "It is an honor to receive this recognition from the Aurora Institute and I am energized by the potential I saw it convene. Leveraging the collective power of the organization and my fellow Aurora Institute Prize winners will drive real progress and better mental health for all. I look forward to helping accomplish our mutual goals."
Non-profit: The Klitschko Foundation Since 2003, the Klitschko Foundation has taught over 2 million young people in Ukraine to fight for their dreams through its various projects. Kostya Kovalchuk, member of the supervisory board said: "The key goal of Klitschko foundation is to teach every child to fight for their dreams. We are grateful to our partners and AURORA for their efforts to bring a better future for children of Ukraine suffering from various mental health issues because of the devastating war."
Sports and entertainment: The Weight of Gold. The Weight of Gold is a documentary investigating the connection between elite athleticism and psychological struggle, drawing on the experience of several Olympic competitors including Apolo Anton Ohno, Sasha Cohen, and Shaun White. Sasha Cohen said: "I am deeply moved by the Aurora Institute's recognition of our efforts to shine a light on the mental health struggles that Olympians face. Dismantling the entrenched stigma towards mental illness is essential to making progress, as those who suffer will only get the help they need if they can first admit they struggle."
In response to a call to action made at the event, attendees not only pledged financial support, but also committed to significant actions over the next 12 months. Highlights include:
- Globally renowned entertainer Robbie Williams announced the creation of MIND AID, together with AURORA, a global concert series with the purpose of fundraising for and destigmatizing mental health. MIND AID will show the world that it is okay to not be okay, to let people know that help is there if they need it and to support charities and initiatives that will make the world a happier place.
- NBA superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo announced the addition of mental health initiatives to the work of the Charles Antetokounmpo Family Foundation, the social impact foundation that focuses on refugees and immigrants, youth, sport, education, food & shelter, and widows.
- Henrique Dubugras, Pedro Franceschi, founders of fintech leader BREX revealed a USD 3m plan to support their 15,000 customers to create more mental-health friendly workplaces.
One of the most touching moments of the entire evening was when the worlds of two legends collided: for the first time Giannis Antetokounmpo opened up publicly about his owns challenges after his meteoric rise to stardom, the pressures associated being seen as the best player of his generation, and also the desire to give back to his community. To Kevin Love's surprise, Giannis cited Kevin as his role model and guiding star in an emotional speech.
Speaking on behalf of the founders, Christian Angermayer said: "One billion people suffer from mental health issues around the world and this number is only going to rise as we come out of the Covid-19 pandemic. Louise, Henry and I created AURORA Institute to bring together an ecosystem of global leaders from a range of diverse stakeholder groups to fight the global mental health crisis, head-on."
The event marked a key milestone in AURORA's plans to raise US$50 million in the next 5 years, while increasing visibility and awareness around the need for global mental health funding and de-stigmatizing of mental health issues. The AURORA Institute believes that by exploring and opening our minds, we can build a healthier, happier, and more inclusive future for all.
ABOUT AURORA INSTITUTE
The AURORA Institute was founded by Louise Tabbiner, Christian Angermayer and Henry Chalhoub. AURORA's mandate is to be the first non-profit incubator of its kind, focused on funding the world's leading individuals and NGOs dedicated to solving our existing global mental health crisis. Our goal is to amplify the efforts of those already doing the most impactful work or to empower those that could do more - helping them build their own foundations or navigate how to make mental health a core focus in their companies, communities and organizations.
Founding partners of the Evening of Discovery include Asteya, Apeiron Investment Group, Introsight Advisors, and Impact One. Founding friends include Aethos Hotels, Mindmaze, Calm, SlimBiotics, Elie Saab, Gopuff, and Barents Re. Founding donors include flow and atai Life Sciences. Beverage sponsors include Armand de Brignac, HeavenSake, Rumor, Brother's Bond and TRIP.
For more information please visit: aurora.institute.
For full selection of Getty images visit: https://bit.ly/3aYHOpf
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"USHER X RÉMY MARTIN 1738 A TASTE OF PASSION" Marks A New Milestone in Innovation with A.I. Powered Technology and First of its Kind Multi-Sensory Experience in Las Vegas to accompany Usher's My Way Residency in Las Vegas
NEW YORK, July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Rémy Martin, Cognac Fine Champagne, and Grammy award-winning musical artist Usher have teamed up to launch the "Usher x Rémy Martin 1738: A Taste of Passion" global campaign, featuring a limited-edition bottle and NFT, whose design was inspired by A.I. integrated technology. The new Rémy Martin 1738 Accord Royal bottle entitled "Usher x 1738 A.I. Powered," touts a new-age bottle design and is coupled with the debut of "A Taste of Passion Experience"– a multi-sensory, immersive experience that will accompany Usher's My Way Las Vegas Residency.
"For nearly 300 years, excellence has been at the core of Rémy Martin, and through this partnership we've reached an incredible milestone, where we see brilliance breakthrough at the intersection of art, fine cognac, and technology," said Amaury Vinclet, Global Executive Director of Rémy Martin. "As a brand that has been a long-time collaborator with Usher and shares the same values, we are proud to have him launch the first limited-edition bottle design for Rémy Martin 1738 Accord Royal. This bottle is a first for the spirits industry in how the technology was used and gives spirits aficionados and Usher fans alike a rare collectible they'll treasure forever."
When creating the "Usher x 1738 A.I. Powered" limited-edition, Usher used his own musical vocabulary to describe his olfactory experience with the renowned Rémy Martin 1738 Accord Royal, a smooth Cognac characterized by notes of toasted bread, vanilla and brioche. Fed through A.I. technology, known as Generative Adversarial Neural Networks and Contrastive Language-Image Pre-Training, the avant-garde depiction of tasting notes transformed Usher's words into artwork that makes the invisible, visible. Reimagined in black and featuring a special seal that celebrates Usher's 25th anniversary of My Way, the emblematic 1738 Accord Royal bottle brings Usher's "Taste of Passion" to life with a design that now aptly embodies the harmony of music, technology and art.
"I'm an artist at my core, so transforming an abstract sensory experience like taste into something visual really spoke to my creative process," says Usher. "I leaned into the exemplary Rémy Martin 1738 Accord Royal that flowed through me and am so impressed by the visuals that came out of the A.I. process – they truly represent the medley of tasting notes captured in the flavor. It's rewarding to see those words translate to real-world artwork that my fans can engage with while bringing taste front-and-center."
A total of 50 limited-edition bottles were created as part of this latest collaboration. 25 Usher x 1738: A.I. Powered limited-edition bottles will be available to purchase exclusively on BlockBar.com, the world's first direct-to-consumer NFT marketplace for luxury wines and spirits. The drop goes live at 10AM EST on Friday, July 29 on a first come, first served basis. Priced at $500*, each NFT is available to purchase with ETH or credit card. At 10AM, the first users to reserve the bottle will then have 10 minutes to checkout. Users who successfully check out will receive an NFT proving ownership of the physical bottle, which is stored with BlockBar until the bottle owner is ready to redeem. The remaining 25 bottles will be gifted to Usher and his team to celebrate the 25th anniversary of My Way.
Each NFT is uniquely marked, and each purchase comes with the option of keeping the NFT, reselling it on BlockBar.com's marketplace, gifting it, or redeeming it for the physical bottle beginning in October 2022.
"We're very excited to be part of such a big moment for Rémy Martin as they enter the world of NFTs and launch a new limited-edition bottle which will be our first ever music collaboration to drop on BlockBar.com," says Dov Falic, Co-Founder and CEO of BlockBar. "As a globally recognized brand known for craftsmanship and excellence, we are honored to have the opportunity to offer a rare collectable item that has been created by one of the world's most celebrated artists, Usher."
The Usher x Rémy Martin 1738: A Taste of Passion partnership will go beyond the bottle to showcase a world of opportunity and excitement at the intersection of music, technology, art and cognac, which will vividly come to life through the launch of "A Taste of Passion Experience" in Las Vegas. By harnessing A.I. technology to visually articulate the taste of the Usher x 1738 Accord Royal A.I. Powered offering, "A Taste of Passion Experience," will usher in spirits and music lovers alike, where the brand will host a multi-sensory experience while nodding to Usher's illustrious career. To build on the splendor of the evening, attendees will savor an array of Rémy Martin 1738 Accord Royal cocktails specially curated by Rémy Martin and Usher, including The Rémy Roller, brimming with an effervescent blend of Rémy Martin 1738 Accord Royal, aromatic notes of ginger ale and angostura bitters, and finished with a lemon wedge garnish.
The longstanding partnership between Rémy Martin and Usher, who both share a quest for excellence and innovation, first began over a decade ago when Rémy Martin became an official partner of the OMG World Tour. This latest collaboration not only celebrates excellence in music, technology, and art, but also the 25th anniversary of My Way, Usher's breakthrough album that catapulted him into stardom. The celebration of excellence goes back centuries for Rémy Martin and Rémy Martin 1738 Accord Royal, which is a unique blend of eaux-de-vie that commemorates the reward of excellence bestowed on Rémy Martin by King Louis XV of France in 1738. Rémy Martin Cellar Master Baptiste Loiseau has inherited the savoir–faire of the House from previous generations of cellar masters, and through this transmission of knowledge, Rémy Martin 1738 Accord Royal continues to encompass the spirit of celebrating depth of character and the excitement of indulging in moments of collective success.
On July 29, the Usher x 1738: A.I. Powered limited-edition bottle will be sold exclusively on BlockBar.com. The immersive 'A Taste of Passion Experience' is running on select nights from July 15 through October 29, in tandem with Usher's My Way Las Vegas Residency, with tickets available for purchase HERE.
For more information, please see HERE and follow along on social media at:
Instagram @RemyMartinUS | Twitter @RemyMartinUS | Facebook RemyMartinUSA
#TeamUpForExcellence #ATasteOfPassion
Since 1724, the House of Rémy Martin has produced premium spirits that consistently appeal to the world's most discerning connoisseurs. A profound love of the land, a continuity of family ownership and a passionate commitment to excellence has sustained Rémy Martin for nearly three centuries. As a result of its masterful production and generations of tradition in Cognac, the House of Rémy Martin today produces Cognacs Fine Champagne, including Rémy Martin® XO, Rémy Martin® Tercet®, Rémy Martin® 1738 Accord Royal and Rémy Martin® V.S.O.P. For additional information, visit www.RemyMartin.com
Born from the cask and named after a royal approval, Rémy Martin 1738 Accord Royal is a truly distinctive cognac. Its exceptional smoothness and rounded oakiness starts with the toasting of the casks, before the eaux–de–vie even begin to mature. This unique aromatic profile is then revealed through a rigorous selection of eaux–de–vie. Recognized for its outstanding quality year after year in international competitions, Rémy Martin 1738 Accord Royal celebrates true depth of character and the sheer indulgence of sharing good moments.
Usher has changed music, culture, and countless lives. Beyond selling over 80 million records worldwide and collecting dozens of awards, he has simultaneously lit up the small screen on NBC's The Voice and the big screen in blockbusters such as Hustlers. He has also tirelessly distinguished himself as a devout humanitarian, raising tens of millions of dollars for various causes and uplifting youth via his New Look Foundation since 1999. A true outlier, he was equally at home on the stage of his blockbuster 2021 Las Vegas residency as he was on a 2016 government cultural mission to Cuba as part of President Barack Obama's Presidential Committee for Arts and Humanities. The multiple GRAMMY® Award-winning diamond-selling international megastar, actor, dancer, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and proud Atlanta resident inspires change yet again in 2022 and beyond.
Thus far, he has gathered eight GRAMMY® Awards and emerged as Billboard's "#1 Hot 100 Artist of the 2000s," "#2 most successful artist of the 2000s," and "one of the best-selling artists in American music history," according to the RIAA. He catapulted four consecutive albums to #1 on the Billboard Top 200, beginning with the landmark diamond-certified Confessions in 2004. He continued to push boundaries with a series of singles and shows including Usher - My Way the Las Vegas Residency before setting the stage for his ninth full-length offering in 2022.
Most importantly, Usher gives back at every turn. Under his leadership, the New Look Foundation provides opportunities for young people in underserved communities, enabling them to flourish and achieve seemingly impossible dreams. He has contributed to numerous philanthropic causes and historic advancements. He penned a moving essay in The Washington Post, lobbying for the recognition of JUNETEENTH as a holiday in 2020. Fostering the national and eventual congressional conversation, he attended the signing of the bill making JUNEETEENTH a federal holiday at its passage during 2021. He has achieved recognition and various honors from the Boys & Girls Club of America, the Trumpet Foundations, and Do Something. The NAACP selected him as its 2010 Ford Freedom Award Scholar, and Morehouse College honored him with the prestigious 2014 "Candle Award." In 2022, he also took the stage at The Beloved Benefit, which exists to fortify and transform communities throughout Atlanta.
Founded in October 2021, BlockBar is the world's first NFT DTC marketplace that connects consumers and collectors with the owners of luxury wine and spirits brands by providing the opportunity to exchange NFTs for unique products. Having been in the spirits industry for many years, co-founders Dov and Sam Falic noticed the issues consumers and brands were facing in the world of wine and spirits, so launched BlockBar to provide transparency, authenticity, quality assurance and storage. BlockBar's proprietary platform allows consumers to purchase asset backed NFTs directly from the brand owners themselves. BlockBar's proprietary smart contracts verify authenticity, and its partnership with top cyber- and crypto-security firms ensures that transactions are fully protected and transparent. Consumers are able to transact directly with the brands and no longer have to worry about authenticity or storage. The physical bottles are stored in a secure facility in Singapore with 24/7 security, motion sensors, and temperature control. Buyers can pay for products via credit card or Ethereum and have the option to either burn the NFT to redeem the physical product or resell the product through the BlockBar.com marketplace.
* Suggested Retail Price.
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SOURCE Rémy Martin | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/rmy-martin-teams-up-with-grammy-award-winning-musical-artist-usher-ai-technology-reveal-invisible-taste-1738-accord-royal-presented-rare-limited-edition-coupled-with-immersive-experience/ | 2022-07-25T15:19:57Z | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/rmy-martin-teams-up-with-grammy-award-winning-musical-artist-usher-ai-technology-reveal-invisible-taste-1738-accord-royal-presented-rare-limited-edition-coupled-with-immersive-experience/ | false |
65 Members Are in the Process of Signing On to Participate in NCTC's First-Ever Unified National RFP Last-Mile Bidding Program
ORLANDO, Fla., July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NCTC, the National Content & Technology Cooperative, today announced it is partnering with Connectbase to provide a fully automated, unified platform for its Connectivity Exchange, a new program that enables NCTC's independent member operators to compete for and win projects with national brands or largescale RFPs for last mile broadband network contracts. Sixty-five of NCTC's members have already shown interest and are actively involved in conversations to join the program. The Connectbase Connected World platform details and displays deep, trusted location-based insight to automate network buying and selling processes.
NCTC's more than 700 independent cable and broadband member operators cover many areas in the U.S. where other national communications service providers do not have a franchise or fiber network. With the enhanced platform, these members can advertise to the world where their networks and nodes are, creating revenue opportunities to service new markets. This new capability will also open doors for buyers who need broadband for last mile deployments, including those in rural areas and underserved locations requested in national bids, which will now be accessible for the first time.
From quote to order with unified billing and support, the platform leverages the power of Connectbase and its partner Neustar to provide real-time information and analytics, serving as a central, one-stop customer relationship management (CRM) solution for NCTC members and buyers, enabling seamless end-to-end management of wholesale sales efforts. To date, NCTC's members have already registered over six million locations with Connectbase, creating an aggregate network that is automatically surfaced to prospective wholesale network buyers.
NCTC members who use the Connectivity Exchange platform benefit from:
- Automated quoting and ordering processes for wholesale opportunities
- A single contract and invoice for all wholesale transactions
- The ability to participate in a platform that sees over 10 million unique quote requests per year
In addition to finding connectivity in hard-to-reach places, buyers who access the platform benefit from:
- Purchasing connectivity solutions from multiple providers from a single platform, under a single agreement
- Consolidating billing and trouble ticketing from many different providers
- Receiving automated accurate quotes in minutes, not days
"Our strategic partnership with Connectbase and Neustar not only gives independent broadband providers new levels of national visibility and marketability, but it will also make accessing the combined strength of our members completely seamless - in one automated interface," said NCTC's VP of Technology and Innovation, Jared Baumann. "Now, our members are more equipped to address critical gaps in the broadband market like no one else can. We've never been stronger together."
"The breadth and coverage area that NCTC's members can service is vast, and their commitments to quality, customer satisfaction and network performance are top tier," said Ben Edmond, CEO of Connectbase. "We are very excited to provide the platform for NCTC's Connectivity Exchange, which stands to fill a large, untapped need in the broadband market today."
The National Content & Technology Cooperative (NCTC) was founded as a not-for-profit with one mission: to help members competitively acquire the video programming and vital technologies needed to offer world class services that define their communities' infrastructure with vision, value and purpose. NCTC makes purchasing and implementation easy and affordable for its 700+ independent communications service providers who connect one third of all households and businesses throughout North America and U.S. territories. Going beyond significant cost savings, the organization helps members unlock new revenue through emerging technologies, best practices and new ideas ensuring the profitability, competitive stature and long-term sustainability of its member companies. For nearly 40 years, NCTC has been actively engaged in helping network providers and suppliers evolve their business models to deploy new video/data solutions to match the changes in the media landscape. For more information, visit: www.nctconline.org
Connectbase is The Industry Cloud for Connectivity. The Connected World platform details and displays deep, trusted location-based insight and empowers users to leverage that insight to automate network buying and selling processes. Visit Connectbase at www.connectbase.com
Contacts:
Pam Gillies
NCTC
pgillies@nctconline.org
(720) 594-8085
Jaymie Scotto & Associates (JSA)
jsa_connectbase@jsa.net
(866) 695-3629 ext. 19
Robert Brownlie
Bob Gold & Associates
robert@bobgoldpr.com
(310) 320-2010
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SOURCE NCTC | https://www.wymt.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/connectbase-power-nctcs-connectivity-exchange-platform/ | 2022-07-25T15:20:20Z | https://www.wymt.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/connectbase-power-nctcs-connectivity-exchange-platform/ | false |
PHOENIX (AP) — LeBron James liked the clown nose. Dave Martinez wasn’t as big of a fan.
Sorry skip, it appears Washington Nationals outfielder Victor Robles is siding with the NBA superstar on this one.
Robles was caught by cameras in the dugout Sunday wearing a clown nose, a day after Arizona pitcher Madison Bumgarner called him a “clown” for briefly admiring his eighth-inning homer in Washington’s 7-2 loss.
James posted the picture of Robles wearing the clown nose on his Instagram story with the caption “Something I would do for sure!” Robles posted James’ reply on his own Instagram story.
Nationals manager Martinez wasn’t as thrilled with Robles’ light-hearted jab after Washington’s 4-3 win Sunday.
“I didn’t see it. I heard about it,” Martinez said. “I’ll talk to him. That’s not who we are. It happened, it’s done, I don’t want to see that kind of stuff.”
The incident started Saturday when Bumgarner took exception to Robles admiring a solo shot that brought the Nationals to 7-2.
“Clown,” Bumgarner said. “No shame. It’s 7-1, you hit your third homer of the year and you act like Barry Bonds breaking a record. Clean it up. I don’t care about giving up the run. Hell, we won 7-2 or 8-2, whatever it was. It’s frustrating.
“I’m the old, grumpy guy. I know. But that type of stuff didn’t used to happen.”
___
More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.wdtn.com/sports/ap-sports/send-in-the-clowns-lebrons-a-yes-martinez-a-no/ | 2022-07-25T15:20:20Z | https://www.wdtn.com/sports/ap-sports/send-in-the-clowns-lebrons-a-yes-martinez-a-no/ | false |
Goal to identify orosensory neurons and determine their function in guiding food selection and feeding behavior
YPSILANTI, Mich., July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Research that studies the sensation in the oral cavity is the subject of a grant awarded to Joseph Breza, associate professor of neuroscience at Eastern Michigan University and Robin Krimm, professor of anatomy and neurobiology at University of Louisville. The National Institutes on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders awarded the $2,074,256 ($462,468 year one) grant to conduct a five-year-long study on the sense of touch and how it interacts with the sense of taste.
Somatosensation is the sense of touch, temperature, and chemesthesis, which is the sensation of spices and menthol in the oral cavity. Scientists have studied various aspects of somatosensation, including the development of the human somatosensory system. Breza and Krimm are furthering the understanding of somatosensation by exploring touch-sensitive neurons and the connection between taste signals and the brain in transgenic mice.
"The grant seeks to understand the breadth of touch-sensitive neurons that stimulate the tongue, specifically those that wrap around taste papillae–those little red dots on your tongue which contain taste buds," said Breza. "We think that they play an instrumental role in shaping the sensory experience of food as it pertains to texture and taste."
The team will also investigate whether texture and taste signals from the oral cavity interact within the brainstem. According to Breza, the oral cavity is the gateway to the gut. Thus, nutrient selection and avoidance of potential toxins must first pass through the "radar" of the oral cavity.
"We know very little about how neuron types are responsible for sending unique signals to the brain about touch, temperature, and taste information," said Breza. "We know even less about how the brain integrates these signals to ultimately carry out tongue movements, chewing, swallowing, or gagging. Our long-term goal is to identify key orosensory neuron types and determine their function for guiding food selection and feeding behavior."
In addition to working with Krimm, Breza is conducting the study with an interdisciplinary team of students in a customized lab space on EMU's campus, which is aligned with EMU's strategic mission to deliver high-performing academic programs and quality research.
Over the years, Breza has worked with psychology, biology, and chemistry faculty members. He has co-authored five peer-reviewed articles with colleague Thomas Mast, an associate professor of neurobiology at Eastern, and with several EMU undergraduate and graduate students. Over the past eight years, he has trained and worked alongside more than 26 students – many moving on to Ph.D. programs in neuroscience or medical school.
"I share my academic achievements with the faculty, staff, administration and students at EMU – their level of emotional and professional support is what has made all of this possible," said Breza.
About Eastern Michigan University
Founded in 1849, Eastern is the second oldest public university in Michigan. It currently serves more than 15,000 students pursuing undergraduate, graduate, specialist, doctoral and certificate degrees in the arts, sciences and professions. In all, more than 300 majors, minors and concentrations are delivered through the University's Colleges of Arts and Sciences; Business; Education; Engineering and Technology; Health and Human Services; and its graduate school. National publications regularly recognize EMU for its excellence, diversity, and commitment to applied education. For more information about Eastern Michigan University, visit the University's website. To stay up to date on University news, activities and announcements, visit EMU Today.
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SOURCE Eastern Michigan University | https://www.wymt.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/eastern-michigan-university-university-louisville-awarded-more-than-2-million-nih-grant-somatosensation-research/ | 2022-07-25T15:20:40Z | https://www.wymt.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/eastern-michigan-university-university-louisville-awarded-more-than-2-million-nih-grant-somatosensation-research/ | true |
CLEVELAND, July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- CLEANLIFE®, a leading provider of highly customized LED lighting solutions and smart home technology, is moving its operations just south of Cleveland, Ohio to its new headquarters located in nearby Valley View, Ohio.
Located at the intersection of several highways and minutes from Cleveland's Hopkins International Airport, scenic Valley View offers several advantages for visiting customers and suppliers to get to the new location. Moreover, the highway access will improve logistics of shipping and receiving products from around the world. The new space will also include a state-of-the-art showroom and engineering facilities. There will even be a model home display to show off the company's smart lighting and new 24-volt lighting system for residential applications.
Founded by CEO Justin Miller in 2011, CLEANLIFE® has grown from its humble beginnings of selling eco-friendly LED lights for vending machines into a global joint-venture enterprise. The company provides engineering expertise, product design services and LED technology into a multitude of industries around the world for clients such as Amazon, Lowes, Home Depot, Exxon Mobil Corporation, Hilton, IHG, Marriott International, PepsiCo, The Coca-Cola Company, Walmart Inc., Wendy's, Wynn Resorts and other Fortune 500 businesses.
In discussing the move to the new headquarters, Miller noted that "We want to make a commitment to Northeast Ohio because of the people and resources in this area particularly around the lighting industry. We will use the new facility to focus on R & D, increase production capabilities and add to our testing capabilities so they not only meet but exceed international industry standards."
"In addition, the new headquarters will allow our employees the space to collaborate on product development as we are just at the beginning of the business cycle for LED and smart lighting. We searched for more than a year to find the right building to accommodate our continued growth. We are confident that this facility offers the ideal location to provide the best services and products to our customers for many years to come."
CLEANLIFE® was founded in 2011 with headquarters in Valley View, Ohio with a network of manufacturing facilities in the USA, Taiwan, China and Vietnam. While CLEANLIFE® has supplied LED lighting products that improve energy efficiency and the environment, the future of LED lighting is Finding a Better Way™ to connect people with their homes and create productive, comfortable living environments. Smart products developed by CLEANLIFE® will make this connection for consumers by allowing them to control lighting and other aspects of their home with their smart device for a truly personal experience.
For more information, please visit www.cleanlife.com or email info@cleanlife.com
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SOURCE CLEANLIFE LLC | https://www.wafb.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/cleanlife-announces-move-new-headquarters/ | 2022-07-25T15:23:42Z | https://www.wafb.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/cleanlife-announces-move-new-headquarters/ | false |
U.S. markets marched toward gains before the bell Monday ahead of this week’s meeting of the Federal Reserve which is attempting to tamp down inflation without risking a recession.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 each gained 0.5%.
European shares shifted from losses to gains after Asian markets finished lower and oil prices declined.
On Wednesday, most economists expect the Fed to announce its second 0.75% point increase in its short-term rate in a row, a hefty increase that it hasn’t otherwise implemented since 1994. That will put the Fed’s benchmark rate in a range of 2.25% to 2.5%, the highest level since 2018.
The U.S. economy is slowing, but healthy hiring shows it is not yet in recession, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” She spoke ahead of the release this week of a slew of economic reports that will shed light on an economy currently besieged by rampant inflation as interest rates rise.
The highest-profile report will likely be Thursday, when the Commerce Department will release its first estimate of the economy’s output in the April-June quarter.
“While rising jobless claims, softer home sales, and a buildup in gasoline inventory show the Fed front-loading rate hikes are causing a slowdown and bringing inflation under control, the issue is at what cost,” Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management said in a commentary.
Some economists forecast it may show a contraction for the second quarter in a row. The economy shrank 1.6% in the January-March quarter. Two straight negative readings is considered an informal definition of a recession, though in this case economists think that’s misleading.
Similar data from Europe have underscored the weakness of the global economy as central banks jack up interest rates. Higher rates make economic conditions more difficult, and too-aggressive hikes could cause a recession.
The DAX in Germany rose 0.4%, the CAC 40 in Paris climbed 0.5% higher while Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.3%.
In Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 shed 0.8% to 27,699.25 and the Kospi in Seoul rose 0.4% to 2,403.69.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng declined 0.2% to 20,562.94, while the Shanghai Composite index gave up 0.6% to 3,250.39.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 edged 1.6 points lower to 6,789.90.
On Friday, the benchmark S&P 500 lost 0.9%, breaking a three-day rally that had carried it to its highest level in six weeks but still gaining 2.5% for the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.4%, while the Nasdaq sank 1.9%.
The 10-year Treasury yield was at 2.82% early Monday. On Friday, it fell to 2.76% from 2.91% late Thursday.
Besides an easing of Treasury yields, falling prices for crude oil in recent weeks has raised hopes that inflation may be peaking. Auto club AAA says on its website as of Monday that the average price of a gallon of regular gas is $4.36 per gallon.
Early Monday, U.S. benchmark crude oil was $1.28 higher at $95.98 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It gave up $1.65 on Friday to $94.70 per barrel.
Brent crude, the pricing basis for international trading, rose $1.01 to $99.39 per barrel.
The dollar rose to 136.51 Japanese yen from 136.05 yen on Friday. The euro cost $1.0240, up from $1.0214.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/ap-news/2022/07/25/wall-street-poised-for-gains-when-markets-open-monday-2/ | 2022-07-25T15:24:05Z | https://wtmj.com/ap-news/2022/07/25/wall-street-poised-for-gains-when-markets-open-monday-2/ | true |
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
© 2022 Good Karma Brands Milwaukee, LLC. | https://wtmj.com/entertainment/2022/07/25/ap-top-entertainment-news-at-820-a-m-edt-4/ | 2022-07-25T15:24:52Z | https://wtmj.com/entertainment/2022/07/25/ap-top-entertainment-news-at-820-a-m-edt-4/ | false |
ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Parry Labs, LLC welcomes Aydin Mohtashamian as the company's Chief Operating Officer. Parry Labs, a high-growth defense technology company that provides cloud-based mission system solutions, will leverage Mohtashamian's experience as a seasoned executive with expertise in digital transformation, operational planning and execution, and large-scale systems integration.
Prior to joining Parry Labs, Mohtashamian worked over 20 years in the defense aerospace industry with leadership roles at QinetiQ (formerly MTEQ) and L3 Technologies where he demonstrated success at developing next generation C5ISR solutions, overseeing business operations, and spearheading product development leading directly to strategic company growth.
"We are thrilled to have Aydin bring his expertise in executing business across major programs and passion for driving innovation," said Parry Labs Chief Executive Officer, John Parkes. "His leadership, dedication to our customers, and commitment to excellence will make him a tremendous fit with the Parry Labs team."
Aydin Mohtashamian commented, "I am excited to join Parry Labs and look forward to delivering our transformational technologies to the warfighter and helping lead the company during this time of tremendous growth."
Mohtashamian holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Maryland, a Master of Science in Systems Engineering from Texas A&M University, and Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Nuclear Engineering from the United States Military Academy.
Parry Labs is a solutions provider to U.S. Department of Defense and commercial aerospace companies, designing and deploying advanced systems solutions ranging from mission computing and power systems to RF Solutions. Parry Labs is the creator of Stellar Relay hardware and software family of systems, which provides the digital backbone and connectivity for the M2DO environment to exist on any Air, Ground, or Sea platform. Parry Labs has offices in Maryland, Virginia, Alabama, and Texas. For more information about Parry Labs, visit: www.parrylabs.com.
Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/parrylabs/
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SOURCE Parry Labs LLC | https://www.valleynewslive.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/aydin-mohtashamian-joins-parry-labs-chief-operating-officer/ | 2022-07-25T15:26:40Z | https://www.valleynewslive.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/aydin-mohtashamian-joins-parry-labs-chief-operating-officer/ | false |
Tenured SaaS sales executive to deliver next phase of growth; joins WalkMe executive leadership team
SAN FRANCISCO, July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- WalkMe Ltd. (NASDAQ: WKME), a leading provider of digital adoption solutions, today announced the appointment of Scott Little as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), reporting to CEO and Co-founder, Dan Adika. Little will lead WalkMe's overall go-to-market optimization and expansion efforts to capitalize on digital adoption's $34B total addressable market as demand for WalkMe's enterprise-class digital adoption platform (DAP) grows.
Little joins WalkMe from Software AG, where he spent nearly three years serving in executive sales roles, most recently as Chief Revenue Officer. Under his leadership, Software AG transformed its digital business into a modern SaaS and subscription dominated portfolio delivering double digit bookings growth and consistent profitability. Before Software AG, Little held a number of senior roles with global B2B SaaS technology companies Commvault and Aveva, as well as with industry stalwarts Oracle and IBM, spending nearly two decades with Oracle.
"Scott's experience in scaling sales organizations at high-growth companies and delivering operational excellence at leading enterprise technology companies will strengthen the infrastructure that will take WalkMe to the next level of growth," said Dan Adika, CEO and Co-Founder of WalkMe. "He is a strong leader who understands the huge market opportunity for WalkMe and the role digital adoption platforms play in achieving successful digital transformation outcomes. We are excited to welcome Scott to our management team to continue to drive WalkMe's success."
"What excites me the most about WalkMe is the opportunity to change the way humans interact with software to maximize companies' investment in technology," said Little. "With an entire career focused on enterprise B2B software sales, I've seen first-hand how lack of technology adoption has been a key impediment to successful transformation projects. DAP is the missing link that closes the gap, and I look forward to expanding WalkMe's reach to bring further value to the customers and industries we serve."
WalkMe's cloud-based Digital Adoption Platform enables organizations to measure, drive and act to ultimately accelerate their digital transformations and better realize the value of their software investments. Our code-free platform leverages our proprietary technology to provide visibility to an organization's Chief Information Officer and business leaders, while improving user experience, productivity and efficiency for employees and customers. Alongside walkthroughs and third-party integration capabilities, our platform can be customized to fit an organization's needs.
Certain statements in this press release may constitute "forward-looking" statements and information, within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that relate to our current expectations and views of future events. In some cases, these forward-looking statements can be identified by words or phrases such as "may," "might," "will," "could," "would," "should," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "intend," "seek," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential," "continue," "contemplate," "possible" or similar words. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions, some of which are beyond our control. In addition, these forward-looking statements reflect our current views with respect to future events and are not a guarantee of future performance. Actual outcomes may differ materially from the information contained in the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including, without limitation, the following: our ability to manage our growth effectively, sustain our historical growth rate in the future or achieve or maintain profitability; the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic or adverse macro-economic changes on our business, financial condition and results of operations; the growth and expansion of the markets for our offerings and our ability to adapt and respond effectively to evolving market conditions; our estimates of, and future expectations regarding, our market opportunity; our ability to keep pace with technological and competitive developments and develop or otherwise introduce new products and solutions and enhancements to our existing offerings; our ability to maintain the interoperability of our offerings across devices, operating systems and third-party applications and to maintain and expand our relationships with third-party technology partners; the effects of increased competition in our target markets and our ability to compete effectively; our ability to attract and retain new customers and to expand within our existing customer base; the success of our sales and marketing operations, including our ability to realize efficiencies and reduce customer acquisition costs; the percentage of our remaining performance obligations that we expect to recognize as revenue; our ability to meet the service-level commitments under our customer agreements and the effects on our business if we are unable to do so; our relationships with, and dependence on, various third-party service providers; our dependence on our management team and other key employees; our ability to maintain and enhance awareness of our brand; our ability to offer high quality customer support; our ability to effectively develop and expand our marketing and sales capabilities; our ability to maintain the sales prices of our offerings and the effects of pricing fluctuations; the sustainability of, and fluctuations in, our gross margin; risks related to our international operations and our ability to expand our international business operations; the effects of currency exchange rate fluctuations on our results of operations; challenges and risks related to our sales to government entities; our ability to consummate acquisitions at our historical rate and at acceptable prices, to enter into other strategic transactions and relationships, and to manage the risks related to these transactions and arrangements; our ability to protect our proprietary technology, or to obtain, maintain, protect and enforce sufficiently broad intellectual property rights therein; our ability to maintain the security and availability of our platform, products and solutions; our ability to comply with current and future legislation and governmental regulations to which we are subject or may become subject in the future; changes in applicable tax law, the stability of effective tax rates and adverse outcomes resulting from examination of our income or other tax returns; risks related to political, economic and security conditions in Israel; the effects of unfavorable conditions in our industry or the global economy or reductions in information technology spending; factors that may affect the future trading prices of our ordinary shares; and other risk factors set forth in the section titled "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on form 20-F filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 24, 2022, and other documents filed with or furnished to the SEC. These statements reflect management's current expectations regarding future events and operating performance and speak only as of the date of this press release. You should not put undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee that future results, levels of activity, performance and events and circumstances reflected in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or will occur. Except as required by applicable law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date on which the statements are made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
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SOURCE WalkMe | https://www.wymt.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/walkme-appoints-scott-little-chief-revenue-officer/ | 2022-07-25T15:27:36Z | https://www.wymt.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/walkme-appoints-scott-little-chief-revenue-officer/ | false |
CENTER VALLEY, Pa., July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Olympus announced today the availability of a new monitor option, the OEV321UH video display monitor, a 32-inch Ultra High Definition 4K monitor that expands upon Olympus 4K monitor offerings. Backward- and forward-compatible with most Olympus processors, the new monitor provides a breadth of customizable uses at an attractive price point.
"With this new OEV321UH Monitor, customers can upgrade their endoscopy suites and ORs to have larger screens that will be important to their practices for a range of cases," said Kevin Mancini, Business Unit Vice President, Endoscopy Division, Olympus America, Inc. "Visualization improvements can translate into meaningful practice improvements that elevate the standard of care."
The OEV321UH video monitor features includei:
- Design compatible with future systems, including 12G-SDI connections for single cable 4K routing;
- A 32-inch screen for a larger viewing area, following an observed customer trendii
- Compatibility with a range of endoscopy and surgical systems;
- Fully adjustable design to address specific viewing needs;
- CLONE OUT function, which is used to duplicate the main monitor's HD/4K display for use on a second monitor or on a recording device, including PIP/POP (picture-in-picture/picture-out-picture) display;
- Split screen functionality and compatibility with telecollaboration tools;
- Advanced Image Multiple Enhancer (A.I.M.E.) for sharp, vivid image of structures without increasing noise: creates enhanced texture that supports more detailed observation;
- Flat display and detachable cable cover for quick and easy monitor cleaning; access window in cable cover also allows for convenient cable routing.
Since its development of the first flexible gastroscope in 1950, Olympus has continued to bring new endoscopy and surgical innovations to market, while also delivering excellent service, support and ongoing training toward workflow optimization and operational efficiency. Olympus products and services meet a range of procedural needs, which means customers have the tools they need to stay at the forefront of their fields, as they work to help patients live longer, healthier lives.
For more information about the OEV321UH, visit the product website.
Olympus' Medical business uses innovative capabilities in medical technology, therapeutic intervention, and precision manufacturing to help healthcare professionals deliver diagnostic, therapeutic, and minimally invasive procedures to improve clinical outcomes, reduce overall costs, and enhance the quality of life for patients. Olympus' Medical portfolio includes endoscopes, laparoscopes, and video imaging systems, as well as surgical energy devices, system integration solutions, medical services, and a wide range of endotherapy instruments. For more information, visit medical.olympusamerica.com.
i Data on file with Olympus (DC00675762).
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SOURCE Olympus | https://www.valleynewslive.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/new-olympus-oev321uh-monitor-brings-value-expansion-4k-offering-range-compatibility-options-endoscopy-surgical-suites/ | 2022-07-25T15:31:50Z | https://www.valleynewslive.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/new-olympus-oev321uh-monitor-brings-value-expansion-4k-offering-range-compatibility-options-endoscopy-surgical-suites/ | false |
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — No one was injured in a “low-speed” collision between two planes near a gate at the Miami International Airport, according to a report.
WSB-TV in Atlanta reports the incident happened Sunday as one of the planes was leaving for Atlanta and the other was heading to Boston.
It’s unclear what exactly led to the collision, but a Miami airport representative told the news station the Boston-bound plane was backing out of the gate when it made contact with the other plane.
No one was injured in the incident, and passengers and crew members left the plane “safely and normally,” a Delta representative told WSB.
“We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience and delay in their travel plans following minor, low-speed contact of Delta flight 2911 with Delta flight 1654,” the airline representative said in a statement. “Maintenance teams are evaluating the condition of the aircraft and customers have been re-accommodated on new aircraft onto their destinations.”
The report said the flights were delayed for about five hours before they were cleared for takeoff. | https://phl17.com/nmw/2-delta-planes-collide-near-gate-at-florida-airport/ | 2022-07-25T15:34:45Z | https://phl17.com/nmw/2-delta-planes-collide-near-gate-at-florida-airport/ | false |
AAPI small businesses to receive a $2 million dollar boost to recover from pandemic losses
Cash payments begin at $10,000.
WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - As Democrats work to revive a slimmed-downed version of the Build Back Better Act, some small business owners are turning to other sources of financial help to lessen the impacts of the pandemic.
Chiling Tong, CEO & President of the Asian and Pacific Islander Chamber of Commerce in Washington, says AAPI business owners across America were heavily impacted by Covid’s economic downturn. Tong explained the biggest hurdles owners are facing.
“Covid and anti-AAPI hate,” said Tong. “Both hit the AAPI business community very, very hard.”
A report from Stop AAPI Hate found there were nearly 11,500 hate incidents reported between March 19, 2020 and March 31, 2022. As the pandemic unfolded, a UCLA report found 233,000 AAPI small businesses closed from February to April in 2020.
“We’ve made a $2 million pool available in grants in amounts from $10,000 to $50,000,” said Tammy Halevy, the Executive Director of Reimagine Main Street. To help counter the financial effects of the pandemic, Halevy says AAPI small business owners are getting a boost.
It’s through the AAPISTRONG: Small Business Grants, in partnership with multiple organizations and with support from Meta, known to most as Facebook.
Forty AAPI businesses who launched during the pandemic will receive $10,000 cash grants. Sixty AAPI businesses who launched prior to the pandemic and survived will receive $25,000 cash grants. “That’s a one cash payment, and applications for the AAPI Strong Program are open until July,” said Tong.
AAPI small business owners can apply on the National Asian and Pacific Islander Chamber of Commerce website. The deadline is July 26th.
Earlier this year, a survey from Small Business for America’s Future found more than 1,700 small business owners across the nation believed childcare and prescription drug policies in the Build Back Better Act would help ease their financial burdens.
Copyright 2022 Gray DC. All rights reserved. | https://www.wnem.com/2022/07/25/aapi-small-businesses-receive-2-million-dollar-boost-recover-pandemic-losses/ | 2022-07-25T15:34:53Z | https://www.wnem.com/2022/07/25/aapi-small-businesses-receive-2-million-dollar-boost-recover-pandemic-losses/ | false |
Blue Chip Investors & Strategics, Founders, and CEO Bet on World-Class Proprietary Technology and Capital Efficient Growth to Drive Further Consolidation of the Ghost Kitchen Industry
PASADENA, Calif., July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Kitchen United, ghost kitchen and restaurant hub technology pioneer, announced a $100M Series C fundraise, which includes some of the world's preeminent financial and strategic investors. Kitchen United welcomes new investors: Alimentation Couche-Tard / Circle K (TSX: ATD), The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR), Restaurant Brands International (NYSE: QSR), B. Riley Venture Capital, a subsidiary of B. Riley Financial (NASDAQ: RILY), Simon (NYSE: SPG), Phillips Edison & Co (NASDAQ: PECO), and The HAVI Group. Additionally, strong participation continued from all existing institutional and strategic investors: GV, various funds managed by Fidelity Investments Canada ULC, RXR, DivcoWest, Cali Group, GoldenArc Capital, General Global Capital, and Rich Product Corporation. Lastly, Kitchen United founders, Harry Tsao and John Miller, Kitchen United CEO, Michael Montagano, and two-time NFL Super Bowl MVP Peyton Manning, made significant investments in the round. On completion of this round, the company's total raise to date reaches approximately $175M.
"This Series C financing further solidifies Kitchen United's leadership position in the industry," said Michael Montagano, Kitchen United's Chief Executive Officer and Board Member. "Kitchen United uniquely sits at the intersection of technology, food, and real estate. Our solution serves as the technological and physical infrastructure revolutionizing centrally located distribution hubs through streamlining off-premises ordering and consumption. To that end, we are thrilled to partner with leading investors across grocery, convenience, restaurants, malls, packaging, logistics, distribution, automation, and urban and suburban real estate development," says Montagano.
"We see many commercial opportunities in partnering with Kitchen United as it prepares for considerable scale. We believe this business stands apart from other industry players with its centralized locations, multi-format offerings, experienced management team, and mature technology stack — all of which align with Circle K's mission to make our customers' lives a little easier every day as we work together to shape the future of convenience," said Kevin Lewis, Chief Marketing Officer, Alimentation Couche-Tard.
"The rising trend of off-premises dining presents a major growth opportunity for the ghost kitchen sector, and Kitchen United is uniquely positioned for significant expansion in the years ahead," says David Krane, CEO and Managing Partner, GV. "We've long been impressed with Kitchen United's exceptional execution and unparalleled leadership in the sector. We're excited to continue partnering with Michael Montagano and the entire Kitchen United team as they open more kitchen centers across the country and reach more restaurants and consumers."
In the past two years, Kitchen United has unveiled multiple industry-leading initiatives, including collaborations in grocery with Kroger and at Simon properties nationwide.
Kitchen United currently has approximately 200 operational kitchens across 20 regions, powered by its industry-leading proprietary technology, with plans to significantly increase its technological and physical footprint in the near term. The company has seen triple-digit top-line growth for three consecutive years, all supported by industry-leading metrics. Kitchen United's proprietary technology enables customers to order from multiple prepared food and consumer goods brands on the same ticket and with the same delivery driver, all synchronized to maximize quality and payload, and minimize time and expense.
Kitchen United will continue its focus on Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago, and Texas as key markets with continued expansion throughout other US trade areas. Additionally, Kitchen United will be further evolving its industry-leading multi-concept ordering technology platform Kitchen United OS, for use by customers including Burger King, Popeyes, Chick-Fil-A., Portillo's, Panera Bread, Dog Haus, Wingstop, and Brinker International.
Founded in 2017, Kitchen United is a leading provider of restaurant hub technology, streamlined logistics and turn-key commercial kitchen space that empowers foodservice operators to tap into the growing off-premises business opportunity and offers consumers a first-of-its-kind to-go experience. The company offers a value-driven, low-risk way for emerging and established restaurant brands to enter into new markets, grow revenue through off-premises dining and expand delivery areas. For additional information, please visit: http://www.kitchenunited.com.
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SOURCE Kitchen United | https://www.wkyt.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/kitchen-united-ghost-kitchen-restaurant-hub-technology-pioneer-announces-100m-series-c-fundraise/ | 2022-07-25T15:36:28Z | https://www.wkyt.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/kitchen-united-ghost-kitchen-restaurant-hub-technology-pioneer-announces-100m-series-c-fundraise/ | false |
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