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Texas Realtors releases 2022-Q2 edition of the Texas Quarterly Housing Report
AUSTIN, Texas, July 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The number of single family homes sold across the state declined 5.6% in the second quarter of 2022 compared to the same time frame in 2021, while the median price kept climbing, according to the 2022-Q2 Texas Quarterly Housing Report released today by Texas Realtors.
"Although home sales slightly declined, the demand for buying a Texas home was still impressive with more than 100,000 homes sold during the second quarter of 2022," said Russell Berry, chairman of Texas Realtors. "Housing inventory levels are finally on the rise in many areas of the state — something we haven't seen for several years — but home prices continue to rise."
During the second quarter this year, the statewide median price of $357,388 represents a 19.1% increase compared to the same quarter last year. Nearly half of the 108,390 homes sold in the state were in the $200,000-$399,000 price range.
Jim Gaines, Ph.D., research economist with the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University, commented, "The rapidly rising interest rates, increases in home price, and tight housing inventory had a slowing effect on home sales in the second quarter of the year, but the Texas housing market is still strong. The data could indicate signs of a transition period for the Texas real estate market. If inventory continues to steadily increase and home sales price appreciation begins to slow, we could be moving towards a pre-pandemic environment."
Housing supply in Texas increased 0.8 months in the second quarter of 2022 to 2.1 months of inventory. This is the first time inventory has increased year-over-year since the third quarter of 2019 and the first time it has been above two months of inventory since the third quarter of 2020. Homes spent an average of 27 days on the market before going under contract, five days less than the second quarter of 2021.
Chairman Berry concluded, "Right now, it's crucial for homebuyers and sellers to equip themselves with accurate information and reliable resources. Working with a Texas Realtor is the optimal way to make an informed and timely decision in what is still a very active real estate market in every area of the state."
Data for the Texas Quarterly Housing Report is provided by the Data Relevance Project, a partnership among local REALTOR® associations and their MLSs, and Texas REALTORS®, with analysis by the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University. The report provides quarterly real estate sales data for Texas and 25 metropolitan statistical areas in Texas. To view the report in its entirety, visit texasrealestate.com
With more than 150,000 members, Texas REALTORS® is a professional membership organization that represents all aspects of real estate in Texas. We are the advocates for REALTORS® and private property rights in Texas. Visit texasrealestate.com to learn more.
Contact:
Hunter Dodson
hdodson@piercom.com
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SOURCE Texas Realtors | https://www.kxii.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/number-texas-home-sales-decreased-while-prices-kept-rising-second-quarter-2022/ | 2022-07-27T15:43:46Z | https://www.kxii.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/number-texas-home-sales-decreased-while-prices-kept-rising-second-quarter-2022/ | false |
James Lovelock, creator of Gaia ecology theory, dies at 103
LONDON (AP) — James Lovelock, the environmental scientist whose influential Gaia theory sees the Earth as a living organism imperiled by human activity, has died on his 103rd birthday.
Lovelock’s wife and children said Wednesday that he died the previous evening “in his home surrounded by his family,” from complications related to a fall. The family said until six months ago Lovelock “was still able to walk along the coast near his home in Dorset and take part in interviews, but his health deteriorated after a bad fall earlier this year.”
His contribution to environmental science included developing a device to measure ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons in the atmosphere and pollutants in air, soil and water.
The Gaia hypothesis, first proposed in the 1970s, saw the Earth itself as a complex, self-regulating system that created and maintained the conditions for life on the planet. Lovelock said human activity has thrown the system dangerously out of kilter.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.newschannel6now.com/2022/07/27/james-lovelock-creator-gaia-ecology-theory-dies-103/ | 2022-07-27T15:44:17Z | https://www.newschannel6now.com/2022/07/27/james-lovelock-creator-gaia-ecology-theory-dies-103/ | false |
Heartland Dental launches new brand campaign, showcasing distinct advantages of its doctor-led approach, voiced by the company's supported doctors and hygienists
EFFINGHAM, Ill., July 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Heartland Dental, the nation's leading dental support organization (DSO), today announced a new Doctor Difference brand campaign reflecting its doctor-led culture and business model roots, amid a time of continued and steady growth for the organization. The Doctor Difference campaign was built on a powerful insight: doctors want to retain their clinical autonomy and the ability to focus on what they do best - providing world-class patient care. This philosophy of clinical independence due to support with the non-clinical day to day administrative tasks and being built – by a dentist, for dentists – is a point of differentiation from other DSO competitors.
Today's announcement ushers in a new day of possibilities for all non-Heartland practitioners, reimagining non-clinical dental operations to meet the unique and distinct needs of modern clinicians. Heartland Dental stands apart from other DSOs because of its doctor-led approach, providing supported dentists with world-class non-clinical administrative support and helping to make possible distinct professional and financial growth opportunities. The doctor-led culture and business model enables supported doctors to focus on the clinical aspects of their practice while not having to worry about the day-to-day non-clinical administrative workflow.
"Becoming a dentist and building your practice is about having the freedom to care for your patients and provide great dentistry. The reality for so many doctors, is that at some point, the administrative tasks take over," says Rick Workman, DMD, founder and executive chairman of Heartland Dental. "Our distinct model helps make life easier for supported doctors with robust staffing, equipment, and non-clinical support services that take the headache out of running a dental practice and allowing the focus to be on the simple joy of dentistry, which is why we became clinicians in the first place."
The new brand campaign reflects this core philosophy and connects Heartland Dental and supported doctors to new and prospective doctors with a unique understanding of their needs, told through their perspective.
"The power of the Doctor Difference is that it is told through the experiences of current supported doctors, underscoring the authenticity and credibility that is the foundation of our brand," says Stacy DeWalt, Chief Marketing Officer at Heartland Dental. "Coupled with attractive financial offerings by the supported PC, proprietary operational systems, leadership and skill development programs to help deliver world-class patient care and experiences, the Doctor Difference that Heartland Dental offers supported doctors is a clear advantage over competitors."
The Doctor Difference campaign, which includes a powerful series of supported doctors and hygienist testimonials, launched today on Heartland Dental's website and social channels. Discover the Doctor Difference by visiting www.heartland.com.
About Heartland Dental
Heartland Dental is the nation's largest dental support organization providing non-clinical, administrative support services. What started from the entrepreneurial spirit of Rick Workman, DMD, with his single dental practice, has evolved into supporting over 2,400 dentists in over 1,600 dental offices across 38 states. The company is majority owned by KKR, a leading global investment firm. For additional information, please visit the company online at heartland.com. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Media Contact
Chelsea Michael, Director of Communications
media@heartland.com
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SOURCE Heartland Dental | https://www.kait8.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/heartland-dental-announces-doctor-difference-brand-campaign-celebrating-companys-doctor-led-roots/ | 2022-07-27T15:45:10Z | https://www.kait8.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/heartland-dental-announces-doctor-difference-brand-campaign-celebrating-companys-doctor-led-roots/ | true |
Voter pitfall to avoid: Voting for “bought and paid for candidates.” Corporations and special interest groups spend large sums of money to back candidates they believe will be friendly to their concerns. If you notice one or two candidates in a race have sent you 10 times as many mailers as the rest, there is a reason — follow the money!
Because elections matter, there are plenty of people trying to influence how you vote. Groups of citizens and other elected officials do this by endorsing candidates, small and large donors do this by giving money directly to candidates, and there are Political Action Committees (PACs) that donate money, buy advertisements or sponsor events designed to help get the candidate they favor elected. Understanding how this influence works and how to navigate it can make you a more confident voter.
Follow the money
Money makes its way into our elections through a number of different avenues. There are direct contributions to candidates and PACs by humans, interest groups and corporations. Candidates have to disclose contributions made to them, and this information can be found on federal, state and county campaign finance websites, but not all the groups that donate to candidates have to disclose who their donors are, so it is still hard to know who is actually giving money to candidates. These kinds of donations are called “dark money.”
In 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United v. FEC that there can be unlimited and political contributions to IRS 527 organizations, also known as Super PACs. Super PACs can get donations from groups that don’t have to disclose their donors to the public. They don’t contribute directly to candidates but spend money on ads, mailers or other communications in federal races in hopes of electing or defeating a particular candidate.
The Michigan Campaign Finance Act (MCFA) of 1976, governs how money impacts politics in the state and what candidates have to disclose. For example, candidates for governor can receive up to $6,800 per election cycle from individual donors; candidates for State Senate can get a max of $2,000 max; and candidates for state House can get a max of $1,000.
Once people are elected to office and are no longer candidates, they do not have to disclose any financial contributions they get from lobbyists or anyone else, making Michigan one of only two states with such latitude, according to the Michigan Campaign Finance Network.
Follow the money from donations
There are a wide range of tax-exempt nonprofit organizations that also raise and spend money to influence elections. Some nonprofits can’t spend money this way. Detroit Documenters is hosted by Outlier Media, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that cannot and does not seek to influence elections. That’s why this voter guide is encouraging people to vote in general, but not specifically for any candidate or proposal.
A 501(c)4 social welfare organization, on the other hand, can spend up to 49% of its annual revenue to support or oppose candidates and other ballot proposals. Other nonprofits like 501(c)5 (labor unions) and 501(c)6 (business leagues) can also spend to support or oppose candidates and ballot proposals.
Candidates running for the U.S. House of Representatives, Senate and President have to file campaign finance reports with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). PACs seeking to influence federal elections must also file with the FEC.
For example, entering the name “George Clooney” into the box under “find contributions from specific individuals”, followed by “Los Angeles” in the city field brings up 101 contributions made between 2003 and 2021 totaling more than $1.3 million.
For state level races, the Secretary of State (SOS) publishes campaign finance reports from all candidates seeking office in a district or jurisdiction that includes more than one county. A complete list of candidates for state offices in the August 2022 primary can be found on the SOS website. Click on any candidate’s name to be directed to their state campaign finance website, where you can review their donations. These disclosures include the name, address and contribution amount of each donor for the reporting period.
County clerks receive campaign finance reports or intra-county offices like county commission, sheriff and for local government offices like city council or township clerk. If you’re interested in who donates to candidates running in Wayne, Oakland, Macombcounty elections, go to these sites and look for “campaign finance statements.”
Follow the money in advertisements
If an ad is paid for by a candidate committee, it needs to say so. Likewise, if it is “not authorized by any candidate committee,” it must also say so.
Evaluating the content of political advertising is part art and part science. If you find an advertisement really troubling or compelling, you can review the campaign finance records for the organization running the ad to learn about their priorities and contributors.
The who, what and why of endorsements
Endorsements of political candidates or ballot initiatives are expressions of public support by individuals, political parties, interest groups and media organizations. A common source for discovering endorsements is the candidate themselves. Candidates will proudly list their endorsements on their websites, in TV commercials and on their campaign literature.
Who can make an endorsement?
Individual endorsements can be as simple as a person, maybe another elected official, taking to social media to say they support a particular candidate for elected office.
Political parties usually make their endorsements at their conventions. When a political party nominates a candidate, voters can take that as an endorsement. Local units of political parties can also make endorsements, even if they don’t have the power to nominate candidates on their own.
Any informal or formal collection of humans working toward a specific goal can be called an “interest group,” and many endorse candidates. Interest groups can be professional associations, nonprofits or just groups of individuals like a parent-teacher organization or a rec-league hockey club. Interest groups determine their own criteria for endorsing or opposing candidates. Some interest groups also distribute candidate surveys and publish their results.
In Michigan, interest groups or individuals supporting or opposing candidates in an election are required to register as a Political Action Committee (PAC) once a person or group receives or spends $500 or more in a calendar year in order to influence state or local elections. Spending money publicizing an endorsement is an activity that would seek to influence an election.
In some cases, the interest group or PAC will publish its list of endorsed candidates, perhaps on a website or in their newsletter. For example, an interest group like a labor organization will send a range of communications to its members to make them aware of their endorsed candidates. They may even ask members and supporters to fundraise or volunteer for their favored candidates.
Editorial boards of media organizations can also make endorsements, publishing them before the election. Other media organizations, like Bridge Michigan, have clearly stated reasons for why they do not endorse political candidates.
How much should you pay attention to endorsements?
Endorsements are made by individuals and interest groups with an agenda. Interest groups are trying to influence your vote in an election and their endorsements are a big part of that influence. How much weight you give to an endorsement should align with how much you know about and agree with the group doing the endorsing.
Read the rest of the Detroit Documenters Voters Guide and look up any unfamiliar terms in our vote with confidence glossary. Still have questions about voting in Detroit? Email us at [email protected].
Originally published by our media partner Outlier Media. It is republished with permission.
Stay connected with Detroit Metro Times. Subscribe to our newsletters, and follow us on Google News, Apple News, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, or TikTok. | https://www.metrotimes.com/news/whos-trying-to-sway-my-vote-how-to-follow-the-money-in-campaigns-30659410 | 2022-07-27T15:45:26Z | https://www.metrotimes.com/news/whos-trying-to-sway-my-vote-how-to-follow-the-money-in-campaigns-30659410 | true |
NEW YORK, July 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Real Vision today launched The Real Investing Course, a new online learning experience that helps people become better investors - in less than 10 hours.
The comprehensive 5-module Real Investing Course includes video lessons, handbooks, community access, and one full year of Real Vision Plus membership.
And thanks to Real Vision's 8-year history of interviewing finance rock stars, The Real Investing Course is unique in featuring dozens of professional investors including Lyn Alden, Peter Brandt, and Dmitry Balyasny as your guides.
"This is a game-changer," said Real Vision CEO Raoul Pal. "It's a masterclass in the building blocks of investing, and it doesn't cost thousands of dollars. I truly believe we can help people at scale like this."
That's already happening, as feedback from the beta testing group shows:
"I was relying on input from others before because I didn't think I was capable of making my own decisions but after this I'll be taking charge of my own trades." – Paul W.
"Yes, yes and did I say YES." – Donald B.
And parts of the course were filmed in an underground bunker, a cinema, and a bar - making it perhaps the most entertaining investing course in the world…
Low-cost and accessible, The Real Investing Course is just the latest step in the future of learning at Real Vision – The Real Vision Academy.
Also launching today, The Academy's roadmap features a series of courses from professional investors focusing on different types of frameworks, trading strategies and styles… and creating places and moments for the community to come together to help each other, too.
To find out more about The Real Investing Course and The Academy, visit realvision.com/rvacademy
About Real Vision:
Real Vision is a disruptive global financial media platform and online community, best known for its Real Vision membership and Real Vision Crypto — a free digital assets video channel. Real Vision doesn't have a single editorial view. We bring on the most diverse set of minds on all topics filtered through the lens of markets. The company's mission is to democratize access to financial intelligence and to help members understand the complex world of finance, business, and the global economy. Founded in 2014, the platform now has more than 300,000 members in over 100 countries around the world.
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SOURCE Real Vision | https://www.wsaz.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/real-vision-disrupts-online-financial-education-with-todays-launch-real-investing-course/ | 2022-07-27T15:45:30Z | https://www.wsaz.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/real-vision-disrupts-online-financial-education-with-todays-launch-real-investing-course/ | false |
Carrier once again named on list for its continued investment in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
DALLAS, July 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) proudly receives more accolades for its continued commitment to making Southwest® a more diverse and inclusive organization, where Employees thrive, feel appreciated, valued, and have an authentic sense of belonging. For the fifth consecutive year, Forbes named Southwest Airlines® as one of America's Best Employers for Diversity in 2022.
"At Southwest, it takes every single one of us to serve our Customers throughout our network every day," said Juan Suarez, Vice President of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion at Southwest Airlines. "Being named to this list is humbling and continues to motivate us to improve our diversity efforts across the Company and provide the best workplace for our Employees, which in turn helps us serve our Customers."
Forbes partnered with Statista to select 2022 America's Best Employers for Diversity through an independent survey from a sample of more than 60,000 American employees and pinpointed the companies they identified as most dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The list is compiled using four criteria areas including employees' opinions about their own workplace, other companies in their respective industry, diversity among top executives and board members, and diversity indicators within a company.
Southwest Airlines was also recently honored by the Disability:IN® Disability Equality Index with a score of 100 (perfect score) on its annual index. To learn more about the airline's commitment to creating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace, visit the Southwest One Report and DEI Report.
Southwest Airlines is dedicated to attracting prospective candidates and retaining Employees—keeping this focus at the forefront of everything it does. It is all about a career with Heart and Purpose. Join the carrier's Talent Community to stay up to date on job opportunities from the Company with Heart.
ABOUT SOUTHWEST AIRLINES CO.
Southwest Airlines Co. operates one of the world's most admired and awarded airlines, offering its one-of-a-kind value and Hospitality at 121 airports across 11 countries. Having celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2021, Southwest took flight in 1971 to democratize the sky through friendly, reliable, and low-cost air travel and now carries more air travelers flying nonstop within the United States than any other airline1. Based in Dallas and famous for an Employee-first corporate Culture, Southwest maintains an unprecedented record of no involuntary furloughs or layoffs in its history. By empowering its more than 61,0002 People to deliver unparalleled Hospitality, the maverick airline cherishes a passionate loyalty among as many as 130 million Customers carried a year. That formula for success brought industry-leading prosperity and 47 consecutive years3 of profitability for Southwest Shareholders (NYSE: LUV). Southwest leverages a unique legacy and mission to serve communities around the world including harnessing the power of its People and Purpose to put communities at the Heart of its success. Learn more by visiting Southwest.com/citizenship. Southwest is also continuing to develop tangible steps toward achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, including offering Customers an opportunity to help the airline offset its carbon emissions. To be part of the solution, visit Southwest.com/wannaoffsetcarbon.
1) U.S. Dept. of Transportation most recent reporting of domestic originating passengers boarded
2) Fulltime-equivalent active Employees
3) 1973-2019 annual profitability
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SOURCE Southwest Airlines Co. | https://www.wsaz.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/southwest-airlines-named-one-forbes-2022-best-employers-diversity-america-fifth-consecutive-year/ | 2022-07-27T15:46:25Z | https://www.wsaz.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/southwest-airlines-named-one-forbes-2022-best-employers-diversity-america-fifth-consecutive-year/ | true |
ROCKI is the largest music NFT platform and music ecosystem on the BNB Blockchain. Launched in October 2020, it has over 3000 music NFTs minted and sold on the platform, and more than 20,000 registered users.
LOS ANGELES, July 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ROCKI and BNB Chain are launching a global search for the next viral sensation song in a contest with $30,000 BUSD in prizes and a record deal for the winning submission.
Anyone, regardless of professional credits or skills, is encouraged to submit their song by August 18th, 2022. The top 100 finalists will have their song submissions scanned and analyzed by HITLAB's Music Digital Nuance Analysis tool (DNA). Using artificial intelligence and its patented technology, HITLAB analyzes the song's hit potential and the quality of the vocal.
"We're very excited to be partnering with the leading music NFT platform, ROCKI, and BNB Chain in this exciting song showcase. Using our patented and proprietary DNA tool, we'll be able to predict the song submissions hit potential and leverage current trends in the music industry," HITLAB's President and CEO, Michel Zgarka says.
The song submissions will also be reviewed by a panel of judges with extensive music industry experience, including Peter Rafelson, Grammy award and Billboard #1 producer, Guylaine Cléry, MD Virgin Music Services/UMG, Jean-Michel Bonard, Head of Music Business at Trace, and Michel Zgarka, President and CEO of HITLAB.
Bjorn Niclas, ROCKI CEO & Co-founder, adds. "ROCKI is a leading music NFT platform and music ecosystem on the BNB blockchain, so partnering with them on this song contest is really thrilling."
It's not just for professional musicians," he reiterates."Anyone can participate and submit their songs; that's why it's so inclusive and unpredictable. Who knows what incredible talent is out there waiting to be discovered."
ROCKI, is bringing fair compensation to musicians with NFT-powered music. ROCKI strives to empower musicians to earn a living from their music by using the latest Blockchain and NFT technology to earn new revenue streams. Many earn more from one music NFT drop than they do from their annual paychecks from all the major streaming services combined.
So get to work. For full details about how to submit your song please visit: https://rocki.com/songcompetition
Web: https://rocki.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/rockiapp/
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SOURCE ROCKI | https://www.kait8.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/rocki-bnb-chain-launch-global-search-next-viral-sensation-powered-by-hitlabs-music-digital-nuance-analysis-tool-dna/ | 2022-07-27T15:47:30Z | https://www.kait8.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/rocki-bnb-chain-launch-global-search-next-viral-sensation-powered-by-hitlabs-music-digital-nuance-analysis-tool-dna/ | true |
SEATTLE, July 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- SportsArt, a leader in socially responsible fitness solutions for over 40 years, has been selected by Astore - Accor Group's Procurement Organization - to become a global preferred vendor outfitting their fitness centers with SportsArt's patented ECO-POWR™ cardio equipment. One of only four fitness suppliers selected by Accor, both brands share a similar mission to promote environmental sustainability and offer socially conscious options to help create a better tomorrow.
"We're excited to provide Accor Group's properties and the partners of Astore Procurement with integrations and applications that will give their hotels even more opportunities to inspire the health and wellness of their guests and our planet," states Ruben Mejia, executive vice president, SportsArt Americas. "All ECO-POWR™ cardio products convert up to 74% of human energy into usable electricity. That means, one hour of working out with an ECO-POWR™ machine can produce enough electricity to power a desktop computer for 2.4 hours. Both SportsArt and Accor have the same mission and goals, so I couldn't be happier to enter this partnership."
The multi-year partnership began earlier this month in all of Accor Hotel's markets including Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe as well as North & South America. In recent months, Accor's Chief Sustainability Officer has stated that Accor is building a company that contributes to the environment more than it takes from the environment. This partnership will prove to enhance the sustainability goals of both companies.
"Sustainability has been a part of our DNA since our genesis," stated Giovanni Berselli, Sales Director, EMEA at SportsArt. "All of our initiatives have been developed to try to make the world better. SportsArt shares this value with Accor Hotel group, so creating this partnership has been easy. Now it's time to give back to the planet thanks to Accor's guests through the use of SportsArt's ECO-POWR™️ equipment."
In 2021, Accor accelerated the use of green (wind and solar) energy, with Procurement solutions accelerating new partnerships and suppliers. Accor signed the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism launched by the UN World Tourism Organization (UNTWO) on November 4, 2021. So far, more than 300 public and private tourism organizations have agreed to halve their emissions by 2030 and achieve net zero by 2050.
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SOURCE SportsArt | https://www.wagmtv.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/sportsart-enters-worldwide-fitness-partnership-with-accor-group/ | 2022-07-27T15:48:52Z | https://www.wagmtv.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/sportsart-enters-worldwide-fitness-partnership-with-accor-group/ | false |
Recently Enacted Measure is a Victory for Working Families
RICHMOND, Va., July 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Teamsters are lauding Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney and the Richmond City Council for unanimously passing an ordinance that will extend collective bargaining rights to the city's municipal workers in response to mobilization by city workers, union members, and community allies. The ordinance is a major victory for working families in the city and represents the largest expansion of workplace rights in the city in nearly half a century.
"The Teamsters were there every step of the way working with the mayor and the council on crafting this ordinance, and it was an honor to do on behalf of these workers," said Brian Peyton, President of Teamsters Local 322 in Richmond. "Congratulations to these workers for securing collective bargaining rights. Throughout the pandemic and to this very day they made sure that the city where we live, work and play was able to stay safe, clean and healthy. They deserve the freedom to negotiate a union contract just as much as anyone in the private sector."
The new law gives city workers the freedom to join a union and negotiate with their employer over wages, benefits, and working conditions after 45 years of not being afforded that right. Under the ordinance, municipal workers will be divided into five different bargaining units – police, fire and emergency services, labor and trades, professional staff and administrative and technical employees.
"Having five separate bargaining units is the best outcome for city workers," Peyton said. "It will give them greater freedom of choice and more opportunities to address the issues that are specific to their crafts when they go to negotiate with the city. We look forward to continuing to have conversations with workers in order to address their issues."
Based in Richmond, Teamsters Local 322 represents workers in a wide variety of fields throughout the city and surrounding communities.
Contact:
Matt McQuaid, (202) 624-6877
mmcquaid@teamster.org
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SOURCE Teamsters Local 322 | https://www.wagmtv.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/teamsters-applaud-city-richmond-legalizing-public-sector-bargaining-rights/ | 2022-07-27T15:49:00Z | https://www.wagmtv.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/teamsters-applaud-city-richmond-legalizing-public-sector-bargaining-rights/ | true |
The platform offers an in-app studio for anyone to create a meme and shares 50% in revenue with users on every level.
NEW YORK, July 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Yepp is a next-generation meme editor based on ML technologies that has just launched its beta version with more than 10,000 users to date. As part of its mission, the app wants to enable millions of people to monetize their sense of humor and provide tools to make content creation easy.
Now users can upload their own memes or choose from the app's trending memes database, edit text or images, and publish. Funny memes go viral and collect hundreds of thousands of views in the feed.
Yepp is shaped around several creative features:
- Easy to become an author: with Yepp in-app studio anyone can create a meme without any skills, but just a good sense of humor. ML recognition technology allows editing any text and font, and a Face Swap algorithm replaces a face on a meme with your friend's. Besides that, auto content suggestions help to create funny texts considering your own sense of humor.
- Get more subscribers: the app gives meme authors ways to easily get more subscribers and viewers. Smart algorithms based on user behavior create personalized memes feed for every individual user using different data: action rate, text and image recognition, the behavior of the user, and content. Neural networks also detect clickbait memes, duplicates, and stolen content and don't give them any views.
- Earn money on memes: the app invented a unique revenue sharing model. Yepp earns money from advertising, and honestly divides the revenue between the platform and users: 50% of weekly revenue, with at least $1750 weekly. Where 30% goes for the friends that users invite to the app, 17% to the creators, and 3% to the users who are just watching memes. All of the revenue sharing and other analytics are fully transparent and can be seen in the app.
Denis Litvinov, CEO at Yepp says: "We have built Yepp to be the next-generation social network for high quality entertainment that treats creators as partners instead of a commodity, protecting their content and fairly distributing revenue on every level. The platform takes only a portion of the profits to cover operating and development costs. And the rest is divided between content creators on a daily basis in accordance with the value they bring to the platform and the viewers."
Yepp is a next-generation meme editor based on ML technologies, that offers an endless feed of the funniest memes and ways to make money from content creation. The company was established in December 2021 with nearly 10,000 users in the beta version of the app and a constantly growing audience.
Jennifer Abreu
Media Relations pr@yepp.pe
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SOURCE Yepp | https://www.weau.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/yepp-is-changing-way-creators-make-money-with-memes/ | 2022-07-27T15:51:02Z | https://www.weau.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/yepp-is-changing-way-creators-make-money-with-memes/ | true |
5 types of pet allergies and how to treat them
alexei_tm // Shutterstock
5 types of pet allergies and how to treat them
Dog in grass with leash
Kristesoro // Shutterstock
Habitat allergies
Dog running in tall grass
Jaromir Chalabala // Shutterstock
Plant allergies
Dog taking bath
Tanhu // Shutterstock
Bug bite reactions
Cat scratching in sun
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Acute reactions
Vet listens to dog with stethoscope
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Food allergies
Owner feeding dog | https://kion546.com/news/2022/07/27/5-types-of-pet-allergies-and-how-to-treat-them/ | 2022-07-27T15:53:37Z | https://kion546.com/news/2022/07/27/5-types-of-pet-allergies-and-how-to-treat-them/ | false |
CALGARY, AB, July 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - CardiAI Inc. is pleased to announce the Global launch & distribution of their brand new 24-hour Ambulatory Blood Pressure monitoring system. BPAro is a compact, portable, German-manufactured, self-monitoring blood pressure device that uses Bluetooth for wireless data collection, which is uploaded to a secure cloud database. BPAro is clinically validated for accuracy and has received approval from the FDA and Health Canada. The device provides blood pressure monitoring for evidence-based healthcare by synchronizing patient and physician results in real-time, without delay. BPAro measures and automatically records patient blood pressure, at regular programmed intervals. At 30 minute intervals, BPAro can collect blood pressure measurements for up to 7 days. While using BPAro, patients can participate in any of their day-to-day activities, including sleep. BPAro has been designed and tested to be user-friendly and straightforward to start up. All results are recorded on the user's personal cloud account and are visible in the BPAro app on your computer or mobile devices.
"BPAro is the first to release among a number of point-of-care devices that will bridge the gap between a patient's everyday life and the doctor's office to aid in better patient treatment and preventative healthcare solutions," said Dr. Anmol Kapoor, Founder and CEO of CardiAI. "High blood pressure can be a serious condition that could lead to heart attacks, strokes, kidney failure and loss of vision. Accurate and long-term blood pressure metrics aid in patient diagnosis and treatment. BPAro removes uncertainty and puts precision medicine in your hands."
The BPAro device is a clinically validated 24 hour Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitor (ABPM) with cloud-based advanced analytics that can seamlessly integrate with existing electronic health records using HL7 connectivity. BPAro measures and generates a large number of blood pressure readings without manual work from a doctor or the patient. These measurements are collected at regular programmable intervals for up to 24 hours. The data generated creates a blood pressure profile for the patient in their usual environment - unaffected by the stressors present in clinical settings. The machine wirelessly uploads data to the BPAro app, which allows your healthcare team to access data promptly and mediates teleconsultations securely.
"BPAro is a one-stop service that tackles the epidemic of high blood pressure by providing accurate diagnosis and remote care with precision. We are the first company to provide timely, clinically validated blood pressure monitoring, cloud-based analytics through the BPAro mobile application, built-in EMR for telemedicine consultations and the writing of prescriptions for patients into a complete platform," said Dr. Anmol Kapoor, Founder and CEO of CardiAI.
BPAro devices can be purchased online at https://bparo.com/ and the app can be downloaded from the Google Play store for android devices and the Apple store for ios. If your doctor suspects that you may have hypertension, hypotension or require continuous blood pressure measurements, you may be referred to have ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) by BPAro – so you can continue your day without interruption. Ask your doctor about BPAro and if you could benefit from ABPM monitoring.
CardiAI™ is a biotechnology company that inspires humanity, creates early opportunities to mitigate health risks and contributes to the health and well-being of generations. At CardiAI™, we are developing platform-based medical diagnostics devices and software that will transform healthcare worldwide. These health care technologies will provide a sense of assured future and stability impact by improving patient care around the world. CardiAI™ prioritizes patient-centered care by understanding and emphasizing patient needs to their health care and information providers. Our research and development team consists of physicians, biochemists, biotechnologists, stem cell researchers, bioinformatics experts, engineers, molecular biologists, clinical trial specialists and astute business leaders who have a combined total of 150 years of dedicated experience and expertise. We are a medical device research and development organization based in Western Canada.
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SOURCE CardiAI Inc | https://www.kalb.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/cardiai-inc-launches-bparo-brand-new-fda-amp-health-canada-approved-clinically-validated-24-hour-ambulatory-blood-pressure-monitoring-system-with-all-new-features-including-bluetooth-diabetes-setting-amp-auto-interpretation-results/ | 2022-07-27T15:55:19Z | https://www.kalb.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/cardiai-inc-launches-bparo-brand-new-fda-amp-health-canada-approved-clinically-validated-24-hour-ambulatory-blood-pressure-monitoring-system-with-all-new-features-including-bluetooth-diabetes-setting-amp-auto-interpretation-results/ | false |
A tech millionaire offered to buy it. A U.S. senator suggested that the government should force manufacturers to make it.
But so far, Klondike isn’t budging from its plan to discontinue the Choco Taco.
Klondike confirmed Tuesday that the summer treat is being pulled from ice cream trucks, convenience stores and grocery shelves.
“Over the past two years, we have experienced an unprecedented spike in demand across our portfolio and have had to make very tough decisions to ensure availability of our full portfolio nationwide,” a Klondike representative said in an email. “A necessary but unfortunate part of this process is that we sometimes must discontinue products, even a beloved item like Choco Taco.”
The news came just days after ice cream maker Good Humor confirmed the demise of another nostalgia-steeped favorite: Toasted Almond Bars. Good Humor also cited production problems, saying it sometimes has to discontinue slower sellers in order to ensure distribution of more popular treats.
Klondike, which is owned by London-based Unilever, continues to sell cones, shakes and its signature Klondike bar nationwide.
The Choco Taco, invented in 1983 by a former ice cream truck driver, is a waffle cone shaped like a taco shell filled with fudge-swirled ice cream. It’s dipped in chocolate and peanuts.
The news of its demise sent some Twitter users into a meltdown.
“There are bad decisions, like getting a face tattoo or French kissing an alligator. Then there are horrifically bad inexcusable decisions like discontinuing the Choco Taco,” one fan tweeted.
Multi-millionaire Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian called out Unilever on Twitter.
“I’d like to buy the rights to your Choco Taco and keep it from melting away from future generations’ childhoods,” Ohanian tweeted. Unilever didn’t appear to respond.
U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, tweeted that he would invoke the Defense Production Act to mandate continued manufacture of Choco Tacos.
Klondike seemed to realize it had struck a nerve. In a later tweet Tuesday, the company said it was “working hard to find a way to bring Choco Taco back to ice cream trucks in the coming years.”
One place the Choco Taco might show up? Taco Bell. In February, the restaurant chain announced a collaboration with Klondike, testing Choco Taco sales at 20 locations in Los Angeles and Milwaukee. It was a welcome return for fans: Taco Bell used to sell Choco Tacos but took them off their menu in 2015.
A message seeking comment was left with Taco Bell Tuesday. Klondike also didn’t respond when asked if Choco Tacos might be sold in the future at Taco Bell. | https://fox59.com/business/ap-business/klondike-discontinues-choco-taco/ | 2022-07-27T15:55:57Z | https://fox59.com/business/ap-business/klondike-discontinues-choco-taco/ | true |
8 important skills to be a registered nurse
Canva
8 important skills to be a registered nurse
A registered nurse walking down a hallway
Canva
Social perceptiveness
A nurse assisting a patient in a wheelchair
Canva
Active listening
A nurse listening to his patient
Canva
Speaking
A nurse speaking to a patient
Canva
Critical thinking
A nurse and a doctor discuss a patient’s chart
Canva
Problem sensitivity
A nurse helping an elderly patient
Canva
Deductive reasoning
A nurse holding a baby
Canva
Oral comprehension
A hospice nurse visiting an elderly patient
Canva
Written comprehension
A nurse writing data on a medical chart | https://kion546.com/stacker-money/2022/07/27/8-important-skills-to-be-a-registered-nurse/ | 2022-07-27T15:56:48Z | https://kion546.com/stacker-money/2022/07/27/8-important-skills-to-be-a-registered-nurse/ | true |
Maruti Suzuki reports more than two-fold rise in net profit to ₹1,036 crore in Q1
Maruti Suzuki India stated that the shortage of electronic components in the first quarter resulted in the non-production of about 51,000 vehicles
Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) on Wednesday reported a more than two-fold jump in consolidated net profit to ₹1,036 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, mainly due to a low base in the year-earlier period.
The auto major had posted a net profit of ₹475 crore in the COVID-hit April-June quarter of the last fiscal.
Net sales rose to ₹26,512 crore in the June quarter compared with ₹17,776 crore in the same period of 2021-22.
Performance in the first quarter of the last year was affected by COVID-related shutdowns and disruptions, and hence comparison with the first quarter this year is not on a like-to-like basis, MSI said in a statement.
The company sold 4,67,931 vehicles during the June quarter against 3,53,614 units in the year-earlier period.
Sales in the domestic market stood at 3,98,494 units, while exports were 69,437 units, the highest ever in any quarter, MSI said.
In Q1 of the last fiscal, the company had sold 3,08,095 units in the domestic market and 45,519 units in the export markets.
On a standalone basis, the company reported a net profit of ₹1,013 crore as against ₹440 crore in the first quarter of 2021-22.
Net sales stood at ₹25,286 crore compared with ₹16,799 crore a year ago.
MSI stated that the shortage of electronic components in the first quarter resulted in the non-production of about 51,000 vehicles.
Pending customer orders stood at about 2,80,000 units at the end of the quarter, and the company said it was making efforts to serve these orders fast.
The auto major noted that the increase in prices of commodities adversely impacted its operating profit in the April-June quarter.
The company said it was forced to increase the prices of vehicles to partially offset this impact.
Shares of the company were trading 1.66% up at ₹8,663.4 apiece on the BSE.
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Cowboys owner Jerry Jones praises Mike McCarthy as the man that will 'lead this team to Super Bowl'
The Cowboys have not made the Super Bowl since 1995
The Dallas Cowboys are long awaiting their first Super Bowl appearance since 1995 as they have not advanced even past the divisional round since that season.
When Jerry Jones fired Jason Garrett, it was a new slate. The team committed Mike McCarthy, who was fired by the Green Bay Packers, in 2020 with the two sides agreeing to a five-year deal.
The Cowboys failed to make the playoffs in 2020 and lost in the wild-card game to the Jimmy Garoppolo-led San Francisco 49ers. The game was underscored by a questionable decision on a Dak Prescott-designed run, which wasted too much clock and ended the game.
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The roster is in place to make another playoff push, and Jones still believes that McCarthy can take the Cowboys to the promised land.
"I want to be real clear. He wouldn’t be sitting here today if I didn’t think he was the man to lead this team to a Super Bowl. He would not be, and I have choices. So that’s not meant to be insensitive to anybody. That’s a fact," Jones said.
The Cowboys won 12 games last year, and while Jones said he was happy with their record, "that's not enough."
Jones is not only saying that to look good in front of the media - the head coach said Jones himself has told him about his confidence in him.
SEAN PAYTON REVEALS IF HE’S PLANNING AN NFL RETURN
"I obviously have the opportunity to meet with Jerry in the GM, the head coach realm, and our conversations are about partnership, direction, vision," McCarthy said. "But also I do have the opportunity to speak to Jerry as the owner to the head coach. ... I think it just really is in line with our conversations, and that’s really where my focus has always been is on this partnership."
The Cowboys have not made the playoffs in back-to-back seasons since the 2006 and 2007 seasons, and with an NFC that is extremely top-heavy, especially their own division, surely it would be a failure if the Cowboys were unable to break that skid.
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McCarthy is currently entering his third season of his contract.
The Associated Press contributed to this report | https://www.foxnews.com/sports/cowboys-owner-jerry-jones-praises-mike-mccarthy-man-will-lead-team-super-bowl | 2022-07-27T15:59:12Z | https://www.foxnews.com/sports/cowboys-owner-jerry-jones-praises-mike-mccarthy-man-will-lead-team-super-bowl | false |
Andhra Pradesh: CPI(M) condemns ‘forcible’ land acquisition for Greenko project
Land Acquisition Act of 2013 not implemented, allege Pinnapuram residents
The State government is siding with corporate companies at the expense of people who have been displaced by the Greenko Hybrid Integrated Energy plant in Pinnapuram village of Kurnool district, alleged leaders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) who were arrested while they were planning to visit the village.
CPI(M) State Secretary V. Srinivasa Rao alleged that the State government and the company had violated the 2013 Land Acquisition Act of the Central Government by giving meagre compensation to only a few people, and that many people were forcibly evicted.
“It is undemocratic to take away farmers’ rights and not compensate them as per the law of the land. The Greenko Group, on its website, says it follows ethical corporate practices. Is it ethical to snatch land from people by not giving them compensation as per rules?” Mr. Srinivasa Rao said.
The party’s district secretary K. Prabhakar Reddy pointed out that 6,000 acres in Pinnapuram village, and an additional 2,000 acres of forest land — on which many people were dependent for their livelhood — were acquired by the company. In villages adjoining Pinnapuram, compensation of ₹15 lakh was given while in Pinnapuram, only a compensation of ₹6 lakh was given, he said.
Mr. Srinivasa Rao urged all political parties to join the CPI(M) in its fight to demand proper compensation for the farmers in Pinnapuram. The TDP too had launched an agitation and extended support to the people last week.
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- Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name, to avoid rejection. | https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/cpim-condemns-forcible-land-acquisition-for-greenko-project/article65690465.ece | 2022-07-27T15:59:49Z | https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/cpim-condemns-forcible-land-acquisition-for-greenko-project/article65690465.ece | true |
WASHINGTON (AP) — A joint venture between General Motors and South Korean battery company LG Energy Solution is set to receive a $2.5 billion loan from the Energy Department to build battery cell factories for electric vehicles in three states.
The Energy Department said it has made a conditional commitment to lend the money to Ultium Cells LLC, a joint venture of GM and LG. The loan could help Ultium finance three lithium-ion battery plants planned in Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee, bolstering the Biden administration’s efforts to promote electric vehicles and reduce dependence on China for critical components.
The plants will help strengthen U.S. energy independence and support Biden’s goal to have electric vehicles make up half of all vehicles sales in the United States by 2030, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said.
Ultium Cells will supply GM as it works to convert its light-duty fleet to all-electric by 2035.
The plants are expected to create up to 6,000 construction jobs and 5,100 operations jobs when completed. Ultium Cells is weeks away from opening its first EV battery plant in Lordstown, Ohio, which it says will help it meet strong demand for electric vehicles.
The joint venture also plans to build battery plants in Lansing, Michigan, and Spring Hill, Tennessee. GM plans to announce the site of a fourth plant this year, CEO Mary Barra said Tuesday.
The federal loan would be the first exclusively for a battery cell manufacturing project under the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program, which provides loans to support U.S. manufacturing of light-duty vehicles, qualifying components and materials that improve fuel economy, the Energy Department said.
Jigar Shah, director of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, said Tuesday the loan would “help build a domestic supply chain to meet the growing demand for electric vehicles” and “create thousands of good-paying jobs across three states while enabling improvements in existing lithium-ion battery technologies.”
Ultium Cells has allotted about $2 billion for construction of each plant, but a GM spokesman said commitments GM and LG have made to fund the joint venture don’t preclude them from pursuing a loan under a program designed to advance clean energy technology.
“Assuming the loan is approved, it would have the effect of lowering the amount of capital the joint venture partners would need to fund directly,” spokesman Jim Cain said. “Ultium Cells will repay the loans with proceeds earned by selling its cells to GM.”
Tesla, Ford and Nissan are among auto companies that received ATVM loans under the Obama administration.
___
AP auto writer Tom Krisher in Detroit contributed to this story. | https://www.wivb.com/news/business/energy-dept-backs-2-5b-loan-to-gm-venture-for-ev-batteries/ | 2022-07-27T15:59:52Z | https://www.wivb.com/news/business/energy-dept-backs-2-5b-loan-to-gm-venture-for-ev-batteries/ | false |
Almost two in five people (39%) in the USA feel less safe than they did five years ago – up from 27% in 2019 – a new global report shows.
LONDON, July 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The report is from the second edition of the Lloyd's Register Foundation World Risk Poll, powered by Gallup, which consists of research with more than 125,000 people across 121 countries.
The World Risk Poll report - A Changed World? Perceptions and experiences of risk in the Covid age – focuses on people's experiences with, and perceptions of, commonly faced risks across the globe. These include workplace harm, crime and violence, and road traffic collisions.
In this edition of the Poll, 65% of people in the USA said they were worried about violent crime as a threat to their safety, with a three-percentage-point increase (from 22% to 25%) in people feeling 'very worried' compared to 2019. This put worry about crime second to road traffic collision concerns (73%). However, the number of people who have, or know someone who has, personally experienced harm from violent crime has dropped from 25% in 2019 to 22% this in 2021.
Meanwhile, despite being hard hit by the pandemic, with more cases and reported deaths than any other country, only 5% of US respondents named Covid-19 as the greatest threat to their safety. As the report explains, this could be at least partially due to other significant national events which occurred before or during data collection, such as the murder of George Floyd or the attack on the Capitol in January 2021, affecting responses.
62% of respondents said they were worried about weather-related harm, with almost three quarters (74%) of respondents agreeing climate change is a threat to people in USA in the next 20 years, and just over half (51%) calling it a 'very serious' threat.
Dr Sarah Cumbers, Director of Evidence and Insight at Lloyd's Register Foundation, said: "The World Risk Poll is designed to provide insight for policymakers into which risks are most affecting the lives of populations across the world, and our findings will help them work with communities to make people safer.
"The Poll provides a unique resource to analyse both global and regional trends. As the US climate envoy, John Kerry, revealed that President Joe Biden is considering announcing a climate emergency, it's clear from the results that most people in the USA are also concerned about the impact of climate change on their own safety.
"The number of people who worry about being hurt by road crashes and crime, even in the midst of a pandemic, clearly demonstrates the importance of government and other policymakers accounting for other the other everyday risks populations face when responding to such emergencies."
Download a copy of the report here. Country-specific data snapshots are also available, including for the USA.
Funding is available from Lloyd's Register Foundation for further research and interventions using World Risk Poll data to reduce risk. To find out more, visit the World Risk Poll website.
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SOURCE Lloyd’s Register Foundation | https://www.cleveland19.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/united-states-residents-feel-less-safe-than-they-did-five-years-ago-global-research-finds/ | 2022-07-27T15:59:57Z | https://www.cleveland19.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/united-states-residents-feel-less-safe-than-they-did-five-years-ago-global-research-finds/ | true |
GILBERT, AZ — Starting next month, retail tenants at Epicenter at Agritopia, a high-end mixed-use development in Gilbert near Ray and Higley roads, will start opening, and the majority of them should be operational before the end of the year.
The long-awaited mixed-use project, which is being developed by Agritopia founders Johnston & Co., will have 320 luxury residential units and nearly 50,000 square feet of restaurant and retail space.
Joe Johnston, founder of Johnston & Co. and a well-known Valley entrepreneur, said he’s been planning an Epicenter-like project since 2001, but the current iteration of the project started coming together in 2017.
Besides adding a multifamily element to his Agritopia community, he wanted to bring several high-quality restaurants and stores from around the Phoenix-area to this part of Gilbert. | https://www.abc15.com/news/business/restaurant-retail-and-fitness-tenants-in-gilberts-epicenter-development-prepare-to-open | 2022-07-27T16:00:38Z | https://www.abc15.com/news/business/restaurant-retail-and-fitness-tenants-in-gilberts-epicenter-development-prepare-to-open | false |
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BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — One of the closest associates of Prime Minister Viktor Orban has resigned after the leader said in a recent speech that Hungary was fighting against Europe becoming a “mixed race” society.
Orban also said that countries with largescale migration from outside of Europe “are no longer nations.”
Zsuzsa Hegedus compared Orban's rhetoric to the kind of language used in Nazi Germany.
Her response stands as a rare rebuke from within the governing ranks of Hungary’s leader, who has long been accused by the European Union of eroding democratic institutions and norms.
Hegedus, who has worked with Orban for the past 20 years, said in a resignation letter that Orban's language was “pure Nazi" speech.
“I am sincerely sorry that I have to end a relationship due to such a shameful position," Hegedus said in the letter, which was carried by the Hungarian media on Tuesday. “I was left with no other choice.”
In his speech, which he made last Saturday, Orban spoke of two parts of Europe.
“There is a world in which European peoples are mixed together with those arriving from outside Europe,” he said in Baile Tusnad, a majority ethnic Hungarian city in Romania. “Now, that is a mixed-race world.”
In what he described as “our world,” Orban said “people from within Europe mix with one another."
“This is why we have always fought: we are willing to mix with one another, but we do not want to become peoples of mixed-race,” Orban said.
Orban also said: “Migration has split Europe in two – or I could say that it has split the West in two. One half is a world where European and non-European peoples live together. These countries are no longer nations: they are nothing more than a conglomeration of peoples.”
While he is known for anti-migration comments and his criticism of Western liberal values, Saturday's speech sparked a fresh wave of outrage from the opposition in Hungary and throughout Europe.
Criticism, however, from within Orban's closest circle, has been very rare so far. The Hungarian prime minister and his conservative Fidesz party hold a comfortable majority and have sought to curb critical voices.
Hegedus told Orban that his comments were unacceptable even by the standards of “the most bloodthirsty racist."
“I don’t know how you didn’t notice that you were presenting a pure Nazi text worthy of Goebbels," she wrote, referring to Joseph Goebbels, the chief Nazi propagandist under Adolf Hitler.
"I cannot dispense with it this time, even for the sake of our nearly 20-year friendship,” she added.
Hungary's hvg.hu news portal said Hegedus also sent a copy of her resignation letter to Hungary’s chief rabbi, Robert Frolich, who also criticized Orban’s remarks.
Orban accepted Hegedus' resignation but dismissed her criticism in a response letter.
“You can’t be serious about accusing me of racism after 20 years of working together," he said. "You know best that my government follows a policy of zero tolerance when it comes to anti-Semitism and racism in Hungary.”
Orban will travel to the U.S. next week to address a gathering of conservative activists. Orban has become a hero to many on the American right for his push against immigration and LGBTQ rights. | https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/Hungary-s-leader-rebuked-for-opposing-mixed-17332170.php | 2022-07-27T16:04:30Z | https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/Hungary-s-leader-rebuked-for-opposing-mixed-17332170.php | true |
Company enters new long-term franchise agreement and Pyramid Global Hospitality will manage the Music City hotel
ROCKVILLE, Md., July 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Choice Hotels International, Inc. (NYSE: CHH) today announced the sale of the Cambria Hotel Nashville Downtown for $109.5 million. In addition, the company entered a new long-term franchise agreement with the buyer, and the hotel will now be managed by Pyramid Global Hospitality. This latest agreement reflects the increased value for Cambria Hotels' modern, upscale accommodations in travelers' favorite urban destinations.
"The sale of the Cambria Hotel Downtown Nashville and execution of a long-term franchise agreement aligns with our long-term asset-light strategy and continues our history of recycling capital utilized to grow our brands," said Scott Oaksmith, senior vice president, real estate and finance, Choice Hotels. "We are pleased that this hotel will continue to be a flagship property for the Cambria brand for years to come."
The 255-room hotel is conveniently located at 8th Avenue and McGavock Street in Nashville's popular South of Broadway (SoBro) neighborhood and a short distance from many of Nashville's top attractions, such as the Music City Center, Bridgestone Arena, Nissan Stadium and Historic Broad Street. The property is also near several national and regional corporations, including Nissan North America, Bridgestone Americas, Inc., HCA Holdings, Randstad, and Electrolux.
The Cambria Hotel Downtown Nashville features upscale amenities and approachable indulgences that appeal to modern travelers, including:
- Multi-purpose indoor and outdoor spaces for productive work or relaxation, including a rooftop pool deck with an indoor-outdoor bar.
- Locally inspired design décor, reflecting the unique personality of the surrounding Nashville community.
- Contemporary and sophisticated guest rooms, complete with design forward fixtures, abundant lighting and plush bedding.
- Immersive, spa-style bathrooms with Bluetooth mirrors.
- True Music Room & Bar, a bar and lounge with local, live music.
- Onsite dining with freshly made food, local craft beer, wine and specialty cocktails, as well as to-go options.
- More than 6,000 square feet of multi-function meeting and event spaces.
- State-of-the-art fitness center.
There are currently more than 60 Cambria hotels open across the U.S. in popular cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, New Orleans and Phoenix, with nearly 70 hotels in the pipeline.
For more information on Cambria Hotels development opportunities, visit choicehotelsdevelopment.com/cambriahotels.
About Cambria® Hotels
The Cambria Hotels brand is designed for the modern traveler, offering guests a distinct experience with simple, guilt-free indulgences allowing them to treat themselves while on the road. Properties feature compelling design inspired by the location, spacious and comfortable rooms, flexible meeting space, and local, freshly prepared food and craft beer. Cambria Hotels is rapidly expanding in major U.S. cities, with hotels open in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Pittsburgh, and Washington, D.C. There are over 130 Cambria properties open or in the pipeline across the United States, with nearly 60 currently open. To learn more, visit www.choicehotels.com/cambria.
About Choice Hotels®
Choice Hotels International, Inc. (NYSE: CHH) is one of the largest lodging franchisors in the world. With nearly 7,000 hotels, representing nearly 600,000 rooms, in 35 countries and territories as of March 31, 2022, the Choice® family of hotel brands provides business and leisure travelers with a range of high-quality lodging options from limited service to full-service hotels in the upscale, midscale, extended-stay and economy segments. The award-winning Choice Privileges® loyalty program offers members benefits ranging from everyday rewards to exceptional experiences. For more information, visit www.choicehotels.com.
About Pyramid Global Hospitality
Pyramid Global Hospitality was formed by the 2021 merger of three hotel and resort management companies, creating the most owner-focused, experiential company in the industry and its best workplace. The organization's global portfolio spans more than 240 properties in the U.S., Caribbean and Europe. It maintains offices in Boston; The Woodlands, Texas; Cincinnati; and London. For more information, visit www.PyramidGlobal.com.
Forward-Looking Statement
This communication includes "forward-looking statements" about future events, including anticipated hotel openings. Such statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, including construction delays, availability and cost of financing and the other "Risk Factors" described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, any of which could cause actual results to be materially different from our expectations.
Addendum
This is not an offering. No offer or sale of a franchise will be made except by a Franchise Disclosure Document first filed and registered with applicable state authorities. A copy of the Franchise Disclosure Document can be obtained through contacting Choice Hotels International at 1 Choice Hotels Circle, Suite 400, Rockville, MD 20850, development@choicehotels.com.
© 2022 Choice Hotels International, Inc. All Rights Reserved
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SOURCE Choice Hotels International, Inc. | https://www.wlbt.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/choice-hotels-announces-sale-cambria-property-downtown-nashville-1095-million/ | 2022-07-27T16:06:08Z | https://www.wlbt.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/choice-hotels-announces-sale-cambria-property-downtown-nashville-1095-million/ | true |
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So how's that 'revolution of our time' going? - people chuckling at the thought of it for years now 🤡
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/w9hma8/this_is_the_first_ave_south_bridge_in_seattle/ | 2022-07-27T16:06:35Z | https://www.reddit.com/r/Sino/comments/w9hma8/this_is_the_first_ave_south_bridge_in_seattle/ | true |
LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has defended meeting a Russian oligarch with a KGB past, saying “as far as I am aware” no government business was discussed at the 2018 get-together.
Johnson, who quit as Conservative Party leader July 7 after months of ethics scandals, is facing questions about his relationship with Russia-born newspaper owner Evgeny Lebedev and his father, Alexander. The older man is a businessman and former Cold War-era KGB officer who has been sanctioned by Canada for his alleged role in enabling Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In April 2018, Johnson went to a party at Evgeny Lebedev’s Italian mansion that was also attended by Alexander Lebedev. Johnson, who was British foreign secretary at the time, was not accompanied by any officials.
The event was held as Johnson returned from a NATO meeting, and weeks after former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok in the English city of Salisbury. A police officer and two local people were also sickened, one of whom, Dawn Sturgess, later died.
Britain blames Russia’s GRU security service for the Salisbury attack, a charge Moscow denies.
Johnson told a committee of senior lawmakers that his meeting with Alexander Lebedev “was not a formal meeting, nor something that was pre-arranged.” He said it was normal for Britain’s top diplomat to attend a “private, social occasion” without officials or security staff.
He said in a letter published Tuesday by Parliament’s Liaison Committee that “as far as I am aware, no government business was discussed” at the party.
Angela Rayner, deputy leader of the opposition Labour Party, said Johnson’s “mealy-mouthed statement raises more questions than it answers.”
She said Johnson “apparently still cannot recall whether he discussed government business or not. This letter suggests the Prime Minister has something to hide.”
Evgeny Lebedev owns Britain’s Evening Standard and Independent newspapers. In 2020 was given a noble title — Lord Lebedev of Siberia — and a seat in Parliament’s House of Lords by Johnson’s government. British media have reported that U.K. intelligence agencies had expressed concerns about the appointment.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, Johnson’s government has sanctioned hundreds of wealthy Russians and moved to clamp down on money laundering through London’s property and financial markets.
Opposition politicians and anti-corruption campaigners say Johnson’s Conservatives have allowed ill-gotten money to slosh into U.K. properties, banks and businesses for years, turning London into a “laundromat” for dirty cash. | https://cbs4indy.com/news/national-world/ap-international/uks-boris-johnson-defends-meeting-ex-kgb-agent-at-party/ | 2022-07-27T16:07:42Z | https://cbs4indy.com/news/national-world/ap-international/uks-boris-johnson-defends-meeting-ex-kgb-agent-at-party/ | true |
JERSEYDALE, Calif. (AP) — Firefighters continue to make progress against a huge California forest fire that forced evacuations for thousands of people and destroyed 41 homes and other buildings near Yosemite National Park, officials said Tuesday.
Crews battling the Oak Fire in Mariposa County got a break from increased humidity and lower temperatures as monsoonal moisture moved through the Sierra Nevada foothills, said a Tuesday night report by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire.
After minimal growth Monday and overnight, the blaze had consumed nearly 29 square miles (75 square kilometers) of forest land, with 26% containment on Tuesday, Cal Fire said. The cause was under investigation.
“Although good progress continues on the fire, there is much work to be done,” Cal Fire said.
Crews were able to strengthen some areas of fire line although steep, rugged terrain was challenging firefighters on the northern and northeastern sides of the blaze, making it inaccessible to bulldozers and requiring fire lines to be cut by hand, Cal Fire said.
Smoke from the blaze also was hampering aircraft, the agency said.
About 6,000 residents from mountain communities were still under evacuation orders, although a few places were downgraded to advisories Tuesday afternoon.
Heavy smoke from the fire drifted more than 200 miles (322 kilometers), reaching Lake Tahoe, parts of Nevada and the San Francisco Bay Area, officials said.
More than 3,000 firefighters supported by two dozen helicopters and 94 bulldozers were battling the blaze that erupted last Friday southwest of the park, near the town of Midpines. It exploded in size on Saturday as flames churned through tinder-dry brush and trees amid the worst drought in decades.
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.
The Oak Fire burned as firefighters also made progress against an earlier blaze that burned to the edge of a grove of giant sequoias in the southernmost part of Yosemite. The Washburn Fire, spanning a 7.6-square-mile (19-square-km) area, was 91% contained on Tuesday after burning for more than two weeks and moving into the Sierra National Forest.
In North Texas, crews are battling a wildfire that destroyed 16 homes and damaged five others amid sweltering temperatures and strong winds. In a Tuesday statement, officials said there were “significant hotspots” throughout the Chalk Mountain Fire near Glen Rose involving unburned and partially burned fuels. The blaze was 20% contained. | https://cbs4indy.com/news/national-world/ap-us-news/crews-make-progress-against-destructive-fire-near-yosemite/ | 2022-07-27T16:08:09Z | https://cbs4indy.com/news/national-world/ap-us-news/crews-make-progress-against-destructive-fire-near-yosemite/ | true |
Records fall as Northwest swelters under multiday heat wave
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Free transportation to cooling centers and garbage pickup well before sunrise were among the steps being taken in the Pacific Northwest as the region hit the peak of a multiday heatwave.
Temperatures soared to 102 degrees Fahrenheit (38.9 Celsius) in Oregon’s largest city on Tuesday, which is expected to be the hottest day of a scorching spell that will be unusually long for this part of the United States. It was also a new daily record for the city for July 26, besting the previous mark set in 2020.
Seattle also reported a new all-time daily high of 94 F (34.4 C), breaking the previous record of 92 F (33.3 C) from 2018, according to the National Weather Service.
Elsewhere in Washington state, record daily temperatures were also registered in Bellingham and the capital, Olympia, which experienced 90 F (32.2 C) and 97 F (36.1 C) respectively.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown declared a state of emergency across much of the state, warning the extreme temperatures may cause utility outages and transportation disruptions. Temperatures aren’t expected to cool in western Oregon and Washington until the weekend.
Under the sweltering heat, Matthew Carr spent his lunch break in a fountain in downtown Portland, Oregon. The 57-year-old works outside picking up trash for the city and had to find a way to cool off.
“This is pretty hot,” Carr said. “I can just take my uniform off, jump in there with my shorts for my break, and hang out for a good 10 or 15 minutes.”
Oregon health officials say there has been an uptick in the number of people reporting heat-related illness in emergency departments, and the number of those calling emergency services numbers for similar symptoms.
“Heat-related illness daily visits are above expected levels statewide,” said Jonathan Modie, lead communications officer at the Oregon Health Authority’s Public Health Division. He said there were 32 such visits to emergency rooms on Monday compared to three to five per day before the heat wave began.
Portland officials have opened cooling centers in public buildings and installed misting stations in parks. TriMet, which operates public transportation in the Portland metropolitan area, will allow passengers who cannot afford fares to ride for free when heading to cooling centers.
Most of Portland’s garbage companies began earlier pick-ups on Tuesday morning, starting as early as 4 a.m. to reduce drivers’ exposure to heat and health risks. The early rounds will likely continue through Friday morning.
Multnomah County, which includes Portland, planned to open four overnight emergency cooling shelters starting Tuesday night so people who can’t get cool on their own could spend the night. The locations can accommodate a total of 245 guests, said Multnomah County spokesperson Kate Yeiser.
“We’re going to find space for anybody who needs it,” Yeiser said, adding that the sites have a “no-turn-away policy.” She said the county may open an additional overnight center on Wednesday if there’s high demand.
Many libraries are extending their hours, staying open until 8 or 9 p.m. to allow people more time to cool off.
Residents and officials in the Northwest have been trying to adjust to the likely reality of longer, hotter heat waves following last summer’s deadly “heat dome” weather phenomenon that prompted record temperatures and deaths.
In response, Oregon passed a law requiring all new housing built after April 2024 to have air conditioning installed in at least one room. The law already prohibits landlords in most cases from restricting tenants from installing cooling devices in their rental units.
About 800 people died in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia during a 2021 heat wave that hit in late June and early July. The temperature at the time soared to an all-time high of 116 F (46.7 C) in Portland and smashed heat records in cities and towns across the region. Many of those who died were elderly and lived alone.
While temperatures this week are not expected to get that high, the anticipated number of consecutive hot days has raised concerns among officials.
The National Weather Service has issued an extreme heat warning for large swaths of Oregon and Washington state.
Officials in Seattle and Portland have issued air quality advisories from Tuesday through Saturday, warning that smog may reach levels that could be unhealthy for sensitive groups.
Cooling sites are open throughout Seattle, greater King County and throughout western Washington
___
AP photographer Craig Mitchelldyer contributed.
___
Claire Rush is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow her on Twitter.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wbrc.com/2022/07/27/records-fall-northwest-swelters-under-multiday-heat-wave/ | 2022-07-27T16:10:06Z | https://www.wbrc.com/2022/07/27/records-fall-northwest-swelters-under-multiday-heat-wave/ | true |
What you need for Nintendo Switch Sports
The Nintendo Switch is a gaming console that can host many games across different categories and difficulty levels. One popular title is Nintendo Switch Sports, a game that has six sports in one. The game can be played locally or online by one to four players, making it fun for friends and family members.
What is Nintendo Switch Sports
Consider the spiritual successor to 2006’s popular Wii Sports, Nintendo Switch Sports is a new video game that launched in April 2022. It takes advantage of motion control to get a player moving around physically and is designed so people can play with others either in person or online. Similar to Wii games, it also has the option for players to customize their character and screen name.
Some of the games, such as volleyball, bowling and tennis, require three to four players. But with one or two players, you have access to the following games:
- Soccer
- Badminton
- Tennis
- Volleyball
- Bowling
- Chambara
Most of these sports are straightforward and play similarly to their real-life counterparts. One lesser-known game is chambara, which is a Japanese sport that’s a cross between jousting and fencing.
Although Nintendo Switch Sports only includes six sports right now, more are planned for the future. In fall 2022, the company plans to add golf to the game.
Gaming console and equipment
Switch Dock
When you purchase a basic Nintendo Switch, you receive a Switch Dock. This lightweight device lets you connect the console to a television so you can play video games on the big screen. Since Nintendo Switch Sports is both a party game and designed to encourage physical activity, it’s more playable and fun when displayed in this way.
The Dock comes with an HDMI port that can be connected to a television with an HDMI cable, which the standard bundle for the Nintendo Switch also comes with. However, if you want a shorter or longer cord, or if something happens to the original one, you need to get a separate cable. Once you have it, simply connect the cable to the ports on the Dock and the television and play.
Joy-Cons
Several items come with the standard Nintendo Switch console bundle, including two basic Joy-Cons. These small controllers can be connected on the left and right sides of the console, as well as used separately when the console is docked in the Switch Dock.
The Joy-Con controllers come with motion control. Not every Nintendo Switch game requires this, but it’s essential for Nintendo Switch Sports. If you don’t have controllers with motion controllers, the game won’t be able to detect your movements, making the game difficult to play or even unplayable.
The standard Joy-Cons come in red and blue, but you can also buy new ones separately if you want specific colors or themes. Common options include:
- Standard gray
- Zelda blue
- Neon pink and neon green
- Pokemon yellow
- Neon orange and purple
- Luigi green
- Mario red
- Yellow and blue
- Transparent purple
Choosing controllers that match the game or your personality are a great way to add to the fun. Also, if you want to play with four people locally, you need to get additional Joy-Cons since the original package only comes with two.
Joy-Con straps
Joy-Con straps are a recommended accessory for those playing active games such as Nintendo Switch Sports. When you’re using the Joy-Cons separately from the console, you can connect straps to each controller. This makes it easier to press the SL and the SR buttons while keeping them from flying out of your hands while playing.
Another useful accessory is the Nintendo Leg Strap. This connects around the player’s leg and can hold either the left or right Joy-Con controller to detect leg movements. This is helpful when playing Soccer Shoot-Out! on Nintendo Switch Sports.
Nintendo Switch case
A Nintendo Switch case is another useful accessory. Not only is it designed to protect the console, but it can also add to the entertainment value by adding a specific color or theme while playing.
Multiplayer subscription
Nintendo has a subscription service, Switch Online, that gives you access to different games and features. With it, you can play certain games online with other people. Although it’s not required for local gameplay, you need a subscription to play Nintendo Switch Sports online with other people.
Once you have a subscription, you can set up a room for other people with the code to play the game. Or you can join an existing room that someone else has made. Alternatively, you can choose to play with anyone without being invited. If you have a subscription and play online, you can also earn items to customize your in-game avatar.
Nintendo offers memberships ranging from one to 12 months. It also has options that give you access to other games. There are also family membership options at a discount.
8 best things you need to enjoy Nintendo Switch Sports
Nintendo Switch — OLED Model With White Joy-Con
This is the seven-inch OLED version of the Nintendo Switch Console. It comes with 64 GB of internal storage, the white Nintendo Dock and two white Joy-Con controllers and straps. The screen can be converted into tabletop mode by flipping the back side, which is ideal for those who prefer smaller displays. The crisp display and large storage space are the two biggest upgrades over the original Switch console.
Sold by Amazon
Nintendo Switch With Neon Blue And Neon Red Joy‑Con
If you want a basic Nintendo Switch Console with a Dock and two Joy-Con controllers, this one is for you. It comes with four color options and either 64, 128 or 256 GB memory.
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Nintendo Switch Sports (Nintendo Switch)
This video game has six interactive games to choose from, including bowling, tennis and football, making it perfect for enjoying an afternoon with friends either locally or online.
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Two-Pack Leg Strap Compatible With Nintendo Switch Sports
These leg straps are designed to be used with the Nintendo Switch Sports game, specifically for soccer. Each strap can hold one Joy-Con controller. They also have Velcro that’s easily adjustable to fit around most leg sizes.
Sold by Amazon
This pack includes two Joy-Cons, the left and the right, with seven color options, including neon pink and neon green. They can be used on their own or connected to the console. They come with a gyro-sensor and an accelerometer, making them perfect for Nintendo Switch Sports. They also come with Joy-Con grips, so it’s easy to secure them to your wrists.
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Wrist Strap For Switch Joycon — One Pair Lanyard Attachments
If you want separate wrist straps, these come with a secure lanyard and can be tied around your wrist to keep you from losing the controllers while playing games. They’re compatible with Joy-Con controllers.
Sold by Amazon
This separate Nintendo Switch Dock is the perfect replacement for anyone whose original Dock was broken or lost. It can take compatible games and display them on the big screen. It comes with an HDMI cable.
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Nintendo Switch Online 12-Month Individual Membership
This digital code gives you a year-long online membership so you can play video games with other players remotely through an internet connection. It also gives you access to many classic games from the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
Sold by Amazon
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Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://cbs4indy.com/reviews/br/electronics-br/gaming-accessories-br/everything-you-need-to-enjoy-nintendo-switch-sports/ | 2022-07-27T16:11:00Z | https://cbs4indy.com/reviews/br/electronics-br/gaming-accessories-br/everything-you-need-to-enjoy-nintendo-switch-sports/ | true |
DES MOINES, Iowa — A giant Mega Millions lottery jackpot ballooned to $1.02 billion after no one matched all six numbers Tuesday night and won the top prize.
The new estimated jackpot will be the nation's fourth-largest lottery prize.
The jackpot has grown so large because no one has matched the game's six selected numbers since April 15. That's 29 consecutive drawings without a big winner.
Tuesday's numbers were: 07-29-60-63-66, Mega Ball: 15.
The $1.02 billion prize is for winners who choose the annuity option, paid annually over 30 years. Most winners opt for the cash option, which for the next drawing Friday night is an estimated $602.5 million.
The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302.5 million.
Mega Millions is played in 45 states as well as Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The game is coordinated by state lotteries. | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2022/jul/27/no-one-wins-us-mega-millions-jackpot-now-over-1b/ | 2022-07-27T16:11:03Z | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2022/jul/27/no-one-wins-us-mega-millions-jackpot-now-over-1b/ | false |
SANTA CLARA (KRON) – The San Francisco 49ers don’t have a quarterback controversy this morning, as they told Jimmy Garoppolo thanks for everything, but no thanks on staying as starting quarterback.
Instead, Niners coach Kyle Shanahan will have Trey Lance take that role. Lance, nine years younger than Garoppolo, has been with the 49ers since 2021 when he was selected third overall in the NFL Draft.
Garoppolo will either be cut or traded. The Niners hope to trade him, but if they don’t by the start of the season, he’ll get his salary of $24 million.
Also Deebo Samuel is showing up today: back in April he wanted to be traded, but the Niners say he’ll get a new contract that will work for both sides.
Practices will last from July 27-Aug. 10 from 10:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Many of these practices are generally open to the public, with an entry of $5.
KRON ON is streaming live
The first preseason game will be Aug. 12 at 5:30 p.m., with the Green Bay Packers visiting. | https://www.kron4.com/top-stories/49ers-start-training-camp-with-new-starting-qb/ | 2022-07-27T16:11:52Z | https://www.kron4.com/top-stories/49ers-start-training-camp-with-new-starting-qb/ | true |
Obscure Brewery celebrates equality for the disabled with specialty orange beer
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) - A Sioux Falls brewery is celebrating an important milestone in American history with a specialty orange fruit beer.
Obscure Brewing released its “Accessibly Orange Beer” on Tuesday. The Belgium ale was created to celebrate 32 years of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The law went into effect on July 26, 1990, prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities.
Representatives of Obscure say this is their way of celebrating all of their customers.
“It’s kind of just amazing to think that, you know, the ADA has only been around for, for 32 years, that before that, there must have been so many challenges,” said Obscure Brewing Co. Owner Don Choate. “So it’s something worth celebrating, that everyone has access to what everyone else has access to.”
The Accessibly Orange beer is available for a limited time only. Obscure had the same beer on tap last year and it sold out in about two weeks.
Copyright 2022 Dakota News Now. All rights reserved. | https://www.dakotanewsnow.com/2022/07/27/obscure-brewery-celebrates-equality-disabled-with-specialty-orange-beer/ | 2022-07-27T16:12:50Z | https://www.dakotanewsnow.com/2022/07/27/obscure-brewery-celebrates-equality-disabled-with-specialty-orange-beer/ | true |
There are few things more alluring than a chocolate chip cookie that’s been baked to perfection.
Some prefer their CCCs with a bit of crispiness on the edges, while others prefer theirs soft and buttery with a scattering of sea salt flakes on top.
Said to be created in 1938 by the owners of the Toll House Inn in Massachusetts, the original chocolate chip cookie recipe has been tweaked and modified by thousands of professional bakeries and home bakers alike.
Yelp has compiled a list of where to find the best chocolate chip cookie in each state.
Besides celebrated bakeries like Amelia’s in Indiana and Gideon’s Bakehouse in Florida, some interesting entries on the list include a pizzeria in Idaho as well as a chicken spot in Colorado.
- Alabama (Homewood): Cookie Fix
- Alaska (Anchorage): Fire Island Rustic Bakeshop
- Arizona (Phoenix): La Grande Orange
- Arkansas (Little Rock): The Root Cafe
- California (San Francisco): B Patisserie
- Colorado (Denver): Brider
- Connecticut (Mystic): Sift Bake Shop
- Delaware (Milford): Dolce Bakery and Coffee Shop
- Florida (Orlando): Gideon’s Bakehouse
- Georgia (Savannah): Back in the Day Bakery
- Hawaii (Honolulu): Kona Coffee Purveyors
- Idaho (Coeur d’Alene): Fire Pizza
- Illinois (Chicago): Sweet Mandy B’s
- Indiana (Indianapolis): Amelia’s
- Iowa (Des Moines): Scenic Route Bakery
- Kansas (Overland Park): Mud Pie Vegan Bakery & Coffee
- Kentucky (Louisville): Please & Thank You
- Louisiana (New Orleans): Willa Jean
- Maine (Portland): Standard Baking
- Maryland (Baltimore): Crust by Mack
- Massachusetts (Boston): Blunch
- Michigan (Detroit): Avalon International Breads
- Minnesota (Minneapolis): Rustica Bakery
- Mississippi (Corinth): Abe’s Grill
- Missouri (Saint Louis): Union Loafers Cake and Bread
- Montana (Hamilton): Mineshaft Pasty
- Nebraska (Omaha): Sweet Magnolias Bake Shop
- Nevada (Las Vegas): Zenaida’s Cafe
- New Hampshire (North Conway): Mystic Sugar Bakery
- New Jersey (Montclair): The Corner
- New Mexico (Albuquerque): Rude Boy Cookies
- New York (New York): City Cakes
- North Carolina (Charlotte): Villani’s Bakery
- North Dakota (Fargo): Mehl’s Gluten-Free Bakery
- Ohio (Lakewood): Blackbird Baking Company
- Oklahoma (Oklahoma City): Elemental Coffee
- Oregon (Portland): Courier Coffee Roasters
- Pennsylvania (West Homestead): Nancy B’s Bakery
- Rhode Island (Pawtucket): Wildflour Vegan Bakery and Cafe
- South Carolina (Greenville): The Chocolate Shoppe
- South Dakota (Rapid City): Sweet Secrets Bakery
- Tennessee (Nashville): Baked on 8th
- Texas (Austin): Teddy V Patisserie
- Utah (Millcreek): Munchies SLC
- Vermont (North Ferrisburgh): Vermont Cookie Love
- Virginia (Arlington): Bakeshop
- Washington (Seattle): Hello Robin
- West Virginia (Morgantown): Apple Annie’s
- Wisconsin (Madison): Yummee Treats
- Wyoming (Jackson): Persephone Bakery
Yelp says it’s an all-time list of businesses that sell chocolate chip cookies that were then ranked on factors like the total volume and ratings of reviews mentioning “chocolate chip cookie.”
National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day is August 4. | https://fox59.com/indiana-news/where-to-find-the-best-chocolate-chip-cookie-in-indiana/ | 2022-07-27T16:13:09Z | https://fox59.com/indiana-news/where-to-find-the-best-chocolate-chip-cookie-in-indiana/ | false |
Debate wasn't supposed to end like that, says host Kate McCann
- Published
A TV presenter who fainted on air during the latest Tory leadership debate has said "that wasn't how last night was supposed to end".
Journalist Kate McCann was hosting the Sun and TalkTV debate between Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss on Tuesday evening.
It was abruptly halted about halfway through after a loud crash was heard.
McCann, who will be back on air on Wednesday evening, has assured people that she is fine and thanked "everyone for the lovely messages".
Before it was stopped, the TV debate had been covering tax, the state of the NHS and rising living costs.
Mr Sunak and Ms Truss both tweeted after the programme ended to say they were relieved that McCann was fine.
The political journalist apologised to the two Tory leadership candidates on Twitter and said she would be returning on Wednesday evening to unpick the debate, adding that she would be "sat down" this time.
TalkTV confirmed she would be presenting its News Desk programme, filling in for Tom Newton Dunn.
He tweeted on Tuesday evening that McCann had proved she is "one of the very best in the business" during the first half hour of the political debate.
After the programme went off air, TalkTV said the presenter was "fine" but that the channel was following medical advice not to continue.
"We apologise to our viewers and listeners", said TalkTV.
The presenter had been due to co-host the debate alongside the Sun's political editor Harry Cole, but he tested positive for Covid-19 and had to pull out. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-62323912 | 2022-07-27T16:16:28Z | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-62323912 | false |
Playin’ for Leighton: How Peaches baseball creates opportunity for girls
Leighton Accardo was always surrounded by baseball.
Her father, Jeremy Accardo, was a Major League Baseball player, with stops at the San Francisco Giants, Toronto Blue Jays, Baltimore Orioles, and Cleveland Indians. He has also coached in the Mets and Brewers organizations.
“She grew up on the field,” Carly Accardo, Leighton’s mother, said. “She was only a couple months old at her first spring training, and we were at every game. Then, Jeremy would have her in the locker room in the clubhouse and the kids would run the bases after Jeremy’s games. She just loved it.”
Leighton always thought that if boys could play baseball, she could too. In 2015, 3-year-old Leighton was playing t-ball in Gilbert on an all-boys team – but she wanted to switch to another.
"(She) noticed that, you know, there was one girl on another team, and one girl on another team,” Carly said. “And she said, ‘I want to be on that team next year.’ And I said, ‘Well, why do you want to be on that team?’ She said, ‘Because there’s a girl on it.’ And I was like, oh, maybe this would be more fun for her if she had some more girls."
Carly said she convinced enough girls to play t-ball to make up a team, and Peaches was created. As Leighton and her teammates grew up, they moved through the youth baseball ranks, and more girls wanted to join the program. While Carly couldn’t coach more than one team by herself, she said, parents stepped up to make Peaches a multiteam league.
But at the four-year mark of Peaches in 2019, Leighton was diagnosed with cancer.
Her diagnosis didn’t affect her competitiveness, Carly said, and Leighton still wanted to play sports. Carly said Leighton still played baseball and hockey – another sport she loved because of Carly’s Canadian roots and Jeremy’s time with the Blue Jays – with some adaptations because of her tumor.
Leighton’s tumor pushed on her sciatic nerve and it paralyzed the lower half of her left leg. So, Leighton had ankle-foot orthoses to stabilize her leg, Carly said, and there were times she could play with those braces.
Leighton and the Accardo family became close with the Arizona Coyotes after they honored her at a Hockey Fights Cancer night, and the Coyotes also helped Leighton in her goal to get back on the ice.
"There were a couple of baseball games she did get back in and she did get back on the ice a couple of times,” Carly said. “The Coyotes built her a skate that she could get her paralyzed foot into, so she did get back out there but not obviously, to the extent before she was diagnosed.”
When Leighton died of cancer at age nine on Nov. 24, 2020, she left an impact in multiple sports.
The Coyotes mourned Leighton’s death and inducted her into their Ring of Honor in April 2021, along with establishing a girls hockey scholarship in her name.
Leighton’s legacy also lives on as Peaches has grown into a 16-team girls baseball league.
Usually, Carly said, an all-girls baseball team will only play against other girls' teams at events like the Baseball for All national championships held last weekend in Mesa. But Peaches girls' baseball teams play against each other in fall and spring seasons in the East Valley League.
Peaches started playing in Baseball for All’s national tournament in 2019, and Carly serves on the organization’s board of directors.
“The Arizona Peaches is a testament to the power of a mother’s love,” Justine Siegal, founder of Baseball for All, said. “... Carly Accardo and the Accardo family are incredible people. They live selflessly, and they’re building for others. And Leighton will never be forgotten. She’ll forever be a part of our community.”
Baseball for All aims to give opportunity for girls in the male-dominated sport, with a similar mission statement to Peaches. In December 2021, Baseball for All and Peaches partnered for the Leighton Accardo Series, a two-day tournament in her honor.
MORE: Baseball for All ceating opportunity for girls
Carly said she appreciates girls coming together to play baseball, as it keeps Leighton’s memory alive. Girls at Baseball for All’s opening ceremonies said they were “playin’ for Leighton.”
“She's relevant and present every day of our lives,” Carly said. "... When these girls all come together, it's like Leighton’s just like totally rejuvenated in all of them. That whole weekend is like a weekend to remember Leighton and honor her and play for her because they know that if she was there, she'd be playing her butt off.”
Baseball for All also gave out two Leighton Accardo Memorial scholarships at its 2022 national tournament, held July 21-24 in Mesa. The two girls who received the scholarships this year didn’t know Leighton personally, Carly said, but they’re still affected by Leighton’s love for baseball.
“They didn't know her, but now they do,” Carly said. “And they won that scholarship, which means they're going to tell people about Leighton and they're going to tell people why they got it and how amazing she was. So, it just keeps Leighton relevant, it keeps her present and it keeps her a part of that tournament even though she's not physically here.” | https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/2022/07/27/playin-leighton-accardo-how-peaches-baseball-creates-opportunity-girls/10158448002/ | 2022-07-27T16:17:02Z | https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/2022/07/27/playin-leighton-accardo-how-peaches-baseball-creates-opportunity-girls/10158448002/ | true |
Did Covid emerge in notorious wet market after all? Scientists claim they've traced original infection back to Wuhan's 'ground zero' - in discovery that challenges lab leak hypothesis
- Two explosive new studies seem to tip scale back in favour of natural spillover despite lab leak concerns
- Positive samples from floors, cages and counters track virus back to stalls in southwestern corner of market
- Scientists say they've pinpointed original infection to exact date and suspect virus harboured by raccoon dog
Fierce debates about the origins of the Covid pandemic were reignited today after two new studies claimed to trace the outbreak back to a notorious animal slaughter market in Wuhan.
One shows for the first time how the earliest human cases were clustered within a small radius around the Huanan Seafood Market in winter 2019.
More precise analysis of swabs taken from floors, cages and counters track the virus back to stalls in the southwestern corner of the market, where animals that can harbour Covid were sold for meat or fur at the time.
A second study claims to have pinpointed the exact date the first animal-to-human infection occurred — November 18, 2019 — after carrying out genetic analysis on hundreds of samples from the first human carriers.
They also say they have found evidence another first generation strain was spreading at the wet market — which, if true, would place both original lineages within its walls.
Until recently, the only Covid cases linked to the market were Lineage B, which was thought to have evolved after Lineage A. Proponents of the accidental lab leak hypothesis used this as proof the virus only arrived at the market after evolving elsewhere in Wuhan.
One of the experts involved in the new studies, virologist Professor David Robertson, of the University of Glasgow, said he hopes they will 'correct the false record that the virus came from a lab'.
But critics have played down or disputed the findings entirely, and warned both studies were carried out by the same group of academics who have regularly argued in favour of the natural origin theory.
The question of whether the global outbreak began with a spillover from wildlife sold at the market or leaked out of the Wuhan lab just eight miles across the Yangtze River has given rise to fierce debate about how to prevent the next pandemic. Now, two new studies point to a natural spillover at the Huanan wildlife market. Positive swab samples of floors, cages and counters also track the virus back to stalls in the southwestern corner of the market (bottom left), where animals with the potential to harbour Covid were sold for meat or fur at the time (bottom right)
The question of whether the global outbreak began with a spillover from wildlife sold at the market or leaked out of a biochemical lab has given rise to fierce debate about how to prevent the next pandemic.
Due to shady practices and high risk of cross-species infection, the wet market was originally touted as the source of the outbreak when several workers and shoppers came down with the mystery flu-like virus.
But concerns started to mount when it emerged the Wuhan Institute of Virology — located just 8miles away on the other side of the Yangtze River — was working extensively on bat coronaviruses at the time.
Another key question was why only 50 patients out of hundreds who were hospitalised with Covid in Wuhan had a direct link to the market.
One of the new studies, published in the journal Science, used mapping tools to estimate the longitude and latitude locations of 156 of those original cases.
Virologist Shi Zheng-li works with her colleague in the P4 lab of the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Hubei province - which is at the heart of the lab-leak theory. Nicknamed the 'Bat Lady', Zheng-li hunted down dozens of deadly Covid-like viruses in bat caves and studied them at the WIV
Pictured: The Wuhan Institute of Virology, where crucial data was wiped by Chinese scientists
The highest density of December cases were located in a 3mile (5km) radius around the market — a relatively tiny spot in a sprawling city of 11 million people that is roughly the size of London.
Earlier in the pandemic, many were surprised that cases were not even more closely linked.
But researchers behind the new study said it was consistent with how Covid spreads — mostly by people with mild illness who travel and spread it to others.
Widespread testing was not in place at the time, which meant the only people who were officially diagnosed were those who were very sick in hospital.
The research found that a large percentage of early patients were people who lived in the surrounding neighbourhood but did not have a direct link to the market.
Professor Robertson told the BBC: 'Knowing what we know about the virus now, it's exactly what we would expect - because many people only get very mildly ill, so they would be out in the community transmitting the virus to others and the severe cases would be hard to link to each other.'
The researchers ran tests that showed it was extremely unlikely that such a pattern could occur merely by chance.
'This paper provides pretty strong evidence that the Huanan seafood market was indeed the epicentre of the initial outbreak,' Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious disease expert at the University of East Anglia, who was not involved in the research, told MailOnline.
'This type of analysis is quite well known to me as it is used to identify sources of outbreaks.... the fact that not all of the cases were directly linked to the market is not unusual in such studies.'
But Professor Hunter said while the research pins most of the original cases to the market, it does not prove the virus originated there.
'The fact that SARS-CoV-2-susceptible live mammals were sold at the Huanan market during November and December 2019 is not in itself proof, even if indicative,' he added.
His comments were echoed by Professor David Livermore, a microbiologist at the University of East Anglia, who told MailOnline: 'The clustering suggests that the market amplified early spread of the virus.
'However, it doesn't prove that the virus originated from an animal at the market. The virus might have reached the market with a customer who worked elsewhere in the city.
'It's unproven, but I'd lean 60:40 in favour of an accidental lab leak. There's nothing here that leads me to change that view.'
He added: 'The strongest arguments in favour of the lab leak are the remarkable coincidence that the pandemic began in a city hosting a major centre for coronavirus study; that this centre was undertaking gain of function experiments; that SARS-CoV2 contains unusual sequences, hinting at genetic manipulation and that, despite vast effort, no clear animal host has been found.
The researchers also drew on data from a Chinese investigation into the origins of Covid at the Wuhan market.
In that probe, officials swabbed walls, drains and other surfaces inside the market. They also caught mice and stray cats and dogs near the market to test them, while also testing the contents of the sewers outside.
A total of 69 environmental samples collected from the market by the Chinese C.D.C. (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) turned up positive for Covid.
In the new study, researchers created a floor plan of the wet market based on publicly-available sources and traced a cluster of the positive samples to stalls in the southwestern corner of the market.
They also discovered that raccoon dogs - which are susceptible to Covid - were sold for meat and fur at that location in November 2019, along with an unknown species of birds.
But further investigations showed hedgehogs, hares, squirrels, badgers and rats, which are also harbourers of the virus, were sold elsewhere in the market at that time.
Professor Robertson told the BBC: 'So we have confirmation of animals we now know are susceptible [to Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19] were sold there in late 2019.'
Meanwhile, the second study — also published in Science — saw researchers genetically analyse 800 coronavirus samples from the earliest cases in Wuhan.
By studying subtle changes in the genetic code of viral samples, researchers concluded for the first time that the original jump to humans happened on November 18, 2019, and involved a lineage B strain.
Professor Hunter told MailOnline that he was undecided about Covid's origin, but this study 'really clinches it for me'.
'When investigating the cause of outbreaks and in my career I have investigated many outbreaks we generally build conclusions on what was the cause on more than one piece of evidence.
'Single pieces of evidence are rarely that convincing. To make a really strong case we require epidemiological, environmental and microbiological evidence. It is not often that you get all three but in this context you do.'
There are still questions about whether lineage A or B came first. The scientists suggest the two might have originated in different animals in separate spillover events at the market.
But some experts are less convinced. Professor Livermore told MailOnline: ' The authors of the second study argue that there were two independent escapes of different variants to humans at the same market over a brief period.
'This strikes me as inherently implausible. Two escapes in the same place? Over a brief time period? If escapes were so common we’d see them scattered across China on a regular basis. And we don’t.'
Lineage A has still not been found in any person linked to the wet market. It was only detected once — on a glove used to handle animals at the wet market. It was collected by the Chinese CDC when the market was shut down in January 2020.
But Jesse Bloom, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, questioned this findings when the Chinese data was published earlier this year.
He noted the Lineage A glove sample was collected months the virus had begun spreading in humans, raising the possibility that it had been brought into the market.
He told the New York Times in February: 'I am especially unconvinced by the conclusion that there must have necessarily been two different spillovers in the Huanan Seafood Market.'
Despite the new data, there remain questions about the Wuhan Institute of Virology's links to the early days in the pandemic.
Chinese officials were found to have wiped crucial databases from the lab and stifled independent investigations into the facility.
Researchers who fell ill with a mysterious flu-like virus months before the official Covid timeline were silenced or disappeared.
The WIV specialised in dangerous viruses and one of its chief scientists was nicknamed the 'Bat Lady' for her extensive work on coronaviruses like Covid.
It received funding from the American Government to conduct gain-of-function research, which involves tinkering with viruses with the view of getting ahead of future outbreaks.
Famous US economist Jeffrey Sachs, who led a two-year probe into the pandemic's origins, said he was 'pretty convinced' the global outbreak was the result of experiments between US and Chinese scientists. | https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11053897/Did-Covid-emerge-notorious-wet-market-Two-explosive-new-studies-suggest-so.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490 | 2022-07-27T16:17:38Z | https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11053897/Did-Covid-emerge-notorious-wet-market-Two-explosive-new-studies-suggest-so.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490 | true |
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There have been messages of support and praise from the royal family and Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
The coverage is widespread, across the rolling news channels and both the front and back pages of the nation's newspapers.
The “Football’s Coming Home” chant is back in vogue.
The England women’s soccer team is the talk of the nation and capturing hearts and minds because of its run to the final of the European Championship.
After a 4-0 win over Sweden in the semifinals on Tuesday, the Lionesses — as they are also known — are one victory away from a first international title in the women’s game, and a first in either England men’s or women’s soccer since the men won the World Cup in 1966.
With so much focus and glare on the behemoth that is men’s soccer in England, the women’s game has for so long lagged behind their rivals on the continent. Not anymore, with the Lionesses now a constant in the latter stages of the biggest tournaments.
Here’s a look at the reasons behind their rise:
___
MONEY
Investment in the women’s game in England has soared to record levels in recent years.
A game-changer is Barclays’ sponsorship of the top two leagues, the Women’s Super League and the Women’s Championship, with 30 million pounds ($36 million) getting injected for 2022-25. It’s the most ever invested in women’s sport in Britain, according to the Football Association. That compared with 15 million pounds ($18 million) under the bank's first deal with the FA from 2019-2022.
Added to that is the three-year agreement the FA reached with Sky Sports and BBC for the broadcast rights to the Super League ahead of the 2021-22 season, worth around 8 million pounds ($9.6 million) per year.
The revenue has been distributed across the women’s game, giving clubs more money to invest in players and coaches, as well as facilities.
PROFESSIONALISM
To think women’s soccer was banned by the FA from English grounds in 1921 because, in the governing body’s words, “the game is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged.”
Now, all of England’s traditionally biggest clubs have women’s teams, with Manchester United’s side having started up again in 2018. Indeed, Old Trafford — the storied ground of United’s men’s team — hosted a match for its women’s team in March this year.
English players once had to move to the U.S. to fulfill their dreams of becoming a pro soccer player. Now, the top American internationals have played in England with Alex Morgan, Carli Lloyd and Tobin Heath among those to have come over previously. Global superstars like Australia’s Sam Kerr and Denmark’s Pernille Harder currently play for Chelsea. England’s players get to play with superstars of world soccer on a day-to-day basis, improving their own game.
The professionalism of the top clubs in the English game was grown, with Man City’s women using the same state-of-the-art training facilities as the men, likewise at Arsenal and Everton. Reading and Birmingham are among the teams to play in the same stadium as their men’s teams. Facilities at lower-ranked women's teams can still leave much to be desired, however.
‘NEXT LEVEL’ COACH
England had reached the semifinals of the last three major international tournaments — the World Cups in 2015 and '19, and Euro 2017 — but that proved to be the ceiling. The players needed someone to get more out of them.
Enter Sarina Wiegman. The Dutchwoman had guided the Netherlands to the European Championship title in 2017 and the World Cup final in 2019, where they lost to the United States. She came with a strong reputation for results and an entertaining style of play, but also pragmatism and having a plan.
Unlike the previous coach, Phil Neville — a big name in men’s soccer after playing for Manchester United and England but someone with little coaching experience — Wiegman was not necessarily a headline-grabbing appointment for the casual fan but, crucially, had expertise of the women’s game.
“I’ve come here to take (England) to the next level,” Wiegman said at her presentation last year, and she’s been true to her word.
England is unbeaten in 19 matches under Wiegman, has scored more than 100 goals in that time — the team is the top scorer at Euro 2022 with 20 goals in five games — and is playing pleasing-on-the-eye soccer, even under the pressure of a major tournament on home soil.
Only three coaches have won the Women’s European Championship two times. Wiegman could do it in charge of two different nations.
INCREASED PARTICIPATION
A peak TV audience of 9.3 million watched the England-Sweden semifinal match, showing just how women’s soccer has made its presence felt in the already-crammed English sporting landscape. Other figures demonstrate that, too.
The average attendance for a match in the Women’s Super League, the top division in England, has risen from 728 in 2015 to 1,931 for the 2021-22 season, according to the FA.
There was a record attendance of 49,094 for this year’s Women’s FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium and a 47% peak increase of TV viewers compared to the 2021 final.
There are live matches and weekly highlight shows of the top two leagues and the cup competitions on free-to-air and pay-TV broadcasters.
The FA says there are around 11,500 female-only teams and nearly 200,000 affiliated female players. In 2020, the FA said 3.4 million women and girls actively played soccer, up from 2.89 million in 2015. The number of coaches in the women’s and girls’ game is on the rise, too, at the current figure of 16,210.
Among the governing body’s Women’s and Girls’ Football Strategy for 2020-24 — its tagline is “Inspiring Positive Change” — is an objective for England to “win a major tournament.” That could happen sooner than planned.
___
More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.mrt.com/sports/article/How-England-s-national-team-became-a-power-in-17332339.php | 2022-07-27T16:20:12Z | https://www.mrt.com/sports/article/How-England-s-national-team-became-a-power-in-17332339.php | true |
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Republican candidate for governor Tim Michels said Wednesday during a debate that he can be taken at his word that he won't raise gas taxes, as challenger Rebecca Kleefisch accused him of not taking responsibility for previously being in leadership roles for groups that backed increasing gas taxes.
“You’ve got to take responsibility for some of these organizations,” Kleefisch, a former lieutenant governor, said during a heated exchange in the debate broadcast on WISN-AM. “Do your people who you say you lead just not listen or are you not taking responsibility?”
Kleefisch, Michels and state Rep. Tim Ramthun debated on the radio three days after a television debate and less than two weeks before the Aug. 9 primary. The winner will advance to face Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in November.
Michels, who co-owns the state's largest construction company, Michels Corp., said he “never once" said he wanted to raise the gas tax. He said the groups he was on that lobbied for raising the gas tax, including the Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association, came to a consensus on issues and he didn’t always agree.
“This is not an authoritarian rule when you’re leader of an organization,” he said. “I still haven’t heard where you have evidence that I have ever said I raised the gas tax, and you don’t have it because I never said it.”
Michels said that his business “consumes massive amounts of fossil fuel, of gasoline, of diesel. I would have to be the dumbest businessman in the history of the world to want to raise fuel costs.”
Kleefisch and former Gov. Scott Walker have attacked Michels over the gas tax issue.
Kleefisch also referenced Michels for previously leading an organization that fought a proposal to get tough on people who were living in the country illegally. He now campaigns as someone opposed to illegal immigration.
Michels referenced his military service to say that “you can take it to the bank” that he won't raise gas taxes.
“You don’t get hand-selected as the commander of the Army’s Honor Guard Company if you have an integrity problem,” Michels said. “You don’t get to grow a business that has 8,000 employees if you have an integrity problem.” | https://www.ctinsider.com/news/article/Wisconsin-GOP-hopefuls-Kleefisch-Michels-clash-17332286.php | 2022-07-27T16:21:26Z | https://www.ctinsider.com/news/article/Wisconsin-GOP-hopefuls-Kleefisch-Michels-clash-17332286.php | false |
HADLEY, Mass. (AP) — Employees at a Trader Joe's in Massachusetts are casting votes over the next two days in an attempt to form the supermarket chain's first union.
About 80 workers — or crew members in company parlance — at the Hadley store are scheduled to vote Wednesday and Thursday, said Maeg Yosef, a union organizer who has worked at Trader Joe's for 18 years.
The workers are organizing under the name Trader Joe’s United, which if successful, would be an independent union, and not affiliated with a larger existing union.
The Trader Joe's workers are part of a nationwide wave of employees at major companies who have or are attempting to unionize in an effort to get a bigger say in their work conditions and compensation.
Workers at multiple Starbucks coffee shop locations across the country, as well as employees at Amazon, Apple and REI are among those who have joined unions in the past year.
Trader Joe’s management has engaged in what Yosef called “classic union-busting” tactics, including hiring a law firm specializing in fighting unionization to try and talk employees out of approving a union.
California-based Trader Joe’s, which has about 550 stores nationwide, also just announced an enhanced benefits package that includes more paid time off and better pay for some employees, which she said was an effort to head off unionization.
Trader Joe's already has generous pay and benefits by industry standards, a company spokesperson said.
“Trader Joe’s is a great place to work and our compensation, benefits, flexibility, and working conditions are among the best when compared to any retailer,” Nakia Rohde said in an email. “We welcome a fair vote by our crew members.” | https://www.ctinsider.com/news/article/Workers-at-Massachusetts-Trader-Joe-s-store-take-17332313.php | 2022-07-27T16:21:32Z | https://www.ctinsider.com/news/article/Workers-at-Massachusetts-Trader-Joe-s-store-take-17332313.php | false |
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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/ap-news/2022/07/27/ap-top-business-news-at-1132-a-m-edt-29/ | 2022-07-27T16:21:39Z | https://wtmj.com/ap-news/2022/07/27/ap-top-business-news-at-1132-a-m-edt-29/ | false |
LOS ANGELES, July 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP ("GPM") announces that investors with substantial losses have opportunity to lead the securities fraud class action lawsuit against Outset Medical, Inc. ("Outset" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: OM).
Class Period: September 15, 2020 – June 13, 2022
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: September 6, 2022
If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff of the Outset lawsuit, you can submit your contact information at www.glancylaw.com/cases/outset-medical-inc/. You can also contact Charles H. Linehan, of GPM at 310-201-9150, Toll-Free at 888-773-9224, or via email at shareholders@glancylaw.com to learn more about your rights.
The complaint filed alleges that, throughout the Class Period, Defendants failed to disclose to investors that: (1) Defendants had "continuously made improvements and updates to Tablo over time since its original clearance" that required an additional 510(k) application; (2) as a result, the Company could not conduct a human factors study on a cleared device in accordance with FDA protocols; (3) the Company's inability to conduct the human factors study subjected the Company to the likelihood of the FDA imposing a "shipment hold" and marketing suspension, leaving the Company unable to sell the Tablo for home use; and (4) as a result of the foregoing, Defendants' positive statements about the Company's business, operations, and prospects were materially false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times.
Follow us for updates on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.
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 Charles Linehan, Esquire, of GPM, 1925 Century Park East, Suite 2100, Los Angeles, California 90067 at 310-201-9150, Toll-Free at 888-773-9224, by email to shareholders@glancylaw.com, or visit our website at www.glancylaw.com. If you inquire by email please include your mailing address, telephone number and number of shares purchased.
This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules.
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/om-investors-have-opportunity-lead-outset-medical-inc-securities-fraud-lawsuit/ | 2022-07-27T16:24:10Z | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/om-investors-have-opportunity-lead-outset-medical-inc-securities-fraud-lawsuit/ | false |
You don’t have to have grandchildren or even live on the shore to dive into a popular style of home decor called coastal grandmother. Although both aesthetics have similar origins, coastal grandmother is not as nostalgic or stuffy as the grandmillennial home decorating trend that found popularity a couple of years ago.
So what is coastal grandmother style? According to Lex Nicoleta, the social media influencer who coined the term, if you love Nancy Meyers movies, coastal vibes, Ina Garten and cozy interiors, you might just be a coastal grandmother — no matter your age, situation or location.
“I would describe it as very neutral, classic staples in light shades … it’s very crisp, very clean,” New York City-based personal stylist Samantha Brown told “Today.” “It’s sort of like a nod to this timeless, moneyed — but not flashy — coastal grandma.”
If you aspire for a home that looks elegant and fashionable yet cozy and lived in, coastal grandmother might be for you. Keep reading to find out more about the defining aspects of this trending style.
Coastal Grandmother Colors and Textures
A palette of shades of white makes the ideal background for a room in the coastal grandmother decorating style. Neutral, seashore shades like beige and taupe along with blue, gray and green that remind you of the sea tie up the color scheme.
“Defined by the use of natural light, high–quality natural materials, a soft color palette and an abundance of foliage and flowers, coastal grandmother creates an inviting, effortlessly elegant and livable interior that feels like home,” Louise Wicksteed, design director at the English interior design firm Sims Hilditch, told Homes & Gardens.
Cotton and linen in a variety of weights and styles add inviting interest. For instance, you might have sheer cotton window treatments, linen-covered throw pillows and a soft, chunky throw in your bedroom.
Furnishings and Accents for a Coastal Grandmother Home
Furniture pieces made from wood and other natural fibers like rattan, jute and sisal enhance the easygoing, beachy vibe of the coastal grandmother interior. Live plants, bowls of fruit and fresh flowers can add splashes of color here and there. Although you wouldn’t want an abundance of nautical-themed accents, an unobtrusive branch of driftwood could also fit the aesthetic.
Handmade ceramics or terra cotta planters, brass fixtures, oversized woven baskets and comfy floor poufs can bring a coastal grandmother-inspired room together. Of course, incorporating your favorite artwork and decor pieces lets you create a chic, welcoming space that is truly your own.
“Coastal grandmother is about utilizing what you have available to you in the form of heirlooms and mixing it with elements that encourage relaxation and calm,” Joelle Smith, of the Jamaica-based design firm If Walls Could Talk, told Martha Stewart. “After two years of a pandemic, this is exactly the mood we want to capture — that feeling of being with family in what you consider a safe space.”
See, you may have been a coastal grandmother this whole and not even realized it.
This story originally appeared on Simplemost. Checkout Simplemost for additional stories. | https://www.kxlf.com/coastal-grandmother-style-breezy-decor-trend | 2022-07-27T16:24:12Z | https://www.kxlf.com/coastal-grandmother-style-breezy-decor-trend | false |
LOS ANGELES, July 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- No hospital has a monopoly on good ideas. This is why the St. Baldrick's Foundation funds the most promising research — no matter where it takes place – from your backyard institution to other cutting edge research facilities treating childhood cancers around the globe. Since 2005, this philosophy has translated to more than 1,674 grants in 31 countries, totaling more than $322 million. Thanks to the tremendous efforts of volunteers, donors, partners and advocates across the country this past year, St. Baldrick's is proud to announce $8.9 million has been awarded in new grants.
- Every two minutes a child is diagnosed with cancer worldwide.
- In the United States, one in five of those kids diagnosed with cancer will not survive.
- Of those who do survive, more than 99% of survivors have a chronic health problem and 96% have severe or life-threatening conditions.
"In the 1950s, almost all kids diagnosed with cancer died. Because of research, today about 90% of kids with the most common type of cancer will live. But for many other types, progress has been limited, and for some kids there is still little hope for a cure," explains Kathleen Ruddy, CEO of the St. Baldrick's Foundation. "These grants support the best of the best in childhood cancer research and will ensure that more progress is made so that kids have access to more treatments with less side effects. We will not stop until there is a 100% cure rate for all kids' cancers."
This newest round of grants includes seven new Scholars, nine current Scholars receiving continuing funding for another year of research, two new International Scholars from Egypt and Jordan, and one current International Scholar from India receiving funding for another year of research. Also included is a $4.4 million grant to the Children's Oncology Group, the world's largest organization devoted exclusively to conducting childhood and adolescent cancer research, and another year of funding for projects already underway for two team science projects and one Strategic Initiative: The Pediatric Cancer Data Commons.
The following institutions will receive grants:
- Alabama
- California
- Colorado
- Florida
- Georgia
- Illinois
- Massachusetts
- Maryland
- Minnesota
- New York
- Ohio
- Ontario, Canada
- Tennessee
To learn more about the specific research projects, visit the St. Baldrick's blog.
For more details about the research St. Baldrick's is funding near you, a specific disease type or research focus area, visit the Grants Search page. The next set of grants will be announced in November, supported by donations between now and October.
To donate to critical childhood cancer research or to learn the many ways you can get involved, visit StBaldricks.org. Become an advocate and join the Speak Up for Kids' Cancer advocacy action network to encourage federal lawmakers to continue to fund childhood cancer research. Connect with St. Baldrick's on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
Every 2 minutes a child somewhere in the world is diagnosed with cancer. In the U.S., 1 in 5 will not survive. The St. Baldrick's Foundation, the largest charitable funder of childhood cancer research grants, is on a mission to give kids a lifetime by supporting the most promising research to find cures and better treatments for all childhood cancers. When you give to St. Baldrick's, you don't just give to one hospital – you support virtually every institution with the expertise to treat kids with cancer across the U.S. St. Baldrick's ensures that children fighting cancer now — and those diagnosed in the future — will have access to the most cutting-edge treatment, by supporting every stage of research, from new ideas in the lab to the development of new therapies, to lifesaving clinical trials. Join us at StBaldricks.org and help #GiveKidsaLifetime.
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SOURCE St. Baldrick's Foundation | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/st-baldricks-foundation-funds-89-million-grants-support-most-promising-childhood-cancer-research/ | 2022-07-27T16:25:23Z | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/st-baldricks-foundation-funds-89-million-grants-support-most-promising-childhood-cancer-research/ | true |
The disappearance of brazen high-rolling conwoman Melissa Caddick after stealing more than $20million to fund her glamorous lifestyle has quickly become one of Australia's greatest unsolved mysteries.
In less than 18 months, it has consumed news headlines, been the subject of countless podcasts, YouTube clips, social media threads and spurred a television miniseries.
In months and years to come, you can bet we'll see a lot more - book deals signed, docudramas, and even a movie.
Although Caddick is long gone from her Wallangra Road mansion in Sydney's eastern suburbs, where she was last seen on November 13, 2020, the public remains fascinated by her disappearance, not just in Australia but also worldwide.
With Caddick missing, many of her secrets remain hidden, but for how long?
Here are some of the questions we all want to be answered - and how likely they are to be ever solved.
Secret one: Could Melissa Caddick be alive?
Could she be alive? Yes. Is she alive? Very, very unlikely - but the lack of definite answers will continue to fuel speculation.
While police suspect she is deceased, she has not officially been declared dead.
The NSW Coroner's Court confirmed to Daily Mail Australia that the 'inquest into the disappearance & suspected death of Melissa Louise Caddick' remains before the court.
Caddick's second husband Anthony Koletti claimed he will never know the cause of her death because CCTV footage was taken from their home during an ASIC raid (pictured) the day before she disappeared
Anthony Koletti, 40, penned a scathing letter to the Federal Court accusing an ASIC investigator of 'dehumanising' his conwoman wife, Melissa Caddick (pictured together)
Mr Koletti is pictured with Caddick and her son several years befor she disappeared
The matter is expected to return to the coroner's court this year, although no further hearing dates have yet been set.
A post-mortem examination of the foot found at Bournda Beach on the NSW south coast on February 21, 2021 - and matched to her DNA - proved inconclusive.
An affidavit signed by ASIC's Isabella Allen last May said it was 'unclear at this stage if the pathologist can determine the condition of the remains'.
Tellingly, NSW Police confirmed to Daily Mail Australia on April 7 that they consider the investigation closed.
'I can confirm the NSW Police Force investigation into the disappearance of Melissa Caddick has been finalised,' a NSW Police spokeswoman said in a statement.
The Dover Heights home where Melissa Caddick was last seen on November 12, 2020 before she vanished
In February, her husband Anthony Koletti's blue convertible Audi R8 V10 was sold off at auction for $295,000. She bought it for him in 2016
'A coronial brief of evidence was submitted to the NSW State Coroner on Friday 17 September 2021.'
Last May, Detective Sargent Michael Foscholo, of Paddington police, lodged a 'Report of Suspected Death to the Coroner' in Caddick's case.
He noted she is no longer on any missing person registers.
A month before that, in April 2021 - two months after her detached foot washed up - her family held a private funeral service at Matraville, Sydney.
Secret two: What happened to the money Melissa Caddick stole?
Melissa Caddick stole at least $23million from 72 investors via her fake financial advice firm Maliver.
She used much of the missing millions - by some estimates up to $40million - to fund an expensive lifestyle including buying expensive overseas holidays, jewellery, sports cars, high fashion label dresses and shoes and artworks.
Police records detailed some of her extraordinary spending, including $250,000 with fashion label Christian Dior and $50,000 with Chanel.
She spent hundreds of thousands on jewellery, with one report a single diamond ring from Canturi jewellery she owned cost $300,000.
She took overseas holidays, often flying first class. For example, she spent $120,000 on flights to go skiing at Aspen, Colorado and $63,000 on just two trips to Fiji.
She even spent $25,000 on protein shakes.
As Caddick operated a Ponzi scheme via her company Maliver, by definition, she would have used some investors' funds to make her scam look successful.
As she got hold of funds from new investors, she would make payments to earlier ones - encouraging them to invest even more.
But Caddick had assets that are currently the subject of a Federal Court case as investors seek redress.
The court ruled Jones Partners could sell her assets to pay the investors, including a 'significant' share portfolio, money held in bank accounts and vehicles.
In February, her husband Anthony Koletti's blue convertible Audi R8 V10 was sold off at an auction for $295,000, and Caddick's black Mercedes Benz CLA45 AMG went for $66,000.
Mr Koletti protested the sale, although court records showed she bought it for him on May 6, 2016, for $390,000.
The $361,250 from the sale of the cars will be distributed amongst her defrauded investors.
The liquidators also hope to sell two properties she bought.
Her Wallangra Road home at Dover Heights is valued at $9million, and she bought a penthouse at Edgecliff for her parents, valued at $2.5million.
Secret three: Did Melissa Caddick have an escape plan after ASIC raided her Dover Heights home?
When Caddick disappeared on November 13, 2020, it looked certain she had a getaway plan.
When her foot washed up on Bournda Beach in February, 2021, it either ended the escape plan theories or took them up a notch - depending on your imagination.
The point of the television miniseries, Underbelly: Vanishing Act, was to convert public fascination with her disappearance into TV audiences by dramatizing her supposed escape.
The show explored theories, including that she had a 'safehouse' on the NSW south coast where she stashed cash, that she was picked up by a yacht and she chopped off her own foot.
None have been proved true, and all appear to be little more than storytelling.
The theory about her disappearance makes the most sense is that after ASIC raided her Dover Heights home on November 12, 2020 she took her own life.
But conspiracy theorists rightly point out this hasn't been proved either.
Many people find it unthinkable that a meticulous fraudster like Caddick would not have had a plan ready to go for it, and when it appeared, she might be busted.
But what could it have been?
Secret four: Did Melissa Caddick fake her own death?
Probably the most tantalizingly popular question for all who have followed the Melissa Caddick saga.
This is impossible to know - in theory it's possible, but regarded as extremely unlikely.
'It's possible [she's alive], at the extreme end of what's possible, in that what's been recovered is a foot and medically you can survive without a foot,' criminologist Dr Xanthe Mallett told Daily Mail Australia.
NSW police commisisoner Fuller said many people had fell from eastern suburbs cliffs without their remains washing up several hundred kilometres away
'I know fact is stranger than fiction, however I don't think we can stretch the fact this far.
While people have faked their own deaths before, the emergence of her foot complicates any wild escape theory in more than the obvious way.
But it still didn't prevent speculation.
Even the NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller added to it.
There's always a chance she cut her foot off and is still alive, though it's pretty fanciful,' he told 2GB in March 2021.
'A severed foot is a great throw off.'
Secret five: Did Melissa Caddick sail off in a yacht or hop on an early morning flight?
The yacht scenario was made up by the producers of Underbelly: Vanishing Act.
Caddick did not have a passport in another name and all five of her known passports were handed over by her husband in the days after she disappeared.
This would make leaving the country via plane highly unlikely.
But one theory the show puts forward is that Caddick had given a mysterious yacht captain a payment to ferry her out of the country as her 'plan B'.
In the show this falls apart when her husband holds a press conference and she becomes the most high profile missing person in the country.
There has been no suggestion of any such yacht in the official investigation.
It is understood police in their investigations are satisfied Caddick did not depart Sydney.
Secret six: Could cutting off your foot work as a getaway plan?
Again, in theory, it's possible but extremely unlikely.
Because a foot amputation was featured in the horror movie Saw, it has been discussed at length online.
Generally, doctors have said a DIY foot amputation without the best medical help immediately at hand is not survivable.
Arterial bleeding means the person who lost a foot would die within an hour, passing out through shock and ultimately through loss of blood.
The counterview is that people have survived the sudden and traumatic loss of limbs, including feet - and more - during war.
So while unlikely, it is true to say surviving a foot amputation is possible because there are living examples.
Secret seven: Was Melissa Caddick murdered?
Underbelly: Vanishing Act show posited that Caddick was involved with a fictitious underworld figure called George.
In the show, Caddick 'runs into' him on her morning jogs along the cliff where she later allegedly jumped.
These characters appear to be either fictional or composite characters that serve a plot purpose rather than based on any specific people known to Caddick.
George is depicted as a 'gangster', who screenwriter Matt Ford invented.
The route Melissa Caddick's severed foot apparently took before it was found 450km from her Sydney home
However, it is understood that in police circles, there is a feeling that Caddick may have been murdered.
It is a theory shared by criminologist Dr Xanthe Mallett.
'Based on her personality profile I don't thinks she's likely to have committed suicide,' Dr Mallett said.
'I think the most likely outcome is she was sadly murdered, second that she took her own life and third is that she's still alive.'
Anthony Koletti believes it too. He told Channel Seven's Spotlight program it would 'make sense' she was murdered.
But by who?
'My suspect list is long,' he said.
'If it came out, if the police came to me and said 'Melissa was murdered', I'd be like 'it makes sense'.'
Secret eight: How did Melissa Caddick's foot get severed and how was it found intact 450 kilometres away four months after she disappeared?
The unforgettable image of a single Asics shoe sitting on Bournda Beach with the foot itself blurred out by photo editors so that viewers don't lose the lunches is now iconic.
It is the most gruesome and intriguing part of the whole Caddick mystery, even more than her possible death.
The image is so unforgettable that the makers of Underbelly: Vanishing Act couldn't help but show us what it might have really looked like: totally disgusting.
How the shoe and foot got to Bournda beach and why it took over three months - presuming it became detached after she leapt to her death from the Dover Heights clifftop - is the subject of much speculation.
One expert, Dr Paola Magni from Murdoch University, claimed the shoe found with her foot in it should have had 'barnacles' on it after three months floating in the ocean.
'November to now is summer time so the water is pretty warm with a lot of plankton, full of little creatures that are extremely active because of the warm water,' she told The Daily Telegraph.
'I would have expected something on the shoe … based on my experience.'
Secret nine: What do police know about Melissa Caddick that that they aren't saying?
Without doubt, a lot.
They collected mountains of evidence from her home, several laptops, and statements from her family members and defrauded investors for over a year.
There were also hundreds of supposed sightings claimed after her disappearance.
But on April 7 police told Daily Mail Australia they now consider the case 'finalised' - so we may never know what they suspect really happened.
At times, top cops have let slip and expressed doubts over the popular story: that she took her life after ASIC raided her home.
Back in March 2021, police commissioner Mick Fuller sounded sceptical over the appearance of her foot.
'Of all the beaches and feet in the world, to find hers… what is the probability of that?' he in an interview with 2GB.
'I’ve never seen someone’s body or body parts wash up 400km south of Sydney and in reasonably good condition ... but that’s not to say it can’t happen.'
Secret ten: How could Melissa Caddick live with herself after ripping off family and friends?
In a little over two years to September 2020, more than $20million was deposited into her personal bank accounts by 72 investors - who were mostly friends and family.
It was later revealed her scam involved creating a fake CommSec share trading account number - with six digits instead of the eight numbers the real accounts have.
She didn't even have a real financial advisor's licence.
She got female friends, family members and acquaintances to invest by boasting of 30 per cent returns and by showing off her millionaire lifestyle.
She promised she could do the same for them.
Except none of it was real: she didn't make any money, she stole it.
Her lifestyle was a shopfront for her scam, all of it rooted in deception.
Along the way it is likely Caddick accepted the guilt as a cost of her dishonest business model.
Most of us couldn't do this, but then again most of us are not con-artists.
As one of the investigative journalists who has covered the case since the start, Kate McClymont, says in Nine newspapers, Caddick was a narcissist.
That means she may have had no empathy for her victims, a sense of entitlement, and an inflated sense of self-importance and a preoccupation with the fantasy of unlimited success.
Secret eleven: How much does Melissa Caddick's second husband Anthony Koletti know?
Since her disappearance, the spotlight has not shone on Mr Koletti, 41, her second husband, a former hairdresser, DJ and part-time prawn farmer.
While Mr Koletti is not accused of any wrongdoing, observers of the mystery have questioned why he did not publicly do more to try and find her initially.
It is also understood Mr Koletti was not anxiously contacting police for updates on their investigation, 9News reported last year.
As for whether Mr Koletti knows more than he's let on, it is widely believed he was just as blindsided by the raid and her disappearance as everyone else.
Stay-at-home husband Anthony Koletti (pictured with his sports car) enjoyed the life of a multi-millionaire, thanks to his wife Melissa Caddick
Mr Koletti has staunchly defended his wife against charges she ripped off 72 investors of more than $23million
His own father, Rodo Koletti, doubts his son knew about his wife's scams.
'Anthony is a hairdresser. I don't believe he has the capacity to know what a financial scheme is. I don't think he could have been in it at all or known what was going on,' he told 9News.
He has repeatedly claimed his wife is not a conwoman, despite the mountain of evidence stacked against her.
In a scathing letter he wrote, which was included in court documents in the Federal court case dealing with the receiver's attempts to recoup some of the money she stole, Mr Koletti denied ASIC's claims.
In it, he maintained, 'Melissa lost investor funds trading on the stock market which is clearly visible through her AustralianCommsec trading account.'
ASIC found she falsified documents to make investors believe shares in their names were being held in Commsec accounts. But the accounts didn't exist.
In the same letter, Mr Koletti accused ASIC investigator Isabella Allen of 'severe negligence and inhumane treatment' of his wife and of being the reason that people may never know if she was murdered or took her life.
ASIC removed CCTV cameras from the Dover Heights home during the raid the previous day. | https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11053731/Melissa-Caddick-Pitiful-bank-balance-conwomans-hairdresser-husband-Anthony-Koletti-revealed.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490 | 2022-07-27T16:29:01Z | https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11053731/Melissa-Caddick-Pitiful-bank-balance-conwomans-hairdresser-husband-Anthony-Koletti-revealed.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490 | false |
Mega Millions jackpot soars to $1.02 billion
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A giant Mega Millions lottery jackpot ballooned to $1.02 billion after no one matched all six numbers Tuesday night and won the top prize.
The new estimated jackpot for Friday’s drawing will be the nation’s fourth-largest lottery prize.
The jackpot has grown so large because no one has matched the game’s six selected numbers since April 15. That’s 29 consecutive drawings without a big winner.
Tuesday’s numbers were: 07-29-60-63-66, Mega Ball: 15.
The $1.02 billion prize is for winners who choose the annuity option, paid annually over 30 years. Most winners opt for the cash option, which for the next drawing Friday night is an estimated $602.5 million.
The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302.5 million.
Mega Millions is played in 45 states as well as Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The game is coordinated by state lotteries.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.weau.com/2022/07/27/mega-millions-jackpot-soars-102-billion/ | 2022-07-27T16:33:29Z | https://www.weau.com/2022/07/27/mega-millions-jackpot-soars-102-billion/ | true |
Maya Rudolph and Kym Whitley have us ready to get down.
The iconic actresses dance to Boyz II Men's 1991 jam "Motownphilly" in this exclusive clip from the July 29 episode of Apple TV+'s Loot.
In the episode, Whitley guest stars as Renee, Molly's (Ruoldph) cousin. "She's an intimidating, no-nonsense, tough cookie," according to the streamer. "She and Molly were very close as kids but drifted apart when Molly got married."
It's not all movin' and groovin', though—at least not initially.
As the song comes over the speakers at a party, Molly tries to inspire Renee to get up from her card game.
"Uh oh, what's that song? You remember this one, Renee?" she says as she begins to imitate the moves of the legendary boy band. "That summer we listened to it over and over again and made everybody watch us do this dance?"
Renee, however, cannot be bothered to look up from her card game.
"Come on, Renee. This is a two-person dance," Molly pleads. "I can't do it by myself. Unless you forgot."
Those are fighting words.
Renee gets up from her game of spades and joins in, telling Molly, "I would never forget how to do this."
Loot follows Molly, a woman who inherits billions after her tech CEO husband, played by Adam Scott, cheats on her with a woman half her age.
The show, which also stars Joel Kim Booster, Ron Funches, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez and Nat Faxon, was recently renewed for a second season.
Dance to "Motownphilly" alongside Rudolph and Whitley when the new episode of Loot premieres July 29 on Apple TV+. | https://www.eonline.com/ca/news/1339563/watch-maya-rudolph-and-kym-whitley-dance-to-boyz-ii-men-s-motownphilly-in-loot-sneak-peek?cmpid=rss-000000-rssfeed-365-topstories&utm_source=eonline&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=rss_topstories | 2022-07-27T16:35:08Z | https://www.eonline.com/ca/news/1339563/watch-maya-rudolph-and-kym-whitley-dance-to-boyz-ii-men-s-motownphilly-in-loot-sneak-peek?cmpid=rss-000000-rssfeed-365-topstories&utm_source=eonline&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=rss_topstories | false |
Calling Tucson artists!
Submissions are now being accepted for consideration for the upcoming Arizona Biennial 2023, the Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block announced.
First organized in 1948, the Arizona Biennial is a much-anticipated juried exhibition that showcases some of the most innovative and diverse new works being created in the state, according to a news release.
For emerging artists, this exhibition often provides an opportunity to exhibit their art in a museum setting or to introduce their work to the public for the first time. Museum visitors are also exposed to works by established artists with statewide, national and international reputations, the release said.
Artists must be at least 18 years old and can work in any media. The deadline to submit artwork is Sept. 16 at 5 p.m. The entry fee is $40 for up to three artworks.
People are also reading…
The exhibition will be on view at the Tucson Museum of Art from April 1 to Sept. 17, 2023.
For more information, visit TucsonMuseumofArt.org. | https://tucson.com/entertainment/arts-and-theatre/innovative-works-by-tucson-artists-sought-for-state-showcase/article_d75d4c50-0d3c-11ed-a9cc-2fece3ac009d.html | 2022-07-27T16:41:22Z | https://tucson.com/entertainment/arts-and-theatre/innovative-works-by-tucson-artists-sought-for-state-showcase/article_d75d4c50-0d3c-11ed-a9cc-2fece3ac009d.html | true |
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GENEVA (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization on Wednesday advised men at risk of catching monkeypox to consider reducing their sexual partners “for the moment” following the U.N. health agency declaring the escalating outbreaks in multiple countries to be a global emergency.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 98% of the monkeypox cases detected since the outbreaks emerged in May have been among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men. He called for those at risk to take steps to protect themselves.
“That means making safe choices for yourself and others, for men who have sex with men,” Tedros said. “This includes, for the moment, reducing your number of sexual partners.”
Infectious individuals should isolate and avoid gatherings involving close, physical contact, while people should get contact details for any new sexual partners in case they need to follow up later, the WHO chief said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not suggested that men who have sex with men reduce their sexual partners, only that they avoid skin-to-skin contact with people who have a rash that could be monkeypox.
WHO officials emphasized that monkeypox can infect anyone in close contact with a patient or their contaminated clothing or bedsheets. The U.N. health agency has warned that the disease could be more severe in vulnerable populations like children or pregnant women.
To date, more than 19,000 cases have been reported in more than 75 countries; deaths have only been reported in Africa.
“We know very clearly that one of the main modes of exposure for this particular illness is through direct contact, close contact, skin to skin contact, possibly even face to face contact, exposure to droplets or virus that may be in the mouth,” Dr. Rosamund Lewis, WHO’s technical lead for monkeypox, said.
Andy Seale, a WHO adviser on HIV, hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections, said experts have determined the current monkeypox outbreak is “clearly transmitted during sex,” but he said they have not yet concluded whether it’s a sexually transmitted infection.
Dr. Hugh Adler, who treats monkeypox patients in the U.K., said monkeypox was being transmitted during sex and that sexual networks and anonymous sex with untraceable partners were facilitating its spread.
“It's just as likely that monkeypox was always capable of transmitting and presenting like this, but it hadn't been formally reported or so widespread before,” he said.
Last week, British authorities issued new guidance advising doctors that people with just one or two lesions might be infectious with monkeypox, potentially complicating efforts to stop transmission.
The European Union’s health commissioner urged the bloc’s 27 member nations Wednesday to step up their efforts to tackle outbreaks in the EU, which she called “the epicenter of detected cases.”
In a letter to European health ministers obtained by The Associated Press, EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides called for a “reinforced, concerted and coordinated action.”
“There is no time for complacency and we need to continue working together to control the outbreak,” she wrote. | https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/WHO-chief-advises-reducing-sex-partners-to-avoid-17332366.php | 2022-07-27T16:41:56Z | https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/WHO-chief-advises-reducing-sex-partners-to-avoid-17332366.php | true |
What are the best boxing shoes?
Few sports require quicker movements with your feet than boxing. Not only does the boxer move forward and backward, but there are lightning-fast sideways reactions in response to the opponent’s moves. No wonder Muhammed Ali said he “floated” in the ring.
Boxing shoes are designed to help boxers move effortlessly around the ring. They keep the boxer’s feet connected to the mat while poised to shift instantly as the match heats up. Boxing shoes come in many colors and styles to complement the boxer’s entourage. For their all-purpose qualities, the best boxing shoes are the Otomix Men’s Stingray Escape Boxing Shoes.
What to know before you buy boxing shoes
What are the different boxing shoe cuts?
There are three cuts of boxing shoes to consider.
- Low-top boxing shoes are the lightest and give boxers the most flexibility to move around the ring. They fall below the ankle but the majority of low-cut boxing shoes still deliver significant ankle support.
- Mid-top shoes are an excellent option for support and balance. Boxers that frequently change direction and move side to side benefit from the support of mid-tops. The majority of mid-tops will not hamper your speed.
- High tops are designed for full support. They are used primarily by punchers who need to stand their ground to deliver and take punches. Look for high tops that wrap tightly around the ankle to get your best value.
Why are boxing shoes flat?
Boxing shoes are designed with thin, flat soles that let your feet get a palpable connection to the boxing ring. Flat soles allow you to move on the balls of your feet and easily shift at angles. There is modest traction but not so much that it keeps you from changing direction quickly.
How wide are your feet?
Boxing shoes are designed to fit snugly. Boxers with wide feet need to test out different styles to find the most comfortable shoes. Since you are on your feet all the time in boxing, the right fit is imperative to your comfort and ability to move around. Some manufacturers have extra wide sizes.
What to look for in quality boxing shoes
Material
The two primary materials used in boxing shoes are leather and synthetic material such as nylon. The synthetic material is lightweight, durable and lets your feet breathe. Leather last longer and provides excellent support, but it is heavier and more expensive. The best shoes are often a combination of synthetic uppers with a leather finish.
Closure
Boxing shoes are closed with laces or zippers. Some shoes have both for extra support. Laces allow the boxer to determine the tightness of the shoe, but laces wear out quickly. Zippers provide easy access both in and out of the shoes, but the zipper closure may not always be tight enough and cannot be adjusted.
Style
A boxer’s shorts and shoes are the primary pieces of apparel to be worn with boxing shoes. Boxing shoes come in bold colors and patterns that make a statement before you ever enter the ring. Look for shoes that fit your personality and color preferences.
How much you can expect to spend on boxing shoes
Inexpensive boxing shoes are priced between $35-$60; these are low-cut shoes constructed from mostly synthetic material. Medium-priced boxing shoes, which cost between $60-$95, include mid-cut styles, leather uppers and have excellent traction. Expensive boxing shoes start at $95 and can exceed $150. These are leather high-tops that incorporate the latest technology.
Boxing shoes FAQ
Are boxing shoes necessary?
A. Many beginning boxers start with tennis shoes, but if you are serious about your development, an upgrade to boxing shoes can make a big difference. It will improve your traction and maneuverability, which should give you more confidence as you work on your boxing technique.
Are wrestling shoes acceptable for boxing?
A. Some boxers wear wrestling shoes because they are lightweight and easy to move in. Since boxing shoes have tighter treads that could injure a wrestler, boxing shoes are not recommended for wrestling.
What is a heel counter?
A. A heel counter is a plastic insert that maintains the original shape of the heel portion of the shoe. It ensures that you will receive maximum support for your heel as you move around.
What are the best boxing shoes to buy?
Top boxing shoes
Otomix Men’s Stingray Escape Boxing Shoes
What you need to know: These boxing shoes are known for their comfort and come in four different colors.
What you’ll love: The shoes are ankle-high and have extra support. The rubber sole is lightweight and thin which delivers a tight grip on the canvas. Made from leather and synthetic material, the shoes are durable and comfortable.
What you should consider: There were some sizing issues that ran smaller than expected.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top boxing shoes for the money
Ringside Men’s Undefeated Boxing Shoes
What you need to know: These affordable boxing shoes are designed for both performance and style.
What you’ll love: They are made from a mesh and nylon upper that lets your feet breathe and move freely. A leather vinyl finish adds support and gives the shoes a ringside flair. The non-slip rubber sole also provides excellent traction.
What you should consider: Some boxers reported the shoes fit unevenly.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon and Dick’s Sporting Goods
Worth checking out
Puma Women’s Eskiva Very HI Boxing Shoe
What you need to know: These boxing shoes have an extra-high upper and are designed more for fashion than actual performance in the ring.
What you’ll love: Designed with a leather upper, they have both laces and a side zipper for easy removal. The rubber sole provides excellent traction. The shaft is 13.5 inches above the arch. They come in stylish colors.
What you should consider: The calf area is narrow relative to the rest of the shoe.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.yourbasin.com/reviews/br/sports-fitness-br/boxing-br/best-boxing-shoes/ | 2022-07-27T16:44:07Z | https://www.yourbasin.com/reviews/br/sports-fitness-br/boxing-br/best-boxing-shoes/ | false |
Reid Mason, the son of the State Police superintendent, pleaded not guilty today to five counts of improper storage of a firearm and was released without bail.
He was then escorted to his car outside Barnstable District Court by a local police officer — with both Mason and the officer declining all comment.
As the Herald previously reported, Barnstable police allegedly found Mason, a Truro firefighter and son of State Police Col. Christopher Mason, asleep in his car after a night out in Hyannis and with his guns in the vehicle. The Herald appealed and won the right to have access to the initial clerk magistrate hearing where probable cause was found.
On Feb. 28, Barnstable police reported that two plainclothes police officers were patrolling the north side of town in an unmarked cruiser when they came across a black Jeep Wrangler outside the 19th Hole Tavern on Barnstable Road.
The officers wrote that they saw a man later identified as Mason slumped over in the driver’s seat and partially hanging out of the driver’s side door.
“In fear that the man was in need of medical attention,” the officers wrote, “we then checked on his wellbeing.”
The officers note they were “overwhelmed by a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage” in their interaction with Mason and allege he seemed “extremely disoriented” and had difficulty answering their questions. He declined medical attention and told them he was just sleeping.
The police say they saw two guns on the passenger seat of the car and a further search of the vehicle came up with three more — all unloaded — and “an assortment” of ammunition was found in two backpacks. They say that four of the guns were licensed to Mason but the owner of the fifth, a Glock 17, had not been identified.
All the guns and ammo were seized, as well as another 20-gauge shotgun he surrendered at his home on May 3, and stored as evidence, and Mason’s license to carry was suspended.
This is a developing story … | https://www.bostonherald.com/2022/07/27/massachusetts-state-police-colonels-son-pleads-not-guilty-to-improper-storage-of-firearms/ | 2022-07-27T16:46:32Z | https://www.bostonherald.com/2022/07/27/massachusetts-state-police-colonels-son-pleads-not-guilty-to-improper-storage-of-firearms/ | false |
JEFFERSON COUNTY, Mo. (KTVI) – A middle-school football coach was inspired by his players to lose 130 pounds, and now he’s working on building muscle.
In the fall of 2019, Nino Accardi of Jefferson County, Missouri, weighed 420 pounds. At the time, he was coaching football at Parkway North Middle School and decided to make a big change.
“I was telling my kids, ‘Let’s get in shape, let’s get ready for the season.’ And then I told myself, ‘How can I force these kids to get in shape if I’m not there?'” he said.
Accardi used to eat out often and drink a lot of sweet tea.
“I didn’t realize that what I was putting into my body was actually bad for me,” Accardi said.
Accardi started his transformation by getting into a new exercise routine that included cardio, walking, HIIT, and weightlifting.
“The hardest part about working out is just going to the gym. Once you’re at the gym, it’s easy,” he said.
He also started to eat healthier — and he cut out the sweet tea. Now he drinks unsweetened tea with stevia, along with a gallon of water per day.
“When I was losing my weight, I was still eating out, I was still eating fast food, but I learned what to eat, what was healthy for my body. Instead of having a whole pizza, just having a few slices,” he said.
Accardi admitted his diet isn’t too strict, and he likes to have fun with his food.
“I don’t meal prep. I love fresh food but I will meal prep snacks all day long,” said Accardi, whose go-to snacks include fruit, nuts and cheese.
Accardi now weighs about 290 pounds and is working on building muscle before he focuses on reaching his goal weight of 250. But the results of his hard work are significant: So far, he’s already dropped several clothing sizes. And two years ago, Accardi was so inspired to live a healthy lifestyle that he became the owner of a protein shake shop called Nutrition Fix in House Springs.
He also loves inspiring others to make positive changes and posts about his weight loss journey often.
“You can’t hit a home run every day, but you can at least hit a single,” Accardi said. | https://www.texomashomepage.com/news/national-news/middle-school-football-players-inspire-coach-to-lose-130-pounds/ | 2022-07-27T16:50:46Z | https://www.texomashomepage.com/news/national-news/middle-school-football-players-inspire-coach-to-lose-130-pounds/ | true |
MIAMI, Fla. (WFLA) — A south Florida woman was arrested on allegations she shot and killed another woman in the back seat of an Uber on Saturday.
WPLG reported that 24-year-old Natalia Harrell was arrested on a second-degree murder charge.
According to WPLG, Harrell got into an Uber in downtown Miami around 2:15 a.m. with six other people, including the victim, 28-year-old Gladys Yvette Borcela.
Surveillance video from inside the Uber reportedly showed Harrell and Borcela get into an argument that turned into a fight. Harrell can then be seen reaching into a bag, pulling out a gun and firing a single shot at Borcela, according to WPLG. Borcela was wounded by the shot.
The news station reported that the car quickly pulled over, and everyone got out except Borcela. The other six people ran from the car.
Borcela was taken to the hospital by first responders and died that night.
According to the arrest report obtained by WPLG, Borcela joined the group at a bar that night. Harrell allegedly became upset at Borcela and texted a witness to “get her girl under control.”
When the bar closed, WPLG reported, the group ordered an Uber and once inside, Harrell and Borcela began calling each other names.
The report said at one point, Harrell ended up at the front of the car and started yelling, “You don’t want this; you don’t want me to go in my purse.”
Harrell is accused of taking out the gun then and firing the shot. Police arrested Harrell and booked her into jail Tuesday with no bond. | https://www.cenlanow.com/national/florida-woman-accused-of-murder-in-back-seat-of-uber/ | 2022-07-27T16:51:53Z | https://www.cenlanow.com/national/florida-woman-accused-of-murder-in-back-seat-of-uber/ | false |
QUEBEC CITY (AP) — Pope Francis arrives in Quebec on Wednesday at a time when many French Canadians in the province are not only moving away from religion but explicitly rejecting it, embracing secularization long after their forebears built their identify on the rock of the Catholic Church.
Pews these days are rarely filled, hundreds of churches have closed and the provincial government has banned public service workers from wearing religious symbols.
“A lot churches are closing, and it’s very telling about the fading support that the population gives to the church,” said Jean-François Roussel, a theology professor at the Université de Montréal. “Some people are talking about the collapse of the Catholic Church in Quebec.”
Although nearly all of the province’s 6.8 million French speakers have Catholic roots, fewer than 10% attend Mass regularly, compared with 90% several decades ago.
Once-pervasive church influence over politics and culture has faded almost totally, and in what is known as the Quiet Revolution, it lost its central role in areas such as education and health care. That’s significant considering the Church founded Quebec’s school system and for decades controlled education, teacher training, welfare and health care.
Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, said Quebec was quite similar to Ireland and Southern Europe before 1960. At the peak of its influence from the 1930s to the 1950s, the church dominated people’s lives from conception to death and was closely intertwined with political leadership.
“It controlled cultural and intellectual life right down to what kind of books could be published, what sort of paintings and sculpture exhibited, what kind of plays performed,” wrote Stephen Clarkson and Christina McCall, biographers of Quebec-born former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, who died in 2000.
The defeat of a conservative pro-Church party at the 1960 provincial elections and the victory of a progressive Liberal government empowered a new economic elite that pursued secularism, Béland said.
“Church attendance and fertility rates, which used to be among the highest in the Americas, also fell dramatically over a relatively short period of time, as Quebec modernized and its Francophone majority became more educated, prosperous and urbanized,” Béland said.
French Canadian nationalism in Quebec had been very much centered on Catholicism, but after the Quiet Revolution, its most dominant aspect became the French language, he said.
In 2003 there were 2,746 Catholic churches in Quebec. Since then 713 have been closed, demolished or converted, according to the Quebec Religious Heritage Council. Cardinal Gerald Lacroix of Quebec said last year the number of churches in the province is not sustainable.
“The number of new priests does not exceed 10 per year. This leads to a profound restructuring of parishes and dioceses,” said E.-Martin Meunier, a sociologist of religion at the University of Ottawa.
Meunier also noted that the proportion of newborns baptized as Catholic dropped more than 30% in the last 20 years, compared with just 13% from 1969 to 2001. Catholic marriages in Quebec also have plummeted for decades.
Today, Quebec’s government is staunchly secular, embracing policy and industry that seemingly runs counter to Catholicism’s conservative sexual ethic. In 2004, the province legalized same-sex marriage. Montreal, the largest city, has a lively sex industry.
In 2019, Quebec controversially prohibited civil servants in positions of authority such as teachers, police officers and prosecutors from wearing symbols of religion while at work. Critics say the ban is motivated by more recent growing anti-Muslim sentiment.
Religious leaders and civil rights advocates have opposed the prohibition, but it remains popular among the Francophone electoral base of the Coalition Avenir Quebec, which has been in power in the province since 2018.
“A new phase in the politics of secularism in Quebec began about 15 years ago, when religious accommodations for minorities such as Muslims became a major media and political issue,” said Béland, who underscored attempts to make secularism a key part of Quebec identity.
Clergy sex-abuse scandals also have tarnished the church. And the discovery of unmarked graves at the sites of church-run Indigenous boarding schools has further damaged it.
Current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Pierre’s son, publicly rebuked the church last year, saying he was “deeply disappointed” it had not offered a formal apology and made amends for its role in the schools where abuse was rampant.
A Catholic and Montreal native, he blasted the church for being “silent,” “not stepping up” and failing to show “the leadership that quite frankly is supposed to be at the core of our faith.”
The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops had said in 2018 that the pope could not personally apologize for the boarding school abuses, but Francis has since done just that, at the Vatican this spring and again on Monday in Canada.
The Rev. Antonio Hofmeister, a Brazilian priest who worked in Edmonton, Alberta, for several years and is now based in Rome, said church-state relations are strained in Canada, with Trudeau’s Liberal government and the Catholic Church differing on issues from abortion to euthanasia to same-sex marriage.
Francis was scheduled to meet Wednesday afternoon with Trudeau and Quebec Premier François Legault.
___
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. | https://pix11.com/ap-international/pope-in-quebec-amid-decline-of-catholic-church-in-province/ | 2022-07-27T16:52:31Z | https://pix11.com/ap-international/pope-in-quebec-amid-decline-of-catholic-church-in-province/ | true |
(The Hill) — Wisconsin. Michigan. And soon Pennsylvania.
Just over three months before the midterms, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is coming out from behind the scenes — and doing it in some of the most closely watched states in the country.
The liberal lawmaker has kept a relatively low profile since suspending her presidential bid to endorse Joe Biden. Vowing to be a trusted ally to his administration, she’s quietly lent a hand on policy and personnel decisions and sponsored bills to advance progressives’ top concerns.
But increasingly, Warren is also resurfacing nationally, adopting a front-facing role as a campaign surrogate for progressive candidates in swing states.
That’s caused some to speculate about her own plans.
“President Biden has made it clear he intends to run for reelection and has my full support. But in the extremely unlikely event he changes his mind, I hope she runs,” said Charlotte Clymer, a writer and Democratic political strategist who supported Warren in the 2020 primary.
“I would follow Elizabeth Warren anywhere,” Clymer said.
The Warren momentum that emerged last cycle is still ever-present. Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), his closest competitor for the 2020 nomination, will both be in their 80s by 2024. And some see a lane clearly marked for Warren, one of just a handful of female progressives thought of as potential presidential contenders — if she wants it.
Of course, she, and Democrats as a whole, have to get through the midterms first.
“I’m incredibly grateful for Senator Warren’s leadership in this moment,” Rahna Epting, executive director of MoveOn, told The Hill.
“What makes Warren such an effective surrogate is that, like Biden, she grew up in a family that had to struggle to fight for what they needed. She was not born with a silver spoon in her mouth,” she said.
Warren, 73, has said she is seeking another term in the Senate in 2024, not the White House. For now, she is lending her support to candidates in tight races, wading into party primaries and racking up airline miles.
Along the way, her travel itinerary has catapulted her back into the political conversation.
In an effort to retain one of the House’s top progressives, she traveled to Michigan last weekend to stump for Rep. Andy Levin, who is competing in an incumbent-on-incumbent primary against Rep. Haley Stevens in the state’s redrawn 11th Congressional District.
“This is going to be hard,” Warren acknowledged in Pontiac, a Detroit suburb, after outlining all of the ways she believes Levin is best suited for another term.
“He’s got the right ideas. He’s got the passion. He knows how to deliver. But it’s going to be hard for a really ugly reason,” she said, pivoting to one of her signature gripes: money in politics. “He’s getting outspent.”
Warren also backed Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, a young Black progressive fighting for the chance to run against Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), one of the most fervent conservatives in the upper chamber. Warren traveled to Madison and Milwaukee on the second of two recent trips to the battleground state.
“As Mandela Barnes continues to show up in every community in Wisconsin to talk about the importance of protecting our hard-won rights like abortion access, having the support of a champion for women and working families like Senator Warren has been incredibly helpful,” said Lauren Chou, a campaign spokesperson for Barnes.
The Massachusetts senator will also be in Pennsylvania on behalf of Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the Democratic Senate nominee running against Republican Mehmet Oz in one of the cycle’s biggest nail-biters.
“Elizabeth Warren has consistently been a powerful presence in the Democratic party over the last two years, advancing good ideas that make peoples’ lives better while leading the fight against MAGA overreach,” said Leah Greenberg, co-founder of the grassroots group Indivisible.
Warren and Fetterman both appeal to working- and middle-class families, constituencies the Democratic Party is fighting to attract and keep in its corner.
“It’s no surprise that she’s widely sought-after,” Greenberg said. “The things she’s saying are resonating with a broad audience.”
While her midterm engagement has been notable to national Democrats and political observers, she has also more subtly focused her policy interests on areas, such as anti-corruption, that progressives say could appeal to a broad swath of voters.
“Sen. Warren speaking to economic issues is always massively valuable for the people of this country,” Epting said. “She has the ability to break things down very simply so that we can understand ‘what is this inflation business all about.’”
Where gas prices are soaring, another progressive operative suggested, Warren can spotlight corporate interests and the fossil fuel industry’s influence on the political system. This could be particularly useful in areas that have large concentrations of working-class residents.
“I think she’s seen obviously as a real leader on talking about and exposing corporate greed,” said Marcela Mulholland, political director at Data for Progress, a left-wing think tank and polling outfit that supports Warren’s political aspirations.
“If she’s a messenger who can really weave the fact that a lot of corporations and oil and gas companies specifically are at fault for some of the increased prices we’re seeing … That’s kind of a niche she can fill,” she said.
On another issue that polls across party lines, the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, progressives said Warren can point to her own work on behalf of women.
As one of just two dozen women in the Senate, Warren’s outspokenness about the conservative court’s decision on Roe has transformed her back into fighter mode, the style of campaigning that many remember from her presidential bid.
Recently, she pushed Biden to use his full authority to ensure those in need of abortion and critical care services have access to them and to officially declare a public health emergency.
“Our polling does show that voters are increasingly concerned about abortion rights, and specifically among women and Democratic and independent voters that’s true,” Mulholland said.
“To the extent that Elizabeth Warren is a medium for the message that Democrats are the party in favor of common sense protections of bodily autonomy, I think that’s helpful electorally,” she added.
Warren, who became known during the last presidential campaign for making wonky plans accessible, has since fine-tuned some of her political fights. She’s still pushing against tech monopolies, including engaging in a public, ongoing battle with Amazon, but has also broadened her portfolio to include areas that could impact future campaign cycles.
She’s taken a particular interest in young voters, whom Mulholland says Warren routinely polls well with. The former Harvard professor has led the charge in the Senate pushing the Biden administration to eliminate $50,000 in federal student loan debt per borrower. And she’s newly focused on preregistering college students to vote, hoping their involvement will help boost turnout in critical elections.
On the left, those efforts have been very well received.
“It’s pretty clear that Sen. Warren has been right about everything, and there has never been a greater need for her moral clarity and her extraordinary gift for coalition building,” said Clymer. “She is one of a handful of national figures who can unite the country.” | https://www.cenlanow.com/national/warren-returns-to-campaign-spotlight/ | 2022-07-27T16:52:46Z | https://www.cenlanow.com/national/warren-returns-to-campaign-spotlight/ | true |
DALLAS — Investigators are asking for help to identify the suspect that shot and killed a man in southwest Dallas.
Police said officers were dispatched to South Cockrell Hill Road near Red Bird Lane shortly after 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. They were notified of an SUV that crashed into a light pole, then through a fence.
When they got there, they found a man suffering from a gunshot wound.
According to police, first responders took the victim to a hospital, where he later died. Authorities are working on identifying the man, but his name won't be released to the public until his loved ones are notified.
Police believe he was 30-35 years old.
Dallas PD said they were told by a witness that they saw a man running from the scene and onto a passing bus.
Officers told WFAA that it's not clear who was driving the SUV that crashed.
Anyone with any information about this shooting is asked to contact Detective Adam Thayer either by calling 214-671-3657 or emailing adam.thayer@dallascityhall.com.
Crime Stoppers is offering up to $5,000 for any information they receive that leads to an arrest and indictment. You can call them at 214-373-TIPS (8477).
Other local news: | https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/crime/shooting-car-crash-cockrell-hill-road-red-bird-lane-dallas-texas-man-dead/287-c811ce9d-cf78-4e83-bed8-4429f3ff0b5d | 2022-07-27T16:53:35Z | https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/crime/shooting-car-crash-cockrell-hill-road-red-bird-lane-dallas-texas-man-dead/287-c811ce9d-cf78-4e83-bed8-4429f3ff0b5d | false |
FTX Ventures led the seed round alongside Y Combinator, Coinbase Ventures, Protocol Labs and Huobi Ventures, and Third Kind
SAN FRANCISCO, July 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Coinfeeds (or "the Company") today announced that it has raised a $2M seed round led by FTX Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Protocol Labs (IPFS / Filecoin), Huobi Ventures, and startup accelerator Y Combinator. Coinfeeds give users the ability to monitor the social media mentions and activity of web3 and NFT projects which is beneficial for all web3 participants from the average user to professional investors, to the protocol itself looking for insights on the health of its own community.
Coinfeeds was co-founded by Moyi Dang (CEO), who has a background working as a data scientist at multiple firms, and most recently at Uber, and also managed the early Chinese community at Filecoin, and Bhavya Agarwal (CTO), who had tenures as a software engineer at firms like Microsoft, Uber, and Robinhood, where he built their machine learning platforms. The pair realized the power of natural language processing (or "NLP") after building a news summary bot that quickly became popular in some of the top crypto subreddits. After this, they built a news API that is now used by some of the largest crypto exchanges to show news to their customers. They knew that by applying NLP to the social channels most frequented by web3 communities, Twitter, Telegram, and Discord, they could generate insights about community activity and sentiment that could have a number of applications depending on the end user.
Moyi Dang, CEO & Co-Founder of Coinfeeds, commented on the news, "Coinfeeds was developed around the idea that web3 communities are social first. Pretty much all important information is shared through some sort of social platform, which is openly accessible. The way the crypto community shares and engages with information provides auto-curation. By taking advantage of this data, we can not only filter out spam, but we can also pick up on what is important in real time. By organizing this information well, we lower the cost of doing research, and we lower information asymmetry in crypto, which is very high."
After joining Y Combinator's prestigious accelerator program and raising a $2M seed raise at an undisclosed valuation, the pair have launched the Coinfeeds app which includes free and premium options alongside API support for institutional and professional users. While all users have access to twitter mentions & followers, discord, and telegram message activity alongside price and market cap change, sentiment-based insights are a premium feature that can also be accessed via a free trial. In addition to having these metrics for NFT projects and tokens, the app can also provide premium users with insights on some of the top crypto investors, and breakout projects based on social metrics. The app also includes monitoring of daily trending tweets across crypto twitter. They are also partnering with some major crypto projects like Near, and the Graph to build out social monitoring for their communities.
Bhavya Agarwal, CTO & Co-Founder of Coinfeeds, concluded, "After working with NLP for years we realized the technology could be used to provide actionable insights for web3 communities. We use it to generate these insights about sentiment and activity about all these crypto projects that each have their own unique way of communicating across different social channels like Twitter, Telegram, and Discord."
Investor Quotes:
Ramnik Arora, General Partner at FTX Ventures, commented on the seed raise, "We view Coinfeeds as a key piece of infrastructure for multiple stakeholders in the web3 community from traders to developers. Moyi and Bhavya's collective expertise in data science and software engineering have allowed them to harness NLP to provide actionable data-based insights via their recently launched app. We look forward to seeing how users of the platform leverage these insights to make more informed investment decisions or enhance offerings based on community feedback."
Brad Holden, Fund Lead at Protocol Labs, commented on the seed raise, "Coinfeeds is committed to driving the next generation of analytics tools for Web3, which lowers the cost of doing research and can onboard the next set of users. It also provides crypto projects with valuable insights into their community and helps those projects make more data-driven decisions."
Jinbin Xie, Senior Investment Manager at Huobi Ventures, commented on the seed raise, "Community is particularly important for web3 projects. With their leading data science and NLP technology, Moyi and Bhavya are helping web3 projects to keep abreast of the community and build their DAOs. We expect Coinfeeds to become an essential infrastructure for building DAOs in the web3 space."
About Coinfeeds
Coinfeeds is an application that aggregates metrics and insights across different social networks to help businesses, investors, and web3 natives alike make more effective, data-driven decisions. The platform leverages natural language processing to monitor and generate insights from key web3 community social channels like Twitter, Discord, and Telegram to track sentiment, mentions, followers, and messages. This data is also used to create a custom social graph for every coin or NFT project to identify key opinion leaders and track what projects investors and influencers tweet about the most, and what projects they recently invested in. These insights and more including Twitter trend monitoring, which highlights trending topics and news along with breakout project monitoring which flag coins that reach an early momentum signal on Twitter are available through the Coinfeeds app here: https://app.coinfeeds.io/
To learn more about Coinfeeds, please visit our website and Twitter
Media Contact:
Kevin McGrath
kmcgrath@mgroupsc.com
View original content:
SOURCE Coinfeeds | https://www.kmvt.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/coinfeeds-raises-2m-seed-raise-launches-web3-community-monitoring-app/ | 2022-07-27T16:53:47Z | https://www.kmvt.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/coinfeeds-raises-2m-seed-raise-launches-web3-community-monitoring-app/ | false |
BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese cargo spacecraft that serviced the country’s permanent orbiting space station has largely burned up on reentering the atmosphere, amid separate concerns over China’s decision to allow a massive booster rocket to fall to Earth uncontrolled.
Only small parts of the Tianzhou-3 ship survived to fall safely Wednesday into a predetermined area of the South Pacific, the China Manned Space Agency said.
Until July 17, the spacecraft had been docked with the station’s Tianhe core section and its return follows the addition of a laboratory module on Monday as China moves to complete the station in the coming months.
China’s space program is run by the ruling Communist Party’s military wing, the People’s Liberation Army, and has largely proceeded with the space station program without other nations’ assistance. The U.S. excluded China from the International Space Station because of its military ties.
The booster that has drawn attention from the space community was part of the massive 23-ton Long March 5B-Y3 rocket — China’s most powerful — that carried the Wentian module to the station, aboard which three astronauts currently reside.
China decided not to guide the booster back through the atmosphere and it’s not clear exactly when or where it will come down to Earth. While it will largely burn up on return, there remains a slight risk of fragments causing damage or casualties.
While China is not alone in such practices, the size of the Long March rocket stage has drawn particular scrutiny.
China has allowed rocket stages to fall back to Earth on their own at least twice before, and was accused by NASA last year of “failing to meet responsible standards regarding their space debris” after parts of a Chinese rocket landed in the Indian Ocean.
China also drew heavy criticism after using a missile to destroy one of its defunct weather satellites in 2007, creating a massive debris field.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Wednesday rejected such concerns.
“Since the development stage of the space engineering program, China has taken into consideration the debris mitigation and return from orbit into atmosphere of missions involving rocket carriers and satellite sent into orbit,” Zhao said at a daily briefing Wednesday.
“It is understood that this type of rocket adopts a special technical design that most of the components will be burnt up and destroyed during the reentry process,” Zhao said. “The possibility of causing damage to aviation activities or on the ground is extremely low.” | https://pix11.com/ap-science/china-spacecraft-returns-amid-booster-rocket-concerns/ | 2022-07-27T16:54:18Z | https://pix11.com/ap-science/china-spacecraft-returns-amid-booster-rocket-concerns/ | false |
Jackie Robinson Museum opens after 14 years of planning
Long dreamed about and in development for longer than the big league career of the man it honors, the Jackie Robinson Museum opened Tuesday in Manhattan with a gala ceremony attended by the widow of the barrier-breaking ballplayer and two of his children.
Rachel Robinson, who turned 100 on July 19, watched the half-hour outdoor celebration from a wheelchair in the 80-degree Fahrenheit heat, then cut a ribbon to cap a project launched in 2008.
Her 72-year-old daughter, Sharon, also looked on from a wheelchair and 70-year-old son David spoke to the crowd of about 200 sitting on folding chairs arrayed in a closed-off section of Varick Street, a major thoroughfare where the 19,380-square-foot museum is located. It opens to the public on Sept. 5
“The issues in baseball, the issues that Jackie Robinson challenged in 1947, they’re still with us,” David Robinson said. “The signs of white only have been taken down, but the complexity of equal opportunity still exists."
Rachel Robinson announced the museum on April 15, 2008, the 61st anniversary of Jackie breaking the big league color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field. Robinson became NL Rookie of the Year, the 1949 NL batting champion and MVP, a seven-time All-Star and a World Series champion in 1955. He hit .313 with 141 homers and 200 stolen bases in 11 seasons and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1962.
Robinson, who died in 1972, had an impact beyond baseball, galvanizing a significant slice of American public opinion and boosting the civil rights movement.
“There’s nowhere on the globe where dream is attached to our name — or our country’s name,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said. “There’s not a German dream. There’s not a French dream. There’s not a Polish dream. Darn it, there’s an American dream. And this man and wife took that dream and forced America and baseball to say you’re not going to be a dream on a piece of paper, you’re going to be a dream in life. We are greater because of No. 42 and because he had amazing wife that understood that dream and vision.”
A gala dinner was held Monday night to preview the museum, which contains 4,500 artifacts, including playing equipment and items such as Robinson's 1946 minor league contract for $600 a month and his 1947 rookie contract for a $5,000 salary. The museum also holds a collection of 40,000 images and 450 hours of footage.
A 15-piece band played at the ceremony, attended by former pitcher CC Sabathia, former NL president Len Coleman and former Mets owner Fred Wilpon, along with players’ association head Tony Clark and Hall of Fame president Josh Rawitch.
“Without him, there would be no me,” Sabathia said. “I wouldn't have been able to live out my dream of playing Major League Baseball.”
Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, director Spike Lee (wearing a Brooklyn Dodgers cap) and former tennis star Billie Jean King also were on hand.
"It seems like we're more divided than ever," King said. “People like Jackie Robinson was a great reminder every single morning, every single evening that we have to do the right thing every day.”
Original projections had a 2010 opening and $25 million cost. The Great Recession caused a delay.
Ground finally was broken on April 27, 2017, when the Jackie Robinson Foundation said it had raised $23.5 million of a planned $42 million and the museum was intended to open in 2019. The pandemic caused more delays, and the total raised has risen to $38 million, of which $2.6 million was contributed by New York City.
Tickets will cost $18 for adults and $15 for students, seniors and children. The second floor includes an education center, part of a plan envisioned by Rachel Robinson.
“She wanted a fixed tribute to her husband, where people could come and learn about him, but also be inspired,” said foundation president Della Britton, who headed the project. “We want to be that place, as young people now say, a safe space, where people will talk about race and not worry about the initial backlash that happens when you say something on social media.”
David Robinson said his father would have been proud.
“He was a man who used the word ‘we,’” David said. “I think today Jackie Robinson would say I accept this honor, but I accept this honor on behalf of something far beyond my individual self, far beyond my family, far beyond even my race. Jackie Robinson would say don’t think of you standing on my shoulders, I think of myself as standing on the shoulders of my mother, who was a sharecropper in Georgia, my grandmother, who was born a slave." | https://www.wvtm13.com/article/jackie-robinson-museum-opens/40731886 | 2022-07-27T16:54:45Z | https://www.wvtm13.com/article/jackie-robinson-museum-opens/40731886 | false |
Tuscaloosa police investigating bomb threat at Shelton State Community College
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Tuscaloosa police investigating bomb threat at Shelton State Community College
Police in Tuscaloosa, Alabama are investigating a bomb threat at Shelton State Community College.The Tuscaloosa Police Department said it responded to a report of an explosive device in a campus building at 10:35 a.m. An hour later, police said officers had not found any evidence of an explosive device, but they are still working to clear the facility.Shelton State said at 11:11 a.m. that both of its campuses are closed until further notice. There are reports of other bomb threats on community college campuses in south Alabama.Get the WVTM 13 app for the latest updates on this developing story.
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. —
Police in Tuscaloosa, Alabama are investigating a bomb threat at Shelton State Community College.
The Tuscaloosa Police Department said it responded to a report of an explosive device in a campus building at 10:35 a.m. An hour later, police said officers had not found any evidence of an explosive device, but they are still working to clear the facility.
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Shelton State said at 11:11 a.m. that both of its campuses are closed until further notice.
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There are reports of other bomb threats on community college campuses in south Alabama.
Get the WVTM 13 app for the latest updates on this developing story. | https://www.wvtm13.com/article/shelton-state-bomb-threat-tuscaloosa-alabama/40732321 | 2022-07-27T16:54:56Z | https://www.wvtm13.com/article/shelton-state-bomb-threat-tuscaloosa-alabama/40732321 | false |
Pega receives top score out of 11 vendors in current offering category
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ: PEGA), the low-code platform provider that builds agility into the world's leading organizations, today announced Forrester Research has named Pega a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Core CRM Solutions, Q3 2022 report (1). Pega received the top score in the current offering category as well as the highest score possible in 16 of 35 criteria.
In its report, Forrester evaluated the 11 most significant CRM providers. Among the criteria, Pega received the highest possible score in CRM user productivity, CRM user assistance, CRM user guidance, next best action, digital sales, customer success, customer service agent, customer service operations, actionable insights, customer profile, omnichannel engagement, conversational intelligence, process management, certifications, developer tooling and extensibility, and execution roadmap.
"Pegasystems offers exceptional automation and process management within its CRM," the report states. "Pegasystems' vision is one of an 'autonomous' CRM where automation offloads repetitive work and AI assists users, increasing their efficiency and the delivered customer experience. The CRM combines workflow automation, real-time decisioning, and a low-code platform with the goal of achieving this vision. Pegasystems uses real-time customer context and journey data to anticipate their needs and proactively – even preemptively – engage; for example, understanding a customer's intent, guiding users through adaptive workflows, proposing an offer that is most likely to be accepted, and adjusting follow-on steps based on customer feedback. CRM users seamlessly transition interactions from human-assisted to self-service with the aid of chatbots and RPA. The CRM has a complete customer profile that is updated in real time and has consistent business and developer tooling and broad industry compliance."
The Forrester report evaluated Pega's CRM solutions built on Pega Platform™, including Pega Customer Decision Hub™, Pega Customer Service™, and Pega Sales Automation™. Together, our powerful solutions help automate work and increase efficiency on the back end, while enabling users to make better decisions in real time, achieve faster resolution, and optimize every customer interaction on the front end.
This report is the latest in recent analyst firm recognitions of Pega's low-code platform for AI-powered decisioning and workflow automation. Recognitions include being named a Leader in The Forrester Wave™: Real-Time Interaction Management, Q2 2022 (2), The Forrester Wave™: Digital Process Automation Software, Q4 2021 (3) report, and in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for the CRM Customer Engagement Center (4) report.
"For a CRM strategy to achieve meaningful customer relationships, brands need to take into consideration processes across an entire organization – not just those in the front office," said Don Schuerman, chief technology officer, Pega. "To us, this recognition exemplifies how Pega's low-code platform for AI-powered decisioning and workflow automation helps our clients to improve customer and employee experiences across the entire scope of the customer journey – from back-end processes to sales and service front-end interactions – while also giving enterprises the tools to offer customers relevant, helpful interactions. We believe this continued recognition exemplifies how Pega is continuing to provide clients with powerful and flexible CRM solutions to work smarter, stay ahead of the competition, and most importantly – keep customers happy."
- The Forrester Wave™: Core CRM Solutions, Q3 2022
- Product background: Pega Platform™
- Product Background: Pega Customer Service
- Product background: Pega Sales Automation
- Product background: Customer Decision Hub™
- Website: Next-Best-Action Customer Journeys
- Video: Next-Best-Action Customer Journeys
- Forrester Research, "The Forrester Wave™: Core CRM Solutions, Q3 2022" by Kate Leggett, July 27, 2022
- Forrester Research, "The Forrester Wave™: Real-Time Interaction Management, Q2 2022" by Rusty Warner, May 25, 2021
- Forrester Research, "The Forrester Wave™: Digital Process Automation Software, Q4 2021" by Rob Koplowitz, December 14, 2021
- Gartner, Inc., "Magic Quadrant for the CRM Customer Engagement Center" by Nadine LeBlanc, Jim Davies, Varun Agarwal, June 15, 2021
Pega provides a powerful low-code platform that builds agility into the world's leading organizations so they can adapt to change. Clients use our AI-powered decisioning and workflow automation to solve their most pressing business challenges – from personalizing engagement to automating service to streamlining operations. Since 1983, we've built our scalable and flexible architecture so people can meet today's customer demands while continuously transforming for tomorrow. For more information on Pega (NASDAQ: PEGA), visit www.pega.com.
Press Contact:
Sean Audet
Pegasystems Inc.
sean.audet@pega.com
Twitter: @pega
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SOURCE Pegasystems Inc. | https://www.kmvt.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/pega-named-leader-core-crm-solutions-by-independent-research-firm/ | 2022-07-27T16:56:06Z | https://www.kmvt.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/pega-named-leader-core-crm-solutions-by-independent-research-firm/ | true |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy is caught in an awkward, painful place. A confusing one, too.
Growth appears to be sputtering, home sales are tumbling and economists warn of a potential recession ahead. But consumers are still spending, businesses keep posting profits and the economy keeps adding hundreds of thousands of jobs each month.
In the midst of it all, prices have accelerated to four-decade highs, and the Federal Reserve is desperately trying to douse the inflationary flames with higher interest rates. That’s making borrowing more expensive for households and businesses.
The Fed hopes to pull off the triple axel of central banking: Slow the economy just enough to curb inflation without causing a recession. Many economists doubt the Fed can manage that feat, a so-called soft landing.
Surging inflation is most often a side effect of a red-hot economy, not the current tepid pace of growth. Today’s economic moment conjures dark memories of the 1970s, when scorching inflation co-existed, in a kind of toxic brew, with slow growth. It hatched an ugly new term: stagflation.
The United States isn’t there yet. Though growth appears to be faltering, the job market still looks quite strong. And consumers, whose spending accounts for nearly 70% of economic output, are still spending, though at a slower pace.
So the Fed and economic forecasters are stuck in uncharted territory. They have no experience analyzing the economic damage from a global pandemic. The results so far have been humbling. They failed to anticipate the economy’s blazing recovery from the 2020 recession — or the raging inflation it unleashed.
Even after inflation accelerated in spring of last year, Fed Chair Jerome Powell and many other forecasters downplayed the price surge as merely a “transitory” consequence of supply bottlenecks that would fade soon.
It didn’t.
Now the central bank is playing catch-up. It’s raised its benchmark short-term interest rate three times since March. Last month, the Fed increased its rate by three-quarters of a percentage point, its biggest hike since 1994. The Fed’s policymaking committee is expected to announce another three-quarter-point hike Wednesday.
Economists now worry that the Fed, having underestimated inflation, will overreact and drive rates ever higher, imperiling the economy. They caution the Fed against tightening credit too aggressively.
“We don’t think a sledgehammer is necessary,’’ Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said this week.
Here’s a look at the economic vital signs that are sending frustratingly mixed signals to policymakers, businesses and forecasters:
___
THE OVERALL ECONOMY
As measured by the nation’s gross domestic product — the broadest gauge of output — the economy has looked positively sickly so far this year. And steadily higher borrowing rates, engineered by the Fed, threaten to make things worse.
“Recession is likely,’’ said Vincent Reinhart, a former Fed economist who is now chief economist at Dreyfus and Mellon.
After growing at a 37-year high 5.7% last year, the economy shrank at a 1.6% annual pace from January through March. For the April-June quarter, forecasters surveyed by the data firm FactSet estimate that growth equaled a scant 0.95% annual rate from April through June. (The government will issue its first estimate of April-June growth on Thursday.)
Some economists foresee another economic contraction for the second quarter. If that happened, it would further escalate recession fears. One informal definition of recession is two straight quarters of declining GDP. Yet that definition isn’t the one that counts.
The most widely accepted authority is the National Bureau of Economic Research, whose Business Cycle Dating Committee assesses a wide range of factors before declaring the death of an economic expansion and the birth of a recession. It defines a recession as “a significant decline in economic activity that is spread across the economy and that lasts more than a few months.”
In any case, the economic drop in the January-March quarter looked worse than it actually was. It was caused by factors that don’t mirror the economy’s underlying health: A widening trade deficit, reflecting consumers’ robust appetite for imports, shaved 3.2 percentage points off first-quarter growth. A post-holiday-season drop in company inventories subtracted an additional 0.4 percentage point.
Consumer spending, measured at a modest 1.8% annual rate from January through March, is still growing. Americans are losing confidence, though: Their assessment of economic conditions six months from now has reached its lowest point since 2013 in June, according to the Conference Board, a research group.
___
INFLATION
What’s agitating consumers is no secret: They’re reeling from painful prices at gasoline stations, grocery stores and auto dealerships.
The Labor Department’s consumer price index skyrocketed 9.1% in June from a year earlier, a pace not seen since 1981. The price of gasoline has jumped 61% over the past year, airfares 34%, eggs 33%.
And despite widespread pay raises, prices are surging faster than wages. In June, average hourly earnings slid 3.6% from a year earlier adjusting for inflation, the 15th straight monthly drop from a year earlier.
And on Monday, Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, lowered its profit outlook, saying that higher gas and food prices were forcing shoppers to spend less on many discretionary items, like new clothing.
The price spikes have been ignited by a combination of brisk consumer demand and global shortages of factory parts, food, energy and labor. And so the Fed is now aggressively raising rates.
“There is a risk of overdoing it,’’ warned Ellen Gaske, an economist at PGIM Fixed Income. “Because inflation is so bad right now, they are focused on the here and now of each monthly CPI report. The latest one showed no letup.’’
___
JOBS
Despite inflation, rate hikes and declining consumer confidence, one thing has remained solid: The job market, the most crucial pillar of the economy. Employers added a record 6.7 million jobs last year. And so far this year, they’re adding an average of 457,000 more each month.
The unemployment rate, at 3.6% for four straight months, is near a half-century low. Employers have posted at least 11 million job openings for six consecutive months. The government says there are two job openings, on average, for every unemployed American, the highest such ratio on record.
Job security and the opportunity to advance to better positions are providing the confidence and financial wherewithal for Americans to spend and keep the job machine churning.
Still, it’s unclear how long a hiring boom will last. In keeping up their spending in the face of high inflation, Americans have been drawing down the heavy savings they built up during the pandemic. That won’t last indefinitely. And the Fed’s rate hikes mean it’s increasingly expensive to buy a house, a car or a major appliance on credit.
The weekly number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits, a proxy for layoffs and a bellwether for where the job market may be headed, reached 251,000 in the most recent reading. That’s still quite low by historic standards, but it’s the most since November.
___
MANUFACTURING
COVID-19 kept millions of Americans cooped up at home. But it didn’t stop them from spending. Unable to go out to restaurants, bars and movie theaters, people instead loaded up on factory-made goods — appliances, furniture, exercise equipment.
Factories have enjoyed 25 consecutive months of expansion, according to the Institute for Supply Management’s manufacturing index. Customer demand has been strong, though supply chain bottlenecks have made it hard for factories to fill orders.
Now, the factory boom is showing signs of strain. The ISM’s index dropped last month to its lowest level in two years. New orders declined. Factory hiring dropped for a second straight month.
A key factor is that the Fed’s rate hikes are heightening borrowing costs and the value of the U.S. dollar against other currencies, a move that makes American goods more expensive overseas.
“We doubt the outlook for manufacturing will improve any time soon,’’ Andrew Hunter, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics, wrote this month. “Weakening global growth and the drag from the stronger dollar look set to keep U.S. manufacturers under pressure over the coming months.’’
Still, the government reported Wednesday that orders for high-cost factory goods jumped 1.9% from May to June on an uptick in orders for automobiles and a surge in orders for military aircraft.
___
HOUSING
No sector of the U.S. economy is more sensitive to interest rate increases than housing. And the Fed’s hikes and the prospect of steadily tighter credit are taking a toll.
Mortgage rates have risen along with the Fed’s benchmark rate. The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage hit 5.54% last week, nearly double its level a year earlier.
The government reported Tuesday that sales of new single-family homes fell 8% last month from May and 17% from June 2021. And sales of previously occupied homes dropped in June for a fifth straight month. They’re down more than 14% from June 2021.
In response to the rapidly slowing home market, builders are cutting back. Construction of single-family homes dropped last month to its lowest level since March 2020, at the height of pandemic lockdowns.
____
AP Economics Writer Christopher Rugaber contributed to this report. | https://pix11.com/business/ap-business/us-economy-sending-mixed-signals-heres-what-it-all-means-2/ | 2022-07-27T16:56:13Z | https://pix11.com/business/ap-business/us-economy-sending-mixed-signals-heres-what-it-all-means-2/ | false |
Workers at Massachusetts Trader Joe’s store take union vote
Hadley, Mass. – Employees at a Trader Joe’s in Massachusetts are casting votes over the next two days in an attempt to form the supermarket chain’s first union.
About 80 workers – or crew members in company parlance – at the Hadley store are scheduled to vote Wednesday and Thursday, said Maeg Yosef, a union organizer who has worked at Trader Joe’s for 18 years.
The workers are organizing under the name Trader Joe’s United, which if successful, would be an independent union, and not affiliated with a larger existing union.
The Trader Joe’s workers are part of a nationwide wave of employees at major companies who have or are attempting to unionize in an effort to get a bigger say in their work conditions and compensation.
Workers at multiple Starbucks coffee shop locations across the country, as well as employees at Amazon, Apple and REI are among those who have joined unions in the past year.
Trader Joe’s management has engaged in what Yosef called “classic union-busting” tactics, including hiring a law firm specializing in fighting unionization to try and talk employees out of approving a union.
California-based Trader Joe’s, which has about 550 stores nationwide, also just announced an enhanced benefits package that includes more paid time off and better pay for some employees, which she said was an effort to head off unionization.
Trader Joe’s already has generous pay and benefits by industry standards, a company spokesperson said.
“Trader Joe’s is a great place to work and our compensation, benefits, flexibility, and working conditions are among the best when compared to any retailer,” Nakia Rohde said in an email. “We welcome a fair vote by our crew members.” | https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/2022/07/27/workers-massachusetts-trader-joes-store-take-union-vote/10163513002/ | 2022-07-27T17:00:12Z | https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/2022/07/27/workers-massachusetts-trader-joes-store-take-union-vote/10163513002/ | true |
Summary Q2 2022 Results1
- Revenue of €2,535 million, representing growth of 17.3% year-over-year in constant currency, driven by strong growth across all segments.
- Adjusted EBITDA increased 8.3% year-over-year in constant currency as certain one-time items, discussed below, and a rebound in lower-margin merchandising revenue, impacted EBITDA growth rates relative to revenue.
- Recorded Music top sellers represented a geographically diverse set of artists including BTS, King & Prince, Rammstein, Olivia Rodrigo and INI, while Music Publishing benefited largely from growth in subscription and streaming revenue and Merchandising and Other saw a strong rebound in touring revenue.
Summary H1 2022 Results1
- Revenue of €4,734 million, representing growth of 16.9% year-over-year in constant currency, driven by strong growth across all segments.
- Adjusted EBITDA increased 11.0% year-over-year in constant currency as certain one-time items, discussed below, and a rebound in lower-margin merchandising revenue, impacted EBITDA growth rates relative to revenue.
- Net cash provided by operating activities before income tax paid of €605 million compared to €470 million in H1 2021.
- Interim dividend of €435 million, or €0.24 per share.
HILVERSUM, The Netherlands, July 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Universal Music Group N.V. ("UMG" or "the Company") today announced its financial results for the second quarter and half year ended June 30, 2022. A detailed financial review and financial statements are available on our investor relations website at investors.universalmusic.com.
Sir Lucian Grainge, UMG's Chairman and CEO, said, "Our strong performance across diversified revenue streams is fuelled by the successful partnerships we've formed with our artists—both new and established—in markets around the world. The widespread growth we are producing throughout UMG demonstrates that our strategy is progressing as planned, underscoring the strength and resilience of our business and our ability to deliver for our artists and our shareholders alike."
"We're driving incremental revenue and EBITDA through a range of compelling monetization opportunities, which in turn enables us to thoughtfully reinvest in the business's long-term growth", said Boyd Muir, UMG's EVP, CFO and President of Operations.
UMG Results
Q2 2022 Results
Revenue for the second quarter of 2022 ("Q2 2022") was €2,535 million, an increase of 25.4% year-over-year, or 17.3% in constant currency. UMG's Recorded Music, Music Publishing and Merchandising and Other segments all had strong revenue growth, as discussed further below.
EBITDA for the quarter grew 18.7% year-over-year, or 8.8% in constant currency, to €507 million, driven by revenue growth. EBITDA margin was 20.0%, compared to 21.1% in the second quarter of 2021 ("Q2 2021"). EBITDA and EBITDA margin in Q2 2021 were impacted by a net €2 million of share-based compensation and expenses related to UMG's listing on Euronext Amsterdam. Excluding these expenses, Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was up 18.2% year-over-year, or 8.3% in constant currency, driven by revenue growth. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 20.0%, compared to 21.2% in the second quarter of 2021.
As disclosed in the UMG Annual Consolidated Financial Statements for the year ended December 31, 2021, UMG adjusted its accounting policy in relation to certain revenues that are collected through societies (the "Change in Society Accounting"). In prior years, these revenues were recognised when the relevant collection society notified UMG of the usage by the end customer and collectability was assured. Recognition of that revenue is now based on an accrual for the best available estimate of when the usage occurs and the amount of consideration which is probable to be collected. This has affected the timing of the recognition of certain revenues across financial reporting quarters, with a benefit of €98 million in revenue and €17 million in both EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter of 2022.
In addition, as previously disclosed, Q2 2021 benefited from a catch-up payment from a digital service provider (the "DSP Catch-Up Payment"), amounting to €41 million in revenue and €26 million in both EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA.
Excluding the Change in Society Accounting and DSP Catch-Up Payment, Adjusted EBITDA margin was 20.1% in Q2 2022, compared to 20.3% in Q2 2021.
The remaining decline in Adjusted EBITDA margin was driven by revenue mix, as lower-margin merchandising revenues benefited from a strong rebound in touring, while higher-margin revenue streams continued to exhibit solid growth.
H1 2022 Results
In the half year ended June 30, 2022 ("H1 2022"), UMG's revenues of €4,734 million increased by 23.6%, or 16.9% in constant currency, compared to the half year ended June 30, 2021 ("H1 2021"). This increase was driven by double-digit improvements across all segments, as discussed further below.
Cost of revenues, consisting of artist and product costs, increased by 27.4% to €2,608 million in H1 2022, reflecting higher revenues and revenue mix. Cost of revenues as a percentage of revenues increased to 55.1% from 53.4% driven by higher artist costs from a greater proportion of Music Publishing revenues in H1 2022 as well as the impact of the DSP Catch-Up Payment and a previously disclosed exceptional recovery of an advance provision and release of historic royalties (the "Exceptional Recovery and Release") in the first quarter of 2021 (with a €20 million impact) that all benefited artists costs relative to revenues in the prior year period.
Operating profit improved 11.8% year-over-year, or 6.7% in constant currency, to €765 million in H1 2022 driven by the growth in revenues. EBITDA amounted to €960 million, an increase of 16.8%, or 11.1% in constant currency, compared to H1 2021, also as a result of the growth in revenues.
EBITDA and EBITDA margin were impacted by share-based compensation of €2 million during H1 2022 and by €3 million of expenses related to UMG's listing on Euronext Amsterdam during H1 2021. Excluding these amounts, Adjusted EBITDA for H1 2022 was €962 million, up 16.6% compared to H1 2021, or 11.0% in constant currency, driven by revenue growth. Adjusted EBITDA margin contracted 1.2pp year-over-year to 20.3%.
Revenue, EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA for H1 2022 benefited from the Change in Society Accounting discussed above, amounting to €144 million in revenue and €34 million in both EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA.
Revenue for H1 2021 benefited from the DSP Catch-Up Payment described above, while EBITDA for H1 2021 benefited from the DSP Catch-Up Payment and the Exceptional Recovery and Release described above.
Excluding these items, Adjusted EBITDA margin was 20.2% in H1 2022, compared to 20.6% in H1 2021.
The remaining decline in Adjusted EBITDA margin was driven by revenue mix, as lower-margin merchandising revenues benefited from a strong rebound in touring, while higher-margin revenue streams continued to exhibit solid growth.
Net profit attributable to equity holders of the parent for H1 2022 amounted to €241 million compared to €452 million in H1 2021, resulting in EPS of €0.13 in H1 2022, compared to €0.25 in H1 2021. The decline in Net profit attributable to equity holders of the parent was due to the variance in revaluation of investments in listed companies (including Spotify and Tencent Music Entertainment) and other financial investments that was an expense in H1 2022 of €567 million compared to a net expense in H1 2021 of €170 million. Adjusted net profit, which adjusts for the revaluation of investments amongst other items, amounted to €763 million in H1 2022, compared to €578 million in H1 2021, resulting in Adjusted EPS of €0.42 in H1 2022, compared to €0.32 in H1 2021. The increase in Adjusted net profit was driven by the growth in EBITDA and a decline in interest and income tax expense, both driven by a €100 million benefit from two tax litigations finalized in H1 2022.
Net debt, defined as total debt minus cash and equivalents, at the end of H1 2022 was €2,283 million compared to €2,010 million at December 31, 2021.
Net cash provided by operating activities before income tax paid improved to €605 million in H1 2022 compared to €470 million in H1 2021, an increase of 28.7%, mainly as a result of the growth in EBITDA and favourable working capital movements. Royalty advance payments, net of recoupments grew to €223 million in H1 2022 from €130 million in H1 2021, due to the timing of major artist renewals partly offset by higher recoupment.
Free cash flow decreased to €104 million in H1 2022 compared to €280 million in H1 2021, mainly as a result of the timing of catalogue acquisitions (-€221 million), whilst the prior half year benefited from the disposal of Alamo Records (-€102 million). This was partly offset by the improvement in net cash provided by operating activities (+€122 million).
UMG's dividend policy is to pay a dividend of 50% of adjusted net profit. UMG's Board of Directors declared an interim dividend for H1 2022 of €435 million, or €0.24 per share. The ex-dividend date will be on October 5, 2022, the record date will be on October 6, 2022 and the payment date will be on October 28, 2022.
Recorded Music
Q2 2022 Results
Recorded Music revenues for the second quarter of 2022 were €1,922 million, up 16.2% compared to the second quarter of 2021, or 9.0% in constant currency. Subscription revenue of €966 million grew 14.6% year-over-year, or 7.0% in constant currency. Subscription revenue in Q2 2021 benefited from the DSP Catch-Up Payment. Excluding this item, subscription revenue in the second quarter of 2022 grew 20.4% year-over-year, or 12.1% in constant currency. Ad-supported streaming revenue of €348 million grew 24.7% year-over-year, or 15.6% in constant currency, due to the ongoing improvement in ad-based monetization and enhanced deals in social media.
Physical revenue showed another quarter of strong growth, increasing by 21.2% year-over-year, or 17.4% in constant currency, mainly driven by strong sales from BTS and King & Prince. Downloads and other digital revenue were down 4.2% year-over-year, or 12.7% in constant currency on the continued industry-wide decline in downloads. License and other revenue improved 12.4% year-over-year, or 6.3% in constant currency, as a result of higher synchronisation and live income. Top sellers for the quarter included BTS, King & Prince, Rammstein, Olivia Rodrigo and INI, while top sellers in the prior-year quarter included BTS, Justin Bieber, Olivia Rodrigo, The Weeknd and Morgan Wallen.
H1 2022 Results
In H1 2022, Recorded Music revenues were €3,643 million, up 16.1% compared to H1 2021, or 10.1% in constant currency. Subscription revenue of €1,866 million grew 16.3% year-over-year, or 10.0% in constant currency. Subscription revenue in H1 2021 benefited from the DSP Catch-Up Payment. Excluding this item, subscription revenue grew 19.4% year-over-year, or 12.7% in constant currency. Ad-supported streaming revenue of €658 million grew 25.1% year-over-year, or 17.1% in constant currency.
Physical revenue grew 16.6% year-over-year, or 13.4% in constant currency, driven by strong vinyl demand as well as continued CD sales, particularly from BTS and King & Prince. Downloads and other digital revenue fell 10.5% year-over-year, or 16.0% in constant currency, on the continued industry-wide decline in download sales. License and other revenue improved 13.0% year-over-year, or 7.8% in constant currency, as a result of improvements in synchronisation, live and brand deals. Top sellers for H1 2022 included BTS, the Encanto soundtrack, Olivia Rodrigo, The Weeknd and King & Prince while top sellers in H1 2021 included BTS, Justin Bieber, Olivia Rodrigo, The Weeknd and Morgan Wallen.
Recorded Music EBITDA in H1 2022 was €842 million, up 12.4% year-over-year, or 6.9% in constant currency, driven by the growth in revenues. Recorded Music EBITDA margin declined by 0.8pp to 23.1% from 23.9% in H1 2021 as a result of the DSP Catch-Up Payment and the Exceptional Recovery and Release. Excluding these items, Adjusted EBITDA margin grew 0.4pp to 23.1% from 22.7%.
Music Publishing
Q2 2022 Results
Music Publishing revenue amounted to €476 million in the second quarter of 2022, up 62.5% year-over-year, or 50.6% in constant currency. Music Publishing revenue benefited from the Change in Society Accounting discussed above. Excluding this benefit, Music Publishing revenue grew 29.0% year-over-year, or 19.6% in constant currency, as a result of organic growth trends, fueled by healthy growth from streaming and subscription, the broadening monetization of music publishing rights, a continued rebound in physical sales, as well as initial contributions from catalogue acquisitions made in prior years.
Within Music Publishing, digital revenue grew 121.8% year-over-year, or 104.7% in constant currency, reflecting the Change in Society Accounting, as well as continued growth of streaming and subscription. Synchronisation revenue grew 31.1% year-over-year, or 20.4% in constant currency, as a result of increased income from advertising, TV and motion pictures. Performance revenue declined 33.3% year-over-year, or 40.0% in constant currency, reflecting the Change in Society Accounting. Mechanical revenue grew 15.0% year-over-year, or 9.5% in constant currency, driven by the Change in Society Accounting, as well as the recent growth in industry-wide physical sales.
H1 2022 Results
Music Publishing revenue amounted to €851 million in H1 2022, up 50.9% year-over-year, or 42.1% in constant currency. Revenues benefited from the Change in Society Accounting discussed above. Excluding this benefit, Music Publishing revenue grew 25.4% year-over-year, or 18.0% in constant currency, as a result of organic growth trends, fueled by healthy growth from streaming and subscription, the broadening monetization of music publishing rights, a continued rebound in physical sales, as well as initial contributions from catalogue acquisitions made in prior years.
Within Music Publishing, digital revenue grew 90.4% year-over-year or 78.4% in constant currency, reflecting the Change in Society Accounting, as well as continued growth of streaming and subscription. Synchronisation revenue grew 31.9% year-over-year, or 23.7% in constant currency, as a result of increased income from advertising, TV and motion pictures. Performance revenue declined 2.3% year-over-year, or 8.0% in constant currency, reflecting the Change in Society Accounting. Mechanical revenue grew 21.1% year-over-year, or 15.0% in constant currency, driven by the Change in Society Accounting, as well as the recent growth in industry-wide physical sales.
Music Publishing EBITDA of €200 million was up 49.3% year-over-year, or 39.9% in constant currency. EBITDA benefited from the Change in Society Accounting discussed above. Excluding this benefit, Music Publishing EBITDA grew 23.9% year-over-year, or 16.1% in constant currency, as a result of organic growth trends and initial contributions from catalogue acquisitions made in prior years. Music Publishing EBITDA margin was down 0.3pp to 23.5% compared to 23.8% in H1 2021 as a result of the revenue mix shift in Music Publishing away from higher-margin performance revenue.
Merchandising and Other
Q2 2022 Results
Merchandising and Other revenue grew to €141 million, up 78.5% year-over-year, or 65.9% in constant currency, as touring-related merchandising revenue rebounded following a COVID related slow-down in live touring in the prior year period.
H1 2022 Results
Merchandising and Other revenue grew to €248 million, up 79.7% year-over-year, or 67.6% in constant currency, as touring-related merchandising revenue rebounded following a COVID related slow-down in live touring in the prior year period.
Merchandising and Other EBITDA in H1 2022 of €14 million was up from €0 in H1 2021. EBITDA margin of 5.6% improved from zero due to the timing of artist expenses.
Conference Call Details
The Company will host a conference call to discuss these results on Wednesday, July 27, 2022 at 6:15PM CEST. A link to the live audio webcast will be available on investors.universalmusic.com and a link to the replay will be available after the call.
While listeners may use the webcast, a dial-in telephone number is required for investors and analysts to ask questions. Investors and analysts interested in asking questions can pre-register for a dial-in line at investors.universalmusic.com under the "Financial Reports" tab.
Cautionary Notice
This press release is published by Universal Music Group N.V. and contains inside information within the meaning of article 7 (1) of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 (Market Abuse Regulation).
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release may contain statements that constitute forward-looking statements with respect to UMG's financial condition, results of operations, business, strategy and plans. Such forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as 'profit forecast', 'expect', 'estimate', 'project', 'anticipate', 'should', 'intend', 'plan', 'probability', 'risk', 'target', 'goal', 'objective', 'will', 'endeavour', 'optimistic', 'prospects' and similar expressions or variations on such expressions. Although UMG believes that such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, they are not guarantees of future performance. Actual results may differ materially from such forward-looking statements as a result of a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are related to factors that are outside UMG's control, including, but not limited to, UMG's inability to compete successfully and to identify, attract, sign and retain successful recording artists and songwriters, failure of streaming and subscription adoption or revenue to grow or to grow less rapidly than anticipated, UMG's reliance on digital service providers, UMG's inability to execute its business strategy, the global nature of UMG's operations, UMG's inability to protect its intellectual property and against piracy, UMG's inability to attract and retain key personnel, changes in laws and regulations and the other risks that have been described in UMG's 2021 annual report. Accordingly, UMG cautions readers against placing undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release. UMG disclaims any intention or obligation to provide, update or revise any such forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Alternative Performance Indicators
This press release includes certain alternative performance indicators which are not defined in IFRS issued by the International Accounting Standards Board as endorsed by the EU. The descriptions of these alternative performance indicators and reconciliations of non-IFRS to IFRS measures are included in the Interim Financial Review and Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Interim Financial Statements which is available on our website at investors.universalmusic.com/reports.
About Universal Music Group
At Universal Music Group (EURONEXT: UMG), we exist to shape culture through the power of artistry. UMG is the world leader in music-based entertainment, with a broad array of businesses engaged in recorded music, music publishing, merchandising and audiovisual content. Featuring the most comprehensive catalogue of recordings and songs across every musical genre, UMG identifies and develops artists and produces and distributes the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful music in the world. Committed to artistry, innovation and entrepreneurship, UMG fosters the development of services, platforms and business models in order to broaden artistic and commercial opportunities for our artists and create new experiences for fans. For more information on Universal Music Group N.V. visit www.universalmusic.com
Contacts
Media
James Murtagh-Hopkins - communicationsnl@umusic.com
Investors
Erika Begun - investorrelations@umusic.com
Upcoming Calendar
3Q 2022 Results: October 27, 2022
1 This press release includes certain alternative performance indicators which are not defined in the International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS") issued by the International Accounting Standards Board as endorsed by the EU. The descriptions of these alternative performance indicators and reconciliations of non-IFRS to IFRS measures are included in the Interim Financial Review and Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Interim Financial Statements which is available on our website at investors.universalmusic.com/reports.
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SOURCE Universal Music Group N.V. | https://www.wbtv.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/universal-music-group-nv-reports-financial-results-second-quarter-half-year-ended-june-30-2022/ | 2022-07-27T17:02:09Z | https://www.wbtv.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/universal-music-group-nv-reports-financial-results-second-quarter-half-year-ended-june-30-2022/ | false |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/mlb/atlanta-braves/articles/40198170 | 2022-07-27T17:06:44Z | https://sportspyder.com/mlb/atlanta-braves/articles/40198170 | true |
BOSTON, July 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Goulston & Storrs, an Am Law 200 firm, is pleased to announce that director Martha Nahill Frahm, who co-chairs the firm's Tax Group, has been named a 2022 Go To Tax Lawyer by Mass Lawyers Weekly for her long record of success as a tax lawyer in the Commonwealth.
In more than 20 years of practice, Frahm has developed a reputation as one of the most respected, knowledgeable, and experienced tax attorneys in the region and beyond. Her work spans a wide range of practice areas at Goulston & Storrs, including real estate joint ventures and structuring, representing educational, medical and cultural institutions, and closely held businesses and entrepreneurs; mergers & acquisitions (M&A), advising on incentive tax credits such as the historic rehabilitation credit; and providing private client wealth transfer and philanthropic planning.
Beyond her work advising business and individual clients on federal and state tax planning, Frahm also advises tax exempt and charitable organizations, including educational institutions, academic medical centers, health care organizations, and foundations, on their most complex tax issues. With deep expertise in non-profit management structuring, operational and investment matters, governance, policy development, M&A, technology transfer, and licensing agreements, Frahm is considered one of the leading attorneys in this specialized area.
In addition to her client work, Frahm co-chairs both the firm's Tax Group and Associate Development and Training Committee, and serves on numerous firm committees focused on mentoring, training, education, and relationship-building skills. She is also a leader in the legal community, serving on various Boston Bar Association Boards throughout her career. In 2010, she founded and co-chaired the BBA's Tax Exempt Organizations Committee. She has also served on the Board of the Governance Committee and as a member of the Chapter 180 working group. Frahm currently serves as pro bono counsel to numerous non-profit organizations including Oxfam America, YouthBuild, Endeavor Global, and All Hands and Hearts.
She received her J.D., cum laude, and LL.M. from Boston University School of Law and her B.A. from Tufts University.
About Goulston & Storrs
Collaboration is not just a pillar of our strategy; it is the key to our competitive advantage and approach to clients, community, and each other. At Goulston & Storrs, we practice law with excellence and integrity. We are a place where mutual respect and collaboration drive open discussion, transparency, creativity and optimal results for our clients. We are committed to being a diverse and inclusive workplace where sophisticated business is conducted with genuine camaraderie. To learn more about us, visit www.goulstonstorrs.com.
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SOURCE Goulston & Storrs PC | https://www.dakotanewsnow.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/goulston-amp-storrs-director-martha-nahill-frahm-named-2022-go-tax-lawyer-by-mass-lawyers-weekly/ | 2022-07-27T17:07:58Z | https://www.dakotanewsnow.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/goulston-amp-storrs-director-martha-nahill-frahm-named-2022-go-tax-lawyer-by-mass-lawyers-weekly/ | true |
Ind. — While no one won the Mega Millions jackpot after Tuesday's drawing, three people who bought tickets in Indiana have won $10,000, according to the Hoosier Lottery.
The three winners matched four out of five numbers and the Mega Ball in the July 26 jackpot drawing.
The tickets were sold at Circle K #2285 located at 11601 Allisonville Rd. in Fishers, Main Street Shell #203 located at 2 E. Main St. in Cambridge City and Meijer C-Stop #170 located at 10240 Indianapolis Blvd. in Highland.
The winning Mega Millions numbers for Tuesday, July 26 are: 7-29-60-63-66 with a Mega Ball of 15.
The Hoosier Lottery says ticket holders should ensure their ticket is in a secure place, consider meeting with a financial advisor and contact Hoosier Lottery customer service at 1-800-955-6886 for specific claim instructions.
Friday’s projected jackpot is $1.02 billion. | https://www.wrtv.com/news/state-news/three-indiana-mega-millions-tickets-worth-10-000 | 2022-07-27T17:09:20Z | https://www.wrtv.com/news/state-news/three-indiana-mega-millions-tickets-worth-10-000 | false |
LaGRANGE, Ga. (WRBL) – Wanda Barrett buried her late husband, Carlos, at Southview Cemetery in November 2021 only to find another urn buried on top of his gravesite, eight months later.
“I didn’t know what to think. I never imagined that it would be this that someone buried an urn in his grave,” said Barrett.
Barrett said she noticed her husband’s grave had been distrubed one night when she was visiting his gravesite. A manager at the cemetery confirmed that West Georgia Mortuary buried an urn on her husband’s casket.
This is not the first time Barrett has experienced issues with Southview Cemetery. She said she was not allowed to place the headstone she originally wanted for her husband. She was also not allowed to buy the plot next to his for her eventual resting place. She said she chose the location solely because of her husband’s wish to be buried there.
Barrett said it took about two weeks to have the urn lifted from her husband’s casket but West Georgia Mortuary did remove the urn and relocated it.
Despite having the urn removed, Barrett said she is not happy with the process. A patch of grass has been laid where the hole was dug to bury the urn and Barrett believes her husband deserves more.
Now, she would like to put a concrete slab over his gravesite to protect it but has been told it is not possible by Southview Cemetery.
“I haven’t been able to eat or sleep since then because I’m afraid it may happen again,” said Barrett.
Barrett said she is willing to pursue legal action if she is not allowed to pour a concrete slab given what has taken place. She has also presented the issue to the city and said she will have no peace of mind until something is placed over her husband’s grave.
WRBL has reached out to Southview Cemetery and West Georgia Mortuary but has not heard back yet. Stick with us as this story develops. | https://www.cbs42.com/regional/mortuary-accidentally-buries-urn-on-already-buried-casket-in-georgia/ | 2022-07-27T17:09:35Z | https://www.cbs42.com/regional/mortuary-accidentally-buries-urn-on-already-buried-casket-in-georgia/ | true |
New Three-Day Festival Dedicated to Building Black Futures Together During Black Business and Philanthropy Month
BALTIMORE, July 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Baltimore social change organization CLLCTIVLY will celebrate national Black business and Black philanthropy month in August with the launch of We Give Black Fest, a new three-day festival working to change the narrative for Black-led organizations through collective impact, community, and celebration.
Taking place August 19-21 at West Covington Park in partnership with the seventh annual Vegan Soulfest, We Give Black Fest combines several of CLLCTIVLY's dynamic events, including CLLCTIVGIVE, Black Business Quest, and the Changemaker Awards with new programming and musical performances in partnership with Vegan SoulFest.
The entire festival experience centers on community impact, where attendees will support initiatives that uplift and benefit Black-led nonprofits, philanthropy efforts, and plant-forward veganism.
"CLLCTVLY's mission is to provide Black-led social change organizations and changemakers with a platform to increase their visibility, expand their impact, and foster deeper connections through community," said founder Jamye Wooten. "We invite Baltimore to join us in supporting these boots-on-the-ground organizations dedicated to making change a reality in Baltimore and providing for the future of Black Baltimore."
Attendees can enjoy mouthwatering Vegan cuisine from the Conscious Market, jam out to soulful vibes from national and local artists and DJs, dive into empowering activations and cooking demos, donate and support Black-led organizations and take part in panel discussions and harbor side chats with community-led organizations and Black-led vendors. We Give Black Fest will also feature expert talks by Rev. Dr. Starsky Wilson from the Children's Defense Fund, Susan Taylor Batten from ABFE, and E. Bomani Johnson from Forward Promise, along with headlining performances from Jade Novah, Maimouna Youssef aka Mumu Fresh, Daley, and Grey, to name just a few.
Over and above the three days of festival programming, We Give Black Fest also incorporates three of CLLCTIVLY signature programs, including:
CLLCTIVGIVE- August 19-20 - CLLCTIVGIVE is Greater Baltimore's community-wide celebration of giving and a 48-hour crowdfunding campaign to support Baltimore's Black-led Social Change organizations. Starting August 19, visit CLLCTIVGIVE to learn more about black-led nonprofits and contribute to supporting their efforts to thrive and survive. Nonprofits interested in participating can register here. Businesses who would like to engage employees and customers in participating in CLLCTIVGIVE can find a toolkit of resources here.
We Give Black Quest, August 17-21 - A scavenger hunt that encourages Baltimore to explore and support participating Black-owned businesses through a series of gamified opportunities throughout the day. The rules are simple, and the purpose is to complete tasks in order to gain points for the chance to win prizes while supporting amazing Black-owned businesses. Activities include taking photos with landmarks, spreading the word on social, visiting local establishments, answering trivia, and competing to win prizes. Sign up here to register your team.
Change Maker Awards – August 21 during We Give Black Fest
The Change Maker Awards celebrate and honor the accomplishments of Black-led leaders who are elevating our communities and creating a better Baltimore. A special performance by The Medicine Show will honor awardees at 4 p.m. on the main stage.
For more information and a schedule of events and programs, visit www.WeGiveBlack.com.
Media Credential Form https://vsfxwgb.festivalpro.com/form/247CA3B8F3E58C54ADE0/55
CLLCTIVLY is a place-based social change organization using an asset-based framework to focus on racial equity, narrative change, social connectedness, and resource mobilization. Since our launch in 2019, we have invested over $750,000 in no-strings-attached grants.
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SOURCE CLLCTIVLY | https://www.wsaz.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/cllctivly-launch-we-give-black-fest-august-19-21-partnership-with-vegan-soulfest/ | 2022-07-27T17:10:51Z | https://www.wsaz.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/cllctivly-launch-we-give-black-fest-august-19-21-partnership-with-vegan-soulfest/ | false |
Soccer star Briana Scurry still remembers the day she knew she wanted to be an Olympian: It was 1980, and Scurry, then 8 years old, watched on TV as the underdog men's U.S. Olympic ice hockey team beat Team USSR in Lake Placid, NY.
"I was so inspired, I rose up from the couch and declared to my parents that I wanted to be an Olympian," Scurry says. "They, thankfully, were nurturing of that little inspiration and helped me hone my skills in all different sports through high school."
Scurry would go on to become one of the top goalkeepers in the history of U.S. women's soccer. She won two Olympic gold medals, in 1996 and 2004, and a World Cup in 1999. But her soccer career ended abruptly in 2010, when she was playing in the new Women's Professional Soccer league and a member of the opposing team collided with her, crashing her knee into Scurry's right temple.
"My whole life changed from that moment," Scurry says. "I knew there was something really wrong. ... That was the last soccer game I've ever played."
The collision left Scurry with a traumatic brain injury, which resulted in constant, excruciating headaches, blurred vision, cognitive problems and depression. She was unable to work and the league soon collapsed, leaving her without a medical team or training facility to help her. To make matters worse, Scurry's insurance company refused to cover the surgery she needed to repair the nerve that was the source of her pain, and she was reduced to pawning her two gold medals.
"It was the most difficult thing I'd ever done in my life," Scurry says of selling her Olympic medals for $18,000. "But it was the patch and the temporary fix that I needed to get some stability in order to continue to press forward and get the help I needed."
Scurry credits Chryssa, the woman who would become her wife, with helping to pressure the insurance company into covering her surgery and therapy — and with helping her buy back her Olympic medals. In 2017, Scurry became the first Black woman to be inducted in the National Soccer Hall of Fame. She tells her story in the new memoir, My Greatest Save.
Interview highlights
On fighting for equity in resources with the U.S. Soccer Federation — like per diems, air travel and prize money
We felt in 1995 that we had some leverage at that point in time because the Olympics were just around the corner and we were, in fact, favored to win. So myself and eight of my other teammates basically decided to go on strike against the Federation. We risked not only our livelihoods, but also our dreams. ... I was an 8-year-old girl who wanted to be an Olympian, and here I was at the precipice of potentially achieving a lifelong dream, and I was risking it for something that was greater than myself. We knew that the Federation would have to cave eventually, but boy, were they mean and nasty in the process. They said some very unsavory things about us as players, and all we were trying to do was provide equity for not only ourselves, but for all the women that would come behind us and don the jersey and represent the United States of America in soccer. We wanted to make sure that that playing field was more level and they were very, very strong willed and had an iron fist about it — but eventually we got what we wanted.
On the penalty kick save that paved the way for Team USA's win against China in the 1999 Women's World Cup
The goalkeeping shootout for a major game like that is a very interesting proposition. We train for it pretty much every day in training leading up to that event. And then you also actually hope you don't have to be in a shootout, but when you find yourself in one, like I did in '99, I was supremely confident. We had trained it. We had talked about it. I had done some sports visualization with the sport doc on that. And that third kicker, my normal MO, method of operations, for penalty kicks is to not look at my team kicks, nor do I really look at the opposing player walking up to the penalty spot. And on that particular kicker, that third kicker, as I was walking into the penalty area to present myself for the save, I heard something in my mind say, "Look." So I actually looked at her and watched her approach a penalty spot, which is something that I normally didn't do. And I knew right then that that was the one I was going to save.
On oftentimes being the only Black player on a team
I was in a Boys & Girls Club event and one of the young girls who was 12 years old, roughly, a young African American girl, she said to me, "I didn't know Black people played soccer.
It was difficult to not see more people like me. I was so driven and was so passionate about my dream of being an Olympian. ... I didn't have too much difficulty being the only one because I knew I was blazing a trail for myself and for others to come behind me. But I also knew that more representation for women of color on the team was necessary and relevant. And so I really advocated for more women of color to play on the team. ... I work[ed] with different organizations, like the Boys & Girls Club of America, different sponsors like Allstate and Pepsi, who helped me essentially go to the urban areas and tell young girls in junior high and high school about the game of soccer. ... And I had one incident, I was in a Boys & Girls Club event and one of the young girls who was 12 years old, roughly, a young African American girl, she said to me, "I didn't know Black people played soccer." And right there in that moment basically encapsulates the whole problem. She didn't know. So I took it upon myself to be my job to help grow the game in the urban areas, and the U.S. Soccer Federation and Foundation also helped me do that.
On her life-changing traumatic brain injury in 2010
In the first half I bent over for a low ball coming from my left-hand side, and as I was going to make that save and I was bent over, the attacking player came from the right-hand side and, trying to get her toe on the ball in front of me, crashed into the side of my head with her knee. And I never saw her coming. [Because] I didn't see her, I couldn't brace at all for it. So I was completely exposed. She crashed into me. We bundled over. And, of course, my first thought was, Did I make the save? Sure enough, I had the ball in my hands. ...
I had had concussions before — you get some blurry vision, you get some sensitivities. And then ... it fades away, like the wave of the emotions and the issue fade away and you get clarity again. But I wasn't getting clarity. I was tipping to the left. The names on the jerseys were blurry. And at half time, which blew maybe seven or eight minutes later, I was walking off the pitch and ... my trainer came into the pitch to meet me, and she grabbed my hands and she said, "Bri, are you okay?" And I said, "No, I'm not." ...
For the longest time, I was mad at [the player who crashed into me]. I found out what her name was and exactly who she was. And for several years, I was angry at her for putting me in this position, for not avoiding contact with me. I realized over time that my anger towards her wasn't helping me and ... for a long time wished I could undo that hit. And when you're in an emotional state like a concussion, you are essentially disconnected from yourself. And I had all these symptoms and I was so angry at her. And I prayed so many days. I was like, "Why couldn't you have just missed me?" Because I was a different person now. I changed emotionally, I was different. My confidence, my focus, all these different things. And I was so lost in the wilderness.
On having suicidal thoughts because of her emotional and physical symptoms
I was in that state of emotional distress. I had emotional and physical symptoms. I had depression. I once stood on the ledge of a waterfalls in Little Falls, New Jersey, and contemplated suicide. The railing where the falls were was really low and the water was just rushing over the falls and I could feel the mist of that water on my face. And I contemplated jumping over and I knew if I did that I wouldn't survive it because I couldn't swim. And the water was so high because it had rained just recently. I knew if I go into this water, I'm never coming out. But what stopped me was the image of my mom and some official, some law enforcement official knocking on her door and notifying her that her baby was gone. I couldn't do that to her. So that image got me off the ledge and onto some solid ground, literally. And after that, I decided I wasn't going to commit suicide while my mother was alive because I just couldn't do it to her. And that was the beginning of my journey back to me.
On how her now wife Chryssa, who has a PR company, pressured the insurance company to get her the brain surgery she needed
The insurance company definitely didn't want the headline to be "Two-time Olympic gold medalist, World Cup champion, battles insurance company over clear issues and obvious payments that they should make." They didn't want that to be in the USA Today, The L.A. Times, The New York Times and the like. And so when Chryssa and I finally did speak, I told her all about my plight, all about what I was dealing with. And she said, "OK, let me speak to your lawyers and we'll talk about what we can do." And so Chryssa spoke to them. And the lawyers are the ones that went back to the insurance company and said, "Look, here's the deal. You need to do the right thing. You need to pay for this surgery. We already went to court and it was found that you were liable and that you need to pay. So do it or this is what's going to happen. The media is going to find out this story and it's not going to look good for you." At that moment, they did a complete 180. I got my surgery. I got a whole year of therapy after that. And I was able to settle with that insurance company during that year as well. ...
When I came out of surgery, I remember opening my eyes and just being so happy, I started crying. Because when you have chronic pain like that, that I had for three years, you don't realize how painful and how much energy it takes up until it's gone. And then when it was gone, I was just so excited.
On being featured in the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
I was so humbled and so thrilled to be honored to be in the same building as Oprah Winfrey, as Rosa Parks, Tiger Woods, Muhammad Ali, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King. I didn't really think that my contribution was necessarily going to be worthy of that type of honor. And then when I spoke to them, they wanted me to be the Title IX example for the Title IX exhibit within the Game Changers exhibit at the museum, and I was more than honored and thrilled to do so. So in that Game Changers exhibit is the jersey that I wore for the Women's World Cup that I made that penalty kick save in. That is the actual jersey in that exhibit.
Sam Briger and Susan Nkyakundi produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Ciera Crawford adapted it for the web.
Copyright 2022 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air. | https://www.kunm.org/npr-news/npr-news/2022-07-27/a-brain-injury-cut-short-briana-scurrys-soccer-career-it-didnt-end-her-story | 2022-07-27T17:13:14Z | https://www.kunm.org/npr-news/npr-news/2022-07-27/a-brain-injury-cut-short-briana-scurrys-soccer-career-it-didnt-end-her-story | false |
As Congress extends pandemic school lunch waivers and a growing number of states pass or consider universal meal laws, Revolution Foods expands by 50% to ensure all children, seniors and communities can access healthy and fresh food.
OAKLAND, Calif., July 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Revolution Foods, a Public Benefit Corporation and B-Corporation committed to serving fresh, healthy, delicious, meals accessible to all, today announced the acquisition of Better 4 You Meals (B4YM), the leading provider of school and senior citizen fresh, vended meal services in California and Nevada. The B4YM acquisition will enable Revolution Foods to grow its production and community impact by approximately 50%.
"We wake up every day focused on how we personally feed students and families in the communities in which we live and operate," said Dominic Engels, Chief Executive Officer of Revolution Food. "Combining efforts with B4YM will better equip us to make good on the promise of California's new Universal Meals program, and the growing number of programs and initiatives taking aim at food insecurity around the country."
Food insecurity now touches more than 40 million Americans, including 22 million school-aged children who rely on schools for their meals. Despite the extension of federal waivers following the long-awaited and recent signing of the Keep Kids Fed Act in late June, community organizations and schools are continuing to struggle to meet demand amidst continued supply chain pressures in labor, raw materials and logistics.
Founded in 2006 with a commitment to providing healthy meals for all, Revolution Foods has delivered more than 800 million fresh meals that meet or exceed federal nutrition and ingredient standards. Crafted locally now with over 1,200 employees in Oakland, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Denver, Boston, New Jersey, and Washington D.C., Revolution Foods and B4YM now reach over 6,800 schools, community organizations, and seniors nationwide. The acquisition of B4YM strengthens Revolution Foods' impact and reach specifically in California and Nevada.
"Since day one, we have admired Revolution Foods' work here in California and nationally," said Fernando Castillo, B4YM CEO. "As Public Benefit Corporation with an abiding commitment to the communities we serve, I know that the combination of our philosophies and food can have an even more profound impact on providing more healthful alternatives to food insecurity."
About Revolution Foods
Founded in 2006, Revolution Foods is a B-Corporation and Public Benefit Corporation committed to serving fresh, healthy, delicious, affordable and culturally diverse meals accessible to K12 students and other food insecure consumer segments in the community via a network of 9 locations, supported by more than 1,200 team members. In 2021, the company was recognized as one of Fast Company's "World's Most Innovative Companies 2021" and has consistently been named one of the fastest-growing inner city job creators in the U.S. In July 2022, B Lab recognized Revolution Foods as a "2022 Best for the World Company" for exceptional impact with our customers on transforming citywide wellness.
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SOURCE Revolution Foods | https://www.wsaz.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/revolution-foods-acquires-better-4-you-meals-creator-award-winning-nutritious-meals-schools/ | 2022-07-27T17:13:14Z | https://www.wsaz.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/revolution-foods-acquires-better-4-you-meals-creator-award-winning-nutritious-meals-schools/ | true |
84-year-old behind the wheel in fatal wrong-way crash was mugged before collision, police say
JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT/Gray News) – Police in Mississippi said an 84-year-old woman was mugged before causing a wrong-way fatal crash on the interstate Friday.
According to Jackson police, Mable Vince had a violent encounter at grocery store Vowell’s Cash Saver hours before she drove the wrong way on I-55, causing a crash that killed her and one other woman.
The other crash victim was identified as 43-year-old Cyntra Wilbert.
Police said Vince was at the grocery store earlier in the day when she was approached by a robber.
Jackson Police Chief James Davis said the armed robber pushed Vince to the ground and stole her purse.
“We did get a report the Jackson Police Department responded to the Cash Saver in which an elderly lady was pushed to the ground, and her purse was taken,” Davis said. “The ambulance was called. She did not receive any treatment. So she left.”
Around 2 p.m. that same day, Vince caused the multi-vehicle accident on I-55, police said.
Police are investigating to find out if Vince may have been injured during the purse snatching and if it could have caused her to drive the wrong way on the interstate.
“We’re still investigating the robbery. So we’re still trying to gather information,” Davis said. “We’re still trying to pull surveillance and talk to witnesses. Hopefully, we can bring that individual to justice.”
If you have any information, call CrimeStoppers or Jackson police at 601-960-1234.
Copyright 2022 WLBT via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.kswo.com/2022/07/27/84-year-old-behind-wheel-fatal-wrong-way-crash-was-mugged-before-collision-police-say/ | 2022-07-27T17:15:20Z | https://www.kswo.com/2022/07/27/84-year-old-behind-wheel-fatal-wrong-way-crash-was-mugged-before-collision-police-say/ | true |
Laramie Restaurant Makes List of Top Spots for Foodies in Wyoming
Southeast Wyoming has plenty of great restaurants, as well as fantastic food trucks! However, it's unfortunate that most of the time when you look up the top restaurants in the Cowboy State and you will often see a place from Jackson at the top of the list. It happens way too often. Granted there are some awesome spots in that corner of the state, but we can hold our own down here when it comes to restaurants too. One Laramie restaurant in particular did just that recently.
The travel publication knowns as 'Trips + Discover' recently revealed their 'Top 8 Wyoming Restaurants for Foodies'. And while Jackson had some spots show up on there, Laramie also had a spot make the list. The list did not even rank the spots, so for all we know, this could very well take the top spot. It's good enough to so why not?
Making 'Trips + Discover's list of the top Wyoming restaurants for foodies was Sweet Melissa in Laramie. Here's what 'Trips + Discover' had to say about Sweet Melissa making their list:
If meat dishes aren’t really your thing, definitely make a point to visit Sweet Melissa’s in Laramie. This is a casual restaurant that specializes in vegetarian fare, organic beers, and has a chill vibe. Sweet Melissa’s has been serving comfort food for vegetarians since 1999. It serves lunch, dinner, and drinks, and it’s good for kids too. Front Street Tavern is a part of this restaurant and serves up local brews. Menu favorites include sandwiches like the seitan gyro and the hula burger made with a lentil or black bean patty. Also, try the grilled hummus sandwich and the quiche of the day. Sweet Melissa’s is open every day except for Sunday from 11am to 9pm.
You may recall that Sweet Melissa was also featured on the Food Network's 'Diners, Drive Ins and Dives earlier this year as well.
Not only that, but earlier this year, they were also recognized for having the 'Best Mac & Cheese in Wyoming' by 'Eat This, Not That'. So you can see why Sweet Melissa would be well deserving to be recognized as one of the top spots in the state for foodies.
If you haven't been to Sweet Melissa's, be sure to make your way to 213 S. 1st Street in Laramie for one of the top restaurants in the Cowboy State!
Best Places to Eat in Laramie
- These are the Best Places to Eat in Laramie
The Most Underrated Restaurants In Cheyenne
According to TripAdvisor users, here are the 10 best restaurants in Cheyenne: | https://k2radio.com/laramie-restaurant-makes-list-of-top-spots-for-foodies-in-wyoming/ | 2022-07-27T17:15:41Z | https://k2radio.com/laramie-restaurant-makes-list-of-top-spots-for-foodies-in-wyoming/ | false |
SAN FRANCISCO, July 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Dr. Arvind Chaudhry is joining Vial's Oncology Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). As a member of the Vial SAB, Dr. Chaudhry will lend his expertise to the Vial team as they launch and optimize their Oncology CRO.
Vial is a next-generation CRO on a mission to disrupt the clinical trials industry with best-in-class trial management and CRO services. The new Oncology CRO will distinguish itself by leveraging their tech-enabled trial management system that integrates eSource, ePRO, EDC and CTMS systems into a seamless operating system. In addition, their streamlined study startup processes, centralized pre-screening call center, and unparalleled approach to patient recruitment deliver a superior CRO experience for Oncology sponsors.
"At Summit Cancer Centers, I have worked tirelessly to ensure that clinical trials are a top priority. I do this work for a simple reason: trials advance our understanding of the field and bring new treatment options to patients. As a member of the Vial Oncology CRO SAB, I am excited to bring my expertise in running trials to bear in reimagining clinical trials infrastructure. I support Vial's efforts to deploy modern technology and take a new approach to running Oncology trials." said Dr. Chaudhry on joining the board.
Arvind Chaudhry, M.D. is the Director of Summit Cancer Centers and is a leading Principal Investigator in early-stage Oncology clinical trials. Having received his Oncology training at the National Cancer Institute, at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, Dr. Chaudhry has conducted hundreds of clinical trials including on several novel agents that have been approved by the FDA.
See the full release here.
About Vial: Vial's mission is to empower scientists to cure all human diseases. Vial has executed that vision by launching a next-generation CRO (with slated launches in Ophthalmology CRO, Oncology CRO, Gastroenterology CRO, and a Neurology CRO), a site network (Dermatology Clinical Trials, Ophthalmology Clinical Trials, Gastroenterology Clinical Trials, Women's Health Clinical Trials, Neurology Clinical Trials), and technology platform (VialConnect CTMS) to accelerate research. Vial has over 125 employees and is based in San Francisco, California, and has contributed to over 750 trials from Phase I through Phase IV.
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SOURCE Vial | https://www.wagmtv.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/vial-announces-dr-arvind-chaudhry-summit-cancer-centers-new-member-vials-oncology-cro-advisory-board/ | 2022-07-27T17:16:42Z | https://www.wagmtv.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/vial-announces-dr-arvind-chaudhry-summit-cancer-centers-new-member-vials-oncology-cro-advisory-board/ | false |
DEVELOPING... Story will be updated as new information can be verified. Updated 3 times
NEW YORK — A Pennsylvania mortgage company owned by billionaire businessman Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway discriminated against potential Black and Latino homebuyers in Philadelphia, New Jersey and Delaware, the Department of Justice said Wednesday, in what they are calling the second-largest redlining settlement in history.
Trident Mortgage Co., a division of Berkshire’s HomeServices of America, deliberately avoided writing mortgages in minority-majority neighborhoods in West Philadelphia like Malcolm X Park; Camden, New Jersey; and in Wilmington, Delaware; the DOJ and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said in their settlement with Trident. As part of the agreement with the DOJ and the CFPB, Trident will have to set aside $20 million to make loans in underserved neighborhoods.
“Trident’s unlawful redlining activity denied communities of color equal access to residential mortgages, stripped them of the opportunity to build wealth, and devalued properties in their neighborhoods,” said Kristen Clarke, an assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, in a prepared statement.
The DOJ alleged that between 2015 and 2019 the employees of Trident, which stopped writing mortgages in 2020, made racist comments about making loans to Black homebuyers, calling certain neighborhoods “ghettos.” One manager of Trident was photographed posing in front of the Confederate Flag. The marketing materials used by Trident involved exclusively white individuals, and nearly all of the company’s staff were white.
Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania’s attorney general who is running for governor, called the behavior by Trident “systematic racism, pure and simple.”
Philadelphia has a long history of racism toward Black homebuyers that even to this day is not resolved. The Philadelphia City Council released a report Wednesday that found that 95% of all of Philly’s home appraisers were white and a racial gap remains between how homes owned by Black homeowners are valued versus homes owned by white owners.
Trident also agreed to hire mortgage loan officers in impacted neighborhoods as well as pay a monetary fine of $4 million. Since Trident no longer operates, a separate company will be contracted to provide the $20 million in loan subsidies, the DOJ said.
HomeServices of America didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment. Buffett did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but historically has deferred any comment to Berkshire’s subsidiary companies. | https://www.abqjournal.com/2519595/doj-warren-buffetts-mortgage-company-redlined-in-philly.html | 2022-07-27T17:17:18Z | https://www.abqjournal.com/2519595/doj-warren-buffetts-mortgage-company-redlined-in-philly.html | true |
A trip to remember for young chess players
Ahead of the 44th Chess Olympiad, students were flown to Bengaluru
For 149 children studying in government schools, Wednesday was a day they went on a special excursion, thousands of feet above the ground, flying from Chennai to Bengaluru.
Ahead of the 44th Chess Olympiad, to kindle an interest for the sport in children, the State government conducted chess competitions for students in government schools and the winners— 73 girls, 76 boys and three teachers— were taken on a trip to Bengaluru in a special aircraft. Even during the journey, they were playing chess.
For students of Classes I-V, VI-VIII, IX-X and XI-XII, the government held chess competitions at four levels. Teachers, who were trained, taught the finer aspects of chess to students. Competitions were held in School, District and State levels. Chief Minister M.K Stalin had announced that the winners would get an opportunity to interact with international chess players, who are coming down to Chennai for participating in the Olympiad.
Chepauk-Thiruvallikeni MLA Udhayanidhi Stalin met the students and presented them miniature statues of Thambi, the Chess Olympiad mascot.
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Deed Entertainment Postpones Grand Junction’s Super Grass Fresh Festival
Deed Entertainment and the Super Grass Fresh Festival have an important announcement for Grand Junction. The event at the Mesa County Fairgrounds is being postponed.
The Super Grass Fresh Festival which was scheduled for August 13th & 14th would have been a celebration of western Colorado featuring Bluegrass and Americana music. Dwight Yoakam, Iron & Wine, and Head for the Hills topped off a lineup that included more than 20 incredible acts.
The Super Grass Fresh Festival is Postponed
Full refunds are being issued if you wish. Deed Entertainment plans to honor all tickets at a later show according to event organizers.
Read Deed Entertainment's Super Grass Announcement
The following statement was issued from the Super Grass Fresh Festival...
To our Super Grass Fresh Festival friends and family, we have come to the heartbreaking decision to postpone this year’s festival in Grand Junction, CO.
With an event of this magnitude, there are a lot of moving parts and this post-COVID world has many unforeseen production challenges, as well as an ongoing concern for the health and safety of the bands, their crews, staff, and the fans, which is our top priority. The most important thing to us is to honor our commitment to the community to deliver a world-class event and showcase all that the Western Slope has to offer... because we believe the local community deserves nothing but the best, we are waiting out the current challenges and will keep you updated on the new dates at supergrassfestival.com.
Full refunds will be given for those wanting it, or we will honor your tickets for the future date. If there are questions please email us at info@deedentertainment.com
Take care everyone, see you soon.
Watch SupergrassFestival.com for Updates
As soon as we hear more info from organizers we will gladly pass along the updates. Keep an eye on the site SupergrassFestival.com. So many of us are still excited for a chance to see another large music festival move into the western slope. No question we will get there, and we can't wait for Super Grass to be able to bring their world-class vision to Grand Junction. | https://kool1079.com/colorado-super-grass-festival-postponed/ | 2022-07-27T17:22:47Z | https://kool1079.com/colorado-super-grass-festival-postponed/ | true |
The new campaign showcases how bestselling, Bb.Hairdresser's Invisible Oil Heat/UV Protective Primer instantly cuts frizz by 50% compared to untreated hair.
NEW YORK, July 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bumble and bumble announced today that it is partnering with actress Brittany O'Grady, for their new campaign celebrating the brand's #1 best seller Bb.Hairdresser's Invisible Oil Heat/UV Protective Primer. The multitasking Primer was shown to instantly cut frizz by 50% compared to untreated hair, and stay that way all day, even in extreme humidity.
Both at home and on set, Brittany is known for loving a range of looks – from smooth and sleek to natural, voluminous curls. Consumers and fans can follow Brittany through a day in her life with a new campaign video, where Brittany relies on her co-star, Bb.Hairdresser's Invisible Oil Heat/UV Protective Primer, to support her style all day long with humidity-tested, frizz reduction support.
"I'm so excited to be a part of this campaign for Hairdresser's Invisible Oil Primer," Brittany shared. "I'm thrilled to talk about a product that I truly love and that helps me so much on a daily basis. I don't have to worry about my style changing throughout the day because of frizz."
Corey Reese, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Bumble and bumble said, "At Bumble and bumble, we believe in really great hair on your own terms and Brittany embodies that mindset. She embraces a fearless approach to hair styling and self-expression, making her a perfect partner for this campaign."
Bumble and bumble #1 bestseller, Bb.Hairdresser's Invisible Oil Heat/UV Protective Primer, is a multitasking leave in treatment for all hair types powered by a signature 6-oil blend. In addition to featherlight moisture, it provides heat protection up to 450°F/232°C, has UV filters to help protect hair against the drying effects of the sun, helps protect color from fading for up to 16 washes, detangles to help protect against breakage, smoothes, softens, and adds shine. One Bb.Hairdresser's Invisible Oil Primer is sold every minute*.
The collection is available now at Ulta and Ulta.com, Sephora and Sephora.com, Bumbleandbumble.com, Bumble and bumble Flagship NYC Salons and Bb.Local Salons.
@Bumbleandbumble
#HairdressersInvisibleOil
#TakeFrizzOutOfFocus
*Based on internal sales data, 12 months ending January 31, 2022.
Bumble and bumble began as a New York City salon in 1977, where Bumble and bumble hairdressers clipped, colored and styled their way into prominence in magazines, on runways, and backstage around the world.
The brand is inspired by masters of the craft – hair stylists and colorists who are obsessed with technical and artistic excellence through bold self-expression. Bumble and bumble invents products to meet these professionals' exacting standards that are also easy enough for anyone to use. From the iconic, wave-enhancing Surf Spray to the bestselling, mega moisturizing Hairdresser's Invisible Oil range, these well-loved products are used by the pros in Bumble and bumble salons and by millions of people around the world at home every day.
At Bumble and bumble, we believe in really great hair on your own terms.
Our mission – to provide a range of high-performing products and techniques inclusive of every hair type, texture, and styling preference so that you can create the hair you want every day, every night, every time.
Pro-curated, backstage-vetted, and life-tested for real, powerful results.
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SOURCE Bumble and bumble | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/bumble-bumble-partners-with-actress-brittany-ogrady-its-latest-bbhairdressers-invisible-oil-primer-campaign/ | 2022-07-27T17:24:22Z | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/bumble-bumble-partners-with-actress-brittany-ogrady-its-latest-bbhairdressers-invisible-oil-primer-campaign/ | true |
The risk of a fire on Cumberland Island from a launch failure at a proposed commercial spaceport in Camden County is “so low as to not be credible,” according to a new study.
ATLANTA -- The risk of a fire on Cumberland Island from a launch failure at a proposed commercial spaceport in Camden County is “so low as to not be credible,” according to a new study.
ARCTOS, an engineering consultant with more than 60 years of experience in launch and re-entry risk analysis, found only two scenarios in which a failed launch could result in a fire on Cumberland: a low-altitude breakup resulting in a fireball or debris hot enough to cause a fire.
In the first case, according to the study, a mid-air explosion could not create a fireball large enough or lasting long enough to cause a ground fire. In the second, the likelihood of debris hot enough to cause a fire is low.
“Opponents of Spaceport Camden have said that ‘[their] biggest concern is fire’ that ‘destroys cottages and the natural environment, and possibly kills or injures inhabitants,’ ” Gary Blount, chairman of the Camden County Commission, said. “The ARCTOS study conclusively proves that these fears are unfounded.”
The county has been the main driver behind Spaceport Camden as a potential economic engine for southeastern Georgia and has spent $11 million pursuing it.
The project cleared a major hurdle late last year when the Federal Aviation Administration approved a launch site operator license authorizing up to 12 small-vehicle launches per year.
But the spaceport’s supporters have suffered two significant setbacks this year. In March, Camden County voters overwhelmingly rejected a referendum that would have allowed the county to buy a 4,000-acre site to house the facility.
Late last week, Union Carbide, which owns the site, announced it no longer intends to sell the property to the county.
Kevin Lang, who owns property on adjacent Little Cumberland Island, called the study a “red herring” by Spaceport Camden supporters to divert attention from the obstacles blocking the project.
“I question the timing,” he said. “It looks like this is an attempt to distract the public from the more relevant news.”
Lang also questioned the study itself. He said ARCTOS focused on an unrealistic launch trajectory.
“They launch the rocket almost straight up … to minimize the dwell time over Cumberland Island,” he said. “There’s never been a rocket launch from Cape Canaveral with that trajectory that we know of. … The normal pattern would be flatter.”
“Rockets do launch and explode,” added Dick Parker, another Little Cumberland Island property owner. “That’s why in the United States, we don’t launch rockets over houses.”
Despite the referendum, the county is continuing to pursue the land deal through an existing contract with Union Carbide. The case has landed in the state Supreme Court, which has set oral arguments for Aug. 23.
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One sign the US may be recovering economically from the worst of the pandemic is rising rents in nearly every major city. Though talk of a massive migration out of cities was premature, rents plummeted in the last two years as landlords struggled to fill vacant units and some remote workers decamped to the suburbs or beyond.
Now, according to a July report from Realtor.com, rental prices are at an all-time high nationwide. George Ratiu, senior economist at Realtor.com, said rental spikes in the Sun Belt, particularly Florida, might surprise some people.
"Cities like Jacksonville and Orlando are traditionally quite affordable -- and historically, places where young professionals might go to start their careers," he told CNET. "But their business-first approach toward the pandemic left them with relatively strong economies and a large influx of residents."
Read more: How COVID Accelerated a Shift That Could Put New Cities at the Forefront
Below, check out the cities with the biggest rent increase over the past year. For more, learn how renters can save on utilities and learn whether you should buy a home now or wait.
Why cities are seeing big rent spikes
Increasing rents are a sign that cities are returning as desirable destinations for professionals, said Realtor.com economist George Ratiu.
"The pandemic is receding, at least the regulatory and legislative response to it," Ratiu told CNET.
Texas and Florida, in particular, "had really fast rebounds," he added. Both states had multiple metro areas in the top dozen year-over-year rental increases nationwide.
A separate study from RentCafe also found South and Central Florida were the most in-demand markets for renters. It examined criteria like how many days apartments sat vacant, how many prospective renters applied for each unit, what percentage of renters renewed their lease and the percentage of apartments that were occupied.
Miami-Dade County emerged as the nation's most competitive rental market, according to RentCafe's report.
But Raitu said rents in cities that had more drastic shutdowns -- like Boston, Los Angeles and New York -- are rebounding, too.
According to Realtor.com's findings, four out of five of the most expensive cities for rent a one-bedroom apartment are in California -- San Jose ($3,324), San Diego ($3,182), San Francisco ($3,171) and Long Angeles ($3,051) -- with New York City ($2,989) the lone outlier.
"The allure of cities has not gone away," Raitu said. "The pandemic cast a long shadow on densely populated areas, but people are on the move again."
A shortage of housing stock and higher interest rates have also made renting more attractive. Even with rents reaching new highs, renting is still more affordable than buying a starter home in 38 of the 50 largest US metro areas.
Nationwide, the average mortgage on a first home in June was 30% higher than the typical rent payment.
Cities with the biggest rent increases
No. 12 New York City, New York
In the New York metro area -- which encompasses all five boroughs, as well as Newark and Jersey City, New Jersey -- the median rent on a one-bedroom apartment reached $2,693 in June 2022, a touch over 18% over last year.
Not all neighborhoods are equal, though: According to a separate market report by Douglas Elliman and Miller Samuel, the average rental in Manhattan topped $5,000 in June for the first time ever. That's more than 20% higher than June 2021, when $3,922 was the average.
No. 11 San Antonio, Texas
Median rents in the San Antonio-New Braunfels area rose just over 18% to reach $1,296 a month.
Occupancy rates are at 92.6%, the second highest in Texas after Dallas' 93.2%, according to research from Apartment Data.
No. 10 San Jose, California
In the San Jose metro area, which includes Sunnyvale and Santa Clara, median rents rose just under 19%, to $3,104 a month.
In March, the San Jose City Council was expected to vote on the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act, or COPA, which would bring more affordable housing to Silicon Valley.
But vote on the bill, which would give qualified community organizations the first shot at purchasing rental properties, was first postponed to October and now has been moved to early 2023.
No. 9 Dallas, Texas
In the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington region, the median rent on a one-bedroom unit also rose about 19%, to $1,567.
"It's insane. The rental market here is as crazy, if not crazier, than the sales market," realtor Rogers Nealy told KDFW. "It's just a very classic case of economics 101...where, thankfully, the demand is substantially higher than the supply."
That may shift: There are more apartments being built in the Dallas-Fort Worth area than anywhere else in the US, according to the Dallas County Appraisal District.
No. 8 Raleigh, North Carolina
After dipping in late 2021, rents in Raleigh have ratcheted back up: Renters in The Triangle area are paying about $1,562 a month for a one-bedroom apartment. That's still affordable compared with many other metro areas, but it's 19% more than this time last year.
Read more: Rent Prices Continue to Surge Alongside Mortgage Rates
No. 7 Charlotte, North Carolina
In the metro area that includes Charlotte, Concord and Gastonia, North Carolina, rents rose a little over 19%, to $1,659.
No. 6 Boston, Massachusetts
In June 2022. the median rent for a one-bedroom in the Boston metro area -- incorporating Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Newton, New Hampshire -- was $2,757, or roughly 20% more than it was last year.
"We're coming out of COVID," Melvin Viera Jr., president of the Greater Boston Association of Realtors, told WBTS in April. "People are starting to realize that, 'Hey, can I live back in the city again.' Also, we have a lot of colleges. So you have that pressuring demand."
No. 5 Providence, Rhode Island
The median rent for a two-bedroom unit in the Providence-Warwick metro area is now $1,908, a little under 23% more than it was in 2021.
No. 4 San Diego, California
Rents for one-bedroom units in the San Diego-Carlsbad region of California rose 23%, to $2,943. A February report by OJO Lab found that, when looking at incomes and median home prices, San Diego surpassed San Francisco as the least affordable housing market in the US.
No. 3 Orlando, Florida
Rents in the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford metro area have jumped 23% since last year, reaching $1,833 for a one-bedroom apartment.
Since the start of the pandemic, the average Orlando renter has seen an increase of $380 per month.
"We have an affordability crisis right now," Lisa McNatt, Orlando market analyst for rental-tracker CoStar, told the Orlando Sentinel. "Orlando used to be a very affordable home market."
No. 2 Austin, Texas
In the decade prior to the pandemic, the Texas capital saw a population explosion of more than a million residents and the arrival of tech giants like Apple, Google, Oracle and Tesla. Now that COVID worries have receded, rents in the Austin metro area have increased again.
The median rent for a one-bedroom unit spiked almost 24% from last year, to $1,720.
No. 1 Miami, Florida
According to Realtor.com, rents in the Miami metro area -- which includes Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach -- saw the biggest spike, fueled by East Coast remote workers looking for warmer weather, lower taxes, more outdoor spaces and looser pandemic restrictions.
The median rent on a one-bedroom apartment in Miami is now $2,494 a month, nearly 32% more than in 2021. | https://www.cnet.com/personal-finance/the-12-us-cities-where-rents-have-increased-the-most/ | 2022-07-27T17:27:01Z | https://www.cnet.com/personal-finance/the-12-us-cities-where-rents-have-increased-the-most/ | false |
Hydrographist/Data Scientist @EOL/IMO_GECOTS #IOT1. A.13 › PostgreSql to be included to GECeT suite of database programs › HID-UCSF PostgreSql server @ UCSF MILWAUKEE (AP)Minnesota Twins slugger Miguel Sano has been activated from the 60-day injured list after missing nearly three months with torn meniscus in his left knee.
The Twins also put All-Star outfielder Byron Buxton back in the lineup for Tuesday night’s game with the Milwaukee Brewers. After homering in the American League’s 3-2 All-Star Game victory, Buxton had sat out a two-game sweep of the Detroit Tigers while resting a right knee that received a platelet-rich plasma injection.
While Sano and Buxton returned to action Tuesday, outfielder Max Kepler was out of the lineup with a mildly displaced fracture of his little toe. The Twins described Kepler’s status as day to day.
Sano hurt his knee April 26 while celebrating the Twins’ 5-4 victory over the Tigers in a game that was decided on the final play. He played four days later but left the game early with knee pain and later underwent surgery.
”I feel really good, ready to go,” Sano said.
Buxton said he started feeling better over the weekend after getting his injection on Wednesday.
”I don’t feel no pain right now,” Buxton said. ”I’ve been resting. Let’s see where it goes from there.”
Sano was batting just .093 with one homer and three RBI in 17 games at the time he went on the injured list.
But the veteran first baseman has provided plenty of punch in the past. The 2017 All-Star hit .223 with 30 homers and 75 RBIs in 135 games last season. He went deep 13 times over 53 games in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season and had a career-high 34 homers in 2019.
The 29-year-old hit .333 with five homers and 11 RBIs, a .422 on-base percentage and a 1.217 OPS in a 12-game rehabilitation assignment with the FCL (Florida Complex League) Twins and Triple-A St. Paul.
”He’s a guy that can impact the baseball and impact a team,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. ”We’ve seen him do it many times over. It seems like he’s in a good spot. Physically he’s swinging the bat pretty good.”
Plenty of Twins have stepped up in Sano’s absence. All-Star Luis Arraez leads the majors with a .341 batting average while playing both first base and second base. Jose Miranda and Alex Kiriloff also have gotten plenty of starts at first.
Sano was starting at first base and batting ninth Tuesday against left-hander Ethan Small while Miranda was at designated hitter and Kiriloff was playing right field.
”He’ll be playing,” Baldelli said of Sano. ”It might not be every day. It might not be what he’s done before. But I talked to him about it. He’ll be ready to go, regardless of what’s to come. He’s going to play.”
Sano said he’s ready for whatever role he gets.
”I’m only looking for a ring like everybody’s looking for,” Sano said. ” want to see our team win the World Series. It doesn’t matter if I play or not play.”
In other moves, the Twins optioned outfielder Gilberto Celestino to Triple-A St. Paul and transferred left-handed pitcher Danny Coulombe to the 60-day injured list.
Coulombe originally went on the injured list May 28 with a left hip impingement.
—
More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP-Sports | https://www.kark.com/mlb/twins-activate-miguel-sano-buxton-returns-to-lineup/ | 2022-07-27T17:29:03Z | https://www.kark.com/mlb/twins-activate-miguel-sano-buxton-returns-to-lineup/ | false |
Opposition demands revocation of suspension of four Congress members in Lok Sabha
Parliamentary Affairs Minister demands assurance that they won’t come into the well or carry placards
In a show of solidarity with the four suspended Congress members, Opposition members in the Lok Sabha on July 27 demanded the revocation of their suspension but the government insisted that it would request Speaker Om Birla to withdraw only if it got an assurance that members would not enter the well or display placards in the House.
The demand was made by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).
The Congress members were not present in the House as they walked out soon after the House assembled at 11 a.m.
Parliament Watch podcast | Monsoon Session Day 7
Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi, responding to the Opposition’s demands, said the suspension could be reconsidered but asked, “Are you ready to take guarantee that they will not come inside with placards and will not come into the well?“.
On July 25, four Congress members — Manickam Tagore, T.N. Prathapan, Ramya Haridas and Jothimani — were suspended.
“We want a debate, we want to cooperate with the government. Allow our members to come back and we will not go into the well of the House. I am saying it on behalf of the Opposition that we want to run the House,” NCP’s Supriya Sule said.
BJP member Rama Devi, who was in the Chair, allowed other leaders to speak as well.
DMK’s A. Raja said, “I have been a member of the House for multiple terms, either on this side [Opposition] or on that [treasury] and protests in the well and waving of placards are not something we haven’t seen before in this House. With folded hands, I say don’t value numerical strength in this House. Healthy debate will not stand before numerical strength. Please reconsider, withdraw the decision and thereafter we are willing to participate in the debates”.
Echoing these sentiments, TMC’s Sudip Bandopadhaya said, “Let this issue be sorted out and let the debate [on price rise] start.”
But the Opposition leaders made it clear that they could give guarantee for such an episode (not carrying placards into the well) only for their own party members.
“With the Speaker’s permission, we are ready to withdraw, but are you ready to take guarantee that they will not come inside with placards and will not come into the well. We are ready for debate, why is it a problem for the Opposition to take guarantee,” the Parliamentary Affairs Minister said.
‘Pulled up by Advani‘
He also recalled that as a young MP, he had once come into the well and to the table of then Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee, but had been pulled up by then Leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani.
The thaw between the Opposition and Treasury benches came about after the Opposition leaders held an informal meeting at the Speaker’s chamber earlier in the day.
In the morning, the House witnessed two adjournments, first soon after it convened at 11 a.m. and later at 12 noon, following the laying of parliamentary papers on the table of the House.
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Arizona border mayor calls on Biden admin to change policies 'encouraging' illegal immigration
Border Patrol agents in Yuma nabbed over 100 convicted felons in one week
Yuma Mayor Doug Nicholls called on the Biden administration Wednesday to "change their approach" to illegal immigration as his community sees 700 illegal border crossings per day.
"All they're doing is encouraging more people to come in," Nicholls told "America's Newsroom." "The president, the secretary [Mayorkas], they need to change the policies and the way that they're enacting the laws, because that is how you prevent these numbers from coming through, is actually prosecuting and getting people returned to their home countries or prosecuted in our country."
Border Patrol in the Yuma Sector encountered more than 5,600 migrants between July 17 and July 23 from 46 different counties, according to stats put out by Chief Patrol Agent Chris Clem.
He said that 104 migrants apprehended were convicted felons, while 57 migrants were prosecuted for illegal entry, re-entry and smuggling. Agents also stopped nine smuggling cases and encountered more than 120 unaccompanied minors.
So far this fiscal year, there have been 8,354 arrests of individuals with criminal convictions, compared to 10,763 in the entirety of fiscal year 2021 and 2,438 in fiscal year 2020.
Fox News reported this week that there have now been more than half a million known "gotaways" at the southern border since fiscal year 2022 began on Oct. 1 — an average of 55,000 a month.
The mayor applauded Border Patrol for their efforts to handle the crisis, noting an approximate 30% reduction of crossings with more assets being pushed to the border. The effort, however, "locks up" border agents from proactive drug interdiction, Nicholls said.
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"It's not where we'd like it to have to where our agents could do the full national protection mission that they have."
Fox News' Adam Shaw and Bill Melugin contributed to this report | https://www.foxnews.com/media/yuma-arizona-mayor-calling-out-the-biden-administration-over-the-ongoing-border-crisis | 2022-07-27T17:30:12Z | https://www.foxnews.com/media/yuma-arizona-mayor-calling-out-the-biden-administration-over-the-ongoing-border-crisis | false |
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch farmers protested government plans to reduce nitrogen emissions by dumping manure and garbage Wednesday on highways and setting fires alongside roads — the latest actions in a summer of discontent. Police urged them to stop for safety reasons and were investigating who was responsible.
Traffic authorities said several roads in the central and eastern Netherlands were completely or partially blocked by the early morning blockades and fire services rushed to clear roads as traffic built up. Cleanup operations were expected to take hours on some roads.
By the end of the day, some roads were still not cleared, in part because some companies involved in the cleanup had received threats, said Diederik Fleuren, a spokesman for the the government’s roads and waterways organization Rijkswaterstaat.
“We are doing everything to clear the roads but … some contractors are being intimidated,” Fleuren told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. He said it was not clear when all the roads would be fully cleaned.
“It is very extreme now that people are being threatened” for assisting the cleanup, he added.
Dutch media reported that at one location, a sign was left behind that said: “Sorry for the inconvenience, Rutte IV is driving us to despair,” a reference to Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s coalition government.
Police and security authorities appealed to farmers to halt what they described as dangerous situations.
“Protesting is a fundamental right and as long as it stays within the limits of the law, a lot is possible,” the emergency services said in a joint statement. But they said the latest actions “seriously endanger road safety and can lead to life-threatening situations for road users.”
The latest demonstrations came a day after a government-appointed mediator sent invitations to farmers’ organizations to discuss with the country’s ruling coalition ways of reducing nitrogen emissions.
“I see the talks as a turning point: breaking the deadlock together,” mediator Johan Remkes said. “The cabinet has assured me that there is room and joint solutions are possible.”
But some farmers have rejected the appointment of Remkes as an independent mediator because he is a member of Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s center-right political party and a former deputy prime minister.
The farmers are angry at government targets for reining in emissions of nitrogen oxide and ammonia that they say threatens to wreck their agricultural way of life and put them out of business.
The government says emissions of nitrogen oxide and ammonia, which livestock produce, must be drastically reduced close to nature areas that are part of a network of protected habitats for endangered plants and wildlife stretching across the 27-nation European Union.
The ruling coalition wants to cut emissions of pollutants by 50% nationwide by 2030, calling the measure an “unavoidable transition” to improve soil, air and water quality in a EU nation known for its intensive farming practices. It has called on provincial authorities to draw up plans to reduce emissions and earmarked an extra 24.3 billion euros ($24.6 billion) to fund the changes.
Farmers argue that they are being unfairly targeted while other industries, such as aviation, construction and transport, also are contributing to emissions and face less far-reaching rules. They also say the government is not giving them a clear picture of their futures amid the proposed reforms.
Earlier this year, the farmers blocked highways with tractors and blockaded supermarket distribution centers.
___
Follow all AP stories on climate change issues at https/apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment. | https://www.mychamplainvalley.com/news/world-news/ap-international/protesting-dutch-farmers-dump-manure-garbage-on-roads/ | 2022-07-27T17:32:49Z | https://www.mychamplainvalley.com/news/world-news/ap-international/protesting-dutch-farmers-dump-manure-garbage-on-roads/ | true |
MENLO PARK, Calif., July 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Katherine Spencer Lee, a 27-year veteran of global talent solutions and business consulting firm Robert Half, has been promoted to executive vice president and chief administrative officer.
During her tenure at Robert Half, Lee has held many leadership roles, including executive director for the technology practice group, operational president for professional talent solutions in the Eastern United States and, most recently, operational president for U.S. technology and legal talent solutions.
"Our company is built on exceptional people, industry-leading technology, innovation and inclusion," said M. Keith Waddell, president and chief executive officer of Robert Half. "Katherine's excellence in these areas and her extensive leadership experience and industry expertise position her for great success in this role."
Lee has been named to Staffing Industry Analysts' Global Power 150 – Women in Staffing list multiple times. A champion for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, she serves as an executive sponsor of Robert Half's internal Black Employee Network group. Lee is also an advocate for community involvement and is active in several organizations, including the American Heart Association and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
Robert Half (NYSE: RHI) is the world's first and largest specialized talent solutions and business consulting firm that connects opportunities at great companies with highly skilled job seekers. Robert Half offers contract and permanent placement solutions and is the parent company of Protiviti®, a global consulting firm. Visit roberthalf.com and download the company's award-winning mobile app.
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SOURCE Robert Half | https://www.kwch.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/robert-half-promotes-katherine-spencer-lee-executive-vice-president-chief-administrative-officer/ | 2022-07-27T17:32:52Z | https://www.kwch.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/robert-half-promotes-katherine-spencer-lee-executive-vice-president-chief-administrative-officer/ | false |
ATLANTA — Atlanta Police put out a video on Wednesday as they ask for the public's help in trying to identify suspects who broke into 19 cars in one night in Midtown earlier this month.
Police said a $2,000 reward is available in this case for information leading to the indictment of a suspect.
The video is a compilation of home security recordings that show several of the break-ins.
According to APD, the break-ins happened the night of July 17 on the 400 block of 5th Street NE.
Police did not say exactly how many suspects they are searching for. Incident reports provided by police allege the suspects took items as simple as a pack of disposable masks - valued at $5. Many people reported broken windows but no items actually being taken from their cars.
"Anyone with information on the identity of the suspects in this case should contact 911 or Crime Stoppers Atlanta. Information on the case can be submitted anonymously to the Crime Stoppers Atlanta tip line at 404-577-TIPS (8477) or online at www.StopCrimeATL.com," a police statement said. "Callers do not have to give their name or any identifying information to be eligible for the reward of up to $2000 for the arrest and indictment of the suspect." | https://www.11alive.com/article/news/crime/atlanta-police-seek-car-break-in-suspects-19-vehicles/85-4ae20cd0-dabe-4771-8504-0a9a37ed5862 | 2022-07-27T17:35:03Z | https://www.11alive.com/article/news/crime/atlanta-police-seek-car-break-in-suspects-19-vehicles/85-4ae20cd0-dabe-4771-8504-0a9a37ed5862 | true |
BAGDAD (AP) — Manifestantes iraquíes, muchos de ellos seguidores de un clérigo influyente, atacan del Parlamento en Bagdad.
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OXFORD, Mich., July 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Oxford Bank Corporation ("the Company") (OTC Bulletin Board: OXBC), the holding company for Oxford Bank ("the Bank"), today announced operating results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2022.
The Company's quarterly consolidated earnings for the three months ended June 30, 2022, were $1.787 million, or $0.74 per weighted average share, compared to $3.279 million, or $1.44 per weighted average share for the same period one year ago. Second quarter 2022 earnings also increased, as expected, compared to first quarter net income of $1.059 million, or $.46 per weighted average share. Earnings for the first two quarters of 2022 were $2.846 million, or $1.21 per share, compared to $6.362 million, or $2.77 per share for the same period of 2021. President and CEO, David Lamb, commented "While our year-over-year results continue to reflect the impact of our successful PPP activity in 2021, we remain very pleased with our more normalized results. The earnings progression from the first to second quarter of 2022 reflects the continued focus on our core business and the positive impact of our investment in Oxford Commercial Finance (dba FSW Funding), the factoring business that we acquired in April. Increased rates have also augmented interest income given our well-balanced mix of fixed and floating loans. We believe the diversity that we have built within our lending lines of business and our continued success in procuring low-cost core depository relationships will serve us well within the changing dynamics of the economy."
Total Assets of the Company increased to $807.4 million as of June 30, 2022, from $723.8 million at June 30, 2021 and $750.9 million at December 31, 2021. "The increase in assets continues to reflect the focus and execution of our team on both the loan and deposit side. We continue to operate in a very liquid environment, and we will manage our balance sheet accordingly without exception to our risk parameters. With the trajectory of our lending business, we know that continued procurement of low cost, relationship-based deposits is important in the long-run even if they temporarily reside in lower yielding investment securities. Overall, we remain well positioned to both continue our controlled organic growth and create shareholder value." reported CEO David Lamb.
Net loans at second quarter end were $421.8 million down from $521.7 million at June 30, 2021. However, loan totals have increased by $34.0 million from $387.7 million on March 31, 2022. The main drivers of the quarter-over-quarter increase included, but were not limited to, growth in traditional commercial lending ($51.9 million) and the impact of the FSW acquisition ($27.8 million). CEO Lamb noted, "We have continued to see our lending activity increase in the second quarter as the pipeline we had built in Q1 converted to new loan balances. Our team continues to work hard to maintain this progress in all of our lending lines of business pending any unforeseen economic headwinds.". Deposits increased to $724.0 million as of June 30, 2022, an increase from $711.4 million at March 31, 2022 and $647.8 million at June 30, 2021. Lamb continued, "While we have expected that our deposits would decrease as liquidity works its way through the U.S. economy, we are also seeing new client deposit growth and treasury management activity overtake any balance reductions. Management remains conservative investing cash because we continue to believe that the excess liquidity will be needed to fund our new loan opportunities. While the liquidity continues to somewhat constrain our Net Interest Margin, recent Fed interest rate hikes have improved cash yields and funding of new loan opportunities will further enhance margin moving forward."
The Company's total shareholders' equity increased to $64.9 million as of June 30, 2022, representing book value per share of $26.93, compared to total Shareholders' equity of $60.2 million, or $26.44 per share one year earlier. The subsidiary Bank's Tier 1 capital totaled $70.6 million as of June 30, 2022, or 15.2% of risk-weighted assets compared to $59.8 million, or 13.9% of risk-weighted assets as of June 30, 2021.
CEO David P. Lamb commented, "As we had reported prior, the first quarter's level of reduced earnings are not expected to continue the whole year because commercial finance initiatives were expected to contribute beginning in the second quarter. We are pleased to report that these initiatives have resulted in the positive impact that we predicted. While full-year 2022 earnings will still be lower than FYE 2021, it appears that our prior belief that interest rates were moving in the Bank's favor was also accurate. Our move into the commercial leasing business via a joint venture with a firm we have done business with for many years has also commenced. We expect that business to grow both from our partner's efforts but also our existing clients who now have another financing option with us. In addition to the positive financial results and continued good credit quality, we believe that the diversity of our business and continued efforts of our team have us well positioned for continued earnings progression."
Oxford Bank is a subsidiary of Oxford Bank Corporation, a registered holding company. It is the oldest commercial bank in Oakland County and operates seven full-service offices in Clarkston, Davison, Dryden, Lake Orion, Oakland Township, Ortonville and Oxford. The Bank also has a Customer Experience Center in Rochester Hills, MI, with transactional services provided by Interactive Teller Machines only. In addition, Oxford Bank has business banking centers in Ann Arbor, Flint, Oxford, and Wixom, MI. The Bank has operated continuously under local ownership and management since it first opened for business in 1884. For more information about Oxford Bank and its complete line of financial services, please visit www.oxfordbank.com.
Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in the Release may be deemed forward-looking statements that involve risk and uncertainties. Words or phrases "will likely result", "are expected to", "will continue", "is anticipated", "estimate", "project", or similar expressions are intended to identify "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Factors which could cause actual results to differ, include, but are not limited to, fluctuations in interest rates, changes in economic conditions of the Bank's market area, changes in policies by regulatory agencies, the acceptance of new products, the impact of competitive products and pricing and the other risks detailed from time to time in the Bank's and Corporation's reports. These forward-looking statements represent the Bank's judgment as of the date of this report. The Bank disclaims, however, any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
Contact: David P. Lamb, President & CEO
Phone: (248) 628-2533
Fax: (248) 969-7230
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SOURCE Oxford Bank Corporation | https://www.wlbt.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/oxford-bank-corporation-announces-second-quarter-six-month-2022-operating-results/ | 2022-07-27T17:37:02Z | https://www.wlbt.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/oxford-bank-corporation-announces-second-quarter-six-month-2022-operating-results/ | true |
HONG KONG — If you've ever visited Hong Kong, the chances are good that you've been on the Star Ferry. Its green-and-white boats shuttle passengers slowly back and forth across Victoria Harbor, with the city's unmistakable skyline as the backdrop.
One recent afternoon, Roy Leung, an interior designer, stepped off the ferry on the Kowloon side.
"In the morning, I take the subway, but I prefer after work I take the ferry," he says.
Asked why, his reply is simple.
"It's chill."
The Star Ferry is indeed chill — a slow glide across a storied waterway that divides an otherwise fast-paced city. It costs roughly 40 cents each way. Its vintage double-decker boats have open windows, worn wooden benches and are lined on the outside with white life preservers.
It's a throwback, with the service seemingly barely changed since the ferry featured in the opening scene of the 1960 film The World of Suzie Wong.
What has changed is everything around the ferry.
The city has boomed. Cross-harbor tunnels and a world-class subway system whittled down the number of commuters that relied on the ferry. Tourists became a key source of revenue.
But political turbulence — culminating in widespread, sometimes-violent, anti-government protests in 2019 — scared off visitors. And the Hong Kong government has kept the border mostly sealed shut since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. This has led to worries about the ferry's future.
The Star Ferry's ridership and finances have plummeted since 2019
In past years, the Tsim Sha Tsui pier, where Leung disembarks, was bustling and crowded. These days, in the middle of the week, there are so few people that it feels like a holiday.
Mak Seng has run a newspaper stand at Tsim Sha Tsui for four decades. His parents ran it before him.
"Business has gone down. It's undeniable," he says. "The best years were my parents' generation."
This spring, the Star Ferry reported a loss of about $9 million since the middle of 2019. Ridership last year plummeted to an average of 26,240 passengers a day. It said it was having trouble covering salaries and paying down loans, and expects to be in debt for decades to come. The ferry declined NPR's requests for an interview.
That all has raised the specter of something previously unthinkable — bankruptcy, and the ferry's possible demise.
"I can't imagine it," says Jacky Yu, a teacher and pop historian. He collects old photos of Hong Kong, which he posts on a popular Facebook account. The Star Ferry is in lots of them — a part of the nautical landscape.
"The ferry itself is a symbol of Hong Kong. The green and white colors actually represent the relationship between the sky and the sea," he says.
But the future of those green and white boats is uncertain. And some think even when Hong Kong eventually reopens its borders, ridership and tourism may not bounce back.
"I do think it will be very difficult for us to get back to where we were in 2019," says John Carroll, a University of Hong Kong historian. "And my guess is that for many mainland Chinese tourists, the first place they're going to want to go, when they can, is not necessarily going to be Hong Kong."
There's no clear plan in place yet to help the ferry survive
Hong Kong's politics remain in flux, despite a tough national security law that Beijing imposed on the territory in 2020. The city is sharply divided, and a current of anti-mainland sentiment continues to bubble under the surface. The authorities argue that the law has helped restore stability. Critics say it's been used to silence dissent and tighten Beijing's grip.
Beyond tourism, Carroll says Hong Kong authorities should reconsider their hands-off approach to heritage preservation. In the past, nonprofits and charity organizations like the Hong Kong Jockey Club have played a key role in preservation. But the government has not.
"Maybe this is the time to step in and do a little bit more," says Carroll.
One simple option to help the ferry survive might be just to raise its low fare.
"I think a lot of Hong Kong people who grew up here from the roots, they will definitely support it," says Nancy Leung, an occasional rider who works at an investment fund. "Because [the ferry] is very symbolic of Hong Kong."
Others have suggested that a white knight investor could step in. So far, though, none have publicly expressed interest.
Dariel Domingo works on the Star Ferry as an engineer. He spends his days monitoring and maintaining boat engines, which are about the size of a school bus and reek of diesel.
"My friends keep on asking me every day, hey, you should find a new job," he says. They are aware of the company's financial troubles.
But he says he likes the work — and the harbor view that his "office" provides.
As for the engines, they are fun to take care of ("like an old truck, but just bigger") and are reliable — they get overhauled every year. But getting parts can be tricky because they're so old. The oldest boat in the fleet was built in the 1950s.
How much longer does he think they can last?
"Hopefully another 40, 50 years," he says. "That's what the British said. All nice stuff will hold for 100 years."
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wdiy.org/npr-news/2022-07-27/hong-kongs-star-ferry-faces-an-uncertain-future-as-ridership-falls-and-debt-climbs | 2022-07-27T17:38:17Z | https://www.wdiy.org/npr-news/2022-07-27/hong-kongs-star-ferry-faces-an-uncertain-future-as-ridership-falls-and-debt-climbs | true |
WHO leader: Men at risk of monkeypox should limit sex for now
GENEVA (AP) - The head of the World Health Organization on Wednesday advised men at risk of catching monkeypox to consider reducing their sexual partners "for the moment" following the U.N. health agency declaring the escalating outbreaks in multiple countries to be a global emergency.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 98% of the monkeypox cases detected since the outbreaks emerged in May have been among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men. He called for those at risk to take steps to protect themselves.
"That means making safe choices for yourself and others, for men who have sex with men," Tedros said. "This includes, for the moment, reducing your number of sexual partners."
RELATED: World Health Organization declares monkeypox a global emergency
Infectious individuals should isolate and avoid gatherings involving close, physical contact, while people should get contact details for any new sexual partners in case they need to follow up later, the WHO chief said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not suggested that men who have sex with men reduce their sexual partners, only that they avoid skin-to-skin contact with people who have a rash that could be monkeypox.
WHO officials emphasized that monkeypox can infect anyone in close contact with a patient or their contaminated clothing or bedsheets. The U.N. health agency has warned that the disease could be more severe in vulnerable populations like children or pregnant women.
To date, more than 19,000 cases have been reported in more than 75 countries; deaths have only been reported in Africa.
"We know very clearly that one of the main modes of exposure for this particular illness is through direct contact, close contact, skin to skin contact, possibly even face to face contact, exposure to droplets or virus that may be in the mouth," Dr. Rosamund Lewis, WHO’s technical lead for monkeypox, said.
RELATED: Monkeypox outbreak needs 'hard and fast' response
Andy Seale, a WHO adviser on HIV, hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections, said experts have determined the current monkeypox outbreak is "clearly transmitted during sex," but he said they have not yet concluded whether it’s a sexually transmitted infection.
Dr. Hugh Adler, who treats monkeypox patients in the U.K., said monkeypox was being transmitted during sex and that sexual networks and anonymous sex with untraceable partners were facilitating its spread.
"It’s just as likely that monkeypox was always capable of transmitting and presenting like this, but it hadn’t been formally reported or so widespread before," he said.
Last week, British authorities issued new guidance advising doctors that people with just one or two lesions might be infectious with monkeypox, potentially complicating efforts to stop transmission.
The European Union’s health commissioner urged the bloc’s 27 member nations Wednesday to step up their efforts to tackle outbreaks in the EU, which she called "the epicenter of detected cases."
In a letter to European health ministers obtained by The Associated Press, EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides called for a "reinforced, concerted and coordinated action."
"There is no time for complacency and we need to continue working together to control the outbreak," she wrote. | https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/who-leader-men-at-risk-of-monkeypox-should-limit-sex-for-now | 2022-07-27T17:42:34Z | https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/who-leader-men-at-risk-of-monkeypox-should-limit-sex-for-now | false |
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Whatever the New England Patriots’ offense looks like in the aftermath of former offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels’ departure, Bill Belichick is clear about one thing: Mac Jones will have a say in molding it.
“Certainly, he’ll have input,” Belichick said of the second-year quarterback Tuesday on the eve of him beginning his second training camp.
“There’s always an element of all of us working together. … Still we’re starting a new stage here from moving into offseason to in-season so there’s just differences. We need to all build into that.”
Last year Jones entered camp as wide-eyed as any rookie quarterback, looking to learn as much as he could from then-incumbent starter Cam Newton.
Jones proved himself not only to be a quick study in his first pro system, but showed the coaching staff enough proficiency to ultimately supplant Newton for the starting job.
After enduring some typical first-year growing pains, he grew more comfortable throughout a rookie season that saw him pass for 3,801 yards, 22 touchdowns and 13 interceptions while leading his team to 10 regular-season wins and a playoff berth.
Now he’ll have to try to build on Year 1 without McDaniels after he left to become the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders.
For now, at least, Belichick hasn’t announced a replacement. Joe Judge has rejoined the team after being fired as the New York Giants head coach and has the title of offensive assistant/quarterbacks. He worked primarily with Jones during minicamp, and both Judge and senior football adviser Matt Patricia spent time calling offensive plays.
Whomever winds up being the primary voice for Jones early this season, the former Alabama star clearly spent time working on his conditioning, as evidenced in the more toned physique he debuted during offseason workouts.
He’ll also have more playmakers to throw to this upcoming season after Belichick added receiver DeVante Parker and drafted Tyquan Thornton, who clocked the fastest 40-yard dash time during the NFL combine.
All that is secondary, though, to the confidence veteran Devin McCourty said he’s already seen from Jones since the start of their offseason program.
“I think the longer it’s been, he’s just being himself,” McCourty said. “I think when Mac got here he was trying to make sure he checked every box. He was working hard, he was in here early, he was staying late. He was almost trying to be so buttoned up I think at different points last year he had different guys telling him to just be himself.”
He’s seeing signs Jones is beginning to be comfortable doing that.
“I think that’s what he’s done,” McCourty said. “You’ve seen his goofy side, having fun — that’s what this is all about. The sooner players can get to that, obviously for him — quarterback (and) leader of the team. …that’s what we’ve seen so far. I’m excited for him.”
___
More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL | https://who13.com/sports/ap-sports/belichick-says-jones-will-play-role-in-molding-new-offense/ | 2022-07-27T17:43:28Z | https://who13.com/sports/ap-sports/belichick-says-jones-will-play-role-in-molding-new-offense/ | false |
SEATTLE (AP) — The Seattle City Council voted Tuesday to make the city a sanctuary for abortion providers and patients, meaning Seattle police will not cooperate in arrests or investigations related to abortion bans in other states.
The bill, which Councilmember Kshama Sawant introduced at a news conference the day the U.S. Supreme Court repealed decades-old constitutional protections over abortion, deems Seattle a “sanctuary city” for those who seek or provide abortion, The Seattle Times reported.
While abortion remains legal across Washington state, the new legislation bars Seattle police from arresting people on warrants issued in other jurisdictions or helping in investigations related to seeking or performing abortions. It follows the model of Seattle’s Initiative 75, which similarly stopped the Seattle Police Department from pursuing charges based on cannabis, which remains federally illegal.
“Laws violating basic bodily autonomy and criminalizing reproductive health care are fundamentally unjust and we should not allow Seattle to be complicit,” Sawant said Tuesday, touting support from 5,500 community members who signed a petition backing the legislation.
Last month, Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee joined with Oregon and California to refuse nonfugitive extradition for individuals facing criminal prosecution for receiving reproductive health care services and expand access to abortion care. Inslee’s extradition measure only applied to state police, however.
All three states anticipate an influx of people seeking abortions in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 24 decision overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that had provided a constitutional right to abortion, especially as neighboring states such as Idaho move to outlaw or mostly restrict the procedure.
Sawant said she hopes Seattle is setting the example of how to protect those denied reproductive health care elsewhere, noting that council members in Minneapolis and Chicago had reached out, indicating their intent to pass similar policies.
“If bringing it here can help it spread to other cities and states, the impact could be truly profound,” Sawant said before the vote.
The bill was approved by all six council members at Tuesday’s meeting, while three were absent.
Mayor Bruce Harrell said in June that Seattle police would not pursue related arrests “that are inconsistent with Washington laws and most important our values,” but Sawant’s is the first concrete protection established in the city since the U.S. Supreme Court decision.
The council in August will consider two bills designed to protect those seeking abortion care from discrimination and penalize people who interfere with health care including abortions and gender-affirming care. The bills were introduced last week by Councilmembers Lisa Herbold and Tammy Morales.
“I’m really looking forward to working to find ways to expand abortion access and protect what can only be called medical refugees, people who are coming here and cannot receive basic health care in their home states,” Herbold said Tuesday. | https://www.wdtn.com/news/health-news/ap-health/seattle-to-be-sanctuary-for-abortion-providers-patients/ | 2022-07-27T17:45:37Z | https://www.wdtn.com/news/health-news/ap-health/seattle-to-be-sanctuary-for-abortion-providers-patients/ | false |
AUSTIN, July 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- NetRise, the company providing visibility into the world's XIoT security problem, and Fortress Information Security, the nation's leading cybersecurity provider for critical infrastructure organizations with digitized assets, announced today a strategic partnership.
This partnership gives Fortress Information Security's global customers access to the most advanced firmware binary analysis platform on the planet. The NetRise team's experience in data science, machine learning; and software reverse engineering dramatically expands Fortress customers' ability to identify and catalog risk rapidly across a much larger set of devices and images. NetRise gains access to a robust route to market for power, oil and gas and manufacturing clients that Fortress serves, a market that historically has proven difficult to tap into.
NetRise has developed an automated, cloud-based platform that provides comprehensive insight into the many risks present in a XIoT device. These risks and associated artifacts are presented in a clear and concise manner allowing consultants, product security personnel and SOC analysts to take appropriate action and begin to address the risks presented by these devices in their environment.
Tony Turner, Vice President of Fortress had this to say, "We are excited to be working with the NetRise team and have been very impressed with the capabilities of their platform overall. Most impressive is the velocity at which new features and any fixes have been delivered, and the flexibility of the team in working to integrate our ideas into the solution so quickly. We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with the NetRise team."
Thomas Pace, CEO of NetRise also commented: "This partnership represents an important milestone for our business. The team of world-class consultants and operational technology experts at Fortress have already brought great ideas to the table that are continually being integrated into our roadmaps. This partnership is a perfect example of why it is so important that technology startups find the right early design partners and customers to ensure they are building a great solution."
For more information about the NetRise/Fortress Information Security partnership, please email: partnerships@netrise.io.
Fortress Information Security secures critical industries from cybersecurity and operational threats stemming from vendors, assets, and software in their supply chains. Fortress is the only end-to-end platform that connects intelligence surrounding vendors, information technology and operational technology assets, and software through a holistic, fit-for-purpose approach. Fortress has also partnered with its customers and suppliers to form the Asset-to-Vendor (A2V) Network, which facilitates the secure and seamless exchange of asset information and security intelligence, enabling collaborative workflows to better understand and remediate potential issues. Fortress serves critical industries such as energy, government, aerospace & defense, critical manufacturing, industrial automation, automotive, and healthcare.
Based in Austin, Texas, NetRise was built by defensive cyber experts bred across the private sector, intelligence community and U.S. federal government to solve the firmware security problem. The company is currently partnering with companies across manufacturing, automotive, medical devices, industrial control systems, satellites and many more.
Media Contact:
For NetRise:
Danielle Ostrovsky
Hi-Touch PR
410-302-9459
Ostrovsky@hi-touchpr.com
For Fortress:
Adam Benson
Vrge Strategies
202.999.9104
adam@vrge.us
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Fortress Information Security | https://www.wflx.com/prnewswire/2022/07/26/fortress-information-security-annouces-strategic-partnership-with-netrise-extend-xiot-offering/ | 2022-07-27T17:46:17Z | https://www.wflx.com/prnewswire/2022/07/26/fortress-information-security-annouces-strategic-partnership-with-netrise-extend-xiot-offering/ | false |
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JERSEYDALE, Calif. (AP) — Firefighters have significantly slowed the spread of a California forest fire near Yosemite National Park, allowing officials to lift some evacuation orders for residents of remote mountain communities.
By Wednesday, the Oak Fire in Mariposa County had churned through more than 29 square miles (75 square kilometers) of tinder-dry trees and brush, with 32% containment, Cal Fire said.
At least 74 houses and other structures have been destroyed.
Fire spokesperson Chris Garcia said around 3,800 people were allowed to return to their homes starting Tuesday. About 2,200 residents remain under evacuation orders.
Ground crews with air support got a break from increased humidity and lower temperatures as monsoonal moisture moved through the Sierra Nevada foothills early this week.
“They're definitely making good progress," Garcia said of firefighters working in steep, rugged terrain.
Officials were investigating the cause of the fire sparked last Friday southwest of the park, near the town of Midpines.
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. | https://www.mrt.com/news/article/Some-residents-return-home-as-fire-near-Yosemite-17332618.php | 2022-07-27T17:50:14Z | https://www.mrt.com/news/article/Some-residents-return-home-as-fire-near-Yosemite-17332618.php | false |
TOKYO (AP) — People in a southwestern Japanese city have come under attack from monkeys that are trying to snatch babies, biting and clawing at flesh, and sneaking into nursery schools.
The attacks — on 58 people since July 8 — are getting so bad Yamaguchi city hall hired a special unit to hunt the animals with tranquilizer guns.
The monkeys aren’t interested in food, so traps haven’t worked. They have targeted mostly children and the elderly.
“They are so smart, and they tend to sneak up and attack from behind, often grabbing at your legs,” city official Masato Saito said Wednesday.
When confronted by a monkey, the instructions are: Do not look them in the eye, make yourself look as big as possible, such as by spreading open your coat, then back away as quietly as possible without making sudden moves, according to Saito.
A woman was assaulted by a monkey while hanging laundry on her veranda. Another victim showed bandaged toes. They were taken aback and frightened by how big and fat the monkeys were.
The monkeys terrorizing the community are Japanese macaque, the kind often pictured peacefully bathing in hot springs.
One male monkey, measuring 49 centimeters (1.6 foot) in height and weighing 7 kilograms (15 pounds), was caught Tuesday by the team with the tranquilizer gun. It was judged by various evidence to be one of the attacking monkeys and put to death.
But more attacks were reported after the capture.
No one has been seriously injured so far. But all have been advised to get hospital treatment. Ambulances were called in some cases.
Although Japan is industrialized and urban, a fair portion of land in the archipelago is mountains and forests. Rare attacks on people by a bear, boars or other wildlife have occurred, but generally not by monkeys.
No one seems to know why the attacks have occurred, and where exactly the troop of monkeys came from remains unclear.
“I have never seen anything like this my entire life,” Saito said.
___
Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama | https://www.wdtn.com/news/weird/ap-strange-news/japanese-city-alarmed-by-biting-clawing-attacking-monkeys/ | 2022-07-27T17:50:33Z | https://www.wdtn.com/news/weird/ap-strange-news/japanese-city-alarmed-by-biting-clawing-attacking-monkeys/ | true |
A year ago, India was not happy about the state of affairs in Afghanistan. The U.S. was negotiating its exit, the Taliban was consolidating power, and decades of India supporting anti-Taliban forces was evaporating.
But just last month, Indian officials went to Kabul to meet with Taliban leaders. India has also partially reopened its embassy in Kabul to coordinate humanitarian aid.
So, why is India reopening dialogue with the Taliban now? Asfandyar Mir, an expert in international relations and counterterrorism at the U.S. Institute of Peace, says that the interests for all parties involved have a long and complicated history.
He joined All Things Considered to explain the dynamic between India, the Taliban, and Pakistan, as well as India's interests in providing aid to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Interview Highlights
On what the meeting between Indian and Taliban officials last month focused on
In recent weeks, the Taliban have been making a series of public moves to India, which was really an unlikely prospective partner country, given that the Taliban have been allied with Pakistan, which is an arch rival of India. So in many ways, this is a stunning development.
There are some real tensions between the Taliban and the Pakistani government. For one, the Taliban have taken a position which is contrary to Pakistan's expectation on the international border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Another reason is that the Taliban are protecting one of the most significant anti-Pakistan insurgent groups, by the name of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, also known as the TTP.
So, watching that, the Indian policymakers seem to have concluded that perhaps there is enough distance between their arch-rival Pakistan and the Taliban, that the Taliban after all are not a mere proxy of the Pakistanis, and that there might be some room for them to forge a working relationship with the Taliban.
On why the Taliban would turn to India for help now
For years, they [Taliban] bemoaned India's support for the former Afghan government republic. And then India's embassy was blown up by the Taliban in 2008. So there was a lot of bad blood between the two sides.
So the question is, why are the Taliban so interested now? And economics might be one big reason. The Taliban are really struggling to govern the country. The fact that they are not diplomatically recognized is making it difficult for them to just fund their government: it's short on resources, there's a humanitarian crisis in the country, there are issues of food security.
The Taliban are hoping that the Indians would increase their supplies of wheat to the country. And over the medium term, the Taliban seem to be interested in India reviving its development projects in Afghanistan.
India built a lot of hospitals, so the Taliban appear to be interested in India reviving some of those activities as well.
On why India might be interested in aiding Afghanistan again
It seems like the Indians and the Taliban have been talking about counterterrorism. So one concern the Indians had, in the lead up to the Taliban's rise to power, was that much like the 1990s, Afghanistan under the Taliban would become a safe haven for terrorists — and not just anti-U.S., anti-Western terrorists, but also anti-Indian terrorists.
It appears that now the Indian government has gone to the Taliban, and said, "Look, if you want a relationship with us, we have to talk about these terrorism concerns." So the Taliban for their part have reciprocated with some guarantees similar to what they have provided to the United States government, that they will not allow Afghan territory to be used against India, that the Taliban are telling the Indians they are even ready to take action on any intelligence that the Indians might provide.
On whether there is something for the United States to gain from this new potential alliance
If the Taliban are responding to India, if they are talking about terrorism, if they open up to a human rights conversation with the Indians, that might be good news. In addition, I would say that if the Indians can really figure out a counterterrorism pact with the Taliban, I think that would also be a significant positive step, and could provide a channel for the international community and the U.S. in particular.
It's a complicated situation, and my view is that the U.S. should really be coordinating with India to maximize the counterterrorism benefit and any other benefits that can be had from India's engagement.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wunc.org/2022-07-27/after-decades-of-opposing-the-taliban-india-may-be-forming-a-relationship-with-them | 2022-07-27T17:53:24Z | https://www.wunc.org/2022-07-27/after-decades-of-opposing-the-taliban-india-may-be-forming-a-relationship-with-them | false |
NEW YORK — Investigators with the New York Police Department confirmed early Wednesday afternoon that a previously unidentified man found in The Bronx is not missing Texas State University student Jason Landry.
Investigators in Texas and New York worked to figure out if the man was the missing student but, in an update, the NYPD said the man was later identified as a resident of Yonkers.
Landry went missing on Dec. 13, 2020, on his way to the Houston area. His family lives in Missouri City, Texas.
His vehicle was discovered crashed in Luling, Texas. He seemed to have stripped out of his clothing, leaving behind his belongings. Among them was a backpack, a useable amount of marijuana, a laptop, gaming equipment, a bag of toiletries and more.
Law enforcement officials have been trying to solve his disappearance for a year and a half. Investigators believed they had a possible new lead when the unidentified man was found in New York.
On Tuesday, the New York Police Department posted a tweet asking for the public's help identifying a man found unconscious and unresponsive but apparently uninjured in the streets of The Bronx. The man did not possess any identification.
Jason Landry's father, Kent Landry, then confirmed to KVUE that detectives were working to see if the man found by New York police is his son.
A post on the Facebook page "Missing Person - Jason Landry" also states that detectives with the Texas Attorney General's Office were in contact with the New York detectives about Jason Landry. According to the post, the Texas detectives sent the necessary identification information for Jason Landry to New York and detectives should be able to positively conclude if the man is Jason Landry or not sometime Wednesday. The afternoon update confirmed the man was not Jason Landry.
"Thank you to everyone who have contacted us to let us know about this young man," the post reads in part. "Please be in prayer for whoever this young man is and his family. We pray that he'll be identified, recover and be able to rejoin his family."
Britny Eubank on social media: Twitter
RELATED COVERAGE:
- Billboard in Luling, Texas, installed to help find missing Texas State student
- Caldwell County investigators release body cam footage in Jason Landry case
- Where is Jason Landry? Texas State student still missing one year later
- 'It's been over 300 days' | TEXSAR returns to Caldwell County in search of Jason Landry
- Phone data reveals final known moments before disappearance of Texas State student Jason Landry | https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/jason-landry-missing-new-york-man/269-4b94e7ad-0794-4af5-8e1c-c586265bf935 | 2022-07-27T17:53:42Z | https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/jason-landry-missing-new-york-man/269-4b94e7ad-0794-4af5-8e1c-c586265bf935 | true |
The Pyramid is being acquired by Bitzero, which will turn it into a Zero Carbon Displacement data center, whose excess heat is used to keep a greenhouse warm all year long.
The Pyramid is being acquired by Bitzero, which will turn it into a Zero Carbon Displacement data center, whose excess heat is used to keep a greenhouse warm all year long.
Mike Jensen | North Dakota Tourism
Gov. Doug Burgum listens as Kevin O'Leary talks about bitcoin mining and North Dakota in this file 2022 photo.
An abandoned missile site in North Dakota is getting a new lease on life, one that will showcase how data centers can be constructed with reduced carbon emissions and the energy transition at the forefront.
Cavalier County Job Development Authority has executed binding agreements with Bitzero to acquire and redevelop the Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex in Nekoma, North Dakota. Bitzero will be turning the facility into a highly secure data center for high-performance computing and data processing, one with a Zero Carbon Displacement energy strategy. The latter was a key factor win CCJDA’s decision to accept the plan.
A Zero Carbon Displacement energy strategy means that the facility’s carbon footprint will be offset with renewable energy sources. Waste heat at the site will be captured and used to heat an on-site greenhouse.
The company also plans an interpretive center, and additional community engagement on site. The total investment is estimated by Bitzero to be $500 million. The site is expected to employ 30 to 50 people once operational.
“We in Cavalier County have taken great efforts to preserve and maintain this site with clear intentions: to use the infrastructure along with the county’s abundant resources to create jobs and to restore dignity to the history here,” said Carol Goodman, a consultant to the CCJDA for the Stanley R. Mickelsen site redevelopment. “We have had bids and interest in the site in the past, but none came with a track record and a strategy that we could trust to meet our objectives. We look forward to supporting Bitzero and watching our collective ambitions become a reality.”
The historic site that Bitzero is acquiring is more commonly referred to in North Dakota as The Pyramid. It is a legacy of the Cold War, built as part of the U.S. nuclear defense system at the time.
More than 1,000 workers came to North Dakota in the 1970s to build the facility, including the distinctive concrete pyramid with 3-foot-thick walls. The site became operational in April 1975, but Congress shuttered it after just eight months of operation. CCJDA became the pyramid’s owner in 2017.
“The history of this site and the integrity of the community and leadership we have met here in Cavalier County are a marvel,” Bitzero Akbar Shamji said. “The Pyramid when correctly understood is a monument to peace. The extraordinary capacity of the site in its first incarnation was a direct catalyst to the peace treaties of 1975 and the end of the Cold War. In its new incarnation the site will reappear again as a beacon for change in the now biggest challenge we face as society, climate change. The use of existing unutilized resources and ZCD energy at this site will guide the global data center industry and its stakeholders. Be they developers, users or shareholders, The Pyramid Data Centre will demonstrate for all concerned the increased functionality, lower cost of capital and higher profitability from harnessing natural energy and working in tandem with local communities and leading minds when approaching data services.”
Gov. Doug Burgum thanked Shamji for making such a significant investment in North Dakota.
“This is fantastic news for Cavalier County and our entire state, putting this iconic pyramid on the prairie to innovative use and further solidifying North Dakota’s status as a global hub for data center development,” Burgum said. “We are deeply grateful for Bitzero’s significant investment in our state and for the tireless efforts of the North Dakota Department of Commerce and Cavalier County Job Development Authority to secure a viable tenant and seize the potential of this historic structure. This important piece of history will be restored and become a beacon for North Dakota innovation to the rest of the world.”
Director of Commerce’s Economic Development and Finance Division Josh Teigen, meanwhile, said it is yet another instance where North Dakota is leading the world.
“The announcement from Bitzero to purchase ‘The Pyramid’ is a great leap forward for North Dakota,” said Josh Teigen, director of Commerce’s Economic Development and Finance Division. “North Dakota leads the world in a variety of verticals whether it is our robust tech sector, autonomous farming or unmanned aircraft systems, and expanding highly secure data center infrastructure in our state will help support all industries and diversify our economy. Bitzero’s announcement also brings together two pillars of our economy, energy and agriculture, as all waste heat from the data center will be used in an on-site greenhouse to enable North Dakota to grow crops year-round and help feed the world.”
It’s not the first major announcement from Bitzero this year. In June, Shamji, standing alongside Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary, announced that his company was selecting North Dakota as a hub for all of its North American operations, including its headquarters. In addition to building out 200 MW of data centers in the next two to three years, Shamji said they also plan a joint venture to develop a graphene battery assembly and distribution hub. Graphene is a component of lignite, a resource North Dakota has in abundance.
Bitzero has also leased space in Bismarck and Fargo for administrative operations, according to a report in the Bismarck Tribune. Those offices are set to open Sept. 1.
An abandoned missile site in North Dakota is getting a new lease on life, one that will showcase how data centers can be constructed with reduced carbon emissions at the forefront.
Cavalier County Job Development Authority has executed binding agreements with Bitzero to acquire and redevelop the Stanley R. Mickelsen Safeguard Complex in Nekoma, North Dakota. Bitzero will be turning the facility into a highly secure data center for high-performance computing and data processing, one with a Zero Carbon Displacement energy strategy, which was a key factor win CCJDA’s decision to accept the plan.
A Zero Carbon Displacement energy strategy means that the facility’s carbon footprint will be offset with renewable energy sources. Waste heat at the site will be captured and used to heat an on-site greenhouse.
The company also plans an interpretive center, and additional community engagement on site. The total investment is estimated by Bitzero to be $500 million. The site is expected to employ 30 to 50 people once operational.
“We in Cavalier County have taken great efforts to preserve and maintain this site with clear intentions: to use the infrastructure along with the county’s abundant resources to create jobs and to restore dignity to the history here,” said Carol Goodman, a consultant to the CCJDA for the Stanley R. Mickelsen site redevelopment. “We have had bids and interest in the site in the past, but none came with a track record and a strategy that we could trust to meet our objectives. We look forward to supporting Bitzero and watching our collective ambitions become a reality.”
The historic site that Bitzero is acquiring is more commonly referred to in North Dakota as The Pyramid. It is a legacy of the Cold War, built as part of the U.S. nuclear defense system at the time.
More than 1,000 workers came to North Dakota in the 1970s to build the facility, including the distinctive concrete pyramid with 3-foot-thick walls. The site became operational in April 1975, but Congress shuttered it after just eight months of operation. CCJDA became the pyramid’s owner in 2017.
“The history of this site and the integrity of the community and leadership we have met here in Cavalier County are a marvel,” Bitzero Akbar Shamji said. “The Pyramid when correctly understood is a monument to peace. The extraordinary capacity of the site in its first incarnation was a direct catalyst to the peace treaties of 1975 and the end of the Cold War. In its new incarnation the site will reappear again as a beacon for change in the now biggest challenge we face as society, climate change. The use of existing unutilized resources and ZCD energy at this site will guide the global data center industry and its stakeholders. Be they developers, users or shareholders, The Pyramid Data Centre will demonstrate for all concerned the increased functionality, lower cost of capital and higher profitability from harnessing natural energy and working in tandem with local communities and leading minds when approaching data services.”
Gov. Doug Burgum thanked Shamji for making such a significant investment in North Dakota.
“This is fantastic news for Cavalier County and our entire state, putting this iconic pyramid on the prairie to innovative use and further solidifying North Dakota’s status as a global hub for data center development,” Burgum said. “We are deeply grateful for Bitzero’s significant investment in our state and for the tireless efforts of the North Dakota Department of Commerce and Cavalier County Job Development Authority to secure a viable tenant and seize the potential of this historic structure. This important piece of history will be restored and become a beacon for North Dakota innovation to the rest of the world.”
Director of Commerce’s Economic Development and Finance Division Josh Teigen, meanwhile, said it is yet another instance where North Dakota is leading the world.
“The announcement from Bitzero to purchase ‘The Pyramid’ is a great leap forward for North Dakota,” said Josh Teigen, director of Commerce’s Economic Development and Finance Division. “North Dakota leads the world in a variety of verticals whether it is our robust tech sector, autonomous farming or unmanned aircraft systems, and expanding highly secure data center infrastructure in our state will help support all industries and diversify our economy. Bitzero’s announcement also brings together two pillars of our economy, energy and agriculture, as all waste heat from the data center will be used in an on-site greenhouse to enable North Dakota to grow crops year-round and help feed the world.”
It’s not the first major announcement from Bitzero this year. In June, Shamji, standing alongside Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary, announced that his company was selecting North Dakota as a hub for all of its North American operations, including its headquarters. In addition to building out 200 MW of data centers in the next two to three years, Shamji said they also plan a graphene battery assembly and distribution hub. Graphene is a component of lignite, a resource North Dakota has in abundance.
Bitzero has also leased space in Bismarck and Fargo for administrative operations, according to a report in the Bismarck Tribune. | https://www.willistonherald.com/news/oil_and_energy/bitzero-to-acquire-redevelop-abandoned-missile-site-into-data-center-of-the-future/article_d4cc84fe-0db1-11ed-a0ad-a7d590bd7e5f.html | 2022-07-27T17:56:08Z | https://www.willistonherald.com/news/oil_and_energy/bitzero-to-acquire-redevelop-abandoned-missile-site-into-data-center-of-the-future/article_d4cc84fe-0db1-11ed-a0ad-a7d590bd7e5f.html | false |
The new campaign showcases how bestselling, Bb.Hairdresser's Invisible Oil Heat/UV Protective Primer instantly cuts frizz by 50% compared to untreated hair.
NEW YORK, July 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Bumble and bumble announced today that it is partnering with actress Brittany O'Grady, for their new campaign celebrating the brand's #1 best seller Bb.Hairdresser's Invisible Oil Heat/UV Protective Primer. The multitasking Primer was shown to instantly cut frizz by 50% compared to untreated hair, and stay that way all day, even in extreme humidity.
Both at home and on set, Brittany is known for loving a range of looks – from smooth and sleek to natural, voluminous curls. Consumers and fans can follow Brittany through a day in her life with a new campaign video, where Brittany relies on her co-star, Bb.Hairdresser's Invisible Oil Heat/UV Protective Primer, to support her style all day long with humidity-tested, frizz reduction support.
"I'm so excited to be a part of this campaign for Hairdresser's Invisible Oil Primer," Brittany shared. "I'm thrilled to talk about a product that I truly love and that helps me so much on a daily basis. I don't have to worry about my style changing throughout the day because of frizz."
Corey Reese, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Bumble and bumble said, "At Bumble and bumble, we believe in really great hair on your own terms and Brittany embodies that mindset. She embraces a fearless approach to hair styling and self-expression, making her a perfect partner for this campaign."
Bumble and bumble #1 bestseller, Bb.Hairdresser's Invisible Oil Heat/UV Protective Primer, is a multitasking leave in treatment for all hair types powered by a signature 6-oil blend. In addition to featherlight moisture, it provides heat protection up to 450°F/232°C, has UV filters to help protect hair against the drying effects of the sun, helps protect color from fading for up to 16 washes, detangles to help protect against breakage, smoothes, softens, and adds shine. One Bb.Hairdresser's Invisible Oil Primer is sold every minute*.
The collection is available now at Ulta and Ulta.com, Sephora and Sephora.com, Bumbleandbumble.com, Bumble and bumble Flagship NYC Salons and Bb.Local Salons.
@Bumbleandbumble
#HairdressersInvisibleOil
#TakeFrizzOutOfFocus
*Based on internal sales data, 12 months ending January 31, 2022.
Bumble and bumble began as a New York City salon in 1977, where Bumble and bumble hairdressers clipped, colored and styled their way into prominence in magazines, on runways, and backstage around the world.
The brand is inspired by masters of the craft – hair stylists and colorists who are obsessed with technical and artistic excellence through bold self-expression. Bumble and bumble invents products to meet these professionals' exacting standards that are also easy enough for anyone to use. From the iconic, wave-enhancing Surf Spray to the bestselling, mega moisturizing Hairdresser's Invisible Oil range, these well-loved products are used by the pros in Bumble and bumble salons and by millions of people around the world at home every day.
At Bumble and bumble, we believe in really great hair on your own terms.
Our mission – to provide a range of high-performing products and techniques inclusive of every hair type, texture, and styling preference so that you can create the hair you want every day, every night, every time.
Pro-curated, backstage-vetted, and life-tested for real, powerful results.
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SOURCE Bumble and bumble | https://www.valleynewslive.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/bumble-bumble-partners-with-actress-brittany-ogrady-its-latest-bbhairdressers-invisible-oil-primer-campaign/ | 2022-07-27T17:56:55Z | https://www.valleynewslive.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/bumble-bumble-partners-with-actress-brittany-ogrady-its-latest-bbhairdressers-invisible-oil-primer-campaign/ | false |
(The Hill) – Researchers in the U.K. found evidence linking the recent pediatric hepatitis cases detected around the world to the coinfection of two viruses that normally do not cause severe illness, while also finding no connection to COVID-19.
Earlier this year, health authorities in the U.S., western Europe and Japan noted what seemed to be an increase in pediatric hepatitis cases resulting from an unknown cause. In the U.S. alone, more than 300 cases across 42 states are being investigated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Many of the children who presented with cases of hepatitis — an inflammation of the liver — also tested positive for adenovirus, a common pathogen that usually does not affect the liver. In the U.S., health authorities said very few of the children tested positive for COVID-19 or had a history of the virus.
Several have had to receive liver transplants due to the incurred damage, though the majority of children affected have fully recovered, with the health outcomes usually good.
Now researchers from University College London (UCL) say they have found a possible link between the hepatitis cases and the common adeno-associated virus 2 or AAV2. The virus was found in 96 percent of cases observed in the studies.
As researchers noted, AAV2 is usually “harmless” and unable to replicate without a “helper” virus, such as an adenovirus or herpesvirus. They believe that the infection resulting from both AAV2 as well as the herpesvirus HHV6 offers the best explanation for what caused the unexplained hepatitis.
HHV6 is an extremely common pathogen, with nearly 100 percent of humans having the virus. This strain of herpes often manifests as a rash and fever in very young children and typically resolves on its own.
“While we still have some unanswered questions about exactly what led to this spike in acute hepatitis, we hope these results can reassure parents concerned about Covid-19 as neither teams have found any direct link with SARS-SoV-2 infection,” said Judith Breuer, professor at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health.
Sofia Morfopoulou, a physician at the Institute of Child Health, noted that while AAV2 was found in nearly all of the cases that were part of the study, it is relatively rare in the general population. | https://www.binghamtonhomepage.com/news/national-news/researchers-link-pediatric-hepatitis-cases-to-common-virus-find-no-connection-to-covid-study/ | 2022-07-27T17:57:06Z | https://www.binghamtonhomepage.com/news/national-news/researchers-link-pediatric-hepatitis-cases-to-common-virus-find-no-connection-to-covid-study/ | true |
Recognize him? Florida man accused of recording woman in Kohl's dressing room, police say
ORANGE CITY, Fla. - Police are looking for a Central Florida man they say was recording a woman in a dressing room stall at a Kohl's store in Orange City.
According to a Facebook post by Orange City police, on July 16, a man seen in a surveillance video was in the ladies dressing room of a Kohl's store videotaping a woman in the adjacent stall. When the woman noticed and confronted him, the man reportedly took off. Police say they do not know which direction he went.
MORE NEWS: Florida man decapitated pet parakeet with hands in front of owner, police say
Anyone with information is asked to call 386-775-5478 or email ttheriault@orangecityfl.gov. | https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/recognize-him-florida-man-accused-of-recording-woman-in-kohls-dressing-room-police-say | 2022-07-27T17:57:17Z | https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/recognize-him-florida-man-accused-of-recording-woman-in-kohls-dressing-room-police-say | false |
COLUMBIA, Md., July 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Blend360 announced today that they have been included in Forrester's report, The AI Service Providers Landscape, Q3 2022.
The report, written by Principal Analysts Michele Goetz, Brandon Purcell, and Boris Evelson, provides an overview of 39 AI service providers to help technology and data leaders understand the value AI service providers can contribute and how they vary by size and market focus. These 39 service providers were chosen by Forrester from a list of notable vendors with more than $50M in AI-related services revenue. Forrester defines AI Service providers as "organizations that engage with technology and data leaders to apply AI to strategic and operational business transformation initiatives across the enterprise or within areas of the business to drive competitive advantage."
Co-Founder and CEO Patrick Hennessy said, "We are thrilled to be part of Forrester's report on the landscape of AI services providers, as we know making this list is no small feat. At the heart of Blend360 is an elite group of data scientists that strive to use data, tech, and analytics to optimize business results. We believe this recognition validates we are on the right path, and we will continue to help our customers use AI to better build their business."
Blend360 is an award-winning provider of data and analytics solutions for Fortune 500 companies. The company has made the Inc. 5000 list of Fasting Growing Companies every year they have been in business and has been awarded a world-class ranking in client satisfaction for the past three years. They have over 500 employees with offices domestically in NY, MD, CO, and CA and internationally throughout the EMEA region.
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SOURCE Blend360 | https://www.wafb.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/blend360-included-ai-service-providers-report-by-independent-research-firm/ | 2022-07-27T17:57:45Z | https://www.wafb.com/prnewswire/2022/07/27/blend360-included-ai-service-providers-report-by-independent-research-firm/ | false |
NEW YORK (AP) — A self-described manager and adviser to R. Kelly pleaded guilty Tuesday to an interstate stalking charge, less than a week after he was convicted of making a phone threat that gunfire was about to occur in a Manhattan theater where a documentary about the singer was about to be shown.
Donnell Russell, 47, of Chicago, entered the plea in Brooklyn federal court.
U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said Russell used threats, harassment and intimidation to silence one of Kelly’s sexual abuse victims. Kelly, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison last month, was convicted last year of racketeering and sex trafficking.
Peace said in a statement that Russell sent threatening messages to the woman and her mother and later published explicit photos of the victim on the internet.
Russell could face up to five years in prison at a Nov. 17 sentencing.
Prosecutors said the harassment campaign stretched from November 2018 to February 2020 after the woman filed a civil lawsuit against Kelly.
Last Friday, a Manhattan federal court jury found Russell guilty of threatening physical harm through interstate communication.
The jury concluded that Russell made a phone threat that forced the evacuation of a theater where Lifetime’s “Surviving R. Kelly” series was to be shown, and a panel discussion was to occur featuring several women in the documentary.
Prosecutors argued during the one-week trial that Russell was trying to protect the lucrative career of Kelly, a Grammy-winning, multiplatinum-selling songwriter.
A trial witness had testified that a man with a deep voice had called the theater to warn that “someone had a gun and they were going to shoot up the place.” Prosecutors said the call was placed to the theater from Russell’s home on a day when Russell made nine phone calls to the theater to try to stop the airing of the documentary. | https://cw33.com/entertainment-news/ap-entertainment/self-described-r-kelly-manager-pleads-guilty-to-stalking/ | 2022-07-27T17:58:56Z | https://cw33.com/entertainment-news/ap-entertainment/self-described-r-kelly-manager-pleads-guilty-to-stalking/ | false |
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