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CHICAGO, Nov. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Calculated Genius, the Chicago nonprofit dedicated to engineering educational and vocational pathways in STEM for underrepresented youth, announced it will create a state-of-the-art technology lab next year for Chicago Public School students exploring engineering and technology.
The Calculated Genius STEM Lab will provide educational programs to fuel self-exploration and skills development. It will consist of computer workstations, digital drawing tablets for 3D modeling, robotics kits, and electrical engineering toolkits. The lab will be funded in part by a $50,000 grant from the 2023 Exelon Green Lab Grant. Additionally, funds raised from a year-end campaign and Giving Tuesday on Nov. 29 will support the build-out as well as expanded programs and scholarships for participating students.
"We're excited about creating a place where Calculated Genius Scholars can collaborate, pose questions, pursue answers, and build new tools to solve global challenges," said Brian Biederman, Executive Director, Calculated Genius. "It will be a game-changer for students who lack 'invisible privilege,' or the financial means, generational experiences, and deep networks to access pathways to STEM."
"We envision scholars studying complex problems like energy distribution, telecommunications accessibility, and climate change," said Kimberly Moore, Founder and President, Calculated Genius. "They will be guided by professional engineers, technologists, business experts, and world-class university professors on their trajectory toward college and future careers."
"Thank you to Exelon for providing the Green Lab Grant and The Museum of Science and Industry for facilitating the grant process," Biederman said. "And thank you to all of our Calculated Genius supporters who are helping open doors to our STEM scholars."
Calculated Genius, a Chicago-based 501(c)3 nonprofit, is dedicated to helping underrepresented youth explore and connect to engineering to inspire and support a brighter future. Established in 2015 by Chicago engineer and entrepreneur Kimberly Moore, Calculated Genius bridges the gap between STEM education and application. Its programs, including the STEM Lab, STEMINIST Scholarships, and the Summer Scholars Program, are crafted with educators, parents, and industry professionals to provide students with STEM-focused pathways toward college and careers. Learn more at calculatedgenius.org.
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HONG KONG (AP) — Students in Hong Kong chanted “oppose dictatorship” in a protest of China’s COVID-19 rules Monday after demonstrators on the mainland issued an unprecedented call for President Xi Jinping to resign in the biggest show of opposition to the ruling Communist Party in decades.
Rallies against China’s unusually strict anti-virus measures spread to several cities over the weekend, and authorities eased some regulations, apparently to try to quell that public anger. But the government showed no sign of backing down on its larger coronavirus strategy, and analysts expect authorities to quickly silence the dissent.
With police out in force Monday, there was no word of protests in Beijing or Shanghai. But about 50 students sang at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and some lit candles in a show of support for those in mainland cities who demonstrated against restrictions that have confined millions to their homes. Hiding their faces to avoid official retaliation, the students chanted, “No PCR tests but freedom!” and “Oppose dictatorship, don’t be slaves!”
The gathering and a similar one elsewhere in Hong Kong were the biggest protests there in more than a year under rules imposed to crush a pro-democracy movement in the territory, which is Chinese but has a separate legal system from the mainland.
“I’ve wanted to speak up for a long time, but I did not get the chance to,” said James Cai, a 29-year-old from Shanghai who attended a Hong Kong protest and held up a piece of white paper, a symbol of defiance against the ruling party’s pervasive censorship. ”If people in the mainland can’t tolerate it anymore, then I cannot as well.”
It wasn’t clear how many people have been detained since the protests began Friday, sparked by anger over the deaths of 10 people in a fire in the northwestern city of Urumqi. Some have questioned whether firefighters or victims trying to escape were blocked by locked doors or other anti-virus controls.
Without mentioning the protests, the criticism of Xi or the fire, some local authorities eased restrictions Monday.
The city government of Beijing announced it would no longer set up gates to block access to apartment compounds where infections are found.
“Passages must remain clear for medical transportation, emergency escapes and rescues,” said Wang Daguang, a city official in charge of epidemic control, according to the official China News Service.
Guangzhou, a manufacturing and trade center that is the biggest hot spot in China’s latest wave of infections, announced some residents will no longer be required to undergo mass testing.
Urumqi, where the fire occurred, and another city in the Xinjiang region in the northwest announced markets and other businesses in areas deemed at low risk of infection would reopen this week and public bus service would resume.
“Zero COVID,” which aims to isolate every infected person, has helped to keep China’s case numbers lower than those of the United States and other major countries. But tolerance for the measures has flagged as people in some areas have been confined at home for up to four months and say they lack reliable access to food and medical supplies.
In Hong Kong, protesters at Chinese University put up posters that said, “Do Not Fear. Do Not Forget. Do Not Forgive,” and sang including “Do You Hear the People Sing?” from the musical “Les Miserables.” Most hid their faces behind blank white sheets of paper.
“I want to show my support,” said a 24-year-old mainland student who would identify herself only as G for fear of retaliation. “I care about things that I couldn’t get to know in the past.”
University security guards videotaped the event but there was no sign of police.
At an event in Central, a business district, about four dozen protesters held up blank sheets of paper and flowers in what they said was mourning for the fire victims in Urumqi and others who have died as a result of “zero COVID” policies.
Police cordoned off an area around protesters who stood in small, separate groups to avoid violating pandemic rules that bar gatherings of more than 12 people. Police took identity details of participants but there were no arrests.
Hong Kong has tightened security controls and rolled back Western-style civil liberties since China launched a campaign in 2019 to crush a pro-democracy movement. The territory has its own anti-virus strategy that is separate from the mainland.
On the mainland, the ruling party promised last month to reduce disruption by changing quarantine and other rules. But a spike in infections has prompted cities to tighten controls.
On Monday, the number of new daily cases rose to more than 40,000, including more than 36,000 with no symptoms.
The ruling party newspaper People’s Daily called for its anti-virus strategy to be carried out effectively, indicating Xi’s government has no plans to change course.
“Facts have fully proved that each version of the prevention and control plan has withstood the test of practice,” a People’s Daily commentator wrote.
Protests also have occurred in Guangzhou near Hong Kong, Chengdu and Chongqing in the southwest, and Nanjing in the east, according to witnesses and video on social media.
Most protesters have complained about excessive restrictions, but some turned their anger at Xi, China’s most powerful leader since at least the 1980s. In a video that was verified by The Associated Press, a crowd in Shanghai on Saturday chanted, “Xi Jinping! Step down! CCP! Step down!”
The British Broadcasting Corp. said one of its reporters was beaten, kicked, handcuffed and detained for several hours by Shanghai police but later released.
The BBC criticized what it said was Chinese authorities’ explanation that its reporter was detained to prevent him from contracting the coronavirus from the crowd. “We do not consider this a credible explanation,” the broadcaster said in a statement.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian said the BBC reporter failed to identify himself and “didn’t voluntarily present” his press credential.
“Foreign journalists need to consciously follow Chinese laws and regulations,” Zhao said.
Swiss broadcaster RTS said its correspondent and a cameraman were detained while doing a live broadcast but released a few minutes later. An AP journalist was detained but later released.
___
Associated Press writer Joe McDonald in Beijing contributed. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-china-affirms-zero-covid-stance-eases-rules-after-protests/ | 2022-11-28T19:55:44 | en | 0.971606 |
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SHANGHAI (AP) — Barely a month after granting himself new powers as China’s potential leader for life, Xi Jinping is facing a wave of public anger of the kind not seen for decades, sparked by his “zero COVID” strategy that will soon enter its fourth year.
Demonstrators poured into the streets over the weekend in cities including Shanghai and Beijing, criticizing the policy, confronting police — and even calling for Xi to step down. On Monday, demonstrators gathered in the semi-autonomous southern city of Hong Kong, where the pro-democracy movement was all but snuffed out by a harsh crackdown following monthslong demonstrations that began in 2019.
Students at the Chinese University of Hong Kong chanted “oppose dictatorship” and “Freedom! Freedom!” Floral tributes were laid in the Central district that had been the epicenter of previous protests.
The widespread demonstrations are unprecedented since the army crushed the 1989 student-led pro-democracy movement centered on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
Most protesters focused their anger on restrictions that can confine families to their homes for months and have been criticized as neither scientific nor effective. Some complained the system is failing to respond to their needs.
The cries for the resignation of Xi and the end of the Communist Party that has ruled China for 73 years could be deemed sedition, which is punishable by prison.
In response, police in Shanghai used pepper spray to drive away demonstrators, and dozens were detained in police sweeps and taken away in police vans and buses. China’s vast internal security apparatus is also famed for identifying people it considers troublemakers and picking them up later when few are watching.
The possibility of more protests is unclear. Government censors scrubbed the internet of videos and messages supporting them. And analysts say unless divisions emerge, the Communist Party should be able to contain the dissent.
China’s stringent measures were originally accepted for minimizing deaths while other countries suffered devastating waves of infections, but that consensus has begun to fray in recent weeks.
While the ruling party says anti-coronavirus measures should be “targeted and precise” and cause the least possible disruption to people’s lives, local officials are threatened with losing their jobs or other punishments if outbreaks occur. They have responded by imposing quarantines and other restrictions that protesters say exceed what the central government allows.
Xi’s unelected government doesn’t seem too concerned with the hardships brought by the policy. This spring, millions of Shanghai residents were placed under a strict lockdown that resulted in food shortages, restricted access to medical care and economic pain. Nevertheless, in October, the city’s party secretary, a Xi loyalist, was appointed to the Communist Party’s No. 2 position.
The party has long imposed surveillance and travel restrictions on minorities including Tibetans and Muslim groups such as Uyghurs, more than 1 million of whom have been detained in camps where they are forced to renounce their traditional culture and religion and swear fealty to Xi.
But this weekend’s protests included many members of the educated urban middle class from the ethnic Han majority. The ruling party relies on that group to abide by an unwritten post-Tiananmen agreement to accept autocratic rule in exchange for a better quality of life.
Now, it appears that old arrangement has ended as the party enforces control at the expense of the economy, said Hung Ho-fung of Johns Hopkins University.
“The party and the people are trying to seek a new equilibrium,” he said. “There will be some instability in the process.”
To develop into something on the scale of the 1989 protests would require clear divisions within the leadership that could be leveraged for change, Hung said.
Xi all but eliminated such threats at an October party congress. He broke with tradition and awarded himself a third five-year term as party leader and packed the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee with loyalists. Two potential rivals were sent into retirement.
“Without the clear signal of party leader divisions … I would expect this kind of protest might not last very long,” Hung said.
It’s “unimaginable” that Xi would back down, and the party is experienced in handling protests, Hung said.
China is now the only major country still trying to stop transmission of the virus that was first detected in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019.
The normally supportive head of the World Health Organization has called “zero COVID” unsustainable. Beijing dismissed his remarks as irresponsible, but public acceptance of the restrictions has worn thin.
People who are quarantined at home in some areas say they lack food and medicine. And the ruling party faced anger over the deaths of two children whose parents said anti-virus controls hampered efforts to get emergency medical care.
Protests then erupted after a fire on Thursday killed at least 10 people in an apartment building in the city of Urumqi in the northwest, where some residents have been locked in their homes for four months. That prompted an outpouring of angry questions online about whether firefighters or people trying to escape were blocked by locked doors or other pandemic restrictions.
Yet Xi, an ardent nationalist, has politicized the issue to the point that exiting the “zero COVID” policy could be seen as a loss to his reputation and authority.
“Zero COVID” was “supposed to demonstrate the superiority of the ‘Chinese model,’ but ended up demonstrating the risk that when authoritarian regimes make mistakes, those mistakes can be colossal,” said Andrew Nathan, a Chinese politics specialist at Columbia University. He edited The Tiananmen Papers, an insider account of the government’s response to the 1989 protests.
“But I think the regime has backed itself into a corner and has no way to yield. It has lots of force, and if necessary, it will use it,” Nathan said. “If it could hold onto power in the face of the pro-democracy demonstrations of 1989, it can do so again now.”
___
Associated Press reporters Kanis Leung and Zen Soo and researcher Alice Fung in Hong Kong contributed to this report. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-chinas-xi-faces-public-anger-over-draconian-zero-covid/ | 2022-11-28T19:55:47 | en | 0.972209 |
MINNEAPOLIS, Nov. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Cargill and Owensboro Grain Company, a fifth-generation family-owned soybean processing facility and refinery located in Owensboro, Ky., today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement where Cargill will add Owensboro Grain Company (OGC) to its North American agricultural supply chain business.
Owensboro Grain Company was founded in 1906 as a small grain merchant and today operates a fully integrated soy processing facility, producing soy products, including protein meal and hull pellets for animal feeds, crude and degummed oil, lecithin, various blends of refined vegetable oil for human consumption, biodiesel, glycerin and industrial waxes. The addition of Owensboro Grain Company enhances Cargill's efforts to modernize and increase capacity across its North American oilseeds network to support growing demand for oilseeds driven by food, feed and renewable fuel markets.
"We are pleased to welcome Owensboro Grain Company into our Cargill family," said Leonardo Aguiar, president of Cargill's North American agricultural supply chain. "Our two companies have tremendous operational histories, similar heritages as grain merchants, and values, including an unwavering commitment to prioritizing people ― making this a tremendous fit. Additionally, this is a significant milestone in Cargill's journey to create a connected and modernized grain experience for our customers," said Aguiar.
"We are excited for this new chapter in the life of Owensboro Grain Company and believe an acquisition by Cargill will ensure the long-term success of the company," said Helen Cornell, president and CEO of the fifth-generation, family-owned soy processor. "Cargill has the ability to capitalize on growing opportunities in the industry, such as renewable energy. The acquisition will ensure that Owensboro Grain Company, its employees, farmers, customers and the community are best positioned for the future. We are excited to transfer ownership to another multi-generational family held enterprise with global access to markets and capabilities to ensure the future growth of our business. Cargill has the global resources necessary to support Owensboro Grain Company's growth goals and operations."
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The transaction, which has been approved by the Boards of Directors of Cargill and Owensboro Grain Company, is subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions and is expected to close in early 2023.
Cargill's 160,000 employees across 70 countries work relentlessly to achieve our purpose of nourishing the world in a safe, responsible and sustainable way. Every day, we connect farmers with markets, customers with ingredients, and people and animals with the food they need to thrive. We combine 157 years of experience with new technologies and insights to serve as a trusted partner for food, agriculture, financial and industrial customers in more than 125 countries. Side-by-side, we are building a stronger, sustainable future for agriculture. For more information, visit Cargill.com and our News Center.
For more information about Owensboro Grain Company, visit owensborograin.com.
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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled Monday that a state board must reconsider its rejection of a substitute teaching license for the former police officer who shot and killed Philando Castile in 2016.
Jeronimo Yanez applied to be a substitute teacher in 2020, but his application was denied based on “immoral character or conduct.” The appeals court ruled that this reason was unconstitutionally vague and the Minnesota Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board must reconsider — focusing narrowly on whether Yanez’s conduct makes him unfit to teach.
The appeals court said that upon reconsideration, the board must identify factors it is using to determine whether Yanez’s conduct “violated moral standards for the teaching profession.” The board must also avoid characterizing policing practices — such as a pretextual reason for a traffic stop — as immoral.
“The board’s decision must focus exclusively on Yanez’s conduct and his fitness to be a teacher, not fitness to be a police officer,” the appeals court ruled.
Messages left with Yanez’s attorney and with the licensing board were not immediately returned Monday.
Yanez, a former St. Anthony police officer, shot Castile during a traffic stop after Castile, who was Black, said he had a gun. Authorities later discovered that Castile, a 32-year-old elementary school cafeteria worker, had a permit for the firearm.
The case got widespread attention after Castile’s girlfriend, who was in the car with her young daughter, began livestreaming the shooting’s aftermath on Facebook.
Yanez was charged with manslaughter but was acquitted by a jury. The shooting and Yanez’s subsequent acquittal led to massive public outcry and protests in Minnesota and beyond.
Yanez left the police department after his trial. In February 2020, he applied for a substitute teaching license, according to the appeals court ruling. At the time of his application, he was teaching Spanish part-time at a parochial school. The school’s principal supported his license application.
During the application process, the board’s disciplinary committee investigated Yanez’s case and recommended that his application be denied.
He appealed to an administrative-law judge, who also recommended that his application be denied after a hearing in which St. Paul Public Schools Superintendent Joseph Gothard testified that Yanez’s actions were hurtful and offensive to the community. An expert who testified for Yanez said the traffic stop was lawful and that he agreed the deadly use of force was reasonable.
The administrative-law judge found Yanez prejudged Castile as a robbery suspect because of his “wide set nose” — initiating a pretextual traffic stop that indicated “racial bias, microaggressions, and negativity bias that are detrimental to students, especially students of color.”
The administrative-law judge also found that Yanez failed to establish that his use of deadly force was reasonable and necessary. The board ultimately denied Yanez’s application.
Yanez argued on appeal that denying his application due to “immoral character or conduct” was unconstitutionally vague. The appeals court agreed, saying that other jurisdictions have found that immorality means different things to different people, and that the conduct in question must be directly related to a teacher’s ability to teach.
The appeals court said that the phrase is nebulous and “vulnerable to the caprice of ever-changing public opinion and the potential for arbitrary, biased enforcement” but that it could survive constitutional scrutiny if narrowed to “relate to professional morals in the occupation of teaching.”
Castile’s mother, Valerie Castile, said Monday that she didn’t know Yanez was trying to obtain a substitute teaching license, and that she doesn’t think he belongs in the classroom.
She said children – particularly students of color — might have trouble focusing on what Yanez is teaching and could worry that they were in danger. She said parents would also need to be notified if he was in a classroom.
“The community knows about what he did and I don’t think the kids would be comfortable even having him there,” she said. “We have to think about our children’s comfort levels. … We have to think about those children and the trauma they suffered because of what he did.” | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-court-cop-who-shot-castile-wrongly-denied-teaching-license/ | 2022-11-28T19:55:54 | en | 0.98523 |
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ConcertAI's TeraRecon, a leader in advanced visualization and artificial intelligence (AI) for medical imaging, recently unveiled first-in-category capabilities in advanced visualization, AI, and an AI solutions partner ecosystem to better meet clinician requirements in complex clinical workflows providing key augmentations enabling better outcomes for their patients.
At this year's #RSNA22, TeraRecon is formally launching its next-generation Eureka Clinical AI platform. Designed to support the communication infrastructure and enable collaboration across the care team, the platform serves as a unique and open end-to-end clinical solution, integrating multiple AI algorithms and workflows. The Eureka Clinical AI platform supports desktop and mobile viewers for tightly integrated cross-specialty and multi-discipline collaboration and patient-specific sharing of AI results to accelerate access and decisions to mission-critical images and insights.
The Eureka Clinical AI open architecture platform is unique in supporting third-party, customer-developed, and TeraRecon-developed AI algorithms in one unified workflow. TeraRecon's recently released TR Neuro for neurovascular emergencies is an example of one such application. A specialized, universal viewer giving clinicians the option to directly interact with the AI results, including a unique and patented approval and rejection capability, before committing the AI findings to the enterprise reporting system. The Eureka Clinical AI platform is supplemented by TR Analytics, providing critical insights to monitor productivity and platform utilization, as well as individual AI algorithm performance.
"We are excited with the Eureka Clinical AI platform and its capabilities in executing third-party AI algorithms, such as Infervision's InferRead CT Lung AI," said Matt Dewey, Chief Information Officer at Wake Radiology. "I was especially impressed with the collaboration between Wake Radiology, TeraRecon and Infervision to streamline procurement and deployment of the AI solution. This has led to efficient readings for our radiologists, reducing the time it takes to review lung CT."
TeraRecon will also be unveiling a new Eureka AI Partner Program, where partners like Imaging Biometrics, Riverain Technologies, Coreline Soft, Radiobotics, Infervision, and Cercare Medical are offering seamless solutions that enable the clinician to efficiently interact with AI findings, in one streamlined place. These solutions are available at launch, and is a huge step forward in efficiency for today's clinicians. "We are excited to provide our customers the highest performance AI ecosystem available, built on a solid foundation of a vendor agnostic platform that is AI ready, scalable, secure, and robust. Only TeraRecon is advancing AI capabilities that integrate the 'best of' across domains and companies, allowing clear and transparent use and management of AI algorithms, advancing the value and potential of Clinical AI today," said Dan McSweeney, President, TeraRecon.
With the launch of the Eureka Clinical AI platform, TeraRecon expands into the AI platform market furthering its mission to deliver AI powered solutions that improve outcomes, streamline workflows and reduce burnout for clinicians.
Opportunities to learn more about these new technologies and about the Eureka AI Partner Program at #RSNA22:
- Register for a demo at booth #8122
- Attend our session: Is Imaging AI aided by EHR data more valuable than clinical decision support AI aided by radiomics on Wednesday, November 30, 2PM in the Open Air Innovation Theater. This presentation will be led by Sinan Batman, Chief Technology Officer for TeraRecon.
About ConcertAI: ConcertAI is the leader in AI SaaS technology and clinical Data-as-a-Service solutions for life sciences and healthcare . Our mission is to accelerate insights and outcomes for patients through data-enabled insights, AI technologies, and scientific expertise in partnership with the leading biomedical innovators, health care providers, and medical societies. For more information, visit us at www.concertai.com
About TeraRecon: TeraRecon, a ConcertAI company, serves 1,300 clinical sites globally, is a Best in KLAS solution provider for AI-empowered radiology, oncology, cardiology, neurology, and vascular surgery. Awarded the 2020, 2021, and 2022 KLAS Category Leader for Advanced Visualization, TeraRecon solutions are independent of any one manufacturer's imaging equipment or PACS system, allowing a single, unified, and simplified clinical workflow that can improve efficiencies and deliver actionable physician-guided insights. For more information, visit us at www.terarecon.com
Media Contact:
Megan Duero
Megan@galestrategies.com
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NEW YORK (AP) — Days after flocking to stores on Black Friday, consumers are turning online for Cyber Monday to score more discounts on gifts and other items that have ballooned in price because of high inflation.
Cyber Monday is expected to remain the year’s biggest online shopping day and rake in up to $11.6 billion in sales, according to Adobe Analytics, which tracks transactions at over 85 of the top 100 U.S. online stores. That forecast represents a jump from the $10.7 billion consumers spent last year.
Adobe’s numbers are not adjusted for inflation, but the company says demand is growing even when inflation is factored in. Some analysts have said top line numbers will be boosted by higher prices and the amount of items consumers purchase could remain unchanged — or even fall — compared to prior years. Profit margins are also expected to be tight for retailers offering deeper discounts to attract budget-conscious consumers and clear out their bloated inventories.
Shoppers spent a record $9.12 billion online on Black Friday, up 2.3% from last year, according to Adobe. E-commerce activity continued to be strong over the weekend, with $9.55 billion in online sales.
Salesforce, which also tracks spending, said their estimates showed online sales in the U.S. hit $15 billion on Friday and $17.2 billion over the weekend, with an average discount rate of 30% on products. Electronics, active wear, toys and health and beauty items were among those that provided a big boost, the two groups said.
Meanwhile, consumers who feared leaving their homes and embraced e-commerce during the pandemic are heading back to physical stores in greater numbers this year as normalcy returns. The National Retail Federation said its recent survey showed a 3% uptick in the number of Black Friday shoppers planning to go to stores. It expects 63.9 million consumers to shop online during Cyber Monday, compared to 77 million last year.
CONSUMERS ARE SPENDING CAUTIOUSLY
Mastercard SpendingPulse, which tracks spending across all types of payments including cash and credit card, said that overall sales on Black Friday rose 12% from the year-ago. Sales at physical stores rose 12%, while online sales were up 14%.
RetailNext, which captures sales and traffic via sensors, reported that store traffic rose 7% on Black Friday, while sales at physical stores improved 0.1% from a year ago. However, spending per customer dropped nearly 7% as cautious shoppers did more browsing than buying. Another company that tracks store traffic — Sensormatic Solutions— said store traffic was up 2.9% on Black Friday compared to a year ago.
“Shoppers are being more thoughtful, but they are going to more than a few retailers to be able to make a determination of what they are going to buy this year,” said Brian Field, Sensormatic’s global leader of retail consulting and analytics.
Overall, online spending has remained resilient in the past few weeks as eager shoppers buy more items on credit and embrace “buy now, pay later” services that lack interest charges but carry late fees.
In the first three weeks of November, online sales were essentially flat compared with last year, according to Adobe. It said the modest uptick shows consumers have a strong appetite for holiday shopping amid uncertainty about the economy.
Still, some major retailers are feeling a shift. Target, Macy’s and Kohl’s said this month they’ve seen a slowdown in consumer spending in the past few weeks. The exception was Walmart, which reported higher sales in its third quarter and raised its earnings outlook.
“We’re seeing that inflation is starting to really hit the wallet and that consumers are starting to amass more debt at this point,” said Guru Hariharan, founder and CEO of retail e-commerce management firm CommerceIQ, adding there’s more pressure on consumers to purchase cheaper alternatives.
SHIFTING DEMAND
This year’s Cyber Monday also comes amid a wider e-commerce slowdown affecting online retailers that saw a boom in sales during most of the COVID-19 pandemic. Amazon, for example, raked in record revenue but much of the demand has waned as the worst of the pandemic eased and consumers felt more comfortable shopping in stores.
To deal with the change, the company has been scaling back its warehouse expansion plans and is cutting costs by axing some of its projects. It’s also following in the steps of other tech companies and implementing mass layoffs in its corporate ranks. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the company will continue to cut jobs until early next year.
Shopify, a company which helps businesses set up e-commerce websites and also offers offline software, laid off 10% of its staff this summer.
The company said Monday that its merchants have surpassed $5.1 billion in global sales since the start of Black Friday in New Zealand. And spending per U.S. customer went up $5 compared to last year, said Shopify President Harley Finkelstein.
Despite the bump, Finkelstein said shoppers were more intentional about their spending this year and waiting for discounts before making a purchase. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-cyber-monday-deals-lure-in-consumers-amid-high-inflation/ | 2022-11-28T19:56:00 | en | 0.966212 |
DIPS will be DISA's virtual telephone solution
FORT GEORGE G. MEADE, Md., Nov. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Defense Information Systems Agency, and the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) at-large, are undergoing a modernization effort designed to reduce the footprint of telephony infrastructure and equipment. In response to the Department's growing need for a mobile, agile, global workforce that can operate from anywhere, DISA will offer the DOD365 Integrated Phone System (DIPS) for enhanced workforce productivity and continuity of operations.
DIPS, a cloud-based telephony infrastructure that seamlessly integrates with DOD365's cloud environments, delivers softphone access – essentially a virtual phone – for users to make and receive calls through the Microsoft Teams application. DIPS will be available by the end of November.
This is another example of how DISA is approaching and implementing its updated, unified capability strategy and portfolio.
"DISA remains committed in our efforts to increase communication and collaboration capabilities for the warfighter, across the services and the entire DOD," said Christopher Barnhurst, DISA deputy director. "As we continue to evaluate what capabilities work and do not, we are taking strategic and decisive action to offer the department the best services and tools available to meet its mission."
DIPS will help the DOD modernize and leverage industry advances to deliver cloud-based telephony solutions that enhance cross-tenant collaboration and communications. The new system allows for complete audio-conferencing capabilities that include dialing into meetings, dialing out directly from a meeting and making/receiving commercial calls, all through Teams. Adoption of the Microsoft Smart Routing Strategy on the DIPS contract allows for cross-cloud calling to be streamlined through Teams-to-Teams connections.
"Agencies will be able to capture millions of dollars in potential savings by using this technology while significantly improving the user experience," said Caroline Bean, director for the joint enterprise services directorate.
The DIPS contract will be available to the DISA-managed DOD365-Joint tenant and all the military services. The tenant supports more than 77 agencies and combatant commands including the White House and Pentagon.
"Though this is a massive undertaking, it is our intent to enable the military services and other DOD agencies to leverage DISA's contract for this new integrated phone service," Bean added. "This capability will allow for any DOD user to make a virtual call anywhere. This is a gamechanger and a substantial leap forward in technological advancement for the department."
DISA awarded a $221 million contract to Lumen Technologies, in August, for the execution and operations of DIPS. Agencies who wish to leverage DISA's contract will need to order their phone numbers from DISA's Storefront before they can start using the feature. Mission partners can place orders at https://storefront.disa.mil.
The Defense Information Systems Agency is the U.S. Department of Defense IT combat support agency that provides real-time information technology and communications support to the president, vice president, secretary of defense, military services and combatant commands. From its Fort Meade, Md., headquarters and through worldwide field activities, DISA offers IT services, capabilities and acquisition expertise that enable our nation's military to accomplish their missions. More information is available at: Twitter.com/USDISA, Facebook.com/USDISA, LinkedIn.com/company/DISA, YouTube.com/user/USDISA.
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NEW YORK (AP) — Democrats celebrating a successful effort to keep control of the U.S. Senate this year will soon confront a 2024 campaign that could prove more challenging.
The party enters the next cycle defending 23 seats, including two held by independents who caucus with Democrats. That’s compared with just 10 seats that Republicans hope to keep in their column.
Adding to the potential hurdles is that some 2024 contests are in states that have become increasingly hostile to Democrats, including Montana, Ohio and West Virginia. Other Democratic-held seats are in some of the same hotly contested states that were at the center of this year’s midterms, such as Pennsylvania, Arizona and Nevada. And while Democrats carried each of those races, they did so at great cost and with sometimes narrow margins. In Nevada, for instance, Democratic incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto won by less than 1 percentage point, or about 9,000 votes.
For now, both parties insist they’re laser focused on coming out on top in the Dec. 6 Senate runoff in Georgia. But Democrats who are on the ballot in 2024 know that they could face fierce headwinds and are studying the results of this year’s election, when the party outperformed expectations.
For Nevada Sen. Jacky Rosen, a Democrat facing her first reelection campaign, that means staying focused on kitchen table issues and touting legislation like the infrastructure law and gun violence legislation signed by President Joe Biden.
“We know that races are always close,” Rosen said in an interview. “We never take anything for granted.”
The dynamics of the next Senate campaign could be influenced by a variety of outside factors, particularly the presidential election and the attention it generates. Biden, who turned 80 this month, has said his “intention” is to run for reelection and that he will make a final decision early next year. Former President Donald Trump has already announced a third White House bid, and multiple other Republicans are lining up to launch campaigns. The eventual nominee in each party could have a profound impact on down-ballot races, including those for Senate.
But perhaps the biggest question for Senate Democrats seeking reelection will be who Republicans nominate as their opponents. The GOP lost several Senate elections this year, including those in Arizona, Pennsylvania and Nevada, after Trump-backed candidates struggled to raise money and connect with a broader, more moderate range of voters during the general election.
In Nevada, the Republican field to challenge Rosen has not begun to shape up but is expected to attract several contenders. One name receiving attention is Sam Brown, a former U.S. Army captain who was awarded a Purple Heart after being severely wounded in Afghanistan. Brown ran for Senate this year and put up a strong challenge in the Republican primary before losing to Adam Laxalt, who lost in the general election to Cortez Masto.
Richard Hernandez, who was Brown’s campaign adviser, said, “He has committed to his supporters that he will never stop fighting for their issues, but he has not made any decisions as to whether that involves a future run for office.”
Also in the southwest, Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, a centrist Democrat, will be up for reelection. The race, like other recent statewide contests in Arizona, is expected to be very competitive. But Sinema is likely to first face a well-funded primary challenger after angering much of the Democratic base by blocking or watering down progressive priorities like a minimum wage increase or Biden’s big social spending initiatives. She has not said whether she plans to run for reelection.
Sinema’s most prominent potential primary challenger is U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego, who has a long history of feuding with Sinema. Gallego has not announced his plans for 2024 but has made it no secret that he’s thinking about challenging Sinema. He even raised money on the prospect he might oppose Sinema.
An independent expenditure group is also raising money, saying it will support grassroots organizations committed to defeating Sinema in a Democratic primary.
Republicans hope a bruising Democratic primary might give them an opening to win the seat after losing Senate races in Arizona in three consecutive elections.
Sinema is among a trio of moderate Senate Democrats who have sometimes used their leverage in an evenly divided chamber to block or blunt some of Biden’s plans and nominees. They will also be among the party’s most vulnerable incumbents in 2024.
The other two senators, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana, will be running as Democrats in states that Trump handily carried in 2020.
Manchin has already drawn a GOP challenger in U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney, who declared a week after winning reelection that he was setting his sights on higher office. Manchin has not yet said whether he’ll run for reelection.
Republicans see Tester, a three-term senator, as vulnerable, and the opportunity to run for the seat could draw a fierce primary contest between former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Rep. Matt Rosendale. Zinke, who won a House seat in this year’s midterm elections, said he will decide whether to run next year, and Rosendale declined to answer.
Tester has not announced if he will seek another term but has said he anticipates 2024 will be just as tough as his last race in 2018, when he beat Rosendale in a close contest.
In Pennsylvania, Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey has not said whether he intends to run for a fourth term. Casey easily won reelection in 2018, but Pennsylvania has been competitive for Republicans, including in this year’s Senate race won by Democrat John Fetterman.
One potential Republican challenger whose name has been floated in Pennsylvania is former hedge fund CEO David McCormick, who narrowly lost the Republican primary in this year’s race to celebrity heart surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz. McCormick advisers declined to comment on that prospect. Conservative activist Kathy Barnette, who finished a close third in the Republican primary, didn’t respond to messages about whether she’s considering a 2024 campaign.
Wisconsin, which saw Republican Sen. Ron Johnson narrowly win reelection this year, is also expected to have another competitive Senate race in two years.
Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin is widely expected to seek a third term but has not officially announced. There are no official Republican candidates, but U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher has been talked about as a possibility.
Gallagher brushed off a query about whether he was considering challenging Baldwin, saying in a statement that he was focused on tackling issues like inflation and the border over the next two years after having just won reelection.
“Any talk of the next election, especially since we just had an election, distracts from the serious work we need to do,” he said.
A number of high-profile Republican senators will also be up for reelection in 2024, including Ted Cruz of Texas, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Rick Scott of Florida.
On the Democratic side, a number of the party’s former presidential candidates will face voters. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand have all said they plan to seek another term.
Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, who caucuses with Democrats and is one of the most influential progressives in Congress, has not said if he intends to run for reelection.
In Utah, former presidential candidate Mitt Romney will face his first Senate reelection bid — if he chooses to run. Romney remains popular with many residents in Utah but has faced backlash from his own party for being the only Republican who voted twice to remove Trump from office after his two impeachments by the House.
When asked if Romney planned to run for reelection, his spokesperson Arielle Mueller did not offer any detail on his plans, saying instead that the senator was focused on tackling “significant challenges facing the country.”
Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, a Republican who has been a Trump ally, is one of the GOP figures who has been seen as a potential 2024 Senate candidate in the state. Reyes’ longtime political consultant Alan Crooks wouldn’t say whether the attorney general will launch a campaign but argued he was getting pressure from within Utah and outside the state to have him run.
“He’s certainly set up to run, but it does not mean he’s considering it,” Crooks said.
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Associated Press writers Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin; Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix; Sam Metz in Salt Lake City; and Kevin Freking in Washington contributed to this report.
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2022 midterm elections at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-democrats-kept-the-senate-this-year-but-2024-may-be-harder/ | 2022-11-28T19:56:06 | en | 0.973018 |
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A 31-year-old Nigerian man who was seriously injured during a gunfight last year with Danish troops on an anti-piracy mission off West Africa was Monday found guilty of endangering others by a Danish court.
However, the court ruled that the man, had his leg amputated, should be not be jailed because his role during the confrontation at sea was unclear.
On Nov. 25, 2021, the Danish frigate HDMS Esbern Snare was involved in a gun battle with nine suspected pirates whose boat sank. Four of the suspected pirates were killed and one presumably drowned. Four were captured.
A Danish Navy Seahawk helicopter took off from the frigate in response to information that a vessel with pirates was approaching several commercial ships in the Gulf of Guinea, off oil-rich Nigeria.
It reported seeing men with “equipment connected to piracy, including ladders” on the pirates’ vessel. No Danish soldiers, who said they were acting in self-defense, were injured.
After the gunfire exchange, those still alive and the corpses were taken onboard Esbern Snare. Because the ship is Danish territory, a Copenhagen court ordered the four held in custody on the frigate, while authorities investigated the case.
Three were later released because the government in Copenhagen decided not to bring them to the Scandinavian country to face charges. They were placed on a dinghy off West Africa in international waters with enough food, fuel and water to reach land.
The Danes took care of the injured man who was first admitted to a Ghana hospital in December and his leg was amputated. For health and safety reasons it was impossible to leave him there or in the area, so he was transported on Jan. 6 to Denmark where he was charged with endangering others lives for the sake of profit.
On Monday, the Copenhagen District Court rejected his explanation that he didn’t know he was taking part in an act of piracy. However, the court said that there were too many mitigating circumstances in relation to his role that it could not follow the prosecution’s request for prison sentence of up to 15 months.
The prosecution immediately appealed the ruling.
The Gulf of Guinea is one of the world’s most dangerous waterways with regular kidnappings. In 2019, the region accounted for more than 90 percent of global crew member abductions. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-denmark-nigerian-pirate-found-guilty-but-not-imprisoned/ | 2022-11-28T19:56:07 | en | 0.990547 |
Leading new development firm partners with the preeminent art show for its ninth year, celebrating the confluence of fine art, digital art and residential real estate
NEW YORK, Nov. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Douglas Elliman Development Marketing, a division of Douglas Elliman Realty, returns to Art Basel Miami Beach for its ninth year of partnership with the preeminent art show, celebrating the convergence of fine art, digital art, design and real estate.
"It is our privilege to return to Art Basel Miami Beach to showcase our nationwide portfolio of luxury developments," said Susan de França, President and CEO of Douglas Elliman Development Marketing. "Designed by such renowned architects and designers as Jean Nouvel, Rafael Viñoly, and Tara Bernerd many of the developments in our global portfolio are themselves works of art, offering the perfect homes for our discerning clientele and their coveted art collections."
For the 2022 fair, Douglas Elliman's lounge is furnished by B&B Italia, an internationally renowned Italian Group leader in the high-end designer furniture sector since 1966. Presenting projects in New York, Florida, California, Texas and Paris, the gallery will unveil "A Window into the World of New," featuring an arch-window-shaped LED portal displaying dynamic video art curated by the visionary Dan Mikesell of Blackdove, a digital art platform featuring a vast, growing collection of cutting-edge works by the world's most innovative artists.
As Show Partner, the firm has curated a selection of the world's finest new developments to be spotlighted in the Collectors Lounge, an area exclusively reserved for Art Basel Miami Beach's VIP guests. Douglas Elliman will once again leverage its international partnership with Knight Frank Residential, including the firms' combined $87-billion global portfolio of the most prestigious residential new developments and their shared commitment to providing their clients with unparalleled expertise in the global luxury real estate market.
During Art Basel Miami Beach 2022, Douglas Elliman will also debut its ninth annual Art Issue of Elliman Magazine, the firm's luxury lifestyle and real estate publication. With a selection of properties showcasing the "A Window into the World of New" theme featured on the cover, the magazine is filled with stories of creative inspiration at the intersection of real estate and art.
"We understand that like art, real estate can reinforce our unique sense of identity and make our day-to-day environment exceptional," said Scott Durkin, CEO of Douglas Elliman Realty. "Elliman Magazine has become a must-read among our agents and our clients, and this issue, alongside Art Basel, is the perfect showcase for our stunning properties in each of our regions, interesting market analyses and great lifestyle content."
Art Basel Miami Beach takes place December 1 to December 3 at the Miami Beach Convention Center located at 1901 Convention Center Drive in Miami Beach, Florida. Featuring 282 exhibitors from 38 countries and territories, this year's show will mark the fair's 20th anniversary and will be the largest to date. In addition to its Galleries, Positions, Nova, Survey, and Edition sectors, the fair will host 20 large-scale projects as part of the Meridians sector, 29 curated installations within exhibitors' booths in the Kabinett sector, as well as nine panels with leading art world voices in its renowned Conversations series.
Lounge include:
Mandarin Oriental Residences, Fifth Avenue
Midtown Manhattan, New York City
Mandarin Oriental Residences, Fifth Avenue is a boutique offering of turnkey fully furnished residences with legendary services and amenities from The Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group with private dining by Michelin-starred Chef Daniel Boulud. Located on Manhattan's most iconic stretch, the 29-story historic conversion—once the headquarters of fashion house Gucci—is surrounded by renowned luxury retail, fine dining, and cultural landmarks, with Central Park a short stroll away. Mandarin Oriental Residences, Fifth Avenue offers the unparalleled—five-star hotel services, with none of the guests; and the comfort of home, with none of the upkeep.
The Residences 6 Fisher Island Drive
Fisher Island, Miami, Florida
Situated on an expansive 6.5-acre waterfront site – the very last of its kind on Fisher Island – Six Fisher will be one of the most exclusive, refined, and coveted developments in Miami's history. The sweeping, estate-style homes will range from three to eight bedrooms and 3,800 to nearly 16,000 sq. ft., each oriented for maximum privacy and unparalleled views of Miami Beach, the Atlantic Ocean, and Biscayne Bay. More than 55,000 sq. ft. of five-star, resident-only amenities and a broad spectrum of estate-level services will usher in a new era of effortless living.
Five Park
Miami Beach, Florida
A creation from the world's most visionary design minds, the newest residential tower has arrived on Miami Beach with unprecedented ocean and bay views. Exceptional amenities across 51,000 square feet within house wellness and private beach club. This is beach living completely redefined.
The Towers of the Waldorf Astoria
303 Park Avenue, New York City
The world-renowned Waldorf Astoria New York introduces a contemporary collection of studio to penthouse residences atop the hotel defined by unsurpassed amenities and legendary service. Inspired by the hotel's classic grandeur and rich history, homes at The Towers balance modern comfort with Art Deco opulence, complemented by over 50,000 square feet of private residential amenities. This one-of-a-kind luxury living experience includes private residential access to an abundance of recreation, relaxation and wellness spaces – including a private porte cochere entry – paired with the impeccable services of the world's most iconic hotel.
OLARA
West Palm Beach, Florida
Olara, a waterfront residential oasis nestled along the coveted Flagler Drive, boasts expansive views of the Intracoastal Waterway, Palm Beach Island and the Atlantic Ocean. Offering superbly crafted two- to four-bedroom residences and exceptional private amenities sprawling across 80,000 square feet, including a signature restaurant, a gourmet market, multiple pools, a world class spa and gym, co-working facilities, Olara is the newest and most exclusive development in the Palm Beaches, distinguished by a private marina with direct Intracoastal access and proximity to world-class shopping and dining.
Scene des Loges
Paris, 15th Arrondissement
Paris has forever been the home of creativity. It is the home of cars, fashion and ground breaking architecture. The Scene des Loges development sits on the bank of the Seine river boasting glorious views across the water to the beautiful Haussmann buildings on the right bank of the 16tharrondissement and east over the roofs tops to the Eiffel Tower. The residence will be the reinvention of the iconic Renault garage into 41 homes moments away from the key addresses of the 7tharrondissement. Paris is a Unesco World Heritage Site and the city will not change as such off plan opportunities are something of a rarity. Delivery forecast for Q3 2025 (STC).
Douglas Elliman Development Marketing, a division of Douglas Elliman Realty, offers unmatched expertise in sales, leasing, and marketing for new developments throughout New York City, Long Island, Westchester, New Jersey, Florida, California, Massachusetts, and Texas. The company's new development hybrid platform matches highly experienced new development experts with skilled brokerage professionals who provide unparalleled expertise and real time market intelligence to its clients. The firm is heralded for its achievements in record breaking sales throughout each of its regions. Drawing upon decades of experience and market-specific knowledge, Douglas Elliman Development Marketing offers a multidisciplinary approach that includes comprehensive in-house research, planning and design, marketing, and sales. Through a strategic global alliance with Knight Frank Residential, the world's largest privately-owned property consultancy, the company markets properties to audiences in 51 countries, representing an over $87 billion global new development portfolio. https://www.elliman.com/marketing
Douglas Elliman Inc. (NYSE: DOUG, "Douglas Elliman") owns Douglas Elliman Realty, LLC, which is one of the largest residential brokerage companies in the United States with operations in New York, Florida, California, Texas, Colorado, Nevada, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. In addition, Douglas Elliman sources, uses and invests in early-stage, disruptive property technology ("PropTech") solutions and companies and provides other real estate services, including development marketing, property management and settlement and escrow services in select markets. Additional information concerning Douglas Elliman Realty is available on its website, www.elliman.com.
Investors and others should note that we may post information about Douglas Elliman Inc. on our website at investors.elliman.com or, if applicable, on our accounts on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube or other social media platforms. It is possible that the postings or releases could include information deemed to be material information. Therefore, we encourage investors, the media and others interested in Douglas Elliman to review the information we post on our website at investors.elliman.com and on our social media accounts.
Founded in 1970 by gallerists from Basel, Art Basel today stages the world's premier art shows for Modern and contemporary art, sited in Basel, Miami Beach, and Hong Kong. Defined by its host city and region, each show is unique, which is reflected in its participating galleries, artworks presented, and the content of parallel programming produced in collaboration with local institutions for each edition. Art Basel's engagement has expanded beyond art fairs through new digital platforms and a number of new initiatives such as the Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report, Intersections: The Art Basel Podcast and the BMW Art Journey. Art Basel's Global Media Partner is The Financial Times. For further information, please visit www.artbasel.com.
B&B Italia is an internationally renowned Italian Group leader in the high-end designerfurniture sector. The B&B Italia Group works in the residential and contract sector (hospitality, retail, offices and nautical) with its four brands, B&B Italia, Maxalto, Arclinea and Azucena. Each brand has its unique identity in which design, research, creativity, and technology develop together, interpreting contemporary lifestyle and trends.
Its headquarters in Novedrate (Como) was designed in 1971 by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers. The company has a total of 600 employees and a presence in more than 80 countries through 70 single-brand stores and 900 specialised stores. Nowadays, foreignmarkets account for around 80% of the Company's revenues.
The mission of B&B Italia Group is to create the most innovative, iconic, and timeless pieces of design furniture in order to inspire people around the globe through the powerof the best creative minds, unparalleled R&D, industrial know-how and made in Italy quality that make the Group one of the world's premier design companies.
Discover more www.bebitalia.com
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BRUSSELS (AP) — The head of the European Central Bank said Monday she does not believe inflation has peaked after reaching the highest levels on record.
ECB President Christine Lagarde also told European lawmakers that the bank isn’t through raising interest rates to combat those price spikes.
There is too much uncertainty to know whether inflation, which hit 10.6% in October, would come down soon in the 19 countries that use the euro currency, Lagarde said.
When looking at what is driving inflation, “whether it is food and commodities at large, or whether it is energy, we do not see the components or the direction that would lead me to believe that we have reached peak inflation and that it is going to decline in short order,” she said.
That means the central bank will “continue to tame inflation with all the tools that we have,” primarily interest rate hikes, Lagarde told the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs.
Following the bank’s third major rate hike in October, marking its fastest pace of increases ever, the ECB expects “to raise rates further to the levels needed to ensure that inflation returns to our 2% medium-term target in a timely manner,” she said.
The ECB has joined the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks around the world in rapidly raising rates to combat inflation that spiked as the global economy recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, then got worse after Russia invaded Ukraine. Central banks risk tipping economies into recession as the world copes with an energy crisis, higher food costs and currencies weakening against the U.S. dollar.
The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development predicted the international economy would expand only 2.2% next year. Most economists expect a recession in places like Europe, the U.S. and the United Kingdom next year, with ECB Vice President Luis de Guindos saying this month that risk “has become more likely” in the eurozone.
Russia’s war hit Europe particularly hard, “given our proximity to the conflict and our dependence on energy imports” from Russia, Lagarde said Monday.
After Russia cut back most natural gas to Europe, sending energy prices soaring, governments have provided aid to help households and businesses with their bills.
Lagarde warned officials not to worsen inflation by ensuring support is “targeted, tailored and temporary” to those most at need and avoids weakening the push to cut energy use. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-europes-inflation-likely-hasnt-peaked-ecbs-lagarde-says/ | 2022-11-28T19:56:13 | en | 0.956084 |
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Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation introduces a new safety initiative to better ensure a safe work environment for women.
MADISON, Wis., Nov. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation has introduced a new workplace safety initiative to encourage women to stay alert and be safe. As one of the kickoff components, new female Fairway employees now receive a safety kit in their onboarding packet that includes pepper spray, a personal alarm siren and a handout with workplace safety tips.
Leading the charge for this program is Fairway Branch Manager, Brittney Hansen. "Protecting women has been a passion I have had most of my life," says Hansen. "Heading this safety initiative for Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation has helped to ignite that passion even further, and I am beyond proud to help roll out this one-of-a-kind safety initiative at such a large corporation."
The support and encouragement of Fairway's founder and CEO, Steve Jacobson, has also played an integral role in launching this initiative. "With some of the recent happenings in our country, it makes sense to be aggressive regarding our new safety initiative at Fairway," states Jacobson. "Our teammates and their families need us to continue to create systems of safety, especially as teammates head back to their respective offices."
In addition to providing safety kits during the new employee onboarding process, the program plans to expand and provide more robust offerings, such as monthly self-defense courses, internal employee resources and office facility safety reviews.
Fairway Independent Mortgage Corporation (NMLS #2289) is a full-service mortgage lender based in Madison, Wisconsin, and Carrollton, Texas, with more than 7,900 team members and 700 branches nationwide. Fairway funded $72.5 billion in 2021. For more information, go to fairwayindependentmc.com.
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PARIS (AP) — A court in the Indian Ocean island of Comoros sentenced former President Ahmed Abdallah Sambi on Monday to life in prison for illegally selling the country’s passports, according to local media reports.
The Court for State Security in the capital Moroni also ordered the confiscation of Sambi’s assets. It handed down sentences of up to 20 years in prison for other officials convicted in the scheme.
According to video of the verdict on local news website Habariza Comores, the presiding judge said Sambi “abused his presidential prerogatives to allow the installation of a mafia-like system for the illegal sale of Comoros passports.”
Sambi was president of the archipelago of less than 1 million people from 2006-2011.
Local media said the passports were sold to stateless people in Gulf countries.
According to Radio France Internationale, prosecutors accused Sambi of embezzling 1.8 billion euros ($1.87 billion) as part of the scheme — more than the country’s annual GDP.
RFI quoted defense lawyer Mahamadou Ahamada as saying there was no proof of embezzlement, saying the trial was politically driven.
Sambi is a political rival of President Azali Assoumani.
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Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-ex-president-of-comoros-convicted-of-selling-passports/ | 2022-11-28T19:56:19 | en | 0.956961 |
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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Nov. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- "Giving Tuesday," celebrated this year on Tuesday, Nov. 29, is seen as the start of the year-end charitable and holiday giving season. To help South Floridians focus on year-end and holiday charitable giving opportunities, Community Foundation of Broward President/CEO Jennifer O'Flannery Anderson, Ph.D., today released her "10 Tips for Year-end Giving."
"Now is the time to plan and maximize the value of your year-end charitable giving," said Jennifer O'Flannery Anderson."Our heartfelt thanks go out to the tens of thousands of Broward residents who invest in our community's future by making charitable contributions, especially the visionary philanthropists who have created a legacy of BOLD impact with their personalized charitable funds at the Community Foundation."
The new "10 Tips for Year-end Giving" include:
1.) Develop a strategy and plan for your year-end charitable giving. Review your personal objectives for giving as part of creating a plan. Spell out your mission and follow it in developing your giving plan.
2.) Consider gift "bundling." You can bundle several years' worth of support for your favorite causes or organizations through a single, year-end gift to a donor-advised fund. Gift bundling enables you to lock in support to achieve your long-term charitable goals, while realizing the full tax benefit during the 2022 year.
3.) Donate appreciated stock. Donating appreciated stock multiplies your giving power by removing your tax liability from the stock sale and realizing tax benefits from the donation. The stock transfer must take place before the end of the year and it may not be possible to complete in one day.
4.) Give with your IRA distribution. Using your Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) from your IRA is an easy way to donate. A QCD is an above-the-line tax deduction that can satisfy your required minimum distribution.
5.) Name a charitable organization as a beneficiary in your will. If now isn't the best time to dip into your assets and make a donation, naming a charitable organization such as Community Foundation of Broward as one of your beneficiaries is a good way to ensure that your future gift will help others.
6.) Document the value of your gifts. For donations of non-cash items worth more than $5,000, an appraisal may be required to determine fair market value.
7.) Be mindful of limits on charitable contributions. According to the Internal Revenue Service, generally you may deduct up to 50 percent of your adjusted gross income, but 20 percent and 30 percent limitations apply in some cases.
8.) Focus on the December 31 year-end deadline.Charitable contributions must be made by December 31, however, credit card charges processed before the end of the year are deductible in that year, regardless of when you pay off the charges. Also, checks written and mailed before the end of the year are deductible in 2022, even if the checks are cashed next year.
9.) Contact your professional advisors to help clarify your best giving strategy. It is always important to consult your financial advisor and your accountant to fully understand ramifications of year-end giving.
10.) Consult with philanthropy experts at Community Foundation of Broward. They can provide guidance about making the most of your charitable giving. Visit www.cfbroward.org to learn how best to amplify your impact.
For more information about Community Foundation of of Broward, please email Kirk Englehardt, Vice President of Marketing and Communications at the Community Foundation (kenglehardt@cfbroward.org) or call 954-761-9503.
Founded in 1984, Community Foundation of Broward (CFB) helps families, individuals, and corporations create personalized charitable Funds that deliver game-changing philanthropic impact. 473 charitable Funds represent more than $212 million in assets, distributing $119 million in grants over the past 35 years. CFB provides bold leadership on community solutions and fosters philanthropy that connects people who care with causes that matter – which empowers visionaries, innovators and doers to create the change they want to see in the community – and BE BOLD. www.cfbroward.org.
Media Contact:
Kirk Englehardt
Vice President of Marketing and Communications
Community Foundation of Broward
kenglehardt@cfbroward.org
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OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — The former warden of an abuse-plagued federal women’s prison known as the “rape club” went on trial Monday, accused of molesting inmates and forcing them to pose naked in their cells.
Ray J. Garcia, who retired after the FBI found nude photos of inmates on his government-issued phone last year, is among five workers charged with abusing inmates at the federal correctional institution in Dublin, California, and the first to go to trial.
Opening statements kicked off Monday in federal court in Oakland, with prosecutors spelling out evidence they said would show Garcia’s abuse of several inmates followed a pattern, starting with compliments, flattery and promises of transfers to lower security prisons and escalated to sexual encounters. Garcia, 55, has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he would face up to 15 years in prison.
An Associated Press investigation in February revealed a culture of abuse and cover-up that had persisted for years at the prison, about 21 miles (34 kilometers) east of Oakland. That reporting led to increased scrutiny from Congress and pledges from the federal Bureau of Prisons that it would fix problems and change the culture at the prison.
Garcia is charged with abusing three inmates between December 2019 and July 2021, but jurors could hear from as many as six women who say he groped them and told them to pose naked or in provocative clothing. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said prosecutors can call three additional accusers as witnesses, even though their allegations are not part of his indictment.
One of the women testified Monday that she started developing romantic feelings for Garcia and that their first sexual encounter was in the bathroom of the visitor’s area of the prison. The woman, whose prison job was to clean the visitation room, said Garcia told her he knew of several parts of the visitation area that wouldn’t be captured by surveillance cameras.
“I felt like he cared about me and he loved me,” the woman said, her voice breaking.
“He just said the sweetest, nicest things, it took me by surprise but I wanted to make him happy,” she said of their first sexual encounter in the bathroom. She said he later took nude photographs of her.
Garcia’s lawyer argues, though, that there was no surveillance video capturing the alleged sexual misconduct. Union officials have long complained the prison has an inadequate number of cameras.
“The evidence is not going to show one single video of any of these supposed events,” Garcia’s defense lawyer, James Reilly, said. In court papers, the defense argued that Garcia took pictures of one inmate because he wanted documentation that she was breaching policy by standing around naked.
The case, with shades of #MeToo behind bars, is also likely to put a spotlight on the Bureau of Prisons, calling into question its handling of sexual abuse complaints from inmates against staff and the vetting process for the people it chooses to run its prisons.
The AP generally does not name people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they consent to being identified. All sexual activity between a prison worker and an inmate is illegal. Correctional employees enjoy substantial power over inmates, controlling every aspect of their lives from mealtime to lights out, and there is no scenario in which an inmate can give consent.
Garcia was promoted from associate warden to warden in November 2020 while he was still abusing inmates, prosecutors say. The Bureau of Prisons has said it didn’t find out about the abuse until later. Garcia is the highest-ranking federal prison official arrested in more than 10 years.
The agency’s new director, Colette Peters, has reiterated the agency’s zero-tolerance policy for staff sexual misconduct and has called for harsher punishment for workers who commit abuse. But as abuse raged at Dublin, the process for reporting it was inherently broken.
Garcia was in charge of staff and inmate training on reporting abuse and complying with the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act at the same time he was committing abuse, prosecutors say, and some inmates say they were sent to solitary confinement or other prisons for accusing employees of abuse.
Prosecutors say Garcia tried to keep his victims quiet with promises that he’d help them get early release. He allegedly told one victim he was “close friends” with the prison official responsible for investigating staff misconduct and couldn’t be fired. According to an indictment, he also said he liked to cavort with inmates because, given their lack of power, they couldn’t “ruin him.”
Garcia is also accused of ordering inmates to strip naked for him as he made his rounds and of lying to federal agents who asked him if he had ever asked inmates to undress for him or had inappropriately touched a female inmate.
“If they’re undressing, I’ve already looked,” Garcia told the FBI in July 2021, according to court records. “I don’t, like, schedule a time like, ‘You be undressed, and I’ll be there.’”
Garcia was placed on administrative leave before retiring. He was arrested in September 2021.
Earlier this month, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco directed federal prosecutors across the U.S. to “consider the full array of statutes,” including the federal Violence Against Women Act in cases involving Bureau of Prisons employees who are accused of sexual misconduct.
In those cases, Monaco said prosecutors should consider asking judges for sentences that go beyond the federal guidelines if the sentence recommended in the guidelines isn’t “fair and proportional to the seriousness of the offenses.”
Of the four other Dublin workers charged with abusing inmates, three have pleaded guilty and one is scheduled to stand trial next year. James Theodore Highhouse, the prison’s chaplain, is appealing his seven-year prison sentence, arguing that it was excessive because it was more than double the recommended punishment in federal sentencing guidelines.
___
Sisak and Balsamo reported from New York. On Twitter, follow Michael Sisak at http://twitter.com/mikesisak and Michael Balsamo at http://twitter.com/MikeBalsamo1 and send confidential tips by visiting https://www.ap.org/tips/. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-ex-prison-warden-faces-trial-over-inmate-abuse-allegations/ | 2022-11-28T19:56:26 | en | 0.979915 |
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PITTSBURGH, Nov. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- "I'm a golf caddie and I thought there could be an easier way to whisk sand, dirt, leaves, small twigs, and other debris from a golf course green," said an inventor, from Marina, Calif., "so I invented the CADDIE SWEEPER. My design prevents debris from adversely affecting the trajectory of a ball."
The invention provides an effective way to remove debris from a golf course green. In doing so, it eliminates the need to bend and strain and it eliminates the hassle of sweeping debris with a towel. As a result, it saves time and effort. The invention features a compact and portable design that is easy to use so it is ideal for golfers. Additionally, it is producible in design variations and a prototype model is available upon request.
The original design was submitted to the San Francisco sales office of InventHelp. It is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, write Dept. 21-SNF-191, InventHelp, 217 Ninth Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, or call (412) 288-1300 ext. 1368. Learn more about InventHelp's Invention Submission Services at http://www.InventHelp.com.
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — In an filthy alley behind a Los Angeles donut shop, Ryan Smith convulsed in the grips of a fentanyl high — lurching from moments of slumber to bouts of violent shivering on a warm summer day.
When Brandice Josey, another homeless addict, bent down and blew a puff of fentanyl smoke his way in an act of charity, Smith sat up and slowly opened his lip to inhale the vapor as if it was the cure to his problems.
Smith, wearing a grimy yellow T-shirt that said “Good Vibes Only,” reclined on his backpack and dozed the rest of the afternoon on the asphalt, unperturbed by the stench of rotting food and human waste that permeated the air.
For too many people strung out on the drug, the sleep that follows a fentanyl hit is permanent. The highly addictive and potentially lethal drug has become a scourge across America and is taking a toll on the growing number of people living on the streets of Los Angeles.
Nearly 2,000 homeless people died in the city from April 2020 to March 2021, a 56% increase from the previous year, according to a report released by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Overdose was the leading cause of death, killing more than 700.
Use of fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that is cheap to produce and is often sold as is or laced in other drugs, has exploded. Because it’s 50 times more potent than heroin, even a small dose can be fatal.
It has quickly become the deadliest drug in the nation, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Two-thirds of the 107,000 overdose deaths in 2021 were attributed to synthetic opioids like fentanyl, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
The drug’s toll spreads far beyond the streets.
Jennifer Catano, 27, has the names of two children tattooed on her wrists, but she hasn’t seen them for several years. They live with her mother.
“My mom doesn’t think it’s a good idea because she thinks it’s gonna hurt the kids because I’m not ready to get rehabilitated,” Catano said.
She has overdosed three times and been through rehab seven or eight times.
“It’s scary to get off of it,” she said. “The withdrawals are really bad.”
Catano wandered around a subway station near MacArthur Park desperate to sell a bottle of Downey fabric softener and a Coleman camping chair she stole from a nearby store.
Drug abuse can be a cause or symptom of homelessness. Both can also intersect with mental illness.
A 2019 report by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority found about a quarter of all homeless adults in Los Angeles County had mental illnesses and 14% had a substance use disorder. That analysis only counted people who had a permanent or long-term severe condition. Taking a broader interpretation of the same data, the Los Angeles Times found about 51% had mental illnesses and 46% had substance use disorders.
Billions of dollars are being spent to alleviate homelessness in California but treatment is not always funded.
A controversial bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom could improve that by forcing people suffering from severe mental illness into treatment. But they need to be diagnosed with a certain disorder such as schizophrenia and addiction alone doesn’t qualify.
Help is available but it is outpaced by the magnitude of misery on the streets.
Rita Richardson, a field supervisor with LA Door, a city addiction-prevention program that works with people convicted of misdemeanors, hands out socks, water, condoms, snacks, clean needles and flyers at the same hotspots Monday through Friday. She hopes the consistency of her visits will encourage people to get help.
“Then hopefully the light bulb comes on. It might not happen this year. It might not happen next year. It might take several years,” said Richardson, a former homeless addict. ”My goal is to take them from the dark to the light.”
Parts of Los Angeles have become scenes of desperation with men and women sprawled on sidewalks, curled up on benches and collapsed in squalid alleys. Some huddle up smoking the drug, others inject it.
Armando Rivera, 33, blew out white puffs to attract addicts in the alley where Smith was sleeping. He needed to sell some dope to buy more. Those without enough money to support their habit, hovered around him, hoping for a free hit. Rivera showed no mercy.
Catano couldn’t sell the chair, but eventually she sold the fabric softener to a street vendor for $5.
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PITTSBURGH, Nov. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- "I thought there could be an improved portable workstation to prevent poor posture when using a laptop," said an inventor, from Vacaville, Calif., "so I invented the LAPTOP EAZY. My ergonomic design would help to reduce neck and shoulder strain and it would also ensure that electronic devices remain fully charged while working on-the-go."
The invention provides a portable and ergonomic workstation for supporting a laptop computer or other mobile electronic devices. In doing so, it increases comfort and convenience. It also eliminates the need to slouch and strain. The invention features an adjustable design that is easy to use and transport so it is ideal for on-the-go individuals. Additionally, it is producible in design variations.
The original design was submitted to the Sacramento sales office of InventHelp. It is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, write Dept. 21-SOG-590, InventHelp, 217 Ninth Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, or call (412) 288-1300 ext. 1368. Learn more about InventHelp's Invention Submission Services at http://www.InventHelp.com.
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NEW YORK (AP) — Fidelity Charitable is getting into NFTs, the digital images that are registered on the blockchain, despite a torrent of bad news from the adjacent world of cryptocurrencies.
The nation’s largest grantmaker is sponsoring a raffle that ends Tuesday, where participants can claim one of the NFTs, which stands for nonfungible token, and 50 will win $1,000 to donate through a donor advised fund at Fidelity.
“The reason we’re doing this is we really believe there’s a whole new generation of givers and philanthropists out there,” said Amy Pirozzolo, head of donor engagement for Fidelity Charitable. “We want to be where they are and the channels they use and the formats they use and further encourage their generosity.”
Around 16% of Americans say they invested in cryptocurrencies, according to a poll from Pew Research Center last year. The demographic most likely to invest were men between the ages of 18 and 29, with 43% reporting that they had invested.
The blockchain is the technology that underlies the trading of cryptocurrencies, but it can also record the ownership of digital items like images, videos or Tweets. Fidelity said that 50,000 different wallets, potentially representing that many individuals, have already registered to create an NFT and potentially win the money to donate.
Contributions in cryptocurrency to donor advised funds at Fidelity exploded last year, growing from the equivalent of $28 million in 2020 to $331 million in 2021, Fidelity has said.
Speaking of the NFT project, Jacob Pruitt, president of Fidelity Charitable, said, “I think it’ll be a unique way to engage with next gen investors. It’s another way that I think Fidelity is innovating and leaning into a new space.”
Donor advised funds allow donors to claim a tax credit for charitable donations, but do not require them to give those funds away within any specific timeframe. Organizations that host DAFs, like Fidelity Charitable, also handle more complex donations, which includes exchanging the assets for cash and producing receipts for donors for tax purposes.
“Many of the nonprofits either can’t take on these assets or they have to hire outside counsel or people to staff to do it,” Pirozzolo said.
One reason for the jump in cryptocurrency donations is that until recently, their value had appreciated significantly. The cryptocurrency market saw a huge boom in 2021 with the price of Bitcoin, the first cryptocurrency, rising to an all time high of around $68,000 in November last year.
But the meltdown of Terra — a stablecoin, or a type of cryptocurrency that tries to peg its value to an asset like the U.S. dollar — in May brought down a series of major cryptocurrency businesses. Then, earlier this month, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges, FTX and related entities, suddenly filed for bankruptcy leaving both American and international users unable to access assets they held on the exchange.
James Lawrence, co-founder and CEO of Engiven, which facilitates cryptocurrency to nonprofits, including Christian ministries, observed that many people giving cryptocurrencies are making major gifts and that often those happen in the last quarter of the year. That means it’s too early to say how the cryptocurrency market’s fluctuations may impact donations this year. He said he doesn’t see people donating cryptocurrencies as that different from other donors.
“They just have a different asset to give and they’re going to give the most appreciated asset they can,” Lawrence said.
Of the more than 1.5 million nonprofits registered with the Internal Revenue Service in the U.S., Lawrence estimated that only four or five thousand could receive cryptocurrency donations directly.
“That’s a huge market that still doesn’t,” he said. He also has observed that many giving large donations in cryptocurrency (they facilitated one donation of $10 million in cryptocurrency assets) are the same types of people who give large donations in general, and not necessarily the younger demographics that are more likely to invest in cryptocurrency.
“Many of the largest gifts we’ve processed have been from an older demographic who have a tradition of giving large gifts in multiple asset classes,” he said.
Pirozzolo argued that the Fidelity Charitable promotion using NFTs is separate from the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
“This is really about the blockchain and having a fun way to celebrate with digital art the generosity of giving,” she said.
The company is paying for the cost of creating the NFTs, which includes a “gas” fee that pays for the creation and registration of the item, and also said that it has compensated the artists who made the images.
People who claim the NFTs will need to sign up for a cryptocurrency wallet that has access to the Polygon blockchain. The Fidelity Charitable NFTs will be hosted on the platform OpenSea.
Participants will see the NFT in their wallet when they sign up, but the art itself and the winners of the $1,000 tickets won’t be revealed until Giving Tuesday, Nov, 29.
___
Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits 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. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-fidelity-charitable-launches-nft-raffle-amid-crypto-downturn/ | 2022-11-28T19:56:39 | en | 0.962686 |
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PITTSBURGH, Nov. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- "I thought there could be a quick and easy mold for building the perfect snowman," said an inventor, from Richmond, Va., "so I invented the PERFECT SNOWMAN. My design ensures that a snowman has a uniform and attractive appearance, even when using loose powdery snow or heavy wet snow."
The invention provides an effective way to build a snowman. In doing so, it eliminates the need to roll and form large snowballs. As a result, it saves time and effort and it could provide added fun and entertainment. The invention features a simple design that is easy to use so it is ideal for children and adults. Additionally, a prototype model is available upon request.
The original design was submitted to the Richmond sales office of InventHelp. It is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, write Dept. 21-RKH-417, InventHelp, 217 Ninth Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, or call (412) 288-1300 ext. 1368. Learn more about InventHelp's Invention Submission Services at http://www.InventHelp.com.
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PARIS (AP) — French lawmakers on Monday condemned Iran’s crackdown on anti-government demonstrators and called on European governments to put more pressure on Iran to investigate the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died in police custody in Tehran.
Legislators in France’s National Assembly unanimously approved a nonbinding resolution supporting the protesters, by a vote of 149-0. Activists also planned a demonstration Monday outside the Assembly, the lower but most powerful house of parliament in France.
The resolution calls on European governments to step up pressure on Iran to uphold its international promises and to investigate what happened to Amini, who was arrested for violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code. Protests over her death have morphed into the most serious challenge to Iran’s establishment in decades.
The measure strongly condemns what French lawmakers call “the brutal and generalized repression by the security forces … toward non-violent demonstrators, which constitutes a blatant and unacceptable violation of the right to demonstrate and freedom of expression.”
Rights monitors say hundreds have been killed and more than 18,000 people detained since the anti-government protests started in September.
The French resolution also denounces laws and rules restricting the rights of women and minorities in Iran. It calls for the release of seven French citizens detained in Iran, too. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-french-lawmakers-vote-to-condemn-iranian-protest-crackdown/ | 2022-11-28T19:56:45 | en | 0.945077 |
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ATLANTA (AP) — In-person early voting for the last U.S. Senate seat is underway statewide in Georgia’s runoff, with Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock working to get the jump on Republican challenger Hershel Walker who is putting less emphasis on advance balloting.
After winning a state lawsuit to allow Saturday voting after Thanksgiving, Warnock spent the weekend urging his supporters not to wait until the Dec. 6 runoff. Trying to leverage his role as pastor of Martin Luther King Jr.’s church and Georgia’s first Black U.S. senator, Warnock concentrated his efforts Sunday among Black communities in metro Atlanta.
“What we are doing right now is soul work,” Warnock said at Liberty International Church southwest of downtown, where he rallied supporters before leading a march to a nearby early voting site where he cast his ballot. “We are engaged in a political exercise,” Warnock continued, “but this is moral and spiritual work, and for us that has always been based on the foundation of the church.”
Walker, in contrast, did not hold public events over the long Thanksgiving weekend, and he has not emphasized early voting in his runoff campaign appearances, even as the Republican Party and its aligned PACs attempt to drive voter turnout after Walker underperformed other Georgia Republicans in the general election. Walker finished the first round with about 200,000 fewer votes than Gov. Brian Kemp, who easily won a second term. Walker resumes his campaign Monday with stops in small-town Toccoa and suburban Cumming.
Early in-person voting continues through Friday. Runoff Election Day is Tuesday of next week.
Warnock led Walker by about 37,000 votes out of about 4 million cast in the general election but fell short of the majority required under Georgia law, triggering a four-week runoff blitz. Warnock first won the seat as part of concurrent Senate runoffs on Jan. 5, 2021, when he and Sen. Jon Ossoff prevailed over Republican incumbents to give Democrats narrow control of the Senate for the start of President Joe Biden’s tenure. Warnock won a special election and now is seeking a full six-year term.
This time, Senate control is not in play, with Democrats already having secured 50 seats to go with Vice President Kamala Harris’s tiebreaking vote. That puts pressure on both Warnock and Walker to convince Georgia voters that it’s worth their time to cast a second ballot, even if the national stakes aren’t as high.
As of late Sunday, almost 200,000 ballots had been cast in the relative handful of counties that opted to have weekend voting. That total was built on long lines in several heavily Democratic counties of metro Atlanta, enough to give Democrats confidence that their core supporters remain excited to vote for Warnock. But the total remains a small fraction of the nearly 2.3 million early in-person voters ahead of the Nov. 8 general election.
And Democrats remain cautious given that the early voting window is much shorter than two years ago, when the second round spanned two months between the general election and runoff. Voting on Saturday was allowed only because Warnock and Democrats sued amid a dispute with the Republican secretary of state over whether Saturday voting could occur on a holiday weekend.
The senator followed up with a parade of Black leaders for weekend rallies and a march reminiscent of voting rights demonstrations during the civil rights movement.
“We have one vote here that can change the world,” Andrew Young, a former Atlanta mayor and onetime aide to King, implored Black voters on Sunday. Rising from his wheelchair to speak, the 90-year-old former congressman and U.N. ambassador reminded the assembly of the congressional compromise that ended post-Civil War Reconstruction and paved the way for Jim Crow segregation across the South.
“One vote at the end of the Civil War pulled all of the Union troops out of the South and lost us the rights we had fought for in the war and that people had fought for us,” he said, starting “a struggle that we have been in ever since.”
Warnock was shifting to a suburban focus late Monday with an evening concert headlined by the Dave Matthews Band.
Walker, for his part, has drawn enthusiastic crowds in the early weeks of the runoff, as well, and his campaign aides remain confident that he has no problem among core Republicans. His challenge comes with the middle of the Georgia electorate, a gap highlighted by his shortfall compared to Kemp.
“I feel Herschel Walker benefited by having Brian Kemp in the original election on Nov. 8, and I think Kemp not being there will hurt the Republicans a little bit,” said Alpharetta resident Marcelo Salvatierra, who voted for Republican Kemp and Democrat Warnock and still supports the senator in the runoff.
Salvatierra said he backed Kemp’s re-election “because it seems to me Georgia has done well.” But Republicans at the federal level, he said, never offered a serious counter to Democratic control of Washington, while Walker also comes with considerable personal baggage.
“Character matters and I sense he doesn’t have character,” Salvatierra said.
Warnock has encouraged that sentiment among core Democrats, independents and moderate Republicans. For months, he’s said Walker, a former football star making his first bid for public office, was “not ready” for the Senate. In recent weeks, he’s ratcheted up the attack to say Walker is “not fit,” highlighting the challenger’s falsehoods about his accomplishments in the private sector, along with allegations of violence against women and accusations by two women that Walker encouraged and paid for their abortions. Walker, who backs a national ban on abortions without exceptions, denies that he ever paid for any abortions.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the elections at: https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections
Check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more about the issues and factors at play in the 2022 midterm elections | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-georgia-runoff-early-voting-for-warnock-walker-round-2/ | 2022-11-28T19:56:51 | en | 0.970631 |
PITTSBURGH, Nov. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- "I thought there could be a more convenient way to iron, steam and remove lint from clothing and textiles," said an inventor, from Concord, Calif., "so I invented the LINT BURNER 3000. My design would provide the ultimate linen care product for clothing and home textile products."
The patent-pending invention provides an effective way to remove wrinkles and lint from clothing and home textiles. In doing so, it increases convenience. As a result, it could save time and storage space and it could enhance the appearance of clothing and other textiles. The invention features a three-in-one design that is easy to use so it is ideal for households.
The original design was submitted to the San Francisco sales office of InventHelp. It is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, write Dept. 21-SFO-823, InventHelp, 217 Ninth Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, or call (412) 288-1300 ext. 1368. Learn more about InventHelp's Invention Submission Services at http://www.InventHelp.com.
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HONOLULU (AP) — The world’s largest active volcano spewed some ash and lava Monday and officials said that Mauna Loa wasn’t threatening communities on Hawaii’s Big Island but people should be prepared for worse.
The U.S. Geological Survey warned the island’s 200,000 residents that an eruption “can be very dynamic, and the location and advance of lava flows can change rapidly.”
The eruption began late Sunday night in the volcano on the Big Island following a series of fairly large earthquakes, said Ken Hon, the scientist-in-charge at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.
There’s been a surge of development on the Big Island in recent decades — its population has more than doubled to 200,000 from 92,000 in 1980 — and many newer residents weren’t around when Mauna Loa last erupted 38 years ago.
Most of the people on the island live in the city of Kailua-Kona to the west of the volcano, which has about 23,000 people, and Hilo to the east, with about 45,000. Officials were most worried about several subdivisions about 30 miles to the south of the volcano, which are home to about 5,000 people.
A time-lapse video of the eruption from overnight showed lava lighting up one area, moving across it like waves on the ocean.
The U.S. Geological Survey said that the eruption had migrated to a rift zone — a place where the mountain rock is cracked and relatively weak — making it easier for magma to emerge.
An eruption from the zone could send lava toward the county seat of Hilo or other towns in East Hawaii but it could take lava weeks or months to reach populated areas.
“We don’t want to try and second-guess the volcano,” Hon said. “We have to let it actually show us what it’s going to do and then we inform people of what is happening ASAP.”
Hawaii County Civil Defense announced that it had opened shelters because it had reports of people evacuating from along the coast on their own initiative.
The average Mauna Loa eruption is not typically prolonged, lasting a couple of weeks, Hon said.
“Typically, Mauna Loa eruptions start off with the heaviest volume first,” Hon said. “After a few days, it starts to calm down a little bit.”
The USGS warned residents at risk from Mauna Loa lava flows to review their eruption preparations. Scientists had been on alert because of a recent spike in earthquakes at the summit of the volcano, which last erupted in 1984.
“At this time, it’s not a time to be alarmed,” Big Island Mayor Mitch Roth said.
Portions of the Big Island were under an ashfall advisory issued by the National Weather Service in Honolulu, which said up to a quarter-inch (0.6 centimeters) of ash could accumulate in some areas.
Mauna Loa is one of five volcanoes that together make up the Big Island of Hawaii, which is the southernmost island in the Hawaiian archipelago.
Mauna Loa, rising 13,679 feet (4,169 meters) above sea level, is the much larger neighbor of Kilauea, which erupted in a residential neighborhood and destroyed 700 homes in 2018. Some of its slopes are much steeper than Kilauea’s, so lava can flow much faster when it erupts.
During a 1950 eruption, the mountain’s lava traveled 15 miles (24 kilometers) to the ocean in fewer than three hours.
Tourism is Hawaii’s economic engine but Roth predicted few problems for those on vacation during the eruption.
“It will be spectacular where it is, but the chances of it really interrupting the visitor industry — very, very slim,” he said.
For some, the eruption might cut down on some travel time, even if there is more vog, or volcanic smog caused by higher sulfur dioxide emissions.
“But the good thing is you don’t have to drive from Kona over to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to see an eruption anymore,” Roth said. “You can just look out your window at night and you’ll be able to see Mauna Loa erupting.”
Julia Neal, owner of Pahala Plantation Cottages, said the eruption brings some relief after many preparedness meetings, and much wondering about what the volcano will do.
“It’s exciting,” she said. “It’s kind of a relief that it’s happening and we’re not waiting for it to happen.”
News that the eruption migrated from the summit to the northeast rift zone and that lava isn’t threatening any downslope communities also brings relief, she said.
A few future guests from the U.S. mainland called Neal “asking me to make a prediction, which I can’t,” she said. “So I said, just stand by.”
___
Associated Press writer Mark Thiessen in Anchorage, Alaska, contributed to this report. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-hawaiis-mauna-loa-starts-to-erupt-sending-ash-nearby/ | 2022-11-28T19:56:58 | en | 0.962123 |
PITTSBURGH, Nov. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- "I thought there should be a safer, more comfortable way to temporarily leave a pet in a vehicle," said an inventor, from Thoreau, N.M., "so I invented the AIR MILO. My design would help keep the pet dog or cat cool in the summer or warm in the winter."
The invention provides an effective way to change the ambient temperature of a vehicle interior for pet safety. In doing so, it allows for additional airflow within a vehicle. As a result, it helps to prevent the vehicle interior from overheating and it provides peace of mind for pet owners. The invention features a practical design that is easy to apply and use so it is ideal for pet owners.
The original design was submitted to the National sales office of InventHelp. It is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, write Dept. 21-RKH-370, InventHelp, 217 Ninth Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, or call (412) 288-1300 ext. 1368. Learn more about InventHelp's Invention Submission Services at http://www.InventHelp.com.
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NEW YORK (AP) — There was talk of impeachment Monday at the Trump Organization’s criminal tax fraud trial — not former President Donald Trump’s, which happened twice — but whether lawyers for his company were angling to impeach their own witness, longtime Trump accountant Donald Bender.
Defense lawyer Susan Necheles said Bender, a partner at Mazars USA LLP who spent years overseeing tax returns for Trump’s hundreds of entities, “surprised” her when he testified that he didn’t actually do much work on the company’s tax returns.
Bender indicated he delegated some work to other firm employees.
“That answer surprised me because it’s just not true,” Necheles said during a court conference held after Bender and the jury left the courtroom for a lunch break.
Necheles was seeking permission to confront Bender with records showing he spent more time working on tax returns for the Trump Corporation, the company’s main subsidiary, than he led on. But the defense lawyer stopped short of saying she wanted to undermine his credibility in front of jurors.
“I don’t want to impeach the witness. I don’t want to call him a liar,” Necheles said. “That’s impeaching the witness.”
Judge Juan Manuel Merchan, already annoyed with the defense because it filed a court motion late Sunday night, appeared reluctant to grant Necheles’ request, instructing her to refine her argument over lunch.
“I believe I’ve bent over backward to allow both defendants to prepare a defense,” Merchan said, referring to the Trump Corporation and the other charged subsidiary, Trump Corp. and Trump Payroll Corp. As a gatekeeper, Merchan said, “I don’t believe that means I have to let you to throw everything at the jury and see what sticks.”
The Trump Organization, the holding company for Trump’s buildings, golf courses and other assets, is charged with helping some top executives avoid income taxes on compensation they got in addition to their salaries, including rent-free apartments and luxury cars. If convicted, the company could be fined more than $1 million.
Trump has blamed Bender for not catching the scheme, writing on his Truth Social platform: “The highly paid accounting firm should have routinely picked these things up — we relied on them. VERY UNFAIR!”
Bender also prepared personal income tax returns for Trump and his wife, former first lady Melania Trump, his children and some company executives.
The Trump Organization’s former finance chief, Allen Weisselberg, testified earlier in the trial that he came up with the scheme on his own, without Trump or the Trump family knowing. Weisselberg, who testified in a plea deal in exchange for a five-month jail sentence, said the company benefited because it didn’t have to pay him as much in salary.
Mazars USA LLP has since dropped Trump as a client. In February, the firm said annual financial statements it prepared for him “should no longer be relied upon” after New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office said the statements regularly misstated the value of assets.
James is suing Trump and his company over those allegations. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-impeachment-talk-at-trump-org-trial-did-witness-misspeak/ | 2022-11-28T19:57:04 | en | 0.971356 |
PITTSBURGH, Nov. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- "We wanted to create a convenient way to clean a quantity of face masks daily or as needed with minimal water use," said one of two inventors, from Indianapolis, Ind., "so we invented the SAFE MASK. Our design would save time and it could help to reduce the spread of germs and viruses."
The invention provides an effective way to launder face masks. In doing so, it offers an alternative to using a traditional washing machine. As a result, it eliminates the need to wait until a full load of laundry is available and it saves time and water. The invention features an energy-efficient and portable design that is easy to use so it is ideal for the general population. Additionally, it is producible in design variations.
The original design was submitted to the Indianapolis sales office of InventHelp. It is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, write Dept. 21-SGM-161, InventHelp, 217 Ninth Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, or call (412) 288-1300 ext. 1368. Learn more about InventHelp's Invention Submission Services at http://www.InventHelp.com.
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LONDON (AP) — Irish regulators slapped Facebook parent Meta with a 265 million-euro ($277 million) fine Monday, the company’s latest punishment for breaching strict European Union data privacy rules.
The Data Protection Commission said Meta Platforms infringed sections of the EU rules, known as the General Data Protection Regulation, that require technical and organizational measures aimed at protecting user data.
The watchdog opened an investigation last year into news reports that data on more 533 million users was found dumped online. The data was found on a website for hackers and included names, Facebook IDs, phone numbers, locations, birthdates and email addresses for people from more than 100 countries, according to the reports.
Meta said the data had been “scraped” from Facebook using tools designed to help people find their friends through phone numbers using search and contact import features. The watchdog said it investigated the automated scraping carried out between May 2018 and September 2019.
The company said it had “cooperated fully” with the Irish watchdog.
“We made changes to our systems during the time in question, including removing the ability to scrape our features in this way using phone numbers,” Meta said in a statement. “Unauthorized data scraping is unacceptable and against our rules.”
Along with the fine, the commission said it also imposed on Meta a “range of corrective measures,” which weren’t specified.
When asked if Meta would appeal, a spokesman said, “We are still reviewing this decision carefully.”
It’s the latest in a series of punishments that the Irish watchdog has levied against Meta over the past two years.
The company, based in Menlo Park, California, has its European headquarters in Dublin, which makes the Irish authority its lead privacy regulator under the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, in a system known as “one-stop shop.”
The Irish watchdog fined Meta-owned Instagram 405 million euros in September after it found that the platform mishandled teenagers’ personal information. Meta was fined 17 million euro fines in March for its handling of a dozen data breach notifications.
Last year, the watchdog fined Meta’s chat service WhatsApp 225 million euros for violating rules on sharing people’s data with other Meta companies. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-irish-watchdog-fines-meta-265m-euros-in-latest-privacy-case/ | 2022-11-28T19:57:10 | en | 0.96461 |
Paris-based global restaurant guide names chef Eric Ripert's New York City icon best in the world as restaurant celebrates 50 years
NEW YORK, Nov. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Le Bernardin was named the number one restaurant in the world by La Liste, the global restaurant guide and ranking system of the world's top 1,000 restaurants.
The top ranking, which Le Bernardin shares with Paris' Restaurant Guy Savoy and Frantzén of Stockholm, comes on the heels of the New York seafood temple's 50th anniversary this fall.
Le Bernardin is the only New York City restaurant among the top 10, and one of 101 United States restaurants, including San Francisco's Atelier Crenn, Addison in San Diego and New York's Atomix, featured throughout the entire list.
"To see our team's dedication recognized by La Liste is incredibly rewarding," said chef and co-owner, Eric Ripert. "It pushes us to keep striving for excellence everyday, even 50 years in."
This is the sixth consecutive year La Liste has named Le Bernardin the number one restaurant in the U.S., and the third time it has placed it at the top spot globally. Le Bernardin continues to hold three stars from the Michelin Guide and a four-star rating from The New York Times, which it has maintained across each of its five reviews since opening in New York in 1986. Le Bernardin is also ranked number 44 on the World's 50 Best Restaurants List.
La Liste debuted in Paris in 2015, providing an objective and democratic ranking of the world's most outstanding restaurants powered by a proprietary algorithm that gathers information from hundreds of reviews from such global publications as The New York Times, Michelin Guide and TripAdvisor, and thousands of consumer ratings from all over the world.
About Le Bernardin
A fine dining icon for 50 years, Le Bernardin is the internationally acclaimed seafood restaurant from chef Eric Ripert and co-owner Maguy Le Coze. Opened in 1986 in New York by Maguy and her brother Gilbert after the siblings helmed its beloved Paris location for 14 years, the restaurant has held three Michelin stars since the guide's 2005 New York launch, five consecutive four-star reviews from The New York Times, and is currently ranked number 44 on World's 50 Best Restaurants list, a testament to its timeless appeal. More info available at le-bernardin.com.
About La Liste
La Liste is an international restaurant ranking system and guide, originally launched in 2015 by president and founder, Philippe Faure. La Liste provides a one-of-a-kind objective ranking of the world's most outstanding restaurants powered by a proprietary algorithm that reviews restaurants based on over 600 leading food guides, user-generated review sites and global publications. The list reviews nearly 16,000 restaurants, with the resulting restaurants located in 180+ countries, on five continents. More info available at laliste.com.
Contact:
Liz Pierson
liz@beccapr.com
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SOURCE Le Bernardin | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2022/11/28/le-bernardin-named-1-restaurant-world-by-la-liste/ | 2022-11-28T19:57:11 | en | 0.91618 |
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JERUSALEM (AP) — Former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has struck a coalition deal with a small ultranationalist faction leader known for homophobic rhetoric and disparaging remarks about non-Orthodox Jews, a sign of the prospective government’s hardline makeup.
Netanyahu’s Likud party announced Sunday that the agreement names Noam faction leader Avi Maoz as a deputy minister whose portfolio includes an office bolstering Jewish identity among Israelis.
The incremental step is part of Netanyahu’s effort to hammer out a power-sharing agreement with his potential ultra-Orthodox and ultranationalist allies following the Nov. 1 parliamentary election. Netanyahu stands poised to form one of the most hardline religious and nationalist governments in Israel’s history.
Maoz is a Jewish fundamentalist and West Bank settler who is an outspoken opponent to LGBTQ rights and women serving in the military, and has voiced opposition to Arabs teaching Jewish students in Israeli schools. He has denied the legitimacy of non-Orthodox Judaism, including the Reform and Conservative movements, which are marginal in Israel but dominant in the U.S. and have long provided the country with financial and diplomatic support.
Maoz said in a statement that the deal with Likud was the “first step in returning the soul to the country.”
Maoz’s Noam faction ran in the last elections on a joint ticket with Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party, which won 14 seats in the 120-member Israeli parliament, the Knesset, making it the third-largest faction.
Netanyahu’s Likud party has yet to finalize its coalition agreement with all its prospective allies and form a government. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-israels-likud-signs-coalition-deal-with-anti-lgbtq-radical/ | 2022-11-28T19:57:16 | en | 0.945743 |
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New school is the 11th podiatric medical school in the U.S. First class will begin in 2023
ERIE, Pa., Nov. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) announced it will open a new School of Podiatric Medicine (SPM). The LECOM-SPM Erie (PA) received approval from the accreditation agency, the Council on Podiatric Medical Education, to begin accepting students for the fall semester of 2023. The LECOM-SPM is the eleventh podiatric medical school in the United States. The four-year program will be located at LECOM's main campus in Erie, Pennsylvania and will offer a unique curricular collaboration with LECOM's College of Osteopathic Medicine.
"There is a growing need for podiatric doctors throughout the United States and LECOM is committed to meeting this national healthcare need through the creation of this new school," said LECOM president and CEO John Ferretti, D.O. "LECOM is uniquely positioned to provide podiatric students the opportunity to be trained alongside medical students and receive extensive clinical learning within our regional academic health system."
Podiatric students will receive much of the same training as osteopathic medical students while also receiving studies unique to the podiatric physician. This particular teaching opportunity will better prepare graduates for entrance into podiatric residency programs. The LECOM Erie campus is integrated with LECOM Health, an osteopathic academic health system, which provides students clinical learning opportunities in hospitals, long-term care facilities, and a range of specialized medical practices.
LECOM also announced today that Dr. Ferretti has appointed Jason Lee, DPM, MSMEd, FACFAS to lead the podiatric school as dean. Dr. Lee is board certified by the American Board of Foot and Ankle Surgery and the American Board of Podiatric Medicine. He also serves as a Fellow of the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons. Dr. Lee has been affiliated with LECOM Health since 2012, and served as the Podiatry Residency Director for the health system since 2015. He also has appointments as Head of Podiatry and Chief of Podiatric Surgery at Millcreek Community Hospital. Dr. Lee earned his degree in podiatric medicine from Des Moines University College of Podiatric Medicine and Surgery.
Podiatric physicians are the leading providers of medical and surgical management of foot and ankle disorders. Many conditions seen by podiatric physicians are related to underlying diseases such as diabetes, peripheral vascular disease, obesity, and disorders of bones and joints. The LECOM-SPM curriculum is designed to educate students on these and many other chronic disease states as well as conditions associated with the aging process.
The LECOM-SPM will soon be accepting applications for the fall of 2023. For additional information, visit lecom.edu, call 814-866-6641, or e-mail admissions1@lecom.edu.
In 2023, the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) will celebrate its 30th anniversary. Founded in 1992, the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) has grown to become the largest medical school in the country. Enrollment in the College of Osteopathic Medicine, School of Pharmacy, School of Dental Medicine, School of Podiatric Medicine, School of Health Services Administration and Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences has surpassed 4,400 students at campuses in Erie and Greensburg, Pa., Bradenton, Fla., and Elmira,
N.Y. LECOM consistently graduates more primary care physicians than any other U.S. medical college while maintaining one of the lowest tuitions of any private medical school in the country. The college is the core of one of the nation's only osteopathic academic health centers, LECOM Health, a highly innovative, multifaceted health care and education system. Today over 16,000 LECOM alumni are providing health care to patients across the U.S.
For More Information:
Matt Bresee
VP, Marketing & Communications
814-881-6984, mbresee@lecom.edu
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SOURCE Lake Erie College Of Osteopathic Medicine | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2022/11/28/lecom-opens-new-school-podiatric-medicine/ | 2022-11-28T19:57:17 | en | 0.955043 |
TOKYO (AP) — The number of babies born in Japan this year is below last year’s record low in what the the top government spokesman described as a “critical situation.”
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno promised comprehensive measures to encourage more marriages and births.
The total of 599,636 Japanese born in January-September was 4.9% below last year’s figure, suggesting the number of births in all of 2022 might fall below last year’s record low of 811,000 babies, he said.
Japan is the world’s third biggest economy but living costs are high and wage increases have been slow. The conservative government has lagged on making society more inclusive for children, women and minorities.
So far, the government’s efforts to encourage people to have more babies have had limited impact despite payments of subsidies for pregnancy, childbirth and child care.
“The pace is even slower than last year … I understand that it is a critical situation,” Matsuno said.
Many younger Japanese have balked at marrying or having families, discouraged by bleak job prospects, onerous commutes and corporate cultures incompatible with having both parents work.
The number of births has been falling since 1973, when it peaked at about 2.1 million. It’s projected to fall to 740,000 in 2040.
Japan’s population of more than 125 million has been declining for 14 years and is projected to fall to 86.7 million by 2060. A shrinking and aging population has huge implications for the economy and for national security as the country fortifies its military to counter China’s increasingly assertive territorial ambitions.
A government-commissioned panel submitted a report to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida last week citing the low birth rate and falling population as factors that might erode Japan’s national strength. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-japan-births-at-new-low-as-population-shrinks-and-ages/ | 2022-11-28T19:57:23 | en | 0.96073 |
- Mesirow CEO named to inaugural list of the Most Influential Women Executives in Corporate America by WomenInc.
- Honors women executives across industries for accomplishment, influence and commitment to bettering communities and inspiring others
CHICAGO, Nov. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Mesirow, an independent, employee-owned financial services firm, today announced that CEO Natalie A. Brown has been named to WomenInc.'s inaugural list of the Most Influential Women Executives in Corporate America. As the leading women business and lifestyle magazine, WomenInc.'s list features women executives, influencers and achievers impacting corporate America in its fall issue.
"WomenInc. is proud to present the 2022 Most Influential Women Executives in Corporate America. In this issue, we assembled an elite representation of women who have been recognized for their executive and business leadership in national and global-leading corporations," said Catrina Young, Executive Vice President & Chief Communications Officer of WomenInc. magazine. "These innovative trailblazers have led efforts to foster growth for some of the country's highest-performing companies throughout and beyond the U.S. market."
"Congratulations to each executive on this inaugural list," said CEO Natalie A. Brown. "This honor equally recognizes Mesirow's deep commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion; civic enrichment; and community engagement – all critical attributes of our valued and intentional culture."
Selection of the Most Influential Women Executives in Corporate America begins with more than 500 prospective candidates in diverse fields. The selection committee reviews information on executives in fields spanning human resources, real estate, finance, investment banking, business development, healthcare, manufacturing and legal and then makes final selections based upon leaders' exemplary records of accomplishment, influence and commitment to bettering their communities and inspiring others.
On June 30, 2022, Brown was appointed CEO following a unanimous vote by Mesirow's Board of Directors. She is the 6th CEO of Mesirow in its 85-year history and the first woman to serve in this role.
About Mesirow
Mesirow is an independent, employee-owned financial services firm founded in 1937. Headquartered in Chicago, with offices around the world, we serve clients through a personal, custom approach to reaching financial goals and acting as a force for social good. With capabilities spanning Global Investment Management, Capital Markets & Investment Banking, and Advisory Services, we invest in what matters: our clients, our communities and our culture. To learn more, visit mesirow.com and follow us on LinkedIn.
Mesirow was recently named one of the Best Places to Work in Chicago by Crain's Chicago Business and one of the Top 100 RIA firms by Barron's.
Media
mediainquiries@mesirow.com
Michael Herley | 203.308.1409
The 2022 Most Influential Women Corporate Executives (list selected in August 2022 and made public in November 2022) is the first annual award created by WomenInc. to honor extraordinary contribution by women corporate executives. No compensation was exchanged in connection with this ranking. To qualify, honorees must be within two levels of reporting to the CEO or be the CEO.
2022 Barron's Top RIAs (Received September 2022 for the year 2021 – Licensing fees paid post award for use of the ranking). In order to be considered for the Barron's 2022 Top RIA Firms list, applicants were required to complete a 145-question survey, with the firm's ADV informing the majority of responses. Firms were also required to meet a number of other specified requirements to be eligible for inclusion. Firms were ranked based on various qualitative and quantitative factors, including assets managed, the size and experience of teams, regulatory records of the advisors and firms, technology spending, staff diversity, organic and M&A growth, client segmentation as well as succession planning.
Mesirow offers links to other third party websites that may be of interest, are provided solely for your convenience, and may assist you in locating other useful information on the Internet. These sites are not under the control of Mesirow, and we are not responsible for the content of linked third party websites. We make no representation or warranty regarding the accuracy of the information contained in the linked sites. We suggest that you always verify the information obtained from linked websites before acting upon this information.
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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A judge accepted a plea deal Monday for a man who randomly killed a Florida couple in their garage six years ago and then chewed on one victim’s face that will send him to a mental hospital for treatment.
Austin Harrouff, 25, pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to two counts of first-degree murder and other charges for the 2016 slayings of John Stevens, 59, and his wife, Michelle Mishcon Stevens, 53. He also seriously injured a neighbor who tried to help them.
Harrouff, who attended Florida State University before the attack, will be committed to a secure mental health facility until doctors and a judge agree that he is no longer dangerous. If the trial had gone forward, Harrouff could have faced life in prison.
A number of family members of the slain couple expressed anger at the decision and made victim impact statements directed at Harrouff, his family, the defense team and prosecutors.
Cindy Mishcon, the sister of Michelle Mishcon and an attorney, laid out a methodical case of why she does not believe that Harrouff was insane when the killings occurred.
“You can’t even look at me?” she asked Harrouff, who was sitting at the defense table, wearing a red and white striped prison uniform and glasses. She said that she had begun writing her victim impact statement when she was “naive enough” to think there would be justice.
Cindy Mishcon said that reality set in for her as she listened to tapes of Harrouff’s jailhouse phone calls with family members and the reading of pages of text messages in the year prior to the killings, which were part of the court record. The text messages with his friends outlined the life of a student who was smoking marijuana, taking other drugs and abusing alcohol during the year before killing the couple.
She said she realized “you don’t care about anyone but yourself” and that “the only victim you and your family see is you, and the Harrouff name.”
“Is it really so hard for you to understand that you are a cold blooded murderer and not a victim,” she asked.
Other family members echoed her sentiments.
The agreement worked out between the defense and prosecution avoided a trial that had been scheduled to start Monday before Circuit Judge Sherwood Bauer and had been expected to last three weeks.
The judge said Harrouff will remain in the Martin County Jail until he is taken to a secure mental health facility monitored by the Florida Department of Children and Families. Bauer said he will not be allowed to leave the facility without a court order.
Two mental health experts, one hired by the defense and another by prosecutors, examined Harrouff and found he suffered an acute psychotic episode during the attack, and couldn’t distinguish between right and wrong.
The trial had been delayed by the pandemic, legal wrangling and Harrouff’s recovery from critical injuries suffered while drinking a chemical during the attack.
Defendants are presumed sane under Florida law, meaning that Harrouff must show he had a severe mental breakdown that prevented him from understanding actions or that they were even wrong by “clear and convincing” evidence.
He has claimed he was fleeing a demon when the attack happened.
Craig Trocino, a University of Miami law professor, said that finding Harrouff not guilty by reason of insanity would effectively be a life sentence because “it’s highly unlikely” that they would risk releasing a killer as notorious as Harrouff.
Harrouff’s parents and others said he had acted strangely for weeks. His parents had set up an appointment for him to be evaluated, but the attack occurred first. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-judge-accepts-insanity-plea-deal-for-man-in-face-biting-case/ | 2022-11-28T19:57:30 | en | 0.983225 |
CLEVELAND and BOSTON, Nov. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- MPE Partners ("MPE" or "Morgenthaler Private Equity"), along with portfolio company Waterfront Brands (or "Waterfront") of Fergus Falls, MN, announced the acquisition of Tide Tamer (or the "Company") of Snow Hill, NC. Tide Tamer is a leading manufacturer and distributor of a full line of aluminum watercraft lifts, docks, and related waterfront accessories, primarily serving residential and commercial saltwater markets in the Southeastern United States.
MPE and Waterfront partnered in the transaction with Tide Tamer's owners, Buzz Shackelford and Brad Griffin. Corey Duke, CEO of Waterfront, said, "Tide Tamer has become a true leader in the Southeast market by maintaining a strong brand name through its laser focus on customer service and product quality. We look forward to working together to support Tide Tamer's customers and continued growth."
Joe Machado, Partner at MPE, added, "This combination helps bolster Waterfront's footprint in the Southeast, enhances Waterfront's existing product offering, and gives Waterfront a new channel to sell through with the addition of Tide Tamer's Boat Lift Warehouse platform. We are thrilled to bring Tide Tamer under the Waterfront umbrella to accelerate the growth of the combined businesses."
Buzz Shackelford and Brad Griffin said, "We're incredibly proud to have built Tide Tamer into the company it is today, and we could not be more excited for Tide Tamer's next chapter of growth as part of the Waterfront Brands family. Waterfront has an outstanding reputation in the industry and is an excellent fit for Tide Tamer to continue serving our customers and employees."
Tree Line Capital Partners, Manulife Investment Management, Northwestern Mutual Capital, and LBC Credit Partners provided financing to support the transaction. Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. served as legal counsel for MPE Partners. Alcon Partners acted as the investment advisor to Waterfront. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Headquartered in Snow Hill, NC, Tide Tamer is a leading manufacturer and distributor of aluminum watercraft lifts, docks, and related waterfront accessories, primarily serving residential and commercial saltwater markets across the Southeastern United States. Tide Tamer goes to market through a dealer network as well as its own market-leading e-commerce platform Boat Lift Warehouse, which sells and distributes boat lifts along with other waterfront related products. In addition to Tide Tamer's manufacturing facility in Snow Hill, NC, the Company also operates a distribution center in Madison, FL. For more information, please visit https://www.tidetamer.com/.
Headquartered in Fergus Falls, MN, with additional manufacturing facilities in Claremore, OK, and Fort Lauderdale, FL, Waterfront is the industry-leading designer and manufacturer of premium watercraft lifts, docks, and related accessories. Under its three flagship brands, ShoreMaster, HydroHoist, and Neptune, Waterfront offers a complete product line-up to its more than 700 independent dealers and distributors across North America as well as sells direct-to-consumer through both retail locations and its eCommerce websites. For more information, please visit https://www.waterfrontbrands.com/
MPE Partners ("MPE" or "Morgenthaler Private Equity") seeks to be the preferred partner for entrepreneur- and family-owned companies. Based in Cleveland, OH, and Boston, MA, MPE invests in profitable, lower middle market companies with transaction values up to $250 million. MPE has two primary target investment areas: high-value manufacturing and commercial & industrial services. For more information, please visit www.mpepartners.com.
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SOURCE MPE Partners | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2022/11/28/mpe-partners-waterfront-brands-announce-acquisition-tide-tamer/ | 2022-11-28T19:57:31 | en | 0.939635 |
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Jurors who will decide whether to convict Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and four associates of seditious conspiracy resumed deliberations Monday in the high-stakes trial stemming from the U.S. Capitol attack.
Rhodes and his co-defendants are accused of a weekslong plot to stop the transfer of power from Republican Donald Trump to Democrat Joe Biden. Prosecutors say the plot came to a head on Jan. 6, 2021 when Rhodes’ followers stormed the Capitol alongside hundreds of other angry Trump supporters.
Hundreds of people have been convicted in the Capitol attack that left dozens of officers injured and sent lawmakers running for their lives. Jurors in the Oath Keepers case will decide, for the first time, whether the actions of any Jan. 6 defendants amount to seditious conspiracy — a rarely used charge that carries both significant prison time and political weight.
The jury in Washington D.C.’s federal court deliberated last Tuesday before going home for the long Thanksgiving weekend. Rhodes, of Granbury, Texas, is on trial with Thomas Caldwell, of Berryville, Virginia; Jessica Watkins, of Woodstock, Ohio; Kelly Meggs, of Dunnellon, Florida; and Kenneth Harrelson of Titusville, Florida.
They would be the first people convicted of seditious conspiracy at trial since the 1995 prosecution of Islamic militants who plotted to bomb New York City landmarks. The charge calls for up to 20 years behind bars. The five defendants also face several other charges.
Throughout the nearly two-month-long trial, defense attorneys argued there was never any plot, that prosecutors have twisted their admittedly bombastic words. Defense lawyers argued that the Oath Keepers who did enter the Capitol were swept up in a spontaneous outpouring of election-fueled rage rather than acting as part of a plot.
Rhodes took the witness stand to tell jurors that he had no idea that his followers were going to storm the Capitol and that he was upset after he found out that some did. Rhodes said he believed it was stupid for any Oath Keepers to go into the Capitol and insisted that was not their “mission.”
___
For full coverage of the Capitol riot, go to https://www.apnews.com/capitol-siege
More on Donald Trump-related investigations: https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-jury-deliberations-resume-in-oath-keepers-1-6-sedition-case/ | 2022-11-28T19:57:36 | en | 0.962576 |
Strategic investment provides Libra Group media subsidiary the ability to produce original film and tv programming for global distribution.
HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Nov. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading global content distributor Principal Media, a subsidiary of Libra Group, has announced a strategic investment in Toronto-based Chesler/Perlmutter Productions (C/P), a world-renowned production company with over 30 years of experience developing and delivering award-winning scripted television series and films.
The strategic investment expands Principal Media's capabilities into the development and production of movies, documentaries, and other programming. The transaction leverages Principal Media's distribution network, which includes Netflix and other leading platforms, to further amplify C/P's content globally. It also provides access to a deep library of content that will be available as part of Principal Media's catalog and included in the upcoming launch of ad-supported streaming channels.
Based in Hollywood, Principal Media has nearly 20 years of experience distributing a wide range of television programming across genres such as food, lifestyle, documentaries, sports, and wildlife. Its customers include leading networks and digital platforms around the world, including Netflix, Disney, Showtime, and the Discovery Channel, among many others. Following the investment, Principal Media will have access to C/P's vast array of original and scripted content, ranging from romantic films that deliver high ratings to the award-winning dramatic thriller series that started it all, The Hitchhiker. Principal Media is a subsidiary of Libra Group, a privately-owned international business group whose subsidiaries own and operate assets in nearly 60 countries.
"When Principal Media set out to team up with original content creators, we could not have been more pleased to land on the extraordinary, long-running success story that is Chesler/Perlmutter Productions. The movie magic they're able to consistently deliver is unparalleled," said Gary Rosenson, Chief Executive Officer of Principal Media. "The creative possibilities are endless as we merge Chesler/Perlmutter's dynamic storytelling with Principal's global distribution network to create riveting new programming including films, series and documentaries that will be enjoyed around the world."
Based in Toronto, C/P is one of North America's most significant independent TV and film production companies known for developing, financing, producing, and distributing to major networks and platforms around the world. Their portfolio includes the work of celebrated directors such as Kathryn Bigelow, Ivan Reitman, and Paul Verhoeven, and leading actors including Helen Hunt, Jason Bateman, Helen Mirren, Jim Carrey, Patricia Arquette, Rob Lowe, and many others.
"As opportunities for content creation continue to expand, we're thrilled to extend our global reach through Principal Media," said Lewis Chesler, Co-Founder and Executive Producer at C/P. "We are excited to work with Principal, a company that shares our deep family values, to generate even more storytelling opportunities to run through our Canada-based team while we pursue even more incremental revenue-generating opportunities."
"Through this investment Principal Media will benefit from Chesler/Perlmutter's proven excellence in filmmaking, giving Principal new capabilities to make original films that can be distributed around the world," said Phaedra Chrousos, Chief Strategy Officer of Libra Group. "The possibilities for innovation in both content production and distribution are limitless. We look forward to continuing to grow in this dynamic sector and evolving our capabilities through future strategic investments."
This investment is the next step for Principal Media as it continues to grow its global entertainment services. It also follows continued investment by Libra Group in its global media portfolio. The family-owned group is predominately active in six business sectors, including maritime, aviation, hospitality, real estate, renewable energy, and a growing presence in media.
About Principal Media
Since 2005, Principal Media has been licensing its uniquely vast and always expanding catalog of content to TV networks and digital platforms worldwide. The Hollywood-based team represents a wide variety of programming genres to an equally diverse array of networks and digital platforms around the world. To keep its catalog fresh, Principal Media works closely with producers of all kinds to help monetize finished programming and develop and co-produce original series. It works with a wide range of leading partners, including Netflix, Showtime, and Disney. Principal Media is a subsidiary of Libra Group, a privately-owned international business group whose subsidiaries own and operate assets in nearly 60 countries.
About Chesler/Perlmutter Productions
Chesler/Perlmutter Productions is a Canadian production company with global reach, focused on developing, producing and distributing television movies for US, Canadian, and international broadcasters, as well as theatrical movies for national and international distribution. As one of Canada's first independent family film production companies, Chesler/Perlmutter has established itself in North American and global film markets through its development, production, and distribution of content. The company is based in Toronto and operates a production studio in Hamilton, Ontario.
About Libra Group
Libra Group (www.libra.com) is a privately-owned, global business group that encompasses 30 operating entities - 20 businesses predominately focused on aviation, energy, maritime, real estate and hospitality, diversified industries, and 10 social initiatives. With assets and operations in nearly 60 countries, the Group applies the strength of its global network and capabilities to deliver cross-sector insights and growth at scale, while mitigating risk. Today, Libra's Social Responsibility Programs include 10 social initiatives created to address unmet needs and grantmaking that helps people worldwide. Throughout its 30 entities, the Group is focused on maintaining its innovative culture supporting human potential, and always delivering growth with good – twin engines that power the Libra ecosystem.
Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1956783/Principal_Media_CP.jpg
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SOURCE Principal Media | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2022/11/28/principal-media-announces-strategic-investment-cheslerperlmutter-expanding-film-production-capabilities/ | 2022-11-28T19:57:38 | en | 0.94244 |
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MOSCOW (AP) — Kazakhstan’s leader met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, a week after winning a new seven-year term by a landslide in a snap election.
Kazakhstan is a significant Russian ally, sharing a 7,600-kilometer (4,750-mile) border. But President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has kept his distance from Moscow amid the conflict in Ukraine, notably declining this summer to recognize the Kremlin’s declaration of separatist Ukraine regions as sovereign states.
Tokayev also has sought to reduce the influence of his Russia-friendly authoritarian predecessor Nursultan Nazarbayev, who ruled for three decades. Nazarbayev resigned in 2019, but had retained significant clout as head of the national security council until Tokayev removed him from the post this year.
In comments at the start of the leaders’ meeting, Tokayev said his first visit abroad since he won a new term with more than 80% of the vote has “deep political significance. Of course, there is definitely a certain symbolism in this visit.”
Putin said the countries have a “joint desire to develop our relations precisely in the capacity in which they have developed and will, of course, develop in the future.” | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-kazakh-leader-meets-putin-in-first-post-election-trip-abroad/ | 2022-11-28T19:57:42 | en | 0.974576 |
NEW YORK, Nov. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --
WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, continues to investigate potential securities claims on behalf of shareholders of Rollins, Inc. (NYSE: ROL) resulting from allegations that Rollins may have issued materially misleading business information to the investing public.
SO WHAT: If you purchased Rollins securities you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement. The Rosen Law Firm is preparing a class action seeking recovery of investor losses.
WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the prospective class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=2735 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action.
WHAT IS THIS ABOUT: On October 28, 2020, Rollins disclosed that a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation had been initiated and believed the SEC's focus to be how accruals and reserves were established at period ends and their impact on reported earnings going as far back as January 2015.
Then on February 26, 2021, Rollins announced that an internal investigation into the same matters found "a significant deficiency in the Company's internal controls relating to the documentation and review of accounting entries for certain reserves and accruals." On this news, Rollins share prices fell $0.87, or 2.5%, to close at $33.17 per share on February 26, 2021, damaging investors.
Then on April 18, 2022, the SEC announced that Rollins agreed to pay $8 million to settle the charges that Rollins made unsupported reductions to its accounting reserves to improperly boost its earnings per share. On this news, Rollins share price fell $0.55, or approximately 1.7%, to close at $34.29 on April 18, 2022, damaging investors.
WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources or any meaningful peer recognition. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.
Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/.
Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Contact Information:
Laurence Rosen, Esq.
Phillip Kim, Esq.
The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.
275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Tel: (212) 686-1060
Toll Free: (866) 767-3653
Fax: (212) 202-3827
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cases@rosenlegal.com
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SOURCE Rosen Law Firm, P.A. | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2022/11/28/rosen-recognized-investor-counsel-encourages-rollins-inc-investors-inquire-about-securities-class-action-investigation-rol/ | 2022-11-28T19:57:44 | en | 0.915561 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/nba/new-york-knicks/articles/41676026 | 2022-11-28T19:57:48 | en | 0.738227 |
Dua Lipa has been granted Albanian citizenship for spreading international awareness of Albania.
Albanian President Bajram Begaj said Lipa, the daughter of Albanian immigrants, has made the country proud.
“Happy to give the one and only Dua Lipa the decree of Albanian citizenship,” he said. “She has made us proud with her global career and engagement in important social causes.”
Lipa tweeted about her new citizenship, calling it an “honour.”
Lipa was born in London to her immigrant parents, and in 2016, the singer and her father co-founded the Sunny Hill Foundation to raise money for people struggling in Albania.
Her Albanian citizenship comes ahead of Albania’s 110th anniversary of independence from the Ottoman Empire.
Lipa is set to perform in Tirana, Albania on Monday for what she said is the final show on her Future Nostalgia Tour. | https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/28/entertainment/dua-lipa-has-been-granted-albanian-citizenship/index.html | 2022-11-28T19:57:48 | en | 0.969399 |
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The white gunman who massacred 10 Black shoppers and workers at a Buffalo supermarket pleaded guilty Monday to murder and hate-motivated terrorism charges, guaranteeing he will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Payton Gendron, 19, entered the plea Monday in a courthouse roughly two miles from the grocery store where he used a semiautomatic rifle and body armor to carry out a racist assault he hoped would help preserve white power in the U.S.
Gendron, who was handcuffed and wore an orange jumpsuit, occasionally licked and clenched his lips as he pleaded guilty to all of the most serious charges in the grand jury indictment, including murder, murder as a hate crime and hate-motivated domestic terrorism, which carries an automatic sentence of life without parole.
He answered “yes” and “guilty” as Judge Susan Eagan referred to each victim by name and asked whether he killed them because of their race. Gendron also pleaded guilty to wounding three people who survived the May attack.
Many of the relatives of those victims sat and watched, some dabbing their eyes and sniffling. Speaking to reporters later, several said the plea left them cold. It didn’t address the bigger problem, which they said is racism in America.
“His voice made me feel sick, but it showed me I was right,” said Zeneta Everhart, whose 20-year-old son was shot in the neck but survived. “This country has a problem. This country is inherently violent. It is racist. And his voice showed that to me.”
After the roughly 45-minute proceeding ended, Gendron’s lawyers suggested that he now regrets his crimes, but they didn’t elaborate or take questions.
“This critical step represents a condemnation of the racist ideology that fueled his horrific actions on May 14,” said Gendron’s lawyer, Brian Parker. “It is our hope that a final resolution of the state charges will help in some small way to keep the focus on the needs of the victims and the community.”
Gendron has pleaded not guilty to separate federal hate crime charges that could result in a death sentence if he is convicted. The U.S. Justice Department has not said whether it will seek capital punishment. Acknowledgement of guilt and a claim of repentance could potentially help Gendron in a penalty phase of a death penalty trial.
The plea comes at a time when many Americans have become nearly desensitized to mass shootings. In recent weeks, there have been deadly attacks at a Walmart in Virginia, at a gay club in Colorado and at the University of Virginia.
Just days after Gendron’s rampage in Buffalo, a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at a school in Uvalde, Texas.
Gendron wore body armor and used a legally purchased AR-15 style rifle in his attack on the Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo. Those killed ranged in age from 32 to 86 and included an armed security guard died trying to protect customers, a church deacon and the mother of a former Buffalo fire commissioner. Gendron surrendered when police confronted him as he emerged from the store.
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, who was in the courtroom for Gendron’s guilty plea, told reporters afterwards that “It was important to hear why these precious lives were snatched from us for no other reason than the color of their skin.”
The mayor, a Democrat, called for a ban on assault weapons, as did Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia. Relatives of the victims reiterated their calls for Congress and the FBI to address white supremacy and gun violence. “We are literally begging for those in power to do something about it,” said Garnell Whitfield, whose 86-year-old mother, Ruth Whitfield, was killed.”
White supremacy was Gendron’s motive. He said in documents posted online just before the attack that he’d picked the store, about a three hour drive from his home in Conklin, New York, because it was in a predominantly Black neighborhood. He said he was motivated by a belief in a massive conspiracy to dilute the power of white people by “replacing” them in the U.S. with people of color.
“Swift justice,” is how Erie County District Attorney John Flynn described Monday’s result, noting that it’s the first time anyone in the state of New York has been convicted of the hate-motivated terrorism charge. His sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 15.
Attorney Benjamin Crump, who represents several of the victims’ families, said they remain baffled that the gunman survived. They want harsh punishment, he said: “We want him to be treated as the heinous, cold blooded vicious murderer that he was for killing all these innocent Black people. It is emotional and we are angry.”
Mark Talley, the son of Geraldine Talley, who was killed, called on authorities to incarcerate him in Erie County, in the same community where he caused so much pain, so that he might face the same horror experienced by his victims. “I want that pain to eat at him every second of every day for the rest of his life,” Talley said.
Talley and Everhart said they were offended by Gendron’s tone and cleaned-up appearance in court. They said a Black defendant would have been treated differently. Gendron is a “thug,” they said.
“We show them in a way that doesn’t make them threatening, and it’s disgusting,” Everhart said.
“Am I happy he’s gong to jail for life?” Tally said. “What would make me happy is if America acknowledged its history of racism.”
___
For more AP coverage of the mass shooting: https://apnews.com/hub/buffalo-supermarket-shooting | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-lawyers-buffalo-supermarket-gunman-plans-to-plead-guilty/ | 2022-11-28T19:57:48 | en | 0.981714 |
NEW YORK, Nov. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --
WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of the securities of Block, Inc. (NYSE: SQ) between November 4, 2021 and April 4, 2022, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), of the important December 12, 2022 lead plaintiff deadline.
SO WHAT: If you purchased Block securities during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement.
WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the Block class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=9176 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than December 12, 2022. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.
WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually handle securities class actions, but are merely middlemen that refer clients or partner with law firms that actually litigate the cases. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.
DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, throughout the Class Period, defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Block lacked adequate protocols restricting access to customer sensitive information; (2) as a result, a former employee was able to download certain reports of Block's subsidiary, Cash App Investing, containing full customer names and brokerage account numbers, as well as brokerage portfolio value, brokerage portfolio holdings and/or stock trading activity; (3) as a result, Block was reasonably likely to suffer significant damage, including reputational harm; and (4) as a result of the foregoing, defendant's positive statements about Block's business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.
To join the Block class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=9176 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action.
No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff.
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Contact Information:
Laurence Rosen, Esq.
Phillip Kim, Esq.
The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.
275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Tel: (212) 686-1060
Toll Free: (866) 767-3653
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican leader Kevin McCarthy is in the fight of his political life, grinding through the promises and proposals, cajoling and deal-making necessary to win over reluctant colleagues whose support he needs to become House speaker.
Every new commitment from McCarthy can be seen as a potentially strategic move, intended to quell skeptics on his right flank as he reaches for the speaker’s gavel. With a slim House majority in the midterm elections, the GOP leader must solidify his ranks in a sprint for the 218 votes he’ll need when the new Congress convenes — each coming at a cost and with no room for error.
“We’ll get there,” McCarthy said in accepting his party’s nomination to run for speaker.
The overtures McCarthy is making, some symbolic, others substantive, provide a snapshot of the speaker hopeful’s emerging leadership style. While McCarthy is expected to prevail in his quest for the speaker’s gavel, it is destined to come at a political price, setting the tone and tenor of new Congress.
To start, McCarthy has promised to restore committee assignments for far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., after she and another right-flank lawmaker were booted by Democrats over incendiary remarks.
And he has vowed to oust Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and other high-profile Democrats from their committees in a form of political payback, setting up a divisive House action early in the new Congress.
McCarthy has assured that under his leadership, the House will remove the metal detectors that were installed to prevent firearms in the House chamber; end COVID-era protocols that allowed lawmakers to vote by proxy; and fully reopen the Capitol’s limited visitor access since the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection by supporters of the former president, Donald Trump.
And in a dramatic nod to the far-right, McCarthy has threatened an impeachment investigation against Homeland Security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas unless he resigns over the department’s handling of the U.S.’s southern border with Mexico.
“McCarthy’s problem is, he can’t get to 218 without Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar and Matt Gaetz,” Schiff said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” referring to the House GOP’s most outspoken far-right members. “And so he will do whatever they ask.”
The challenge ahead for McCarthy is not unique, as he races to shore up support before the new Congress convenes in January. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., faced detractors during her own pursuit of the gavel, forced to skillfully pick off the naysayers one by one until she had secured backing.
But the problem McCarthy faces is distinctly Republican, one that almost doomed his most recent predecessors. Paul Ryan and John Boehner both suffered politically as they were pushed and prodded by the GOP’s increasingly far-right flank to make concessions for their support. Eventually both men won the speaker’s gavel, but ultimately retired early.
After pushing his party to victory in the midterm elections, McCarthy won the nod from a majority of his colleagues nominating him to run for speaker. But the 188-31 vote among Republicans showed the shortfall he must overcome. When the new Congress convenes in January, the whole House, Republicans and Democrats, will vote on speaker and McCarthy’s party will need to stick together with their slim majority for him to prevail. Otherwise, a different Republican could emerge as a compromise candidate.
“It’s a tall order,” said Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., a past chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, who waged a long-shot challenge to McCarthy for the nomination.
“I know he thinks he’s going to get there,” Biggs said. “I don’t know that he can.”
Even though McCarthy defeated Biggs, 188-31, in the closed-door voting, with another five Republicans casting ballots for other candidates, that’s a pool of some three dozen votes the GOP leader needs to claw back if he hopes to win the speaker’s job.
“They know they’ve got a problem,” said Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., another Freedom Caucus member. “In other words, 36 no votes is a problem.”
As the party leader, McCarthy has countless tools at his disposal, including favors he can dole out to win support — from prime committee assignments or newly created leadership roles to commitments to elevate lawmakers’ own priorities, including investigations of President Joe Biden, his family and his administration.
The influential Freedom Caucus has long wanted more say in the legislative process — rather than a top-down approach — and its members are pushing McCarthy with more specific demands that would give them more power even at McCarthy’s expense.
”I’m hopeful at the end of the day that we will come together as a conference and elect Kevin,” Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., the incoming chairman of the Oversight Committee, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Comer said there are “certainly five to eight members that have said they’re leaning towards voting no against Kevin McCarthy.” Opposition of that magnitude would derail McCarthy’s bid to become speaker.
The California Republican has been here before, having withdrawn from the speaker’s race in 2015 when it became clear he did not have enough support.
To win over skeptics, McCarthy has been meeting with Republicans as they hammer out their internal party rules for the new Congress. While such rules generally don’t have much relevance for the public, they play an important role behind the scenes.
For example, some conservatives want McCarthy to impose a ban on earmarks, which allow lawmakers to direct federal dollars to local projects and programs in their home states, a legislative perk long derided as wasteful.
Others want McCarthy to enforce a balanced federal budget in future years, which would require vast spending cuts.
Some of the more conservative members of the House want to restore a rule that allows any member at any time to submit a motion to remove the speaker, which had been used by then-Rep. Mark Meadows as a pressure point during Boehner’s tenure. Instead, they adopted a provision stating that submitting such a “motion to vacate the chair” should only be done with party agreement.
McCarthy exited one private meeting calling it “a great discussion.” He indicated it’s the beginning of a long process over the next weeks.
“I don’t know if this is winning them over,” he said. “I think it’s discussing and listening to them.”
___
Associated Press writers Kevin Freking and Farnoush Amiri contributed to this report. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-mccarthys-pursuit-of-speakers-gavel-comes-at-a-high-cost/ | 2022-11-28T19:57:55 | en | 0.969423 |
NEW YORK, Nov. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --
WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, continues to investigate potential securities claims on behalf of shareholders of Medallion Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: MFIN) resulting from allegations that Medallion may have issued materially misleading business information to the investing public.
SO WHAT: If you purchased Medallion securities you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement. The Rosen Law firm is preparing a class action seeking recovery of investor losses.
WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the prospective class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=3040 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action.
WHAT IS THIS ABOUT: On December 29, 2021, before the market opened, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), filed a complaint alleging Medallion and two of its corporate officers engaged in schemes in attempts to reverse the Company's declining stock price. Charges in the complaint include violating antifraud, books and records, internal controls, and anti-touting provisions of federal securities laws amongst others. On this news, Medallion's stock price fell $1.78 per share, or over 21%, on December 29, 2021.
WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually litigate securities class actions. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.
Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/.
Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Contact Information:
Laurence Rosen, Esq.
Phillip Kim, Esq.
The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.
275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Tel: (212) 686-1060
Toll Free: (866) 767-3653
Fax: (212) 202-3827
lrosen@rosenlegal.com
pkim@rosenlegal.com
cases@rosenlegal.com
www.rosenlegal.com
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HOUSTON, Nov. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Sterling Group ("Sterling"), a Houston-based, operationally focused middle market private equity firm, is delighted to announce that it has been named to Inc.'s fourth annual Founder-Friendly Investors list. Inc.'s list honors the private equity and venture capital firms with the best track record of success backing entrepreneurs, and this is the fourth consecutive year Sterling has been included on the list.
"We are committed to building long-term partnerships with entrepreneurs and founders to support their business goals and help accelerate their growth plans," said Jim Apple, a Managing Director at The Sterling Group. "Our recognition on this list speaks to the level of trust we have built with families and founders in the industrial sector over the past four decades."
Approximately 75% of Sterling platform investments in the last six years have involved partnerships with family or entrepreneur owned or operated businesses. Over the past forty years, Sterling has collaborated with numerous entrepreneur owners, working closely with management to drive fundamental improvement at each platform company.
Inc.'s 2022 List of Founder-Friendly Investors recognizes 184 firms that entrepreneurs can trust and collaborate with while receiving the financial support they need to help accelerate growth. All 184 have a successful track record of remaining actively involved in the businesses after their investment. To see the complete list, go to: https://www.inc.com/founder-friendly-investors/2022.
Founded in 1982, The Sterling Group is a private equity and private credit investment firm that targets investments in basic manufacturing, distribution, and industrial services companies. Typical enterprise values of these companies at initial formation range from $100 million to $750 million. Sterling has sponsored the buyout of 63 platform companies and numerous add-on acquisitions for a total transaction value of over $14.0 billion. Sterling currently has over $5.7 billion of assets under management. For further information, please visit www.sterling-group.com.
Past performance is no guarantee of future results and all investments are subject to loss.
Any subjective views or opinions expressed herein should not be construed as absolute statements and are subject to change without notice to you. No representation, express or implied, is given regarding the accuracy of the information contained herein. Any forward-looking statements included herein are based on The Sterling Group's current opinions, assumptions, expectations, beliefs, intentions, regarding future events, are subject to risks and uncertainties, and are provided for informational purposes only.
The Sterling Group paid a fee to be considered for this list, which was issued on October 4th, 2022 and covers the period of April 2021 to April 2022. This list is based on an analysis of information gathered by Inc. Magazine using its own methodologies and criteria, which analysis relies in part on certain subjective determinations and is subject to inherent limitations.
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SOURCE The Sterling Group, L.P. | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2022/11/28/sterling-group-named-incs-2022-list-founder-friendly-investors/ | 2022-11-28T19:58:01 | en | 0.953282 |
BERLIN (AP) — Authorities in Germany said Monday they have issued a new arrest warrant in separate cases for a German man who is also suspected in the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann in Portugal 15 years ago.
The suspect, identified by media as Christian Brueckner, is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for a rape he also committed in Portugal in 2005. His prison term is scheduled to end in September 2025.
Concerned that he might be released before standing trial again, prosecutors in the northern city of Braunschweig announced last month that they had charged the 45-year-old in five separate cases involving sexual offenses allegedly committed in Portugal between 2000 and 2017.
The Braunschweig state court said it has approved an arrest warrant on the grounds that there is “urgent reason” to believe he was behind three cases of serious rape and two cases of child sexual abuse. The arrest warrant must still be approved by authorities in Italy, where he was arrest in 2018 before being extradited to Germany.
The Braunschweig court has said a decision on whether to send the case to trial — a necessary step in the German legal process — is still pending. Due to its calendar of other cases, the opening of any trial cannot be expected before next year, it said.
Brueckner has not been charged in the McCann case, in which he remains under investigation on suspicion of murder. He spent many years in Portugal, including in the resort of Praia da Luz around the time of Madeleine’s disappearance there in 2007. He has denied any involvement in her disappearance. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-new-arrest-warrant-issued-for-mccann-suspect-in-other-cases/ | 2022-11-28T19:58:03 | en | 0.979512 |
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Analysis Demonstrates Historical Long-Term Performance Strength Compared to Passive and Active Peers
BALTIMORE, Nov. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- T. Rowe Price (NASDAQ-GS: TROW), a global investment management firm and a leader in retirement services, has released new research that shows over the last 20 years ended September 30, 2022, its actively managed funds have consistently outperformed passive peer funds – net of fees.
Looking at rolling monthly 10-year periods, findings show T. Rowe Price funds beat comparable passive fund averages 73% of the time1, more often than the aggregate of all actively managed funds—excluding T. Rowe Price—comprising the Morningstar Direct database, which did so 47% of the time2. This also compares favorably to the five largest active management firms by assets under management in the mutual fund space, whose funds, when aggregated together, have outperformed the same passive averages 62% of the time3.
The study focuses on the individual performance of 124 actively managed T. Rowe Price mutual funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), including equity, fixed income, and asset allocation funds, compared to average passive returns in the corresponding Morningstar category. Although T. Rowe Price funds are the focus, the calculation of passive averages allows comparison for more than 10,700 active funds to the passive averages representing 3,109 passive funds over 1,136,941 rolling one-year time periods. The T. Rowe Price funds reviewed represent 71% of the firm's mutual fund assets under management and 38% of the firm's total assets under management as of September 30, 2022. The equity category consisted of U.S. equity, international equity, and sector equity funds. The fixed income category included both U.S. and international bond funds.
The full study methodology can be found here.
T. Rowe Price fund performance was analyzed using two metrics: the frequency of outperformance, or active success rate, and the level of outperformance, or the average annualized excess returns over and above the determined passive average return. The passive average determining these metrics was calculated using the equally weighted average of the returns posted by the oldest share class of the passive funds in the Morningstar Direct category for each T. Rowe Price fund in the study.
RESULTS
The annualized excess returns above passive averages achieved by all T. Rowe Price equity funds across rolling 10‑year periods were, on average, 1.06% after fees and expenses. The active success rate for equity overall was 76%. When broken down by region and sector, average excess annualized returns were 0.78% for U.S. equity4, 0.64% for international equity5, and 2.59% for sector equity6. This trend of outperformance, after fees and expenses, also extended to the 1-, 3-, and 5-year periods.
T. Rowe Price fixed income funds also added value versus passive funds in comparable Morningstar Direct categories. Over 10-year rolling periods, the frequency with which T. Rowe Price fixed income funds outperformed was 59%, and the rate at which the funds exhibited less volatility than their passive peers was 75%. Volatility metrics for passive comparisons were calculated using the average standard deviation over the given period of the passive competitors in the category. The average annualized excess return, net of fees and expenses, was 0.17%. Fixed income funds averaged 0.49% less volatility, annualized, than comparable passive peers7.
More than 90% of actively managed T. Rowe Price funds have an expense ratio below the average of comparable active funds in their Morningstar category8.
Additional details on the T. Rowe Price equity fund analysis, including the funds' average annual total returns, can be found here and fixed income fund information can be found here.
In a previous study of its target date mutual funds, T. Rowe Price found that its Retirement Funds series outperformed passive in 100% of rolling monthly 10-year periods since inception and had annualized excess returns of 1.39%9. That study can be found here.
As another indication of its active management capabilities, T. Rowe Price was named by Refinitiv Lipper in March of this year as the 2022 Best Overall Large U.S. Fund Management Group. At the same time, it received 24 awards for individual fund performance from Lipper Refinitiv. More information is here.
QUOTES
Eric Veiel, CFA, Head of Global Equity and Chief Investment Officer
"At T. Rowe Price, we strongly believe in the effectiveness of skilled active management. While passive funds have a place in some client portfolios, active management that is executed properly and consistently can deliver more attractive returns over the long term. Low expense ratios are important, but in the final analysis, nothing is more important than outperformance after fees and expenses. This study demonstrates our track record of delivering for clients. Our portfolio managers have deep experience—an average of 22 years in the industry and 17 years with T. Rowe Price—and leverage a vast platform of global research analysts. The collaboration and collective commitment of all our investment professionals to our clients is second to none. This long-term success is a function of their talent and the culture that has characterized the company for more than 85 years."
Andy McCormick, Head of Global Fixed Income and Chief Investment Officer
"We were pleased to see the study results reaffirm the benefits of active management in T. Rowe Price's fixed income offerings. The balance between generating active returns and mitigating downside volatility is a key focus of our portfolio construction and risk management disciplines. Our global research platform has enabled differentiation from passive fixed income offerings, which, for a variety of reasons, often struggle to mirror the bond indices they track and could make them more volatile than actively managed bond funds. Fixed income allocations continue to be an important source of income and diversification for our clients, and we remain committed to helping them meet their investment objectives."
Sébastien Page, CFA, Head of Global Multi-Asset and Chief Investment Officer
"The success of T. Rowe Price's target date portfolios comes from multiple and diversified investment capabilities. Our goal in the multi-asset division is to deliver all of our firm's capabilities in one professionally managed solution. With strong, actively managed funds as a foundation, we believe that we can meaningfully enhance retirement outcomes for our clients through glide path design, strategic portfolio construction that delivers structural advantages and efficient diversification, and timely tactical asset allocation decisions. The study only reinforces this belief."
T. ROWE PRICE EQUITY FUNDS FACTS AND FIGURES
10-year periods, rolled monthly, from October 1, 2002, to September 30, 2022
- The average amount of better returns over passive averages (Average Annualized Excess Returns) was:
- Frequency of better returns over passive averages (Active Success Rate) was:
T. Rowe Price Fixed Income Funds Facts and Figures
10-year periods, rolled monthly, from October 1, 2002, to September 30, 2022
- The average amount of better returns over passive averages (Average Annualized Excess Returns) was +0.17% (25 funds)
- The frequency of better returns over passive averages (Active Success Rate) was 59% (1,665 rolling periods)
- The average amount of lower volatility versus passive averages (Average Annualized Volatility Differential) was -0.49% (25 funds)
- The frequency of lower volatility versus passive averages (Active Success Rate) was 75% (1,665 rolling periods)
Past performance is no guarantee of future results. All investments are subject to risk, including the possible loss of principal. Results from other time periods may differ. Active investing may have higher costs than passive investing and may underperform the broad market or passive peers with similar objectives. Passive investing may lag the performance of actively managed peers as holdings are not reallocated based on changes in market conditions or outlooks on specific securities.
View the standardized returns for the funds used in this analysis
ABOUT T. ROWE PRICE
Founded in 1937, Baltimore-based T. Rowe Price (troweprice.com) is an independent global asset management company with $1.28 trillion in assets under management as of October 31, 2022, and a local presence in 16 countries. Known for long-term investment excellence, T. Rowe Price provides an array of mutual funds, subadvisory services, exchange-traded funds, and separate account management for individual and institutional investors, consultants, retirement plan sponsors, and financial intermediaries. The company also offers sophisticated investment planning and guidance tools. Its active, strategic investing approach is disciplined, risk-aware, and based on rigorous fundamental research. T. Rowe Price helps clients invest with confidence and can be found on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube.
Research Study Methodology
Equity and Fixed Income: Comparable passive funds are (1) mutual funds and exchange traded funds classified as an "index fund" in the Morningstar Direct database and (2) in the same Morningstar category as the active funds being analyzed. All Active Managers represents the actively managed (non- "index fund") mutual funds and exchange-traded funds in the Morningstar Direct database, excluding those managed by T. Rowe Price. The performance of the T. Rowe Price active funds and the All Active Managers funds were compared against the comparable passive funds using 10-year rolling monthly periods from 10/1/2002 to 9/30/2022. The analysis was conducted at the Morningstar category level analyzing all open-end funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) within U.S. Morningstar categories where passive funds are present. Oldest share class returns are used for analysis. Money market funds are excluded from the analysis.
Target Date: The target date funds included in the combined portfolios were (1) defined as passive by Morningstar in its most recent annual Target‐Date Strategy Landscape report, (2) open and available to investors as of September 30, 2022, and (3) in the Morningstar universe sharing the same target date as each Retirement Fund. Combined portfolios were equally weighted and based on the oldest share class of each competing passive target date fund. The Retirement 2005 Fund was excluded from the study, as it had a limited number of passive peer constituents in the Morningstar universe; the Retirement 2060 and 2065 Funds were excluded due to lack of a 10‐year track record.
The principal value of the Retirement Funds is not guaranteed at any time, including at or after the target date, which is the approximate year an investor plans to retire (assumed to be age 65) and likely stop making new investments in the fund. If an investor plans to retire significantly earlier or later than age 65, the funds may not be an appropriate investment even if
the investor is retiring on or near the target date. The funds' allocations among a broad range of underlying T. Rowe Price stock and bond funds will change over time. The funds emphasize potential capital appreciation during the early phases of retirement asset accumulation, balance the need for appreciation with the need for income as retirement approaches, and focus on supporting an income stream over a long-term postretirement withdrawal horizon. The funds are not designed for a lump-sum redemption at the target date and do not guarantee a particular level of income. The funds maintain a substantial allocation to equities both prior to and after the target date, which can result in greater volatility over shorter time horizons.
1 80 funds covering 7,218 rolling 10-year periods.
2 4,628 funds covering 346,577 rolling 10-year periods, excluding T. Rowe Price.
3 455 funds covering 39,690 rolling 10-year periods. The active assets under management (AUM) as of 9/30/22 across all funds considered in the analysis are aggregated and those funds offered at any point in the analysis period by the largest five active fund managers by AUM, identified by Morningstar, other than T. Rowe Price are grouped together here. Source: Morningstar.
4 24 funds covering 2,681 rolling 10-year periods.
5 17 funds covering 1,447 rolling 10-year periods.
6 8 funds covering 895 rolling 10-year periods.
7 25 funds covering 1,665 rolling 10-year periods.
8 Data as of 9/30/2022. Source: © 2022 Morningstar. Analysis by T. Rowe Price.103 of 114 T. Rowe Price active, nonmoney market funds had expense ratios below the average of all active funds in their Morningstar category. Oldest share class used. Active funds are those funds classified as non-index funds in the Morningstar Direct database. The expense ratios used in this analysis are the gross prospectus expense ratios as reported by Morningstar. Some funds have expense limitations in place, so actual fees experienced may have been lower.
910 funds covering 896 rolling 10-year periods.
Call 1-800-225-5132 to request a prospectus or summary prospectus; each includes investment objectives, risks, fees, expenses, and other information that you should read and consider carefully before investing.
T. Rowe Price Investment Services, Inc., distributor, T. Rowe Price mutual funds.
Additional Disclosure
©2022 Morningstar, Inc. All rights reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete, or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or loses arising from any use of this information. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
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SOURCE T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2022/11/28/t-rowe-price-releases-research-study-its-active-funds/ | 2022-11-28T19:58:07 | en | 0.939964 |
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An Iranian general on Monday acknowledged that more than 300 people have been killed in the unrest surrounding nationwide protests, giving the first official word on casualties in two months.
That estimate is considerably lower than the toll reported by Human Rights Activists in Iran, a U.S.-based group that has been closely tracking the protests since they erupted after the Sept. 16 death of a young woman being held by the country’s morality police.
The activist group says 451 protesters and 60 security forces have been killed since the start of the unrest and that more than 18,000 people have been detained.
The protests were sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was detained for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code. They quickly escalated into calls for the overthrow of Iran’s theocracy and pose one of the most serious challenges to the ruling clerics since the 1979 revolution that brought them to power.
Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the aerospace division of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, was quoted by a website close to the Guard as saying that more than 300 people have been killed, including “martyrs,” an apparent reference to security forces. He also suggested that many of those killed were ordinary Iranians not involved in the protests.
He did not provide an exact figure or say where his estimate came from.
Authorities have heavily restricted media coverage of the protests. State-linked media have not reported an overall toll and have largely focused on attacks on security forces, which officials blame on shadowy militant and separatist groups.
Hajizadeh reiterated the official claim that the protests have been fomented by Iran’s enemies, including Western countries and Saudi Arabia, without providing evidence. The protesters say they are fed up after decades of social and political repression, and deny having any foreign agenda.
The protests have spread across the country and drawn support from artists, athletes and other public figures. The unrest has even cast a shadow over the World Cup, with some Iranians actively rooting against their own national team because they see it as being linked to the government.
The niece of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei recently called on people to pressure their governments to cut ties with Tehran over its violent suppression of the demonstrations.
In a video posted online by her France-based brother, Farideh Moradkhani urged “conscientious people of the world” to support Iranian protesters. The video was shared online this week after Moradkhani’s reported arrest on Nov. 23, according to the activist group.
Moradkhani is a long-time activist whose late father was an opposition figure married to Khamenei’s sister and is the closest member of the supreme leader’s family to be arrested. The branch of the family has opposed Khamenei for decades and Moradkhani has been imprisoned on previous occasions for her activism.
“I ask the conscientious people of the world to stand by us and ask their governments not to react with empty words and slogans but with real action and stop any dealings with this regime,” she said in her video statement.
The protests, now in their third month, have continued despite a brutal crackdown by Iranian security forces using live ammunition, rubber bullets and tear gas.
Iran refuses to cooperate with a fact-finding mission that the U.N. Human Rights Council recently voted to establish.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran will not engage in any cooperation, whatsoever, with the political committee,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said Monday.
In a separate development, Iran released a 76-year-old dual Iranian-Austrian citizen from prison for health reasons, the Austria Press Agency reported.
APA quoted the Austrian Foreign Ministry confirming that Massud Mossaheb was given indefinite medical leave. The ministry said “intensive diplomatic efforts” had led to his release, which was first reported by Austrian daily Die Presse. There was no immediate comment from Iran.
Mossaheb was arrested on suspicion of espionage in early 2019 during a visit to the capital, Tehran, and later sentenced to 10 years in prison. He must remain in Iran and report to authorities every other week, APA reported.
Iran has detained several dual nationals in recent years on charges of threatening national security. Analysts and rights groups accuse hard-liners in Iran’s security agencies of using foreign detainees as bargaining chips in negotiations or prisoner swaps with the West, which Tehran denies. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-niece-of-supreme-leader-asks-world-to-cut-ties-with-iran/ | 2022-11-28T19:58:09 | en | 0.975721 |
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NEW YORK, Nov. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --
WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of the securities of Unisys Corporation (NYSE: UIS) between August 3, 2022 and November 7, 2022, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), of the important January 10, 2023 lead plaintiff deadline.
SO WHAT: If you purchased Unisys securities during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement.
WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the Unisys class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=9648 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than January 10, 2023. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.
WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually handle securities class actions, but are merely middlemen that refer clients or partner with law firms that actually litigate the cases. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.
DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, throughout the Class Period, defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) the Company's 2022 financial guidance was significantly overstated; (2) accordingly, once the truth was revealed, it was likely that the Company would be required to negatively revise its 2022 financial guidance; (3) in addition to the foregoing, material weaknesses existed in the Company's internal control over financial reporting; and (4) as a result of all of the foregoing, the Company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.
To join the Unisys class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=9648 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action.
No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff.
Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/.
Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Contact Information:
Laurence Rosen, Esq.
Phillip Kim, Esq.
The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.
275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Tel: (212) 686-1060
Toll Free: (866) 767-3653
Fax: (212) 202-3827
lrosen@rosenlegal.com
pkim@rosenlegal.com
cases@rosenlegal.com
www.rosenlegal.com
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SOURCE Rosen Law Firm, P.A. | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2022/11/28/uis-shareholder-alert-rosen-top-ranked-global-counsel-encourages-unisys-corporation-investors-secure-counsel-before-important-deadline-securities-class-action-uis/ | 2022-11-28T19:58:13 | en | 0.916856 |
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani authorities launched a new nationwide anti-polio drive on Monday amid a spike in new cases among children, health officials said. It is the sixth such campaign this year and will last for five days, aiming to inoculate children under the age of 5 in high-risk areas.
The newest drive was aimed at Islamabad and in the high-risk districts in eastern Punjab and southwestern Baluchistan province. A similar campaign will be launched in the northwest in the first week of December.
Pakistan regularly launches polio campaigns despite attacks on workers and police assigned to inoculation drives. Militants falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children. Since April, Pakistan has registered 20 new polio cases and the outbreak has been seen as a blow to the efforts to eradicate the disease, which can cause severe paralysis in children.
Pakistan came close to eradicating polio last year, when only one case was reported.
Since then, the new cases have been reported in the northwest, forcing the government to launch anti-polio drives at small intervals in high-risk areas across the country. The last such campaign was launched earlier this month.
Pakistan’s anti-polio campaigns are also supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which last month pledged $1.2 billion to the effort to end polio worldwide. The money will be used for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative’s strategy through 2026. The initiative is aimed at ending the polio virus in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the last two endemic countries, the foundation said last month. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-pakistan-launches-new-anti-polio-drive-amid-spike-in-cases/ | 2022-11-28T19:58:15 | en | 0.957179 |
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Twenty years ago, Crocs clogs were introduced as simple, comfortable boat shoes. Customers came to know the brand for being soft, lightweight, odor-resistant and waterproof. Wear them with cozy socks or slip them on your bare feet. Today, more than 100 million pairs have been sold.
If you live in Crocs clogs or have been thinking about trying them, Walmart has several pairs on sale today for Cyber Monday.
Unisex Baya Crocs Clogs
Baya Crocs are a twist on classic Crocs clogs. They have the same lightweight durability and are fully molded for comfort but with advanced ventilation. Because of this, they’re ideal if you want a breathable shoe or can quickly drain water and debris.
These Crocs have 4.7 stars and more than 7,800 reviews on Walmart.com. Customers say they are comfortable and easy to slip on.
“Bought a blue pair for myself and a pink pair for my mom,” wrote a reviewer named Miranda. “We both love them! They fit great and are really comfortable! They are perfect for slipping on for running errands or just chilling around the house.”
Several reviewers reported that the Crocs clogs run a bit large, so if you are in between sizes, you may want to go smaller.
These Crocs are available in a dozen colors, such as Graphite, Bright Cobalt and Tie-Dye. They are usually $56.72, but right now, you can get them for $24.99 when you purchase them online.
Unisex Crocband Crocs Clogs
Crocband Crocs have a bold midsole stripe that gives them a sportier appearance. These Crocs have over 5,100 reviews and 4.4 stars on Walmart.com. Customers say they are as cute as they are comfy.
“So I’m going to tell you that I never saw myself wearing crocs. I’m the dress-up girl with heels,” wrote a reviewer named Salvina. “Not anymore. I bought two pairs of crocs and I absolutely love them; they’re comfortable and convenient and they look great with shorts, jeans, just about anything. I’ve had so many compliments on them since I started wearing them and everyone, I know, went out and ordered theirs.”
Some reviewers said these Crocs clogs tend to run small, so bear this in mind when shopping.
These Crocs come in 13 styles, such as Blossom and White, Charcoal and Ocean and Espresso and Khaki. They usually sell for $95, but today you can get them deeply discounted at $29.99 from Walmart.com.
Kids Baya Crocs Clogs
You don’t have to leave out your littlest family members, as there are also kids’ clogs on sale at Walmart.com. The crocs Kids Bayas are a scaled-down version of the adult clogs.
They come in children’s sizes 11 to 3 and in four colors: Black, Navy, Ocean and Pink Lemonade. The usual price for these slip-on kids’ shoes is about $40, but right now, you can get them for $21 when you shop online.
These prices won’t last, so if you want Crocs clogs under the tree for your whole family, now is the time to shop.
This story originally appeared on Don't Waste Your Money. Checkout Don't Waste Your Money for product reviews and other great ideas to save and make money. | https://www.wtxl.com/get-crocs-clogs-for-just-25-today | 2022-11-28T19:58:19 | en | 0.968577 |
Updated November 28, 2022 at 1:20 PM ET
Another crypto company has fallen, as contagion from the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX spreads across the industry: BlockFi says it has filed for bankruptcy.
Lender BlockFi was one of a handful of companies FTX bailed out in recent months, and its prospects worsened considerably as FTX imploded.
A little more than two weeks ago, the once mighty crypto giant FTX - founded by Sam Bankman-Fried to bring everyday people into the opaque world of virtual currencies - filed for bankruptcy. In the days since, the crypto industry, Wall Street, and even federal regulators have been on the outlook for the next domino to fall, wondering if the end of crypto is in sight or if wider financial stability is under threat.
Announcing its plans to file for Chapter 11 reorganization in New Jersey, where the company is based, BlockFi noted FTX's own bankruptcy proceedings will lead to delays.
"Rest assured, we will continue to work on recovering all obligations owed to BlockFi as promptly as practicable," the company said in a letter to customers.
BlockFi had halted withdrawals and asked its customers not to make any deposits. The company said on Monday that activities on its platform continue to be "paused at this time."
One of the country's three major ratings agencies, Fitch Ratings, said the bankruptcy filing raises alarms.
BlockFi's restructuring underscores "significant" risks of contagion within the "crypto ecosystem," as well as potential deficiencies in how the companies manage risks, said Monsur Husain, a senior director at the agency.
BlockFi has close ties to FTX and the scrutiny of regulators
Almost every area of the industry has been suffering through a "crypto winter" this year. The value of bitcoin, the best known virtual currency, is down about 65%.
But BlockFi was especially at risk of collapsing in recent days because it has "significant exposure to FTX and associated corporate entities," as the company's co-founders, CEO Zac Prince and COO Flori Marquez, put it in a letter to customers two weeks ago.
"We are deeply saddened to see the devastation that is cascading across an industry that we love and believe in, touching the lives of so many people," they wrote.
During the summer, FTX agreed to provide BlockFi with a $400 million revolving credit facility, to use as a backstop, in exchange for the option to buy the company for as much as $240 million.
"Ultimately, we found a great partner in FTX US, who shares our commitment to clients," Prince and Marquez said at the time.
BlockFi had blamed its predicament then on "crypto market volatility" and a broader market downturn.
It was further hurt when another crypto lending platform, Celsius, filed for bankruptcy in June. While BlockFi said it didn't have any direct exposure to the competitor, it still saw an uptick in customer withdrawals. Shortly thereafter, BlockFi suffered about $80 million in losses when the crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital collapsed.
And in June, BlockFi announced it was cutting its staff by about 20%.
But BlockFi's problems go beyond market or macroeconomic conditions.
Earlier this month, California's Department of Financial Protection and Innovation temporarily suspended BlockFi's license to make and broker loans for 30 days, pending investigation.
The company had already settled charges with the top regulator for Wall Street, the Securities and Exchange Commission, for $50 million, and agreed to pay an additional $50 million fine to more than 30 state regulators in February.
The SEC said BlockFi failed to register its crypto lending product with the commission and underplayed the the risks it was waking by making "a false and misleading statement for more than two years on its website concerning the level of risk in its portfolio and lending activity."
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.kunm.org/npr-news/2022-11-28/crypto-company-blockfi-declares-bankruptcy-in-the-first-big-aftershock-of-ftxs-fall | 2022-11-28T19:58:19 | en | 0.972495 |
2 adults, 1 child found dead at Ark. home
Published: Nov. 28, 2022 at 11:01 AM CST|Updated: 3 hours ago
MADISON, Ark. (WMC) - Three people were found dead with gunshot wounds in Forrest City, Arkansas, on Monday morning.
Their bodies were found inside a home around 2 a.m. in the Crow Creek community along Gore Street, according to the St. Francis County medical examiner.
Two adults and one child were all found dead.
Police are investigating the deaths as a homicide.
Forrest City School District says the child went to school there. They released this statement:
There’s no word on any possible arrests.
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Copyright 2022 WMC. All rights reserved. | https://www.wlbt.com/2022/11/28/2-adults-1-child-found-dead-ark-home/ | 2022-11-28T19:58:20 | en | 0.969755 |
V Week's "Help Cancer Research Win" Theme is Supported Through Key Activations and Events Using the Power of Sport to Accelerate Victory Over Cancer®
CARY, N.C., Nov. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The V Foundation for Cancer Research, a top-rated cancer research charity, is pleased to announce its year-end initiatives, including the 16th annual V Week for Cancer Research. Starting with Giving Tuesday on Nov. 29 and concluding on Dec. 11, this year's V Week will include a variety of activities and fundraising opportunities across ESPN and the V Foundation platforms by highlighting Jim Valvano's legacy through the V Foundation and encouraging donations to fund life-saving cancer research.
"This is our biggest moment of the year," said V Foundation CEO Shane Jacobson. "A time when we get to collaborate with our founding partner, ESPN, to celebrate the great Jim Valvano and raise awareness on the national stage of the impact cancer research has on saving lives."
During V Week, ESPN and the V Foundation will encourage viewers to "Help Cancer Research Win." In his famous ESPYS speech, Jim said research "may save someone you love." Today, there are 18 million cancer survivors living in the United States, and that number is expected to be 22.1 million by 2030. The V Foundation awards 100% of its direct donations to cancer research and programs and has proudly awarded over $310 million for cutting-edge cancer research.
Viewers can join the fight through a variety of initiatives, including:
- 2022 V Week Campaign (Nov. 29 through Dec. 11): The campaign featured throughout this year's V Week centers around effort and support. The V Foundation started with a moment nearly 30 years ago with a speech, and the moment we're all aiming for is to achieve Victory Over Cancer®. Valvano's moment was only possible due to the support and physical assistance of his dearest friends and family. To achieve Victory Over Cancer®, it will require effort and support, and the campaign brings this to life in a variety of heartfelt ways.
As part of the campaign, ESPN is working with Disney and multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter Allegra Miles on "Stronger Than You Know," an original song developed to support overall V Week efforts throughout the 12-day activities and programming across ESPN platforms.
- Giving Tuesday (Nov. 29): ESPN and the V Foundation will promote the importance of joining the fight to "Help Cancer Research Win," further supporting the V Foundation's funding of the top innovative, game-changing researchers in the country. Messaging begins on ESPN Radio at 6 a.m. ET, and it continues throughout Giving Tuesday and V Week. Supporters can give at v.org/donate.
- The ESPN Roadblock (Nov. 30): At 7 p.m. ET, ESPN will dedicate all programming to sharing inspiration from Jim Valvano, Dick Vitale, Stuart Scott and others to help kick off V Week. This will include a complete re-air of Jim's timeless ESPYS speech from nearly 30 years ago.
- Stuart Scott Fight Like Hell Night (Dec. 3): UFC is dedicating its fight on Dec. 3 to the Stuart Scott Memorial Cancer Research Fund. Scott had a strong connection to mixed martial arts and trained during his treatments. Fight Like Hell Night will feature Stuart Scott-related content throughout fight night. UFC also will donate to the Stuart Scott Fund.
- The 28th Annual Jimmy V Classic (Dec. 4 and 6): This year, eight teams will take the court for the men's and women's Jimmy V Classic on ESPN. On Dec. 4, the women's events will take place on campus sites, with Virginia Tech visiting Tennessee and the UConn Huskies visiting Notre Dame. The men's event will take place on Dec. 6 at Madison Square Garden with back-to-back games beginning with Illinois vs. Texas, followed by Iowa vs. Duke.
- The Inaugural Jimmy V Classic Challenge (Nov. 22 – Dec. 9): The Jimmy V Classic is being elevated this year as all eight schools participating in the event will collectively raise dollars for cancer research. The money raised will be split 50/50 between V Foundation funded grants and local research initiatives supported by each school and approved by the V Foundation. Fans can support their team by visiting v.org/jimmyv.
- My Cause, My Cleats (Dec. 4): In conjunction with the NFL's My Cause, My Cleats initiative, V Foundation Board Member Russell Wilson of the Denver Broncos, and Nick Bolton of the Kansas City Chiefs, will dedicate their cleats to the V Foundation to show their passion for cancer research. Both players' one-of-a-kind cleats will be auctioned off following the game with funds raised benefiting cancer research. Wilson's cleats will promote the V Foundation and his Why Not You Foundation and will be dedicated to those affected by cancer, including close friend and business partner Trevor Moawad who sadly passed away from cancer last year. Bolton will wear one pink cleat for breast cancer and one gray cleat for brain cancer. Bolton's mother and sister are both survivors, so each cleat will have their name and the date they declared Victory Over Cancer®.
- Boo-Yah! A Celebration of Stuart Scott (Dec. 5): In New York City, the V Foundation will host this signature event as a tribute to the late Stuart Scott with co-hosts actor Hill Harper and SportsCenter anchor Stan Verrett along with featured guests, and Scott's daughters, Taelor and Sydni Scott. Funds raised at the event will benefit the Stuart Scott Fund dedicated to tackling racial disparities in cancer outcomes. The fund has raised over $16 million to date. Tickets are available at v.org.
- The 12 Days of V Week Giveaway: During V Week, the V Foundation will be giving away merchandise "swag" to lucky winners through their social media channels. Participants may follow @theVFoundation on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn for details on how to enter.
Throughout V Week, ESPN and the V Foundation will highlight stories from cancer survivors including Andrew Jones, a former basketball player at the University of Texas who battled cancer and has since donated a portion of his NIL funds to the V Foundation, and Patrick McCaffery from the University of Iowa men's basketball team, who battled thyroid cancer at the age of 14.
"Victory Over Cancer® is something I am forever grateful for, and I will continue to be an advocate and role model for cancer research," said McCaffery. "Anything you can do with Jimmy V's name attached is special. I'm forever grateful to play on the big stage of the Jimmy V Classic and embody Jim's 'Don't give up. Don't ever give up' mantra."
"Each year, we make positive strides in achieving Victory Over Cancer®, stemming from the iconic moment when Jim Valvano gave his speech from the ESPYS stage nearly 30 years ago," said Kevin Martinez, vice president of ESPN Corporate Citizenship. "It's remarkable to look back at that moment and flash forward to where we are now and be proud of the progress. However, we are not done. We have more moments — including this V Week — to collectively come together to donate and support this cause as we continue in the fight against cancer."
The V Foundation holds 11 consecutive 4-star (highest) ratings from Charity Navigator, America's largest evaluator of charities, and is among the top 2% of all charities evaluated. The V Foundation is a GuideStar Platinum-rated charity.
For more information, visit the V Foundation's new website at v.org. The new site amplifies the stories of impact of cancer research, the people leading this work and cancer thrivers who have benefitted from research to make progress towards the V Foundation's vision of Victory Over Cancer®.
The V Foundation for Cancer Research was founded in 1993 by ESPN and the late Jim Valvano, legendary North Carolina State University basketball coach and ESPN commentator. The V Foundation has funded over $310 million in game-changing cancer research grants nationwide through a competitive process strictly supervised by a world-class Scientific Advisory Committee. Because the V Foundation has an endowment to cover administrative expenses, 100% of direct donations is awarded to cancer research and programs. The V team is committed to accelerating Victory Over Cancer®. To learn more, visit v.org.
ESPN believes that, at its very best, sports uplift the human spirit. Its corporate citizenship programs use power of sport to positively address society's needs through strategic community investments, cause marketing programs, collaboration with sports organizations and employee volunteerism, while also utilizing its diverse media assets. For more information go to www.espn.com/citizenship.
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SOURCE The V Foundation | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2022/11/28/v-foundation-announces-16th-annual-v-week-cancer-research-with-founding-partner-espn/ | 2022-11-28T19:58:20 | en | 0.949807 |
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — When John Fetterman goes to Washington in January as one of the Senate’s new members, he’ll bring along an irreverent style from Pennsylvania that extends from his own personal dress code — super casual — to hanging marijuana flags outside his current office in the state Capitol.
Pennsylvania’s unique lieutenant governor, who just flipped the state’s open Senate seat to Democrats, may be the only senator ever to be declared an “American taste god” — as GQ magazine once did.
The 6-foot-8 Fetterman will tower over the currently tallest senator, Republican Tom Cotton of Arkansas by 3 inches. And he might be the most tattooed senator (if not the only tattooed senator).
He may break some things: He can be aggressively progressive, campaigning hard on a pledge to rid the Senate of the filibuster rule. He also might become the Senate’s biggest media attraction: He’s plainspoken and, especially on social media, has a wicked wit.
He has a fan in Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, whom Fetterman endorsed for president in 2016 when Sanders was the insurgent Democrat challenging the establishment favorite in the primary, Hillary Clinton.
Sanders called Fetterman’s race the nation’s marquee contest — a victory for a progressive candidate who focused on economic issues, middle-class struggle and the increasing enrichment of the rich.
“And I think if there’s any candidate who was running more than anybody else, who identified with the working class, who made clear it that he was going to Washington to represent working people, it was John Fetterman,” Sanders told The Associated Press.
Fetterman has played down his own progressivism. Instead, he said the Democratic Party has come around to his long-held positions — such as legalizing marijuana — and has held himself out as a Democrat who votes like a Democrat.
On the campaign trail, Fetterman said he would like to emulate his fellow Pennsylvania Democrat, third-term Sen. Bob Casey, an institution in the state’s politics who campaigned for Fetterman and is lending his chief of staff to help oversee Fetterman’s transition.
Casey doesn’t expect Fetterman’s progressive politics will sideline him, saying Democrats already have a broad coalition that can get things done, such as President Joe Biden’s infrastructure legislation and massive health care and climate change bill.
“I think you see a kind of a broad coalition that’s going to hold together to, you know, to move the country forward. So I think John will fit well into that,” Casey said. “And there’ll be times when he’s got an issue that he wants to pursue that not everyone will want, but we can work through those.”
Fetterman, 53, is fresh off winning the midterm election’s most expensive — and, probably, most unusual — race for Senate.
In the middle of the campaign, Fetterman survived, then recovered from a stroke that he says almost killed him. He went on to beat Dr. Mehmet Oz, the heart surgeon-turned-TV celebrity who spent $27 million of his own money after moving from New Jersey to run.
Fetterman still suffers from auditory processing disorder — a stroke’s common aftereffect — that could require him to use closed-captioning in hearings, meetings and debates. It also could possibly limit his ability to engage in the common practice of giving interviews to reporters in Senate corridors.
Fetterman’s fashion sensibility — he sports hoodies and shorts, even in winter — came up on the campaign trail, when Republicans plastered him as someone who dresses like a teenager living in his parents’ basement. At one campaign event for Oz, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., jokingly told the crowd that Oz at least “wears pants.”
In the Senate, Fetterman will be joining the clubbiest of clubs, 100 of the nation’s ultimate insiders: millionaires, scions and king — or queen — makers. His supporters very much see him taking to the Senate differently: as an outsider.
Fetterman became something of a progressive hero without the party’s help, attracting a following as the mayor of a Pittsburgh satellite community. In that role, he performed same-sex marriages before they were legal and got arrested in a demonstration after Pittsburgh’s regional health care giant closed a hospital in Braddock, his poverty-wracked town.
“He’s for us — not for the big movie stars or the big people who have all the money. He’s for the little Pennsylvania guys,” said one supporter, Lydia Thomas.
In a possible preview to his Senate tenure, Fetterman’s campaign struck a balance between insiderism and outsiderism.
He has forged bonds with Casey and Gov. Tom Wolf and got high-profile campaign trail help from Biden and former President Barack Obama. But as lieutenant governor, he forged a reputation as someone who didn’t schmooze with state lawmakers and, as a candidate, who didn’t kiss party insiders’ rings.
When it came time for the state Democratic Party to endorse in the four-way Senate primary, Fetterman dismissed it as transactional; his campaign slagged it off as an “inside game.”
On the campaign trail, Fetterman regularly used Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia as a foil, suggesting Manchin doesn’t vote like a Democrat should and won’t get rid of the filibuster.
At one packed county Democratic party breakfast, he asked voters if there were any “Joe Manchin Democrats” in the room. Nobody spoke up. Then Fetterman told them that a Democrat who doesn’t support eliminating the filibuster “must believe that there are 10 or 12 Republican senators of conscience.” Manchin’s office wouldn’t comment.
It’s not clear that Fetterman views himself as an outsider, or that he intended to run that way. He has dismissed questions about his style or how he would fit into the Senate, saying it should be the least of anyone’s concerns given the stakes.
“Here’s what I promise to never to do: I promise to never incite a riot on Capitol Hill. I promise to never stand up on the floor of the Senate after I’ve been driven from it by a bunch of rioters and lie about our election in Pennsylvania,” Fetterman said in an interview last year.
During the 2020 presidential campaign, Fetterman was in high demand from TV networks and carried Biden’s shield. As a senator, he may again be in high demand on the Sunday talk shows. And his social media feeds will bear watching: His campaign trolled Oz relentlessly, and he sometimes spits out cuss words when describing things he doesn’t like.
Then there’s his wardrobe. Fetterman has said that he will wear a suit in the Senate chamber and, sure enough, when he showed up for orientation earlier this month, he wore one. He isn’t entirely a stranger to dressing up; he has worn a suit while presiding as lieutenant governor in the state Senate.
Senate aides aren’t sure if the Senate dress code is written down anywhere. And while men are expected to wear jackets and ties, Casey suggests that the dress code isn’t always enforced.
“Lately I’ve seen certain Republican members whose names I will not reveal — but if you watch closely on the video, you can see — have showed up without ties, or sometimes without a jacket,” Casey said.
Fetterman has not always shown reverence for job expectations or requirements he may not like. For instance, as mayor of Braddock, he skipped roughly one-third of the borough council meetings during his 13 years in office, records show.
He skipped dozens of voting sessions in the state Senate during his four years as lieutenant governor, including eight of nine days this fall while he was on the campaign trail. When he did show up to preside, Republican senators complained that he showed a lack of interest in learning the rules of order.
Twice, Republican senators went through extraordinary procedural maneuvers to remove him as the presiding officer in the middle of a voting session, contending he had willfully defied rules of order to help fellow Democrats in partisan showdowns.
Not only that, but he ruffled feathers by hanging flags — such as the pro-marijuana legalization and LGBTQ and transgender-rights flags — from the door of the lieutenant governor’s office and its second-floor outdoor balcony that overlooks the state Capitol’s sweeping front steps.
Republicans, complaining he was turning his Capitol office into a dorm room, slipped a provision into lame-duck budget legislation to stop it — prompting Fetterman to lampoon them as marshaling the “gay pride police.”
The U.S. Senate will have its own partisanship and its own transactional dealings between members. Casey says Fetterman is prepared for it, having been a mayor and lieutenant governor. What may be the biggest change for Fetterman, Casey said, is the demand on his time that will keep him in Washington and away from his wife and three school-age children.
“Your life becomes — because of the schedule of votes and hearings — the time in Washington and that’s different,” Casey said. “Most people don’t have that kind of schedule where … sometimes you’re in Washington more than the state that you represent.”
___
Associated Press national political writer Steve Peoples and video journalist Jessie Wardarski contributed to this report. Follow Marc Levy on Twitter: http://twitter.com/timelywriter | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-pennsylvania-campaign-wildcard-fetterman-turns-to-governing/ | 2022-11-28T19:58:22 | en | 0.970221 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/nba/san-antonio-spurs/articles/41676463 | 2022-11-28T19:58:24 | en | 0.738227 |
The products and services mentioned below were selected independent of sales and advertising. However, Don't Waste Your Money may receive a small commission from the purchase of any products or services through an affiliate link to the retailer's website.
Cyber Monday deals keep on coming, and Walmart has a deal on a Hoover vacuum that may be too good to pass up.
While a vacuum may not be the first thing people think of giving as a gift at the holidays, let’s be honest: We all need one, and it can be a fantastic gift for new homeowners or apartment renters. And at this price point, this Hoover vacuum might be a good addition to your home, too! Maybe think about grabbing one of these for yourself, wrapping it up and putting it under the tree from your partner or Santa.
The Hoover MAXLife PowerDrive Elite Bagless Upright Vaccum is marked down 50% to the low price of $59, reduced from its regular price of $119. This model is built for deep cleaning and easy maneuvering.
This Hoover vacuum has a bagless container with a HEPA media filter that captures 99.97% of dust and particles. A scatter guard is included to help contain dirt during vacuuming. Dual cyclone technology allows the vacuum to clean deeply into carpets and easily sweep up hard surface floors.
Also included with the Hoover vacuum is a telescoping extension wand, crevice tool and 2-in-1 upholstery/dusting tool. These tools, along with the Swivel Steering mechanism, make this vacuum ideal for reaching even the tricky spots in the house.
Looking for more Cyber Monday deals from Walmart? Check out these savings on other helpful household items:
Shark Vertex Cordless Stick Vacuum, $199 (reg. price $349)
Maybe you’re looking for a cordless stick vacuum. Walmart has slashed the price of this Shark Vertex Cordless Stick model by more than 40% from the regular retail price.
This lightweight cordless vacuum makes it simple to clean just about anywhere in the house. It comes with two rechargeable batters and each one has a 25-minute runtime. The flexible wand moves to give access to sweeping floors and carpets under furniture. And, it has a removable hand vac to clean upholstery, curtains and more.
Walmart customer and SharkNinja user Sarahval wrote in her 5-star review that the vacuum is “small and compact” but works so well by folding and maneuvering into almost any space to clean.
eufy RoboVac LR20, $199 (reg. price $499)
For a completely hands-off cleaning experience, grab this deal on the eufy RoboVac for 50% off the retail price.
With a rechargeable battery that can last up to 2,000 square feet, this RoboVac has laser navigation to help it get around the house easily and avoid getting stuck on obstructions or even changing surfaces such as hard surfaces or rugs.
The smartphone app allows users to set up a daily cleaning schedule for one or multiple rooms. And, the high-pressure suction capability allows this eufy RoboVac to pick up pet hair, dust and dropped crumbs with ease.
Hoover Spotless Portable Carpet and Upholstery Spot Cleaner, $78 (reg. price $129)
This Hoover carpet and spot cleaner can help tackle the harder-to-clean messes on rugs and furniture. It is compact enough to move from room to room easily. Yet, it has enough power to clean up everything from everyday spills, mud and even pet messes.
Included with this cleaner is a self-cleaning hose, a dual-chambered tank to keep dirty and clean water separated, a furniture tool attachment and a bottle of cleaning solution.
Cosori Lite 4-QT Smart Air Fryer, $69.99 (reg. price $99.99)
Let’s move away from cleaning and get into the kitchen for this Cyber Monday deal! The Cosori Lite 4-Quart Air Fryer has built-in smart technology to make this convenient appliance even more helpful!
This cooker may be compact in size but has big power to make quick and healthy meals. The inner basket and crisper plate are both nonstick and dishwasher safe. A smartphone app allows wireless/remote control to set timers and cooking functions with just the touch of a button. The air fryer can even be connected to voice command via Amazon Alexa. Also included with the app are more than 150 recipes to try with the Corsori Lite Air Fryer.
Cherie, a Walmart customer who bought the Corsori Lite Air Fryer, wrote in her 5-star review that she got this appliance as an upgrade.
“This product is so easy to use and is the perfect size,” she wrote in her review. “Everything I air fry turns out super crispy! I actually didn’t think I would use the smart feature, but now I love it!”
XBOX Series X Replica 8 Can Mini Fridge, $55 (reg. price $99)
Gamers need refreshments, and what better way to keep their drinks cool than this mini-fridge made to look like an XBOX game console.
Whether you get this for a basement game room or a man cave, this mini fridge (marked down $44 from the normal retail price) is a fun and useful addition to the home. Tucked away in this clever cooler, any gamer can keep his or her favorite beverage cold and ready to go.
This story originally appeared on Don't Waste Your Money. Checkout Don't Waste Your Money for product reviews and other great ideas to save and make money. | https://www.wtxl.com/hoover-vacuum-is-on-sale-for-59-at-walmarts-cyber-monday | 2022-11-28T19:58:27 | en | 0.949704 |
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Protesters gathered Monday at the home of Poland’s ruling party leader to vent anger at what they regard as an erosion of women’s rights under his conservative government and a recent remark about women using alcohol.
The protesters who gathered outside Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s house spoke out against a near total ban on abortion pushed by his Law and Justice party that took effect last year, as well as policies that discourage in-vitro fertilization procedures.
Women’s Strike, a prominent women’s rights movement, called people to the streets only after Kaczynski earlier this month blamed Poland’s low birthrate partly on young women drinking too much alcohol.
Other demonstrations were taking place in a handful of Polish cities.
While the alcohol comment angered many at the time, the outrage appeared to have subsided as the protest was much smaller than some of the Women’s Strike-led demonstrations of the past year, some of which were huge.
Some people accuse Kaczynski, a 73-year-old bachelor, of being out of touch and not understanding all the reasons that make it difficult today for women to decide to have children.
Women’s Strike says there are many reasons for the country’s low birth rate, including Poland’s de facto prohibition of abortion, a lack of general access to sexual education and in vitro procedures, high inflation, a housing shortage and a lack of access to day care centers.
The protest was being held on a symbolic day: the 104th anniversary of women winning voting rights in Poland, among the world’s earliest.
Kaczynski said at a news conference ahead of the protest that he didn’t understand why the protesters chose to demonstrate in front of his home “since I have always been a supporter of full equality for women.” | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-poles-vent-anger-at-leader-over-his-policies-ideas-on-women/ | 2022-11-28T19:58:28 | en | 0.977487 |
BRISBANE, Australia, Nov. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- TernX Carry On has been named by TIME the world's first carry on luggage stroller one of the Best Inventions of the year (https://time.com/collection/best-inventions-2022/6224793/ternx-carry-on/) - that are changing how people live, work, play, and think about what's possible.
An essential travel upgrade "making airport travel with kids a whole lot easier".
To compile the list, TIME solicited nominations from TIME's editors and correspondents around the world, and through an online application process, evaluated each contender on a number of key factors, including originality, efficacy, ambition, and impact.
TernX is set to revolutionize how parents travel by solving family travel challenges with their innovative and forward-thinking products. Safety remains at the heart of what they do. If it is important to families, it's important to TernX. They understand what parents face and draw inspiration from these moments to help make a parent's life a little easier with their exclusive carry on luggage stroller for traveling abroad.
With an array of benefits, families who live a more dynamic lifestyle will appreciate a hand luggage stroller with space to store their belongings that is both compact and lightweight.
Made from recycled German polycarbonate and aerospace aluminum, it's been designed from the ground up to meet International Air Transport Association (IATA) and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) carry-on size standards. For maximum protection, it's been architected to comply with international carriage and stroller standards.
Featuring the latest advances making it more convenient and comfortable to travel, the TernX Carry On keeps parents' belongings and child safe by their side so they can enjoy easy and stress-free family travel. It can accommodate a child from 6 months to 15kgs / 33lbs.
The team has also achieved success in the design and innovation space where they have been the recipient of multiple international design awards since TernX was founded. It's Exquisite. It's Exclusive. It's Carry On Luggage Stroller.
The Good Design Awards Jury commented: "We all loved this design as it offers a simple, stylish and considered solution to a painpoint in so many people's lives."
Pre-purchase today and be one of the first in the world to experience the TernX Carry On.
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SOURCE TernX | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2022/11/28/worlds-first-carry-luggage-stroller-named-times-best-inventions-year/ | 2022-11-28T19:58:27 | en | 0.948164 |
More than 2 million people in the Houston metro area are being told to boil their water before cooking, drinking, bathing or brushing their teeth.
People should boil water for three minutes before consuming or using it, officials said.
The boil order is the result of a power outage at a purification plant, according to Houston's mayor.
Mayor Sylvester Turner said Monday that the measure is precautionary. Officials do not believe the water was contaminated, but they are conducting tests to make sure it is safe.
Turner said he expects the boil order to be lifted by early Tuesday.
"I have asked for a complete diagnostic review of this system to verify and identify that it does not happen again," he said.
Several schools in the area were closed on Monday as a result of the boil notice. | https://www.wtxl.com/news/national/houstons-water-boil-order-could-stretch-into-tuesday | 2022-11-28T19:58:30 | en | 0.987688 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/cf/georgia-bulldogs-football/articles/41675745 | 2022-11-28T19:58:31 | en | 0.738227 |
Comedian Jay Leno was back on a stage on Sunday just days after being released from the hospital after suffering burn injuries sustained during a car fire.
Leno performed at the Comedy and Magic Club in Hermosa Beach, California. Leno performs regularly at the club, and he has three more performances there this year.
He is slated to go on tour in January and February.
Leno needed a pair of surgeries to treat burns on his hands and face. He was working on a car when gasoline ignited on Nov. 12.
“It was a great crowd,” Leno told reporters as he exited the club. | https://www.wtxl.com/news/national/jay-leno-back-on-stage-after-scary-garage-incident | 2022-11-28T19:58:32 | en | 0.9886 |
DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla., Nov. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- YouFit Gyms, the popular nationwide fitness chain, announced today a partnership with Break The Love, a tech-driven platform that connects racquet sports enthusiasts with easy and affordable access to booking court time. This partnership allows both Break the Love and YouFit Gym members to secure time on YouFit Gyms' indoor pickleball courts, which are now available at 28 YouFit locations across the country.
"We first introduced indoor pickleball courts at select locations in September and due to the overwhelming response from our members we have already begun adding additional courts across our footprint," says Brian Vahaly, CEO YouFit Gyms. "As part of our pickleball expansion, we are excited to partner with Break the Love, giving their users access to our courts and join our community of highly engaged pickleball players. " Vahaly continued.
YouFit Premium and Premium+ members can book courts for free, and those with Basic YouFit Gym memberships can redeem one free booking. For non-YouFit Members, the cost to book is just $5 per person. To book a court visit https://www.breakthelove.com/orgs/youfit.
"Break the Love's mission is to create and share opportunities for the next generation to access recreational sports activities, especially pickleball, America's fastest growing sport," says Trisha Goyal, CEO of Break the Love. "YouFit Gyms' affordable and convenient indoor pickleball courts make this partnership a natural fit to further deliver Break The Love's mission and I'm thrilled to introduce it to our growing community."
To kick off the partnership, YouFit is sponsoring the pickleball court at the Break The Love Art Basel Activation in Miami, FL December 2 and December 3, 2022. Free to the public, guests can book time to learn and play pickleball with YouFit pros as well as partake in the lounge experience complete with spritzes, various beauty touch-up stations, and live art by Emma Ortiz.
As the demand for America's fastest-growing and celebrity-favorite sport continues to grow, YouFit is committed to bringing the popular racquet game to as many people as possible. In addition to the partnership with Break the Love, YouFit is adding Regional Pickleball Directors to oversee the gym's pickleball programming, courts, and monthly pickleball clinics the latter of which YouFit has already begun hosting across their locations. YouFit's indoor pickleball is free for Premium and Premium+ members.
For more information, or to find a YouFit Gyms location near you, visit https://youfit.com/. Follow on social media at @YouFitGyms.
With 78 locations nationwide, YouFit Gyms offer a premium fitness experience at an accessible price. Memberships start at $9.99 and individual personal training sessions cost as low as $35. YouFit Gyms offer everything from Olympic weightlifting platforms and endless cardio equipment, to small-group personal training, high-energy fitness classes, customized nutrition advice from registered dietitians, and virtual fitness classes. By combining cutting-edge workouts and high-end amenities with an unbeatable price, YouFit Gyms members can take charge of their wellness journey, no matter what fitness level they start from.
Break the Love was founded in 2019 and has since grown into one of the most comprehensive online resources and communities for discovering and booking group-based tennis & racquet sport activities to learn, train, or compete. Break the Love is powered by passionate organizers, pros, and athletes. Visit www.breakthelove.com.
Images can be found here.
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SOURCE YouFit Gyms | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2022/11/28/youfit-gyms-indoor-pickleball-courts-high-demand-nationwide-fitness-chain-partners-with-break-love-expand-indoor-pickleball-offering/ | 2022-11-28T19:58:35 | en | 0.93414 |
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — It's after school and there may be no other place these children would rather be than among trains.
"We have over 100 years of rail history on the tracks and the museum proper,” said Concetta Bencivenga, director of the New York Transit Museum.
The museum is housed underground, in a former subway station beneath Brooklyn.
"We are actually sitting in a 1904 train car,” Bencivenga said. “It's a wooden-body train car. It's one of the most priceless pieces of our collection."
It is a collection that plays host to a unique program at the museum called "Subway Sleuths." All of the children participating in it are on the autism spectrum.
"The museum realized that this was part of their audience,” said Sara Thomson, the museum’s special education manager, “that they had train lovers coming to the transit museum and that a number of them were neurodivergent.”
In the U.S., that number is growing. According to the CDC, back in 2000, the number of children on the autism spectrum was 1 in 150. Now, it is 1 in 44.
Researchers have long observed that many on the autism spectrum hold a particular fascination with trains and transit systems.
"For us, it's very common to meet somebody who has a 6-year-old who has completely committed to memory the New York City subway map and we don't even blink,” Bencivenga said. “We say, 'Come on home. You're welcome here. This is the place for you.'"
So, the museum set out to create a program for neurodivergent children that leans into that.
"The museum worked with two autism specialists to really develop Subway Sleuths as it is today,” Thomson said, “and so those specialists work in special education, speech, language pathology and really bringing their expertise."
Dan Marwit's son, Frank, is a subway sleuth.
"Whoever thought of this program is a genius," he said.
The 10-week program aims to help children with autism connect with each other over a shared passion for trains.
"There's no substitute for going to a place and being with actual people," Marwit said.
Being with people is something that wasn't possible during the pandemic when isolation kept many children at home. It was especially hard for families with autistic children.
"To see the difference is phenomenal,” Marwit said. “It's remarkably different, as I'm sure anyone can imagine and any parent has experienced over the transition, from pandemic back into 'less pandemic' times."
Still, the museum also offers the Subway Sleuths program online to children around the country, with some having logged on from as far away as Massachusetts and North Carolina. The museum has also advised other train museums around the country on how to start similar programs.
Meanwhile, among the trains at the New York Transit Museum, friendships are made.
"That is exactly what we hope is happening,” Thomson said. “We love to see the relationships develop. And what we really love to hear is, after their semester is over, that they're still in touch with each other."
That means so much to parents, like Dan Marwit, as he sees how his son joins in.
“He not only participates here but often invites other kids to play. You know: 'Let's get started! Come on, everybody, let's go!'” he said. “I think he has a sense of ownership here." | https://www.wtxl.com/news/national/museum-helps-autistic-children-make-connections-through-love-of-trains | 2022-11-28T19:58:35 | en | 0.979362 |
Cat found in checked luggage enjoys Thanksgiving at home
NEW YORK (Gray News) – A TSA officer was shocked to find a family’s pet stowed inside a checked bag last week at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
According to a spokesperson for TSA, the orange cat, named Smells, was spotted after the luggage went through the X-ray unit.
The traveler said the cat belonged to someone else in his household, TSA explained in a tweet.
TSA spokesperson Lisa Farbstein said Smells was returned safely and enjoyed Thanksgiving at its home in Brooklyn.
“Apparently Smells was planning to chase after a big mouse he heard was running around Disney World,” Farbstein wrote in a tweet.
If you have questions about what you can bring, TSA has a list of items you can pack in carry-on and checked baggage posted on its website.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wlbt.com/2022/11/28/cat-found-checked-luggage-enjoys-thanksgiving-home/ | 2022-11-28T19:58:35 | en | 0.972936 |
BRUSSELS (AP) — Law enforcement authorities in six different countries have joined forces to take down a “super cartel” of drugs traffickers controlling about one third of the cocaine trade in Europe, the European Union crime agency said on Monday.
Europol said 49 suspects have been arrested during the investigation, with the latest series of raids across Europe and the United Arab Emirates taking place between Nov. 8-19.
The agency said police forces involved in “Operation Desert Light” targeted both the “command-and-control center and the logistical drugs trafficking infrastructure in Europe.”
Over 30 metric tons (33 tons) of drugs were seized during the investigations run in Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and the UAE with the support of Europol. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration also played a role in bringing down the organization, which was also involved in money laundering, Europol said.
“The scale of cocaine importation into Europe under the suspects’ control and command was massive,” Europol said, adding that the suspects used encrypted communications to organize drugs shipments.
The Netherlands was the country where most of the arrests were made, with 14 suspects arrested in 2021. Europol said six “high-value targets” were arrested in Dubai.
Dutch authorities said one of the suspects arrested in Dubai allegedly imported thousands of kilos of cocaine into the Netherlands in 2020 and 2021. The 37-year-old man with both Dutch and Moroccan nationality is also being prosecuted for laundering large amounts of money and possession of firearms. Police started investigating him after investigators cracked the encrypted messaging service Sky ECC, which is popular with criminals.
A 40-year-old Dutch-Bosnian citizen was also arrested in Dubai following an investigation based on intercepted Sky messages, according to Dutch police. He is suspected of importing into Europe cocaine and raw materials for the production of amphetamines.
Record amounts of cocaine are being seized in Europe. Its availability on the continent has never been higher, with extremely high purity and low prices.
More than 214 tons of cocaine were seized in the region in 2020, a 6% increase from the previous year, and experts from the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction believe that amount could reach 300 metric tons (330 tons) in 2022. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-police-bring-down-european-cocaine-super-cartel/ | 2022-11-28T19:58:35 | en | 0.973656 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/cf/georgia-bulldogs-football/articles/41675746 | 2022-11-28T19:58:37 | en | 0.738227 |
China’s Xi faces threat from public anger over ‘zero-COVID’ policy
SHANGHAI (AP) — Barely a month after granting himself new powers as China’s potential leader for life, Xi Jinping is facing a wave of public anger of the kind not seen for decades, sparked by his “zero-COVID” strategy that will soon enter its fourth year.
Demonstrators poured into the streets over the weekend in cities including Shanghai and Beijing, criticizing the policy, confronting police — and even calling for Xi to step down. On Monday, demonstrators gathered in the semi-autonomous southern city of Hong Kong, where the pro-democracy movement was all but snuffed out by a harsh crackdown following monthslong demonstrations that began in 2019.
Students at the Chinese University of Hong Kong chanted “oppose dictatorship” and “Freedom! Freedom!” Floral tributes were laid in the Central district that had been the epicenter of previous protests.
The widespread demonstrations are unprecedented since the army crushed the 1989 student-led pro-democracy movement centered on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
Most protesters focused their anger on restrictions that can confine families to their homes for months and have been criticized as neither scientific nor effective. Some complained the system is failing to respond to their needs.
The cries for the resignation of Xi and the end of the Communist Party that has ruled China for 73 years could be deemed sedition, which is punishable by prison.
In response, police in Shanghai used pepper spray to drive away demonstrators, and dozens were detained in police sweeps and taken away in police vans and buses. China’s vast internal security apparatus is also famed for identifying people it considers troublemakers and picking them up later when few are watching.
The possibility of more protests is unclear. Government censors scrubbed the internet of videos and messages supporting them. And analysts say unless divisions emerge, the Communist Party should be able to contain the dissent.
China’s stringent measures were originally accepted for minimizing deaths while other countries suffered devastating waves of infections, but that consensus has begun to fray in recent weeks.
While the ruling party says anti-coronavirus measures should be “targeted and precise” and cause the least possible disruption to people’s lives, local officials are threatened with losing their jobs or other punishments if outbreaks occur. They have responded by imposing quarantines and other restrictions that protesters say exceed what the central government allows.
Xi’s unelected government doesn’t seem too concerned with the hardships brought by the policy. This spring, millions of Shanghai residents were placed under a strict lockdown that resulted in food shortages, restricted access to medical care and economic pain. Nevertheless, in October, the city’s party secretary, a Xi loyalist, was appointed to the Communist Party’s No. 2 position.
The party has long imposed surveillance and travel restrictions on minorities including Tibetans and Muslim groups such as Uyghurs, more than 1 million of whom have been detained in camps where they are forced to renounce their traditional culture and religion and swear fealty to Xi.
But this weekend’s protests included many members of the educated urban middle class from the ethnic Han majority. The ruling party relies on that group to abide by an unwritten post-Tiananmen agreement to accept autocratic rule in exchange for a better quality of life.
Now, it appears that old arrangement has ended as the party enforces control at the expense of the economy, said Hung Ho-fung of Johns Hopkins University.
“The party and the people are trying to seek a new equilibrium,” he said. “There will be some instability in the process.”
To develop into something on the scale of the 1989 protests would require clear divisions within the leadership that could be leveraged for change, Hung said.
Xi all but eliminated such threats at an October party congress. He broke with tradition and awarded himself a third five-year term as party leader and packed the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee with loyalists. Two potential rivals were sent into retirement.
“Without the clear signal of party leader divisions ... I would expect this kind of protest might not last very long,” Hung said.
It’s “unimaginable” that Xi would back down, and the party is experienced in handling protests, Hung said.
China is now the only major country still trying to stop transmission of the virus that was first detected in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019.
The normally supportive head of the World Health Organization has called “zero-COVID” unsustainable. Beijing dismissed his remarks as irresponsible, but public acceptance of the restrictions has worn thin.
People who are quarantined at home in some areas say they lack food and medicine. And the ruling party faced anger over the deaths of two children whose parents said anti-virus controls hampered efforts to get emergency medical care.
Protests then erupted after a fire on Thursday killed at least 10 people in an apartment building in the city of Urumqi in the northwest, where some residents have been locked in their homes for four months. That prompted an outpouring of angry questions online about whether firefighters or people trying to escape were blocked by locked doors or other pandemic restrictions.
Yet Xi, an ardent nationalist, has politicized the issue to the point that exiting the “zero-COVID” policy could be seen as a loss to his reputation and authority.
“Zero-COVID” was “supposed to demonstrate the superiority of the ‘Chinese model,’ but ended up demonstrating the risk that when authoritarian regimes make mistakes, those mistakes can be colossal,” said Andrew Nathan, a Chinese politics specialist at Columbia University. He edited The Tiananmen Papers, an insider account of the government’s response to the 1989 protests.
“But I think the regime has backed itself into a corner and has no way to yield. It has lots of force, and if necessary, it will use it,” Nathan said. “If it could hold onto power in the face of the pro-democracy demonstrations of 1989, it can do so again now.”
___
Associated Press reporters Kanis Leung and Zen Soo and researcher Alice Fung in Hong Kong contributed to this report.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wlbt.com/2022/11/28/chinas-xi-faces-threat-public-anger-over-zero-covid-policy/ | 2022-11-28T19:58:39 | en | 0.971262 |
First Alert Forecast: ALERT DAY in motion for our Tuesday as severe weather looks likely across our area! Tues. PM into Wed. AM looks to be the timing of storms.
JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - Happy Monday.
Heading into the workweek. Dry weather continues across the area today. Highs on Monday will range into the mid to upper 60s. Mostly sunny skies today. Lows tonight will fall to the upper 40s.
Going into Tuesday, we are under an Alert Day for severe storms to impact the area.
Another cold front moves in by Tuesday into Wednesday bringing heavy rain and a possibility for severe weather across the area.
We are currently under a Moderate Risk for parts of our viewing area for the Northwest portion including part of the Delta. An Enhanced risk covers a great portion of our viewing area extending from the delta into Hinds and Rankin counties and South of I-20. Then a Slight risk extends South through the Pine Belt area. Highs for both Tuesdays reach into the mid to upper 70s, which is crucial to the storm development—lows Tuesday night range into the upper 50s.
Wednesday’s Highs are in the lows 60s, and Lows fall to the mid-30s. Wednesday morning, storm development is still possible as storms could potentially continue to impact the area.
Drier and slightly cooler air looks to filter in on Thursday in the wake of the front. Highs mostly at the end of the week, the mid-50s on Thursday, and mid-60s on Friday. Lows will fall between the 40s and the 50s. For both Thursday and Friday, we see Mosty sunny skies across the region.
Going back into the weekend, some rain chances will be possible with Highs in the low to mid-70s across the area. Saturday partly sunny skies with a 30 % chance of showers. Sunday holds the same conditions, but a tad warmer.
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Copyright 2022 WLBT. All rights reserved. | https://www.wlbt.com/2022/11/28/first-alert-forecast-alert-day-motion-our-tuesday-severe-weather-looks-likely-across-our-area-tues-pm-into-wed-am-looks-be-timing-storms/ | 2022-11-28T19:58:40 | en | 0.958211 |
A 16-year-old is accused of murdering a person in Pennsylvania and confessing to the crime on Instagram.
According to the Bensalem Police Department, they got a report from a parent who said their daughter received an Instagram video chat from the suspect.
"During the video chat, the 16-year-old stated that he had just killed someone," police stated. "He then flipped the video image and showed the legs and feet of someone covered in blood."
Authorities said the teenager then requested assistance to dispose of the body.
Officers were dispatched to the boy's home. That's where they found a female dead from an apparent gunshot wound. Police did not release the age of the victim, but they did say she was a juvenile.
The suspect had apparently left the home and was stopped a short distance away.
He is charged with homicide and tampering with evidence as police said there were attempts to clean the crime scene. | https://www.wtxl.com/news/national/police-16-year-old-confessed-to-murder-on-instagram | 2022-11-28T19:58:40 | en | 0.992867 |
You need to enable JavaScript to run this app. | https://sportspyder.com/cf/georgia-bulldogs-football/articles/41675786 | 2022-11-28T19:58:43 | en | 0.738227 |
PIDIE, Indonesia (AP) — Children in school uniforms and toddlers with their parents lined up Monday for polio vaccinations in the Sigli town square on the northern tip of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, after four children were found infected with the highly contagious disease that was declared eliminated in the country less than a decade ago.
The virus was first detected in October in a 7-year-old boy suffering from partial paralysis in the province of Aceh near Sigli, and since then three other cases have been detected, prompting the mass immunization and information drive.
Official say that polio immunization rates in the conservative province are well behind the rest of the country, with efforts hampered by widespread disinformation the vaccine is incompatible with religious beliefs, among other things. The government has also been prioritizing COVID-19 vaccinations since they became available.
The campaign that started Monday aims to vaccinate some 1.2 million children in the province, said Maxi Rein Rondonuwu, the Health Ministry’s director general for disease control and prevention.
“There is no cure for polio, the only treatment is prevention and the tool for prevention is vaccination,” Rondonuwu said, adding that the child is still able to walk, albeit with a limp.
With some 275 million people, Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous, and the largest Muslim-majority nation.
Aceh is particularly conservative, and is Indonesia’s only province allowed to practice Shariah, which was a concession made by the national government in 2006 to end a war with separatists.
False rumors that the polio vaccine contains pork or alcohol, prohibited according to Muslim beliefs, have proliferated, especially in rural areas, complicating vaccination efforts, said the head of the Aceh Health Office, Hanif, who only goes by one name like many Indonesians.
“We cannot work alone, we need support from all parties, including religious leaders, to that people understand the importance of immunization,” said Hanif.
Azhar, the father of the 7-year-old who contracted polio, said he had opted not to immunize his son after other villagers where he lived told him the vaccines may cause harmful chemicals or non-halal substances.
“My neighbors said that my son don’t need to be immunized and I didn’t want my son get sick because of harmful chemicals that are against Islam,” the 45-year-old said.
For Dewi Safitri, a mother of three who was getting them vaccinated on Monday, it was simply a matter of not knowing it was necessary.
She said she was convinced after health workers spelled out the risks of paralysis or death if her children were to go unvaccinated.
“I didn’t even know about immunization,” she said.
The World Health Assembly adopted a resolution for the global eradication of polio in 1988 and since then, wild poliovirus cases have decreased by more than 99%, according to the World Health Organization.
It was eliminated in Indonesia in 2014, and is today only still endemic in two countries — Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Polio primarily affects children under the age of 5, according to the WHO. Unvaccinated people of any ages can contract the disease, however, and sporadic cases continue to crop up.
In September in New York, for example, the state stepped up its polio-fighting efforts after the disease was detected in the wastewater in the New York City area.
Officials began checking for signs of the virus there after the first case of polio in the United States was identified in July in Rockland County, which is north of the city. It was confirmed in a young adult who was unvaccinated.
The statewide polio vaccination rate is 79% but Rockland’s rate was lower, and New York health officials urged all unvaccinated residents, including children by 2 months of age, to get vaccinated immediately.
Last week, new poliovirus cases were found in Afghanistan, Algeria, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia and Nigeria, according to the WHO’s Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
Of the three other children in Indonesia from the same village as the initially confirmed case none had their basic vaccinations, Rondonuwu said.
“It has to be reported as an outbreak, because it had been declared eradicated in Indonesia, but it turns out that there is still wild polio virus,” he said.
Rondonuwu said his ministry is keeping a close watch on the cases by doing door-to-door screening to ensure that there are no additional infections that have not been reported.
The polio virus is transmitted person-to-person, generally through the “fecal-oral” route, according to the WHO. In Indonesia, authorities have also pointed to unsanitary conditions as a probable cause of the new infections after finding out that some local residents still defecate directly into a river where children are often found playing.
Across Indonesia, polio vaccination coverage has been slipping since the outbreak of COVID-19. Despite the challenges of reaching people in the archipelago nation of five main islands and thousands of smaller ones, 73.4% of Indonesians are now fully vaccinated for COVID-19 and 87.5% have at least one shot.
For polio, 86.8% of babies were vaccinated in their first year in 2020 nationwide, which fell to 80.7% in 2021 as the country was forced to focus most of its health facilities and workers on addressing the pandemic.
By comparison, only 50.9% of the infants born in Aceh in 2021 received a polio vaccination. It was the second lowest on a national scale after West Papua, where only 43.4% of babies were vaccinated.
The nationwide decline was part of a broader drop in basic immunizations, such as for measles and rubella, according to UNICEF.
Dicky Budiman, an Indonesian epidemiologist from Australia’s Griffith University, said the discovery of polio in Aceh must be responded to seriously because “the threat is real for Indonesia,” noting that basic immunization coverage is still low, putting the country in a high-risk category.
“This is what the government really has to pursue, because it’s dangerous if we don’t,” Budiman said.
“We must move immediately by strengthening basic immunization or there will be a potential additional health disaster for Indonesia.”
___
Karmini reported from Jakarta, Indonesia. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/ap-polio-is-back-in-indonesia-sparking-vaccination-campaign/ | 2022-11-28T19:58:42 | en | 0.978267 |
Present at the pump: National gas price average could dip below $3 by Christmas
(Gray News) – As millions of Americans hit the road for Thanksgiving, the nation’s average gas prices continued dropping coast to coast.
The national average cost of fuel is $3.52 per gallon, down 22.7 cents from a month ago, according to Gas Buddy, continuing a downward trend for the third straight week in a row.
“It’s entirely possible the national average price of gasoline could fall under $3 per gallon by Christmas, which would be a huge gift to unwrap for motorists after a dizzying year at the pump,” Gas Buddy analyst Patrick De Haan said in a media release.
According to Gas Buddy, the most common U.S. gas price drivers see is $3.39 per gallon.
Gas Buddy reports the states with the lowest average prices include Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. Hawaii, California and Nevada maintain the highest average prices.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wlbt.com/2022/11/28/present-pump-national-gas-price-average-could-dip-below-3-by-christmas/ | 2022-11-28T19:58:42 | en | 0.923598 |
State calls off plans to hire operator for Jackson water system, official says
JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - The state has called off plans to hire a firm to manage Jackson’s water system, an official with the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) confirmed on Monday.
“While the selection process was started, it’s null and [was] never executed because the city of Jackson made their selections and hired their own contractor,” said MEMA Chief Communications Officer Malary White.
White was referring to the city’s decision earlier this month to enter into an emergency staffing contract with WaterTalent LLC.
The city council approved hiring the California-based firm on November 10, to provide four temporary Class A water operators to help run the city’s treatment plants when the state’s emergency declaration governing them ran out.
Gov. Tate Reeves signed an emergency declaration on August 30 temporarily taking control of Jackson’s water system after equipment failures at the O.B. Curtis Treatment Plant left tens of thousands of people without water.
MEMA issued a request for qualifications in October seeking a vendor to operate and maintain Jackson’s water treatment plants, well water system and elevated storage tanks, in part, to help staff the facilities in the year following the emergency.
White said just one contractor responded to the RFQ, and negotiations with that company ended when the city hired WaterTalent.
It was unclear whether the state’s RFQ could move forward anyway, with Lumumba saying the city would not participate in the process, nor would it recognize the firm the state eventually would choose.
Under the state’s RFQ, a member from the city’s Department of Public Works would serve on a three-member team that would evaluate and score the technical proposals submitted by firms. That score, along with the score received during the financial review, would determine which company received the contract.
The city issued its own request for proposals on October 18. So far, Jackson officials have not chosen a firm, and it was not known how many companies responded to the city’s request.
Jackson city officials were not immediately available for comment.
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Copyright 2022 WLBT. All rights reserved. | https://www.wlbt.com/2022/11/28/state-calls-off-plans-hire-operator-jackson-water-system-official-says/ | 2022-11-28T19:58:44 | en | 0.972646 |
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