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Girl, 10, dies in tubing accident over holiday weekend, officials say
Published: Jul. 6, 2022 at 11:52 AM CDT|Updated: 41 minutes ago
NASHVILLE (WSMV/Gray News) – A 10-year-old girl died in a tubing accident on the Tennessee River Saturday evening, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency confirmed.
The girl was on a tube being pulled by a pontoon boat when she hit the boat’s outboard motor, according to the TWRA investigation.
The accident remains under investigation by the TWRA. The agency did not provide further details.
There have been 16 boating-related fatalities on Tennessee waters in 2022 as compared to 13 at the same time last year.
Copyright 2022 WSMV via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.valleynewslive.com/2022/07/06/girl-10-dies-tubing-accident-over-holiday-weekend-officials-say/ | 2022-07-06 17:33:34 | 0 | https://www.valleynewslive.com/2022/07/06/girl-10-dies-tubing-accident-over-holiday-weekend-officials-say/ |
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — You know…Dasher, Dancer, and all of the others.
But, do you recall…that you’ve been saying a few of them wrong? You’re not alone if you answer no.
In fact, we all have been for quite some time, it turns out. It all goes back to the original poem.
Depending on when and where you went to grade school, you may have had to recite the poem or even sing it. Who could forget something that begins with such a strange contraction like T’was?
“A Visit from Saint Nicholas,” which you may know more commonly as “The Night Before Christmas” was released in 1823 in an issue of the Troy Sentinel newspaper in New York.
If you ever get to view the original manuscript of the poem, you will see two very different reindeer names from the ones we all grew up with: Dunder and Blixem.
Dunder, which some may associate with the first half of a name of a fictional paper company, is actually a Dutch word that means a sound like thunder. Blixem is a little more complicated but appears to be a phonetic spelling of the Dutch word Bliksem.
It makes sense because if you put them both together you get Thunder and Lightning
Interestingly enough, in Afrikaans, the language spoken in South Africa, which is derived from Dutch, Bliksem is now considered a swear word. They use Weerlig instead when talking about lightning, and not trying to insult someone.
Back to the poem. When it was submitted to that Troy, New York newspaper in 1823, it was submitted anonymously. In 1836, it was finally attributed to Professor of Divinity, Biblical Learning, Oriental and Greek Literature, Clement Clarke Moore.
Moore, whose farm and homestead currently make up the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City, neither confirmed nor denied authorship of the poem. At least in the beginning.
He eventually took credit, and the famous Christmas poem was included in an anthology of his poetry that was published 21 years later. In recent years though, a debate began as to who actually wrote the poem.
Several scholars attribute the poem to Henry Livingston Jr., a Major in the Revolutionary War, who was also a poet and artist of Dutch and Scottish heritage. Livingston’s family had always believed he had penned the poem.
In fact, it wasn’t until after Livingston’s death that the poem was attributed to Moore. Livingston also happened to be a distant relative of Moore’s wife.
Some of the supporting evidence for Livingston being the author includes his Dutch and Scottish heritage, which made him more likely to know the words Dunder and Blixem, as well as his description of Santa Claus, which was in line with Dutch and Scandinavian tradition.
So, you’re probably asking, “I don’t care, why have I been saying the wrong names? When did that happen?” Well, that happened back in 1823 when the poem was originally printed in the Troy newspaper.
The manuscript of the poem includes the original spellings of Dunder and Blixsem but when it was published in the Troy newspaper, the names were somehow changed to Donder and Blitzen.
Donder at the time was the English way of pronouncing Dunder and Blitzen is the German word for lightning. Of course, Blitzen also rhymes a bit better with Vixen.
Later, sometime between the 1830s-1840s, the names transitioned to Donner and Blitzen. No one can say for sure when exactly it happened.
The debate over who wrote the poem will probably rage on for some time. Given that everyone who would know for sure has been dead for quite some time, it likely will never be solved.
Does it really matter if we’ve been saying the names all wrong for the better part of two centuries? Not really.
That’s the nature of language and traditions. With time, they all change.
Although, it does make one wonder what other holiday traditions we might be getting wrong. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/youve-probably-been-saying-these-popular-reindeer-names-wrong/ | 2022-12-03 20:06:57 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/youve-probably-been-saying-these-popular-reindeer-names-wrong/ |
Biggest game yet coming to Sanford Pentagon
Rematch of title game from two years ago between Gonzaga and Baylor
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) -Another big game coming up this winter at the Pentagon when two teams that met in the national title game 2 years ago clash at Heritage Court.
Mark Few will bring his Zags back to Sioux Falls where they beat Iowa 98-88 on national TV 2 years ago during the height of the pandemic. No fans aside from family were allowed to watch in person which is probably one reason that the Gonzaga head coach jumped at the chance to come back and play another big time game against a team that beat his team in the national championship game that same season.
VP of Sanford Sports Jesse Smith says, ”You know the one regret we had from that Iowa game was that we couldn’t have fans. And honestly I think that helped with Coach Few’s case, he wants to see the Pentagon full. He wants the full experience. So when we started to re-engage with Gonzaga talking about this game he was all about it. Real excited to come back and to your point, we’ve never hosted a re-match from a national championship game. So I don think this is our biggest game to date and we’re fired up to have these two teams here.”
It is a great match-up and it’s been fun over the years to see what Few has done with his Mid-Major program, bringing it to national prominence. And ironically, it was the Baylor Bears who SDSU played in the first ever NCAA appearance for the Jackrabbits. The game will be played on Friday, December 2nd at the Sanford Pentagon.
Copyright 2022 Dakota News Now. All rights reserved. | https://www.dakotanewsnow.com/2022/06/01/biggest-game-yet-coming-sanford-pentagon/ | 2022-06-01 03:27:00 | 1 | https://www.dakotanewsnow.com/2022/06/01/biggest-game-yet-coming-sanford-pentagon/ |
5 officers, 1 child hurt in Missouri interstate crash; driver arrested
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMOV/Gray News) - Five police officers were hurt after a serious crash on I-70 in Maryland Heights Wednesday morning around 1:45 a.m.
Three officers with Lake Saint Louis Police Department and two from St. Charles County police working in the Auto Task Force were blocking two lanes of traffic when a dark Jeep Cherokee hit them, police said.
The officers had chased a car theft suspect who crashed and were handling that wreckage when they were hit, the Associated Press reported. The Jeep Cherokee tried to swerve but struck a Lake Saint Louis police car, causing one officer to be ejected as the police car spun out of control and struck two other Lake Saint Louis officers standing nearby, the patrol said.
They were taken to a hospital. The three Lake Saint Louis officers suffered serious injuries. The two officers from St. Charles County suffered minor injuries.
A Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper confirmed that a 2-year-old girl inside the car that hit the officers was also taken to a hospital.
The driver of the Jeep, a 31-year-old man, was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, child endangerment, driving with a suspended license, unlawful use of a weapon and possession of a controlled substance.
Copyright 2023 KMOV via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report. | https://www.kfyrtv.com/2023/03/29/5-officers-1-child-hurt-missouri-interstate-crash-driver-arrested/ | 2023-03-29 16:17:16 | 0 | https://www.kfyrtv.com/2023/03/29/5-officers-1-child-hurt-missouri-interstate-crash-driver-arrested/ |
(KTLA) — Did you work remotely during the pandemic? Are you still?
If so, your employer may have a very good idea how productive you are.
It’s called “bossware,” and it’s a sneaky type of surveillance technology that allows employers to keep tabs on workers — often without them knowing.
“The average employee will accept the job and say, ‘OK, I like the benefits, I like the salary, I’m going to sign on the dotted line.’ And of course, they’re also signing away all of their privacy rights,” says Alex Alben, a professor of internet law at the University of California, Los Angeles.
He and other experts note that the use of bossware increased during the pandemic as employers handed out laptops to workers and told them to set up shop at home.
What they may not have disclosed is the presence of bossware, which allows the company to track keystrokes, mouse movements, browsing habits and websites visited.
“Some of the less scrupulous ones might even allow the employer to turn on the camera or the microphone of the device that it’s installed on, potentially without the employees’ awareness,” says John Davisson, senior counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
KTLA checked out one popular bossware offering called Clever Control. Along with more routine surveillance, such as how often you’re at the keyboard, it allows your employer to quietly turn on your camera and microphone, and even to record your activities.
Here’s the thing: It’s their laptop, not yours. They can do with it as they please.
And apparently, there’s no law requiring businesses to inform workers when bossware is being used.
“It’s very much like having somebody sitting on your shoulder watching everything you do,” says Hayley Tsukayama, senior legislative activist for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “And that’s just not a good way to set up a work environment, I would say.”
The California Consumer Privacy Protection Act requires businesses to disclose what information they’re collecting on customers. But employers are exempt from making similar disclosures to workers.
That exemption is scheduled to expire next year – unless corporate lobbyists succeed in maintaining it.
In the meantime, the smart money is on assuming you’re being watched unless you’re told otherwise.
KTLA asked its parent company, Nexstar, if it uses bossware. It said no. | https://www.wdtn.com/news/bossware-your-employer-may-be-tracking-you-during-remote-work/ | 2022-07-17 15:33:48 | 0 | https://www.wdtn.com/news/bossware-your-employer-may-be-tracking-you-during-remote-work/ |
WASHINGTON -- House Speaker Kevin McCarthy pledged on Monday to pass legislation to raise the nation's debt ceiling -- but only on condition of capping future federal spending increases at 1% -- as he lashed out at President Joe Biden for refusing to engage in budget-cutting negotiations to prevent a debt crisis.
"Debt limit negotiations are an opportunity to examine our nation's finances," McCarthy said, later adding: "Defaulting on our debt is not an option, but neither is a future of higher taxes, higher interest rates, more dependency on China and an economy that doesn't work for working Americans."
In a high-profile speech at the New York Stock Exchange, McCarthy, the Republican leader who was marking his 100th day as speaker, said the nation's debt load is a "ticking time bomb" and Biden is "missing in action" as the deadline nears to raise the debt limit. But McCarthy's own ability to bring his plan to passage in coming weeks as promised is highly uncertain.
"I'm not predetermining what has to happen," McCarthy said in a speech that sought to cast Biden as the person standing in the way. "I want a responsible, sensible debt ceiling that puts us on an economic path to make America stronger. It works for every American. But that cannot happen if the president continues to ignore the problem."
"A no-strings-attached debt limit increase will not pass," he said.
"Since the president continues to hide, House Republicans will take action," McCarthy vowed.
Late Monday, House Republicans rallied around the speaker as he returned to Capitol Hill, with preparations underway for a vote on the package as soon as next week -- a rapid turnaround. McCarthy is expected to brief House Republicans privately early this morning on the details. Even though the Republican plan's chances in the Democratic-controlled Senate are dismal, House approval could serve as a calling card pressuring Biden to negotiate.
The White House has refused to shift its position out of a belief that the country's credit is not negotiable -- and Republicans themselves have splintered at times over how to approach the fight. The GOP has yet to release a budget, and House Republican leaders say they're still weeks away from finalizing legislation detailing their specific demands in debt negotiations.
The standoff has raised the stakes for McCarthy, since the consequences of inaction -- the first-ever government default -- could devastate an economy already teetering on the precipice of recession.
"It will be financial chaos," predicted Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody's Analytics, when asked about a potential brush with default. "Our fiscal problems will be meaningfully worse. ... Our geopolitical standing in the world will be undermined."
McCarthy's Wall Street address came with Washington heading toward a potential fiscal crisis over the need to raise the nation's debt limit, now at $31 trillion, and avert a federal default. The Treasury Department has said it is taking "extraordinary measures" to continue paying its bills, but money will run short this summer.
On Monday, investors seemed largely unfazed, though major stock indexes were all down slightly around midday. McCarthy, meanwhile, called on Wall Street traders to apply new political pressure on the White House.
"If you agree, don't sit back -- join us. Join us in demanding a reasonable negotiation, a responsible debt ceiling, an agreement that brings spending under control," McCarthy said.
While vowing that "defaulting on our debt is not an option," McCarthy faces his own challenges pushing a legislative fix to passage.
With his slim majority and less-than-strong grip on power, he has been unable to rally his Republican troops around a budget-cutting proposal that he could offer the White House as a starting point in negotiations. The outline of conditions he proposed Monday is considered dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Instead, McCarthy is seeking to shift blame for the standoff and draw the White House back into talks. "The longer President Biden waits to be sensible to find an agreement, the more likely it becomes that this administration will bumble into the first default in our nation's history," he said.
"A speech isn't a plan, but it's clear that extreme MAGA Republicans' wish lists will impose devastating cuts on hardworking families, send manufacturing overseas, take health care and food assistance away from millions of people and increase energy costs -- all while adding trillions to the debt with tax cuts skewed to the superwealthy and corporations," Andrew Bates, a White House spokesman, said on Monday.
The White House has said the ball is in McCarthy's court, saying he has promised to produce a budget plan but has thus far failed to deliver. Senior Biden advisers doubt McCarthy's ability to hold his Republican majority together to pass anything, and see little need to even express openness to concessions to a leader they doubt can deliver.
It was unclear whether the ideas McCarthy spoke about on Monday could draw enough backing to pass with his party's slim House majority. Asked in an interview on CNBC minutes after his speech if he had the support of his conference for the plan, McCarthy stopped short of saying so.
"I think I have the support of America," he said. "I'll get the party behind it."
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer said it's McCarthy who "continues to bumble our country toward a catastrophic default."
"President Biden and I are happy to meet with the speaker when he has something to talk about," Schumer said.
Nevertheless, McCarthy was both upbeat and defiant as he vowed to pass a bill through the House that would raise the nation's debt limit into next year -- putting the issue squarely in the 2024 presidential election -- coupling it with a plan to roll back federal spending to fiscal 2022 levels and cap future spending at no more than 1% a year over the next decade.
Pitching the idea of tying the debt limit increase to new work requirements, McCarthy said it was time to get Americans "back to work," implying that aid approved early in the covid-19 pandemic has discouraged adults from working. But Labor Department statistics show that a larger share of Americans ages 25 to 54 -- so-called prime-age workers -- were in the labor force in March than in February 2020, on the eve of the pandemic.
And McCarthy said the House Republicans also want to tack on H.R. 1, an expansive energy bill that would favor oil, gas and coal production -- and ease permitting regulations -- undoing many of Biden's climate change-fighting initiatives.
Without commenting on the House plans, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said the president can't simply put his fingers in his ears. "The White House needs to stop wasting time and start negotiating" with the speaker, he said.
Many economists have suggested that it may take a stock market selloff to force an agreement, showing the risks of a possible default. But McCarthy said after his speech during a question period that he wasn't gauging market reaction for guidance on the debt limit.
"The markets go up and down," he said.
POLITICAL WEAPON
Once a routine matter, the need for Congress to pass legislation raising the nation's debt limit to continue paying already accrued bills has increasingly become a political weapon wielded particularly by Republicans as leverage for their policy priorities.
McCarthy is working furiously to unite the "five families" -- the various caucuses including the Freedom Caucus, Republican Study Committee and others within the House Republican majority -- around a plan that could be presented to Biden to kickstart negotiations.
Federal spending skyrocketed during the covid-19 crisis, rising to $7.4 trillion in 2021, before sliding back to $6.2 trillion in fiscal 2022, according to Treasury Department data. The nation's debt load has also climbed steadily, doubling during the George W. Bush administration with the 9/11-era wars overseas and spiking again during the Obama administration as spending rose and tax revenue plummeted during the Great Recession.
The nation runs more than $1 trillion in annual deficits, and the last time the federal budget balanced was 2001.
The speaker cast his remarks as being in the footsteps of President Ronald Reagan nearly 40 years ago, when the Republican icon promised a federal budget that would unleash growth and "turn the bull loose." Speaking at the stock exchange in March 1985, Reagan called for low taxes and steep cuts to domestic spending, even though his plan still added to the federal deficit.
"He's probably trying to reassure investors and Wall Street ... that Congress is capable of doing something, and we're going to do something," said Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., a top appropriator, who said the slew of unresolved issues in the debate serve as a "test" for McCarthy.
But Womack and other Republicans acknowledged that the "real question" is whether their own party can shore up the 218 votes needed in the House to pass a bill. With tensions simmering among the GOP's far-right and moderate ranks -- and only four votes to spare in a narrow majority -- Republicans said they need to show progress if they hope to put new pressure on Democrats.
"I'm hopeful that Wall Street gets the message and sends it right down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House, because we've been trying to get that message across, and the president refuses to engage in negotiations in good faith," said Rep. Ben Cline, Va., a conservative Republican who sits on key spending and budget panels.
The cuts the House Republicans want to make are not "draconian," McCarthy said. He pledged not to touch the Medicare and Social Security programs important to older Americans that other Republicans want to cut.
Once, his speech was interrupted by applause from the executives and others at the stock exchange.
The White House and Democrats in Congress have been unwilling to engage in talks with the Republicans, saying Congress must simply raise the debt limit without conditions.
Biden, in particular, has been here before as vice president during the 2011 fiscal standoff that sent jitters through the economy as the Republicans demanded steep spending cuts.
The sweeping proposal from McCarthy will likely be too expansive for the White House to consider, but serves as a card to push Biden back to the negotiating table.
Information for this article was contributed by Lisa Mascaro, Zeke Miller, Josh Boak and Mary Clare Jalonick of The Associated Press, Catie Edmondson and Jim Tankersley of The New York Times and by Tony Romm of The Washington Post. | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/apr/18/mccarthy-ties-raising-debt-ceiling-to-1-cap/ | 2023-04-18 11:01:14 | 1 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/apr/18/mccarthy-ties-raising-debt-ceiling-to-1-cap/ |
It was meant to be the climate justice blueprint, the deal that showed how rich countries could help developing economies end their reliance on coal and go green. Almost 18 months on, South Africa’s $8.5 billion transition showpiece looks more like a cautionary tale.
Only one coal-fired power plant has been closed since the so-called Just Energy Transition Partnership was unveiled to great fanfare at the COP26 climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland. Now, some South African politicians are pushing to keep others open longer than planned — potentially for years — as the country struggles to end daily blackouts that are angering voters and turning off foreign investors.
The JETP’s success hinges on a plan by Eskom Holdings, the state power utility responsible for about 40% of South Africa’s planet-warming emissions, to replace most of its 14 remaining coal plants with wind and solar. But setback after setback has dogged the program since its inception, casting a shadow over similar agreements currently being hammered out with Indonesia, Vietnam, Senegal and India.
Indebted and reliant on government handouts, Eskom has been searching for a leader since its Chief Executive Officer Andre de Ruyter quit in February, accusing a government minister of graft and opponents of trying to poison him. Decades of indecision, mismanagement and corruption have hollowed out the company to the point where it can no longer keep the lights on. De Ruyter has said 1 billion rand ($55 million) a month was a conservative estimate for the amount of money being stolen from the company.
Beyond Eskom, the challenges are just as daunting. Political turbulence and critical personnel changes have stymied progress. The government has so far neglected the difficult work of negotiating with the labor unions. And the country’s energy minister, a former miner and union leader, is a self-described “coal fundamentalist.”
It’s little wonder then, that the government plan on which the funding depends is already behind on its own targets, unsettling international partners interviewed by Bloomberg, who are keen to show they’re doing their bit for climate justice. Funders privately describe the current situation as a hiatus.
“It doesn’t make sense to be shutting down units at coal-fired power stations when we have an energy crisis,” Vikesh Rajpaul, general manager at Eskom’s JETP office, said by telephone. The company is currently considering operating “some of these units as long as we can continue to operate them without significant capital investment.”
When the concept of helping developing countries transition away from fossil fuels first began to coalesce at meetings of the G-7 industrialized nations, South Africa emerged as a seemingly ideal test case. It would be simpler to work out a plan in a country with one big energy company rather than many small ones. A land of abundant sunshine and high winds, South Africa is also well-suited to renewable energy — and Eskom was already looking at a potential green transition but didn’t have the funds to pursue it.
Five partners — Germany, France, the U.K., U.S. and European Union — agreed to provide some of the money required for South Africa to close dilapidated and failing coal plants, bolster transmission capacity, add renewable energy and foster the development of electric vehicle and hydrogen industries to create new jobs. The JETP model was appealing because it was clearly defined and measurable while still being large scale. That made it easier to finance than the more amorphous funds poor countries have demanded to help them adapt to extreme weather or protect carbon-trapping forests.
While Vietnam’s $15.5 billion and Indonesia’s $20 billion planned JETP agreements are at an earlier stage, they’re also much bigger and potentially more complex. A smaller deal envisaged with Senegal is complicated by its plan to start producing gas.
“We could have done an amazing, amazing model right here in South Africa,” said Tasneem Essop, executive director of Climate Action Network International, which represents over 1,900 climate-focused organizations in more than 130 countries. But “we got embroiled in the politics of it all.”
There was always going to be pushback.
Coal is the fuel upon which South Africa’s economy, the most advanced on the continent, was built. Cheap power from abundant coal fields powered gold mines that earned foreign currency for the whites-only government. In a country that lacks oil, Sasol uses coal to make motor fuels. Today coal-fired plants provide over 80% of South Africa’s electricity, making it more dependent on the dirtiest fossil fuel than any other major economy.
At least 110,000 people are employed in the mines and power plants, which puncture the flat, corn-growing vistas of Mpumalanga province, east of Johannesburg. While the region boasts spectacular scenery and wildlife, it is also home to some of the most polluted places on Earth. Some municipalities rely on coal for more than 40% of economic activity.
The coal supply chain also serves as a linchpin of the government’s Black economic empowerment drive. The ruling African National Congress has used it to foster Black-owned businesses and provide jobs to its constituents. Closing any large industry is never easy — it requires skill to bring unions, political parties and other vested interests onside. It’s especially complicated in South Africa, where coal is enmeshed with the history of the liberation struggle.
While South Africa operates a largely free-market economy and counts the EU, U.S. and U.K. among its top trade partners, the ANC remains rooted in the liberation struggle era, when it enjoyed support from the Soviet Union, and some politicians remain suspicious of Western nations.
That skepticism manifested itself when Germany’s vice chancellor Robert Habeck visited South Africa in December. Gwede Mantashe, the coal-supporting minister of mineral resources and energy, told the Green party politician that South Africans didn’t want to be the West’s guinea pig for the global energy transition. Habeck offered to withdraw the JETP funding, according to people familiar with the conversation. Mantashe declined to comment. Habeck’s spokesperson did not respond to an email requesting comment.
As the finances of Eskom and the government have deteriorated, power plants and towns across South Africa’s eastern coal belt have been left to decay, with half the generating capacity out at any one time. Eskom has had to ration electricity in recent years. Rotating power cuts have been imposed every day bar one this year, often for more than 10 hours at a time.
Mantashe, who has overseen a stop-start effort to boost renewable power generation, and newly appointed electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa have made it clear that their priority is to alleviate the blackouts. They argue that the quickest way to do that is to fix the coal plants, which has the added benefit of preserving jobs and patronage networks.
Eskom estimates 53 gigawatts of clean energy would need to be installed by 2032 to make up for the six coal-fired stations due to be retired before then. But major renewables projects being built in western provinces with strong wind power potential are held back by a lack of grid capacity. The Northern Cape, an arid area favorable to solar plants, also needs to expand its transmission infrastructure to carry power to the big population centers.
Eskom is also meant add some renewable units at idled coal sites, which have the advantage of being already connected to the vast grid that feeds the nearby cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria and carries power as far as Cape Town.
But the terms of a 254-billion rand debt bailout announced by the government in February prohibit the company from investing in new generation capacity. It can’t take on additional debt without Treasury permission and can only spend within narrow constraints.
South Africa estimates it will cost about 1.5 trillion rand ($81 billion) over the next five years to begin the switch, including funding for everything from power lines to kick-starting a hydrogen industry.
The $8.5 billion that international partners are offering is meant to serve as a catalyst for more investment. Spain, for example, said this month it was providing 2.1 billion euros ($2.3 billion) toward energy transition and water needs.
But most of the money isn’t free. JETP funding consists of a mix of grants, concessional finance, commercial loans and debt guarantees; under the current deal, only 4% of the total doesn’t have to be repaid. South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has expressed concern about some of the loan terms. Even President Cyril Ramaphosa, who has championed the deal, has sought more money in the form of grants.
Meanwhile, worsening power cuts are increasing pressure on Ramaphosa a year before general elections in which the ANC may lose its majority for the first time.
Even though they sit on opposite sides of the clean-energy debate, Ramaphosa depends on the energy minister for his political survival. As ANC chairman, Mantashe helped Ramaphosa head off a potential challenge and win an internal vote as recently as December. That makes him impossible to replace.
The ANC is also dependent on an increasingly fractious relationship with the 1.8 million-member Congress of South African Trade Unions. Ramaphosa has so far shied away from confronting them over the coal closures, storing up potential trouble for the future.
Matthew Parks, parliamentary coordinator for the Congress, said the unions only saw a draft of the JETP after it was approved by the Cabinet. “We were barely consulted,” he said in an interview. “We’ve had one meeting, I think, in September.”
Still, donor countries aren’t giving up on the deal. They’re being pragmatic and will do what they can to make the JETP more politically palatable because they need it to succeed as a “proof of concept,” one of the people involved said.
Additional reporting by Petra Sorge is included in this report. | https://www.seattletimes.com/business/how-developing-countries-are-being-failed-by-the-wests-green-ambitions/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all | 2023-04-30 13:45:05 | 0 | https://www.seattletimes.com/business/how-developing-countries-are-being-failed-by-the-wests-green-ambitions/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all |
If you like to eat blueberries, apples, almonds, and other fruits that require pollination, you can thank a honeybee. Farmers could not grow these crops without the essential service bees provide.
"We depend on honeybees for our existence," says Hail Bennett, 36, of Bennett Orchards, in Frankford, Del, which has just opened its fields to u-pick visitors for peak season.
Each spring, just as his blueberry bushes are flowering, Bennett rents loads of bees from a commercial beekeeper. For three weeks, the bees buzz around moving millions of grains of pollen within and between flowers in order to pollinate the plants.
"It's pretty amazing how much work the bees have to do," Bennett says. There are millions of flowers on his six acres of blueberries and "each flower has to be visited six to eight times by a honeybee in order to be fully pollinated," Bennett explains as he splits open a plump berry to inspect its seeds.
"You want to have at least 15 seeds in the fruit, Bennett says, looking approvingly as he counts them. "That tells you the flower was adequately pollinated in the spring," he says.
Bennett recalls hearing stories about the collapse of honeybee colonies when he was in high school. Across the country bees were disappearing from their hives. Now, a new survey of beekeepers finds bees are still struggling.
"Over the entire year, we estimate that beekeepers lost 48.2 % of their colonies," says Dan Aurrell, a researcher at Auburn University's bee lab, which collaborates with the non-profit, Bee Informed Partnership, to perform the survey.
The report covers the period between April 2022, through April 2023, and included 3,006 beekeepers from across the U.S. This year's count marks the second highest estimated loss rate since 2010 to 2011, when the survey started recording annual losses.
"This is absolutely a concern," Aurell says. "This year's loss rates do not amount to a massive spike in colony deaths, but rather a continuation of worrisome loss rates."
"It's bad," says former USDA research scientist Jeff Pettis, in regard to the survey findings. "It shows beekeepers are still being affected by a number of challenges," he says. Beekeepers are finding they need to work harder to maintain their colonies, says Pettis, who is the president of Apimondia, an international federation of beekeepers' associations.
"A major concern for bees is the varroa mite," Pettis says. It's a small parasite that feeds on bees and makes it difficult for them to stay healthy. "It shortens their lifespan," Pettis says. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Vorroa is an invasive species that originated in Asia, and Pettis says beekeepers can use organic acids and other synthetic products to protect their bees.
Pettis keeps bees on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where he's had some success using formic acid to treat against vorroa mites. "The organic acids are effective, but they do take time and money," Pettis says.
Other challenges bees face are beyond the control of any one beekeeper, Pettis says. They include the use of pesticides, a loss of nutrition sources for honeybees due to urbanization or land use practices leading to fewer, and less diverse food sources, such as wild flowers.
There's also a concern that can seem hidden in plain sight – climate change. "When you layer on the big, broad issues of climate change, bees are really struggling," Pettis says.
Blueberry farmer Hail Bennett says he aims to be a good steward of the land. He invited a hobbyist beekeeper, Steven Reese to set up on his farm, which could help some of their visitors learn how crucial bees are to his operation, and to agriculture overall.
Reese, 60, is retired from the Air Force, and now works as a civilian for the army. He says beekeeping is relaxing for him, almost a form of meditation. He says it is work to manage his bees, but he's been able to maintain his numbers, and grow his colonies, by dividing hives when some of the bees die. "If I left them feral, so to speak, and allowed them to survive on their own, it would be a much higher loss rate," so the effort is worth it, he says.
Reese says bees never cease to amaze him, with their hive instincts and sophisticated ways of organizing themselves. "They communicate in phenomenal ways," he says.
For farmer Hail Bennett, the bee is paramount. Without bees there are no blueberries.
"It's important for people to understand and remember where their food comes from," Bennett says.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.nprillinois.org/2023-07-03/honeybee-deaths-rose-last-year-heres-why-farmers-would-go-bust-without-bees | 2023-07-03 09:12:59 | 0 | https://www.nprillinois.org/2023-07-03/honeybee-deaths-rose-last-year-heres-why-farmers-would-go-bust-without-bees |
The battle over the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut has been a deadly slugfest that has reduced it to ruins. Ukrainian medics have worked hard to support and treat wounded soldiers.
Copyright 2023 NPR
The battle over the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut has been a deadly slugfest that has reduced it to ruins. Ukrainian medics have worked hard to support and treat wounded soldiers.
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.wlrn.org/npr-breaking-news/npr-breaking-news/2023-04-06/medics-risk-their-lives-in-bakhmut-to-treat-ukrainian-soldiers-and-evacuate-them | 2023-04-06 09:52:42 | 1 | https://www.wlrn.org/npr-breaking-news/npr-breaking-news/2023-04-06/medics-risk-their-lives-in-bakhmut-to-treat-ukrainian-soldiers-and-evacuate-them |
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky's lawyer disciplinary system will be reviewed next month by an American Bar Association committee, officials said.
The Kentucky Supreme Court and the Kentucky Bar Association said in a joint statement that they requested the review in an effort to create more efficiency, ensure due process and protect both the public and the integrity of the legal profession. The review in December will evaluate the current system, and a report with any recommended changes will be submitted to the Supreme Court next spring.
The last significant changes to the lawyer disciplinary system were made about 20 years ago, the statement said.
“This review by an outside group will ensure Kentucky’s processes and procedures relating to lawyer discipline align with national standards and best practices," Kentucky Chief Justice John D. Minton said.
Kentucky Bar Association President Amy Cubbage said she looks forward to “an evaluation of the health of our discipline system” and to making any needed changes. | https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/Kentucky-s-lawyer-disciplinary-system-to-be-17594305.php | 2022-11-18 09:51:21 | 0 | https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/Kentucky-s-lawyer-disciplinary-system-to-be-17594305.php |
Sarasota County deputies arrest 80-year-old man on child porn charges
VENICE, Fla. - An 80-year-old man in Venice is accused of possessing more than 160 images showing child pornography, according to Sarasota County deputies.
Detectives with the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about a child porn image uploaded to a Microsoft server. Through the investigation, they said they tracked the IP address to the suspect, David Lennon.
After searching his computer, detectives said they found more than 160 additional images showing victims as young as infants and as old as 15.
Detectives said, during an interview, Lennon admitted he used his computer to search and view illegal images online.
READ: Gabby Petito's mother files new lawsuit against estate of Brian Laundrie
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He was arrested Friday and has since bonded out of Sarasota County Jail. | https://www.fox13news.com/news/sarasota-county-deputies-arrest | 2022-05-09 18:58:09 | 1 | https://www.fox13news.com/news/sarasota-county-deputies-arrest |
LAS VEGAS (AP) — In a meeting hall just north of Las Vegas Boulevard, where casino-resorts tower like gleaming beacons of amusement, Ted Pappageorge laid out a darker, urgent call for action before next month’s election.
Pappageorge, leader of the heavily Latino casino workers’ union, told the hundreds of union members this past weekend that Nevada’s endangered Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak and U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto have been “warriors” for workers whose jobs were hit hard by the pandemic while the Republicans who may defeat them in November are “extreme.”
“We’re going to fight back. Are you ready to fight?” Pappageorge said to cheers and claps as the bartenders, cooks, servers, and room cleaners prepared to knock doors and get out the vote on behalf of Nevada Democratic candidates, according to a video of the event.
Across town at the same time, at a strip mall in a retirement community where golf carts share the street with cars, Joe Lombardo, the Republican candidate for governor, told a crowd of about 100 people: “This election, you have to ask one question: Is your life any better today than it was four years ago?”
“No!” the audience yelled in response. “That’s the common answer,” Lombardo said.
The dual rallies launched an intense two-week period of early voting in a state that may shape the nation’s political future. Much of the focus is on Las Vegas, the gambling mecca that drives the state’s economy and is home to three quarters of the state’s population. If Democrats are to pull off victories, they have to drive up turnout here to compensate for the GOP’s strength in rural communities that dominate the rest of the state.
Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, has about 1.3 million registered voters.
So far, the numbers present a mixed picture. Early in-person turnout in Las Vegas was light over the weekend, with only about 19,000 voters casting ballots in-person the first two days. But mail balloting, a process favored by Democrats, was stronger, with about 41,500 votes cast. About 20,000 of those votes were from registered Democrats, compared with about 10,600 from Republicans. The remaining were cast by nonaffiliated or third-party voters.
The governor’s mansion and the seat held by Cortez Masto, the first Latina in the U.S. Senate, are considered two of the Republican Party’s best chances to flip statewide offices around the country. Her opponent is Republican Adam Laxalt, whose name is well-known as a former attorney general and grandson of former Sen. Paul Laxalt of Nevada.
The winners could be determined by the unique social and economic circumstances in Las Vegas.
Rising costs that are being felt globally are packing a double punch here. The city’s heavily working-class population is pinched by higher prices for groceries, and gasoline remains above $5 a gallon. As well, higher costs around the U.S. and the world mean tourists may spend less when they visit, if they even do.
Republican Jeffrey Burns, a property manager and chef in Las Vegas, said he voted “Republican all the way” because everything that the Democrats in control are doing “is just so completely backwards.”
He said he wants Laxalt to be a conservative Republican in the Senate and stop approving “the spending of tons and tons of money like Masto does.”
Burns said he wants the U.S. to be energy independent and sees high gas prices as a clear sign of problems but supply chain shortages are still noticeable.
“Like, I go to get eggs,” Burns said. “And there’s just no eggs. And it’s like, why are there no eggs? That’s just weird.”
George Trachtman, a Democrat and lawyer who lives in the town of Enterprise, said he voted for Cortez Masto and Sisolak. Trachtman said economic conditions are not as bad as they’re being portrayed.
“If I go to the Strip, I see tons of people there just having fun and enjoying themselves,” he said. He added that he went to a shopping mall the day before and couldn’t find a parking space because it was so packed.
“It doesn’t seem like a recession or that we’re headed in that direction,” he said. “And I understand interest rates are going up so things are going to slow down. But right now, things seem like they’re better than what’s being reported.”
Perhaps no state was hit harder economically by the pandemic than tourist-dependent Nevada, where casinos were shuttered for two and a half months and unemployment at one point topped 28% — the worst in the country and the worst in any state since the Great Depression.
More than two years later, unemployment is much lower at 4.4%. But that’s the third-worst in the U.S., better only than Illinois and the District of Columbia. Casino winnings, a key economic indicator, are up significantly, as are visitor levels and convention attendance, but those have not returned to pre-pandemic levels. Three casinos that never reopened are being razed, and about 10% of the Culinary Union’s 60,000 members are still out of jobs.
The union’s members transform every two years into a political force here, calling voters and knocking doors on behalf of Democratic candidates, especially in the city’s multilingual and working-class neighborhoods.
Their union hall has become a must-stop for Democrats, especially once ballots start being cast.
“I know what this fight is about,” Cortez Masto told the crowd. “It’s about good-paying jobs. It’s about affordable health care. It’s about assuring we can retire with dignity.”
“They backed us up when we needed them,” Pappageorge said of the Democratic candidates flanking him. After his remarks were translated into Spanish, he added: “We’re going to back them up now.”
Across the city, Republicans were decidedly upbeat as they predicted a “red wave” was coming to Nevada.
The GOP’s nominees rolled up to a palm tree-dotted shopping center in a large bus bearing the name “Laxalt” and climbed out as the song “Only in America” from country duo Brooks & Dunn played and the crowd of about 100 people clapped and cheered. Though several in the crowd wore “Trump” hats, no one mentioned the name of the former president.
Laxalt mocked Cortez Masto for not holding campaign appearances with President Joe Biden and said the state “cannot afford one more week of the Joe Biden-Catherine Cortez Masto economy.”
“People are as upset as they’ve ever been with what’s happening to America,” he said. “We have one opportunity here in the midst of a red wave for a transformation election, to transform our state, to take back our country. That’s what your job is for the next two weeks.”
___
Check out https://apnews.com/hub/explaining-the-elections to learn more about the issues and factors at play in the 2022 midterm elections. And follow AP’s coverage of the midterms at https://apnews.com/hub/2022-midterm-elections. | https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/politics/ap-las-vegas-at-center-of-tight-contests-for-senate-governor/ | 2022-10-25 07:18:39 | 0 | https://www.yourcentralvalley.com/news/politics/ap-las-vegas-at-center-of-tight-contests-for-senate-governor/ |
ELC to Present Novel Scientific Data Spanning Emerging Research Areas and Clinical Progress to Promote Skin Health and Anti-aging at World Congress of Dermatology
NEW YORK, June 14, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. (ELC) (NYSE: EL) today announced that the company and its brands will present at the 25th World Congress of Dermatology (WCD) in Singapore from July 3-8, 2023. ELC researchers across 3 brands and ELC Research & Development (R&D) will share novel clinical and preclinical results that demonstrate scientific innovation and leadership across emerging areas of skin health and anti-aging in the form of 5 poster presentations and a satellite symposium during this global event, which takes place every 4 years.
"We are thrilled to share key findings at the upcoming WCD from our most recent research efforts, which leverage insights from the fields of longevity and epigenetics to advance our understanding of the molecular pathways underlying inflammation and aging," said Nadine Pernodet, PhD, Senior Vice President, Bioscience, ELC. "The breadth and depth of data to be presented further reflects our robust combined R&D and clinical testing capabilities. These highly integrated areas of focus support our exploration of new ingredients or methodologies to ultimately help shape and advance the skin care landscape."
Poster presentation details are as follows:
Title: The effect of a multi-ingredient facial cream on skin structure, function, and appearance: evidence from ex vivo and clinical studies
Presenter: Jaime Emmetsberger, PhD
Title: The importance of Sirt2 in regulating mechanobiology of the skin
Presenter: Nadine Pernodet, PhD
Title: Anti-glycation and anti-sallowness effects of certain materials in 3D skin equivalent models
Presenter: Tom Mammone, PhD
Title: A topical cosmetic serum with a targeted, triple action approach provides anti-aging benefits equal to or better than a single laser treatment
Presenter: Kristine Schmalenberg, PhD
Title: The benefits of regular use of moisturizer to skin aging prevention: a six-month evaluator blinded, randomized, and controlled clinical study
Presenter: Hao Ouyang, PhD
In addition, ELC's "Sirtuins and Longevity" symposium will be held on July 6 from 5:30 to 6:45 PM Singapore time. The symposium will feature Dr. Pernodet and Danica Chen, PhD, Professor, Metabolic Biology, Nutritional Sciences & Toxicology, University of California, Berkeley, who will discuss the latest research on sirtuins and their impact on youthful, active skin as well as aging. Presented by scientists active in the study of longevity science, including a world-renowned expert in sirtuin biology, this symposium will share key research on the relationship between these longevity factors and the hallmarks of aging. The new findings presented here will provide insight into how an understanding of aging pathways and targets will form the basis for skin longevity research, which will aid in the continued development of approaches to slow or reverse visible aging in skin.
Around the world, ELC is dedicated to cutting-edge science with multidisciplinary expertise ranging from basic science and advanced technologies to the intersections of physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering. The company has 75 years of formulation authority and is deeply integrated into the scientific community, regularly presenting at leading events and publishing in peer-reviewed journals. ELC has a commitment to advancing women in STEM, and within its own operations, all of the company's R&D and innovation laboratories worldwide are led by women and more than half of its scientists, engineers, and technical professionals are women.
About The Estée Lauder Companies
The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. is one of the world's leading manufacturers, marketers, and sellers of quality skin care, makeup, fragrance, and hair care products, and is a steward of outstanding luxury and prestige brands globally. The company's products are sold in approximately 150 countries and territories under brand names including: Estée Lauder, Aramis, Clinique, Lab Series, Origins, M·A·C, La Mer, Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, Aveda, Jo Malone London, Bumble and bumble, Darphin Paris, TOM FORD, Smashbox, AERIN Beauty, Le Labo, Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle, GLAMGLOW, KILIAN PARIS, Too Faced, Dr.Jart+, and the DECIEM family of brands, including The Ordinary and NIOD.
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SOURCE The Estée Lauder Companies | https://www.wafb.com/prnewswire/2023/06/14/este-lauder-companies-present-novel-scientific-data-world-congress-dermatology/ | 2023-06-14 18:03:12 | 0 | https://www.wafb.com/prnewswire/2023/06/14/este-lauder-companies-present-novel-scientific-data-world-congress-dermatology/ |
The College Board has announced changes will be made to the new AP African American course framework amid criticism earlier this year that the agency bowed to political pressure and removed several topics from the framework, including Black Lives Matter, slavery reparations and queer life.
It remains unclear what the changes are or when they will be made public.
The course gained national attention in February when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2024, said he would ban the course in his state because it pushed a political agenda.
“In the state of Florida, our education standards not only don’t prevent, but they require teaching Black history, all the important things. That’s part of our core curriculum,” DeSantis previously said. “We want education and not indoctrination.”
The course was launched in 60 schools in the U.S. and will be expanded to 800 schools and 16,000 students this upcoming school year.
The College Board previously said revisions to the course were substantially complete and not shaped by political influence before DeSantis shared his objections. College Board officials said developers consulted with professors from more than 200 colleges, including several historically Black institutions, and took input from teachers piloting the class.
The College Board said the creation of the course was about access to a discipline that is not widely available and access for as many students as possible and that both of those goals “came into conflict.”
The College Board offers AP courses across the academic spectrum, including math, science, social studies, foreign languages and fine arts. The courses are optional. Taught at a college level, students who score high enough on the final exam usually earn course credit at their university.
___
Mumphrey reported from Phoenix. Data journalist Sharon Lurye contributed to this report from New Orleans.
___
The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content. | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/04/24/education-black-history-advanced-placement/f484bb8a-e313-11ed-9696-8e874fd710b8_story.html | 2023-04-25 03:31:17 | 1 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/04/24/education-black-history-advanced-placement/f484bb8a-e313-11ed-9696-8e874fd710b8_story.html |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal, backed by the satirical The Onion, from a man who was arrested and prosecuted for making fun of police on social media.
The justices on Tuesday left in place a lower court ruling against Anthony Novak, who was arrested after he spoofed the Parma, Ohio, police force in Facebook posts.
After his acquittal on criminal charges, Novak sued the police for violating his constitutional rights. But a federal appeals court ruled the officers have “qualified immunity” and threw out the lawsuit.
The Onion filed its brief in defense of parody. Its lawyers wrote that the First Amendment protects people from prosecution when they make fun of others.
“The Onion’s writers also have a self-serving interest in preventing political authorities from imprisoning humorists,” the site’s lawyers wrote in a brief filed in October. “This brief is submitted in the interest of at least mitigating their future punishment.” | https://pix11.com/ap-political/ap-justices-reject-appeal-from-man-arrested-for-spoofing-police/ | 2023-02-21 15:31:24 | 0 | https://pix11.com/ap-political/ap-justices-reject-appeal-from-man-arrested-for-spoofing-police/ |
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Monday evening's drawing of the New York Lottery's "Take 5 Evening" game were:
06-08-18-32-39
(six, eight, eighteen, thirty-two, thirty-nine)
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Monday evening's drawing of the New York Lottery's "Take 5 Evening" game were:
06-08-18-32-39
(six, eight, eighteen, thirty-two, thirty-nine) | https://www.seattlepi.com/lottery/article/Winning-numbers-drawn-in-Take-5-Evening-game-17298527.php | 2022-07-12 03:04:31 | 1 | https://www.seattlepi.com/lottery/article/Winning-numbers-drawn-in-Take-5-Evening-game-17298527.php |
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Marlins’ Jazz Chisholm Jr. back on injured list, this time with oblique strain
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Sofia Kenin surprises Coco Gauff in a highlight-filled, all-US match at Wimbledon
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Crosby presented Conn Smythe Trophy
June 12, 2016 10:54 PM
The Conn Smyth Trophy is awarded to Penguins captain Sidney Crosby for being the most valuable player during the NHL playoffs.
Close Ad | https://www.nbcsports.com/watch/nhl/crosby-presented-conn-smythe-trophy | 2023-07-04 02:03:43 | 1 | https://www.nbcsports.com/watch/nhl/crosby-presented-conn-smythe-trophy |
Ivanka Trump says she won’t be involved in politics during father’s 2024 campaign
(CNN) - Former President Donald Trump is once again running for president, but his daughter said she won’t be involved this time around.
Donald Trump filed the necessary paperwork to make a run for president in 2024 on Tuesday.
Shortly after the announcement, his daughter Ivanka Trump released a statement saying she would not be involved further in politics. She said she plans to support her father “outside of the political arena.”
Donald Trump addressed supporters Tuesday night at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach Florida.
“To make America glorious again I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States,” Donald Trump said.
He is expected to face a crowded Republican field that could include Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and even his former running mate Mike Pence.
Copyright 2022 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.wafb.com/2022/11/16/ivanka-trump-says-she-wont-be-involved-politics-during-fathers-2024-campaign/ | 2022-11-16 22:56:44 | 1 | https://www.wafb.com/2022/11/16/ivanka-trump-says-she-wont-be-involved-politics-during-fathers-2024-campaign/ |
Kansans report getting some of the best sleep in the nation
TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - Kansans have reported in a recent survey that they get some of the best sleep in the nation.
With sleep being such a crucial need, Aeris - the air purifier specialists from iRobot - says it surveyed more than 3,400 Americans in 47 different states to find which states’ residents get the best night’s sleep.
Aeris said it asked respondents how many hours of sleep they got and to rate the quality of their sleep. It also said it asked questions about air quality, preferred sleeping positions, sleepwalking or talking, and other odd sleeping habits.
According to the survey, Kansans reported getting the 10th best sleep in the nation with a sleep score of 3.38 out of 5. Meanwhile, the Sunflower State’s direct neighbor to the south was ranked as the state where residents get the worst sleep.
Residents reported what affected their shut-eye the most included sleep disorders, air quality, naps during the day, and stress brought on by the pandemic and current events.
On average, the study also found that Kansans get about 6.74 hours of sleep each night, more than an hour under the recommended 8. However, on average Americans get about 7.05 hours of sleep each night.
The report also found how long it usually takes respondents to fall asleep. It said the largest percentage - 42% - reported it only takes about 15-30 minutes to fall asleep. About 30% of Americans reported it takes them less than 15 minutes while 9% said it takes them more than an hour.
Aeris also found the following sleep habits:
- 25% of millennials run air purifiers while they sleep and say their quality has improved.
- 54% of Americans wake up at least twice or more during their sleep cycle.
- 66% of Americans sleep on their side.
- 37% of women say they sleep worse with someone else in the bed with them.
- 52% of Americans feel their quality of sleep has worsened with age.
- 30% of Americans nap once or twice per week.
- 42% of millennials have canceled plans because they interfered with their sleep schedule.
- 26% of Americans need a running fan on in order to fall asleep.
The report also found Americans do the following while they sleep:
- Frequently wake up - 22%
- Snore - 20%
- Night sweats - 12%
- Grind teeth - 11%
- Have nightmares - 9%
- Sleep talk - 9%
- Have cramps or aching - 6%
- Sleepwalk - 2%
Americans also reported needing the following to fall asleep:
- A running fan - 26%
- A form of white noise - 15%
- TV in the background - 12%
- Melatonin or another sleep supplement - 11%
- Calm, Headspace or another app - 8%
- ASMR videos - 5%
For more information or to see how well residents sleep in other states, click HERE.
Copyright 2022 WIBW. All rights reserved. | https://www.wibw.com/2022/06/20/kansans-report-getting-some-best-sleep-nation/ | 2022-06-20 15:58:41 | 0 | https://www.wibw.com/2022/06/20/kansans-report-getting-some-best-sleep-nation/ |
BREINIGSVILLE, Pa. - Due to the upcoming start of his first term as a Pennsylvania State Senator for District 16, Jarrett Coleman has tendered his resignation as a Director on the Parkland Area School Board, according to a news release from Coleman's office.
The resignation is effective Thursday.
“Part of being a leader involves making difficult decisions at times. After consulting with my team, we determined that although legal to hold both positions, it would be best for the constituents of the 16th Senate District for me to resign as school board director as is customary when assuming higher office,” Coleman said. “Resigning at this point in time allows for the residents of Parkland to elect a replacement as part of the next municipal election instead of having a board director appointed by the board for the remainder of my term.”
“It has been an honor to serve the families and taxpayers in the Parkland School District while a member of the School Board. I will bring the same energy and determination to the Pennsylvania Senate,” he said. | https://www.wfmz.com/news/area/lehighvalley/jarrett-coleman-resigns-from-parkland-school-board-as-he-prepares-to-represent-pa-s-16th/article_140cd960-7cda-11ed-8c10-633d8d03a5c1.html | 2022-12-16 01:00:03 | 0 | https://www.wfmz.com/news/area/lehighvalley/jarrett-coleman-resigns-from-parkland-school-board-as-he-prepares-to-represent-pa-s-16th/article_140cd960-7cda-11ed-8c10-633d8d03a5c1.html |
ECOUST-SAINT-MEIN, France (AP) — For more than a century, the British soldier lay in an anonymous grave, one of so many unidentified victims buried beneath the killing fields of World War I.
But now, his headstone finally bears a name: 2nd Lt. Osmund Bartle Wordsworth — a great-great-nephew of English poet William Wordsworth — who was recently identified by DNA research, and given a funeral ceremony Tuesday, 105 years after he died.
A new headstone for Wordsworth, who was killed in action in the Battle of Arras on April 2, 1917, was mounted at his gravesite at a cemetery in Ecoust-Saint-Mein in northern France. A cleric led the ceremony, and a British military attache handed Wordsworth’s relatives a carefully folded French flag to place on the grave.
The evolution of DNA technology has allowed for the identification of more and more unknown soldiers from World War I. A service will be held for others in Ypres, Belgium, next week. | https://www.krqe.com/news/world/unknown-soldier-no-more-world-war-i-gravestone-gets-a-name/ | 2022-06-22 00:40:01 | 1 | https://www.krqe.com/news/world/unknown-soldier-no-more-world-war-i-gravestone-gets-a-name/ |
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Mike Trout has left the Los Angeles Angels’ game against Houston with upper back spasms.
The three-time AL MVP didn’t come out for the fifth inning Tuesday night after striking out in his first two plate appearances against Luis Garcia and the AL West-leading Astros.
Trout was selected earlier this month to appear in his 10th All-Star Game, to be held next Tuesday at Dodger Stadium.
Trout has been bothered by several minor injuries during the first half of the season. He went just 6 for 34 (.177) with one homer, four RBIs and 16 strikeouts while the Angels went 1-8 on their just-completed road trip.
Trout is hitting .270 this season with 24 homers and 51 RBIs.
Monte Harrison took over in center field for the Angels, who have plummeted out of contention by going 14-36 over the past eight weeks.
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More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.binghamtonhomepage.com/sports/mike-trout-leaves-angels-game-with-upper-back-spasms/ | 2022-07-13 12:57:44 | 1 | https://www.binghamtonhomepage.com/sports/mike-trout-leaves-angels-game-with-upper-back-spasms/ |
At one point last month, children were admitted to Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital with a startling range of seven respiratory viruses. They had adenovirus and rhinovirus, respiratory syncytial virus and human metapneumovirus, influenza and parainfluenza, as well as the coronavirus — which many specialists say is to blame for the unusual surges.
“That’s not typical for any time of year and certainly not typical in May and June,” said Thomas Murray, an infection-control expert and associate professor of pediatrics at Yale. Some children admitted to the hospital were co-infected with two viruses and a few with three, he said.
More than two years into the coronavirus pandemic, familiar viruses are acting in unfamiliar ways. Respiratory syncytial virus, known as RSV, typically limits its suffocating assaults to the winter months.
Rhinovirus, cause of the common cold, rarely sends people to the hospital.
And the flu, which seemed to be making a comeback in December after being a no-show the year before, disappeared again in January once the omicron variant of the coronavirus took hold. Now flu is back, but without one common lineage known as Yamagata, which hasn’t been spotted since early 2020. It could have gone extinct or may be lying in wait to attack our unsuspecting immune systems, researchers said.
The upheaval is being felt in hospitals and labs. Doctors are rethinking routines, including keeping preventive shots on hand into the spring and even summer. Researchers have a rare opportunity to figure out whether behavioral changes like stay-at-home orders, masking and social distancing are responsible for the viral shifts, and what evolutionary advantage SARS CoV-2 may be exercising over its microscopic rivals.
“It’s a massive natural experiment,” said Michael Mina, an epidemiologist and chief science officer at the digital health platform eMed. Mina said the shift in seasonality is explained largely by our lack of recent exposure to common viruses, making us vulnerable to their return.
In hospitals across the country, physicians are adjusting protocols that for decades reflected a predictable cycle of illnesses that would come and go when schools closed or the weather changed.
“You would see a child with a febrile illness, and think, ‘What time of the year is it?’ ” said Peter Hotez, a molecular virologist and dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
For years, Theresa Barton, head of pediatric infectious diseases at University Health in San Antonio, has routinely championed the flu vaccine each fall and relaxed her advocacy by March and April, when the flu fizzled out. The new shift in seasonality, with flu cases rising last summer and then again this spring, made her rethink.
“You are like, ‘Oh man!’ in clinics. ‘Let’s get your flu shot',” Barton said.
She and other infectious-disease specialists are also revisiting their response to RSV, a common virus that hospitalizes about 60,000 children younger than 5 each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It can create deadly lung infections in preemies and other high-risk infants. The typical treatment for them is monthly shots of a monoclonal antibody, palivizumab, from around November through February. But last summer, RSV suddenly surged and this year it is causing trouble in May and June. Infectious-disease experts are carefully tracking cases so that they are prepared to reactivate the pricey protocol.
“We monitor number of cases so that if it exceeds a number, we are ready,” Murray said. The Yale hospital, which typically holds meetings to prepare for upswings in fall through spring, is preparing pandemic-fatigued staffers for out-of-season surges.
Even common colds seem a little more virulent and tenacious, according to Richard Martinello, a specialist in respiratory viruses at Yale School of Medicine.
“When people are getting colds, they do seem to be a little worse,” he said, emphasizing that so far the evidence is largely anecdotal.
The changes — and how and when they may revert to normal — reflect shifts in our own behavior during the pandemic as well as the interplay between SARS CoV-2 and other viruses, known as viral interference.
We evolved alongside pathogens, and our regular contacts with them usually allow our immune systems to reup the response without making us very sick.
The system has “enough memory to make it more like a good hearty booster than a bad infection,” Mina said.
The moment you stop seeing a virus on this regular cadence, as happened during the pandemic, that natural balance is upset, Mina said. The extraordinary measures we took to limit exposure to the coronavirus — necessary steps to contain a deadly new foe — also limited our exposure to other viruses. If you do get exposed to a virus again once too much time has passed, you may not be able to protect yourself as well, leading to out-of-season surges across the population and surprisingly virulent infections for individuals.
That, Mina and others say, is what happened once people doffed their masks and started gathering indoors. Viruses began circulating out of season because population immunity was low even if other conditions for them were not optimal.
“All of these decisions have consequences,” Murray said. “You do the best you can with the information you have.”
The same process of immune memory is already well-documented by other phenomena, Mina said, like 35- and 40-year-olds getting shingles, a reactivation of the chickenpox virus that typically affects older adults or people with weakened immune systems.
Before the advent of vaccines against chickenpox, people were typically infected as children and then had a series of natural boosting events throughout their lives, rebooting their immunity as they made contact with infected friends and then their own children and their children’s friends.
Now that those children are protected, they are not providing their parents with those natural boosts, making those adults vulnerable to the virus once again in the form of shingles.
That phenomenon will be short-lived, as younger people who are protected by the chickenpox vaccine age and won’t be at risk of getting shingles.
While vaccines disrupt the viral landscape by restricting the spread of infections, during the pandemic an entirely new virus — SARS Cov-2 — is doing so by interacting with its more common rivals.
It’s not yet clear whether the drop in flu cases in January, for example, was caused entirely by people retreating from one another again as omicron spread or whether the coronavirus acted to push aside its more common rival through some other mechanism.
“It’s a wonderful question, whether omicron pushed it out,” said Xiaoyan Song, chief infection control officer at Children’s National Hospital in the District. Even more mysterious is the role covid played in knocking Yamagata out of play. When the flu did return this spring, that lineage was nowhere to be found.
Ellen Foxman, an immunobiologist at the Yale School of Medicine, has spent years exploring how viruses interact and which genetic and environmental factors mean the same virus may cause a cold in one person and make another very sick.
It’s a high-tech enterprise, using cells from the nose and lung to grow human airway tissue in the lab before infecting it with viruses, along with environmental contaminants like cigarette smoke.
Studying the lining of the nasal passages has given insights into what’s known as innate immunity. Once those cells detect a virus, they turn on antiviral defenses, blocking other viruses. That process may help explain why the much-anticipated twindemic of the coronavirus and other viruses, likely inhibited by remote work and masking in the winter of 2020 to 2021, still did not occur this past winter, despite sporadic co-infections.
The cohort of babies born over the past two years will yield a lot of information. Normally a child younger than 5 has on average a virus in his or her nose 26 out of 50 weeks of the year. Serious RSV and rhinovirus infections in those early years are associated with the development of asthma later in life.
“Those kids did not have infection at a crucial time of lung development,” Foxman said, making them key to understanding the relationship between the viral infection and asthma.
Still, it’s not clear what the future holds, as covid settles in among us.
“It’s going to take time and even years to see what the new balance is going to look like,” Martinello said.
Mina anticipates that the coronavirus will, like other respiratory viruses, fall into a pattern of seasonal circulation once population immunity increases, decreasing what is known as the “force of infection.”
“When you have a lot of people who don’t have immunity, the impact of the season is less. It’s like free rein,” Mina said. The virus “can overcome seasonal barriers.”
All those shifts will be affected by other environmental factors, Barton says, as climate change alters seasonal weather patterns.
Despite those ongoing uncertainties, for many researchers the upheaval caused by the pandemic has reinforced known strategies for preventing infection.
Scott Hensley, a microbiologist at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, is not convinced that the Yamagata flu is gone forever. It may still be circulating, undetected, at very low levels, he said, ready to pop back on the scene. Still, there’s a tried-and-true method of protecting ourselves — through vaccination.
“Even in years when vaccines are mismatched, there is some level of protection," Hensley said, "preventing hospitalizations and deaths.”
For Foxman, the lab scientist, the pandemic’s silver lining has been the way it will advance science.
Even as she continues to invest in high-tech experiments in her lab, Foxman says the biggest lesson the pandemic has taught her about stopping the spread of viral infections comes from simple shifts in behavior, like masking, which she thinks should be continued in strategic circumstances.
“We need to carry some of the lessons we learned forward," Foxman said. | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/06/13/covid-flu-rsv-viruses/ | 2022-06-13 11:23:51 | 0 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/06/13/covid-flu-rsv-viruses/ |
Law enforcement officials believe the body found in a submerged vehicle Sunday is "more than likely" that of Kiely Rodni, the missing 16-year-old last seen almost three weeks ago at a campground party in Northern California, authorities said Monday.
Kiely was at the Prosser Family Campground on August 5 and was last seen around 12:30 a.m. August 6, the Placer County Sheriff's Office said. Her disappearance was initially treated as a possible abduction, which law enforcement later explained was because they "had nothing to go on."
Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon said the case is still an active investigation and the victim has not yet been positively identified.
"Last night we did receive some information of the recovery of the vehicle that we've been searching for and it was located inside Prosser Lake," Moon said at a Monday news conference. "It was located within a search zone that we have been searching since the very beginning of our operation."
Moon added that the lone body found inside is believed to be the missing teen, though she did not name Kiely.
The vehicle was located by volunteer dive group Adventures with Purpose, who often join underwater searches, Moon said. It was found upside down about 14 feet beneath the lake's surface, which has dropped about 3 feet since the teen first disappeared, according to Nevada County Sheriff's Capt. Sam Brown said.
Kiely's family released a statement Monday expressing how "eternally grateful" they were for the love and support of the last few weeks.
"We have weathered a storm of unfathomable force, and it is purely thanks to the army of warriors, matriarchs, healers, and helpers holding us up that we continue to stand today," the statement read. "While we accept this sadness cast under death's shadow, the rising sun shines light upon us, reminding us not to mourn our loss, but to celebrate Kiely's spirit and the gift that we all received in knowing her. Kiely will surely remain with us even though we will not get her back."
Multiple agencies contributed to the search for Kiely over the last two weeks, including dive teams and swimmers who also scanned the lake with side-scan sonar, Brown said.
There were 200-300 juveniles at the campground party, which was in a wooded area, said Placer County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Angela Musallam during a news conference last week.
The grounds are about 17 miles north of Lake Tahoe and 36 miles from Reno, Nevada.
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™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. | https://www.abc12.com/news/national/body-found-in-submerged-car-more-than-likely-kiely-rodni-authorities-say/article_9d002136-29e3-588e-bb6c-d64c4bc8117d.html | 2022-08-23 02:02:38 | 1 | https://www.abc12.com/news/national/body-found-in-submerged-car-more-than-likely-kiely-rodni-authorities-say/article_9d002136-29e3-588e-bb6c-d64c4bc8117d.html |
Tunisia judge orders opposition top official’s imprisonment
TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — An anti-terrorism judge in Tunis has ordered the imprisonment of former Prime Minister Ali Larayedh, vice-president of the popular Islamist opposition party Ennahdha. The judge’s decision, announced on Monday, came after legislative elections marked by a very low turnout. Lawyer Ines Harrath said the move is linked to a case involving Tunisians who went to fight alongside extremists in Syria in which other Ennahdha officials are suspected. Ennahdha, which held the largest number of lawmakers in the dissolved parliament, denounced a political attack. Only 11.22% of Tunisian voters cast ballots in Saturday’s legislative elections, according to Farouk Bouaskar, the president of Tunisia’s Election Authority, who unveiled Monday the preliminary official results. | https://kion546.com/news/ap-national-news/2022/12/20/tunisia-judge-orders-opposition-top-officials-imprisonment/ | 2022-12-20 13:32:36 | 1 | https://kion546.com/news/ap-national-news/2022/12/20/tunisia-judge-orders-opposition-top-officials-imprisonment/ |
Expansion Positions Company to Better Serve Customers for Growth and Success
CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio, May 9, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Associated Materials® – a market leader in vinyl windows and cladding, metal siding and trim – recently opened three new Alside® supply centers throughout the country to support its strong customer base by investing and expanding the business through innovative products and solutions.
As an example of the company's evolution and growth, the new locations include a 20,000-square-foot facility in Conway, South Carolina. This site, in the Myrtle Beach metropolitan area, is a palletized warehouse offering exceptional manufactured Alside siding and windows along with a variety of other products, including fiber cement siding, doors and decking. Additionally, a 63,200-square-foot building is now open in Greensboro, North Carolina, along with a 20,000-square-foot supply center in San Antonio, Texas.
"We are excited to expand our distribution in these three cities to provide greater convenience, material offerings and better customer service to remodelers and builders in these markets," said Dan Watkoske, Division President – Alside. "Alside continues to see increased demand for our best-in-class products, including ASCEND® Composite Siding and Mezzo® windows, and the supply center openings will allow us to continue to support our customer's needs."
All locations feature:
- Wide selection of siding, windows, soffit, trim, accessories and other leading building materials. This includes innovative, high-performance products, such as:
- Designated showroom to view samples and displays.
- Quick order fulfillment and reliable delivery from Alside's supply center direct to the job site.
- Technical expertise from professionals who know the industry and can help with product specifications, installation tips and more.
For more information on Alside, visit www.alside.com
About Alside
A brand of Associated Materials, LLC, Alside is a leader in exterior building products for residential and commercial remodeling and new construction markets. Established in 1947, Alside offers vinyl windows, vinyl and composite siding and accessories, and metal building products. Alside also has more than 100 company-operated supply centers across the United States and provides installation services, serving as a true partner to contractors, remodelers, builders and architects for building products and services. For more information, or to locate your local Alside supply center, visit Alside.com.
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SOURCE Alside | https://www.wbtv.com/prnewswire/2023/05/09/alside-opens-three-new-supply-centers/ | 2023-05-09 18:58:38 | 1 | https://www.wbtv.com/prnewswire/2023/05/09/alside-opens-three-new-supply-centers/ |
Updated July 5, 2022 at 8:52 PM ET
Vice President Kamala Harris, in Chicago to speak to a teachers' convention, addressed the July 4 mass shooting in Highland Park, Ill., saying "We need to end this horror. We need to stop this violence."
Seven people were killed and dozens injured Monday when a shooter opened fire from a rooftop along a Fourth of July parade route in the suburban Chicago city.
Harris said July 4 "should have been a day to come together with family and friends," but instead ended in violence.
"We must protect our communities from the terror of gun violence. I've said it before, enough is enough," Harris told thousands of teachers gathered for the National Education Association convention.
"Our nation is still mourning the loss of those 19 babies and their two teachers in Uvalde," Harris said, her voice rising. "Teachers should not have to practice barricading a classroom. Teachers should not have to know how to treat a gunshot wound, and teachers should not be told that lives would have been saved if only you had a gun," she said.
Later Tuesday, the vice president visited with local officials, first responders and residents of Highland Park at the invitation of Mayor Nancy Rotering.
"This can happen anywhere, in any peace-loving community, and we should stand together and speak out about why it's got to stop," Harris said in brief remarks to the media near the scene of the shooting.
Speaking to the NEA, Harris noted that Congress had passed some gun safety measures in the wake of Uvalde, which President Joe Biden has signed into law, but she said more was needed.
"Congress needs to have the courage to act and renew the assault weapons ban," Harris said.
"An assault weapon is designed to kill a lot of human beings quickly," she said.
"There is no reason we have weapons of war on the streets of America. We need reasonable gun safety laws," she said.
Shortly after the shooting on Monday, Biden issued a statement saying the law he signed 10 days before will save lives. "But there is much more work to do, and I'm not going to give up fighting the epidemic of gun violence."
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.kcbx.org/npr-top-news/npr-top-news/2022-07-05/harris-calls-for-renewing-the-assault-weapons-ban-after-highland-park-mass-shooting | 2022-07-06 02:08:41 | 0 | https://www.kcbx.org/npr-top-news/npr-top-news/2022-07-05/harris-calls-for-renewing-the-assault-weapons-ban-after-highland-park-mass-shooting |
Cameron Mitchell Restaurants Invests Nearly $20 Million in First Ocean Prime in Las Vegas and 18th Ocean Prime Location Nationwide
For high-res images and press materials click here
LAS VEGAS, June 21, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Cameron Mitchell Restaurants (CMR) officially opens the nearly $20 million marquee restaurant Ocean Prime Las Vegas located at 63, centered on the bustling corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Harmon Avenue. This is the 18th Ocean Prime location in the U.S. and will serve as the flagship boasting 14,500 square feet with a nearly 2,500 square-foot rooftop terrace, more than 400 total seats, three bars and three private dining rooms. This premier location is set four stories above the Las Vegas Strip and offers breathtaking views from the restaurant's outdoor terrace. Ocean Prime Las Vegas promises an unparalleled dining experience that blends extraordinary cuisine, genuine hospitality and captivating atmosphere.
Ocean Prime Las Vegas offers weekday lunch and dinner nightly along with weekend brunch – guests can indulge on an impressive menu of seafood and prime cuts of steak, signature cocktails and a Wine Spectator-honored wine list. The Signature "smoking" shellfish tower is one of the most popular selections on the menu and all steak options are seasoned and broiled at 1,200 degrees for the perfect finish.
"As our team celebrates our 30th anniversary in the restaurant business, it gives us great pride to officially unveil our first restaurant in Las Vegas," said Cameron Mitchell, Founder and CEO of Cameron Mitchell Restaurants. "Ocean Prime Las Vegas offers a premier location at the epicenter of the Las Vegas Strip and features a spectacular design, we truly believe this flagship location will excite current Ocean Prime guests and entice new guests as well. We are thrilled to bring our philosophy of genuine hospitality from our esteemed group of associates to this iconic location."
Ocean Prime Las Vegas is designed by nationally recognized designer Karen Herold, Principal of Studio K. The restaurant design is inspired by the meeting of land and sea, from the lounge with soft wave elements, hues of the ocean and lighter tones to the main dining room with earthy hues intermixed with deep, dark blue shades of water. The outdoor terrace area is designed for guests to take in the energy and views of the Las Vegas Strip.
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SOURCE Ocean Prime | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2023/06/21/ocean-prime-las-vegas-now-open-las-vegas-strip/ | 2023-06-21 14:07:19 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2023/06/21/ocean-prime-las-vegas-now-open-las-vegas-strip/ |
A threat by the owner of private Russian military company Wagner on Friday to withdraw his fighters from the battle to seize an eastern Ukrainian city is another flareup in his dispute with Russia’s regular military over credit and tactics in the war.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, a wealthy entrepreneur with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, has led the push to jump-start Russia’s stalemated offensive in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk province. He threatened to pull out his soldiers from the city of Bakhmut next week, citing high casualties and ammunition shortages.
Russia’s nine-month campaign to take Bakhmut has made the city the focus of the war’s longest battle. Ferocious house-to house fighting there has produced some of the bloodiest encounters since Russia sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
Here is a look at Wagner’s history and its role in the fighting.
WHAT IS THE BACKGROUND OF WAGNER’S LEADER?
Prigozhin, who received a 12-year prison term in 1981 on charges of robbery and assault, started a restaurant business in St. Petersburg in the early 1990s following his release from prison. It was in this capacity that he got to know Putin, the city’s deputy mayor at the time.
Prigozhin used his connection with Putin to develop a catering business and won lucrative Russian government contracts that earned him the nickname “Putin’s chef.” He later expanded into other areas, including media outlets and an infamous “troll factory” that led to his indictment in the U.S. for meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
In January, Prigozhin, 61, acknowledged founding, leading and financing the shadowy Wagner company.
WHERE HAS WAGNER WORKED?
Wagner was first spotted in action in eastern Ukraine soon after a separatist conflict erupted there in April 2014, weeks after Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.
While backing the separatist insurgency in the Donbas, Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland, Russia denied sending its own weapons and troops there despite ample evidence to the contrary. Engaging private contractors in the fighting allowed Moscow to maintain a degree of deniability.
Prigozhin’s company was called Wagner after the nickname of its first commander, Dmitry Utkin, a retired lieutenant colonel of the Russian military’s special forces. It soon established a reputation for its extreme brutality and ruthlessness.
Wagner personnel also deployed to Syria, where Russia supported President Bashar Assad’s government in a civil war. In Libya, they fought alongside forces of commander Khalifa Hifter. The group has also operated in the Central African Republic and Mali.
Prigozhin has reportedly used Wagner’s deployment to Syria and African countries to secure lucrative mining contracts. U.S. Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in January that the company was using its access to gold and other resources in Africa to fund its operations in Ukraine.
Some Russian media have alleged that Wagner was involved in the July 2018 killings of three Russian journalists in the Central African Republic who were investigating the group’s activities. The slayings remain unsolved.
WHAT IS THE GROUP’S REPUTATION?
Western countries and U.N. experts have accused Wagner mercenaries of committing human rights abuses throughout Africa, including in the Central African Republic, Libya and Mali.
In December 2021, the European Union accused the group of “serious human rights abuses, including torture and extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and killings,” and of carrying out “destabilizing activities” in the Central African Republic, Libya, Syria and Ukraine.
Video footage has surfaced that purported to show some of the activities that have contributed to Wagner’s fearsome reputation.
A 2017 video posted online showed a group of armed people, reported to be Wagner contractors, torturing a Syrian man, beating him to death with a sledgehammer and cutting his head before mutilating and burning his body. Russian authorities ignored requests by the media and rights activists to investigate.
In November 2022, another video showed a former Wagner contractor beaten to death with a sledgehammer after he allegedly fled to the Ukrainian side and was recaptured. Despite public outrage and demands for an investigation, the Kremlin turned a blind eye.
WHAT IS WAGNER’S ROLE IN UKRAINE?
Wagner has taken an increasingly visible role in the war in Ukraine as regular Russian troops have suffered heavy attrition and lost control over territory in humiliating setbacks.
Prigozhin claimed full credit in January for capturing the Donetsk region salt-mining town of Soledar and accused the Russian Defense Ministry of trying to steal Wagner’s glory. He has repeatedly complained that the Russian military failed to supply Wagner with sufficient ammunition to capture Bakhmut, the reason he cited Friday for his withdrawal threat.
Prigozhin has toured Russian prisons to recruit fighters, promising inmates pardons if they survived a half-year tour of front-line duty with Wagner.
The U.S. estimates Wagner has about 50,000 personnel fighting in Ukraine, including 10,000 contractors and 40,000 of the convicts the company enlisted.
A U.S. official says nearly half of the 20,000 Russian forces killed in Ukraine since December have been Wagner’s troops in Bakhmut.
The U.S. assesses that Wagner is spending about $100 million a month in the fight .In December, the United States accused North Korea of supplying weapons, including rockets and missiles, to the Russian company in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
Both Wagner and North Korea denied the reports.
HOW HAS WAGNER’S LEADER CRITICIZED RUSSIA’S MILITARY?
If the U.S. accusation is true, Wagner’s reach for North Korean weapons may reflect its long-running dispute with the Russian military leadership, which dates back to the company’s creation.
Troops purported to be Wagner contractors on the front line in Ukraine recorded a video in which they showered the chief of the Russian military’s General Staff, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, with curses for the alleged failure to provide ammunition.
Prigozhin himself accuses top-ranking Russian military officers of incompetence. His frequent complaints are unprecedented for Russia’s tightly controlled political system, in which only Putin could air such criticism.
Prigozhin has increasingly raised his public profile, issuing daily messaging app statements to boast about Wagner’s purported victories, sardonically mock his enemies and make complaints about Russia’s military brass.
Asked recently about a media comparison of him with Grigory Rasputin, a mystic who gained fatal influence over Russia’s last czar by claiming to have the power to cure his son’s hemophilia, Prigozhin snapped: “I don’t stop blood, but I spill blood of the enemies of our Motherland.”
WILL WAGNER REALLY WITHDRAW FROM BAKHMUT?
Yohann Michel, a research analyst with the International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank, took Prigozhin’s threat with “a shovel of salt, at least, or maybe a truck.”
Michel said Prigozhin might want to regroup without being accused of retreating; he may worry about being fired for not taking the city and prefer to say he left on his own; or he could genuinely need more ammunition.
“The only thing I am taking seriously from that declaration is that Bakhmut is probably not ready to fall,” Michel, who is based in Berlin, said.
If Prigozhin did pull Wagner’s troops out of Bakhmut, it would have serious implications, according to Michel said.
“If he’s removed from the front line — except if Russia surprisingly has reserves that they did not want to use before — I think we can say it is the end of this phase of the offensive for Russia,” he said.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine: https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine-war | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/why-is-russias-wagner-threatening-to-withdraw-from-bakhmut/ | 2023-05-05 19:54:58 | 1 | https://www.cenlanow.com/international/ap-international/why-is-russias-wagner-threatening-to-withdraw-from-bakhmut/ |
The Grand Junction Economic Partnership (GJEP) recently secured its first recruiting win under new Executive Director Curtis Englehart.
MotoMinded, a company with a focus on imagining, designing and producing quality products for motorcycles, announced Thursday that it is relocating from Colorado Springs to Mesa County. The company specializes in manufacturing LED lights and mounts for motorcycles, utilizing several advanced manufacturing techniques to produce products in-house along with outsourced computer numerical control (CNC) vendors.
“We chose Mesa County for several reasons,” said MotoMinded owner Chris Vestal in the company’s announcement. “The most important reason is a better quality of life for us and our employees. Outside the shop we love to ride our bicycles and motorcycles, hike and look forward to getting into water recreation on the Colorado River. The local outdoor recreation economy has grown to a point we feel can support us and we look forward to getting involved and help to grow it further.”
Englehart was hired as GJEP’s executive director in July after serving as the director for the Mesa County Workforce Center.
MotoMinded’s relocation from the Front Range represents the first serious recruiting victory for GJEP in the Englehart era.
“What this is telling us with MotoMinded relocating to Mesa County is that our process works, and the way that we’re able to go out and actively recruit businesses and be proactive in our recruitment is helping us show that we’re getting those wins and we’re on the right path,” Englehart told The Daily Sentinel.
Englehart said that MotoMinded, which will move into the property at 948 26 Road. near the Grand Valley’s northern desert, will start its time in Grand Junction by hiring 10-15 employees, with those numbers bound to increase year-to-year based on the company’s local expansion and growth.
MotoMinded is working through the process of renovating the facility at its new home and will utilize the Enterprise Zone tax credit incentive, providing the company with incentives for job creation, employee training and expenditures on capital investment.
Among the positions the company is hiring is a full-time production operator, responsible for assembling motorcycle accessories, performing quality control and working closely with MotoMinded leadership each day. For more information about the job posting and to request more information about other positions the company will seek to fill, send an email to office@motominded.com.
In addition to being Englehart’s first successful recruitment with GJEP, MotoMinded’s move is also a notable development for GJEP’s post-pandemic recruiting efforts.
“Coming out of the pandemic, the way that we’ve been able to recruit has changed pretty dramatically and, really, we’ve gained a lot of efficiency through the pandemic in really doing a lot more web-based type of recruitment, whether that’s doing different social media pushes, using more software platforms... We’ve really been trying to get in front of high-level decision-makers early and often to showcase what Mesa County has to offer from a business standpoint,” Englehart said.
“GJEP has worked very hard coming out of the pandemic to get very creative on business recruitment and expansion strategies. This is really great to see that our efforts are paying off. We’re excited to see how MotoMinded grows in Mesa County, and we’re excited to see more relocations and expansions in Mesa County in the near future.” | https://www.gjsentinel.com/news/western_colorado/motorcycle-parts-manufacturer-relocating-to-grand-junction-from-colorado-springs/article_017cf79a-41ba-11ed-8442-9f2d529c76eb.html | 2022-10-07 09:08:43 | 1 | https://www.gjsentinel.com/news/western_colorado/motorcycle-parts-manufacturer-relocating-to-grand-junction-from-colorado-springs/article_017cf79a-41ba-11ed-8442-9f2d529c76eb.html |
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah ski resort says it is dispatching patrollers along the path of an avalanche to make sure nobody was caught in its path as it cascaded across a highway onto a beginner run on Thursday.
The avalanche that began on Mount Superior — a peak in Utah's Wasatch Range — had expanded to the western edge of the Snowbird ski resort, which had reopened after the entire mountain closed a day prior due to torrential snowfall.
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“We are taking every measure possible to confirm that no guests or employees were impacted," Snowbird said in a statement on Twitter, adding that it's using avalanche rescue dogs, radar technology, and probes to inspect the aftermath.
The resort ordered guests to shelter in place Thursday afternoon.
The avalanche was naturally occurring and not a result of explosives or other mitigation techniques regularly used in the mountain passes, the statement said.
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Utah has been blanketed by snow this week. Snowbird reported on Wednesday that an early week storm had dumped more than 5 feet (1.7 meters) on the resort. | https://www.seattlepi.com/sports/article/utah-avalanche-leads-to-shelter-in-place-order-at-17883187.php | 2023-04-06 22:32:03 | 1 | https://www.seattlepi.com/sports/article/utah-avalanche-leads-to-shelter-in-place-order-at-17883187.php |
Raffle gives winning guests rare opportunity to buy hard-to-find bourbons
LARGO, Fla., Nov. 16, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ABC Fine Wine & Spirits (ABC), Florida's largest family-owned and operated wine and spirits retailer, opened its newest store in Largo on Wednesday, Nov. 16. The store is located at 1756 N Missouri Ave. next to its temporary location in the Town Center shopping plaza.
The new location will host an opening weekend celebration on Saturday, Nov. 19 with free wine and spirits sampling, 10% off all products from ABC's exclusive Sourced & Certified™ Collection and a rare Pappy Van Winkle raffle. The raffle is for the chance to purchase a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle (10 Year, 12 Year or 15 Year) or William Larue Weller at ABC's normal retail price.
These bourbons typically require ABC Vault access and are not regularly available anywhere because they have highly limited allocation around the country.
The raffle starts Nov. 19 and continues through Dec. 11. Winners will be randomly selected and notified via phone or email on Dec. 12. The raffle is limited to two entries per person 21+. Purchase is not required to enter. Raffle winners may purchase a bottle that is remaining from the four when contacted. Entries and purchase must occur at this new Largo ABC location only. Participants can ask a team member about how to enter once inside the store.
"We have hundreds of guests who have shopped with us in Largo for decades, and we're thrilled to offer them a brand-new store," said ABC Fine Wine & Spirits CEO Charles Bailes III. "We know they'll love the larger selection and hope we'll attract an even larger group of guests who expect our great service."
This new store features wine and spirits experts, thousands of popular wine & spirit brands and exclusive labels, an activity center for tastings, a walk-in cigar humidor and a walk-in beer cooler. Guests who are new to ABC can quickly sign up for ABC Access loyalty rewards like $10 off every $100 wine purchase, $5 coupons, free bottles and Vault access for hard-to-find bottles like the ones featured in the raffle.
ABC has been serving Florida residents and visitors since 1936 and offers in-store services from sampling areas, a concierge service for large events and online shopping with curbside pickup through abcfws.com. ABC has 126 locations in Florida which typically carry more than 10,000 different wines, spirits, beers, cigars and accessories. Each location is staffed with a knowledgeable, passionate team to help guests find what they are looking for and discover new favorites.
Store hours are 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m.-7 p.m. on Sunday.
Learn more about ABC Fine Wine & Spirits by visiting abcfws.com. Keep up with ABC on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.
Media Contact
Peyton Whittington
Pwhittin@abcfws.com
407.738.0310
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SOURCE ABC Fine Wine & Spirits | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2022/11/16/family-owned-abc-fine-wine-amp-spirits-opens-new-largo-store-with-rare-pappy-raffle/ | 2022-11-16 19:25:13 | 1 | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2022/11/16/family-owned-abc-fine-wine-amp-spirits-opens-new-largo-store-with-rare-pappy-raffle/ |
HARRISONBURG, Va. (AP) — Todd Centeio threw for four touchdowns and ran for a fifth and James Madison romped past No. 23 Coastal Carolina 47-7 on Saturday in what it viewed as its postseason game.
JMU (8-3, 6-2 Sun Belt) earned a technical share of the league’s East Division title with the same conference record as the Chanticleers, but the Dukes are not eligible for a title under terms of their transition to the Bowl Subdivision.
Forgive Dukes coach Curt Cignetti if he feels otherwise.
“You know, we’re champions. Everybody knows we’re champions of the East. I mean, come on. Across the country. You know, this was a major statement across the country,” he said. “This was an exclamation point.”
When the game ended, Queen’s “We Are the Champions” blared through the stadium.
“Everyone knows who JMU is now,” said wide receiver Kris Thornton, who became the first in school history to go over 1,000 yards receiving twice. “We won the East.”
The Chanticleers (9-2, 6-2) were the first visitor in the AP Top 25 to ever play at Bridgeforth Stadium, but they did so without starting quarterback Grayson McCall. Their only score came on their second drive on Jarrett Guest’s 34-yard pass to Tyson Mobley.
“We lost badly mentally because we let the game get bigger than what it was supposed to be,” nose tackle Jerrod Clark said.
James Madison trailed 7-6 before Centeio hit a wide open Reggie Brown for a 34-yard TD on its second drive of the second quarter to put the Dukes ahead. He then hit Devin Ravenel in the back of the end zone from 26 yards on the next drive. On the play, Ravenel made a dazzling catch over the top of the defender in very tight coverage.
A 17-yard strike to Drew Painter just over two minutes into the third quarter and Latrele Palmer’s 13-yard run made it 33-7 midway through the quarter, and an 8-yard pass to Ravenel with 16 seconds left in the quarter gave Centeio his fourth game with at least four touchdown passes this season. He added an 11-yard TD run in the fourth quarter.
THE TAKEAWAY
Coastal Carolina: The Chants, with McCall, were the only team in the Group of Five with one loss, but they are a different team without him. They gained 75 yards on their touchdown drive and only 109 the rest of the game.
“We can’t let this game roll over into the championship game,” Clark said.
James Madison: The Dukes clearly viewed this as their bowl game because of the rules that prevent them from either winning the title or playing in a bowl given their transition from the Championship Series. They won the FCS national title in 2016 and appeared in two more championship games before moving up to the FBS this season.
POLL IMPLICATIONS
Coastal’s stay in the AP Top 25, like James Madison’s earlier, will last only one game. The Chants were ranked last week, when their game against Virginia was canceled.
UP NEXT
The Chanticleers will face either Troy or South Alabama for the league championship next Saturday.
The Dukes’ season is over because of their FBS transition.
___
AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://twitter.com/ap_top25. Sign up for the AP’s college football newsletter: https://tinyurl.com/mrxhe6f2 | https://who13.com/sports/ap-sports/ap-centeio-leads-jmu-in-47-7-rout-of-no-23-coastal-carolina/ | 2022-11-27 13:33:20 | 1 | https://who13.com/sports/ap-sports/ap-centeio-leads-jmu-in-47-7-rout-of-no-23-coastal-carolina/ |
New $2B theme park and resort as big as Disney’s Magic Kingdom is coming to Oklahoma
VINITA, Okla. (Gray News) – A new theme park the size of Disney’s Magic Kingdom is coming to the Midwest.
On Wednesday, the state of Oklahoma announced the creation of American Heartland Theme Park and Resort, a $2 billion entertainment destination scheduled to open in phases throughout 2025 and 2026.
The site will be located in northeast Oklahoma, just west of Grand Lake on Route 66.
American Heartland will consist of a 125-acre theme park – comparable to the size of Magic Kingdom – within a 1,000-acre development that will also include a large-scale RV park and campground.
The Three Ponies RV Park and Campground will cover 320 acres and host 750 RV spaces and 300 cabins.
The RV park and campground area is scheduled to open in 2025, and the theme park and resort area is scheduled to open in 2026. The resort will include a 300-room hotel and modern indoor water park.
According to a news release, the theme park will feature “an Americana-themed environment with a variety of entertaining rides, live shows, family attractions, waterways as well as restaurant-quality food and beverage offerings.”
The design team for the theme park is made up of “the world’s best theme park designers,” the news release said, including more than 20 former Disney Parks builders and Walt Disney Imagineers.
American Heartland Theme Park will feature six lands to welcome guests on a journey through “the best of the American story,” including Great Plains, Bayou Bay, Big Timber Falls, Stony Point Harbor, Liberty Village and Electropolis.
Oklahoma State Sen. Micheal Bergstrom said the $2 billion investment will create more than 4,000 jobs with the hopes of long-term economic impact.
“Tourism is already one of Oklahoma’s top industries and this project will elevate our state even further,” Bergstrom said.
Kristy Adams, senior executive vice president of sales and marketing for Mansion Entertainment Group, American Heartland and Three Ponies, said the new destination aims to attract more than 4.9 million guests per year, 2 million of which will be out-of-state visitors.
“The scale and quality of the development will be unlike anything else in the region, making Vinita, Oklahoma a can’t-miss destination for families around the world,” Adams said.
Copyright 2023 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.azfamily.com/2023/07/19/new-2b-theme-park-resort-big-disneys-magic-kingdom-is-coming-oklahoma/ | 2023-07-19 21:16:19 | 1 | https://www.azfamily.com/2023/07/19/new-2b-theme-park-resort-big-disneys-magic-kingdom-is-coming-oklahoma/ |
An Ohio man died today in a two-vehicle crash in Van Wert County, Ohio Highway Patrol said in a release.
Craig A. Shivley, 63, of Convoy, Ohio, was driving eastbound Monday afternoon on U.S. 224 near Dull Robinson Road when he crossed the centerline and was struck head-on by a 2014 Freigtliner semi driven by Paul A. Guinther, 67, of Middle Point, Ohio, the release said.
Shivley’s 2019 Dodge Ram stopped on the south side of the roadway, and the semi stopped on the north side before catching fire.
Shivley was pronounced dead at the scene, the release said.
Guinther was transported by ambulance to Van Wert Health and was then flown by medical helicopter to Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne. The Tuesday evening release said Guinther was in stable condition at Lutheran.
The crash remains under investigation. The Van Wert Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol was assisted by Ohio City Fire Department and EMS and the Van Wert fire department and EMS, sheriff’s office and coroner’s office. | https://www.journalgazette.net/local/ohio-man-dies-in-van-wert-crash/article_66a5eb80-49cc-11ed-a6e0-1fa5dabd6a9d.html | 2022-10-12 02:52:16 | 1 | https://www.journalgazette.net/local/ohio-man-dies-in-van-wert-crash/article_66a5eb80-49cc-11ed-a6e0-1fa5dabd6a9d.html |
WASHINGTON, Sept. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Media accreditation is open for the launch of the next commercial resupply services mission to deliver NASA science investigations, supplies, and equipment to the International Space Station.
Northrop Grumman is targeting liftoff of its Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft no earlier than 5:50 a.m. EST, Nov. 6, from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport's Pad-0A at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia.
Both U.S. and international media may apply for credentials to cover the pre-launch and launch activities at Wallops. The application deadline for media who are U.S. citizens is Friday, Oct. 28. International media without U.S. citizenship must apply by Friday, Oct. 7, 2022. All media, as described in the NASA accreditation policy, must send their accreditation request to Keith Koehler at: keith.a.koehler@nasa.gov.
Each resupply mission to the station delivers scientific investigations in the areas of biology and biotechnology, Earth and space science, physical sciences, and technology development and demonstrations.
Highlights of space station research facilitated by delivery aboard this Cygnus are:
- a facility and study that attempt to advance 3D biological printing of human tissue in space
- a study taking advantage of microgravity to better understand catastrophic mudflows that can occur after wildfires
- Uganda and Zimbabwe's first satellites developed as a part of the BIRDS program, an interdisciplinary project for non-space faring countries
- an investigation into how microgravity influences ovary function
- an experiment that studies if changes space-grown plants undergo to adapt to microgravity can be transmitted through seeds to the next generation
Cargo resupply from U.S. companies ensures a national capability to deliver critical scientific research to the space station, significantly increasing NASA's ability to conduct new investigations aboard humanity's laboratory in space.
Learn more about Northrop Grumman's commercial resupply missions at:
https://www.nasa.gov/northropgrumman
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SOURCE NASA | https://www.wbay.com/prnewswire/2022/09/28/nasa-invites-media-northrop-grummans-antares-cargo-resupply-launch/ | 2022-09-28 16:00:11 | 0 | https://www.wbay.com/prnewswire/2022/09/28/nasa-invites-media-northrop-grummans-antares-cargo-resupply-launch/ |
FORT WAYNE, Ind., June 16, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ/GS: STLD) today provided record second quarter 2022 earnings guidance in the range of $6.33 to $6.37 per diluted share. Excluding the impact from costs associated with the startup of the company's Sinton Texas Flat Roll Steel Mill growth investment of an estimated $76 million, or $0.28 per diluted share, the company expects second quarter 2022 adjusted earnings to be in the range of $6.61 to $6.65 per diluted share.
Comparatively, the company's sequential first quarter 2022 earnings were $5.71 per diluted share, and adjusted earnings were $6.02 per diluted share excluding costs of $0.31 per diluted share (net of capitalized interest), associated with construction and startup of the company's Texas Flat Roll Steel Mill. Prior year second quarter earnings were $3.32 per diluted share and adjusted earnings were $3.40 per diluted share, excluding costs of $0.08 per diluted share, associated with construction of the company's Texas Flat Roll Steel Mill.
Second quarter 2022 profitability from the company's steel operations is expected to be historically strong, but lower than first quarter 2022 results, due to lower earnings from the company's flat roll steel operations, as lower average flat roll steel pricing is expected to more than offset increased flat roll steel shipments. Demand for the company's long product steel products is also strong, supporting increased average realized pricing and expected record shipments for the company's Engineered Bar Products, Roanoke Bar, and Structural and Rail steel divisions. Despite softening hot roll coil steel pricing, broad steel demand remained solid during the second quarter, led by the automotive, construction, and industrial sectors, with energy continuing to improve.
Second quarter 2022 earnings from the company's metals recycling operations are expected to be significantly higher than sequential first quarter results, based on strong demand supporting increased shipments and higher pricing.
Second quarter 2022 earnings from the company's steel fabrication operations are expected to be meaningfully higher than record first quarter results, based on record shipments and significantly higher selling values more than offsetting marginally higher steel input costs. The non-residential construction sector remains strong as evidenced by robust order activity, resulting in a continuing historically strong order backlog, with record forward-pricing for the company's steel fabrication platform. The company anticipates this momentum to continue into 2023 based on these dynamics.
Based on continued confidence in the company's earnings outlook and cash flow generation, the company repurchased $397 million, or over 2.5 percent, of its common stock during the second quarter through June 10, 2022.
About Steel Dynamics, Inc.
Steel Dynamics is one of the largest domestic steel producers and metals recyclers in the United States, based on estimated annual steelmaking and metals recycling capability, with facilities located throughout the United States, and in Mexico. Steel Dynamics produces steel products, including hot roll, cold roll, and coated sheet steel, structural steel beams and shapes, rail, engineered special-bar-quality steel, cold finished steel, merchant bar products, specialty steel sections and steel joists and deck. In addition, the company produces liquid pig iron and processes and sells ferrous and nonferrous scrap.
Note Regarding Non-GAAP Financial Measures
The company reports its financial results in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). Management believes that Adjusted Diluted Earnings Per Share, a non-GAAP financial measure, provides additional meaningful information regarding the company's performance and financial strength. Non-GAAP financial measures should be viewed in addition to, and not as an alternative for, the company's reported results prepared in accordance with GAAP. In addition, because not all companies use identical calculations, Adjusted Diluted Earnings Per Share included in this release may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains some predictive statements about future events, including statements related to conditions in domestic or global economies, conditions in steel and recycled metals marketplaces, Steel Dynamics' revenues, costs of purchased materials, future profitability and earnings, and the operation of new, existing or planned facilities. These statements, which we generally precede or accompany by such typical conditional words as "anticipate", "intend", "believe", "estimate", "plan", "seek", "project", or "expect", or by the words "may", "will", or "should", are intended to be made as "forward-looking," subject to many risks and uncertainties, within the safe harbor protections of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements speak only as of this date and are based upon information and assumptions, which we consider reasonable as of this date, concerning our businesses and the environments in which they operate. Such predictive statements are not a guarantee of future performance, and we undertake no duty to update or revise any such statements. Some factors that could cause such forward-looking statements to turn out differently than anticipated include: (1) domestic and global economic factors including periods of slower than anticipated economic growth and the risk of a recession; (2) global steelmaking overcapacity and imports of steel, together with increased scrap prices; (3) pandemics, epidemics, widespread illness or other health issues, such as the COVID-19 pandemic; (4) the cyclical nature of the steel industry and the industries we serve; (5) volatility and major fluctuations in prices and availability of scrap metal, scrap substitutes, and our potential inability to pass higher costs on to our customers; (6) cost and availability of electricity, natural gas, oil, or other energy resources are subject to volatile market conditions; (7) increased environmental, greenhouse gas emissions and sustainability considerations or regulations; (8) compliance with and changes in environmental and remediation requirements; (9) significant price and other forms of competition from other steel producers, scrap processors and alternative materials; (10) availability of an adequate source of supply of scrap for our metals recycling operations; (11) cybersecurity threats and risks to the security of our sensitive data and information technology; (12) the implementation of our growth strategy; (13) litigation and legal compliance, (14) unexpected equipment downtime or shutdowns; (15) governmental agencies may refuse to grant or renew some of our licenses and permits required to operate our businesses; (16) our senior unsecured credit facility contains, and any future financing agreements may contain, restrictive covenants that may limit our flexibility; and (17) the impact of impairment charges.
More specifically, refer to Steel Dynamics' more detailed explanation of these and other factors and risks that may cause such predictive statements to turn out differently, as set forth in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K under the headings Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements and Risk Factors, in our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, or in other reports which we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These are available publicly on the Securities and Exchange Commission website, www.sec.gov, and on the Steel Dynamics website, www.steeldynamics.com under "Investors — SEC Filings".
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SOURCE Steel Dynamics, Inc. | https://www.kswo.com/prnewswire/2022/06/16/steel-dynamics-provides-second-quarter-2022-record-earnings-guidance/ | 2022-06-16 12:48:26 | 0 | https://www.kswo.com/prnewswire/2022/06/16/steel-dynamics-provides-second-quarter-2022-record-earnings-guidance/ |
SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti announced Tuesday which area business would receive the first Wage Boost Grant (WPG) through the City’s $68.7 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding.
A second-generation lampshade factory in the Electric City known as Penn Shadecrafters, at 941 Sanderson Avenue, will get the first funding boost courtesy of the ARPA. Penn Shadecrafters opened in 1974 and is one of the last lampshade manufacturers in the country. The factory closed in 2020 when the pandemic struck.
When the business finally reopened, it was hit hard by inflation. So, they applied for the Wage Boost Grant before the first-round deadline on November 14 and the $50,000 they’ve been awarded will help Penn Shadecrafters continue their work in Scranton.
“We are doing all we can to adapt. We are doing all we can to keep our costs down, and with the payroll boost program that will help as well, my costs as well, so we are very very thankful to the City of Scranton and Mayor Cognetti, and the Scranton Area Foundation to help us stay in business here in the city,” said Steve Carter, Owner of Penn Shadecrafters.
Watch: Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti’s visit Penn Shadecrafters below.
Scranton’s Wage Boost grant estimates state averages per industry and position based on the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). The program is expected to help Penn Shadecrafters pay employees a minimum of $2 more per hour, adding at least $4,000 to individual salaries.
“Our ARPA Wage Boost program helps close Scranton’s gap between current wages and our living wage. Providing help through this federal funding source makes it easier for workers to stay in jobs they love here in the City and for businesses to keep their doors open. Higher working wages help us all,” stated Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti.
Carter says his sales are still 30% lower than what they were before the pandemic but this will help tremendously in keeping his factory doors open. | https://www.pahomepage.com/news/arpa-grant-awarded-to-first-scranton-business/ | 2022-12-21 02:22:42 | 0 | https://www.pahomepage.com/news/arpa-grant-awarded-to-first-scranton-business/ |
Republican lawmakers on Thursday advanced a bill aimed at putting limits on drag shows in Kentucky, sparking chants of “shame” from opponents who decried the measure as discriminatory and said it would stifle First Amendment rights.“This bill not only compromises or asks me to explain my humanity, but it also brings into question my livelihood,” drag performer Poly Tics told a GOP-led Kentucky Senate committee, which voted to advance the measure a few minutes later.The measure would prohibit drag shows on public property or in places where the adult performances could be viewed by children.“This bill is not anti-LGBTQ,” said Republican Sen. Lindsey Tichenor, the bill’s lead sponsor. “This bill is pro-children. For some reason, people want this type of content in front of children. And I would dare ask, why? Why do we need to sexualize our children?”Violations of the bill would be punishable as misdemeanors for the first two offenses but would rise to a felony for subsequent offenses. Businesses hosting such performances could have their alcohol and business licenses suspended or revoked.Across the country, conservative activists and politicians complain that drag shows are contributing to the “sexualization” or “grooming” of children. The Tennessee Legislature recently became the first in the country to pass a bill banning public drag performances by classifying them as adult cabaret, among topless dancers, go-go dancers, exotic dancers and strippers. Tennessee’s Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed the bill into law on Thursday.Several other states, including Idaho, North Dakota, Montana and Oklahoma, are considering similar bans.After a lengthy discussion that at times turned emotional, the Kentucky Senate committee sent the measure to the full Senate. If it passes there, it would still need House approval. Republicans have supermajorities in both chambers.The committee voted to scale back the bill from its original version, which would have imposed stricter location restrictions on where drag shows could occur. Despite the changes, opponents continued to raise constitutional questions about the measure.“Our concern remains that this will include some censorship from the government that is not in compliance with our First Amendment-protected rights,” said Kate Miller with the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky.The proposal — Senate Bill 115 — remains discriminatory despite the revisions, said Bob Heleringer, who represented the Fairness Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy organization.“And an ounce of discrimination is the same as an ocean of discrimination,” said Heleringer, a Republican and a former Kentucky lawmaker.The legislation takes aim at drag shows by referring to adult performances as a “sexually explicit performance” that includes a performance involving male or female impersonators.David Walls, executive director of The Family Foundation, praised the bill as a “straightforward, common sense and necessary" effort to protect children.“Let's state the obvious: Sexually explicit adult performances should not take place on public property and should not be anywhere near children, and SB115 would help protect our children from these performances,” Walls said.Drag performer Poly Tics later told lawmakers the bill was an attack on her livelihood.“As a drag performer who depends on drag shows ... for income, this bill not only tells me that I am not really a human worthy of rights, but I’m also not worthy to work and I’m not deserving of an ability to make money,” she said.A few minutes later, the committee's Republican members advanced the bill. After the vote, the bill's opponents started chanting “shame.” The chanting continued as the committee chairman called up another bill to be considered. The opponents eventually left the committee room.
Republican lawmakers on Thursday advanced a bill aimed at putting limits on drag shows in Kentucky, sparking chants of “shame” from opponents who decried the measure as discriminatory and said it would stifle First Amendment rights.
“This bill not only compromises or asks me to explain my humanity, but it also brings into question my livelihood,” drag performer Poly Tics told a GOP-led Kentucky Senate committee, which voted to advance the measure a few minutes later.
The measure would prohibit drag shows on public property or in places where the adult performances could be viewed by children.
“This bill is not anti-LGBTQ,” said Republican Sen. Lindsey Tichenor, the bill’s lead sponsor. “This bill is pro-children. For some reason, people want this type of content in front of children. And I would dare ask, why? Why do we need to sexualize our children?”
Bruce Schreiner
Drag performer Poly Tics, right, attends a rally in Frankfort, Ky., on Thursday, March 2, 2023.
Violations of the bill would be punishable as misdemeanors for the first two offenses but would rise to a felony for subsequent offenses. Businesses hosting such performances could have their alcohol and business licenses suspended or revoked.
Across the country, conservative activists and politicians complain that drag shows are contributing to the “sexualization” or “grooming” of children. The Tennessee Legislature recently became the first in the country to pass a bill banning public drag performances by classifying them as adult cabaret, among topless dancers, go-go dancers, exotic dancers and strippers. Tennessee’s Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed the bill into law on Thursday.
Several other states, including Idaho, North Dakota, Montana and Oklahoma, are considering similar bans.
After a lengthy discussion that at times turned emotional, the Kentucky Senate committee sent the measure to the full Senate. If it passes there, it would still need House approval. Republicans have supermajorities in both chambers.
The committee voted to scale back the bill from its original version, which would have imposed stricter location restrictions on where drag shows could occur. Despite the changes, opponents continued to raise constitutional questions about the measure.
“Our concern remains that this will include some censorship from the government that is not in compliance with our First Amendment-protected rights,” said Kate Miller with the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky.
John Amis
Drag artist Vidalia Anne Gentry speaks during a news conference held by the Human Rights Campaign to draw attention to anti-drag bills in the Tennessee legislature, on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023 in Nashville, Tenn.
The proposal — Senate Bill 115 — remains discriminatory despite the revisions, said Bob Heleringer, who represented the Fairness Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy organization.
“And an ounce of discrimination is the same as an ocean of discrimination,” said Heleringer, a Republican and a former Kentucky lawmaker.
The legislation takes aim at drag shows by referring to adult performances as a “sexually explicit performance” that includes a performance involving male or female impersonators.
David Walls, executive director of The Family Foundation, praised the bill as a “straightforward, common sense and necessary" effort to protect children.
“Let's state the obvious: Sexually explicit adult performances should not take place on public property and should not be anywhere near children, and SB115 would help protect our children from these performances,” Walls said.
Drag performer Poly Tics later told lawmakers the bill was an attack on her livelihood.
“As a drag performer who depends on drag shows ... for income, this bill not only tells me that I am not really a human worthy of rights, but I’m also not worthy to work and I’m not deserving of an ability to make money,” she said.
A few minutes later, the committee's Republican members advanced the bill. After the vote, the bill's opponents started chanting “shame.” The chanting continued as the committee chairman called up another bill to be considered. The opponents eventually left the committee room. | https://www.wesh.com/article/drag-show-bill-tennessee-controversy/43167803 | 2023-03-02 23:17:57 | 1 | https://www.wesh.com/article/drag-show-bill-tennessee-controversy/43167803 |
Tennessee dad asks for help finding daughter’s lost teddy bear with heartbeat recording from late mom
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - A Tennessee father says he needs help finding a very precious toy.
Tylor Kennedy's 4-year-old daughter’s teddy bear was accidentally donated to a Goodwill Store, WATE reports. The bear contains a recording of her late mother’s heartbeat,
"My daughter’s mom passed away, and her grandma made her bear with her mom’s heartbeat in it," Kennedy told the station." The sound can be heard when the bear’s hand is squeezed."
Kennedy said the bear, a tie-dyed rainbow teddy bear from Build-a-Bear, is the only thing the little 4-year-old girl has of her mother.
The Goodwill is located in Tazewell, roughly 45 miles north of Knoxville. The manager said she believes the bear was bought by a local resident and may still be in the area.
"Please, if y’all find it or see anybody that has one, just check or turn it in, and I believe that somebody will get a reward if they dropped it off. I mean I know they’ll get their money back for sure," Kennedy pleaded.
A sign has been placed in the Goodwill asking for the return of the bear. | https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/dad-asks-for-help-finding-daughters-lost-teddy-bear-with-heartbeat-recording-from-late-mom | 2023-04-21 00:26:57 | 1 | https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/dad-asks-for-help-finding-daughters-lost-teddy-bear-with-heartbeat-recording-from-late-mom |
More than 37 million Americans have diabetes, a chronic disease that affects how a person’s body turns food into energy. Many of those living with diabetes need insulin to survive, but the price of the medication in the United States is often expensive.
Last August, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 capped insulin prices at $35 per month for Medicare patients only. Months later, in March 2023, drugmakers Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi — the three largest insulin manufacturers in the U.S. — announced plans to cut prices on some of their insulin products. The companies account for over 90% of the global insulin market and produce nearly all of the insulin in the country.
But online searches and several social media posts show that some people are wondering if these recent cuts mean the price of insulin will now be capped at $35 for everyone and for all types of insulin.
THE QUESTION
Is the price of insulin capped at $35 for everyone?
THE SOURCES
THE ANSWER
No, the price of insulin isn’t capped at $35 per month for everyone. The $35 cap only applies to insulin for seniors who have Medicare.
Drug manufacturers Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi recently announced price cuts on some of their insulins. But people with private insurance coverage, Medicaid or no insurance will still have to pay more than $35 per month for their insulin.
WHAT WE FOUND
The price of insulin is not capped at $35 per month for everyone living with diabetes in the U.S. The Inflation Reduction Act, which was signed into law in August 2022, capped insulin prices at $35 a month, but only for seniors who have Medicare.
On March 1, 2023, drug manufacturer Eli Lilly announced that it has plans to slash the price of some of its most commonly prescribed insulins by 70% by the end of the year. The company also said it was immediately capping out-of-pocket costs for its insulin at $35 or less per month for people with commercial insurance at participating retail pharmacies.
“The aggressive price cuts we're announcing today should make a real difference for Americans with diabetes,” said Eli Lilly chair and CEO David A. Ricks. “Because these price cuts will take time for the insurance and pharmacy system to implement, we are taking the additional step to immediately cap out-of-pocket costs for patients who use Lilly insulin and are not covered by the recent Medicare Part D cap.”
Although there are no price guarantees for people who are uninsured, Eli Lilly said individuals without insurance can visit InsulinAffordability.com and download the Lilly Insulin Value Program savings card in order to receive Eli Lilly insulins for $35 per month.
A couple of weeks after Eli Lilly’s announcement, drugmaker Novo Nordisk said on March 14 that it is lowering the U.S. list prices of four of its legacy insulin brands, specifically Levemir, Novolin, NovoLog and NovoLog Mix 70/30, by up to 75% starting on Jan. 1, 2024. For example, a vial of Levemir will soon be $107.85, while the FlexPen version of the insulin will be priced at $161.77.
The company also offers copay savings cards for several of its insulin products to eligible patients with commercial insurance plans for as little as $25 to $35.
Pharmaceutical company Sanofi announced on March 16 that it will cut the list price of Lantus, its most widely prescribed insulin in the U.S., by 78% on Jan. 1, 2024. The company said it is also working to establish a $35 cap on out-of-pocket costs for Lantus for all patients with commercial insurance by that date.
Sanofi also offers an Insulins Valyou Savings Program for people without insurance, which enables them to buy one or multiple Sanofi insulin products at $35 for a 30-day supply regardless of their income level.
After Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi agreed to substantially reduce their insulin prices, President Joe Biden issued a statement saying that “Congress should still pass legislation to ensure everybody can get insulin for no more than $35 per month.”
Lisa Murdock, the American Diabetes Association’s chief advocacy officer, also said in a recent statement that the organization would “continue advocating for efforts in Congress and states across the country to ensure insulin is affordable to everyone with diabetes who relies on it to survive.”
“We are encouraged that all of the major manufacturers have taken steps to make insulin more affordable, but the fight is not over,” Murdock said. | https://www.kcentv.com/article/news/verify/medicine/insulin-price-not-capped-at-35-dollars-for-everyone-diabetes-insurance-medicare/536-6a814785-b0e8-414a-acaf-3c965d39b085 | 2023-03-22 19:27:53 | 1 | https://www.kcentv.com/article/news/verify/medicine/insulin-price-not-capped-at-35-dollars-for-everyone-diabetes-insurance-medicare/536-6a814785-b0e8-414a-acaf-3c965d39b085 |
South Korea says North Korea has launched ballistic missile toward sea
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile off its east coast on Thursday, hours after South Korean and U.S. troops ended a fifth round of large-scale live-fire drills near the Koreas’ heavily fortified border.
The North Korean launch is its first since it failed in an attempt to put its first spy satellite into orbit in late May.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the launch occurred Thursday evening but gave no further details.
Japan’s Defense Ministry also said it detected a possible ballistic missile fired by North Korea.
The launch came after North Korea’s military vowed an unspecified response to South Korean-U.S. drills at a front-line South Korean firing range earlier Thursday. The exercises were the fifth and last round of South Korean-U.S. firing drills that began last month. This year’s drills were the biggest of their kind since they began in 1977.
“Our response to (the South Korean-U.S. drills) is inevitable,” an unidentified spokesperson of the North Korean Defense Ministry said in a statement carried by state media. “Our armed forces will fully counter any form of demonstrative moves and provocation of the enemies.”
Thursday’s drills were observed by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and other senior South Korean and U.S. military officials.
Tensions have risen in past months as the pace of both North Korean weapons tests and U.S.-South Korea military exercises has increased in tit-for-tat responses. North Korea has test-fired about 100 missiles since the start of 2022.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.azfamily.com/2023/06/15/south-korea-says-north-korea-has-launched-ballistic-missile-toward-sea/ | 2023-06-15 11:39:58 | 1 | https://www.azfamily.com/2023/06/15/south-korea-says-north-korea-has-launched-ballistic-missile-toward-sea/ |
FIRST ON CNN: DOJ officially decides not to charge Matt Gaetz in sex-trafficking probe
By Paula Reid
The Justice Department has informed lawyers for at least one witness that it will not bring charges against Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz after a years-long federal sex-trafficking investigation, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Senior officials reached out to lawyers for at least one witness on Wednesday, the source tells CNN, to inform them of the decision not to prosecute Gaetz.
The final decision was made by Department of Justice leadership after investigators recommended against charges last year.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. | https://kion546.com/politics/cnn-us-politics/2023/02/15/first-on-cnn-doj-officially-decides-not-to-charge-matt-gaetz-in-sex-trafficking-probe/ | 2023-02-15 19:01:05 | 0 | https://kion546.com/politics/cnn-us-politics/2023/02/15/first-on-cnn-doj-officially-decides-not-to-charge-matt-gaetz-in-sex-trafficking-probe/ |
Maryland voted to legalize recreational marijuana in November, but the marketplace won't open until July. The state's first cannabis lounge, however, operates in a legal gray area.
Copyright 2023 WYPR - 88.1 FM
Maryland voted to legalize recreational marijuana in November, but the marketplace won't open until July. The state's first cannabis lounge, however, operates in a legal gray area.
Copyright 2023 WYPR - 88.1 FM | https://www.wbaa.org/2023-03-21/ceylon-house-marylands-first-cannabis-lounge-operates-in-legal-limbo | 2023-03-21 09:39:51 | 1 | https://www.wbaa.org/2023-03-21/ceylon-house-marylands-first-cannabis-lounge-operates-in-legal-limbo |
The parks business remains a strong one for The Walt Disney Co., which sees it as a “key growth driver.”
What You Need To Know
- Disney Parks, Experiences and Products division reported $7.8 billion in revenue in the second quarter
- Executives say the parks business is a "key growth driver" for the company and it will continue to improve the guest experience
- The results come as The Walt Disney Company undergoes a major restructuring to reduce $5.5 billion in costs
- RELATED: Disney World making more changes to 'improve guest experience'
The company on Wednesday reported that its Parks, Experiences and Products division generated $7.8 billion in revenue in the second quarter, a $17% increase compared to the same quarter in 2022. Operating income was also up 22% to $2.2 billion.
Disney attributed the boost to its international parks like Shanghai Disney which have continued to recover from the pandemic with higher attendance and guest spending.
For its domestic parks, Disney said attendance grew at both Disney World in Florida and Disneyland in California. But profits dipped at Disney World due to higher costs related to new offerings.
In an earnings call Wednesday, Disney executives said the company will continue to focus on improving the guest experience at the parks.
CEO Bob Iger, in his second earnings call since returning to the company in November, mentioned the pricing changes at Disneyland and the recent announcement of changes planned for Disney World in 2024, including allowing passholders to visit the parks on certain days without reservations and removing the reservation requirement for date-based tickets.
“This is just another example of how we’re continuously listening to our guests and finding ways to improve their experiences,” Iger said.
The company is also closely looking at how it will make future investments in the parks.
“We have a number of other growth and expansion opportunities at our parks and we’re closely evaluating where it makes the most sense to direct future investments,” Iger said.
Overall, Disney reported $21.8 billion in revenue in the second quarter. The results come as the company undergoes a major restructuring to cut $5.5 billion in costs—a target executives said Wednesday it expects to meet. As part of the cost-cutting strategy, the company is eliminating 7,000 jobs.
Disney is also engaged in an ongoing fight with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. After filing a federal lawsuit against the governor in April, the company expanded the lawsuit earlier this week to include more examples of what it calls a “retribution campaign” against the company.
Iger addressed the situation in Florida during the earnings call.
“The case that we filed last month made our position and facts very clear,” Iger said. “And that’s really that this is about one thing and one thing only and that’s retaliating against us for taking a position about pending legislation.”
Iger wrapped the discussion with a question: “Does the state want us to invest more, employ more people and pay more taxes or not?” | https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/news/2023/05/10/disney-sees-parks-as-key-growth-driver-amid-strong-business | 2023-05-11 00:06:06 | 0 | https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/news/2023/05/10/disney-sees-parks-as-key-growth-driver-amid-strong-business |
Marco Rubio warns US will pay 'terrible price' for Trump indictment: 'You think this ends here?'
Trump pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from his alleged mishandling of classified documents
Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio slammed the indictment against former President Trump as "incredibly damaging" to the country Tuesday, calling it a "sad and terrible day" for America as the former president was arraigned on felony charges for his handling of classified documents.
"This is a sad and terrible day, I know there are people in the press that are giddy about it, Democrats and partisans that are giddy about it, but this is really bad for America, this indictment," Rubio told Fox News. "It was a bad decision to bring it. I don’t think it was justified or merited and we are going to pay a terrible price for it."
Trump pleaded not guilty at a Miami federal courthouse Tuesday to 37 federal felony counts related to his alleged refusal to hand over classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence as part of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s months-long investigation.
ALAN DERSHOWITZ SLAMS TRUMP INDICTMENT, SHARES ONE ‘DAMNING’ PIECE OF EVIDENCE IN DOJ'S CASE
Rubio, who joined "America Reports" moments before the arraignment, heavily criticized the indictment as a political stunt that will have critical ramifications on the country and will undermine trust in its fundamental institutions if they are perceived by the public to be weaponized for political gain.
"It’s incredibly damaging to the country," the Florida lawmaker said. "This is further polarizing us at a time when we need to be united... instead we're focusing on an indictment that has no harm, no victims."
Rubio said that while the indictment suggests a national security risk could have been posed as a result of Trump's storage of classified materials, it does not contain any formal allegation against the former president in that regard. Still, the lawmaker argued, the DOJ chose to move forward with the charges, thereby putting the U.S. on a "really dangerous" trajectory ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
"These documents of this nature don’t belong at Biden’s garage, they don’t belong on Hillary Clinton’s server, they don't belong at Mar-a-Lago, but there’s no allegation here, even if you read the indictment nowhere does it say ‘and as a result the national security of the United States was harmed in this way,’" he said.
HOW THE TRUMP INDICTMENT PUTS OUR COUNTRY ON TRIAL
"You have to weigh that with an indictment that now is going to put our country [an] already divided and polarized country in a really dangerous place," Rubio continued. "Now all of our institutions are being undermined, now this whole country is watching this spectacle play out and it will for the next year and a half, not to mention there are real questions whether the president can get a fair shake here."
Earlier Tuesday, GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy pledged to pardon for Trump if elected to the Oval Office and challenged his opponents to make the same vow.
"You think this ends here?" Rubio asked pointedly. "The next Republican president is going to be under tremendous pressure to bring charges and indict Joe Biden, his family, crackhead son, whoever. The pressure will be extraordinary."
The indictment accused Trump of failing to comply with demands to return classified documents, including plans for a retaliatory attack on an unnamed foreign power. Other documents include defense and weapon capabilities of the U.S. and details of the U.S. nuclear program.
"The unauthorized disclosure of these classified documents could put at risk the national security of the United States, foreign relations, the safety of the United States military, and human sources and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence collection methods," the indictment said.
It also accused him of storing the documents in a bathroom and other places at the residence, and of showing off the documents to visitors. In one instance, he is said to have told individuals of a document, "as president, I could have declassified it," and, "Now I can't, you know, but this is still a secret."
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Trump has dismissed the charges as a "political hit job" against him by the Biden Department of Justice and maintains his innocence. | https://www.foxnews.com/media/marco-rubio-warns-us-pay-terrible-price-trump-indictment-you-think-ends-here | 2023-06-13 22:16:23 | 1 | https://www.foxnews.com/media/marco-rubio-warns-us-pay-terrible-price-trump-indictment-you-think-ends-here |
Madison Keys vs. Daria Kasatkina: Prediction and Match Betting Odds | Viking International Eastbourne
In the Viking International Eastbourne final on Saturday, Madison Keys meets Daria Kasatkina.
With -120 odds, Kasatkina is the favorite against Keys for this tournament final versus the underdog, who is -110.
Looking to place a bet on this or other tennis matches? Head over to BetMGM, the King of Sportsbooks, and sign up today with our link!
Madison Keys vs. Daria Kasatkina Match Information
- Tournament: The Viking International Eastbourne
- Round: Finals
- Date: Saturday, July 1
- Venue: Devonshire Park International Tennis Centre
- Location: Eastbourne, United Kingdom
- Court Surface: Grass
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Madison Keys vs. Daria Kasatkina Prediction and Odds
Based on the moneyline in this match, Daria Kasatkina has a 54.5% chance to win.
Bet on tennis with BetMGM, the King of Sportsbooks!
Madison Keys vs. Daria Kasatkina Trends and Insights
- Keys took down Cori Gauff 6-3, 6-3 in the semifinals on Friday.
- Kasatkina will look to stay on track after a 6-2, 7-5 win over No. 67-ranked Camila Giorgi in the semifinals on Friday.
- In her 43 matches over the past 12 months across all court types, Keys has played an average of 20.8 games.
- On grass, Keys has played four matches over the past 12 months, totaling 19.8 games per match while winning 63.3% of games.
- In the past 12 months, Kasatkina has competed in 48 total matches (across all court surfaces), winning 54.4% of the games. She averages 20.7 games per match and 9.2 games per set.
- Keys owns a 3-2 record versus Kasatkina. Their last match was a 6-7, 6-4, 6-2 victory for Kasatkina in the Credit One Charleston Open quarterfinals on April 7, 2023.
- Keys and Kasatkina have matched up in 12 sets against each other, with Keys taking eight of them.
- Keys and Kasatkina have faced off in 117 total games, with Keys winning 64 and Kasatkina capturing 53.
- Keys and Kasatkina have matched up five times, averaging 23.4 games and 2.4 sets per match.
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© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.wnem.com/sports/betting/2023/07/01/madison-keys-vs-daria-kasatkina-tennis-prediction-betting-odds-viking-international-eastbourne/ | 2023-06-30 23:10:19 | 1 | https://www.wnem.com/sports/betting/2023/07/01/madison-keys-vs-daria-kasatkina-tennis-prediction-betting-odds-viking-international-eastbourne/ |
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We've placed cookies on your device to improve your browsing experience. They're safe and don't contain sensitive information. | https://tj.news/greater-saint-john/101903630 | 2022-06-23 03:26:30 | 1 | https://tj.news/greater-saint-john/101903630 |
What a week for Hendrick Motorsports, which scored its first victory in NASCAR’s version of a courtroom and its second win on the track at Richmond Raceway.
NASCAR’s winningest team had received the largest penalty ever issued to a single organization for illegal modifications to supplier-provided parts on the Next Gen car. Hendrick Motorsports appealed and, in a rare overruling, a three-person panel last week reversed a significant portion of the penalty.
The celebration came Sunday when Kyle Larson picked up his first win of the season on what would have been the late Ricky Hendrick’s 43rd birthday. The winning Chevrolet at Richmond was painted to replicate the scheme Ricky Hendrick used before his death in a 2004 plane crash.
“Me racing this 5 car has been special, but especially this paint scheme,” said Larson, who copped to watching YouTube videos last week of his 2021 championship season to “remind myself that I used to be good.”
The videos reminded him of his fist win with Hendrick in 2021 at Las Vegas, which was his first race with Ricky Hendrick’s old paint scheme. A win later that season at Kansas, Larson said, “I think it was 17 years to the date of the accident, and then now this, winning on his birthday.
“It’s all really special and kind of crazy kind of how things maybe work out from the power above,” Larson added.
Ricky Hendrick was the only son of team owner Rick Hendrick and the heir to the NASCAR juggernaut. He was among 10 people killed when a Hendrick plane crashed into a Virginia mountain en route to a race at Martinsville Speedway. Also killed in the crash was Rick Hendrick’s brother, his twin nieces, the Hendrick Motorsports general manager and lead engine builder.
Hendrick Motorsports has celebrated their lost loved ones many times in the nearly 19 years since the crash, but there’s no greater joy for Rick Hendrick than watching Larson pilot and win in a car that reminds him of his late son.
Jeff Gordon, who is now vice chairman at Hendrick Motorsports and assuming responsibilities that presumably would have fallen to Ricky Hendrick, said Larson’s win at Richmond makes the organization wonder what might have been if not for the plane crash.
“What Ricky’s presence would do for us if he was here with us today and what his leadership … you know, he was so passionate about Hendrick Motorsports and racing,” Gordon said. “I was talking to Rick and he was emotional and excited, and so his presence is still here.
“Our folks try to do everything they can to make Rick Hendrick proud. But when you know what Ricky’s impact could have been on our company and the people and the 5 car and that paint scheme and what that means to the whole company, it’s very rewarding to know that we’re still kind of thinking of him and paying tribute to him as often as we can. Maybe he is looking down on us as well.”
Hendrick Motorsports persevered since NASCAR confiscated its modified parts, stripped three of the four Hendrick drivers of 100 points each and suspended all four crew chiefs for four weeks, with $100,000 fines apiece. But William Byron and Larson have each scored wins in the month since, and the appeals panel restored the points deductions — an overruling of NASCAR that has Alex Bowman as the current points leader. Byron is ranked fourth and Larson sixth.
Chase Elliott is still out with a broken leg, and replacement driver Josh Berry finished a career-best second on Sunday, with Hendrick not missing a beat despite all its distractions. Gordon found Berry after the race on pit road to congratulate the journeyman and later told reporters the 32-year-old has a future in the Cup Series.
“It’s been a good week. It’s been really stressful trying to prep for an appeal and not knowing what the outcome is going to be,” Gordon said. “We’re certainly happy with what the appeals committee came to that conclusion, but at the same time, we feel like we laid out enough information there that it shouldn’t have ever happened, or even the monetary side of it and the crew chief side of it.
“We were really hoping we were going to get all of that back. But we’re going to move on from that. Once the green flag dropped, it’s all about those teams executing and doing their job. But certainly quite a few smiles around (Hendrick) campus this day. They’ve been down with what happened. So that definitely reenergized our folks this week and coming into this weekend’s race.”
___
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.qcnews.com/sports/hendrick-gets-big-win-off-track-emotional-victory-on-track/ | 2023-04-04 10:38:56 | 0 | https://www.qcnews.com/sports/hendrick-gets-big-win-off-track-emotional-victory-on-track/ |
From a new city to new characters, the upcoming season of “Siesta Key” will bring lots of changes. Cast members Madisson Hausburrg and Amanda Miller discuss some of the hurdles they had to overcome during new episodes and what fans can expect to see. “Siesta Key: Miami Moves” premieres October 27 at 8 p.m. on MTV.
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Several Democratic members of the House and former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Michael Fanone are calling on Republicans to condemn political violence on the eve of the second anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.
Four members of the House who are also veterans gathered on Thursday with Courage for America, an organization pushing against the “extreme MAGA agenda,” and Common Defense, a veterans organization that advocates against hatred and violence and for an “equitable and representative democracy,” for a press conference pointing to the ongoing threat of political violence.
Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) said those who stormed the Capitol two years ago are part of a small “fringe” group in the country but were inspired by some of the top officials in the government who did not accept the results of the 2020 presidential election.
“As elected officials, we are entrusted constantly, continuously, to tell the truth, to tell the truth to the American people,” she said.
Houlahan said she was one of those first elected to Congress in 2018 in response to “violent political rhetoric” from then-President Trump and his allies.
Trump has been criticized for his role during and leading up to the events of Jan. 6, during which he tweeted criticism of his vice president, Mike Pence, for not supporting his efforts to overturn the election results as his supporters yelled to hang Pence during the insurrection. Trump waited more than three hours after his speech at the Ellipse that preceded the riot ended before telling the rioters to go home.
The since-disbanded select House committee investigating Jan. 6 said last month the Department of Justice should consider at least four criminal charges against Trump: obstruction of an official proceeding; conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to make a false statement; and inciting, assisting or giving comfort to an insurrection.
Even before the Capitol riot, Trump was regularly criticized for appearing to call for violence against his political opponents.
Houlahan said everyone owes it to the American people to condemn political violence “in all forms.”
Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) said Trump and his “minions” stirred the people who eventually stormed the Capitol, causing an “unprecedented” attack on the country’s democracy. He said Trump bears the most responsibility for the events of the day, but it was building from years of division, disinformation and a “media apparatus” that amplified lies.
He said those who support democracy are using different strategies than those who have turned to violence, saying “we’re not like them.”
“We are building, we are protecting, we are delivering. If last November showed us anything, it’s that building and moving forward with a positive vision will take us out of this,” Crow said, referring to the November midterm elections in which many candidates who backed Trump’s false claims of voter fraud lost key races.
Fanone, who was injured while defending the Capitol during the insurrection and now works as a CNN contributor, said the insurrection was a “wakeup call” on the level of political violence in the country.
He said that on Wednesday he delivered a letter, signed by more than 1,000 veterans, active military members and family members, to the office of devoted Trump supporter Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) asking that she and other Republicans condemn political violence “in all its forms.”
“We cannot afford to brush political violence under the rug or turn a blind eye when others encourage it,” Fanone said.
Some Republicans have condemned the violence of the day, but most have downplayed the involvement of Trump and his supporters.
Fanone has criticized House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) for not acknowledging the impact of the day and continuing to tie himself to Trump.
“Being courageous means speaking out so my four daughters can live in a country without fear of political violence from the MAGA movement that is putting their futures at risk,” he said Thursday.
Fanone said he is calling on House GOP leaders and whoever eventually becomes the next Speaker to denounce the political violence of Jan. 6 and in general.
“As you take on your new roles, I will be watching,” he said. | https://www.fox16.com/hill-politics/dem-members-fanone-call-on-gop-to-condemn-political-violence-ahead-of-jan-6-anniversary/ | 2023-01-05 19:29:31 | 1 | https://www.fox16.com/hill-politics/dem-members-fanone-call-on-gop-to-condemn-political-violence-ahead-of-jan-6-anniversary/ |
As part of the launch, Excedrin is announcing the Head Care Club featuring exclusive routines from Emmy Award winning Choreographer Derek Hough that help support everyday head health.
WARREN, N.J., April 19, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- New research from Excedrin showed that 70% of people who experience migraine attacks and headaches feel that their day-to-day quality of life is impacted.1 To shine a light on the space in between migraine attacks and reflect the full experience, the makers of Excedrin are introducing Head Care Club, a holistic approach to head health inspired by the new, drug-free Head Care products, which include a daily dietary supplement and nutrient mixes: Proactive Health*, Replenish +Focus, and Replenish +Sleep*^. The brand is also partnering with professional dancer, Dancing with the Stars judge and award-winning choreographer, Derek Hough who has curated exclusive movement routines for the program.
Nine out of 10 people agree that headaches and migraines should be managed with a holistic, everyday routine.1 However, 46% said they are only employing management techniques on an as-needed basis and are not using any proactive measures.1 To go "beyond the attack" and support people outside the moment of head discomfort the makers of Excedrin have curated a collection of accessible and effective, neurologist-approved routines that span mindfulness, nutrition, and movement.
"Wellness practices like mindfulness, grounding meditation, balanced nutrition and aerobic exercise are proven to be effective tools for supporting head discomfort. Making small adjustments to how we treat our bodies, not just our brains, can have significant impact on our overall brain and head health. Everyday lifestyle choices can determine whether head discomfort will occur or not. It is important to proactively understand and support head health for this reason," explained board-certified neurologist and Head Care Club Coach, Dr. Deena Kuruvilla. "Head Care Club is a hands-on approach that acknowledges those moments in between and goes 'beyond the attack' to support those who experience headache and migraine — just like the uniquely formulated Head Care product line which will hopefully help people achieve overall better head health."
Head Care is a new drug-free line that helps support head health and comfort.* Head Care starts with Proactive Health*, a daily dietary supplement that provides a consistent supply of nutrients such as folic acid and magnesium to support proper blood flow in the brain†, as well as promote a healthy neurological system and nerve transmission in the brain.* Consumers can also take advantage of the nutrient mixes — Replenish +Focus and Replenish +Sleep.*^ While Replenish +Focus is formulated with electrolytes to help support hydration, ginger to soothe the stomach and caffeine to support focus, Replenish +Sleep*^ is designed for relaxation, including electrolytes to help support hydration, theanine to promote relaxation and melatonin to help with the desire to fall asleep.*^
The Head Care Club is inspired by the new drug-free Head Care line and features thoughtfully curated routines guided by various personal experiences with head discomfort and approved by a neurologist. The Head Care Club features:
- Custom movement routines designed by Dancing with the Stars judge and award-winning choreographer Derek Hough, alongside fellow professional dancer Hayley Erbert
- Mindfulness and nutrition tips from a team of wellness influencers, including head-friendly recipes and morning mindfulness practices
- Information and tips from a board-certified neurologist, Dr. Deena Kuruvilla
"As experts in head pain for over 50 years, we understand the toll that headaches and migraines can take on a person's day-to-day with many experiencing challenges leading up to and after the moments of discomfort – a space that many fail to acknowledge," shared Rishi Mulgund, Brand Director of Pain Relief, Haleon. "The all-new Head Care products and Head Care Club program are designed to both reflect and support the full experience, promoting overall head health with small adjustments to daily routines."
To learn more about Head Care from Excedrin and the Head Care Club visit excedrin.com/headcare.
Head Care products are not intended to treat migraines.
†Magnesium helps support proper blood flow to the brain*
^As compared to falling asleep without melatonin. Melatonin helps you fall asleep and is for occasional sleeplessness.*
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
1KRC conducted a national survey of 1,000 U.S. adults 18-65 who experience headaches or migraines (February 7-13, 2023). Respondents were unaware that Excedrin was the sponsor of the survey.
About Head Care from Excedrin
Head Care from Excedrin is a new, drug-free product line specially formulated with a unique combination of ingredients to support everyday head health and comfort.* With the addition of the Head Care line* to Excedrin's pain relief products, the brand is here to support you before, during, and after occasional head discomfort.*
About Haleon US
Haleon (NYSE: HLN) is a leading global consumer health company with a purpose to deliver better everyday health with Humanity. Haleon's product portfolio spans five major categories: Oral Health, Pain Relief, Respiratory Health, Digestive Health, and Wellness. Built on trusted science, innovation, and deep human understanding, Haleon's U.S. brands include Abreva, Advil, Benefiber, Centrum, ChapStick®, Emergen-C, Excedrin, Flonase, Gas-X, Natean, Nexium, Nicorette, Parodontax, Polident, Preparation H, Pronamel, Sensodyne, Robitussin, Theraflu, TUMS, Voltaren, and more. For more information on Haleon and its brands, please visit www.haleon.com or contact USMediaRelations@haleon.com.
Media Contact Information:
Meghan Sowa – Haleon
Meghan.l.sowa@haleon.com
919-864-0953
Cara Graeff – Weber Shandwick
CGraeff@webershandwick.com
215-790-4227
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SOURCE Excedrin | https://www.wbtv.com/prnewswire/2023/04/19/introducing-head-care-makers-excedrin-new-line-drug-free-dietary-supplement-nutrient-mix-products-that-address-holistic-head-health/ | 2023-04-19 13:46:01 | 1 | https://www.wbtv.com/prnewswire/2023/04/19/introducing-head-care-makers-excedrin-new-line-drug-free-dietary-supplement-nutrient-mix-products-that-address-holistic-head-health/ |
HOUSTON (AP) — A jury in Texas has acquitted a man who said he fired in self-defense when he fatally shot an off-duty Houston police officer.
Robert Soliz was charged with murder for the death of police Sgt. Sean Rios, who was killed in a shootout while the sergeant was on his way to work.
The gun battle followed a road rage clash that led both Soliz and Rios to exit the highway in 2020. Soliz testified that Rios swerved into his lane, nearly hitting him, and that he never identified himself as a police officer. Prosecutors and defense attorneys differed on who fired first.
The jury found Soliz not guilty Tuesday after deliberating for more than seven hours, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Soliz looked back to his family after the verdict was read and mouthed “I told you,” according to the newspaper. Soliz remained jailed on other charges unrelated to Rios' death.
“We saw the evidence differently than the jury, and though we cannot agree with the jury’s decision, we appreciate their time and service,” said David Mitcham, first assistant with the Harris County District Attorney's Office. “Our hearts remain with Sean Rios’s widow and four children, who will now grow up without their father. Officer Rios spent his time here on Earth serving and protecting the people of Houston, and he gave his life in that noble effort. He will always be remembered for the hero that he was.”
Defense attorney Paul Looney told Houston TV station KTRK that prosecutors didn’t have “a shred of evidence” to show the shooting was more than self-defense.
“They put this man and his family through hell for two years," Looney said. "But I’m relieved because the damage wasn’t for life because it could have been life.” | https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Jury-acquits-man-in-Houston-officer-s-road-rage-17589322.php | 2022-11-16 17:47:50 | 0 | https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Jury-acquits-man-in-Houston-officer-s-road-rage-17589322.php |
The ongoing march toward a more perfect union
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Throughout history, American leaders have borrowed from the Bible in calling their nation a “city upon a hill” – a beacon of hope for humanity. A sense of exceptionalism has long infused pride in the American system and successes as the world’s oldest democracy.
That self-image took a hit with the federal indictment of Donald Trump over alleged mishandling of classified documents, making him the first former U.S. president to face federal criminal charges. The fact that Mr. Trump leads polls for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 makes his indictment all the more consequential. The implications for the future of American governance could be profound.
Still, Americans can take heart in the lessons of other democracies, as the Monitor explained in a magazine cover story back in January. From France, Israel, and South Korea, to Argentina and Brazil, other nations have shown that former leaders can be held to account – even sent to prison – and the country survives.
No one is above the law. Some leaders, such as in Brazil, have served time in prison for corruption and then been reelected. Israel is another example: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced indictment, was voted out, and then returned to office. His trial is ongoing.
In the United States, opinion on Mr. Trump is deeply divided, with many Americans saying the latest charges – and a previous, civil indictment in New York – are politically driven. Others feel Mr. Trump’s legal jeopardy is deserved. This week’s Explainer, by Peter Grier and Sophie Hills, looks at the latest indictment in more depth.
Whatever the outcome, Americans can eat a bit of humble pie. And in building a more perfect union, there are lessons to be learned. “In the short run, people will lose some of their trust in democracy” when former leaders are taken to court, Sam Van der Staak of the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance told the Monitor in January. “In the long run, you often see that systems can be repaired step by step, and that public confidence then grows again.” | https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/From-the-Editors/2023/0703/The-ongoing-march-toward-a-more-perfect-union | 2023-07-03 22:47:14 | 1 | https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/From-the-Editors/2023/0703/The-ongoing-march-toward-a-more-perfect-union |
The Crown knows all about controversy.
After all, the critically-acclaimed Netflix drama centered on the reign of Queen Elizabeth II has tackled plenty of salacious royal fodder throughout its first four seasons.
From Princess Anne's relationship with Andrew Parker Bowles to Princess Margaret's overdose, from the reveal of the Queen and Princess Margaret's secret cousins to the monarchy's treatment of Princess Diana, The Crown has certainly never steered away from scandal.
However, season five, which dropped Nov. 9 on Netflix, has managed to stir up more furor than any season that's come before.
On Oct. 16, former UK Prime Minister John Major, played by Jonny Lee Miller in season five, called the new episodes "damaging and malicious fiction" and a "barrel load of nonsense" in an interview with The Mail on Sunday.
Major pointed to one scene in particular, in the season's first episode, in which then-Prince Charles (Dominic West) attempts to convince former PM Major to persuade Queen Elizabeth II (Imelda Staunton) to abdicate the throne.
The former PM insisted no such conversation ever happened and the scene was written "for no other reason than to provide maximum—and entirely false—dramatic impact."
Days later, on Oct. 19, Oscar winner Dame Judi Dench, seemingly inspired by Major, voiced similar concerns about the validity of The Crown season five.
"Given some of the wounding suggestions apparently contained in the new series—that King Charles plotted for his mother to abdicate, for example, or once suggested his mother's parenting was so deficient that she might have deserved a jail sentence," Dench wrote in a letter to U.K. publication The Times, "this is both cruelly unjust to the individuals and damaging to the institution they represent."
Dench also wrote that The Crown "seems willing to blur the lines between historical accuracy and crude sensationalism" and alleged the program promoted "an inaccurate and hurtful account of history."
As part of her criticism, Dench called for a disclaimer be added to each episode "as a mark of respect to a sovereign who served her people so dutifully for 70 years, and to preserve their own reputation in the eyes of their British subscribers."
While a disclaimer was added to the series' trailer on YouTube and Twitter, calling the show a "fictional dramatisation," no disclaimer was added to the episodes themselves.
With all of this knowledge, we did a deep dive into the most dramatic and outrageous moments from The Crown's fifth season, all with one question in mind: Wait, did that really happen?!
What's the deal with Prince Philip's obsession with carriage driving?
In the second episode of season five, the late Prince Philip is forced to give up his beloved polo for another horse-inspired hobby: carriage driving. As it turns out, the former Duke of Edinburgh stumbled upon the activity by happenstance.
"I was looking 'round to see what next, I didn't know what there was available," Philip told ITV in 2017. "And I suddenly thought, 'Well, we've got horses and carriages so why don't I have a go?'"
Carriage riding became an activity that was eventually passed down by the generations. Philip's granddaughter, 18-year-old Lady Louise Windsor, is now an accomplished carriage driver and took sixth place in the junior novice division at the British Indoor Carriage Driving Championships in April.
Did Queen Elizabeth II really love the Britannia that much?
In short, yes.
The fifth season of The Crown opens with a cameo from Claire Foy, reprising her role as Queen Elizabeth II from seasons one and two of the series, in a flashback scene showing the official launch of Her Majesty's Yacht Britannia, also known as the Royal Yacht Britannia, in April 1953.
Later in the episode, the Queen, played by Staunton, suggests to PM Major that the Britannia needs to undergo an expensive refurbishment. Major, who tells the Queen the work would cost the public millions, balks at the idea. The Queen, of course, struggles to understand his reluctance.
In 1997, after years of historic voyages involving many members of the royal family, the Britannia was retired. During the official decommissioning ceremony, the Queen was infamously seen wiping a tear from her eye.
Was Princess Diana's phone really bugged?
In season five, Diana hears mysterious clicking noises on the opposite end of her phone calls, leading the late Princess to think her conversations are being spied on. While there's no evidence that her calls were actually being recorded, the scenes are based on very real fears Diana had throughout her life, even in the days before her death.
In 2007, Diana's former private secretary Michael Gibbins told The Guardian that Diana "clearly" thought she was being recorded.
"Her actions were such, in terms of changing her telephone number," he said, "that it was clear that that was a concern to her, yes."
Did Mohamed Al-Fayed actually buy Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson's French estate?
The third episode of season five does an abrupt change and shifts the focus to Mohamed Al-Fayed, the father of the late Dodi Fayed, who died in the 1997 car crash that also took the life of Princess Diana.
In the episode, Al-Fayed buys the French home owned by Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, after Wallis died in 1986.
Indeed, Al-Fayed did buy the home, located in Paris' Bois de Boulogne. "It's like a mausoleum," he told People in 1990. "It sometimes gives you the creeps—both of them having died here. But it's still a happy place, a great fantasy which I love to live in."
Al-Fayed, who is currently 93 years old, still owns the property.
How are the Windsors and the Romanovs actually connected?
The sixth episode of season five opens in World War I–era Britain, when King George V (Richard Dillane) receives a letter from the British prime minister suggesting that the government was willing to send a ship to Russia to save their Russian relatives, the Romanovs, who had recently been overthrown in the Russian Revolution.
Later, an imprisoned Tsar Nicholas II (a.k.a. Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov) is awoken by a soldier who informs him that he and his wife Tsarnia Alexandra (a.k.a. Alexandra Feodorovna) are being moved, causing Nicholas to exclaim, "It's cousin George!"
Their hopes were unfounded, however, as just minutes later, their entire family is murdered—thus revealing that the royal family refused to help.
The episode later finds Queen Elizabeth II preparing for a meeting with Boris Yeltsin, the president of the Russian Federation. It is revealed that Elizabeth and Prince Philip are related to the Romanovs, which motivates Philip to do some digging.
So, how are the families intertwined?
Maria Feodorovna, the sister of Queen Elizabeth's great-grandmother Queen Alexandra, married Czar Alexander of Russia. Maria's eldest son, the aforementioned Nicholas, was the last ruler of Russia—and also the first cousin of King George V, Elizabeth's grandfather.
As The Crown depicts, George did in fact refuse to help save Nicholas, despite the two sharing a strong relationship.
Did Diana give Queen Elizabeth's notice after her explosive Panorama interview?
Not exactly.
Season five shines light on Diana's infamous 1995 interview with Martin Bashir (Prasanna Puwanarajah) on the BBC documentary series Panorama, in which she discussed the dissolution of her marriage with then-Prince Charles.
The series shows Diana herself giving Queen Elizabeth a head's up about the explosive interview, but that's not what happened at all.
"It's hard to beat the scenes depicting Diana allegedly summoning up her courage and dropping on the Queen the bombshell news that she had secretly recorded an interview with Martin Bashir for Panorama," Diana's former private secretary Patrick Jephson told The Telegraph Nov. 8. "This part of the story was made up, and therefore might reasonably earn the ire of The Crown's scholarly-exact detractors."
How can he be so sure?
"I know it was made up because I was there," he said, "and I can tell you that the Princess absolutely failed to summon up the necessary courage and delegated the job to me."
Did Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles really get embroiled in Tampongate?
They sure did.
In 1993, the transcript of a private phone call between then-Prince Charles and his then-mistress Camilla Parker Bowles was released by members of the British press. On the call, which was recorded in 1989, Charles joked that he'd like to be reincarnated as a tampon so he could "live inside" Camilla's trousers. Thus, the scandal was dubbed "Tampongate."
In an exclusive conversation with E! News, Dominic West, who plays Charles, explained why The Crown creator Peter Morgan insisted the scene be included.
"Peter explained how on a lot of The Crown, he gets to choose what he wants to put in," Dominic said, "but there are certain things that if he doesn't put in, it's a half-baked job. I think that is one scene that he was obliged to tackle."
Dominic further revealed that playing Charles and learning more about the details of the scandal impacted the way he viewed the entire ordeal.
"What was surprising was, seeing after 20 years hindsight and actually playing these characters, what we found is how the papers had initially perceived it as something dirty and in some way unsavory was actually something rather intimate and tender and sweet," Dominic said. "What was dirty and unsavory was the press treatment of it."
Olivia Williams, who plays Camilla, exclusively told E! News why she thinks the scene was so integral.
"I think what's so clever about what Peter Morgan does with this is that he shows effect the stealing of that conversation had on the crown," she said. "That is the point of including it in the series. Everything that is shown in The Crown had an impact on the crown, the monarchy, in history."
The fifth season of The Crown is available to stream now on Netflix. | https://www.eonline.com/news/1354232/the-crown-season-5-fact-checking-the-most-dramatic-moments | 2022-11-12 08:33:31 | 0 | https://www.eonline.com/news/1354232/the-crown-season-5-fact-checking-the-most-dramatic-moments |
Florida Methodist Conference to vote Saturday on potential exits of 55 churches
Differences on LGBTQ drive push for separation
Less than a week after a judge declined to intervene, representatives of the United Methodist Church will vote on whether to allow dozens of churches to depart the denomination.
The Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church will hold a virtual special session Saturday to decide on requests from 55 churches to disaffiliate. The session continues a long-simmering rift in the denomination, based in Lakeland, over disagreements on doctrine.
Circuit Judge George M. Wright on Monday dismissed a lawsuit filed by 106 churches seeking to leave the Florida association. Wright, with the Eighth Judicial Circuit, based in Starke, cited the First Amendment and court precedent in ruling that he lacked the authority to intervene in a dispute between churches and a denomination.
Saturday’s session had been planned months ago and has no relation to the court ruling, said Tom Berlin, bishop of the Florida Conference. It will be the first of three planned sessions this year at which clergy and lay members of the conference will consider requests from churches to separate from the denomination.
While 106 churches joined the lawsuit filed in July, the list of churches seeking disaffiliation in Saturday’s session is just over half that amount. Bishop said that he isn’t certain if any churches have decided to remain within the conference or if the rest plan to pursue departures later this year.
The window for possible disaffiliation ends Dec. 31, Berlin said.
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“We've attempted to make it a process that is accessible,” Berlin said Thursday. “And as you can see from the change in that number related to the lawsuit, about half of those churches decided that the process Florida was using was fair and available.”
Three churches from Polk County joined the lawsuit: First United Methodist of Fort Meade, First United Methodist of Frostproof and Lake Gibson United Methodist Church in Lakeland. None appears on Saturday’s list, which includes two from Polk County, Alturas UMC and Dundee UMC.
Divisions over sexuality, gender
Berlin, formerly a pastor in Virginia, took office in January. He succeeded Bishop Ken Carter, who moved to a position in North Carolina after leading the Florida association for more than a decade. The Lakeland-based conference oversees more than 550 churches covering all of Florida except for the western Panhandle.
Berlin said that he expects the conference to vote on the requested disaffiliations as a group rather than on each church individually. Approval requires a mere majority of voters.
The format allows for speeches favoring and opposing disaffiliation, according to the conference’s information guide.
In discussing Saturday’s session, Berlin repeatedly cited paragraph 2,553 of the denomination’s 2016 Book of Discipline, or code of laws, as amended in 2019. That is the passage that outlines the disaffiliation process.
The denomination’s Judicial Counsel confirmed last year that any church seeking to depart over matters of human sexuality may use the process described in paragraph 2,553 to do so.
A rupture has been building for decades in the worldwide Methodist Church, fueled chiefly by disagreements over doctrine and practices regarding LGBTQ issues. The United Methodist Church retains its official doctrine, confirmed in 1972, that declares homosexuality to be “incompatible with Christian teaching.”
But there have been reports of some churches conducting same-sex weddings or hiring LGBTQ ministers. Some conservative congregations, anticipating potential changes to doctrine, decided they should leave the denomination altogether.
At the denomination’s global meeting in 2019, leaders proposed a framework for congregations to exit by the end of 2023. Carter, Berlin’s predecessor, led the formulation of the plan.
Churches are required to hold votes of their congregations and need approval from two-thirds to begin the process of disaffiliation, Berlin said. The 55 churches under consideration Saturday have already done so, he said.
The Florida Conference has already approved separation requests from 17 congregations over the past two years.
“I am always sad when a congregation decides to disaffiliate from the Methodist Church,” Berlin said. “I believe there's great vitality and strength in the connection that we enjoy as United Methodists. And it will be a pleasure to work with churches who desire to remain in that connection in the future.”
A breakaway denomination, the Global Methodist Church, formed last year. The Florida chapter of the Wesleyan Covenant Association said last year that many of the churches wishing to disaffiliate would join the new denomination.
Churches' exit costs revealed
Under a “trust clause” in its rules, the Florida Conference owns the buildings and grounds of member churches. That has presented a financial impediment for churches wishing to leave the congregation.
The plan adopted in 2019 allows churches to take over those assets, provided they pay off certain financial obligations determined by the conference. The list of churches eligible for disaffiliation includes an “exit obligation” amount for each.
The conference determined the figures for each church based on clergy pension liabilities and the church’s share of dues owed to the organization for the current year and one additional year, according to the session’s information guide.
The exit obligations range from $4,491 for New Hope UMC in Marion County to $1.1 million for Bay Hope Church in Lutz, a suburb of Tampa. Alturas UMC would have to pay $15,385.
The 55 churches requesting severance comprised about 15% of the total membership of the Florida Conference, as of Dec. 31, 2021, according to a fact sheet from the denomination. The value of the churches’ combined assets is listed as $35.8 million.
If representatives approve the disaffiliations at Saturday’s session, the churches would separate on June 1 – if they meet their exit obligations, including a presentation of a certificate of insurance. The Florida Conference self-insures its churches, except for catastrophic damage, Berlin said.
“There are some insurance issues that have to be resolved here in Florida that are unique because of our location,” Berlin said. “Again, it's just mutual responsibilities we have to one another that need to be fulfilled before churches are able to depart with the property.”
The withdrawal of clergy members from the denomination is separate from the church disaffiliation process. Clergy must submit written requests to Berlin.
Churches that are part of Saturday's vote
The churches seeking disaffiliation as part of the vote Saturday include:
- Canal Point, on the eastern shore of Lake Okeechobee
- Community in Belle Glade
- Community of Hope in Loxahatchee
- Georgianna in Merritt Island
- Roseland, on the east coast north of Sebastian
- Community in DeBary
- DeLeon Springs, north of DeLand
- Dundee, in Polk County
- First UMC in Clermont
- First UMC in DeLand
- First UMC in Tavares
- Pine Castle in Orlando
- Alturas, in Polk County between Bartow and Lake Wales
- Bay Hope in Lutz
- First UMC in Lutz
- New Hope in Brandon
- Palma Ceia in Tampa
- Sylvan Abbey in Clearwater
- Tampa Korean in Tampa
- Crystal River on the west coast in Citrus County
- Grace at Fort Clarke in Gainesville
- Little Chapel Santos in Ocala
- New Hope in Citra, north of Ocala
- Spring Life in Spring Hill, Hernando County
- Faith in Jacksonville
- First UMC in Callahan, just north of Jacksonville
- Lakewood in Jacksonville
- Middleburg, just southwest of Jacksonville
- Pierson, about 20 miles west of Ormond Beach near Lake George
- Riverdale in St. Augustine
- St. James in Palatka
- Welaka, on the St. Johns River near the northern edge of Ocala National Forest.
- First UMC in Alachua
- Deer Lake in Tallahassee
- First UMC in Lake City
- Killearn in Tallahassee
- Salem in Havana, northwest of Tallahassee
- Waukeenah in Monticello, about 15 miles east of Tallahassee
- Community in Marathon, in the Florida Keys
- Korean American of S. Fla. in Tamarac, just northwest of Fort Lauderdale
- North Hialeah Hispanic in Hialeah
- Alva, just northeast of Fort Myers
- Christ in Lehigh Acres, east of Fort Myers
- Christ in Venice
- Edgewater in Port Charlotte
- Englewood in Englewood, on the west coast between the Gulf and Charlotte Harbor.
- Estero, between Naples and Fort Myers
- First UMC in Moore Haven, just west of Lake Okeechobee
- First UMC in Sebring
- First UMC in Clewiston, on the southwest shore of Lake Okeechobee
- Grace in Cape Coral, west of Fort Myers near the Gulf.
- Oneco in Bradenton
- Port Charlotte, between Fort Myers and Sarasota
- St. James/New Beginnings in Sarasota
- St. John in Sebring
Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on Twitter @garywhite13. | https://www.theledger.com/story/news/local/2023/04/21/lakeland-based-fla-methodist-conference-considers-exits-of-55-churches/70129871007/ | 2023-04-21 17:02:59 | 0 | https://www.theledger.com/story/news/local/2023/04/21/lakeland-based-fla-methodist-conference-considers-exits-of-55-churches/70129871007/ |
US ambassador to UN visits Fox Sports in Qatar for World Cup
Argentina and France will play in the World Cup final on Sunday
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, United States Ambassador to the United Nations, visited the Fox Sports studio in Doha, Qatar, as she prepares to attend the Closing Ceremonies of the 2022 FIFA World Cup
The White House announced on Wednesday that Thomas-Greenfield would lead the Presidential Delegation to Qatar.
WORLD CUP 2022: CROATIA DEFEATS MOROCCO IN THIRD-PLACE MATCH
The closing ceremony of the 2022 World Cup will take place prior to the start of the final between Argentina and France.
"The final ceremony will last 15 minutes and reference the world coming together for the 29 days of the tournament through poetry and music," FIFA said.
It will conclude the first-ever World Cup in the Middle East that saw the first African country reach the semifinal stage.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM
Morocco, competing in its sixth World Cup, shockingly came in first in Group F and defeated Spain and Portugal on its way to the semifinal.
After losing to France, Morocco ended its incredible World Cup run on Saturday with a loss to Croatia in the third-place match.
All eyes now turn to the final on Sunday, as Lionel Messi and Argentina look to win its first World Cup since 1986.
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France has a chance at history as they attempt to become the first back-to-back winners of the World Cup since Brazil won consecutive titles in 1958 and 1962.
The World Cup will then turn to North America in 2026, as Canada, Mexico, and the United States will play host.
Eleven U.S. cities will host games in 2026, including Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York/New Jersey, and Boston. | https://www.foxnews.com/sports/us-ambassador-un-visits-fox-sports-qatar-world-cup | 2022-12-17 20:33:13 | 1 | https://www.foxnews.com/sports/us-ambassador-un-visits-fox-sports-qatar-world-cup |
MILTON, Del., Jan. 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Coming to you from Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in coastal Delaware. National weather reports confirm there's a squall (of the delicious kind!) brewing and it's set to touch down in cities from coast to coast. Our best advice? Grab your ponchos … er, pint glasses and get ready!
Dogfish Head proudly introduces Citrus Squall, the perfect storm of a double golden ale and a paloma cocktail brewed with grapefruit juice, blue agave nectar, lime peels and a touch of sea salt. At 8.0% ABV, Citrus Squall brings strong gusts of citrusy hop and grapefruit aromas, counterbalanced by a downpouring of bright and tart grapefruit flavor and a blue agave nectar sweetness. Starting on the East Coast, Citrus Squall will quickly billow out and roll its way to taps and shelves across the nation both on draft and in 6pk/12oz cans, expected to hit ground in early spring. Ahead of its arrival, Dogfish suggests the following preparation plan.
How to Spot (& Enjoy) a Citrus Squall:
- Visit your favorite local store, beer distributor, bar or restaurant.
- Quickly make your way to the craft beer section of the location or menu.
- Calmly seek out Citrus Squall's bright magenta-pink packaging or tap handle.
- Get ready for a delicious storm of tequila-inspired grapefruit flavor!
Using Dogfish Head's weather tracker, folks are encouraged to keep an eye on the weather conditions emerging at Citrus Squall's impetus point in coastal Delaware. From Feb. 1, through Apr. 1, upon detection of rainfall within the Milton city limits, Dogfish will unlock chances for fans to win daily giveaways, offers and experiences. When asked for comment, Dogfish Head Founder & Brewer, Sam Calagione, cited, "When it Rains, We Pour!"
For more on Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, visit www.dogfish.com. To chase down the closest Citrus Squall, check out Dogfish Head's Fish Finder.
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery:
Dogfish Head has focused on brewing beers with culinary ingredients outside the Reinheitsgebot since the day it opened as one of the smallest American craft breweries more than 27 years ago. A Delaware-based brand and supporter of the Independent Craft Brewing Seal, Dogfish consists of Brewings & Eats®, an off-centered brewpub, Chesapeake & Maine®, a seafood and cocktail spot, Dogfish Inn®, a beer-themed hotel and Dogfish Head Craft Brewery®, a production brewery and distillery featuring the Tasting Room & Kitchen and Dogfish Head Distilling Co.® For more, visit www.dogfish.com.
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SOURCE Dogfish Head Craft Brewery | https://www.wymt.com/prnewswire/2023/01/26/offici-ale-weather-report-dogfish-head-tracks-progression-citrus-squall/ | 2023-01-26 20:09:42 | 1 | https://www.wymt.com/prnewswire/2023/01/26/offici-ale-weather-report-dogfish-head-tracks-progression-citrus-squall/ |
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin Department of Justice agent was charged Thursday with reckless endangerment in the nonfatal shooting of an unarmed man as officers were carrying out an arrest warrant during a traffic stop in Madison.
Mark Wagner was charged in the Feb. 3 shooting of Quadren Wilson, who was wounded in the back but survived. Wilson is Black and Wagner is white, and Wilson’s family has said they believe race was a factor in the shooting.
It wasn’t immediately clear why another agent who fired at Wilson wasn’t charged. Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne declined an interview request through his paralegal, who said Ozanne was “ethically prohibited” from commenting on the case.
Wagner would face up to 10 1/2 years in prison if convicted. His attorney, listed in court records as Michael Steinle, didn’t immediately reply to a phone message seeking comment.
“The Wilson family (is) happy,” said the family’s attorney, Stephen Eisenberg. “It appears at least justice is attempting to be done. They want someone to be accountable for this shooting. They’re a Black family. They’ve witnessed what’s been going on this country, how Black men have been treated by law enforcement for years.”
Wilson, 38, was released on extended supervision in February 2020 after serving a little more than a year in prison for second-degree reckless endangerment. The state Department of Corrections had issued a warrant for him on the morning he was shot for violating the conditions of his release. He was wanted for allegedly dealing fentanyl to a man found dead of an overdose in a Blooming Grove restaurant bathroom in April 2021.
According to the criminal complaint, Wagner and a number of other Justice Department agents were part of a task force working to arrest Wilson, who was wearing a GPS tracker required under his release.
The team intercepted Wilson as he was driving on the outskirts of Madison and decided to pin his car between two Justice Department pickup trucks. One truck stopped in front of him and he rear-ended it. The other truck rear-ended Wilson, pinning his car between them, the complaint says.
Wagner approached Wilson’s car carrying a ballistic shield that said “POLICE” and with his pistol drawn. Another state agent, Nathan Peskie, was beside him with a rifle.
Wilson began revving his engine in an attempt to free himself from between the two trucks. Wilson’s windows were tinted and a third agent smashed one out so police could see inside, the complaint says.
Wagner told Dane County Sheriff’s detectives that he saw Wilson reaching under the driver’s seat with his left hand and fidgeting with something on the center console with his right. He said Wilson then turned toward him and raised his hands, leading him to believe that Wilson had a gun.
Then he heard a gunshot and felt something hit him, Wagner said. Thinking Wilson was shooting at him, he fired two shots from his pistol before he fell backward. Peskie fired five shots from his rifle into the car, the complaint states. Wilson was hit in the back by five bullet fragments. The complaint doesn’t say which agent fired that round.
Peskie told detectives that he saw Wilson raise a square object that he took to be a gun, according to the complaint. At that moment, a hole appeared in the driver’s side window, with glass shattering outward, Peskie said. He thought Wilson had fired at Wagner and killed him, so he returned fire, he told the detectives.
Officers searched the car but did not find a gun, the complaint says. It’s not clear why Ozanne chose to charge Wagner but not Peskie.
In May — about three months after he was shot — Wilson pleaded guilty to manufacturing narcotics with intent to deliver and cocaine possession. He was sentenced to three years in prison.
Eisenberg said Wilson panicked after the task force rammed his car and the agent broke his window. He questioned why the team used such tactics when they could have simply arrested him the next day when he was due to visit his parole officer.
“One can only speculate that whether this ram-and-slam procedure would have been done with a white guy,” Eisenberg said. “It was preposterous what they did. It was reckless from the beginning. Quadren was not John the terrorist. I don’t think I’d be sitting there stoically saying, ‘Hello, friends.’ I guarantee you Quadren panicked. I would have panicked, too.”
Attorney General Josh Kaul, who oversees the Justice Department, declined to comment, saying he didn’t want to affect the case as it works its way through the judicial system. He did say the agency was “evaluating this matter internally,” but he didn’t elaborate.
Wagner made his initial court appearance Thursday morning before the state Justice Department announced the charges. He remains free on a $500 signature bond and is due back in court on Oct. 28.
___
This story was updated to correct the spelling of Ismael Ozanne’s first name, which had been misspelled “Ishmael.” | https://www.cbs42.com/news/national/ap-wisconsin-agent-charged-in-nonfatal-shooting-of-unarmed-man/ | 2022-09-22 20:40:27 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/national/ap-wisconsin-agent-charged-in-nonfatal-shooting-of-unarmed-man/ |
- The funding will support expansion of the company's holistic-health and heart-health decision support solutions for health insurers and Medicare Advantage Plans
ASHEVILLE, N.C., July 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ilumivu, Inc., a pioneer in predictive and personalized decision support systems to pre-diagnose health conditions announced that it has closed a new funding round with an investment from The Pisgah Fund. This follows an initial investment by Health Catalyst Capital, L.P. in October 2021.
Already a leader in heart health with over 3.7 million downloads of its mobile app called Cardiogram, ilumivu provides continuous cardiovascular monitoring to pre-diagnose conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, atrial fibrillation and sleep apnea. Using captured data from a standard smartwatch processed through trained neural networks with millions of cardiovascular data points, ilumivu can accurately pre-diagnose these conditions and help health nsurers, Medicare Advantage plans and at-risk employers reduce the total cost of care.
"Our solutions provide better outcomes for members while simultaneously reducing the total cost of care managing these conditions through early detection," states Sandeep Goel, Chief Executive Officer. "Our 13-year history of using early-signal data collected from wearables by our healthcare research customers is being applied to engage members, increase adherence, impact positive behavior changes, and provide monitoring for better member engagement."
"Smartwatches have been a source of valuable health insights in the consumer market, but it has been difficult to translate those insights into improved health outcomes in the broader healthcare system," said Lauren Pierce Flickinger, Fund Manager for the Pisgah Fund. "We are excited to partner with the ilumivu team as they provide health insurers and Medicare Advantage plans with a solution that bridges this gap.
"We are very excited to partner with The Pisgah Fund, given that both organizations are based here in Western North Carolina with a common mission to grow the healthcare technology eco-system and create economic opportunities in the greater Asheville area," added T. David Smith, President at ilumivu.
Founded in 2009, Asheville, NC based ilumivu provides healthcare decision support applications using the psychology of behavior change, combined with real-time data from smartwatches and smartphones to reduce healthcare costs. With a pedigree in research in multiple disease areas at over 100 leading research universities and health systems, ilumivu delivers just-in-time interventions based on individualized baselines to improve measurable member care outcomes. https://ilumivu.com/
Pisgah Fund is a $50 million venture fund investing in healthcare-related companies in Western North Carolina's 18-county region or locating operations in the region. The Fund focuses on high growth opportunities seeking early-stage VC investment that will create jobs in Western North Carolina. The Fund is managed by Hatteras Venture Partners and was created with investments from the Dogwood Health Trust and HCA Healthcare Mission Fund. https://pisgahfund.com
Contact: Stacy Earl, stacy.earl@ilumivu.com
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SOURCE ilumivu | https://www.wcjb.com/prnewswire/2022/07/21/ilumivu-announces-completion-venture-funding-pisgah-fund/ | 2022-07-21 14:33:53 | 1 | https://www.wcjb.com/prnewswire/2022/07/21/ilumivu-announces-completion-venture-funding-pisgah-fund/ |
BROOKFIELD, Wis., June 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The world of work is evolving rapidly, driven by digital transformation and intensified by global events. Change can be scary, but it can also be refreshing: inspiring innovation, creativity, and growth. Cielo, the world's leading Talent Acquisition Partner, understands that it's important for organizations to embrace this new Age of Change with confidence, because that's what often separates the best from the rest.
"We're not simply talking about change, we're living it," says new CEO Marissa Geist. "Like many of our clients, we've been empowered and energized by the opportunity presented by the seismic shifts in the employment ecosystem, reframing our own proposition to position ourselves as the go-to talent acquisition partner for organizations who want to take advantage of this environment."
Cielo is breathing new life into its brand, the essence of what makes it unique. The updated identity celebrates its energizing, entrepreneurial spirit and the freshness of thought that continues to prove so attractive to its clients. Geist continues: "Without question, talent is the currency everyone's talking about today. Our new branding reflects the impact of what Cielo does: humanize the talent acquisition experience and help employers find and retain the talent that makes their businesses shine."
To guide talent acquisition and business leaders in successfully navigating this new opportunity, Cielo is publishing a series of reports themed around the Power of Change. The series will explore the nature of workforce transformation and how it can impact organizations on a strategic, operational, and human level.
The Power of Change will also highlight many of the successful strategies that help Cielo's clients stay one step ahead in the race for great talent: the importance of a strong employee value proposition; the role of futureproof technology; experience-led talent acquisition via expert-embedded teams.
Geist concludes: "This is such an exciting time for us as a business. And, if you think change is happening fast today, one thing's for sure: the pace of change will never be this slow again. We relish helping our partners set that pace."
**
Cielo is the world's leading Talent Acquisition Partner. We deliver a better talent experience for everyone through Recruitment Process Outsourcing, Executive Search, Contingent Workforce Solutions and Consulting services. With our fresh approach – we design and build comprehensive, proven solutions inspired by technology to find and keep the unique talent that elevates our clients above the competition. For fresher thinking, visit cielotalent.com.
The first installment of Cielo's new series on changing dynamics in the world of work – Change: It's Time to Embrace the New – is available for download now. In this inaugural edition, Cielo explores the concept of change itself and provides insights from business leaders on navigating a workforce landscape in flux.
Annamarie Andrews, Vice President, Marketing
annamarie.andrews@cielotalent.com
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SOURCE Cielo | https://www.wistv.com/prnewswire/2022/06/14/cielo-ceo-embraces-change-help-companies-stay-ahead-race-talent/ | 2022-06-14 13:04:09 | 0 | https://www.wistv.com/prnewswire/2022/06/14/cielo-ceo-embraces-change-help-companies-stay-ahead-race-talent/ |
Two people were shot on a walking path along the Spicket River in Lawrence early Wednesday morning, police said.
The shooting occurred on the walking path in the area of Hampshire Street, said Lawrence Police Detective Thomas Cuddy, a police spokesman, in an e-mail.
“Both individuals walked from the scene to two separate area businesses where they were treated by Paramedics and EMT’s from Lawrence General Hospital,” police said.
The victims, whose identities were not released, were taken via ambulance with non-life-threatening injuries to Lawrence General Hospital for treatment, officials said.
The investigation is ongoing, Cuddy said.
Matt Yan can be reached at matt.yan@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @matt_yan12. | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/06/22/metro/two-people-shot-walking-path-lawrence-police-say/ | 2022-06-22 15:02:14 | 1 | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/06/22/metro/two-people-shot-walking-path-lawrence-police-say/ |
NEW YORK, June 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Klein Law Firm announces that a class action complaint has been filed on behalf of shareholders of Waste Management, Inc. (NASDAQ: WM) alleging that the Company violated federal securities laws.
This lawsuit is on behalf of all purchasers of certain Waste Management redeemable senior notes between February 13, 2020 and June 23, 2020.
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: August 8, 2022
No obligation or cost to you.
Learn more about your recoverable losses in WM:
https://www.kleinstocklaw.com/pslra-1/waste-management-inc-loss-submission-form?id=28813&from=4
CLASS ACTION CASE DETAILS: The filed complaint alleges that Waste Management, Inc. made materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) the U.S. Department of Justice had indicated to Waste Management that it would require Waste Management to divest significantly more assets than the $200 million indicated in the merger agreement between the Company and Advanced Disposal Services; (ii) as a result, the merger would not be completed by July 14, 2020, the end date under the merger agreement; and (iii) the Waste Management redeemable senior notes would be subject to mandatory redemption at 101% of par.
WHAT THIS MEANS TO YOU AS A SHAREHOLDER: If you have suffered a loss in Waste Management you have until August 8, 2022 to petition the court for lead plaintiff status. Your ability to share in any recovery doesn't require that you serve as a lead plaintiff.
NO COST TO YOU: If you purchased Waste Management securities during the relevant period, you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out-of-pocket fees.
HOW TO PROTECT YOUR FINANCIAL INTERESTS: For additional information about the WM lawsuit, please contact J. Klein, Esq. by telephone at 212-616-4899 or click this link: https://www.kleinstocklaw.com/pslra-1/waste-management-inc-loss-submission-form?id=28813&from=4.
J. Klein, Esq. represents investors and participates in securities litigations involving financial fraud throughout the nation. The Klein Law Firm is a boutique litigation firm with experience in a wide range of areas including securities law, corporate finance and commercial litigation. Since 2011, our experienced attorneys have achieved superior results for our clients with a personalized focus. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.
CONTACT:
J. Klein, Esq.
Empire State Building
350 Fifth Avenue
59th Floor
New York, NY 10118
jk@kleinstocklaw.com
Telephone: (212) 616-4899
www.kleinstocklaw.com
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SOURCE The Klein Law Firm | https://www.wlbt.com/prnewswire/2022/06/21/wm-alert-klein-law-firm-announces-lead-plaintiff-deadline-august-8-2022-class-action-filed-behalf-waste-management-inc-shareholders/ | 2022-06-21 11:04:47 | 0 | https://www.wlbt.com/prnewswire/2022/06/21/wm-alert-klein-law-firm-announces-lead-plaintiff-deadline-august-8-2022-class-action-filed-behalf-waste-management-inc-shareholders/ |
30 dead animals found in house of animal rescue CEO, sheriff says
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS/Gray News) - A South Carolina animal rescue CEO and director is facing numerous charges after deputies said they found 30 decomposing animals in her house.
WIS reports 47-year-old Caroline “Dawn” Pennington was arrested after deputies with the Richland County Sheriff’s Department responded to a call saying there was “a smell of death” coming from a home in Columbia.
When deputies went into the home, they found 28 dogs and two cats decomposing in cages and crates.
Investigators said no living animals were found inside the house. Animal control worked for hours with deputies to take the dead animals out of the home.
Deputies said they believe the animals appeared to have died from starvation and dehydration.
Sheriff Leon Lott described this as one of the worst cases of animal cruelty he has ever seen. The animals’ bodies were found lying in their own waste and had not been moved from their cages before the discovery by officials.
“It’s appalling, and it’s heartbreaking,” Lott said. “This is someone who was entrusted by the community to care for these animals and find them homes. She betrayed that trust, and she betrayed the trust of these innocent animals who relied on her.”
Lott said Pennington is a well-known figure in the animal rescue community.
At the time of the discovery, Pennington was employed by the Kershaw County Humane Society in addition to running her animal rescue.
Kershaw County Humane Society board of directors president Jamie Woodington said Pennington resigned Thursday citing unspecified personal reasons.
“At this time, to KCHS’ knowledge, her charges also do not involve any animals from the Kershaw County Humane Society, but KCHS will continue to research and work with law enforcement on this case,” Woodington said.
Woodington also said the shelter was made aware of Pennington’s charges and arrest on Friday.
“Everyone at KCHS is very distraught and appalled at the charges levied on Ms. Pennington,” Woodington said. “Our sole mission is to care for all the animals that come in our doors.”
Investigators are asking for anyone who made documented donations to Pennington’s registered nonprofit organization in the last 12 months to contact the sheriff’s department.
Copyright 2022 WIS via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.mysuncoast.com/2022/06/03/30-dead-animals-found-house-animal-rescue-ceo-sheriff-says/ | 2022-06-03 17:43:49 | 1 | https://www.mysuncoast.com/2022/06/03/30-dead-animals-found-house-animal-rescue-ceo-sheriff-says/ |
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A critical antenna is jammed on a Jupiter-bound spacecraft launched two weeks ago, the European Space Agency reported Friday.
The 52-foot (16-meter) radar antenna on Juice unfolded only one-third of the way following liftoff, according to the space agency.
Engineers suspect a tiny pin may be protruding. Flight controllers in Germany plan to fire the spacecraft’s engine in hopes of shaking the pin loose. If that doesn’t work, they said they have plenty of time to solve the problem.
Juice, short for Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, won’t reach the giant planet until 2031. It’s taking a roundabout path to get there, including gravity-assist flybys of Earth and our moon, and Venus.
The radar antenna is needed to peer beneath the icy crust of three Jupiter moons suspected of harboring underground oceans and possibly life, a major goal of the nearly $1.8 billion mission. Its targets include Callisto, Europa and Ganymede, the largest moon in the solar system.
The space agency said everything else is going well with the spacecraft, about the size of a small bus. A radio antenna, solar panels and a 35-foot (10.6-meter) boom for measuring Jupiter’s magnetic field have all been successfully deployed.
___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content. | https://www.wjhl.com/science/ap-science/key-radar-antenna-stuck-on-europes-jupiter-bound-spacecraft/ | 2023-04-29 14:18:21 | 0 | https://www.wjhl.com/science/ap-science/key-radar-antenna-stuck-on-europes-jupiter-bound-spacecraft/ |
The same wastewater surveillance techniques that have emerged as a critical tool in early detection of COVID-19 outbreaks are being adapted for use in monitoring the startling spread of monkeypox across the San Francisco Bay Area and some other U.S. communities.
Before the COVID pandemic, wastewater sludge was thought to hold promise as an early indicator of community health threats, in part because people can excrete genetic evidence of infectious diseases in their feces, often before they develop symptoms of illness. Israel has for decades monitored wastewater for polio. But before COVID, such risk monitoring in the U.S. was limited largely to academic pursuits.
With the onset of the pandemic, a research collaboration that involves scientists at Stanford University, the University of Michigan, and Emory University pioneered efforts to recalibrate the surveillance techniques for detection of the coronavirus, marking the first time that wastewater has been used to track a respiratory disease.
That same research team, the Sewer Coronavirus Alert Network, or SCAN, is now a leader in expanding wastewater monitoring to detect monkeypox, a once-obscure virus endemic to remote regions of Africa that in a matter of months has infected more than 26,000 people globally and more than 7,000 across the U.S. The Biden administration last week declared the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency, following similar decisions by health officials in California, Illinois and New York.
And SCAN's scientists envision a future in which wastewater sludge serves as a reservoir for tracking a slew of menacing public health concerns. "We're looking at a whole range of things that we might be able to test for," said Marlene Wolfe, an assistant professor of environmental health at Emory.
Since expanding its surveillance in mid-June, the SCAN team has detected monkeypox in several of the Northern California sewersheds it is monitoring, including Palo Alto, San Jose, Gilroy, Sacramento, and two locations in San Francisco. Funded by grants from the National Science Foundation and the CDC Foundation, SCAN is doing similar monitoring in Colorado, Georgia, Michigan and four other states, and wants to scale up to 300 U.S. sites.
It is one of a growing number of sewage surveillance projects across the U.S. run jointly by universities, public health agencies, and utilities departments that are feeding COVID findings to state and federal agencies. How many of those networks have expanded their search to monkeypox is unclear. SCAN sites in California, Georgia, Michigan and Texas, and a research team in Nevada are among the few that have reported sludge samples that tested positive for the monkeypox virus.
Another public health tool
As with COVID, data on monkeypox can be used to compare trends across regions, but there are limits to what this kind of monitoring can accomplish. Wastewater monitoring doesn't pinpoint who is infected; it reveals only the presence of a virus in a given area. And it takes a specialist to analyze the samples. Researchers consider wastewater surveillance a complement to other public health tools, not a replacement.
"We're still really on the front end in terms of discovering the potential here," said Heather Bischel, an assistant professor in civil and environmental engineering at the University of California Davis, which included wastewater monitoring as part of its Healthy Davis Together COVID testing program for the campus and surrounding community. "But what we've seen already shows that this type of monitoring is adaptable to other public health threats."
Some U.S. communities were sampling sewage before the pandemic to figure out what kinds of opioids residents were using. More recently, along with COVID and monkeypox, the technology has shown promise for monitoring flu and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is planning pilot studies to see whether sewage can reveal trends in antibiotic-resistant infections, foodborne illnesses and candida auris, a fungal infection.
Much of the wastewater testing that ramped up during the pandemic's first year was done in concert with universities or county offices and reliant on funding provided through federal COVID relief legislation. On Bischel's campus, those funds were combined with university donor money to put together a comprehensive testing and treatment program for the school and the city of Davis that included wastewater surveillance. The sewage testing is ongoing under a separate grant.
Currently, the CDC is reporting only COVID results on its national wastewater surveillance system, a reflection of the limited number of sewersheds that so far are testing for monkeypox.
The global spread of monkeypox was first detected in the United Kingdom in May and prompted conjecture that this virus, too, might shed into wastewater, either through feces or when an infected person with an open sore takes a shower. Sewersheds in areas with infected people might then "light up" with evidence of the disease — if the wastewater testing could pinpoint it.
"It did light up," said Brad Pollock, who chairs public health sciences at UC Davis Health. "It acts as a warning system, and you don't have to persuade people to take individual tests in order to use the information; it's collected passively, so you get a more broad community look."
A public health emergency
The virus is thought to be spreading primarily through intimate skin-to-skin contact and exposure to symptomatic lesions, although researchers are exploring other potential means of transmission. For now, the U.S. outbreak is concentrated largely in gay communities among men who have sex with men.
The discovery of monkeypox in San Francisco's wastewater system in June, the first such finding in the nation, set off alarms in a city with a thriving LGBTQ+ population. On July 28, San Francisco declared monkeypox a public health emergency, urging the federal government to step up its distribution of vaccines.
For its Northern California surveillance, SCAN partners with local health officials and universities to collect samples and then sends them to Verily Life Sciences — a health tech company owned by Google's parent company, Alphabet — for analysis. In the Atlanta area, SCAN is working with Emory and Fulton County health officials.
Not all public health agencies are moving as fast. A wastewater monitoring plan for the virus is only now being put together in Los Angeles County, which had confirmed more than 300 cases of monkeypox by the end of July.
And though California is collecting monkeypox data from its surveillance partners, it's not available for all regions, underscoring that wastewater monitoring for viruses is still an emerging methodology.
"With every new thing that we add to the testing platform, we are learning things," said SCAN's Wolfe. "The pandemic really cracked open our imagination for a tool that already existed but that hadn't been developed to its full capacity. That's changing now."
KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. It is an editorially independent operating program of KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation).
Copyright 2022 Kaiser Health News. To see more, visit Kaiser Health News. | https://www.apr.org/science-health/2022-08-08/covid-sewage-surveillance-labs-join-the-hunt-for-monkeypox | 2022-08-08 09:09:45 | 1 | https://www.apr.org/science-health/2022-08-08/covid-sewage-surveillance-labs-join-the-hunt-for-monkeypox |
University of Arkansas junior Ayden Owens-Delerme started and finished fast to take the first-day lead Wednesday in the decathlon at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Ore.
Owens-Delerme ran 10.41 seconds for the fastest time in the 100 meters in the decathlon's first event. Then in the last of five events Wednesday, Owens-Delerme ran 46.10 in the 400 to set a collegiate record for the decathlon.
Owens-Delerme moved into first place after the 400 with 4,490 points -- 49 ahead of Georgia sophomore Kyle Garland.
In other decathlon events at Oregon's Hayward Field, Owens-Delerme threw the shot-put 49 feet, 61/2 inches, long jumped 23-11 and high jumped 6-7.
Garland is in second with 4,441 points with marks of 10.63 in the 100, 24-73/4 in the long jump, 50-4 /12 in the shot-put, 6-91/2 in the high jump and 48.60 in the 400.
Garland set a collegiate record in the decathlon with 8,720 points when he finished second in the USA Championships on May 7 at Arkansas' John McDonnell Field. He broke the collegiate record of 8,528 points by Owens-Delerme in the Mount San Antonio College Relays in Walnut, Calif., on April 15.
Arkansas junior Daniel Spejcher is 15th in the decathlon with 3,910 points.
Razorbacks senior Amon Kemboi finished 10th in the 10,000 in 28:21.64. Arkansas sophomore Patrick Kiprop was 14th in 28:26.25.
Arkansas State senior Bennett Pascoe posted a season-best 8:34.93 in the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase semifinal.
Pascoe, of Conway, finished 11th in the same event last year and took first in the steeplechase at the Sun Belt Conference outdoor championships last month. He placed fifth in his 12-man heat, automatically qualifying for the final. Pascoe is the first Red Wolf to qualify for consecutive national finals since Donnie Taylor in 1977-78.
Even with a strong final lap of 1:05.63, Pascoe was 11-plus seconds behind Montana State's Duncan Hamilton, who led the field of 24 semifinalists. The 12-man final is set for Friday.
Razorbacks junior Tre'Bien Gilbert ran 13.55 in the 110-meter hurdles semifinals and missed advancing to the final by .01 of a second. Arkansas junior Matthew Lewis-Banks ran 14.09.
Arkansas' 1,600-relay team didn't advance. | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2022/jun/09/uas-owens-delerme-leads-decathlon/ | 2022-06-09 08:32:59 | 1 | https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2022/jun/09/uas-owens-delerme-leads-decathlon/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Taliban drug lord convicted in a vast heroin trafficking conspiracy. A Russian pilot imprisoned for a scheme to distribute cocaine across the world. And a Russian arms dealer so infamous that he earned the nickname “Merchant of Death.”
Those are just some of the convicted felons the United States government has agreed to release in the last year in exchange for securing the release of Americans detained abroad. It’s long been conventional wisdom that the U.S. risks incentivizing additional hostage taking by negotiating with adversarial nations and militant groups for the release of American citizens. But the succession of swaps has made clear the Biden administration’s willingness to free a convicted criminal once seen as a threat to society if that’s what it takes to bring home a U.S. citizen.
The latest swap occurred Thursday when WNBA star Brittney Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist who played pro basketball in Russia and was easily the most prominent American to be held overseas, was freed in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
The exchange drew some criticism, including from Republican lawmakers, and raised concerns that Bout, who was tried and convicted in American courts, was being traded for someone the U.S regarded as a wrongful detainee convicted in Russia of a relatively minor offense. Administration officials acknowledged that such deals carry a heavy price and cautioned against the perception that they are the new norm, but the reality is that they’ve been a tool of administrations of both political parties.
The Trump administration, seen as more willing to flout convention in hostage affairs, brought home Navy veteran Michael White in 2020 in an agreement that freed an Iranian American doctor and permitted him to return to Iran.
The Obama administration pardoned or dropped charges against seven Iranians in a prisoner exchange tied to the nuclear deal with Tehran. Three jailed Cubans were sent home in 2014 as Havana released American Alan Gross after five years’ imprisonment.
Jon Franks, who’s long advised families of American hostages and detainees, said it’s not true that the U.S. can just throw its might around and get people released.
“The maximum pressure mantra just doesn’t work — and, by the way, I don’t think prisoner trades undercut maximum pressure,” said Franks, the spokesman for the Bring Our Families Home Campaign.
Griner was arrested at a Moscow airport in February after customs agents said she was carrying vape canisters with cannabis oil. Bout, who was arrested in 2008, was sentenced in 2012 to 25 years in prison on charges that he conspired to sell tens of millions of dollars in weapons that U.S officials said were to be used against Americans.
The trade highlights a trend in recent years of Americans being detained abroad and held hostage not by terrorist groups but by countries looking to gain leverage over America, said Dani Gilbert, a fellow in U.S. foreign policy and international security at Dartmouth College,
Gilbert said the idea that the U.S. doesn’t negotiate for hostages is a “misnomer.” She said that really only applies when an American is being held by a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, but otherwise the U.S. has historically done whatever is necessary to bring Americans home.
What is different, she said, is over roughly the last decade there’s been a trend of foreign governments as opposed to terrorist groups detaining Americans abroad, often on trumped-up charges. She noted that in July the U.S. introduced a new risk indicator on its travel advisories — a “D” — for countries that tend to wrongfully detain people.
“Currently there are about four dozen Americans who are considered wrongfully detained, which puts them in this category essentially of being held wrongfully or unlawfully by a foreign government, perhaps for leverage,” she said. “Those cases have really been on the rise in recent years.”
Gilbert said she was nervous that trades like the Griner-Bout deal would encourage other authoritarian leaders to use similar tactics.
During a ceremony Thursday celebrating Griner’s release, President Joe Biden urged Americans to take precautions before traveling overseas.
“We also want to prevent any more American families from suffering this pain and separation,” he said.
Bout earned the nickname “Merchant of Death” for supposedly supplying weapons for civil wars in South America, the Middle East and Africa.
But Shira A. Scheindlin, the former federal judge who sentenced Bout, said while he had a history as an international arms dealer selling weapons to unsavory characters, at the time of his arrest in a U.S. sting operation he appeared to be largely out of the business.
“We’re not talking about someone who at that point in his career was actively dealing arms to terrorists,” she said.
Scheindlin said during an interview after Bout was released that she thought that the time he had spent behind bars was adequate punishment. She said she always thought Bout’s sentence was too long and she would have given him a lesser one if she hadn’t been confined by statutory mandatory minimums.
The attention paid to Griner’s case has raised questions about whether her celebrity and the public pressure it generated pushed the Biden administration to make a deal where it hasn’t in other cases. Left out of the deal was Paul Whelan, a Michigan corporate security executive who had regularly traveled to Russia until he was arrested in December 2018 in Moscow and convicted of what the U.S. government says are baseless espionage charges. And elsewhere in the world, American citizens have been detained for years.
Saudi dissident Ali al-Ahmed, who runs the Washington-based Gulf Institute, has a cousin who was detained in Saudi Arabia and works to help other families with loved ones held in the oil-rich Gulf kingdom.
“They should not favor Americans of certain background over another American,” he said. “There has not been equality here.”
The family of another prominent American held overseas — Austin Tice — also expressed frustration in a statement Thursday. While they said they were happy that Griner had been released, they were “extremely disappointed” in the U.S. government’s lack of progress in Tice’s case. Tice went missing in Syria in 2012; Washington maintains Tice is being held by Syrian authorities, which the Syrians deny.
“If the U.S. government can work with Russia, there is no excuse for not directly engaging Syria,” the statement read. “God willing, Austin will not spend another Christmas alone in captivity.”
__
Associated Press reporter Matthew Lee contributed to this report. | https://www.wfla.com/news/politics/ap-politics/ap-griner-swap-reveals-dilemma-us-faces-in-freeing-detainees/ | 2022-12-09 21:51:48 | 1 | https://www.wfla.com/news/politics/ap-politics/ap-griner-swap-reveals-dilemma-us-faces-in-freeing-detainees/ |
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Health officials in South Korea on Wednesday approved the country’s first domestically developed COVID-19 vaccine for people 18 years or older, adding another public health tool in the fight against a prolonged pandemic.
In clinical trials involving some 4,000 participants in South Korea and five other countries, SK Bioscience’s two-dose SKYCovione vaccine appeared to be more effective than the broadly used AstraZeneca shots in building immunity against infections, officials at South Korea’s Food and Drug Safety Ministry said.
It isn’t immediately clear how officials will administer the newly developed vaccine or how big of a role the shots will have in the next phase of the pandemic. The shots were designed for the original version of the coronavirus, not the more transmissible omicron variant that wreaked havoc in the country earlier this year. U.S. vaccine giants Pfizer and Moderna have been speeding up their development of booster shots targeting omicron and experts say it’s possible the virus could evolve again in the coming months.
South Korea’s mass immunization campaign has been mainly dependent on Pfizer and Moderna’s mRNA shots. But officials say protein vaccines like SKYCovione, which are similar to shots used for years against the common flu and hepatitis B, could appeal to people who are hesitant to use vaccines developed with newer technologies.
“The approval (of SKYCovione) internationally confirms the abilities of our companies to develop COVID-19 vaccines,” Food and Drug Safety Minister Oh Yu-kyoung said in a briefing. She said SK Bioscience is seeking an approval from the World Health Organization for its shots, which would potentially open export opportunities.
South Korea has eased most of its virus restrictions after battling an omicron surge earlier this year, but some experts say the country may see another rise in infections despite a high vaccination rate because of waning immunities and the possible emergence of new variants.
The country reported 10,463 new cases of the coronavirus on Wednesday, its first daily increase over 10,000 in 20 days. Health Ministry official Son Youngrae said during a separate briefing it’s too early to tell whether the country is facing another surge after a months-long downward trend. | https://www.localsyr.com/health/south-korea-approves-first-homemade-covid-19-vaccine/ | 2022-06-29 23:26:38 | 0 | https://www.localsyr.com/health/south-korea-approves-first-homemade-covid-19-vaccine/ |
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Brown University freshman Olivia Pichardo is making history as the first woman to make a Division I baseball roster.
Brown coach Grant Achilles announced Monday that Pichardo made the varsity roster for the upcoming season as a walk-on utility player, saying she had the most complete walk-on tryout he’d witnessed as a coach.
Pichardo was a pitcher and outfielder for the USA Baseball Women’s National Team and played club baseball in New York. She spent two weeks with the Brown program this fall, going through practice and workouts with current players, and working out as a middle infielder, outfielder and pitcher.
“Olivia put together the most complete walk-on tryout I have seen from a player since becoming a head coach,” Achilles said in a press release.
A native of Queens, New York, Pichardo played varsity high school baseball at Garden School in seventh and eighth grade. As a member of Team USA this summer, she participated in the Friendship Series against Team Canada in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. Pichardo also interned in the New York Mets Amateur Scouting Department.
The 18-year-old Pichardo said it was “a surreal moment” when she was told she made the team during a hitters and pitchers meeting.
“I’m living out my dream right now and the ideal college experience that I’ve always wanted, so that’s really cool,” said Pichardo, who threw out the ceremonial first pitch for the New York Mets on Women’s Day at Citi Field in August.
Brown noted nearly 20 women have been members of college baseball rosters, with at least eight currently slated to suit up this season, but none at the NCAA Division I level.
___
AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25 | https://www.texomashomepage.com/sports/ap-browns-olivia-pichardo-1st-woman-to-make-d1-baseball-roster/ | 2022-11-22 05:07:53 | 1 | https://www.texomashomepage.com/sports/ap-browns-olivia-pichardo-1st-woman-to-make-d1-baseball-roster/ |
Meridian of Michigan and Faith Redemption Church hosted a community health fair to connect community members with wellness services
DETROIT, July 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Earlier this week, hundreds of local residents attended the Community Health & Wellness Fair at Faith Redemption Center COGIC in Detroit.
On Sunday, July 17, organizers at Faith Redemption Church and Meridian of Michigan welcomed over 225 people to the community health fair, as part of an ongoing partnership between the health plan and faith community.
"We are excited to collaborate and partner with Meridian, as we work together to improve the well-being of the citizens of our communities," Bishop Clyde D. Jones, Jr., spiritual leader of Faith Redemption, said in a prepared statement. "Being a predominately African American, faith-based organization, we welcome, with open arms, the opportunity to initiate and support ongoing efforts to address health disparities that may be caused by factors outside the health sector, such as historic and ongoing racism and discrimination. This partnership with Meridian gives us leverage to have a greater and lasting impact for the good of all."
Over 15 community resources and vendors attended the event, including the Detroit Health Department which provided COVID-19 tests and vaccines, childhood immunizations and other health screenings to attendees. The Health Department completed 51 COVID vaccines including 1st, 2nd, and booster doses. Forgotten Harvest gave out 50 nonperishable food boxes, and the University of Detroit Mercy School of Dentistry provided oral hygiene education.
There were also several workshops. Dr. Antonia Jerkins, Medical Director, Meridian, led a COVID-19 Vaccine MythBusters Q&A; Detective Brian Fountain, a 38-year veteran of the Detroit Police Department, provided tips on Active Shooter Awareness; and Dr. Tina Parkman-Fountain, of nonprofit C.O.P.E, X-ITCARE, presented a mental health session called Trauma and A Plan To X-It (Exit). During the session, Dr. Parkman-Fountain addressed how individuals that have experienced childhood trauma and adult-life trauma can go on to lead whole, restored, and productive lives.
"Our partnership with Faith Redemption demonstrates the vital role Meridian serves in protecting the health of our local communities by bringing healthcare into familiar, safe spaces like neighborhoods and churches with strong community ties," said Sean Kendall, Plan President and CEO of Meridian. "The community health fair is another example of how Meridian, through our faith-based partnerships, is working to support healthy minds, bodies, and spirits."
Meridian's commitment to Faith Redemption is further demonstrated by a $17,000 donation towards the purchase of a stair lift for the church, and in August, Meridian and Faith Redemption plan to hold a back-to-school event where backpacks and other supplies will be available for schoolchildren.
A full list of event vendors can be found on Meridian's Facebook page.
About Meridian
Meridian in Michigan provides government-sponsored managed care services to families, children, seniors, and individuals with complex medical needs primarily through Medicaid (Meridian), Medicare Advantage and Medicare Prescription Drug Plans (Wellcare), Medicare-Medicaid Plans (MeridianComplete), and the Health Insurance Marketplace (Ambetter from Meridian). Meridian is a wholly owned subsidiary of Centene Corporation, a leading healthcare enterprise committed to helping people live healthier lives. For more information about Meridian, please visit mimeridian.com.
About Faith Redemption
Faith Redemption Center, Church of God in Christ is a 501(c)(3) organization located in the Cody Rouge district of Detroit. Faith Redemption Center works to meet the needs of the underserved through spiritual guidance and community outreach. The church's mission is to empower others through the teachings of the word of God, through education, through training, and through modeling the lifestyle of Jesus Christ. The church's goal is to reach the community in an effort to meet the needs of the total man; thereby creating change that produces abundant life.
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SOURCE Meridian of Michigan | https://www.wlbt.com/prnewswire/2022/07/20/faith-health-communities-come-together-improve-lives-local-residents/ | 2022-07-20 12:54:57 | 0 | https://www.wlbt.com/prnewswire/2022/07/20/faith-health-communities-come-together-improve-lives-local-residents/ |
Big Read author to speak at Massillon Museum
The Repository
MASSILLON –The finale of the Massillon Museum’s 2022 NEA Big Read will be the keynote by Muscogee author Joy Harjo, U.S. poet laureate and author of the acclaimed poetry anthology "An American Sunrise."
The author of nine books of poetry, Harjo has also written two memoirs. The presentation will be at 7 p.m. May 5 in Massillon Museum’s Gessner Hall.
Massillon Museum and its NEA Big Read partners have distributed 1,200 free copies of "An American Sunrise," this year’s book selection. Although the event is free, registration should be made by visiting MassMu.org/tickets or by calling the Museum at 330-833-4061. | https://www.cantonrep.com/story/news/2022/04/26/big-read-author-joy-harjo-speak-massillon-museum-may-5/7440933001/ | 2022-04-26 16:40:11 | 1 | https://www.cantonrep.com/story/news/2022/04/26/big-read-author-joy-harjo-speak-massillon-museum-may-5/7440933001/ |
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A protester forcibly removed from a chamber gallery at the West Virginia Capitol and later arrested for disrupting lawmakers as they moved to ban abortion last year will see all charges dropped against her, if she stays out of trouble for the next six months.
Lindsey Jacobs, a 38-year-old lawyer with no criminal history, was ordered to perform 25 hours of community service under an agreement made Wednesday at a hearing in Kanawha County Magistrate Court. Charleston-based Magistrate Pete Lopez dismissed two misdemeanor charges for obstructing an officer and willful disruption of governmental processes.
Those offenses could have come with maximum penalties of up to either six months or a year in jail each, and hundreds of dollars in fines.
Lopez agreed to dismiss a third misdemeanor for disorderly conduct if Jacobs doesn’t get convicted for breaking any laws in the next six months. The arrest will be on her record. She’ll also have to pay around $175 in court fees.
Jacobs called the magistrate’s decision “the best outcome under the circumstances.”
“I mean, the reason that we’re here sucks — there’s not really any way to spin that,” she said outside court afterward. “The state should have better things to do than prosecuting women who shouted too loudly for their comfort because their constitutional right was taken away.”
Jacobs said she has no regrets about her actions that day: “I’d do that protest every day, all day, for the rest of my life.”
Jacobs, who runs advocacy programs for a nonprofit legal services organization, was removed from the House gallery last Sept. 13 while lawmakers discussed banning abortions at all stages of pregnancy with few exceptions. The bill was signed into law three days later by Republican Gov. Jim Justice, the same day a warrant was issued for Jacob’s arrest.
In February, West Virginia’s only abortion clinic — which had to shutter abortion services following the law’s passage — filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the ban. It has asked the court to issue an injunction blocking it while providers make their case in court.
During the debate, Republican Del. Margitta Mazzocchi said anyone wanting to protect against pregnancy can buy emergency contraceptives — known as “Plan B” pills — over the counter at pharmacies.
“Not if you’re poor,” Jacobs shouted down at lawmakers, followed by shouts from others in the gallery.
Jacobs said she became frustrated, believing Mazzocchi was overlooking the fact that the pills cost between $40 and $50, an amount she called “cost prohibitive for a lot of people.”
House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, who was presiding over the floor session, asked people in the gallery to remain quiet. As shouting continued, he asked security to remove Jacobs. She was dragged out by her arms by Capitol police.
“Don’t just sit there while they take away your rights,” she shouted while being led away.
Capitol police did not arrest her then, leaving her to walk downstairs where she rejoined protesters rallying outside the chamber for at least an hour — until the bill passed.
In the days after the bill’s passage, a video of Jacobs being dragged out of the gallery began circulating on social media. Jacobs said she was tuning into a morning work call more than a week later at her home in Morgantown — some 125 miles (200 kilometers) from Charleston — when she heard banging on her door. It was state police, with a warrant for her arrest.
Taken to the state police barracks for processing, she was subsequently arraigned by a county magistrate on a $5,000 personal recognizance bond.
Another female protester who spoke out while lawmakers were in session was arrested and charged on the spot and escorted out. Rose Winland, a 52-year-old development manager for the ACLU of West Virginia, was handed a $100 fine in January for one misdemeanor willful disruption of governmental processes charge by Lopez, the same magistrate handling Jacobs’ case. Winland also faced a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct, but that was dropped.
Jacobs said before the day of protest that she and other demonstrators felt mounting frustration the public wasn’t given enough of an opportunity to voice their opinions about the looming ban. At the only public hearing on the bill, people were given just 45 seconds each to speak. Those who refused to comply where escorted out by security.
“Ultimately, this is all about bully tactics to intimidate protesters so that they won’t speak,” she said Wednesday. “We need to get really comfortable with civil disobedience because clearly, showing up and protesting isn’t making folks uncomfortable enough to keep them from doing these really horrible things to women, to trans people, to poor people.”
Jacobs said she plans to fulfill her mandated community service hours working for the Morgantown Public Library and Charleston-based Solutions Oriented Addiction Response, an organization that works to support people living with substance use disorder. | https://wgntv.com/news/national/ap-us-news/for-wva-abortion-protester-charges-dropped-with-conditions/ | 2023-03-30 20:14:56 | 0 | https://wgntv.com/news/national/ap-us-news/for-wva-abortion-protester-charges-dropped-with-conditions/ |
Shanghai Disney Resort, which includes Shanghai Disneyland, shopping and dining facilities, will be closed indefinitely starting on Halloween due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"We will notify guests as soon as we have a confirmed date to resume operations," the park said in a statement Monday.
The two hotels at the resort will remain open.
Affected customers will be able to choose a date to visit up to six months from the day the park and resort reopens or receive a refund.
The Shanghai Disney Resort has been requiring guests to present a negative nucleic acid test, which helps detect viruses and bacteria, up to 72 hours before entering the facilities. People who have been abroad within the last 10 days are not allowed at the resort.
Additionally, patrons must wear masks indoors and outdoors except when eating, social distance and undergo temperature checks.
Shanghai has had 97 cases of COVID-19 in the past 28 days, and 64,282 cases total, with 595 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. Across China, there have been 178,178 cases and 212 deaths in the past four weeks.
On Friday, Shanghai ordered large quantities of coronavirus tests for the 1.3 million people living in its Yangpu district and is instructing residents to stay home, according to the Associated Press.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.ctpublic.org/2022-10-31/shanghai-disney-resort-will-be-closed-indefinitely-from-halloween-due-to-covid-19 | 2022-10-31 13:01:08 | 0 | https://www.ctpublic.org/2022-10-31/shanghai-disney-resort-will-be-closed-indefinitely-from-halloween-due-to-covid-19 |
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We've placed cookies on your device to improve your browsing experience. They're safe and don't contain sensitive information. | https://tj.news/times-and-transcript/101896437 | 2022-06-13 20:23:13 | 1 | https://tj.news/times-and-transcript/101896437 |
Juana Summers is a political correspondent for NPR covering race, justice and politics. She has covered politics since 2010 for publications including Politico, CNN and The Associated Press. She got her start in public radio at KBIA in Columbia, Mo., and also previously covered Congress for NPR.
The prices of base metals like copper rise and the prices fall for precious metals like gold when the economy is doing well. What happens when both copper and gold prices spiral down?
With temperatures spiking across the U.S., NPR's Juana Summers talks with pediatrician Dr. Aaron Bernstein about how extreme heat affects the human body. | https://www.wunc.org/2022-07-22/anythings-possible-is-a-gen-z-rom-com-with-a-black-trans-girl-at-the-center | 2022-07-22 21:10:45 | 1 | https://www.wunc.org/2022-07-22/anythings-possible-is-a-gen-z-rom-com-with-a-black-trans-girl-at-the-center |
The partnership will bring automated kitchens to the pizza franchise to improve customer experience, ensure consistent quality, and improve operational efficiency.
TORONTO and COLUMBUS, Ohio, July 13, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Appetronix has entered into an exclusive partnership with Donatos Pizza and its sister companies Agápe Automation and the Grote Company to launch a fully-autonomous pizza vending machine. This groundbreaking collaboration will pave the way for the development of a standalone, fully autonomous restaurant that combines cutting-edge technology with the art of creating delicious pizzas. The first unit will deploy in Donatos hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
The fully autonomous restaurant developed for Donatos by Appetronix will leverage state-of-the-art robotics and data science technologies -- enabling a seamless and efficient dining experience for customers, from placing orders to receiving their pizza. The mission of Donatos Pizza to promote goodwill through product, service, principles, and people will only be made stronger by this partnership as the advanced robotics will handle the pizza-making process with precision, ensuring consistent quality, faster service, increased order accuracy, and a seamless digital interaction. Additionally, data science solutions will enhance customer interactions, personalize recommendations, optimize inventory management, and improve operational efficiency with predictive machine maintenance.
Founded on May 31, 1963 on the south side of Columbus, Ohio, Donatos features the Edge to Edge® pizza created by Jim Grote with premium toppings abundantly covering every famous thin crust. Over the past 60 years, Donatos has been recognized as an industry innovator, consistently pushing the boundaries to deliver exceptional pizza experiences to its loyal customers.
"We are thrilled to be working with Appetronix to deliver an intuitive, automated system to create our pizza, accessible to people everywhere. Utilizing technology to provide a better customer experience through improved speed and product consistency has been a focus of mine since the first Donatos restaurant opened," said Jim Grote, Donatos Pizza, the Grote Company and Agápe Automation Founder.
Agápe Automation and the Grote Company will co-develop the autonomous pizzeria with Appetronix. Agápe Automation, the innovation arm for Donatos Pizza, will focus on new technologies for both fully autonomous stand-alone restaurants as well as small prep-bots for existing restaurant kitchens. The Grote Company brings invaluable experience and infrastructure to the partnership as the leading manufacturer of state-of-the-art slicing and food assembly equipment for companies the world over.
Appetronix brings to the table its expertise in advanced robotics and data science solutions, enabling automation and optimization of the restaurant operations. Through the partnership with Donatos, Appetronix aims to revolutionize the restaurant industry by introducing a new era of autonomous dining experiences.
"We are truly honoured to partner with the Grote family and contribute to the future of one of the most iconic pizza brands in the United States (Donatos Pizzeria by Appetronix). The collective experience of our combined teams now has an amazing platform to dramatically transform the restaurant industry and accelerate our collective growth strategy", says Nipun Sharma, Co-Founder & CEO of Appetronix Inc. "I would also like to take this opportunity to announce the change of our company name from SJW Robotics to Appetronix (appetite + robotics), as we provide advanced automation, robotics and data science solutions to restaurant brands with a real-estate agnostic solution that tackles labour shortage, environmental sustainability and restaurant profitability – delivering the best quality food and value to consumers."
About Appetronix Inc.
Appetronix Inc. (formerly SJW Robotics) is a foodtech company specializing in the development and design of autonomous robotic solutions for commercial restaurant kitchens. With an expert team with extensive experience in restaurant kitchen design, worldwide expansion of restaurant chains, advanced automation, robotics, and data science, Appetronix is at the forefront of innovation in the foodservice industry. Our mission is to revolutionize the way restaurants operate by leveraging cutting-edge technology to deliver custom solutions that are scalable and tailored to meet the requirements of the next generation of quick-service restaurants. Our autonomous robotic solutions holistically automate all back of house functions including portioning, cooking, plating, and even cleaning with a singular goal of providing the best tasting food.
Contact: Ivana Palumbo, admin@sjwrobotics.com
About Donatos Pizza
Donatos features the Edge to Edge® pizza, created by Jim Grote who founded Donatos in 1963. With 459 locations in 27 states, Donatos and its franchise partners operate 176 traditional restaurants in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Florida. Donatos' products are also proudly served in 283 non-traditional locations (273 locations with Red Robin, plus sports and entertainment venues). For more information about Donatos, visit donatosfranchise.com.
Contact: Carolyn Butler, cbutler@donatos.com
About Agápe Automation
Agápe Automation is the food-tech innovation company that creates the automated Sm^rt Kitchens of the future. We envision exponential growth for pizza operators. Our mission is to make the kitchen a better place.
About Grote Company
The Grote Company was founded by Jim Grote in 1972 and has been a family-owned and operated manufacturer of food processing equipment known for exceptional customer service, unparalleled craftsmanship, dependability, and quality. They are the leading manufacturer of slicing and food assembly equipment for companies the world over.
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SOURCE Donatos Pizza | https://www.1011now.com/prnewswire/2023/07/13/appetronix-formerly-sjw-robotics-partners-with-iconic-donatos-pizza-pioneer-fully-autonomous-restaurant-experience/ | 2023-07-13 16:31:57 | 0 | https://www.1011now.com/prnewswire/2023/07/13/appetronix-formerly-sjw-robotics-partners-with-iconic-donatos-pizza-pioneer-fully-autonomous-restaurant-experience/ |
NPR's A Martinez speaks with former GOP Rep. Francis Rooney of Florida about former President Donald Trump's political future, and whether there's a place for him in the Republican Party.
Copyright 2022 NPR
NPR's A Martinez speaks with former GOP Rep. Francis Rooney of Florida about former President Donald Trump's political future, and whether there's a place for him in the Republican Party.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.wvpublic.org/2022-12-21/recent-legal-and-political-challenges-could-derail-trumps-2024-presidential-run | 2022-12-21 11:20:52 | 0 | https://www.wvpublic.org/2022-12-21/recent-legal-and-political-challenges-could-derail-trumps-2024-presidential-run |
When I enter the Manhattan studio where I'm scheduled to meet Veeze, he's working, looking over his producer Tye Beats' shoulder as he chops up a sample of "EARFQUAKE" by Tyler, The Creator. Tye deftly stitches the neck-breaking drums that have become the trademark of Michigan rap to the pattern. Swiveling in an office chair, Veeze seems exhausted, maybe slightly annoyed by the presence of another journalist deep in a rare press run. (He hates doing interviews.) Right here, facing a rack of screens and speakers, is the mode in which the Detroit rapper seems most comfortable — a studio rat through-and-through; studious, skilled and focused.
But when Veeze refocuses his attention toward me, his ridiculous personality immediately jumps out. He cracks jokes constantly — about his idol-turned-mentor Future, about struggling to censor himself in a Pistons halftime performance, about his vision for his own Jimmy Fallon-esque late-night show, about rappers in the Far East biting the Michigan sound. He practically fanboys talking about a random studio session with one of his favorite artists, Playboi Carti, who praised his music and played him the scrapped deluxe edition of Whole Lotta Red.
Somehow Veeze is one of the best rappers and one of us, a frank, relatable and often hilarious presence online, whether or not it's intentional. Even with his music, he'll scream along to a snippet he's premiering on IG Live as though he can't believe he came up with it. This balance between the cool and the personable, effortless bars and Twitter memes, has vaulted Veeze into the vanguard of Michigan's rap scene. Like every great before him, he's developed a style that is utterly his own. Rapping in a deceptively versatile mutter-croak, Veeze ekes out dense, snake-like verses that are as captionable and clever as they are transparent about his vices: "The drank be calling me the most when I feel like quitting." (I've seen some first-listeners struggle to get into Veeze; I'll just say that when you get it, you get it.)
Sometimes he'll bring his voice a hair's breadth from your ears like he's doing ASMR. On the sinister 2022 single, "Close Friends," his murmurs froth as they're sent through sludgy Auto-Tune. You can do the dot-connecting — the stoicism of Detroit peer Babyface Ray, the slurred stylings of Future and Gucci and Young Nudy, the baby voice of Carti, the whimsy of Chief Keef — but it's almost a disservice to the expansive world that Veeze has constructed with his voice.
As one of a few artists in the insular Michigan scene that has entered the wider rap ecosystem, Veeze seemed poised to take the proverbial next step. Speaking to him, it's obvious he's ready. He's studied rappers past and present on a technical level, as well as how they've navigated the shifting tides of culture and cool. He brings up his collaborator, Chicago rapper LUCKI, as a example of someone who he noticed recently became the "cool" thing to rep, despite putting in work for over a decade.
For years, Veeze's lore was missing a crucial component: an album. Since his urgent 2020 hit, "Law N Order," (which, of course, samples the theme from the long-running cop procedural) the rapper has teased his debut, GANGER (a word he coined to describe himself and his partners), with a string of increasingly knotty and thrilling singles, features and leaks. Between Veeze's rising star and constant revisions and pushbacks, the album took on a mythic quality. Veeze says the reception to "Close Friends" (particularly from his friend Lil Baby, who "just listened to the s*** every day") motivated him to go full album mode.
GANGER somehow lives up to the hype — a mean, muggy sampler that pulls off the rare feat of being an Intro To Veeze and appealing to long-term fans. But when I spoke to him on that chilly March evening, he was still working on the project, shifty about its tracklist, details and release date, probably because he didn't have all the answers himself yet. We talked about leak culture, the far-reaching sound of Michigan, his idea of taste and whether or not Future actually means his tweets.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Mano Sundaresan: When you first started rapping, who were you trying to channel?
Veeze: Really just underground s*** and mixtape s***, like Gucci [Mane] and Sosa [Chief Keef]. Kodak Black, too. Still to this day, he's one of my favorite n****s. Sometimes when I get writer's block, I say, "What would Kodak say?" And I wouldn't do that to anybody [else].
Was there anybody in Detroit that you were looking up to?
Everybody in Detroit used to be doing their thing, with, like, the Doughboyz and Team Eastside, Peezy and Babyface and Vezzo. It was a thing that, like, if you don't listen to them, it's just like ... what you doing? They was just so hot. All of them. The whole little culture of the rise of Detroit.
Can you talk about how you started actually rapping?
Just meeting Ray through mutual friends and knowing each other through the streets and s***. And then he heard a few of my songs and told me to take it a little more serious. Started going to the studio way more, being around the songs getting made. When I made "Rusty" and "Wilt," he was just like, "Man this s*** gotta go out, bro. It need to get put out."
Do you feel like there's a certain type of intangible that people can never really replicate about your sound? 'Cause I feel like a lot of people are doing the sound, but they just don't sound like you or Ray.
You ain't s*** till you get copied, bro. You ain't shit till you get — what they call — sampled.
The way you rap on "Law N Order" and just the way you rap in general, it feels so dense yet laid-back at once.
I just be punching in, thinking of the bars. It's just, like, free. It ain't really nothing deep about it.
Do you ever come up with a punch line and you save it for later, or is it all on the spot?
Nah, I don't write down anything.
With the hype around GANGER, you're like Carti before the mixtape. Everybody's waiting for this.
I don't think I ever told nobody this, but one of my producer homies named D. Hill — he passed away — he was working with Carti. This was a couple months before he passed away and s***. He a diamond producer though, rest in peace my n****, man, he produced, "working on the weekend like usual" ["Life is Good" by Future and Drake], he made that beat so I just want to say rest in peace my n****. He took me to meet Carti and s***. It was just crazy because I'm a huge Carti fan. And [Carti] like, "You wanna listen to the Red deluxe?" I'm like, "Hell yeah!" [laughs] I'm just in my own world, I'm just smoking, like damn! [Carti] never dropped it. But he played like six songs.
Then he was like, "Play me some of your s***!" I had just got done shooting the video to "A and W" and s***, so I played him a few songs, and I played him "A and W." And he like, "Man that s*** hard as f*** right there!" He made me wanna put out "A and W" faster, like, damn Carti just said that b**** sweet! I played a couple songs, but he was like, "That one hard as f***." But my partner D. Hill made the beat to "A and W" too.
I feel like out of probably any rapper besides Carti right now, I've never seen fans more rabid for unreleased music than they are with yours.
It's more so songs that I've listened to on [Instagram] Live, but it is crazy though, 'cause I don't know nobody other than Carti like that either. And it's like, all songs that's leaked, we know they leaked. It ain't no song on YouTube that I don't know that's leaked. I know if I played it on Live. I know if I sent it to a friend who played it on Live. Any song that's leaked, I know. Every leak is accounted for. And I know which ones shouldn't be out. There's nothing on YouTube that I can say, "This shouldn't be out."
There's one song on this early version of the album I heard called ["Weekend"] — the beat almost reminds me of some old Wiz.
I did that song recently. It was from a thing I got tagged in, look. [Plays a beat off Instagram]. I did that b**** the same night he sent it.
Do you envision stepping back from rapping and doing other stuff?
I wanna be an actor. I want to be like Jamie Foxx or muf***in' Adam Sandler. I want to get so famous I could work on Jimmy Fallon. Like, it'd be Late Night with Veeze, and I'm in the suit when I get older.
Who would you be booking for guests?
I'd put muf***in' Jeff Bezos on there. People that I would want to sit down and talk to.
What would you wanna talk to Jeff Bezos about?
I would love to say sarcastic s*** to some of the richest people in the world. I feel like somebody like Kendrick Lamar who may seem kind of serious, I would wanna sit him down and see him joke.
Michigan rap is some of the funniest music, I feel. Some of the dudes in your scene could be comedians if they wanted to. I mean, you could. Rio [Da Yung OG] definitely could.
I believe it. Rio really funny. He really have you laughin' like a muf***er. Swear to God. All my n****s, though. Ray have a n**** crying, for real. Even my famous partners, who people don't get to see how funny they is all the time, that s*** be crazy, bruh. It's just so much that people can't say and they gotta get stuff off their mind ... it become the funniest s***. [Laughs]
Wait, are you talking about Future?
He in the Top 3. Swear to God. Like I'd put Future on Jimmy Fallon. Future funny as hell. My times I've been with him, he dumb as me! Like, how you see him with the memes or something, he really do that s***! He do that s*** every three seconds, I swear to God. I see why they just make a meme out of all his s***, dog. He's really funny like that.
There's so many things that he tweet [where] he just don't add the laugh emoji but he really trying to be funny. People take it crazy, no cap. I want people to know that, he don't be putting "lol" or nothing but he be laughing. He be joking y'all.
Well now I'm just gonna laugh at all Future tweets.
You got to. It's all LOL, gang. Just put it in yourself and you gon' know.
What has Future taught you?
One day we was in the studio — me and Ray was doing songs and s***. Future was just in there with us and s***. And we were just making songs, change the beat, making songs, change the beat. And Future was like, "Y'all don't go to the studio every day, do y'all?" And me and Ray look up like, "Damn, we don't." And he like, "I know y'all don't 'cause I do." Future probably make 10 to 20 songs a day, and he rich as hell. He gon' rap sun-up to sundown, he rich as hell. So [if] we want to be on his level, we got to step it up.
What do you think it takes to grow a fanbase like yours?
It gotta become a cool thing. Some of the homage just come from [listening to you] being a cool thing to do. For instance, if my famous partners post me, it could be somebody who a fan of them who really didn't used to listen to me. But they see bro post me, they're like, "Oh, hold on, listening to Veeze is the cool thing to do," and hop on the train of that.
Do you think there's something about this type of scene that you guys have cultivated that other regions can learn from?
There's some rappers who [are] just not that talented but they just know how to be famous. But if the fans and the people feel like it's undeniable, that's just what it is. When listening to you become the cool thing to do, ain't nothing else nobody could do.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.mainepublic.org/npr-news/npr-news/2023-07-10/veeze-is-just-like-us-except-hes-one-of-the-best-rappers-alive | 2023-07-10 21:01:29 | 0 | https://www.mainepublic.org/npr-news/npr-news/2023-07-10/veeze-is-just-like-us-except-hes-one-of-the-best-rappers-alive |
DENVER (AP) — The massive worldwide pouring of concrete as developers densify cities could be transformed, eliminating heat-trapping pollution into the atmosphere, by switching to a new kind of cement created in Colorado — cement that is “grown” by harnessing tiny sea organisms.
Urban concrete jungles also would look less gray because the new cement is lighter in color and more reflective.
The U.S. Department of Energy this month embraced University of Colorado research that developed this cement, investing $3.2 million for scaling up cultivation of an algae species called coccolithophores. CU’s innovation appealed to the DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency because cement production causes 7% of the global heat-trapping pollution that accelerates climate warming. That’s a significant share, exceeding emissions from airplane travel.
“This is a carbon dioxide removal project,” said CU Boulder materials scientist Wil Srubar, leader of the work and director of CU’s Living Materials Laboratory, who got got the idea while snorkeling in Thailand on his honeymoon in 2017. He saw “magnificent” natural limestone structures in coral reefs and wondered whether humans could replicate natural processes to make enough limestone for cement — instead of excavating limestone from quarries.
The CU researchers essentially are industrializing the way coral reefs and plankton create limestone. The microalgae coccolithophores blooming in oceans use sunlight, seawater and dissolved carbon dioxide to produce calcium carbonate (limestone), which is contained in their bodies and shells — and they make limestone much faster than expanding coral reefs.
“All we’re doing is switching the source of limestone from scooping it out of the ground to growing it using algae,” Srubar said. “If we can make the total switch – switching from quarries to the grown limestone using microalgae coccolithophores – we will circumvent 2 gigatons per year of carbon dioxide emissions.”
That calculation assumes urban construction growth at current rates around the planet — a booming pace that construction industry groups estimate has tripled over the past four decades, adding the equivalent of a New York City every month.
Shifting to carbon dioxide-neutral production of cement would help contain the climate warming that has led to worse droughts and wildfires. And the construction industry has shown interest in tackling this problem, Srubar said. A shift to cleanly-produced cement also would improve, slightly, the urban heat island effect that amplifies warming because whiter cement would not absorb as much heat as the gray.
Urban developers rely on cement made using limestone from quarries — often controversial due to truck traffic and degradation of landscapes — and burning it in kilns at temperatures topping 2,500 degrees. The burning releases carbon dioxide from limestone rock into the atmosphere.
Concrete now ranks as one of the most prevalent materials on the planet, made from mixing water and portland cement into a paste and whisking in sand, gravel and crushed stone before hardening. In contrast, algae naturally create calcium through photosynthesis that captures carbon dioxide.
Federal funding awarded this month is meant to launch CU Boulder engineers working with colleagues who collect and grow algae at the University of North Carolina in Wilmington and with energy scientists at the DOE’s National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden who envision “biogenic limestone-based cement” as crucial for meeting the nation’s goal of reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
The algae would have to be grown in ponds, and these would cover roughly 2 million acres overall to meet U.S. construction industry needs, Srubar said. That’s about .5% of the nation’s land. The researchers envision dispersed ponds for economic efficiency in delivery of cement. Starting within two years, researchers will embark on largescale cultivation of the organisms at facilities in Arizona, he said.
“It is all about growing the cities of the future.” | https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/Researchers-harness-algae-to-grow-construction-17309414.php | 2022-07-16 14:49:17 | 1 | https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/Researchers-harness-algae-to-grow-construction-17309414.php |
A judge ruled on Wednesday that former President Donald Trump's hush-money case will not be moved to federal court.
Trump's attorneys filed the request following their client's 34-count indictment for falsifying New York business records in an effort to conceal potentially damaging information ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
The attorneys argued that the case should be moved from state court to federal court because some of the alleged actions took place while he was already president.
However, District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein said, "Trump has failed to show that the conduct charged by the Indictment is for or relating to any act performed by or for the President."
SEE MORE: Judge denies Trump's new trial request in Carroll sex abuse case
A trial date in the case has not been set, but Trump is due for an in-person hearing in December.
This is not the only criminal case Trump is facing. He's also been federally charged in the mishandling of classified documents case in Florida.
Additionally, Trump revealed on Tuesday that he was notified that he is the target of an investigation into the events of January 6, 2021, when a group of his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. The former president said the target letter means he will likely be indicted.
In every criminal case, Trump has maintained his innocence and claimed he is being subjected to a political "witch hunt."
SEE MORE: Trump says he is target of Jan. 6 investigation
Trending stories at Scrippsnews.com | https://www.kbzk.com/trump-loses-bid-to-move-hush-money-case-to-federal-court | 2023-07-19 20:51:55 | 1 | https://www.kbzk.com/trump-loses-bid-to-move-hush-money-case-to-federal-court |
Report: Man punched 1-year-old in face while mom pushed him in stroller
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV/Gray News) - Authorities in North Carolina say a man mumbling to himself punched a 1-year-old boy in the face “without warning or justification,” as his mother was pushing him in a stroller.
A Mecklenburg County arrest report obtained Tuesday by WBTV provides details into the alleged assault that happened just after 11:40 a.m. Sunday in Charlotte’s South End neighborhood.
According to the report, the child’s mother was crossing Summit Avenue when the suspect, later identified as 26-year-old Rico Limon Williams, walked by mumbling to himself.
“The witness stated that without warning or justification that the defendant punched her 1-year-old son in the face, who she was pushing in a stroller,” the report stated.
According to arrest records, the boy had a swollen and bruised right eye, a cut on the inside of his upper lip and a swollen right cheek. Police say he was taken to the hospital, where he was treated and released.
The boy’s mother said she didn’t know the suspect.
Williams was taken into custody with the help of bystanders and witnesses. He was charged with assault on a child under 12.
In his first court appearance Monday, Williams’ bond was increased to $125,000, and he was given a next court date of Aug. 10.
Copyright 2023 WBTV via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.kalb.com/2023/06/07/report-man-punched-1-year-old-face-while-mom-pushed-him-stroller/ | 2023-06-07 05:44:53 | 0 | https://www.kalb.com/2023/06/07/report-man-punched-1-year-old-face-while-mom-pushed-him-stroller/ |
Big Bucks, Big Buyouts: Public universities shell out millions of dollars firing coaches who didn’t win enough
Most of that money goes to football coaches as schools chase gridiron glory
LAWRENCE, Kansas (InvestigateTV) - For many college football coaches, it pays to get fired.
Gus Malzhan received more than $21 million after Auburn sent him packing at the end of the 2020-21 season.
Two years removed from its 2019 national championship, LSU fired coach Ed Orgeron and paid him more than $16.1 million.
Arizona paid coach Kevin Sumlin $7.5 million in 2020 to leave after the football team lost to rival Arizona State 70-7.
And then there’s Kansas, which fired five coaches between 2011 and 2020 even as the university faced budget deficits and academic cuts. The school gave those coaches and their staffs more than $27.8 million in severance payments.
As the 2022-23 football season begins, public universities are on the hook this year for more than a $1 billion in severance payments if all of their coaches let go, according to an InvestigateTV analysis of more than 100 head football coaches’ contracts.
The majority of those coaches are likely not to be dismissed by their schools. But some will, as happens every year.
Last year, 21 head coaches were either fired or resigned because of performance issues. And schools shelled out more than $63.2 million to end their tenures.
This year, Nebraska’s Scott Frost is the first casualty. The university parted company with Frost on Sept. 11 and will give him a $15 million parting gift. During his time at Nebraska, Frost amassed a included almost twice as many losses as wins. But if officials had waited until Oct. 1, Frost’s buyout would have been cut in half, per the terms of his contract.
Each year, the football stakes are that much higher.
The buyouts are big because the annual compensation paid to coaches continues to rise.
Take the Big 10 for example.
Eager to keep Mel Tucker on the sidelines at Michigan State, donors last year agreed to help fund a 10-year, $95 million contract for him.
Penn State quickly followed, locking down football coach James Franklin with a 10-year, $70 million deal.
This spring, Ohio State extended Ryan Day’s contract this spring to make his annual salary - $9.5 million – match Tucker’s. The day after, Ohio State announced that it was raising tuition.
Yet none of those coaches has won a national championship for their universities. But all, if dismissed, would walk away with 100% of what they would have been paid if they remained on the sidelines through the end of the contract.
Across the football spectrum, university presidents and trustees are signing off on these massive contracts.
‘Institutions are throwing money away’
InvestigateTV analyzed the Knight-Newhouse College Athletics Database at Syracuse University for the 235 public universities that play Division I athletics. The data comes from financial data reported to the NCAA annually and collected by Syracuse.
Since the fall of 2004, Division I public universities have paid out more than $1.1 billion – or $1.3 billion in today’s dollars due to inflation - to hundreds of coaches in every sport who were let go, largely, because their teams did not win enough.
“It’s obvious that institutions are throwing money away that could be used to, you know, enhance the education, health, safety and well-being of student athletes,” said Len Elmore, a former star basketball player at the University of Maryland and a member of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, a group that tries to rein in spending on college sports.
That $1.1 billion, for example, could pay for nearly every undergraduate and graduate student enrolled at Auburn to attend that school for a year for free.
And, a majority of that money – 75% of it – has gone into the pockets of football coaches who played in the Football Bowl Subdivision of Division I athletics. The FBS includes schools that make up the five power conferences – ACC, SEC, Big 10, Big 12 and the PAC-12; Notre Dame and schools that belong to the lower profile conferences, such as the MAC and Sun Belt.
Among those schools, athletics is big bucks, with expenses topping more than $133 billion, or $162.5 in today’s dollars, over the last 17 years. That’s enough to cover for a year the entire university budget for 102 schools with the highest academic expenses.
Most of those athletic departments rely on infusions of funding from the university itself and students to make ends meet.
“A lot of parents don’t realize; they just see your tuition and fees,” said B. David Ridpath, an Ohio University professor who teaches sports business and a member of The Drake Group, another group that is critical of big-time athletic spending. “Fees have increased, according to research I’ve done, at a rate almost 14% faster than tuition.”
Other key takeaways from the Knight-Newhouse data include:
- That students through mandatory fees have paid more than $16.8 billion dollars – or $20.6 billion when adjusted for inflation – to their athletic departments. Of the 113 public FBS schools, only 17 – eight of which are members of the Big 10 - have never taken student fees for athletics.
- That the universities have contributed more than $17.8 billion – or $21.6 billion in today’s dollars – to athletic department budgets. Only six universities have not kicked money into athletic departments: Georgia, LSU, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Penn State.
- That only three schools have never subsidized its athletic department budgets with student fees and university subsidies: LSU, Nebraska and Penn State.
- That among the FBS schools, only seven have never made a severance payment to a football coach - Arkansas State, Boise State, Northern Illinois, Ohio University, Oklahoma State, South Alabama, and Toledo. Arkansas State and Boise State are the only two FBS schools that haven’t ever bought out a coach in any sport.
The price of chasing championships isn’t cheap
The largest buyouts belong to the blue bloods of big-time athletics. They have a history – and an expectation – to win a lot.
But some also are quick to move to the next coach when losses mount.
Since 2004, the five largest total severance payments paid out for coaches in all sports belong to the following universities:
- Auburn: $48 million (actual), $56.6 million inflation adjusted
- Tennessee: $42.5 million (actual), $51.6 million inflation adjusted
- Nebraska: $39.8 million (actual), $47.2 million inflation adjusted
- Kansas $34.9 million (actual), $41.2 million inflation adjusted
- Texas: $32.8 million (actual), $37.1 million inflation adjusted
But Kansas stands out because 80% of those severance payments have gone to the five football coaches and their staffs who were fired over a 12-year-period.
Since 2010, the athletic department has paid out more than $27.8 million to part ways with Mark Mangino, Turner Gill, Charlie Weis, David Beatty and Les Miles.
“It’s startling,” said Shawn Leigh Alexander, an African American studies professor who has been at the university for 15 years and is a sports fan. “We have gone after these big names . . . and none of them have been here for more than two years. It’s been a failure. It’s been an absolute failure.”
Kansas is chasing football glory despite the fact that the Jayhawks have finished in the AP top 25 only once since the 2000 season. It hasn’t won a conference championship since 1968.
Kansas athletic director Travis Goff told the University Senate earlier this year that the school needs a successful football program.
According to a Feb. 3 article in KUsports.com, Goff said the likely reduction in conference revenue when Oklahoma and Texas defect to the SEC in 2023 makes it more critical than ever for KU to be successful both on the field and financially.
“It is not a surprise to anyone that we have been an underperforming program in the way of wins and losses, and certainly we have been an underperforming program as it relates to financial viability,” Goff said. “To me the takeaway is exceptional opportunity. I really believe in the world of this level of intercollegiate athletics that the University of Kansas has more upside, certainly as much upside as anyone out there, because of the potential within that program.”
In men’s basketball, Kansas is a powerhouse, with six national championships. Its coach, Bill Self, has reigned on the Jayhawks court for 19 years.
But Kansas football generates far greater income – more than $40 million – than men’s basketball, which brings in about $16 million.
In the meantime, on Kansas’ academic side, the university has faced deficits and cuts.
After winning just three games in two years, Kansas sent away Les Miles with nearly a $2 million check. It came on the heels of an $11 million budget cut to the university.
“So morale at the university is already absolutely dismal,” Alexander said. “And one person is getting paid ($2) million.”
In addition, the athletic department has relied on more than $41 million in student fees and university subsidies as part of its revenue stream since 2004.
“The image that we talk about, as we started with that the KU Athletics in the University of Kansas are two separate entities, but they’re not. They’re tied, sometimes by very loose strings, but they are tied,” Alexander said.
It’s a revolving door of football coaches at some schools
But it’s not just Kansas chasing the football glory.
Since 2004, UCLA has had three top 25 finishes and seven coaches. The coaching carousel has cost the school more than $15.4 million.
Arizona State and South Carolina each have ended the past two decades of football with finishes in the top 25 only four times.
Both schools have had four different coaches. Arizona State has paid more than $16.6 million to its fired football coaches while South Carolina has paid more than $17.8
Auburn, Florida and Florida State are frequent residents of the top rankings – all own at least one national championship since 2000. But that hasn’t been enough to keep their coaches on the sidelines.
Auburn and Florida State have had four coaching changes since 2000.
Florida has had six.
The price tag has been hefty. Auburn has spent $38.1 million on fired football coaches; Florida: $24.6 million and Florida State: $21.3 million.
“It’s almost like a revolving door, you have some coaches who are collecting, you know, checks from two and three schools, simply because they believe that. . .these coaches were the Messiah,” said Elmore, of the Knight Commission.
Gus Malzahn is an example. After receiving $21 million from Auburn, he now collects $2.3 million a year from Central Florida as its football coach.
At the big-name schools, coaches typically are paid a few hundred thousand dollars as a university employee. The millions of dollars added to their total compensation come from media rights and apparel deals.
Alabama’s Nick Saban signed a contract last month, that pays him this year $305,000 as a university employee and another $9.6 million from those outside sources.
He was the highest paid coach among the public FBS schools until Clemson gave Dabo Swinney a raise in early September, giving him $10.5 million a year, illustrating the arm’s race.
With six national championships on his resume, it’s highly unlikely that Alabama would fire Saban. His buyout clause is worth more than $46.3 million this year.
At least a dozen coaches have buyouts that exceed $25 million this year – outpacing the record amount given to Auburn’s Malzahn - including:
· Texas A&M’s Jimbo Fisher ($86 million)
· LSU’s Brian Kelly ($77.4 million)
· Cincinnati’s Luke Fickell ($35 million)
Since 2004, Central Michigan, Georgia Southern and Tennessee each have seen eight coaching changes, the highest turnover in the FBS.
But the amount they have paid in severance payments to football coaches shows the difference between the Haves – schools in the ACC, Big 10, Big 12, SEC and PAC-10 – and the Have Nots.
Central Michigan, a member of the MAC, has spent $1.3 million on buyouts.
Georgia Southern, which plays in the Sun Belt conference, has only paid out $210,000.
But Tennessee, which plays in the SEC, has written checks totaling $26.6 million.
Change is needed to reform out-of-control spending
Len Elmore, David Ridpath and Kansas professor Alexander all agree that reforms are necessary.
But each has a different take.
The Knight Commission, of which Elmore is a member, sees a benefit in separating the Haves and Have Nots, where the super-rich schools form a new division or alliance to play amongst themselves.
“The idea of super conferences and the realignment that we’re seeing, you know, just further illustrates the need for those big conferences, super conferences, to kind of separate themselves from a football standpoint, so that they can find rules and legislation that applies to them, because of their unique situation,” Elmore said. “This is not the first time that the NCAA could go through a transformation in that regard.”
It happened before in the 1970s when the NCAA split athletics into three divisions. “Many of the reasons why that split occurred is to align institutions with the similar interests, align them together and allow them to legislate in ways that fit their needs,” he said.
Ridpath agrees. Ohio University is never going to be on the same equal financial footing as Ohio State.
But he believes it’s time for Congress to step in and mandate that the football coach may be paid only $1 more than the highest paid university employee.
But in a place like Ohio State, that means a coach still could be a multimillionaire because some doctors on the staff make millions, themselves., he said.
For example, if the highest paid Ohio State employee makes $3 million, then coach Ryan day would be paid $3,000,001.
Professor Alexander believes that athletic departments should be pushing their donors to also provide to the academic side when they are writing their checks for sports.
But as the debate continues, the buyout clauses in football coaches’ contracts continue to grow.
Numerous coaches have been offered extensions over the past two years that have ballooned severance clauses.
Tom Allen at Indiana would receive $14.5 million if he were fired on or before Nov. 30 then $7.7 million after that date.
Bret Bielema at Illinois would receive $10.1 million and Dana Holgorsen at Houston would get $$18.8 million.
“Wow. . . you would hope that those buyouts would maybe dissuade somebody from firing a coach to be like, well, you don’t want to pay this buyout, but it doesn’t seem to hinder that at all,” Ridpath said. “It’s pretty crazy stuff.”
Kansas, perhaps, learned that lesson. Coach Lance Leipold won only a single game last season. But earlier this month, his contract was extended until 2027.
And back at Auburn, fans are getting antsy. Malzahn’s replacement, Bryan Harsin, only won six games last season. Should he be sidelined this year, Auburn will owe him $14.3 million.
It’s big bucks for big buyouts in search of gridiron glory.
Research and data collection contributors are InvestigateTV associate producers Conner Hendricks, Payton Romans and Jalen Wade, and students from the Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism at Indiana University. They are: Carly Demas, Noah Harrison, Mary Claire Molloy, Logan Skirm, Mia Stewart, Kayan Tara, Mitchell Tiedman, Rachel Van Voorhis, Lucy West and Lauren Winnefeld.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.cleveland19.com/2022/09/19/big-bucks-big-buyouts-public-universities-shell-out-millions-dollars-firing-coaches-who-didnt-win-enough/ | 2022-09-19 22:01:47 | 1 | https://www.cleveland19.com/2022/09/19/big-bucks-big-buyouts-public-universities-shell-out-millions-dollars-firing-coaches-who-didnt-win-enough/ |
Heading into Tuesday's regional quarterfinal bout with top-ranked Dallas Madison, Ponder was a decided underdog.
The Lions entered ranked No. 8 in all of Class 3A, but they faced a program that goes by "The Great James Madison" for a reason. The Trojans claim eight state championships in their storied history with five officially recognized by the UIL, including wins in two of the last three title games, and entered this year's playoffs well-positioned to earn another.
The game also presented a rematch of last year's regional quarterfinal, 364 days after then-No. 1 Madison rolled past Ponder, 62-43, on its way to taking the state title.
It all set the stage for what could easily have been the same story once again, but Ponder had other plans.
The Lions jumped out to a 15-6 lead midway through the game's opening period and fended off several Madison flurries to avenge last year's defeat, toppling the Trojans 68-53.
"We had a little bad taste in our mouth from the start, because they knocked us out [last year]," junior guard Case Peacock said after the game. "We had to come back and get 'em.
"It really sets the tone for the regional tournament, and anything past that."
Pulling off the upset earned Ponder a trip to the regional semifinals, where it will face Hooks with tipoff set for 7:30 p.m. Friday at Prosper High.
The long-awaited rematch with Madison clearly energized the Lions on the night, along with a strong turnout of supporters that filled the home bleachers and part of the visiting side.
The Ponder faithful understood the opportunity their team possessed, too, making themselves heard early and often during the contest.
Many in the crowd undoubtedly recall chapters of the program's own history, which includes five state championships and six title game trips since the turn of the century.
Surely some in the crowd were in attendance for Ponder's 2014 title during its last season at the 2A level, or for the run of three consecutive trophies lifted from 2008-2010.
Perhaps a few were even on hand in 2001, when the Lions took home their first state championship trophy after defeating Danbury in the 2A title game, capping off their first season since moving up from the 1A ranks.
It's a program that has missed the playoffs just once over the last three decades, even then only after losing a tiebreaker game to Pilot Point in 2019. Including this year's run, the Lions have now qualified for 14 regional tournaments over the last 24 seasons.
Suffice to say, the Ponder community has become accustomed to postseason success.
They are now several years removed from many of those achievements, though, with just two regional tourney trips and no run further than the regional finals since moving up to Class 3A ahead of the 2014-15 school year.
It's a reality that has the fan base, and team, hungry for more.
"It's a tradition-rich program with state championships all the way back to '01, but the last one was 2014," Ponder coach JD Sullivan said. "Our fans knew that, just to get to the regional tournament, we'd have to go through the No. 1 team in the state who's also the defending state champs.
"We're doing our best to enjoy it, but tomorrow morning, it's time to get ready for somebody else. If what you did yesterday still looks good to you, you haven't done much today."
That somebody else is Hooks, which may not share Ponder's state ranking, but it is a team with a 29-5 record on the season. The Hornets won a trio of tight playoff games to reach this point, including a 42-41 win over Jefferson in the last round.
A collective effort will be necessary to take down Hooks, as has often been the case for the Lions throughout the season. That was certainly true in their win over Madison, where all five starters contributed at least nine points, and each hit big shots at various junctures.
It'll take several more strong performances for Ponder to continue this postseason push, but the team feels its recipe for success is already written.
"Defense," senior guard Kade Irons said. "If we play our defense, we're tough to beat."
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Error! There was an error processing your request. | https://dentonrc.com/sports/high_schools/ponder_lions/after-upsetting-madison-ponder-looks-to-write-latest-chapter-of-playoff-success/article_526a0f0b-d9a1-5286-82d6-7c3aa69e77ff.html | 2023-03-03 03:35:20 | 0 | https://dentonrc.com/sports/high_schools/ponder_lions/after-upsetting-madison-ponder-looks-to-write-latest-chapter-of-playoff-success/article_526a0f0b-d9a1-5286-82d6-7c3aa69e77ff.html |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration said Friday it will upgrade its engagement with the Arctic Council and countries with an interest in a region that’s rapidly changing due to climate change.
The State Department said the U.S. will appoint an ambassador-at-large for the Arctic to deal with national security, environmental and development issues in the far North. The U.S. has had an Arctic coordinator for many years, but the upgraded position may bring new energy to the job.
President Joe Biden “plans to elevate the Arctic Coordinator position by appointing an Ambassador-at-Large for the Arctic Region, subject to the advice and consent of the Senate,” the State Department said in a statement.
Friday’s announcement did not nominate a person to take the post.
The Arctic has been a hotbed of activity in recent years as warming seas have reduced ice coverage and opened new shipping lanes. Russia, in particular, has made the Arctic a priority, something that has concerned the U.S. China, while not an Arctic nation, has also made moves in the region.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the Arctic at https://apnews.com/hub/arctic. | https://www.krqe.com/news/politics/ap-us-upgrades-arctic-engagement-with-new-ambassadorial-post/ | 2022-08-27 03:26:33 | 0 | https://www.krqe.com/news/politics/ap-us-upgrades-arctic-engagement-with-new-ambassadorial-post/ |
ELIZABETHTON, Tenn. (WJHL) – Students at Milligan University awoke to canceled classes and a day of fun as part of the school’s “Marvelous Monday.”
The event is held once a year during the second semester, but the exact date is withheld from students so as to surprise them. While typically referred to as “Wonderful Wednesday,” school officials said the day does not always fall on a Wednesday.
In 2023, the theme of the day was “It’s a good day to have a good day.” A version of “Wonderful Wednesday” has been held each year on campus since 1969, a release from the school states.
“Today is Wonderful Wednesday, which is a random day in the second semester where all the students wake up and classes are canceled,” said Silas Chambers of the Campus Activities Board. “Pretty much, you get to eat brunch with all the other students and play games with inflatables and a big water slide and pretty much just hang out with your friends.”
Activities on Wednesday also included dodgeball, a volleyball tournament, bubble soccer, a scavenger hunt and free food trucks.
Director of Campus Activities Brealle Davis said students try to plan as best they can for the day from the time they return from spring break.
“You just go about the semester with anticipation waiting for this day,” Davis said. “And so to be able to finally come and be here, the number one thing that I hear from students [in] the morning when we all meet together for brunch, as they get high fives is just ‘thank you’ because they are just ready for the day to come.”
Marvelous Monday concludes with a fireworks display. | https://www.wjhl.com/news/local/milligan-university-treats-students-to-food-fun-on-marvelous-monday/ | 2023-03-27 22:56:22 | 0 | https://www.wjhl.com/news/local/milligan-university-treats-students-to-food-fun-on-marvelous-monday/ |
The Beaumont City Council has made some momentous decisions over the years, but its looming choice on pursuing the Battleship Texas could be one of the biggest.
If the council seeks and acquires the ship, it could dramatically transform the riverfront and lead to huge influxes in tourists and money, almost giving the city a new identity.
On the other hand, the ship could become the mother of white elephants, a costly and poorly visited attraction that sucks all the life from a downtown that can’t overcome its huge presence.
As if those two options weren’t daunting enough, consider this: Either one is a real possibility – along with the chance that the final outcome is somewhere in between. And frankly, there is no way of knowing what that future will be.
But careful, thorough research can give the council a better idea of how this acquisition could play out – if Beaumont does indeed get the ship over other suitors.
As new City Manager Kenneth Williams put it so aptly, "You (council members) are going to be probably responsible for more than you think before it is over, but it is an opportunity to provide economic enhancement to Beaumont ... These types of things can … create a destination for your city. … You will probably spend more than you want but you could reap benefits more than you expect at the same time.”
One good thing about the initial vote to pursue this matter is that it came with a 5-2 vote. If the council is going to embrace this opportunity – or step off this cliff – it should not be by a narrow 4-3 margin. A solid majority of council members should be on board. Perhaps the two dissenters so far – council members Audwin Samuel and Charles Durio – could even be persuaded to back it as well.
Keep in mind that the bidding to be the new home of the ship isn’t exactly robust. Only a few cities have made inquiries. The Houston-Galveston region, the fourth-largest in the nation, a place that seemingly would be a good site for it, appears content to let it float away.
But that doesn’t mean that Beaumont couldn’t be a great home for the historic warship. Council member Mike Getz has led this effort, and he deserves credit for thinking big. Beaumont hasn’t tried anything this ambitious for a long time, and it should have.
In fact, this challenge is so big that the council should consider contracting with a company that has more expertise in this kind of research. No one on the city staff really has that now, and we don’t expect them to. They are hired to oversee traditional municipal tasks, and this is way outside the standard city box.
City residents need to speak up too. Many of them attended Tuesday’s meeting, and their opinions were welcome – and varied. But over the coming weeks, council members need to know if Beaumonters are behind this venture, or at least willing to undertake the costs it entails.
Again, this is one of the biggest – and most unusual – challenges the city of Beaumont has faced in years. If the Texas comes here, the risk/reward options are substantial. If we’re going to do this, it must be done well. | https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/opinions/editorials/article/Battleship-plans-must-be-thoroughly-researched-17510360.php | 2022-10-18 22:28:19 | 1 | https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/opinions/editorials/article/Battleship-plans-must-be-thoroughly-researched-17510360.php |
House Republicans will clean up the border mess that Biden made after Title 42
Opinion: Biden's border plan means more detained immigrants will be released into the U.S. and cartels will continue to profit off them. We have a better way.
Under the Biden regime, the southern border is a national liability with thousands of migrants breaching American sovereignty every day.
Now, as Title 42 has officially expired, the chaos and unlawfulness we’re witnessing is set to intensify exponentially.
Title 42 is a Trump-era policy that gave border officials the right to swiftly deport those apprehended along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Customs and Border Patrol have used the policy to immediately expel 40% of those encountered at the border per month.
More than 2.8 million expulsions have resulted from Title 42, fortifying our national security.
Tucson border sector is inundated
The Biden administration has known for months the policy would expire on May 11 and chose to ignore the catastrophic ramifications of expiration without a serious plan in place.
Our border facilities are already inundated — the Tucson Sector is operating at an astounding 154% of its capacity.
Arizonans will continue bearing the brunt of Joe Biden’s negligence.
Since Biden took office, almost 200 terror watchlist members have been apprehended trying to cross.
More than 1.4 million people have evaded Border Patrol, making their way into our communities; and nearly 40,000 pounds of fentanyl that kill tens of thousands of Americans each year have been seized.
Biden's 'plan' does nothing to help
As Americans, we expect our commander in chief to protect our rights and our homeland, halting this invasion in its tracks. Former President Obama even said that as president, he had no higher duty than protecting the American people.
Then-Vice President Biden must have missed that speech.
Under Biden's border “plan,” those who have illegally crossed will still be processed and released into the United States. Our immigration system is supposed to benefit Americans, not impose unnecessary burdens on them.
Worse yet, these policies continue to line the pockets of the cartels and human traffickers who have profited from the rollback of Trump-era border security policies.
So, House Republicans are stepping in
As most in our government do nothing, fully aware that a flood of unlawful entries is imminent, House Republicans just passed the Secure the Border Act of 2023.
As the only member of Congress from Arizona on the Homeland Security Committee, I’m proud to have played a role in crafting this legislation that would create overlapping deterrence to keep Arizonans safe.
Most importantly, the bill would resume construction of the border wall — the most vital piece of infrastructure in keeping Americans, particularly Arizonans, safe from drugs and crime.
Another view:Where is Armageddon now that Title 42 ended?
Second, it strengthens our asylum process, reestablishing operational control and stability.
It would also provide our courageous border patrol agents with modernized technologies as they protect our communities, mandate the hiring of 22,000 Border Patrol agents, alleviate CBP’s retention issues, support local law enforcement in border states and combat overly lenient asylum processing, among other security-bolstering measures.
The United States has no moral obligation to admit people who have broken our laws. It does have a responsibility to enforce immigration laws and protect the border.
This shouldn’t be controversial, and it certainly shouldn’t be a political issue.
Since the Biden administration won’t do its job, House Republicans will.
Eli Crane, a Republican, represents Arizona's 2nd Congressional District. On Twitter: @EliCrane_CEO. | https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2023/05/20/biden-made-border-worse-title-42-house-republicans-fix/70237694007/ | 2023-05-20 12:47:40 | 1 | https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2023/05/20/biden-made-border-worse-title-42-house-republicans-fix/70237694007/ |
WFO BINGHAMTON Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Wednesday, July 13, 2022
_____
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
The National Weather Service in Binghamton has issued a
* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...
West central Onondaga County in central New York...
* Until 630 PM EDT.
* At 542 PM EDT, a severe thunderstorm was located near Skaneateles,
or 8 miles northeast of Auburn, moving east at 25 mph.
HAZARD...Quarter size hail.
SOURCE...Radar indicated.
IMPACT...Damage to vehicles is expected.
* Locations impacted include...
Onondaga, Syracuse, Solvay, Skaneateles, Marcellus, Amboy,
Camillus, Elbridge, New York State Fairgrounds and Galeville.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a
building.
_____
Copyright 2022 AccuWeather | https://www.seattlepi.com/weather/article/NY-WFO-BINGHAMTON-Warnings-Watches-and-17303439.php | 2022-07-13 22:10:04 | 1 | https://www.seattlepi.com/weather/article/NY-WFO-BINGHAMTON-Warnings-Watches-and-17303439.php |
DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — The new Habitat for Humanity store that will benefit area housing projects is now filled to the brim with donated building materials and assorted furniture.
The store was celebrated last week by a three-day, pre-opening sale of Dubuque and Jackson Counties Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore at 4949 Chavenelle Road. The sale gave those attending a sneak peek at the new location, which is housed in the same building as the business First Supply.
The ReStore will sell donated building materials, furniture and other housing materials. While the sales will help sustain store operating costs, the enterprise also will raise funds for Habitat for Humanity’s homebuilding projects for families in need.
“There’s an environmental aspect to it,” said Erica Haugen, executive director of the nonprofit organization. “There’s tons and tons of waste we will be able to divert from the landfill. Volunteers will be able to take a lot of items and get those back into the hands of people that can use them.”
Rachel Daack, chair of the ReStore committee, told the Dubuque Telegraph Herald that an exact opening date cannot be determined until a store manager is hired.
“That’s probably our sticking point now,” she said. “It’s a big job, but it’ll be exciting.”
Daack said she and other members of the committee have worked on opening a Dubuque ReStore location since 2019.
“It struck me that we have the market for this,” she said. “I know people want to donate, and they want to be thrifty. We are the right community as donors and as shoppers.”
Haugen added that the pre-opening sale also was prompted by a need for more inventory space in the 8,200-square-foot facility. A large donation was given to the store last year by the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Mount Carmel Bluffs in Dubuque, and she said extra space is needed for more donations.
Haugen said the ReStore will be open one day per week to start. Then, she hopes to work up to having the ReStore open three days per week for shopping and two days per week for donations.
“We will do a soft opening as we work into it,” she said. “It’s going to be heavily dependent on volunteers in the community who have been helping to get this store brought to Dubuque.”
Bev Wagner, who also is the Dubuque Metropolitan Area Solid Waste Agency’s education and communication coordinator, was volunteering her time at the ReStore on Thursday.
“I’ve been familiar with ReStores for several years, and I’ve always thought we needed one,” she said of the Dubuque location. “I’m happy to see it open.”
Since Habitat for Humanity came to Dubuque 31 years ago, Haugen said at least 31 families have been served through homebuilding and home-repair projects. Those projects provide housing opportunities at price points of less than $200,000 and go to families who might not be able to enter the housing market otherwise, she said.
“We hope that the store will first of all diversify our income and resources so we can continue to serve at least one family a year,” she said. “We would like to have two families a year pretty quickly here.”
Daack said the store also will help promote Habitat for Humanity and provide further education on its housing program.
“Right now, people don’t know there’s a Habitat for Humanity in Dubuque, partially because there’s not a big storefront,” she said.
She added that the location, near both Lowe’s and Menards in Dubuque, is a perfect place for people to both stop to drop off and search for items while thinking about their next home improvement project.
“It gives us both donor convenience and shopping alternatives,” she said. | https://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Dubuque-store-benefits-Habitat-for-Humanity-17214729.php | 2022-06-05 05:57:28 | 0 | https://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Dubuque-store-benefits-Habitat-for-Humanity-17214729.php |
NEW YORK, Dec. 16, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Jakubowitz Law announces that a securities fraud class action lawsuit has commenced on behalf of shareholders of The Gap, Inc. (NYSE: GPS).
To receive updates on the lawsuit, fill out the form:
https://claimyourloss.com/securities/the-gap-inc-loss-submission-form/?id=34660&from=4
The lawsuit seeks to recover losses for shareholders who purchased The Gap between November 24, 2021 and July 11, 2022.
Shareholders interested in acting as a lead plaintiff representing the class of wronged shareholders have until February 3, 2023 to petition the court. Your ability to share in any recovery doesn't require that you serve as a lead plaintiff.
According to a filed complaint, The Gap, Inc. issued materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) there were execution missteps in size and assortment at Old Navy related to BODEQUALITY, the Company's size-inclusivity campaign, which were adversely impacting Old Navy's margins and financial results; (2) contrary to the Company's statements, there were inventory risks relating to BODEQUALITY that were adversely affecting the Company's operations; and as a result (3) the Company's statements during the class period about the historical financial and operational metrics and purported market opportunities did not accurately reflect the actual business, operations, and financial results and trajectory of the Company, and were materially false and misleading and lacked a factual basis.
Jakubowitz Law is vigorous in pursuit of justice for shareholders who have been the victim of securities fraud. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.
CONTACT:
JAKUBOWITZ LAW
1140 Avenue of the Americas
9th Floor
New York, New York 10036
T: (212) 867-4490
F: (212) 537-5887
View original content:
SOURCE Jakubowitz Law | https://www.wsaz.com/prnewswire/2022/12/16/gps-shareholder-alert-jakubowitz-law-reminds-gap-shareholders-lead-plaintiff-deadline-february-3-2023/ | 2022-12-16 12:24:12 | 0 | https://www.wsaz.com/prnewswire/2022/12/16/gps-shareholder-alert-jakubowitz-law-reminds-gap-shareholders-lead-plaintiff-deadline-february-3-2023/ |
One rescued after vehicle is swept away in flooded stream in New Mexico
By Vince Rodriguez
Click here for updates on this story
CHAVES COUNTY, New Mexico (KOAT) — One person was rescued after their vehicle was swept away in the Rio Felix early Sunday morning in Chaves County.
Officials with the Dexter Fire Department said they responded to the Rio Felix just after 5:30 a.m. on Sunday morning for a report of a vehicle being swept away by flooding. Fire officials said the person was on the roof of their vehicle but floating downstream.
The Dexter Fire Department said the vehicle entered the Rio Felix at Cherokee Road between Dexter and Hagerman, just south of Roswell. When fire crews arrived on the scene, they didn’t find the vehicle at the original location. They found the vehicle 1/4 to 1/2 mile downstream.
Fire crews then began to form a plan to rescue the person on top of the car and called in a team from the Roswell Fire Department to assist. A deputy chief for the Dexter Fire Department was tied to ropes and entered the fast-flowing stream to help rescue the person on the car.
The person on the car was pulled through flood waters and made it to rescue officials. That person was checked by EMS crews on the scene.
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform. | https://kion546.com/news/2022/08/22/one-rescued-after-vehicle-is-swept-away-in-flooded-stream-in-new-mexico/ | 2022-08-22 18:42:04 | 1 | https://kion546.com/news/2022/08/22/one-rescued-after-vehicle-is-swept-away-in-flooded-stream-in-new-mexico/ |
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Greater Valley YMCA Receives $3 Million for New Saucon Creek Branch | WDIY Local News
Sarit Laschinsky
The Greater Valley YMCA has announced that it has received millions of dollars in federal grant funding for a new facility. WDIY’s Sarit Laschinsky has more.
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TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) — Juuso Valimaki broke a tie with 3:12 left and the Arizona Coyotes beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-2 on Saturday night.
Valimaki also assisted on Arizona's first two goals to help the Coyotes extend their points streak to eight games.
Clayton Keller scored his 32nd goal of the season to tie it six minutes into the third period. Keller also had two assists, giving him 43 for the season.
Barrett Hayton connected for Arizona in the second period, and Matias Maccelli scored into an empty net with 38.3 seconds to go.
Ivan Prosvetov, making his third start of the season, stopped 32 shots for Arizona to improve to 3-0. The Coyotes have won four straight, all at home, and are 20-11-3 at Mullett Arena.
The Blackhawks, though last in the Central Division, were coming off wins at home against league-leading Boston on Tuesday night and at Nashville on Thursday night.
Chicago took a 2-1 lead at 4:14 of the third on Caleb Jones' power-play goal.
Chicago’s efforts to defuse the home-ice edge paid off quickly, as the Blackhawks scored 35 seconds into the game. Jujhar Khaira tipped in a shot by Jarred Tinordi for his fourth goal of the season. The Coyotes tied it with 2:12 left in the second period on Hayton's 14th goal.
Alex Stalock made 17 saves for Chicago.
WELCOME TO THE CLUB
Chicago defenseman Wyatt Kaiser made his NHL debut Saturday night.
The 20-year-old signed a three-year entry-level contract earlier this week. A third-round pick in 2020, Kaiser played as a junior this season at Minnesota-Duluth.
ICE CHIPS
Blackhawks: LW Andreas Englund (hamstring) missed his sixth straight game. ... RW Cole Guttman had right shoulder surgery earlier this week.
Coyotes: RW Nick Schmaltz returned after missing three games with an upper-body injury. ... D Josh Brown missed his second straight game with an undisclosed injury. ... G Karel Vejmelka didn’t dress for the game as Arizona wanted to get ice time for Prosvetov.
NEXT
Blackhawks: At Colorado Monday.
Coyotes: At Winnipeg Tuesday. ___
More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.ourmidland.com/sports/article/coyotes-beat-blackhawks-4-2-push-points-streak-17847724.php | 2023-03-19 05:59:23 | 1 | https://www.ourmidland.com/sports/article/coyotes-beat-blackhawks-4-2-push-points-streak-17847724.php |
KEYNOTE CONVERSATIONS WITH DIANE VON FURSTENBERG; GE'S LINDA BOFF AND GENERAL MOTORS' ALAN WEXLER
TUBI'S MARK ROTBLAT IN CONVERSATION WITH VAYNERMEDIA'S GARY VAYNERCHUK;
AL ROKER IN CONVERSATION WITH JOHN DEERE'S MARA DOWNING; GRINDR'S GEORGE ARISON IN CONVERSATION WITH GILEAD SCIENCES' ALEX KALOMPARIS; INDEED'S JENNIFER WARREN IN CONVERSATION WITH U.S. BANK'S KELLY COLBERT; AND OKX'S HAIDER RAFIQUE
Passes Available at TribecaFilm.com
NEW YORK, May 24, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2023 Tribeca Festival, presented by OKX, today announced the Tribeca X speaker lineup, featuring leading voices in advertising and entertainment, along with Tribeca X Award official selections, which honor creators and brands that share a love of connecting consumers through storytelling.
On June 14, Tribeca X, in partnership with Tubi and Brand Storytelling, will convene thought leaders from media, brand, entertainment, and production to share perspectives and insights on what's next for brand content during a new and dynamic era of powerful storytelling. Topics include AI-assisted story-finding, purpose-driven stories, the rapid proliferation of distribution channels, and creating a more diverse and inclusive creative industry. The event will also recognize the best story-driven filmmakers and brand collaborations of the year with the Tribeca X Award.
This year's program will include a keynote from Diane von Furstenberg, Founder and Co-Chairwoman of DVF, in conversation with comedian Seth Meyers about the origins of her namesake company, her predictions for the fashion industry, and her advice for a younger generation of women entrepreneurs. In another keynote conversation, leaders at two iconic American companies, General Electric Global Chief Marketing Officer Linda Boff and General Motors Senior Vice President of Strategy and Innovation Alan Wexler will discuss how both experimentation and data-driven insights impact their brand narratives, what role corporate social responsibility plays in business, and how they leverage the power of storytelling to inform consumers during their companies' moments of historic transformation.
On the heels of Tribeca Festival premiere Cinnamon, a black noir thriller, Tubi Chief Revenue Officer Mark Rotblat will discuss the future of streaming, content production and brand marketing with VaynerMedia Chief Executive Officer Gary Vaynerchuk. OKX Global Chief Marketing Officer Haider Rafique will address how OKX's Web3 products contribute to building a future with more control, mobility, and ways to trade assets, and Television Personality Al Roker, John Deere Vice President of Global Brand & Communications Mara Downing and Emmy-nominated Producer/ Director Eternal Polk will discuss the rise of brand storytelling as a change agent. Additional speakers include Grindr Chief Executive Officer George Arison, Gilead Sciences Senior Vice President Alex Kalomparis, and Indeed Vice President of Global Brand and Creative Jennifer Warren, and U.S. Bank SVP, Head of Brand Advertising & Creative Strategy, Kelly Colbert, who will demonstrate what it means for a brand to inspire with storytelling.
"Tribeca X continues to celebrate the creativity in advertising across traditional and novel platforms alike," said Tribeca CEO and Co-Founder Jane Rosenthal. "We're thrilled to convene inventive minds across entertainment and brand as they share their insights and predictions for the industry."
For the first time, breakout sessions have been added to Tribeca X and will provide guests with networking opportunities that foster meaningful industry connections. The sessions will also provide the opportunity for a more in-depth look at each topic and open discussion between breakout leaders and guests. The three breakout topics include: brand content distribution, metrics & measurement, and AI story creation. Following the program, guests will be invited to a lunch reception, co-hosted by IPG MEDIABRANDS, on the rooftop of Spring Studios in addition to a special industry cocktail event hosted by Grindr from 4-6pm on the rooftop of Spring Studios.
Tribeca Festival also announced the official selections for the 2023 Tribeca X Award, which celebrates the best-in-class projects of the year in five categories: Feature Film, Short Film, Series, Immersive, and Audio. Brands represented include A&W, Adobe, Amazon, Atlassian, Bulgari, Common Citizen, Flipper's Roller Boogie Palace, Gjenge Makers, Google, Indeed, John Deere, Kawai, MIT Solve, Motown Records UK - Chivas, Panasonic, Room to Read, Sony AI, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Square, Tracksmith and PUMA, U.S. Bank, Novo Nordisk and Verizon. Selected projects will be available to screen on Tribecafilm.com starting June 7.
Passes for Tribeca X are available at TribecaFilm.com.
For more on Tribeca X visit https://tribecafilm.com/festival/tribecax2023 and for the latest updates on the 2023 Tribeca Festival follow @Tribeca on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn or visit https://tribecafilm.com/.
ABOUT TRIBECA FESTIVAL
The Tribeca Festival, presented by OKX, brings artists and diverse audiences together to celebrate storytelling in all its forms, including film, TV, music, audio storytelling, games, and XR. With strong roots in independent film, Tribeca is synonymous with creative expression and entertainment. Tribeca champions emerging and established voices, discovers award-winning talent, curates innovative experiences, and introduces new ideas through exclusive premieres, exhibitions, conversations, and live performances.
The Festival was founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff in 2001 to spur the economic and cultural revitalization of lower Manhattan following the attacks on the World Trade Center. The annual Tribeca Festival will celebrate its 22nd year from June 7–18, 2023 in New York City.
In 2019, James Murdoch's Lupa Systems bought a majority stake in Tribeca Enterprises, bringing together Rosenthal, De Niro, and Murdoch to grow the enterprise.
ABOUT 2023 TRIBECA FESTIVAL PARTNERS
The 2023 Tribeca Festival is presented by OKX and with the support of our partners: AT&T, Audible, Black Women on Boards, Canva, CHANEL, City National Bank, Diageo, Easterseals Disability Services, Expensify, Indeed, NBC4 and Telemundo 47, NYC Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, National CineMedia, New York Magazine, Novartis, P&G, ServiceNow, Spring Studios New York, The Wall Street Journal, Tubi, United Airlines, Variety, and Vulture.
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New California Assembly speaker pledges to tackle the state’s biggest issues
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Assemblymember Robert Rivas was sworn in Friday as the next speaker of California’s state Assembly, becoming the first lawmaker from a rural district to hold the powerful office in the state’s modern history.
Rivas, a 43-year-old Democrat representing the agricultural Central Coast area, replaces former Speaker Anthony Rendon after a monthslong power struggle last year. Rendon, the second-longest serving speaker in state history, terms out at the end of 2024 after serving as the California lower house’s leader the last seven years.
Rivas, who had a quick rise to power, pledged to lead with “urgency and unity.” At his inaugural ceremony in the Capitol, he said his priorities are to tackle the state’s housing and homelessness crisis, improve public services and infrastructure and combat climate change. Democrats hold more than three-quarters of the Assembly’s 80 seats.
“California is still the greatest state in the union,” Rivas said Friday. “But if we in this room do not act and do not act with greater urgency, it will get more and more difficult to build a good life here. I feel, and I know that you all do, too, a great sense of responsibility because we are the ones who can keep the door open for the next generation.”
His inaugural ceremony drew a wide-ranging crowd of political bigwigs, from U.S. House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Zoe Lofgren to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and California Labor Federation Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher.
Republican Assembly Leader James Gallagher said he appreciates Rivas’ background and understanding of agricultural issues.
“His words today about unity and respecting everybody’s differing viewpoints give me hope that we can work together to restore the California dream,” he said.
At the ceremony Friday, Rivas honored his 90-year-old grandmother, his mother, civil rights icon Dolores Huerta and nearly two dozen farmworkers from his district, saying they were his inspiration to become a lawmaker. Rivas’ extended family, along with dozens of family friends from his hometown, Hollister, were also in attendance Friday, teeming with pride and emotion.
The second-term lawmaker was largely unknown until he successfully mounted a leadership challenge to Rendon last November. Rendon, who is still unhappy about how things unfolded, refused to step down when Rivas first made a play for the top leadership post earlier last year. The intraparty fighting dragged on for six months until Rivas and his allies forced a vote among Assembly Democrats, who chose him as the next leader.
Inspired by his grandfather, a Mexican immigrant who organized for fellow farmworkers alongside Huerta with United Farm Workers, Rivas has spent his political career championing farmworker protections. In 2019, as a freshman lawmaker, Rivas successfully led a landmark bill to streamline farmworker housing permits.
That helped propel him to be appointed to chair the Assembly Agriculture Committee, overseeing the state’s $50 billion agriculture industry. As chair, Rivas embarked on a statewide agricultural tour, an effort that committee members continue to praise.
Prior to his time at the Capitol, Rivas served as a county supervisor in San Benito for eight years, where he made his name by standing in opposition of the oil industry and supporting local measures against hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
“Robert Rivas is the embodiment of the California Dream,” Huerta said in a statement. “Rising from farmworker housing to becoming Speaker of the California Assembly, Robert is an ally to workers and underserved communities and will continue to be a champion for all Californians.”
___
This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Dolores Huerta’s name.
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DES MOINES, Iowa, Feb. 22, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- F&G Annuities & Life, Inc. (NYSE: FG) ("F&G" or the "Company") a leading provider of insurance solutions serving retail annuity and life customers and institutional clients, today reported financial results for the fourth quarter and twelve months (full year) ended December 31, 2022.
Net loss for the fourth quarter of $100 million, or $0.80 per diluted share (per share) primarily due to unfavorable mark-to-market and related economic assumption review updates, compared to net earnings of $121 million, or $1.15 per share, for the fourth quarter of 2021. Full year net earnings of $481 million, or $4.18 per share, compared to $865 million, or $8.24 per share, for the year ended December 31, 2021. Net earnings include mark-to-market and other items which are not included in adjusted net earnings.
Adjusted net earnings for the fourth quarter of $138 million, or $1.10 per share, compared to adjusted net earnings for the fourth quarter of 2021 of $142 million, or $1.35 per share. Full year adjusted net earnings of $345 million, or $3.00 per share, compared to $551 million, or $5.25 per share, for the year ended December 31, 2021. Adjusted net earnings include significant income and expense items, including alternative investment portfolio returns from short-term mark-to-market movement that differ from long-term return expectations.
Company Highlights
- F&G partial spinoff completed: F&G began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol 'FG' on December 1, 2022, upon completion of the distribution of approximately 15% of its common stock to Fidelity National Financial, Inc.'s (FNF) shareholders. Our parent, FNF, retains control of F&G through an approximate 85% equity ownership stake
- Record profitable gross sales for F&G continues: Total gross sales of $2.7 billion for the fourth quarter, an increase of 23% over the fourth quarter 2021, driven by record Retail sales. For the full year 2022, record total gross sales of $11.3 billion, an increase of nearly 18% over the full year 2021
- Net sales reflect third party flow reinsurance: Net sales retained of $1.9 billion for the fourth quarter, a decrease of 7% from the fourth quarter 2021, reflecting the increase from 50% to 75% of multiyear guaranteed annuity sales to Aspida Re effective September 1, 2022. For the full year 2022, net retained sales of $9.0 billion, an increase of 3% over the full year 2021
- Robust asset growth: Ending assets under management (AUM) were $43.6 billion as of December 31, 2022, an increase of 19% from $36.5 billion in the prior year, primarily driven by net new business flows
- Inaugural quarterly cash common dividend: Paid first quarterly dividend in the amount of $25 million, or $0.20 per share of common stock on January 31, 2023
- Strong solvency: Estimated risk-based capital (RBC) ratio for our primary operating subsidiary of approximately 440% as of December 31, 2022, well above our 400% target
- Ratings momentum, as A.M. Best has revised the ratings outlook to 'positive' from 'stable' in December 2022, and we continue on 'positive' outlook with Moody's
Chris Blunt, President and Chief Executive Officer of F&G, commented, "Following F&G's successful public listing on the New York Stock Exchange in December, I would like to extend my appreciation for the support that we received from our majority owner, FNF, our employees and all of our partners who together made our return to the public markets possible.
I am also very proud of our financial performance during the fourth quarter as we delivered record gross sales of $2.7 billion led by record Retail sales of $2.5 billion. We ended the year with $43.6 billion of assets under management which puts us on track to achieve our goal of doubling AUM to $50 billion in 2023, approximately two years ahead of our original guidance. The key to our success has been the transformation of F&G over the last three years as we have expanded into new products and distribution channels which firmly positions the Company for continued growth and profitability.
Our strong financial results for 2022 also demonstrate the underlying earnings power of the F&G business model where asset growth drives earnings and we benefit from a rising rate environment. Our high-quality investment portfolio continues to perform well, and our strategic investment management partnership with Blackstone remains a competitive advantage."
Mr. Blunt concluded, "Looking to the year ahead, we have reached an inflection point in our business where our scale and strong capitalization now supports both organic growth and the distribution of a portion of our adjusted net earnings to our shareholders where we have committed to paying $100 million in dividends this year. We also have the financial flexibility as a stand-alone public company to make accretive acquisitions and investments to further expand our business and capabilities. Our recently announced equity investment in SYNCIS, a leading independent agent distribution partner, is an example of our approach to growth as we continue to build a strong footprint of owned distribution."
Summary Financial Results
Fourth Quarter 2022 Results
- Total gross sales of $2.7 billion for the fourth quarter, an increase of 23% over the fourth quarter 2021; reflects record retail sales, partially offset by lower institutional sales which we expect to be lumpier and more opportunistic than in our retail channels
- Record Retail sales of $2.5 billion for the fourth quarter, a 79% increase over fourth quarter of 2021; reflects increased demand for our products in the rising rate environment and expanding relationships with new and existing distribution partners
- Institutional sales of $0.2 billion of pension risk transfer transactions, compared to $0.8 billion of pension risk transfer transactions in the fourth quarter 2021. There were no funding agreement issuances in the current quarter due to credit and equity market volatility
- Net sales retained of $1.9 billion for the fourth quarter, a decrease of 7% from the fourth quarter 2021, reflecting the increase in flow reinsurance from 50% to 75% of multiyear guaranteed annuity sales to Aspida Re effective September 1, 2022
- Average assets under management (AAUM) of $42.6 billion for the fourth quarter, an increase of 19% from $35.7 billion in the fourth quarter 2021, driven by net new business flows and net debt proceeds from the revolving credit facility draw. Ending assets under management were $43.6 billion as of December 31, 2022
- Fixed income and other portfolio earned yield, excluding alternative investment volatility and variable investment income, has expanded to 4.27% for the fourth quarter, as compared to 3.75% in the fourth quarter 2021; primarily reflects upside from our floating rate assets and higher yield on new investments
- Owned distribution acquisition of 49% equity investment in SYNCIS, a leading independent agent distribution partner, announced in January 2023 which aligns to our strategy to expand owned distribution while boosting our presence in underserved multi-cultural and middle-market segments
- Adjusted net earnings for the fourth quarter of $138 million, or $1.10 per share. This included a $34 million recognized gain from alternative investments, a $58 million one-time tax benefit from carryback of capital losses, $12 million from actuarial assumption updates and other income items. Alternative investments' net investment income based on management's long-term expected return of approximately 10% was $91 million. Please see "Non-GAAP Measures and Other Information" for further explanation.
Full Year 2022 Results
- Record Total gross sales of $11.3 billion for the full year, an increase of nearly 18% over the full year 2021, reflecting execution of the Company's diversified growth strategy with a disciplined approach to pricing
- Record Retail sales of $8.5 billion for the full year, an increase of 37% over the full year 2021, driven by ongoing growth in independent agent distribution and continued expansion in bank and broker dealer channels
- Institutional sales of $2.8 billion for the full year, including funding agreement issuances of $1.4 billion and pension risk transfer transactions of $1.4 billion, compared to funding agreement issuances of $2.3 billion and pension risk transfer transactions of $1.2 billion in full year 2021
- Net sales retained of $9.0 billion for the full year, an increase of 3% over the full year 2021, reflecting third party flow reinsurance
- Average assets under management (AAUM) of $40.1 billion for the full year, an increase of 26% over $31.9 billion in the prior year. Ending assets under management (AUM) of $43.6 billion at December 31, 2022
- Full year adjusted net earnings of $345 million, or $3.00 per share. This included a $100 million recognized gain from alternative investments, $49 million income from actuarial assumption and reserve updates, $21 million of CLO redemption gains and other income, $20 million of net income tax benefits, and $5 million of other expense. Alternative investments net investment income based on management's long-term expected return of approximately 10% was $265 million. Please see "Non-GAAP Measures and Other Information" for further explanation
Capital and Liquidity Highlights
- GAAP book value excluding AOCI of $4.6 billion or $36.66 per share, with 126 million common shares outstanding as of December 31, 2022, an increase of $0.94 or 3% year over year, including ($2.98) net decrease for capital actions, including conversion of FNF intercompany loan to equity prior to F&G's partial spinoff and F&G's initial common dividend, and $1.46 per share net increase for mark to market movements during the year. Underlying business fundamentals delivered solid growth in GAAP book value excluding AOCI of 7% year over year before capital actions and mark-to-market movement.
- Dividend program initiation: F&G's Board of Directors has approved the initiation of a dividend program at an initial aggregate amount of approximately $100 million per year; the initial quarterly dividend was paid on January 31, 2023 in the amount of $25 million, or $0.20 per share of common stock
- Debt to capitalization ratio, excluding AOCI, was 19% as of December 31, 2022, including $550 million proceeds from a new three-year senior unsecured third party revolving credit facility that closed in the fourth quarter
- The Company continues to have a strong and stable capital position, with an estimated statutory company action level risk-based capital (RBC) ratio for our primary operating subsidiary of approximately 440% as of December 31, 2022, well above our 400% target
- Ratings momentum has been positive. A.M. Best has revised our outlook to 'positive' from 'stable' in December 2022, and we continue on 'positive' outlook with Moody's
Conference Call
We will host a call with investors and analysts to discuss F&G's fourth quarter and full year 2022 results on Thursday, February 23, 2023, beginning at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time. A live webcast of the conference call will be available on the F&G Investor Relations website at fglife.com. The conference call replay will be available via webcast through the F&G Investor Relations website at fglife.com. The telephone replay will be available from 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time on February 23, 2023, through March 9, 2023, by dialing 1-844-512-2921 (USA) or 1-412-317-6671 (International). The access code will be 13735021.
About F&G
F&G is part of the FNF family of companies. F&G is committed to helping Americans turn their aspirations into reality. F&G is a leading provider of insurance solutions serving retail annuity and life customers and institutional clients and is headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa. For more information, please visit fglife.com.
Use of Non-GAAP Financial Information
Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) is the term used to refer to the standard framework of guidelines for financial accounting. GAAP includes the standards, conventions, and rules accountants follow in recording and summarizing transactions and in the preparation of financial statements. In addition to reporting financial results in accordance with GAAP, this presentation includes non-GAAP financial measures, which the Company believes are useful to help investors better understand its financial performance, competitive position and prospects for the future. Management believes these non-GAAP financial measures may be useful in certain instances to provide additional meaningful comparisons between current results and results in prior operating periods. Our non-GAAP measures may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other organizations because other organizations may not calculate such non-GAAP measures in the same manner as we do. The presentation of this financial information is not intended to be considered in isolation of or as a substitute for, or superior to, the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP. By disclosing these non-GAAP financial measures, the Company believes it offers investors a greater understanding of, and an enhanced level of transparency into, the means by which the Company's management operates the Company. Any non-GAAP measures should be considered in context with the GAAP financial presentation and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for GAAP net earnings, net earnings attributable to common shareholders, or any other measures derived in accordance with GAAP as measures of operating performance or liquidity. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures are provided within.
Forward-Looking Statements and Risk Factors
This press release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. Some of the forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of terms such as "believes", "expects", "may", "will", "could", "seeks", "intends", "plans", "estimates", "anticipates" or other comparable terms. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements regarding our expectations, hopes, intentions or strategies regarding the future are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management. Because such statements are based on expectations as to future financial and operating results and are not statements of fact, actual results may differ materially from those projected. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. The risks and uncertainties which forward-looking statements are subject to include, but are not limited to: general economic conditions and other factors, including prevailing interest and unemployment rate levels and stock and credit market performance; natural disasters, public health crises, international tensions and conflicts, geopolitical events, terrorist acts, labor strikes, political crisis, accidents and other events; concentration in certain states for distribution of our products; the impact of interest rate fluctuations; equity market volatility or disruption; the impact of credit risk of our counterparties; changes in our assumptions and estimates regarding amortization of our deferred acquisition costs, deferred sales inducements and value of business acquired balances; regulatory changes or actions, including those relating to regulation of financial services affecting (among other things) underwriting of insurance products and regulation of the sale, underwriting and pricing of products and minimum capitalization and statutory reserve requirements for insurance companies, or the ability of our insurance subsidiaries to make cash distributions to us; and other factors discussed in "Risk Factors" and other sections of our information statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
SOURCE: F&G Annuities & Life, Inc
Non-GAAP Measures and Other Information
RECONCILIATION OF NET EARNINGS AND ADJUSTED NET EARNINGS
The table below reconciles net earnings to adjusted net earnings.
- Adjusted net earnings of $138 million for the fourth quarter of 2022 included a $34 million recognized gain from alternative investments, a $58 million one-time tax benefit from carryback of capital losses and $12 million from actuarial assumption updates and other items. Alternative investments net investment income based on management's long-term expected return of approximately 10% was $91 million.
- Adjusted net earnings of $142 million for the fourth quarter of 2021 included a $118 million recognized gain from alternative investments and $3 million income of CLO redemption gains and other income. Alternative investments net investment income based on management's long-term expected return of approximately 10% was $66 million.
- Adjusted net earnings of $345 million for the twelve months ended December 31, 2022 included a $100 million recognized gain from alternative investments, $49 million income from actuarial assumption and reserves updates, $21 million of CLO redemption gains and other income, $20 million of net income tax benefits and $5 million of other net expense items. Alternative investments net investment income based on management's long-term expected return of approximately 10% was $265 million.
- Adjusted net earnings of $551 million for the twelve months ended December 31, 2021 included a $359 million recognized gain from alternative investments, $46 million of CLO redemption gains and other income, $10 million income from net favorable mortality experience and other reserve changes, and $8 million income from actuarial intangibles unlocking. Alternative investments net investment income based on management's long-term expected return of approximately 10% was $169 million.
The tables below provide a comparison of adjusted net earnings by quarter per the new definition, which no longer includes the alternative investment yield adjustment to normalize alternative investment portfolio returns, versus results previously reported for the F&G segment in the 9 quarters subsequent to the acquisition by FNF on June 1, 2020 through the third quarter of 2022:
RECONCILIATION OF TOTAL EQUITY, TOTAL EQUITY EXCLUDING ACCUMULATED OTHER COMPREHENSIVE INCOME (AOCI), BOOK VALUE PER SHARE AND BOOK VALUE PER SHARE EXCLUDING AOCI
SALES HIGHLIGHTS
ROLLFORWARD OF ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT (AUM) AND AVERAGE ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT (AAUM)
DEFINITIONS
The following represents the definitions of non-GAAP measures used by the Company.
Adjusted Net Earnings
Adjusted net earnings is a non-GAAP economic measure we use to evaluate financial performance each period. Adjusted net earnings is calculated by adjusting net earnings (loss) from continuing operations to eliminate:
While these adjustments are an integral part of the overall performance of F&G, market conditions and/or the non-operating nature of these items can overshadow the underlying performance of the core business. Accordingly, management considers this to be a useful measure internally and to investors and analysts in analyzing the trends of our operations. Adjusted net earnings should not be used as a substitute for net earnings (loss).
Adjusted Net Earnings per Common Share
Adjusted net earnings per common share is calculated as adjusted net earnings divided by the weighted-average common shares outstanding.
Management considers this non-GAAP financial measure to be useful internally and for investors and analysts to assess the level of return driven by the Company that is available to common shareholders.
Adjusted Net Earnings per Diluted Share
Adjusted net earnings per diluted share is calculated as adjusted net earnings divided by the weighted-average diluted shares outstanding.
Management considers this non-GAAP financial measure to be useful internally and for investors and analysts to assess the level of return driven by the Company that is available to common shareholders.
Adjusted Return on Assets
Adjusted return on assets is calculated by dividing annualized adjusted net earnings by year-to-date AAUM. Return on assets is comprised of net investment income, less cost of funds, and less expenses (including operating expenses, interest expense and income taxes) consistent with our adjusted net earnings definition and related adjustments. Cost of funds includes liability costs related to cost of crediting on both deferred annuities and institutional products as well as other liability costs.
Management considers this non-GAAP financial measure to be useful internally and to investors and analysts when assessing financial performance and profitability earned on AAUM.
Assets Under Management (AUM)
AUM uses the following components:
Management considers this non-GAAP financial measure to be useful internally and to investors and analysts when assessing the rate of return on assets available for reinvestment.
Average Assets Under Management (AAUM) (Quarterly and YTD)
AAUM is calculated as AUM at the beginning of the period and the end of each month in the period, divided by the total number of months in the period plus one.
Management considers this non-GAAP financial measure to be useful internally and to investors and analysts when assessing the rate of return on assets available for reinvestment.
Book Value per Share (including and excluding AOCI)
Book value per share including and excluding AOCI is calculated as total equity (or total equity excluding AOCI) divided by the total number of shares of common stock outstanding.
Management considers this to be a useful measure internally and for investors and analysts to assess the capital position of the Company.
Sales
Annuity, IUL, funding agreement and non-life contingent PRT sales are not derived from any specific GAAP income statement accounts or line items and should not be viewed as a substitute for any financial measure determined in accordance with GAAP. Sales from these products are recorded as deposit liabilities (i.e. contractholder funds) within the Company's consolidated financial statements in accordance with GAAP. Life contingent PRT sales are recorded as premiums in revenues within the consolidated financial statements.
Management believes that presentation of sales, as measured for management purposes, enhances the understanding of our business and helps depict longer term trends that may not be apparent in the results of operations due to the timing of sales and revenue recognition.
Total Capitalization excluding AOCI
Total Capitalization excluding AOCI is based on Total Equity and the aggregate principal amount of debt and Total Equity excluding the effect of AOCI. Since AOCI fluctuates from quarter to quarter due to unrealized changes in the fair value of available for sale investments.
Management considers this non-GAAP financial measure to provide useful supplemental information internally and to investors and analysts to help assess the capital position of the Company.
Total Equity excluding AOCI
Total Equity excluding AOCI is based on Total Equity excluding the effect of AOCI. Since AOCI fluctuates from quarter to quarter due to unrealized changes in the fair value of available for sale investments.
Management considers this non-GAAP financial measure to provide useful supplemental information internally and to investors and analysts assessing the level of earned equity on Total Equity.
Yield on AAUM
Yield on AAUM is calculated by dividing annualized net investment income by AAUM. Management considers this non-GAAP financial measure to be useful internally and to investors and analysts when assessing the level of return earned on AAUM.
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SOURCE FGL Holdings | https://www.wafb.com/prnewswire/2023/02/22/fampg-annuities-amp-life-reports-fourth-quarter-full-year-2022-results/ | 2023-02-22 22:34:06 | 1 | https://www.wafb.com/prnewswire/2023/02/22/fampg-annuities-amp-life-reports-fourth-quarter-full-year-2022-results/ |
Louisiana State University's Tigers bested University of Iowa's Hawkeyes 102-85 to win their first national basketball title in school history. Despite yet another stellar performance from Iowa guard Caitlin Clark, the Hawkeyes' late comeback run couldn't match LSU's offensive stride.
It was just one of many records posted in the NCAA women's final game. Here are some more firsts from the most-viewed women's March Madness ever:
A women's team broke the 100-point mark for the first time in a national championship game. The 102 points the Tigers put up passed the previous record of 97 points that Texas scored against Southern California in 1986.
LSU's Kim Mulkey became the first women's coach to win national titles at two different schools. (And the first to do it outfitted in a flashy, sequined tiger-striped pantsuit, no less.)
Iowa's Clark set the NCAA record for most points in a tournament, 191, smashing the 177-point record set by Sheryl Swoopes in 1993. Also notable: During this year's Elite Eight round, Clark became the first player — men's or women's — to achieve a 40-point triple-double in an NCAA tournament game.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.nepm.org/national-world-news/national-world-news/2023-04-02/lsu-beats-iowa-to-win-1st-ncaa-title-posting-record-triple-digit-point-game | 2023-04-03 00:56:37 | 1 | https://www.nepm.org/national-world-news/national-world-news/2023-04-02/lsu-beats-iowa-to-win-1st-ncaa-title-posting-record-triple-digit-point-game |
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AP) — It was a total loss — the type that is usually glossed over in big impersonal statistics like $40 billion in damage from this summer's Pakistan floods that put one-third of the nation underwater.
“We lost everything, our home and our possessions,” said Taj Mai, a mother of seven who is four months pregnant and in a flood relief camp in Pakistan’s Punjab province. “At least in a camp our children will get food and milk.”
This is the human side of a contentious issue that will likely dominate climate negotiations in Egypt this month. It's about big bucks, justice, blame and taking responsibility. Extreme weather is worsening as the world warms, with a study calculating that human-caused climate change increased Pakistan’s flood-causing rain by up to 50%.
While Pakistan was flooding, six energy companies — ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell,BP, Saudi Aramco and Total Energies — made $97.49 billion in profits from July to September. Poorer nations, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Europe’s leaders and U.S. President Joe Biden are calling for fossil fuel firms to pay a windfall profits tax. Many want some of that money, along with additional aid from rich nations that spewed the lion’s share of heat-trapping gases, to be used to pay countries victimized by past pollution, like Pakistan.
The issue of polluters paying for their climate messes is called loss and damage in international climate negotiations. It is all about reparations.
“Loss and damage is going to be the priority and the defining factor of whether or not COP27 succeeds,” said Kenyan climate activist Elizabeth Wathuti, referring to the climate talks in Egypt . United Nations top officials say they are looking for “something meaningful in loss and damage" and were “certainly encouraged” by negotiations Friday, Saturday and Sunday that put the issue on the meeting agenda.
Money for loss and damage is different from two other financial aid systems already in place to help poorer nations develop carbon-free energy and adapt to future warming.
Since 2009, the rich nations of the world have promised to spend $100 billion in climate aid for poor nations, with most of it going toward helping wean them off coal, oil and natural gas and build greener energy systems. Officials now want as much as half of that to go to building up systems to help adapt to future climate disasters.
Neither financial pledge has been fulfilled yet, but both don't address the issue of paying for current and past climate disasters, such as heat waves in India, floods in Pakistan and droughts in Africa.
“Our current levels of global warming at 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) have already caused dangerous and widespread losses and damages to nature and to billions of people,” said Climate Analytics scientist Adelle Thomas of the Bahamas.
“Losses and damages are unavoidable and unequally distributed” with poorer nations, the elderly, the poor and vulnerable hit harder, she said.
After years of not wanting to talk about reparations in climate talks, U.S. and European officials say they are willing to have loss and damage discussions. But the U.S. — the No. 1 historic carbon polluter — won’t agree to anything that sounds like liability, special envoy John Kerry said.
U.S. emissions that created warmer temperatures caused at least $32 billion in damage to Pakistan’s gross domestic product between 1990 and 2014, according to calculations by Dartmouth climate researchers Christopher Callahan and Justin Mankin based on past emissions. And that's only based on temperature-oriented damage, not rainfall.
“Loss and damage is a way of both recognizing past harm and compensating for that past harm,” Mankin said. “These harms are scientifically identifiable. And now it’s up to the politics to either defend that harm or remunerate for that harm.”
The United States in 16 days puts more carbon dioxide into the air from burning fossil fuel than Pakistan does in a year, according to figures by the Global Carbon Project.
American Gas Association CEO Karen Harbert said Americans won’t go for such payments to faraway nations and that’s not the way to think of the issue.
“It’s not just Pakistan. Let’s talk about Puerto Rico. Let’s talk about Louisiana. Other things that are happening here at home that we also need to pay attention to and help our fellow Americans,” Harbert said in an interview with The Associated Press.
“If there was an opportunity to talk to people in Pakistan, I’d say ... the solution is first of all, you have the opportunity with natural gas to have a much cleaner electric system than you have today,” she said.
But for Aaisa Bibi, a pregnant mother of four from Punjab province, cheaper cleaner energy doesn’t mean much when her family has no place to live except a refugee camp.
“With less than 1% of the global emissions, Pakistan is certainly not a part of the problem of climate change," said Shabnam Baloch, the International Red Cross Pakistan director, adding that people like Bibi are just trying to survive floods, heat waves, droughts, low crop yields, water shortages and inflation.
In semi-arid Makueni County in Kenya, where a devastating drought has stretched more than three years, 47-year old goat and sheep farmer John Gichuki said: “It is traumatizing to watch your livestock die of thirst and hunger.”
Gichuki’s maize and legumes crops have failed four consecutive seasons. “The farm is solely on the mercies of climate," he said.
In India, it's record heat connected to climate change that caused deaths and ruined crops. Elsewhere it's devastation from tropical cyclones that are wetter and stronger because of the burning of fossil fuels.
This global issue has a parallel inside the United States in at times contentious discussions about paying for damages caused by slavery.
“In many ways we’re talking about reparations,” said University of Maryland environmental health and justice professor Sacoby Wilson. “It's an appropriate term to use" he said, because the rich northern countries got the benefits of fossil fuels, while the poorer global south gets the damage in floods, droughts, climate refugees and hunger.
The government of Barbados has suggested changes in how the multinational development banks loan to poorer nations to take into account climate vulnerability and disasters. Pakistan and others have called for debt relief.
It's "about putting ourselves in everybody else’s shoes,” said Avinash Persaud, special envoy to Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley.
Persaud suggests a long-term levy on high oil, coal and natural gas prices, but one done in reverse. At current high energy prices there would be no tax, so no increase in inflation. But once fossil fuel prices decline 10%, 1% of the price drop would go to a fund to pay victims of climate loss and damage, without adding to the cost of living.
United Nations' chief Guterres, who has called movement on loss and damage a “litmus test” for success for the Egypt climate conference, has named two high-level national officials to try to hammer out a deal: Germany's climate envoy and former Greenpeace chief Jennifer Morgan and Chile’s environment minister, Maisa Rojas.
“The fact that it has been adopted as an agenda item demonstrates progress and parties taking a mature and constructive attitude towards this,” U.N. Climate Secretary Simon Stiell said in a Sunday news conference. "This is a difficult subject area. It’s been floating for thirty plus years. So that the fact that it is there as a substantive agenda item, I believe it bodes well.''
“What will be most telling is how those discussions progress in the substantive discussion over the next couple of weeks,” Stiell said.
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Climate data journalists Mary Katherine Wildeman in Hartford, Connecticut, and Camille Fassett in Seattle; Wanjohi Kabukuru in Mombasa, Kenya; Frank Jordans in Berlin; Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington; Shazia Bhatti in Rajanpur, Pakistan; Aniruddha Ghosal in New Delhi, and Megan Janetsky in Havana, Cuba, contributed.
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Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment
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Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears
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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content. | https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Loss-and-damage-Fight-over-human-harm-huge-17563510.php | 2022-11-07 06:50:55 | 1 | https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Loss-and-damage-Fight-over-human-harm-huge-17563510.php |
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