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LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska will attempt to set the NCAA volleyball attendance record next season when it plays an outdoor match in Memorial Stadium.
The school announced Friday the football stadium — which seats 85,000-plus — would host a doubleheader on “Volleyball Day in Nebraska” on Aug. 30. The Cornhuskers will play Omaha in a regular-season match, preceded by a Division II exhibition between Wayne State and Nebraska-Kearney.
The attendance record is 18,755, set when Nebraska played Wisconsin in the 2021 national championship match in Columbus, Ohio. Wisconsin holds the record for largest regular-season crowd, drawing 16,833 for its match against Florida last September.
Volleyball by far is the most popular women’s sport in Nebraska. The Huskers have won five national titles and sold out an NCAA-record 303 consecutive regular-season matches. They averaged 8,190 fans per match last season and have led the nation in attendance every year since 2013.
Wayne State and Nebraska-Kearney rank in the top 10 in Division II attendance.
Of the 14 largest NCAA regular-season crowds, 13 have involved the Huskers.
“At Nebraska we’re always aiming to dream big and raise the bar, and there can’t be a much bigger way to do that than to play a match outdoors in a 90,000-seat football stadium,” coach John Cook said. “We’re excited that we’re going to be able to include three other local schools as well to make it a statewide celebration.”
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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25 | https://www.seattletimes.com/news/huskers-volleyball-aims-for-attendance-mark-in-outdoor-match/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all | 2023-02-24 20:24:47 | 0 | https://www.seattletimes.com/news/huskers-volleyball-aims-for-attendance-mark-in-outdoor-match/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all |
CLARENCE, N.Y. (WIVB) – A popular golf dome was ripped apart Friday as near-hurricane force winds and blizzard conditions battered Western New York.
“I presume it’s not salvageable,” Clarence Town Supervisor Patrick Casilio told Nexstar’s WIVB. “Hopefully the foundation isn’t damaged.”
No injuries were reported when The Dome came down, Casilio said. He hopes the connected restaurant, Local Grille, and the Golf Headquarters retail store will be able to reopen soon. (The facility was known as the Wehrle Golf Dome until new ownership took over in 2017.)
“We won’t be gone long,” The Dome wrote on Facebook. “Hoping to get back up and running quickly.”
Sandie Kobee lives behind the dome and was shocked to see pieces of it flying outside her window.
“We were without power and it’s freezing, so we were changing and all the sudden I see this: ‘What the h— is that?” Kobee recalled. “We saw this big thing hanging over and it ripped apart.”
Kobee shared video of the aftermath with WIVB.
“It just blew off! The entire dome,” she exclaimed in the video.
Kobee said she later called 911 when the pieces of the dome got caught on a nearby building because she was worried they might start a fire.
The Buffalo area was put under a blizzard warning starting at 7 a.m. Friday. Extreme conditions will last through the holiday weekend. Wind gusts as high as 72 mph were recorded at the Buffalo airport Friday afternoon.
“It was so wicked,” Kobee said of the weather. “It’s like something you would see out of a movie.”
Casilio said NYSEG crews were working through the storm to restore power and had already gotten 5,000 customers in the Clarence, Lancaster and Newstead areas back online. He said power officials told him utility workers have to “wait for winds to die down to 40-50 miles an hour” before they do most of the work they need to do.
Tens of thousands of Western New Yorkers lost power Friday. Whether it can be restored before Christmas remains to be seen. | https://wgntv.com/news/nexstar-media-wire/it-ripped-apart-video-shows-golf-dome-badly-damaged-in-new-york-blizzard/ | 2022-12-24 00:39:19 | 0 | https://wgntv.com/news/nexstar-media-wire/it-ripped-apart-video-shows-golf-dome-badly-damaged-in-new-york-blizzard/ |
MALANG, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo said on Wednesday that locked gates had contributed to the crush at the soccer stadium that left 131 dead and over 400 injured when police fired tear gas and set off a panicked run for the exits.
Widodo made the statement after touring the Kanjuruhan soccer stadium in East Java’s Malang city for a first-hand look at the scene of one of the world’s deadliest disasters at a sporting event. He also visited the victims recovering at Saiful Anwar General Hospital and pledged a thorough investigation into what had transpired on Saturday night.
Police continued to insist that the gates were open but were too narrow and could only accommodate two people at a time when hundreds were trying to escape.
Indonesia’s national soccer association said that because of a lack of workers, only a few people were ordered to open the gates, and they had not yet reached some doors when spectators began rushing to escape tear gas fired by police in an attempt to control fans who had entered the pitch.
Police acted after some of the 42,000 Arema FC fans ran onto the field in anger after their team was defeated 3-2, its first loss at home against visiting Persebaya Surabaya in 23 years.
“As an illustration, I saw the problem was there are locked doors, steep stairs and panic,” Widodo said in a news conference. “But all of this will be concluded later by an inquiry team.”
Widodo said that he spoke by phone with FIFA President Gianni Infantino on Monday to brief him on the investigation. They also discussed Indonesia’s preparations in hosting the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
Widodo said that Infantino ensured him that “FIFA is ready to help us to improve our football management.”
“I think we really need a total evaluation of our entire football management of the matches, stadiums, spectators, time and security,” he said. “So that this stadium disaster will never occur again.”
According to recommendations by FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation, exits at stadiums must be unlocked at all times during a game for safety purposes. Those rules don’t necessarily apply to domestic or national leagues but nevertheless are a safety standard, as is the recommendation against the use of tear gas as a crowd-control measure.
The deaths at the stadium included 17 children while 440 people were injured. At least 61 remained in the hospital as of Wednesday, 29 of them in critical condition.
Widodo ordered that the injured are given the best medical treatment and said the government will pay their bills. He also said the government will provide 50 million rupiah ($3,300) to each family that lost their loved ones.
Several institutions and the East Java provincial administration will give an additional compensation of between 10 million and 15 million rupiah ($650 and $1,000) to each of the victims’ families.
The Football Association of Indonesia has banned Arema from hosting any matches attended by its supporters in Malang until next year. The club’s chief executive, Abdul Harris, and the security coordinator, Suko Sutrisno, have been banned from participating in soccer for life because they had not secured the field and delayed the opening of the gates.
An Indonesian police chief and nine elite officers were removed from their posts Monday and 18 others were being investigated for responsibility in the firing of tear gas. | https://www.ksn.com/news/national-world/ap-international/ap-indonesian-leader-says-locked-gates-contributed-to-deaths/ | 2022-10-06 00:17:53 | 0 | https://www.ksn.com/news/national-world/ap-international/ap-indonesian-leader-says-locked-gates-contributed-to-deaths/ |
NEW DELHI (AP) — A passenger plane with 72 people on board has crashed near Pokhara International Airport in Nepal, the daily newspaper Kathmandu Post reported Sunday.
The plane was carrying 68 passengers and four crew members, the newspaper reported, quoting a spokesperson for Yeti Airlines.
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal said the plane was flying from the capital, Kathmandu, to Pokhara in central Nepal, and urged security personnel and the general public to help with the rescue efforts.
The resort town of Pokhara is 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of Kathmandu.
Images and videos shared on Twitter showed plumes of smoke billowing from the crash site as rescue workers and crowds of people gathered around the wreckage of the aircraft.
Nepal has had a spotty air safety record.
Last year, 22 people died when a plane crashed on a mountainside in Nepal. In 2018, a US-Bangla passenger plane from Bangladesh crashed on landing in Kathmandu, killing 49 of the 71 people aboard.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/national/2023/01/15/local-media-plane-with-72-people-on-board-crashes-in-nepal-2/ | 2023-01-15 16:22:48 | 0 | https://wtmj.com/national/2023/01/15/local-media-plane-with-72-people-on-board-crashes-in-nepal-2/ |
DALLAS (AP) — Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving are just two games into figuring out how to be co-stars for the Dallas Mavericks, who are behind schedule based on last season’s surge that sparked a deep playoff run.
The Mavericks have no choice but to win games while working out the kinks because of a tightly packed Western Conference.
There’s roughly a three-game difference between home-court advantage in the first round and missing the playoffs altogether, and second-year coach Jason Kidd accepts that reality a year after a strong second half that sent the Mavs on their way to the West finals.
“This would be a good time to have that kick, but again, with Kai, we’re still getting to know each other,” Kidd said Wednesday as the club returned from the All-Star break with a practice a day before starting a six-game homestand against San Antonio.
With that, Kidd smiled and referred to the last time Doncic and Irving were on the court together with the Mavs, when they passed back and forth multiple times and didn’t get a shot off in the final seconds of a 124-121 loss to Minnesota.
“There’s going to be some times when you can see those two out there playing catch with one another,” Kidd said. “Hopefully that’s over. One of them will shoot the ball, I guarantee.”
Irving missed the last game before the break with back tightness, and solo Doncic wasn’t enough in a 118-109 loss at Denver when Dallas trailed by as many as 21 points.
Doncic was out for Irving debut’s because of a heel injury that sidelined him for four games. The pair is 0-2 together, but barring injury, Dallas can expect Doncic and Irving to be together on the court in most, if not all, of its 22 remaining games.
Center Dwight Powell is one of the starters tasked with helping the new pairing work.
“At the end of the day, I’ve just got to be ready for the opportunities they’re creating because they gravity of those two is insane,” Powell said. “Having them out there at the same time, I really got to be ready for a multitude of situations, and their creativity means I have to be making decisions on the fly.
“It’s a lot of film. It’s getting used to guys in practice. But it’s one of those things that comes with time. Looking forward to how we all kind of grow together over these next few games.”
A year ago, the Mavs started their surge around the new year, finishing fourth in the West and beating Utah twice without an injured Doncic in a six-game series win in the first round.
After blowing out Phoenix on the road in Game 7 of the West semifinals, Dallas lost to Golden State in five before the Warriors won the title.
The roster wasn’t quite the same this season after Jalen Brunson, a huge part of the first-round win over Utah, left for New York in free agency. A similar surge hasn’t happened.
There’s plenty of time for the Mavs to get back to where they finished in the standings last season, maybe even higher, if their All-Star tandem can reach its potential.
“It’s beautiful to watch someone so creative play the game the way he does,” Powell said, referring to Irving but aware he’s been watching something similar from Doncic for five seasons. “To have two guys that are at that level of mastery is exciting for us around them and gives us a crazy amount of firepower. It’s on us to remain ready.”
Irving had 32 points, a game-high 15 assists and played a Team LeBron-high 29 minutes in a 184-175 All-Star Game loss to Team Giannis. Doncic, a fellow Team LeBron starter, played 19 minutes and scored four points.
Now the numbers will be more similar — both scored in the 20s in their debut together and in the 30s against the Timberwolves. And both will be pushing 40 minutes per game, another issue for Kidd to sort out.
The soon-to-be 24-year-old Doncic probably won’t play every minute after halftime, which he has done several times while remaining neck-and-neck with Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid in the scoring race.
“For Kai, I think it’s just a matter of the time spent on and off the floor with the guys,” Kidd said. “With the break, everybody kind of goes their separate way. We’ve got 22 games left. Now it’s just about connecting not only on the floor but off the floor. He’s an adult. He knows how to do that.”
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.texomashomepage.com/sports/ap-mavs-need-wins-in-tight-west-as-doncic-irving-try-to-mesh/ | 2023-02-23 21:49:56 | 0 | https://www.texomashomepage.com/sports/ap-mavs-need-wins-in-tight-west-as-doncic-irving-try-to-mesh/ |
A newly unveiled proposal aimed at reforming the Electoral Count Act, a widely criticized 135-year-old law governing the process of casting and counting Electoral College votes, has garnered widespread support among election experts.
The 1887 Electoral Count Act has long been lambasted by legal experts, who argue the law is poorly written, vague and antiquated.
"Imagine that there was a law on the books requiring you to travel by horse and buggy. That is literally what the Electoral Count Act is like," Rebecca Green, co-director of the election law program at the College of William & Mary, told Here & Now.
The proposed changes, mapped out Wednesday by a bipartisan group of senators, are aimed at ensuring a peaceful transition of power, a tradition that came under threat in 2021, when then-President Donald Trump led a pressure campaign on state and congressional lawmakers, and his own vice president, to overturn the election results.
The reforms would clarify that the vice president has a "solely ministerial" role in counting Electoral College votes as president of the Senate, and make it harder for lawmakers to challenge a state's electoral votes.
Lawmakers have warned that waiting to address the flaws in the existing law could lead to additional confusion and chaos in subsequent elections, as many fear a repeat of 2021.
"If you're not sleeping well at night about the 2024 election, I think you can sleep a lot better if this bill passes," Ned Foley, director of the election law program at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, told Here & Now.
Thus far, the proposed changes have received broad support — though some on the left say they don't go far enough.
Yuval Levin, a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, praised the proposal as "constructive, balanced, and very promising."
"This is a very good set of reforms," Levin wrote in an op-ed in the National Review. "The bulk of them are directed to avoiding a repeat of the sorts of problems we saw in 2020 — a situation in which the states all did their jobs but members of Congress, at the behest of the defeated incumbent president, moved to sow doubt about the outcome by capitalizing on the vagueness and looseness of the ECA."
Similarly, Andy Craig of the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute wrote the existing law is a "ticking time bomb and an invitation to a constitutional crisis" and called the proposed reform a "major step forward in fixing that problem."
"Between concerns that this bill would be too narrow and only make cosmetic changes at the behest of Republicans, versus prior Democratic plans that went too far and were overcomplicated, this announcement strikes a happy medium," Craig wrote.
The proposal is also getting support from other corners.
The nonpartisan organization Business for America is mobilizing the business community with a sign-on letter to support the passage of the Electoral Count Reform Act.
"The future of our republic relies upon effective election administration, public trust in the results, and the peaceful transfer of power — and so do our markets and businesses," Sarah Bonk, the founder and CEO of Business for America, said in a statement. "Our country cannot afford a constitutional crisis."
Foley, of Ohio State, noted that the timing of passing the reformed legislation is critical.
"It's to each party's advantage now behind the veil of ignorance to lock in place these procedures, because as much as people are focusing on maybe one party trying to make mischief, you know, after the 2024 elections, either party could make mischief under the current system," he said. "And so that's why it's much better to have both parties now agree to eliminate all possibility of mischief."
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wunc.org/2022-07-22/proposed-reforms-for-the-electoral-count-act-draw-broad-support | 2022-07-23 02:07:34 | 1 | https://www.wunc.org/2022-07-22/proposed-reforms-for-the-electoral-count-act-draw-broad-support |
BEIJING, Feb. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- A news report from Beijing Review:
Mizhi, a county in the northwestern province of Shaanxi, is reputed to be a producer of high-quality millet, one of the oldest cultivated grains in the world. Farmers there have, in the past, been unable to find a market for their millet due to a lack of visibility. However, the emergence of e-commerce is helping them secure livelihoods from the crop.
"The purchasing price of local millet has doubled since 2016, when I started the business," Zhang Xiongbiao, founding General Manager of the Shaanxi Young Entrepreneurs League E-Commerce Co. Ltd., told Beijing Review.
Zhang started his business together with another 20 local young people, signing exclusive agreements with growers to purchase their millet and selling it through online channels. To date, Zhang's business has provided more than 6,000 households of growers with livelihoods, helping them increase their income and escape poverty.
Private businesses like Zhang's, which make up 90 percent of the number of market entities nationwide, have been playing an indispensable role in all aspects of China's social and economic development. They currently contribute more than 50 percent of the country's tax revenue, 60 percent of its GDP, 70 percent of technological innovation and 80 percent of urban employment.
"The private sector is the source of vitality for China's economic development," Yang Yiqing, Deputy Director of Zhejiang Businessman Research Institute, a think tank under Zhejiang Gongshang University, told Beijing Review. "To a great extent, it determines the growth potential of employment and consumption."
"At present, the most important thing is to lift market access restrictions on private investment and shore up the confidence of entrepreneurs to tide them over difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and shrinking exports and consumption," Yang said.
Central authorities have been reiterating the stance on providing an enabling environment for private enterprises and facilitating their growth to revitalize the economy.
It's never easy for private entrepreneurs to pursue careers. Zhang still remembers how hard it was to purchase new millet from growers in the first year of his company. "They were unwilling to sell new harvests as the millet of previous years remained unsold," he said. Worse still, Zhang, previously a designer, knew little about e-commerce and had to start from scratch. Even his offices were offered for free by the government at an e-commerce industrial park.
Things got better as e-commerce began to take off around the nation. The sector also received a boost from the government for its significant role in alleviating poverty and rural revitalization. Particularly, numerous live-commerce events on major e-commerce platforms and surging media reports have increased exposure for more agricultural product brands. Zhang has ridden the momentum and seized the opportunities as they have come along.
Then came the COVID-19 pandemic. Many places imposed movement restrictions to curb the spread of the virus, but they disrupted the nation's logistics industry. "Some customers were unwilling to wait for extended delivery times. We also had difficulties hiring new employees due to the restrictions," Zhang said.
Chinese authorities continued to send positive signals, emphasizing the need to consolidate and develop the public sector of the economy, and at the same time encourage, support and guide the development of private enterprises.
The Central Economic Work Conference in December 2022, which outlined priorities for the government's economic work in 2023, underlined law-based protection of the property rights of private enterprises and the interests of entrepreneurs.
Inspired by positive policy signals and optimized COVID-19 response measures, Zhang shows strong confidence toward the future.
"Our e-commerce business centered solely on millet sales at the beginning, but now we have set up a millet primary processing base and our own logistics networks," he said, adding he has invested 120 million yuan ($17.6 million) in infrastructure construction and upgrading.
"We're able to expand business activities and people are tending to consume more as pandemic controls have been eased, which indicates bright prospects," Zhang said.
Despite these advances, discussions on the relationship between government and private companies continue. China's efforts to regulate market order, such as rectifying chaos in the Internet and extracurricular tutoring industries, were misinterpreted by some as a crackdown on the private sector.
Yang believes "the dynamic balance between development and regulation is an art" and that pacing development is like riding a bicycle: Too fast is risky but too slow makes it easy to fall over.
"With clear and detailed rules and regulations, the government needs to create a law-based business environment, and enterprises should operate according to law," Song Xiangqing, Director of the Research Center for Industrial Economy at Beijing Normal University, told Beijing Review.
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SOURCE Beijing Review | https://www.weau.com/prnewswire/2023/02/27/china-ramps-up-support-private-businesses/ | 2023-02-27 16:47:56 | 0 | https://www.weau.com/prnewswire/2023/02/27/china-ramps-up-support-private-businesses/ |
Prestigious international awards program honors Futurex for innovative and robust encryption solutions for enterprises
BULVERDE, Texas, Oct. 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Futurex, a leader in hardened, enterprise-class data security solutions, today announced that it has won of the "Enterprise Encryption Solution of the Year" award in the 6th annual CyberSecurity Breakthrough Awards program conducted by CyberSecurity Breakthrough, a leading independent market intelligence organization that recognizes the top companies, technologies and products in the global information security markets today. This year's program attracted more than 4,100 nominations from more than 20 different countries throughout the world.
"We are honored to be recognized by CyberSecurity Breakthrough again this year for our enterprise encryption solutions," said Ryan Smith, Vice President of Business Development at Futurex. "Futurex offers an industry-leading solution suite that has developed independently over time, allowing us to focus on the core needs of our customers. This has led to industry-first innovation and recognized excellence. Critical to Futurex's continued success is our commitment to our employees: by focusing on employee success, we retain a capable, motivated workforce with decades of industry knowledge."
Futurex's innovative hardware security modules (HSMs), key management servers, and cloud HSM solutions address mission-critical data encryption and key management needs. Futurex offers HSMs as well as full key lifecycle management, application encryption, cloud key management, remote key distribution, and tokenization. The Base Architecture Model (BAM) shared across all Futurex solutions is a common code base that makes it easy for enterprises to roll out updates and quickly make changes across groups of devices. This level of interoperability helps enterprises seeking to streamline their infrastructure by adopting a single-vendor solution.
According to James Johnson, managing director, CyberSecurity Breakthrough, "Encryption lies at the foundation of most, if not all, cybersecurity technologies – and as more devices and infrastructure become connected to the internet, this presents a growing problem. There are several core competencies at the heart of Futurex's recent success although they have been in the hardware encryption business for over 40 years. In recent years, the company has been gaining global recognition for its innovative cryptographic solutions and high-profile technology partnerships. Congratulations to Futurex for being our pick for 2022's "Enterprise Encryption Solution of the Year."
About Futurex
For more than 40 years, Futurex has been a trusted provider of hardened, enterprise-class data security solutions. More than 15,000 organizations worldwide, including financial services providers and corporate enterprises, have used Futurex's innovative hardware security modules, key management servers, and enterprise-class cloud solutions to address their mission-critical systems, data security, and cryptographic needs. This includes the secure encryption, storage, transmission, and certification of sensitive data. For more information, please visit futurex.com.
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SOURCE Futurex | https://www.weau.com/prnewswire/2022/10/06/futurex-wins-enterprise-encryption-solution-year-award-2022-cybersecurity-breakthrough-awards-program/ | 2022-10-06 14:56:22 | 0 | https://www.weau.com/prnewswire/2022/10/06/futurex-wins-enterprise-encryption-solution-year-award-2022-cybersecurity-breakthrough-awards-program/ |
Black victims of violent crime disproportionately denied aid in many states
(AP) - The cold formality of the letter is seared in Debra Long’s memory.
It began “Dear Claimant,” and said her 24-year-old son, Randy, who was fatally shot in April 2006, was not an “innocent” victim. Without further explanation, the New York state agency that assists violent-crime victims and their families refused to help pay for his funeral.
Randy was a father, engaged to be married and studying to become a juvenile probation officer when his life was cut short during a visit to Brooklyn with friends. His mother, angry and bewildered by the letter, wondered: What did authorities see — or fail to see — in Randy?
“It felt racial. It felt like they saw a young African American man who was shot and killed and assumed he must have been doing something wrong,” Long said. “But believe me when I say, not my son.”
Debra Long had bumped up against a well-intentioned corner of the criminal justice system that is often perceived as unfair.
Every state has a program to reimburse victims for lost wages, medical bills, funerals and other expenses, awarding hundreds of millions in aid each year. But an Associated Press examination found that Black victims and their families are disproportionately denied compensation in many states, often for subjective reasons that experts say are rooted in racial biases.
The AP found disproportionately high denial rates in 19 out of 23 states willing to provide detailed racial data, the largest collection of such data to date. In some states, including Indiana, Georgia and South Dakota, Black applicants were nearly twice as likely as white applicants to be denied. From 2018 through 2021, the denials added up to thousands of Black families each year collectively missing out on millions of dollars in aid.
The reasons for the disparities are complex and eligibility rules vary somewhat by state, but experts — including leaders of some of the programs — point to a few common factors:
— State employees reviewing applications often base decisions on information from police reports and follow-up questionnaires that seek officers’ opinions of victims’ behavior — both of which may contain implicitly biased descriptions of events.
— Those same employees may be influenced by their own biases when reviewing events that led to victims’ injuries or deaths. Without realizing it, a review of the facts morphs into an assessment of victims’ perceived culpability.
— Many state guidelines were designed decades ago with biases that benefited victims who would make the best witnesses, disadvantaging those with criminal histories, unpaid fines or addictions, among others.
As the wider criminal justice system — from police departments to courts — reckons with institutional racism in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd, compensation programs are also beginning to scrutinize how their policies affect people of color.
“We have this long history in victims services in this country of fixating on whether people are bad or good,” said Elizabeth Ruebman, an expert with a national network of victims-compensation advocates and a former adviser to New Jersey’s attorney general on the state’s program.
As a result, Black and brown applicants tend to face more scrutiny because of implicit biases, Ruebman said.
In some states examined by AP, such as New York and Nebraska, the denial rates for Black and white applicants weren’t too far apart. But the data revealed apparent bias in other ways: While white families were more likely to be denied for administrative reasons, such as missing deadlines or seeking aid for crimes that aren’t covered, Black families were more likely to be denied for subjective reasons, such as whether they may have said or done something to provoke a violent crime.
In Delaware, where Black applicants accounted for less than half of the compensation requests between 2018 and 2021 but more than 63% of denials, officials acknowledged that even the best of intentions are no match for systemic bias.
“State compensation programs are downstream resources in a criminal justice system whose headwaters are inextricably commingled with the history of racial inequity in our country,” Mat Marshall, a spokesman for Delaware’s attorney general wrote in an email. “Even race-neutral policy at the programmatic level may not accomplish neutral outcomes under the shadows that race and criminal justice cast on one another.”
The financial impact of a crime-related injury or death can be significant. Out of pocket expenses for things like crime scene cleanup or medical care can add up to thousands of dollars, prompting people to take out loans, drain savings or rely on family members.
After Randy was killed, Debra Long paid for his funeral with money she had saved for a down payment on her first house. Seventeen years later, she still rents an apartment in Poughkeepsie, New York.
Thousands of people are denied compensation every year for reasons having nothing to do with the crime itself. They are denied because of victims’ behavior before or after a crime.
Applicants can be denied if police or other officials say they failed to cooperate with an investigation. That can inadvertently harm people who are wary of retribution for talking to police, or people who don’t have information. A Chicago woman who was shot in the back was denied for failing to cooperate even though she couldn’t identify the shooter because she never saw the person.
And compensation can be denied merely based on circumstantial evidence or suspicions, unlike the burden of proof that is necessary in criminal investigations.
Many states deny compensation based on a vaguely defined category of behavior — often called “contributory misconduct” — that includes anything from using an insult during a fight to having drugs in your system. Other times people have been denied because police found drugs on the ground nearby.
In the data examined by AP, Black applicants were almost three times as likely as applicants of other races to be denied for behavior-based reasons, including contributory misconduct.
“A lot of times it’s perception,” said Chantay Love, the executive director of the Every Murder is Real Healing Center in Philadelphia.
Love rattles off recent examples: A man killed while trying to break up a fight was on parole and was denied compensation, the state reasoned, because he should have steered clear of the incident; another was stabbed to death, and the state said he contributed because he checked himself out of a mental-health treatment facility a few hours earlier against a doctor’s advice.
Long scoured the police account of her son’s shooting. She called detectives and pleaded to know if they had said anything to the Office of Victims Services that would have implicated her son in some kind of a crime. There was nothing in the report. And detectives said they hadn’t submitted any additional information.
Every chance Long got, she reminded detectives and the state officials reviewing her claim that Randy had never been in trouble with the police. She wanted them to understand the injustice was also being felt by Randy’s then-toddler son, who would only know his father through other people’s memories.
Long kept information about her son’s case in a box near her kitchen. As more than 20 notebooks full of conversations with detectives piled up, Long tucked the state’s rejection letter inside a folder so she wouldn’t lose it, but also so she didn’t have to see it every time she searched for something.
“What plays in their mind is that their loved one wasn’t important,” said Love of the Philadelphia-based advocacy group. “It takes the power away from it being a homicide, and it creates a portion of blame for the victim.”
In recent years, several states and cities have changed eligibility rules to focus less on victims’ behavior before or after crimes.
In Pennsylvania, a law went into effect in September that says applicants cannot be denied financial help with funerals or counseling services because of a homicide victim’s behavior. In Illinois, a new program director has retrained employees on ways unconscious bias can creep into their decisions. And in Newark, New Jersey, police have changed the language they use in reports to describe interactions with victims, leading to fewer denials for failure to cooperate.
Long, who now works as a victims advocate, was in a training in 2021 when a speaker began praising New York state’s compensation program. Long tried to stay quiet and get through the training, but couldn’t. She told the group about her experience and the weight of the letter.
Later, an Office of Victims Services employee approached Long and convinced her to reapply, saying the agency had been improved through training and other changes that would benefit her case. A few weeks later, and nearly 15 years after Randy was buried, Long’s application was approved and the state sent her a check for $6,000 — the amount she would have received back in 2006. She used part of that money to help Randy’s son, who is now in college, pay for summer classes.
“It’s not about the monetary amount,” Long said. “It was the way I felt I was treated.”
___
Catalini reported from Trenton, New Jersey and Lauer reported from Philadelphia.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.cleveland19.com/2023/05/17/black-victims-violent-crime-disproportionately-denied-aid-many-states/ | 2023-05-17 12:13:02 | 1 | https://www.cleveland19.com/2023/05/17/black-victims-violent-crime-disproportionately-denied-aid-many-states/ |
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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/telegraph-journal/102090262 | 2023-04-04 20:01:07 | 1 | https://tj.news/telegraph-journal/102090262 |
Whether it may be boots on Normandy or manned hours behind a desk, thousands of hours of local legacies are being submitted to the Library of Congress, where they will live on with a national audience, thanks to local Veteran John McHenry.
The project, which is a partnership between McHenry and the Portsmouth Public Library, has witnessed the telling of over 200 stories through recorded video from local veterans.
McHenry said that the project began after he read a book and was left inspired.
“I read a book called The Greatest Generation and there was a story in there that kind of reminded me a little bit, in some relation, to my dad, who was killed in the war,” McHenry said. “I got to thinking about the book and the stories within the book and realized we are losing these guys and their stories needed to be preserved, so I started recording people. I started recording veterans.”
McHenry’s project began in 1999, ran for some time before a break, and then returned, fiercely, in 2016.
“I really had to get back to work, but, after some time, I started to realize I really missed these guys and their stories. I wondered where I would have been if I had kept going,” McHenry said. “We’ve been back at it for six years now and, geez, there is one guy—to give you an idea of the impact, because it does have an impact—one of the very first recordings I did was for a man named Ray Mullen. He lived in South Webster and was a teacher and I think Superintendent for a while, but, man, he landed in Normandy. He was there in 1944, as part of the D Day Invasion. He passed away a few years ago and his son has told me, ‘Ya know, I watch that all the time and it brings tears to my eye,’ It just has an impact on people. There was another, I don’t remember which video it was, but a young girl called the library and said she had never met, saw, talked to her grandfather before until she looked at that tape and it just brought her to tears. These are things that are meaningful to people.”
So far, there are well over four straight days of recorded experiences, with each video averaging 30 minutes. While that is an average, few last at a shorter recording, but some go as far as an hour. The longest video is nearly two hours. All videos are open to the public, outside of one particularly emotional video that is limited to family.
The early days of the project began with VHS recording tapes, which were shelved in the library for people to view. Today, the videos are digitally recorded and are uploaded on the library’s website and YouTube.
The recordings go on today and two notables who are getting videos in coming weeks include baseball legend Al Oliver and musician Steve Free.
“You learn that, sometimes, ordinary people can do absolutely extraordinary things,” McHenry said. “If you’re in line at Kroger and the old guy in front of you just seems like an old guy in front of ya, he may have a story. He might have walked across France with a rifle. He may have climbed a mountain with a heavy pack or sweated in a desert or through the jungle. You just learn about the reservoir of courage and the ability of ordinary people to do extraordinary things. It is incredibly. It is thrilling, in a way.”
McHenry says it is an honor to have the videos selected to join the Library of Congress.
“We are thrilled at quite an honor. We are thrilled they are interested in our little collection,” McHenry said. “It means that people from this area have a national audience now. Veterans in Scioto County have a national, well, worldwide, audience now.”
The videos join thousands of others that have been collected by the Library of Congress.
“To be part of something to prestigious, so important as the Library of Congress, is thrilling and is something everybody in Scioto County can be proud of, particularly the veterans,” McHenry said.
Reach Joseph Pratt at (740) 353-3101, by email at [email protected], © 2022 Portsmouth Daily Times, all rights reserved | https://www.portsmouth-dailytimes.com/news/79691/mchenry-collection-added-to-library-of-congress | 2022-09-09 02:51:00 | 1 | https://www.portsmouth-dailytimes.com/news/79691/mchenry-collection-added-to-library-of-congress |
PITTSBURGH, Dec. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- "I thought there could be a better way for police to locate a stolen vehicle," said an inventor, from Mentone, Ala., "so I invented the TAG TRACKING DEVICE. My design could save valuable time when investigating criminal acts involving vehicles and improve the Amber Alert system."
The patent-pending invention provides an effective tracking device for a vehicle license plate. In doing so, it enables law enforcement to locate the vehicle if it is involved in criminal activity. As a result, it could enhance safety and convenience. The invention features an innovative design that is easy to activate so it is ideal for vehicle owners and manufacturers. Additionally, it is producible in design variations and a prototype model is available upon request.
The original design was submitted to the Birmingham sales office of InventHelp. It is currently available for licensing or sale to manufacturers or marketers. For more information, write Dept. 21-BRK-4160, InventHelp, 217 Ninth Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15222, or call (412) 288-1300 ext. 1368. Learn more about InventHelp's Invention Submission Services at http://www.InventHelp.com
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SOURCE InventHelp | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2022/12/01/inventhelp-inventor-develops-new-license-plate-tracking-device-brk-4160/ | 2022-12-01 16:56:13 | 0 | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2022/12/01/inventhelp-inventor-develops-new-license-plate-tracking-device-brk-4160/ |
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Republican candidate for Wisconsin governor endorsed by Donald Trump would not commit Monday to supporting Trump should he run for president again in 2024, but also didn’t rule out trying to decertify his 2020 loss in the battleground state.
Trump-backed candidate Tim Michels, at a town hall event a week before the Aug. 9 primary, also said he did not think Trump did anything wrong on Jan. 6, 2021. Former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, who is endorsed by former Vice President Mike Pence, said she would support whoever wins the Republican primary for president in 2024.
A third candidate who has made decertification the keystone of his candidacy, state Rep. Tim Ramthun, also did not commit to endorsing Trump in 2024 should he run for president.
The winner of next week’s primary will advance to face Democratic Gov. Tony Evers in November. Whoever wins will be governor during the 2024 presidential race and in position to sign, or veto, election law changes passed by Wisconsin’s conservative-controlled Legislature.
Trump has hung heavy over the Republican primary race for governor. He endorsed Michels, who co-owns an energy and infrastructure construction company, passing over Kleefisch who served eight years as lieutenant governor under Scott Walker. She scored an endorsement from Pence last week.
Trump has scheduled a rally in a conservative Milwaukee suburb on Friday night.
Michels said he won Trump’s endorsement because he is a businessman and political outsider. But he refused to say he would support Trump in 2024.
“2024? I’m focused on this election right now,” Michels said. “I have made no commitment to any candidates in 2024. What I am focused on is beating Tony Evers.”
Kleefisch said, “I will support the Republican nominee and it looks like we have an assortment to choose from.”
Ramthun, who polls show is far behind Michels and Kleefisch, said 2024 was “going to be a whole new game” and he will support whoever wins the primary.
Ramthun has pushed for decertification of the 2020 election, which Trump lost to President Joe Biden in Wisconsin by nearly 21,000 votes. The outcome has withstood two partial recounts, multiple lawsuits, a nonpartisan audit and a review by a conservative law firm. A review by a former conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court justice also did not turn up evidence to overturn Biden’s win.
Michels did not rule out signing a bill to decertify Trump’s loss, even though legal experts, including conservative attorneys, have said it is unconstitutional and impossible to do. Michels said if elected governor he would look at all the evidence of what happened in the 2020 election and “everything will be on the table.”
Kleefisch, in her strongest comments to date on the issue, ruled out decertification.
“It’s not constitutionally possible,” she said. “There is no path to decertifying an election that has already happened.”
All three of the candidates said they would accept the results of next week’s primary election.
As for the Jan. 6 insurrection, Michels and Kleefisch blamed those who stormed the Capitol but not Trump for what happened after his “Stop the Steal” rally.
“Donald Trump, he had a rally,” Michels said. ““I haven’t see any evidence that Donald Trump said ‘Go to the Capitol now and storm it.’ I don’t think he would have done it. … I don’t think he did anything wrong.”
Kleefisch said, “Ultimately those people who stormed the Capitol are responsible for what they did.”
More than 840 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the riot. Over 340 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors. More than 220 have been sentenced, with nearly half of them receiving terms of imprisonment. Approximately 150 others have trial dates stretching into 2023.
A special U.S. House committee continues to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection and Trump’s role in it.
The town hall, hosted by WISN-TV in Milwaukee, was the last scheduled joint appearance by the Republican candidates before the election. | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/trump-backed-wis-candidate-wont-commit-to-backing-him/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world | 2022-08-02 01:25:36 | 0 | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/trump-backed-wis-candidate-wont-commit-to-backing-him/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world |
Coco Republic Executive Leadership Team Bolstered
LOS ANGELES and SYDNEY, Aug. 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The new financial year marks a new beginning at Coco Republic with two key appointments to spearhead the accelerated global expansion, initially focused on the California market. Coco Republic is pleased to announce its executive leadership team has been significantly bolstered by the appointment of Eric Bauer as Global CEO and Skye Westcott as President of North America.
Bauer, a seasoned business leader has more than 30 years of leadership experience in developing and executing significant global growth strategies across industries at leading public and private global brands including International Vitamin Corporation, Gap, and PepsiCo.
Westcott brings nearly 40 years of omnichannel leadership experience in merchandising, marketing, product design and global sourcing. Most recently, Westcott was part of the leadership team at Ballard Designs and previously held senior positions at Arhaus, Lillian August Designs, as well as Coco Republic-owned brand, HD Buttercup.
Bauer and Westcott's collective extensive experience will strongly complement the current team, building on the solid foundation and growth potential, positioning the company for global expansion with the US as the first new priority market.
In welcoming this change, Coco Republic Chairman Peter Comisar and Managing Partner of control shareholder STORY3 Capital Partners commented, "Eric has a demonstrated track record of operational excellence in managing global organizations. His disciplined financial and operational capabilities are a perfect complement to the creative leadership of founding family member and creative director Anthony Spon-Smith. Skye is a world-class merchant with an unparalleled understanding of the US consumer and furniture industry. She is an invaluable addition to our US team as we prepare to introduce Coco Republic to the California market."
Bauer added, "Coco Republic is an exciting opportunity to introduce the leading Australian furniture and lifestyle brand to a global consumer. We believe that our product design ethos and Australian essence will resonate globally enabling us to build a global community, be an influential design-lead authority and act as a guide to those who seek a well-designed life."
Coco Republic's design ethos has been well-received by the US market, as seen by its successful US wholesale partnership with Restoration Hardware and HD Buttercup.
Coco Republic acquired all the assets and intellectual property of the storied California home furniture retailer HD Buttercup in October 2021. The Buttercup operations and store base opens the doors to Coco Republic's accelerated regional roll-out. Evan Cole, the founder of HD Buttercup and furniture industry veteran, has assumed a position on the Company's Board of Directors.
In October 2022, Coco Republic will anchor its highly anticipated US brand launch with the first flagship location in Union Square, San Francisco. In late 2022, HD Buttercup's Culver City location will be converted into Coco Republic's second flagship location.
"We are incredibly excited to introduce our brand to the California market and inspire a new world of consumers to design beautiful interiors. Our partnership with STORY3 has been a tremendous catalyst in executing our strategy and the new growth capital investment is a testament to the strength of our brand and the potential we see ahead," said Creative Director and Vice Chairman Anthony Spon-Smith. The leadership additions of Bauer and Westcott will play a significant role in cementing the brand globally as a leading design-led Australian luxury furniture and lifestyle brand and leading the next phase of the company's growth and success.
Established in 1979, Coco Republic is recognized today as one of Australia and New Zealand's leading premium furniture and design brands. Renowned for its state-of-the-art innovation and paring of luxury textures and materials, the brand has a striking and unique aesthetic. Coco Republic cherishes the art of craftsmanship, resulting in timeless and immaculate pieces.
Led by Anthony Spon-Smith, Australia's most talented visionary in product design, Anthony's eye for detail and forward thinking mindset has propelled the brand to new markets, attracting customers across the globe. Coco Republic has 15 showrooms in Australia and New Zealand, with an e-commerce site servicing both markets. This Fall, the brand will launch in the United States with plans to expand its retail footprint, starting with their first store in San Francisco. For more information, please visit cocorepublic.com.au.
STORY3 Capital Partners is a leading alternative investment manager exclusively focused on compelling consumer facing companies, disruptive brands and businesses at the intersection of consumer and sustainability.
Since the firm's inception in October 2018, the STORY3 team has sourced, arranged and executed over $1 billion of capital transactions within its thesis and sectoral focus.
STORY3 employs a flexible investment strategy and pairs deep industry expertise, global relationships, operating support, and unique transactional experience to support value creation for its partners. For more information, please visit story3capital.com.
For media inquiries, please contact:
Natalie Culina, Head of Marketing & Merchandising, natalieculina@cocorepublic.com.au
The Consultancy PR, cocorepublic@theconsultancypr.com
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SOURCE Coco Republic | https://www.kalb.com/prnewswire/2022/08/19/coco-republic-executive-leadership-team-bolstered-amp-us-flagship-open-october-2022/ | 2022-08-19 13:21:22 | 0 | https://www.kalb.com/prnewswire/2022/08/19/coco-republic-executive-leadership-team-bolstered-amp-us-flagship-open-october-2022/ |
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — How much is a dollar bill worth? For rare currency collectors, it’s a broad question, and for one type of U.S. banknote, it’s even broader.
The $2 bill, first printed in 1862, is hard to find due to its lack of use. There have been several editions of the $2 bill, with the most recent version designed in 1963, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.
Depending on which version of the $2 bill you’ve got on hand, in a wallet, or kept in a safety deposit box, may feature a portrait of America’s first Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers, Alexander Hamilton.
After a redesign in 1869, the portrait changed to Thomas Jefferson, another Founding Father and the third President of the United States, according to the U.S. Treasury’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
Depending on which version of the bill you’ve got, it could be worth far more than just the $2 printed on the front and back.
According to online auction service U.S. Currency Auctions, if the bill was minted and printed before 1976, when the most recent printing started, the bill could actually be worth as much as $4,500. However, even with notes printed in the same year, different versions have different values for collectors.
One of the main factors in determining a bill’s worth is whether or not it was in circulation.
An original print of the $2 bill from 1862 can range in value from $500 at its lowest for a circulated note, to more than $2,800 if uncirculated, the USCA determined based on the average prices of recent and past currency auction results.
The highest value for a $2 note was found on 1890 Treasury Note versions, with the circulated version worth between $550 and $2,500, or at least $4,500 if uncirculated. The collector value is the same for both versions of the 1890 bill, either with a brown seal or a red one.
The note with the most value after that is an 1869 U.S. note, which is typically worth between $500 and $1,200 if circulated and as much as $3,800 if not, according to USCA.
Even though the print is less common, $2 bills are still being printed (160 million entered circulation in 2019) and count as legal tender. You can even pick them up at a bank, though it’ll likely only feature the design that took to the presses in 1976.
Because they’re still circulating, most $2 bills are worth exactly that – $2. Any $2 bill dating back to 1976 that has been in circulation – and any uncirculated versions since 2003 – are worth only their face value, USCA says. Uncirculated bills between 1976 and 2003 range in estimated value from $2.25 to as much as $500.
As Professional Coin Grading Services explains, if your $2 bill is relatively recent and “has no special markings, errors, or other oddities,” it likely isn’t worth much more than its intended value. | https://www.conchovalleyhomepage.com/news/national-news/2-or-more-how-rarely-seen-bills-could-be-worth-beyond-their-printed-value/ | 2023-02-21 12:46:53 | 0 | https://www.conchovalleyhomepage.com/news/national-news/2-or-more-how-rarely-seen-bills-could-be-worth-beyond-their-printed-value/ |
Like many entrepreneurs, Jennifer J. Matchett is a serial inventor. She’s sold vintage clothing and opened a macaron bakery. But it’s her wildly successful jewelry and accessories business, Machete, which she helms out of a Marietta studio, that has won national acclaim.
When she was selling vintage clothing, she often came across random deadstock, or unsold inventory, such as a cache of Benetton eyewear she found in Egypt or a mess of T-shirts. She was particularly intrigued by a lot of leftover Italian acetate, a marbled-looking material made from resin and plastic, which she thought would be perfect for an accessories line she’d been wanting to launch. By using deadstock, Matchett’s collection would also be sustainable, a quality she’d learned to value from her mother, who restored antiques. “I recognized at a very early age that, if something is well made and cared for, it would last forever,” she says.
Her first product was a hoop earring, which caught the eye of Vogue via Instagram. “I didn’t really anticipate that it would sell all that well,” she says, instead focusing on the creative fulfillment of her enterprise. But she’d underestimated herself—her line took off. Five years later, she now offers acetate jewelry, eyewear, hair accessories, and Apple Watch bands, plus two recent additions: acetate hairbrushes and wristwatches.
The collection of three wristwatches, launched this winter, is the culmination of years of challenges. “It’s been difficult because I wanted a watch with an acetate face, but the construction and [wearers’] body temperatures and outdoor temperatures don’t necessarily agree,” she says. “The logo would slide down, or the numbers would move around [on our prototypes]. It took a long time to develop.” She hopes that people can balance their smartwatches with a more classic timepiece and maintains there is room for both.
The hairbrushes come in eight colors, three sizes, and two types of bristles: detangling or boar-and-nylon (from $125). “We’ve been working on these for three years, and we finally figured it out,” Matchett says. Catch her latest at Atlanta-area shops such as W.port and Megan Huntz.
This article appears in our February 2023 issue. | https://www.atlantamagazine.com/style/local-jewelry-phenom-machete-is-one-to-watch/ | 2023-02-17 12:58:58 | 0 | https://www.atlantamagazine.com/style/local-jewelry-phenom-machete-is-one-to-watch/ |
BERLIN — A German woman was convicted Tuesday of membership in the Islamic State group and other offenses for traveling to Syria to join the organization with her young son. She was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison.
The court found that the defendant traveled to Syria in 2015 with her son, then aged 5, without the knowledge of the child’s father. It found that she ran the household and brought up her son in line with IS ideology while her new husband fought for the group, and that the couple had two Kalashnikov rifles.
The child was lucky to emerge unscathed from two bombing attacks during their time with IS, judges found. The defendant surrendered to Kurdish forces in 2019. She and her three children — two more were born in Syria — were repatriated to Germany in October last year.
The case is one of several in Germany involving women who traveled to IS-held terroritory. Last month, a German who took her young daughter to Syria and allegedly took advantage of an enslaved Yazidi woman was given a sentence of three years and three months. | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/german-woman-jailed-for-taking-son-to-syria-to-join-is/2022/07/26/8923fc98-0ce0-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html | 2022-07-26 14:05:23 | 0 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/german-woman-jailed-for-taking-son-to-syria-to-join-is/2022/07/26/8923fc98-0ce0-11ed-88e8-c58dc3dbaee2_story.html |
The Top Candy Store In All Of New Jersey Has Been Revealed
Food is one of New Jersey's favorite topics. We love cooking, grilling, eating, and dining out. And we have a legendary sweet tooth the size of our state.
So, it stands to reason that in the Garden State, we have some amazing, award-winning sweet shops and candy shops all over the state, and we really do love them all.
From the chocolate to the fudge, to the saltwater taffy and ice cream, New Jersey might just be the capital of sweets in the whole country.
It would be difficult for any of us to single out one candy shop as the best in the state. We all have our local favorites and we swear by them.
But picking the best one in the state should be left up to the experts, and they are the ones who have chosen New Jersey's top candy store.
There is no doubt that Taste of Home is qualified to make the call, and they were up to the task of picking the best candy shop in each state in America.
Their investigation must have taken them to every corner of the Garden State to come up with the best of the best, and when the research was done a decision was made.
If you're looking for the best candy shop in the state, they say you need to head to Morris County, Chester to be exact, to check out a place called Black River Candy Shoppe.
If you can get there to try some of their amazing, unending selection of sweet treats. If you can't, no worries, they ship their little pieces of heaven right to you. | https://catcountry1073.com/best-candy-store-new-jersey/ | 2023-01-27 20:45:25 | 1 | https://catcountry1073.com/best-candy-store-new-jersey/ |
ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) — ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) — Choice Hotels International Inc. (CHH) on Wednesday reported fourth-quarter earnings of $55.5 million.
On a per-share basis, the Rockville, Maryland-based company said it had profit of $1.04. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs, came to $1.26 per share.
The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.08 per share.
The hotel franchiser posted revenue of $362 million in the period, also beating Street forecasts. Six analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $351.9 million.
For the year, the company reported profit of $332.2 million, or $5.99 per share. Revenue was reported as $1.4 billion.
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This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on CHH at https://www.zacks.com/ap/CHH | https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/choice-hotels-q4-earnings-snapshot-17785483.php | 2023-02-15 12:46:04 | 0 | https://www.sfgate.com/business/article/choice-hotels-q4-earnings-snapshot-17785483.php |
PARIS (AP) — Unable to sleep the night before her first-round match at the French Open against Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, the Grand Slam tournament’s No. 2 seed, Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine checked her phone at 5 a.m. Sunday and saw disturbing news back home in Kyiv.
At least one person was killed when the capital of Kostyuk’s country was subjected to the largest drone attack by Russia since the start of its war, launched with an invasion assisted by Belarus in February 2022.
“It’s something I cannot describe, probably. I try to put my emotions aside any time I go out on court. I think I’m better than before, and I don’t think it affects me as much on a daily basis, but yeah, it’s just — I don’t know,” Kostyuk said, shaking her head. “There is not much to say, really. It’s just part of my life.”
That, then, is why Kostyuk has decided she will not exchange the usual postmatch pleasantries with opponents from Russia or Belarus. And that is why she avoided a handshake — avoided any eye contact, even — after losing to Australian Open champion Sabalenka 6-3, 6-2 on Day 1 at Roland Garros.
What surprised the 20-year-old, 39th-ranked Kostyuk on Sunday was the reaction she received from the spectators in Court Philippe Chatrier: They loudly booed and derisively whistled at her as she walked directly over to acknowledge the chair umpire instead of congratulating the winner after the lopsided result. The negative response grew louder as she gathered her belongings and walked off the court toward the locker room.
“I have to say,” Kostyuk said, “I didn’t expect it. … People should be, honestly, embarrassed.”
Kostyuk is based now in Monaco, and her mother and sister are there, too, but her father and grandfather are still in Kyiv. Perhaps the fans on hand at the clay-court event’s main stadium were unaware of the backstory and figured Kostyuk simply failed to follow usual tennis etiquette.
Initially, Sabalenka — who had approached the net as if anticipating some sort of exchange with Kostyuk — thought the noise was directed at her.
“At first, I thought they were booing me,” Sabalenka said. “I was a little confused, and I was, like, ‘OK, what should I do?”
Sabalenka tried to ask the chair umpire what was going on. She looked up at her entourage in the stands, too. Then she realized that while she is aware Kostyuk and other Ukrainian tennis players have been declining to greet opponents from Russia or Belarus after a match, the spectators might not have known — and so responded in a way Sabalenka didn’t think was deserved.
“They saw it,” she surmised, “as disrespect (for) me.”
All in all, if the tennis itself was not particularly memorable, the whole scene, including the lack of the customary prematch photo of the players following the coin toss, became the most noteworthy development on Day 1 in Paris.
The highest-seeded player to go home was No. 7 Maria Sakkari, who lost 7-6 (5), 7-5 to 42nd-ranked Karolina Muchova in what wasn’t necessarily that momentous of an upset. Both have been major semifinalists, and Muchova has won her past four Slam matches against players ranked in the top 10 — including beating Sakkari at the French Open last year. Also out: No. 21 Magda Linette, a semifinalist at the Australian Open, who lost 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 to 2021 U.S. Open runner-up Leylah Fernandez, and No. 29 Zhang Shuai.
The first seeded men to bow out were No. 20 Dan Evans and No. 30 Ben Shelton, an Australian Open quarterfinalist and 2022 NCAA champion from Florida making his French Open debut. No. 11 Karen Khachanov, a semifinalist at the past two majors, came all the way back after dropping the opening two sets to beat Constant Lestienne, a French player once banned for gambling, by a 3-6, 1-6, 6-2, 6-1, 6-3 score in front of a boisterous crowd at Court Suzanne Lenglen. Two-time Slam finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas came within a point of being forced to a fifth set, too, but got past Jiri Vesely 7-5, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (7). No. 24 Sebastian Korda, who missed three months after hurting his wrist at the Australian Open, was a straight-set winner in an all-American matchup against Mackenzie McDonald, the last player to face — and beat — Rafael Nadal. The 14-time French Open champion has been sidelined with a hip injury since that match in January.
Sabalenka called Sunday “emotionally tough” — because of mundane, tennis-related reasons, such as the nerves that come with any first-round match, but more significantly because of the unusual circumstances involving the war.
“You’re playing against (a) Ukrainian and you never know what’s going to happen. You never know how people will — will they support you or not?” explained Sabalenka, who went down an early break and trailed 3-2 before reeling off six consecutive games with powerful first-strike hitting. “I was worried, like, people will be against me, and I don’t like to play when people (are) so much against me.”
A journalist from Ukraine asked Sabalenka what her message to the world is with regard to the war, particularly in this context: She can overtake Iga Swiatek at No. 1 in the rankings based on results over the next two weeks and, therefore, serves as a role model.
“Nobody in this world, Russian athletes or Belarusian athletes, support the war. Nobody. How can we support the war? Nobody — normal people — will never support it. Why (do) we have to go loud and say that things? This is like: ‘One plus one (is) two.’ Of course we don’t support war,” Sabalenka said. “If it could affect anyhow the war, if it could like stop it, we would do it. But unfortunately, it’s not in our hands.”
When a portion of those comments was read to Kostyuk by a reporter, she responded in calm, measured tones that she doesn’t get why Sabalenka does not come out and say that “she personally doesn’t support this war.”
Kostyuk also rejected the notion that players from Russia or Belarus could be in a tough spot upon returning to those countries if they were to speak out about what is happening in Ukraine.
“I don’t know why it’s a difficult situation,” Kostyuk said with a chuckle.
“I don’t know what other players are afraid of,” she said. “I go back to Ukraine, where I can die any second from drones or missiles or whatever it is.”
___
AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.wowktv.com/sports/ap-ukraines-kostyuk-booed-at-french-open-after-no-handshake-with-belarus-sabalenka-because-of-war/ | 2023-05-28 20:35:20 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/sports/ap-ukraines-kostyuk-booed-at-french-open-after-no-handshake-with-belarus-sabalenka-because-of-war/ |
Fire on Moon Mountain prompts evacuations in Eugene
This story was updated at 11:45 p.m. Monday.
A fire on Moon Mountain briefly prompted the evacuation of eight houses on Snowberry Road in Eugene.
As of 10:45 p.m. Monday, those residents were able to return to their homes.
Crews will continue fighting the fire through the night.
A Level 1 Get Ready evacuation status remains in place for evacuation Zone 32 until at least Tuesday morning, Eugene Springfield Fire said. Zone 32 is bounded by Interstate 5, 30th Avenue and Augusta Street.
Find your zone here:
What we know about the fire
According to Eugene Springfield Fire, multiple crews are battling the 40-acre fire on the mountain south of Interstate 5 in east Eugene.
The fire was "slowly" moving toward the homes on Snowberry Road and was about 500 feet from the houses, according to a news release Eugene Springfield Fire sent out at about 9:15 p.m. Monday. Crews are in place to protect those homes and as of 10:45 p.m. bulldozers were there to put a hard line around the fire.
The fire was running up trees along the power line south of Snowberry Road but moving down hill slowly. It was moving "rapidly" toward Bloomberg Road and Mcvey Highway.
Residents should expect to see visible smoke and embers in the area of the fire through the night.
Nearby residents are asked to pay attention to emergency alert systems for the ready, set, go evacuation levels.
Emergency Alerts are sent through Everbridge. Alerts for landlines are automatic, but residents must sign up to receive alerts on a cell phone. Go to LaneAlerts.org to create a free Lane Alerts account and select where and how you would like to receive emergency alerts. Residents can also text their ZIP code to 888777.
Eugene Springfield Fire is providing updates through its Facebook page. More updates will be provided Tuesday morning as crews evaluate the need for additional resources due to expected hot and dry weather conditions Tuesday and Wednesday.
Waiting for word
Dozens of people in the East Ridge neighborhood of about 150 homes were watching and waiting Monday night.
Chris Johnson, a resident in the neighborhood, said he was out getting ice cream with his wife and three kids when their ring doorbell app went off and they saw a police officer at the door.
"He told us what was going on. We rushed home, got the dog and packed our stuff," Johnson said.
He said the truck was packed and the family and dog Kona were ready to go.
"We're just trying to see if it'll stop before it gets to the house," he said. "It's getting close."
Eugene Springfield Fire Chief Mike Caven, who was at the fire Monday night, said when crews arrived, they found the fire spreading both north and south through the Moon Mountain city park area.
"We called in additional resources throughout the county and evacuated eight homes along Snowberry here out of precaution as the fire was backing down the hill," he said.
He said a helicopter was ordered but they weren't able to secure one to assist. He said fire officials have called in hand crews and additional engine crews to support the effort throughout the night.
"Probably the most important note for everybody is there is going to be smoke and there's going to be fire seen in the perimeter of the fire overnight," he said. "Firefighters will be on scene working on putting out any hot spots and working the perimeter probably for the next two or three days."
Fire crews from Junction City, Lane Fire Authority, Lowell, Mohawk Valley and Coburg were assisting in battling the fire.
Oregon evacuation levels
Level 1- Be Ready
- Residents should be aware of the danger that exists in their area, monitor emergency services websites and local media outlets for information. This is the time for preparation and precautionary movement of persons with special needs, mobile property and (under certain circumstances) pets and livestock. If conditions worsen, emergency services personnel may contact you via an emergency notification system.
Level 2- Be Set
- You must prepare to leave at a moment's notice: This level indicates there is a significant danger to your area, and residents should either voluntarily relocate to a shelter or with family/friends outside of the affected area, or if choosing to remain, to be ready to evacuate at a moment’s notice. Residents may have time to gather necessary items, but doing so is at their own risk.
- This may be the only notice given: Emergency services cannot guarantee that they will be able to notify you if conditions rapidly deteriorate. Area media services will be asked to broadcast periodic updates.
Level 3- Leave Immediately
- Danger to your area is current or imminent, and you should evacuate immediately. If you choose to ignore this advisement, understand that emergency services may not be available to assist you further. Do not delay leaving to gather any belongings or make efforts to protect your home.
If you are advised to evacuate, take your emergency supply kit, lock your home and choose a route away from the fire hazard. Watch for changes in the speed and direction of the fire and smoke.
Tell someone when you left and where you are going. Check in with them when you arrive.
What do I bring?
If immediate evacuation is required, remember:
- People
- Pets
- Personal computer
- Prescriptions and COVID-19 masks
- Paperwork (important documents such as birth certificates, passports, insurance)
- Pictures (or other keepsakes that cannot be replaced)
- Phone (as well as chargers)
- Plastic (credit/bank cards)
If you have time, experts suggest turning on sprinklers and turning off your main gas line before you evacuate. You may also want to bring:
- Pet food and water bowls
- Map of the area and evacuation routes
- Flashlight and extra batteries
- First aid kit
- Carryon luggage with wheels/backpacks
- Clothes
- Infant formula and diapers and toys for children
- Toilet paper/wet wipes/paper towels
- Toiletries
- Duct tape/bungee cords/rope
- Tools
- Battery-powered radio and batteries
- Pocket knife
- Compass
- Sunscreen and bug spray
- Gloves
- Extra car keys
- Road flares or triangle reflectors
- Disinfectant (60% alcohol) | https://www.registerguard.com/story/news/local/2023/07/03/eugene-moon-mountain-woodfern-wildfire-fire-prompts-evacuations-alerts/70381201007/ | 2023-07-04 09:26:54 | 0 | https://www.registerguard.com/story/news/local/2023/07/03/eugene-moon-mountain-woodfern-wildfire-fire-prompts-evacuations-alerts/70381201007/ |
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday celebrated the opening of the country’s longest bridge, which took eight years to build amid setbacks involving political conflict and corruption allegations.
The 6.51-kilometer (4.04-mile) bridge spanning the Padma River cost an estimated $3.6 billion and was paid for with domestic funds after the World Bank and other global lending agencies declined to finance the project following a graft scandal involving a Canadian construction company.
The bridge, which will open to the public on Sunday, will slash the distance between the capital, Dhaka, and Bangladesh’s second largest seaport, Mongla, by 100 kilometers (62 miles).
“The bridge belongs to the people of Bangladesh. It encapsulates our passion, creativity, courage, endurance and perseverance,” Hasina said at a ceremony in Mawa, about 31 kilometers (19 miles) southwest of Dhaka.
While not directly part of China’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative, the bridge was built by the China Major Bridge Engineering Company Ltd. and is seen by Beijing as a milestone for cooperation with Bangladesh, according to a statement by China’s Ambassador Li Jiming.
The China Railway Group has said the Padma Bridge will later feature a rail network that connects with other Belt and Road projects and will serve as an important link between China and a pan-Asian rail network.
Economists say the Padma Bridge will increase Bangladesh’s gross domestic product by an additional 1.3% per year, adding to robust growth projections from the Asian Development Bank that predict Bangladesh’s $465 billion economy will grow by 6.9% in 2021-22, and 7.1% in 2022-23.
Officials said the bridge will connect at least 21 districts in the southern and southwestern regions of Bangladesh.
Experts say the construction of the bridge, which involved more than 4,000 engineers, was a major technical challenge. The underwater pilings extend 122 meters (400 feet) deep, a world record, and it requires 41 pillars. At some points in the river, the water flow volume ranks second globally only after the Amazon River.
The World Bank said in 2012 that it found elements of corruption involving a Canadian construction firm in the plans for the Padma Bridge and decided to stay away from funding $1.2 billion for the project.
The decision prompted other lending agencies including the Asian Development Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency and Islamic Development Bank to distance themselves from the project. Hasina then said Bangladesh would build the bridge with its own funds.
The corruption charges went to a Superior Court in Ontario, Canada, which acquitted three former top executives of SNC-Lavalin, the Canadian firm, in an international bribery case linked to the bridge’s construction in 2017.
Hasina also defied bitter criticism by political opposition led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia during the construction of the bridge. The opposition criticized Hasina’s government for increasing the budget threefold over the years and accused the authorities of corruption. Hasina rejected the allegations. | https://cbs4indy.com/business/ap-business/bangladesh-marks-opening-of-countrys-longest-bridge/ | 2022-06-26 01:43:04 | 0 | https://cbs4indy.com/business/ap-business/bangladesh-marks-opening-of-countrys-longest-bridge/ |
KDOT begins pavement improvement project on K-92 in Jefferson County
JEFFERSON COUNTY, Kan. (WIBW) - Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) is beginning a pavement improvement project on K-92 in Jefferson County.
KDOT said the pavement improvement project on K-92 Union St., from K-16 (Lake St.) to Meredith Lane, began on Friday, June 16 in Jefferson County.
KDOT said the project is part of the City Connecting Link Improvement Program (CCLIP), which helps cities maintain, repair and improve highway routes that are located within city limits.
The work for the pavement improvement project will take place within McLouth city limits and include milling and overlay on all lanes of K-92 at Union St., pavement patching and sidewalk, curb and gutter and storm sewer improvements.
KDOT said the duration of the project, K-92 at Union St. will have two lanes open with 11-foot lane restrictions. Work is scheduled from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and Saturday as needed.
Access to K-92 at Union St. from local side streets will be closed at various times as construction progresses. These closures will have marked detours when they occur. Traffic will be controlled by lane closures, signage, channelizers and barricades.
Sands Construction Company, of Leavenworth, is the contractor for the $648,000 project, which is expected to be completed in early September.
KDOT urges all motorists to be alert and obey the warning signs when approaching and driving through a highway work zone. To stay aware of all road construction projects across Kansas go to www.kandrive.org or call 5-1-1. Drive safely and always wear your seat belt.
Copyright 2023 WIBW. All rights reserved. | https://www.wibw.com/2023/06/16/kdot-begins-pavement-improvement-project-k-92-jefferson-county/ | 2023-06-16 22:41:44 | 0 | https://www.wibw.com/2023/06/16/kdot-begins-pavement-improvement-project-k-92-jefferson-county/ |
PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – Two passengers and two flight attendants were injured by turbulence on a flight that landed Wednesday at St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport in Florida, according to officials.
The Allegiant flight, coming from Asheville, North Carolina, was carrying 179 passengers and six crew members, according to the airline.
Paul Harris was on the flight and said he’s never experienced anything like it.
“There was a sudden burst of turbulence and then major, major turbulence,” Harris said. “The plane felt like it dropped pretty considerably. Several people, including a lady in my row, hit the ceiling.”
He said multiple people were placed on stretchers before being taken off the plane.
Another passenger, Lisa Spriggs, called the experience “petrifying.”
“She was literally like Matrix,” Spriggs said, describing the moment she saw a passenger tossed from her seat. “Watched her go up in the air, and just land straight down. She broke her ankle. Another stewardess in the back broke her ankle, bone was protruding.”
The flight dropped from about 18,000 feet to 13,000 feet in less than two minutes, according to FlightAware, a flight-tracking website.
In a statement to Nexstar’s WFLA, Allegiant said the flight “experienced severe turbulence before landing,” but was able to land normally and reach the gate “under its own power.”
“Airport paramedics met the plane to assess two passengers and two flight attendants for injuries. They were transported to the hospital for further evaluation,” Allegiant added. “We will continue to investigate the incident in coordination with the FAA and NTSB and will provide more information as soon as it becomes available. No additional details can be confirmed at this time.”
Turbulence, which is unstable air in the atmosphere, remains a cause of injury for airline passengers despite airline safety improvements.
Earlier this year, a former White House official died after the business jet she was traveling on encountered severe turbulence. The flight was forced to make an emergency landing at Bradley International Airport in Connecticut.
Just days earlier, seven people were taken to hospitals in Washington, D.C. after their plane, flying from Austin, Texas, to Germany, suffered significant turbulence.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | https://pix11.com/news/us-world-news/literally-like-matrix-passengers-crew-injured-by-severe-turbulence-on-allegiant-flight/ | 2023-07-13 00:07:57 | 1 | https://pix11.com/news/us-world-news/literally-like-matrix-passengers-crew-injured-by-severe-turbulence-on-allegiant-flight/ |
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian missile struck an apartment building in the center of Kramatorsk on Tuesday, killing at least one person and wounding three others in one of Ukraine’s major city strongholds in its eastern Donetsk region as it fights against Moscow’s invasion, officials said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that six apartment buildings were damaged in the blast and rescue efforts were continuing. He posted a video showing gaping holes in the facade of the low-rise building that bore the brunt of the strike.
The Ukrainian general prosecutor’s office and regional Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko also reported on the attack, posting photos of the building with mounds of rubble in front of it.
The war, which erupted after Russia’s launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, has brought heavy civilian casualties. Tuesday’s victims were among at least six civilians killed and 30 wounded in 24 hours, Ukraine authorities said.
“Russian troops are striking residential buildings, schools and hospitals, leaving cities on fire and in ruins,” Kyrylenko, the regional governor, said on Ukrainian television. “The Russians mark each meter (yard) of their advance in the region not only with their own blood, but also with the (lost) lives of civilians.”
Kramatorsk houses the local Ukrainian army headquarters. Ukrainian authorities say it has been regularly targeted by Russian shelling and other attacks in the past.
A missile strike on the city’s train station last April, which Kyiv and much of the international community blamed on Moscow, killed several dozen people and wounded more than 100.
Russia had welcomed a Chinese peace proposal to end the fighting, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that Kyiv’s refusal to have talks leaves Moscow with only military options.
Beijing has said it has a “no limits friendship” with Russia and has refused to criticize Moscow’s invasion, or even refer to it as an invasion.
“We must achieve our goals,” Peskov told reporters. “Given the current stance of the Kyiv regime, now it’s only possible by military means.”
However, Moscow’s pursuit of its goals in Ukraine has been slowed by poor war management and short resources after being beaten back at the end of last year in a Ukrainian counteroffensive, military analysts say.
The U.K. Ministry of Defense said Tuesday that Russia’s artillery ammunition shortages “have likely worsened to the extent that extremely punitive shell-rationing is in force on many parts of the front.”
That shortcoming, it said, has “almost certainly been a key reason why no Russian formation has recently been able to generate operationally significant offensive action.” ___
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine | https://www.seattletimes.com/business/russian-missile-hits-another-ukraine-apartment-block-1-dead/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_business | 2023-03-14 12:26:44 | 1 | https://www.seattletimes.com/business/russian-missile-hits-another-ukraine-apartment-block-1-dead/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_business |
SALEM, Mass. (AP) — Authorities have identified a suspect in the 1986 killing of a Massachusetts college student whose body was found in a wooded area along a highway hours after she was last seen alive.
Claire Gravel, a 20-year-old student at Salem State, went to a city pub with friends on Saturday, June 29, and was last seen alive between 1:30 a.m. and 1:45 a.m. Sunday when she was dropped off at her apartment, Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett said Wednesday.
The North Andover woman's body was found by three workers in the woods on the northbound side of Route 128 in nearby Beverly that afternoon, he said. The medical examiner determined the cause of death to be strangulation.
A grand jury on Wednesday indicted John Carey, 63, Blodgett said.
Carey is already behind bars, serving a 20-year state prison sentence for a 2008 conviction on attempted murder, home invasion and other charges.
He faces arraignment on a first-degree murder charge in Gravel's death in Salem Superior Court at a future date. No defense attorney was listed in court records.
Carey was indicted thanks to a new lead developed by investigators in 2012 based on surviving physical evidence that underwent modern forensic testing, the district attorney's office said.
Evidence recovered from Gravel’s clothing was instrumental in solving the case, Blodgett said, but said no more details would be released until Carey's arraignment. He did not disclose a motive.
Blodgett said Gravel’s surviving family — her father, two brothers and a sister — were “relieved and very, very grateful” that a suspect has been identified. | https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Authorities-find-suspect-in-1986-death-of-Claire-17397521.php | 2022-08-25 15:00:31 | 1 | https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Authorities-find-suspect-in-1986-death-of-Claire-17397521.php |
TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – The City of Tampa announced on Twitter to its utilities customers that the reclaimed water system is offline for repairs.
Tampa’s Reclaimed Water system distributes the highly treated water from the Howard F. Current Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant to residents and businesses for use to irrigate lawns and landscaping, according to the city’s website.
More information about connection to service eligible locations can be found online, or by calling 813-274-8811.
The city will issue an update when the system is back online. | https://www.wfla.com/news/hillsborough-county/reclaimed-water-system-out-for-city-of-tampa-customers/ | 2022-08-09 21:18:49 | 1 | https://www.wfla.com/news/hillsborough-county/reclaimed-water-system-out-for-city-of-tampa-customers/ |
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Officials say death toll has increased to 120 in Seoul crowd surge during Halloween festivities.
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GRAND CANYON VILLAGE, Ariz. — A 67-year-old man has died after a motorboat flipped on the Colorado River, Grand Canyon National Park officials said.
The boat overturned shortly after 2 p.m. Saturday at Bedrock Rapid, which rafting experts say is a large rocky island in the middle of the river that divides the river into left and right channels.
Park officials said Ronald Vanderlugt, 67, was killed when the boat flipped over.
Officials said his group pulled him out of the water, noted he was unresponsive and began CPR. When park rangers arrived to treat Vanderlugt, all resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful, they said.
Officials said an additional four patients were treated for non-life threatening injuries. Authorities said Vanderlugt was on day five of a multi-day commercial river trip.
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For the first time, the American Psychological Association has issued recommendations for guiding teenager's use of social media. The advisory, released Tuesday, is aimed at teens, parents, teachers and policy makers.
This comes at a time when teenagers are facing high rates of depression, anxiety and loneliness. And, as NPR has reported, there's mounting evidence that social media can exacerbate and even cause these problems.
"Right now, I think the country is struggling with what we do around social media," says Dr. Arthur Evans, CEO of the APA. The report, he says, marshals the latest science about social media to arm people "with the information that they need to be good parents and to be good policy makers in this area."
The 10 recommendations in the report summarize recent scientific findings and advise actions, primarily by parents, such as monitoring teens' feeds and training them in social media literacy, even before they begin using these platforms.
But some therapists and clinicians say the recommendations place too much of the burden on parents. To implement this guidance requires cooperation from the tech companies and possibly regulators.
"We're in a crisis here and a family's ability or a parent's ability to manage this right now is very limited," says Robert Keane, a therapist at Walden Behavioral Care, an inpatient facility that helps teens with eating disorders. "Families really need help."
Screening, monitoring and training
While social media can provide opportunities for staying connected, especially during periods of social isolation, like the pandemic, the APA says adolescents should be routinely screened for signs of "problematic social media use."
"Is it getting in the way of your child's sleep and physical activity? Is it getting in the way of their school, or other activities that are important in their development?" Evans asks. "Or is it hard for them to detach from social media? Do they lie so they can engage with it?" Those are the kinds of things that parents should be on the lookout for when they're monitoring their child's social media use, Evans says.
The APA recommends that parents should also closely monitor their children's social media feed during early adolescence, roughly ages 10-14. Parents should try to minimize or stop the dangerous content their child is exposed to, including posts related to suicide, self-harm, disordered eating, racism and bullying. Studies suggest that exposure to this type of content may promote similar behavior in some youth, the APA notes.
This type of content is more common in children's feeds than parents may realize. A recent survey of teenage girls found that 40% see harmful images and videos related to suicide at least once a month on Instagram and TikTok, and about a third say they see content related to eating disorders at least once a month on Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube.
Another key recommendation is to limit the use of social media for comparison, particularly around beauty — or appearance-related content. Research suggests that when kids use social media to pore over their own and others' appearance online, this is linked with poor body image and depressive symptoms, particularly among girls.
As kids age and gain digital literacy skills they should have more privacy and autonomy in their social media use, but parents should always keep an open dialogue about what they are doing online.
"As children become older, you're going to be spending more time coaching, talking, and helping to educate your child," Evans says.
The report also cautions parents to monitor their own social media use, citing research that shows that adults' attitudes toward social media and how they use it in front of kids may affect young people.
A bigger problem than parents can tackle
But some psychologists say the guidance is missing tangible, actionable advice. For example, where does a parent find social media training for their child?
"This isn't like teaching your kid to drive a car," Keane says. "This is completely new information for many parents and their kids. I would say this is not a level playing field. Your kids are actually much more advanced in this than you are."
And how do they monitor an app that their child knows more about than they do? "You can't – you can't– monitor kids' utilization on these platforms," he emphasizes. "As a parent, these feeds get away from you."
Keane and his colleagues say dangerous material really shouldn't be in children's feeds in the first place. "It's a little hard for me to imagine that these recommendations can be implemented without coordination with big tech companies or even regulations through congress," says Kameron Mendes, a therapist who works with Keane at Walden Behavioral Care.
"So while it's a great start, I think we still have a long way to go before it trickles down to real change," he says.
The APA's report does contain recommendations that could be picked up by policy makers seeking to regulate the industry. For instance it recommends the creation of "reporting structures" to identify and remove or deprioritize social media content depicting "illegal or psychologically maladaptive behavior," such as self-harm, harming others, and disordered eating.
It also notes that the design of social media platforms may need to be changed to take into account "youths' development capabilities," including features like endless scrolling and recommended content. It suggests that teens should be warned "explicitly and repeatedly" about how their personal data could be stored, shared and used.
Emma Lembke, 19, founded LogOFF, an initiative to help adolescents manage their social media use and reconnect with their offline life. She says that teens should be involved in making these kinds of recommendations or creating social media trainings.
"They have to be built out with young people at the table as active participants rather than passive onlookers," she says. "I think a lot of these curricula are created by individuals who do not understand what it's like to grow up as a digital native, a naive young person in the online world."
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wqcs.org/2023-05-09/major-psychologists-group-warns-of-social-medias-potential-harm-to-kids | 2023-05-09 16:11:28 | 1 | https://www.wqcs.org/2023-05-09/major-psychologists-group-warns-of-social-medias-potential-harm-to-kids |
July 28 Marks Official Holiday Founded by America's Largest Indoor Waterparks
WISCONSIN DELLAS, Wis., July 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Kalahari Resorts and Conventions, home to America's Largest Indoor Waterparks, first partnered with National Day Calendar to officially recognize July 28 as National Waterpark Day in 2017. 2022 marks the fifth anniversary of the national holiday, and the family-owned resorts will celebrate with guests at its four properties in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, Sandusky, Ohio, Pocono Mountains, Pennsylvania and Round Rock, Texas.
"Visiting a waterpark with your family and friends is the perfect way to celebrate summer," said Todd Nelson, CEO and owner of Kalahari Resorts and Conventions. "We are elated to celebrate five years of National Waterpark Days, and 22 years of creating lasting memories at our waterparks and resorts."
Guests visiting Kalahari Resorts in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, Sandusky, Ohio, Pocono Mountains, Pennsylvania, and Round Rock, Texas on Friday, July 28, can expect a day full of fun activities and celebrations, including on-site DJs spinning new and classic summer tunes, National Waterpark Day-themed cocktails, exciting giveaways and family poolside activities.
In addition to America's Largest Indoor Waterparks, Kalahari Resorts also offers outdoor waterparks, premium dining experiences, a luxury spa and other family-friendly activities including virtual reality attractions, escape rooms, miniature golf, ropes courses and more.
Kalahari Resorts and Conventions is the ultimate destination for a summer family getaway with something for all ages, all under one roof. For more information on National Waterpark Day activities or to book your stay, please visit www.KalahariResorts.com.
Kalahari Resorts and Conventions in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, Sandusky, Ohio, the Pocono Mountains, Pennsylvania and Round Rock, Texas, deliver a beyond-expectations waterpark resort and conference experience all under one roof. The authentically African-themed Kalahari Resorts, privately owned by the Nelson family, are home to America's Largest Indoor Waterparks. All Kalahari Resorts feature well-appointed guest rooms, the full-service Spa Kalahari, a fun-filled family entertainment center, on-site signature restaurants, unique retail shops and a state-of-the-art convention center. To learn more about Kalahari Resorts, members of the media are encouraged to visit KalahariMedia.com.
Media Contact:
Sara Hood
Call/Text: (262) 716-1928
Email: shood@jacobsonrost.com
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SOURCE Kalahari Resorts and Conventions | https://www.wbtv.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/kalahari-resorts-conventions-celebrates-fifth-annual-national-waterpark-day/ | 2022-07-25 14:52:58 | 0 | https://www.wbtv.com/prnewswire/2022/07/25/kalahari-resorts-conventions-celebrates-fifth-annual-national-waterpark-day/ |
The 2023 NFL Draft starts Thursday night with the first-round picks at Union Station in Kansas City, Missouri. The SEC has produced 395 first-round selections and another 108 choices among the top 32 picks who were not first-rounders. AL.com is counting down to the draft by highlighting the SEC players chosen in the first 32 picks.
NFL teams have hardly gone wrong when spending the sixth pick in the draft on an SEC player.
Even the most recent No. 6 selection from the conference -- Alabama wide receiver Jaylen Waddle by the Miami Dolphins in 2021 – has upheld the brand. Waddle produced an NFL rookie record for receptions in 2021, then led the league in yards per reception on his way to 1,356 receiving yards in 2022.
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The 19 SEC players picked in this spot have combined for 38 Pro Bowl invitations and 12 first-team All-Pro honors. Nine of the No. 6 picks have played at least 10 NFL seasons.
The sixth selection of the 1948 draft, quarterback Y.A. Tittle from LSU has two major honors that the rest of Pick Six’s illustrious lineup don’t. In addition to being a seven-time Pro Bowler and three-time All-Pro in 17 NFL seasons, Tittle is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and was the NFL Most Valuable Player in 1963.
Tittle also was drafted in the first round twice.
In 1948, the Detroit Lions chose the quarterback at No. 6. Tittle instead signed with the Baltimore Colts of the All-American Football Conference. After two seasons, the Colts joined the NFL as the established league absorbed the rival league’s Baltimore, Cleveland and San Francisco franchises.
In 1950, Tittle led the NFL in completions, but Baltimore folded at the end of the season. Instead of holding a dispersal draft or turning the Colts players into free agents, the NFL made them eligible for its 1951 draft. The San Francisco 49ers got Tittle with the third pick.
In 1962, Tittle became the NFL’s career leader in passing yards on his way to becoming the first player with 30,000. He broke the record of Bobby Layne, who had been drafted from Texas three picks ahead of Tittle in 1948.
The 19 SEC players drafted with the No. 6 pick include:
· LSU quarterback Y.A. Tittle, Detroit Lions, 1948
· Alabama linebacker Lee Roy Jordan, Dallas Cowboys, 1963
· Tennessee defensive end Steve DeLong, Chicago Bears, 1965
· Alabama quarterback Richard Todd, New York Jets, 1976
· Kentucky tackle Warren Bryant, Atlanta Falcons, 1977
· Alabama linebacker Barry Krauss, Baltimore Colts, 1979
· Florida tackle Lomas Brown, Detroit Lions, 1985
· Alabama defensive end Eric Curry, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 1993
· Florida defensive end Kevin Carter, St. Louis Rams, 1995
· Georgia defensive end Richard Seymour, New England Patriots, 2001
· Georgia defensive tackle Johnathan Sullivan, New Orleans Saints, 2003
· LSU defensive back LaRon Landry, Washington Redskins, 2007
· Alabama offensive tackle Andre Smith, Cincinnati Bengals, 2009
· Alabama wide receiver Julio Jones, Atlanta Falcons, 2011
· LSU defensive back Morris Claiborne, Dallas Cowboys, 2012
· LSU linebacker Barkevious Mingo, Cleveland Browns, 2013
· Texas A&M tackle Jake Matthews, Atlanta Falcons, 2014
· LSU safety Jamal Adams, New York Jets, 2017
· Alabama wide receiver Jaylen Waddle, Miami Dolphins, 2021
Jordan was a Pro Bowler five times and All-Pro once in 14 seasons.
Brown was a Pro Bowler seven times and All-Pro once in 18 seasons.
Seymour was a Pro Bowler five times and All-Pro three times in 11 seasons.
Jones has seven Pro Bowl invitations and two All-Pro selections in 12 seasons.
RELATED:
(The list includes only players selected in the regular NFL draft. The drafts from other leagues are not included nor are any supplemental drafts that have been held by the NFL.)
FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE SEC, GO TO OUR SEC PAGE
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @AMarkG1. | https://www.al.com/sports/2023/04/nfl-draft-the-secs-best-pick-at-no-6.html | 2023-04-22 11:20:43 | 0 | https://www.al.com/sports/2023/04/nfl-draft-the-secs-best-pick-at-no-6.html |
DENVER, Sept. 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ - Ovintiv Inc. (NYSE: OVV) (TSX: OVV) ("Ovintiv" or the "Company") today announced that Ralph Izzo has been named as an independent member of its Board of Directors, effective September 6, 2022, and that Bruce Waterman will retire from the Board of Directors effective December 31, 2022.
Mr. Izzo, 64, currently serves as the Executive Chair of Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated ("PSEG"), having recently retired as their Chair, President and CEO. PSEG is a publicly traded diversified energy holding company, founded in 1903 and has a long history of providing infrastructure to access safe, affordable, reliable, and cleaner energy to customers in New Jersey and Long Island. Since joining PSEG in 1992, Mr. Izzo has held several significant executive positions within the PSEG family of companies. Mr. Izzo also serves on the Board of Directors of the Bank of New York Mellon.
Mr. Izzo is a member of the U.S. Department of Energy's Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee and the former chair of the Nuclear Energy Institute. He is also on the Board of Directors for the Edison Electric Institute, Nuclear Electric Insurance Limited, the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce, the Liberty Science Center and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Mr. Izzo is on the advisory board for the University of Pennsylvania's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics Department, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Peddie School and Princeton University's Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment Advisory Council, as well as a member of the Visiting Committee for the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Columbia University School of Engineering Board of Visitors, and of the CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion. In addition, he is a former chair of the Rutgers University Board of Governors and the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce.
Mr. Izzo received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in mechanical engineering and his Doctor of Philosophy degree in applied physics from Columbia University. He also received a Master of Business Administration degree, with a concentration in finance, from the Rutgers Graduate School of Management.
"We are excited that Ralph is joining our Board. His significant senior leadership experience in operations, strategic planning, finance, risk management, environmental stewardship, and diversity leadership will enhance the board's strengths," said Ovintiv's Chair Peter Dea. "Mr. Izzo is a well-known leader within the utility industry, as well as the national energy policy arena and represents our ongoing Board refreshment process as our third new Director in the past 18-months."
Mr. Waterman joined the board in 2010 and served on various committees over his tenure including Audit Committee Chair from 2017 until 2022. Mr. Waterman's wealth of finance, energy industry and government relations experience benefited the Company immensely. "On behalf of the Board and leadership team, I would like to thank Bruce for his many contributions and wise counsel over the last 12 years," said Mr. Dea. Brendan McCracken, Ovintiv's President and CEO noted "the Company is grateful for Mr. Waterman's years of service and dedication and we wish him well in retirement."
Further information on Ovintiv Inc. is available on the Company's website, www.ovintiv.com, or by contacting:
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SOURCE Ovintiv Inc. | https://www.wlbt.com/prnewswire/2022/09/06/ovintiv-names-ralph-izzo-its-board-directors/ | 2022-09-06 13:28:52 | 1 | https://www.wlbt.com/prnewswire/2022/09/06/ovintiv-names-ralph-izzo-its-board-directors/ |
WFO NEW YORK CITY Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Monday, August 22, 2022
_____
AREAL FLOOD ADVISORY
Flood Advisory
National Weather Service New York NY
256 PM EDT Mon Aug 22 2022
...FLOOD ADVISORY WILL EXPIRE AT 3 PM EDT THIS AFTERNOON...
The Flood Advisory will expire at 3 PM EDT this afternoon for a
portion of southeast New York, including the following counties,
Orange and Rockland.
The heavy rain has ended. Urban and small stream flooding is no
longer expected to pose a threat. Please continue to heed remaining
road closures.
_____
Copyright 2022 AccuWeather | https://www.seattlepi.com/weather/article/NY-WFO-NEW-YORK-CITY-Warnings-Watches-and-17390069.php | 2022-08-22 20:28:27 | 1 | https://www.seattlepi.com/weather/article/NY-WFO-NEW-YORK-CITY-Warnings-Watches-and-17390069.php |
ROCKY HILL, Conn. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Wednesday evening's drawing of the Connecticut Lottery's "Play4 Night" game were:
5-4-1-7, WB: 9
(five, four, one, seven; WB: nine)
ROCKY HILL, Conn. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Wednesday evening's drawing of the Connecticut Lottery's "Play4 Night" game were:
5-4-1-7, WB: 9
(five, four, one, seven; WB: nine) | https://www.expressnews.com/lottery/article/Winning-numbers-drawn-in-Play4-Night-game-17490164.php | 2022-10-06 04:12:48 | 0 | https://www.expressnews.com/lottery/article/Winning-numbers-drawn-in-Play4-Night-game-17490164.php |
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Friday that he expects the oft-maligned “transition take foul” to come with stiffer penalties next season.
Silver expects the rules regarding the play — where a defender intentionally commits a foul to halt a transition opportunity for the opposition — are going to change this summer. It’s been something the NBA and its competition committee have been studying for several seasons.
Momentum has been building for several months toward a change, one that now seems likely to come at league meetings in July.
“I am confident that we’ll see a change,” Silver said in an interview Friday with The Associated Press. “I would not say I’m overconfident that it will be the last change, even though this is a rule that we’ve been experimenting with in the G League for last four years.”
The way such fouls have been officiated in the G League since 2018 is this: When a defender commits a take foul, which is one where no play on the ball is made but doesn't rise to the level of a clear path foul, the fouled team retains possession and gets one free throw before play resumes. The clear path foul results in two shots and the ball.
Under FIBA rules, which govern international basketball, the penalty for transition take fouls is two shots and the ball.
“I think the take foul needs to be abolished as soon as humanly possible,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr said earlier in these playoffs. “I coached in FIBA the last few summers and FIBA has a rule that basically eliminated it entirely. It’s so penalizing when you get called for it that coaches all teach their teams, don’t do it. That’s what we need to do as a league. ... You’ve just got to get rid of it, make the game better, open up the game and hopefully that’s what will happen this summer.”
The G League and Summer League are the traditional testing labs for the NBA before making rule changes or amending policies. Among those that started at those levels and eventually got to the NBA — the coaches’ challenge, plus resetting the 24-second shot clock to 14 seconds in offensive rebound situations.
The take foul, Silver believes, is about to get added to that list.
“I always say to people, including on this potential change in take fouls, if there was something that was obvious it would have happened long ago,” Silver said after the dedication of a new NBA Cares Live, Learn or Play Center to assist the Boys & Girls Club of San Francisco. “There’s pros and cons to everything we do. This is a change I’m very much in favor of, and from all the research we’ve looked at, it’s something our fans really want too.”
___
More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Silver-confident-that-the-NBA-s-take-foul-policy-17218843.php | 2022-06-04 00:16:29 | 0 | https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Silver-confident-that-the-NBA-s-take-foul-policy-17218843.php |
CHICAGO, July 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- We are pleased to announce that Axial named Peakstone the #1 lower middle market U.S. investment bank for the second quarter of 2022. This is the second year that Axial awarded Peakstone a #1 ranking. Axial's league tables take into account numerous factors including the following: reputation, client quality, process effectiveness, access to wide range of potential buyers and investors, and track record of closing deals. Thanks to all of our clients and associates that made this possible.
Peakstone is a leading investment bank that specializes in mergers and acquisitions, advisory, and capital raising for middle market clients. Our team is comprised of senior investment banking professionals who have decades of experience and have executed hundreds of transactions totaling billions of dollars. For additional information, visit www.peakstone.com. To receive investment and proprietary acquisition opportunities, please register at www.peakzone.com.
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SOURCE Peakstone | https://www.kbtx.com/prnewswire/2022/07/26/peakstone-ranked-1-lower-middle-market-investment-bank-by-axial/ | 2022-07-26 19:23:47 | 1 | https://www.kbtx.com/prnewswire/2022/07/26/peakstone-ranked-1-lower-middle-market-investment-bank-by-axial/ |
Today marks the first day of spring but a “winter-style” storm is on the way Tuesday thru Wednesday. This storm will pack strong winds, low snow levels, moderate to heavy rain, large waves, and some flooding potential.
Monday actually saw on-and-off sprinkles and mist already from the stream of sub-tropical moisture pushing at the Central Coast and Southern California. The storm system will use this supply but also push an intense low-pressure center and upper-level trough thru the region Tuesday into Wednesday.
The proximity of the Central Coast to the center of low pressure will create strong S-SW winds 20-35 mph with gusts to 40-50mph at the coast and as high as 60-65mph in the higher elevations of the SLO County mountains. There are advisories and warning in place for most of Tuesday.
Those winds will also produce high surf later Tuesday into early Thursday. Along with the high surf, there is also some coastal flooding possible between the high surf and winds and astronomical high tide on Wednesday some minor beach erosion or flooding of location near the ocean water line is possible.
Outside of wind, the rain rates and total rainfall is a concern. 1-3” of rain is likely with the system with more along S-SW facing slopes and at higher elevations here 2-5+” is possible. Not only is that potential interesting, the rain rates could also be high with downpours and thunderstorms possible. The Storm Prediction Center has identified the Central Coast in a risk area for thunderstorms and the Weather Prediction Center has identified the area as also having a risk of excessive rainfall for this system. There is also a flood watch in place for potential flooding. Rain rates could exceed .50”/hour at times.
If that was not enough, there is also a winter storm warning in place for the higher elevations of the Santa Barbara County mountains. Above 6000ft 1-2 ft. of snow is possible, but 2-10” of snow is possible down to about 3500ft.
The system looks to be quite active into Wednesday afternoon but after that, the system should quickly wane. We’ll get a break in the forecast after that into early next week when some models project another strong system that might hit Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. | https://www.ksby.com/weather/a-strong-storm-tuesday-looks-to-deliver-wind-and-rain-with-numerous-advisories-in-place | 2023-03-21 04:29:20 | 1 | https://www.ksby.com/weather/a-strong-storm-tuesday-looks-to-deliver-wind-and-rain-with-numerous-advisories-in-place |
Legislative candidate Mary Ann Mendoza silent on whether she wore blackface in photos
Two photographs released on social media claim to show Mary Ann Mendoza, a Republican candidate for the Arizona Legislature, at a party dressed in a brash "Aunt Jemima" costume with blackface.
Another claims to show her dressed as a Native American, her face painted brown.
Mendoza hasn't confirmed or denied the images are her since a left-wing news outlet published the photos and an article about them on Friday. She didn't return a text on Friday or a phone message on Saturday.
It's not clear when the photos were taken or if they are definitely of Mendoza. But her opponents have seized on the released photos as new evidence of what they say is a "part of a pattern" for Mendoza.
Democratic candidate Lorena Austin said in a statement emailed to the news media on Saturday that the "hate-filled" incident "wholeheartedly disqualifies Mendoza" from running.
"These photos are a display of violent racism," Austin said. "As a Chicanx and 5th-generation Arizonan, I know how behavior like this affects my community."
Austin also released a statement with her running mate, Seth Blattman, saying "this trend makes Ms. Mendoza unfit to become a legislator," though they did not elaborate. They seemed to hedge on whether the photos are of Mendoza, saying she should withdraw from the race "if these photos are what they appear to be."
Neither Austin nor Blattman, nor a spokesperson who emailed Austin's statement, returned phone messages on Saturday.
Mendoza, one of two Republican candidates seeking state House seats in west Mesa's Legislative District 9, is an anti-illegal-immigration activist whose police officer son was killed by an undocumented drunken driver. She has appeared onstage with former President Donald Trump as one of the "Angel Moms" he used to boost his hard-line immigration policies.
She fell out of grace with the GOP and gained bad press in 2020 when she was disinvited from the Republican National Convention for retweeting an antisemitic conspiracy theory popular with Qanon followers. Mendoza told The Arizona Republic that she hadn't read the tweet before retweeting it. But in the same interview, she also expressed belief that a Jewish banking family once “owned the United States."
District is an election battleground
The district is a high-stakes battleground over Trump politics and abortion policy, featuring hard-right candidates Mendoza and Kathy Pearce and a Trump-endorsed Republican for state Senate — Robert Scantlebury — competing against three political newcomers well-funded by out-of-state donors.
Scantlebury, reached on Saturday, declined to comment about the matter. Pearce did not return a phone message.
The photos seem to have first appeared Oct. 17 on an anonymous Twitter account created in January 2022 with the handle @Tylerhereforfun. The account is now locked to outside users, but an archive.org search shows that it was used since February to tweet sexually suggestive and pro-left-wing messages to various Twitter users.
The post with photos that claim to be Mendoza tags CNN's politics desk, but it's unlike "Tyler's" other posts in that it doesn't reply to anyone.
The Copper Courier first reported about the photos on Friday, noting the anonymous source. The news site, previously part of Acronym, a digital advertising group that works with the Democratic Party, is now owned by Good Information Inc., a project of Democratic activist Tara McGowan and liberal donors.
Reach the reporter at rstern@arizonarepublic.com or 480-276-3237. Follow him on Twitter @raystern. | https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2022/10/22/arizona-legislature-candidate-mary-ann-mendoza-may-have-worn-blackface/10578815002/ | 2022-10-23 04:22:12 | 1 | https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2022/10/22/arizona-legislature-candidate-mary-ann-mendoza-may-have-worn-blackface/10578815002/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Soldiers are leaving the Army National Guard at a faster rate than they are enlisting, fueling concerns that in the coming years units around the country may not meet military requirements for overseas and other deployments.
For individual states, which rely on their Guard members for a wide range of missions, it means some are falling short of their troop totals this year, while others may fare better. But the losses comes as many are facing an active hurricane season, fires in the West and continued demand for units overseas, including combat tours in Syria and training missions in Europe for nations worried about threats from Russia.
According to officials, the number of soldiers retiring or leaving the Guard each month in the past year has exceeded those coming in, for a total annual loss of about 7,500 service members. The problem is a combination of recruiting shortfalls and an increase in the number of soldiers who are opting not to reenlist when their tour is up.
The losses reflect a broader personnel predicament across the U.S. military, as all the armed services struggled this year to meet recruiting goals. And they underscore the need for sweeping reforms in how the military recruits and retains citizen soldiers and airmen who must juggle their regular full-time jobs with their military duties.
Maj. Gen. Rich Baldwin, chief of staff of the Army National Guard, said the current staffing challenges are the worst he’s seen in the last 20 years, but so far the impact on Guard readiness is “minimal and manageable.”
“However, if we don’t solve the recruiting and retention challenges we’re currently facing, we will see readiness issues related to strength begin to emerge within our units within the next year or two,” he said.
According to Gen. Daniel Hokanson, head of the National Guard Bureau, both the Army and Air Guards failed to meet their goals for the total number of service members in the fiscal year that ended last Friday. The Army Guard’s authorized total is 336,000, and the Air Guard is 108,300.
Baldwin said the Army Guard started the year with a bit more than its target total, but ends the fiscal year about 2% below the goal. Fueling that decline was a 10% shortfall in the number of current soldiers who opted to reenlist. Hokanson said the Air Guard missed its total goal by nearly 3%.
The reasons are many. But Guard officials suggest that young people may not be hearing the strong call to service that they did when the U.S. was at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Baldwin said that as operations in Iraq and Afghanistan began to decline several years ago, states started to see higher than expected losses in personnel. In exit interviews, he said, troops cited a number of reasons why they weren’t reenlisting. “But, unexpectedly, they found that one reason common to many of their soldiers was based on the perception that the war was over,” said Baldwin, adding that they had joined to serve their country, not make the Army Guard their career.
The same may be true now, he said. In 2020 and 2021, Guard members were heavily involved in a range of domestic emergencies, from natural disasters and civil unrest to the pandemic, including medical care, COVID-19 testing and vaccines.
“Today, we have a much lower overseas deployment tempo than we’ve been used to and almost all of the COVID support missions have been ramped down,” Baldwin said. “We join to make a difference by serving others and by being part of something bigger than ourselves. … There may be a perception among both our soldiers and the civilians we are trying to recruit that we are on the backside of all of that and it’s time to take advantage of the hot job market we have right now.”
While the shortfalls for 2022 may be small percentages, the Guard is facing increasing losses over the next year due to the U.S. military’s requirement that all troops get the COVID-19 vaccine. Currently about 9,000 Guard members are refusing to get the shot, and another 5,000 have sought religious, medical or administrative exemptions.
So far, no Guard members have been discharged for refusing the vaccine order. The National Guard is awaiting final instructions from the Army on how to proceed. Officials have said it’s not clear when they will get that guidance.
With more losses likely on the horizon, Guard leaders are looking for ways to entice service members to join or reenlist. Hokanson said a critical change would be to provide Guard members with healthcare coverage. Currently, he said, about 60,000 Guardsmen don’t have health insurance. And those who have insurance through their civilian employer have to go through a difficult process to move to the military’s TRICARE program when they are on active-duty status.
The cost of providing health care coverage to those who don’t have it would be about $719 million a year, he said.
Other changes that could help, he said, would include expanding educational benefits and giving Guard members a financial bonus when they bring in new recruits. Such bonuses were used during the peak of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, but there were some problems that Hokanson and others said could be avoided now.
“We need to make adjustments based on the current environment because for the long term, our nation needs a National Guard the size that we are, or maybe even larger to meet all the requirements that we have,” said Hokanson. “It’s up to us to make sure that we fill our formations so that they’re ready when our nation needs us.” | https://fox59.com/news/ap-top-headlines/ap-national-guard-struggles-as-troops-leave-at-faster-pace/ | 2022-10-09 03:59:16 | 1 | https://fox59.com/news/ap-top-headlines/ap-national-guard-struggles-as-troops-leave-at-faster-pace/ |
To the Editor: Evelyn Beatrice Hall once wrote “I may not agree with you but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.” I am not a fan of Donald Trump but unlike Adysn Kilty and Joseph Spoerl, I believe he has the right to talk.
Spoerl wrote about the wisdom and maturity of a young girl who believes in free speech as long as she agrees with that speech or if she likes the person talking. If she doesn’t like him, ban him from speaking. So democratic.
Di Lothrop’s recent op-ed focused on Trump’s successes, not alleged successes, and Biden’s failures, not alleged failures. Having to face the military might of the U.S. armed forces, I’m pretty sure the rioters on Jan. 6 weren’t planning on overthrowing the U.S. government. I’m equally sure the billions of dollars damage done in the 2020 riots were not peaceful.
Someone once told of the difference between a Democrat and a Republican. An objectionable show appears on TV and a Democrat wants that show removed never to be shown again. A Republican will turn the channel.
I like Evelyn’s philosophy a tinge better than the philosophy that I am free to speak so long as I agree with you.
Please let this be the last I hear about Trump and the alleged educational facility know as Saint Anselm College. | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-free-to-speak-just-so-long-as-i-agree/article_3f318a4b-b941-54e8-b749-28ca44c69291.html | 2023-06-14 06:22:12 | 1 | https://www.unionleader.com/opinion/letters_to_editor/letter-free-to-speak-just-so-long-as-i-agree/article_3f318a4b-b941-54e8-b749-28ca44c69291.html |
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines on Monday accused a Chinese coast guard ship of hitting a Philippine coast guard vessel with a military-grade laser and temporarily blinding some of its crew in the disputed South China Sea, calling it a "blatant" violation of Manila's sovereign rights.
The Chinese ship also maneuvered dangerously close, about 137 meters (449 feet), to block the Philippine patrol vessel BRP Malapascua from approaching Second Thomas Shoal, a submerged reef that has been occupied by Philippine forces, on Feb. 6, the Philippine coast guard said in a statement.
The Philippines has filed nearly 200 diplomatic protests against China's aggressive actions in the disputed waters in 2022 alone.
China claims the South China Sea virtually in its entirety, putting it on a collision course with other claimants. Despite friendly overtures to Beijing by former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and his successor, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who met Chinese leader Xi Jinping in January in Beijing, tensions have persisted, drawing in closer military alliance between the Philippines and the U.S.
Although the Chinese coast guard had tried to block Philippine coast guard ships in the disputed waters before, this was the first time it used lasers and caused physical suffering among Filipino personnel, Philippine coast guard spokesperson Commodore Armand Balilo told The Associated Press.
There was no immediate comment from the Chinese Embassy in Manila.
"The Chinese ship illuminated the green laser light twice toward the BRP Malapascua, causing temporary blindness to her crew at the bridge," the Philippine statement said.
The Philippine vessel was forced to move away from the area, where it was escorting a supply vessel that was delivering food and sailors to a Philippine navy sentry ship, the BRP Sierra Madre, which has been marooned on Second Thomas Shoal since 1999, the coast guard said.
"The deliberate blocking of the Philippine government ships to deliver food and supplies to our military personnel on board the BRP Sierra Madre is a blatant disregard for, and a clear violation of, Philippine sovereign rights in this part of the West Philippine Sea," the coast guard said, using the name the Philippines has adopted for the stretch of waters close to its western coast.
It was not immediately clear if the Philippine resupply mission pushed through despite the incident.
The Chinese coast guard also blocked Philippine ships escorting a supply vessel from approaching Second Thomas Shoal in August, the coast guard said.
In the latest incident, one of the two Chinese ships that were joined by two Chinese civilian vessels removed the cover of its 70mm armament, the coast guard said, adding it would not be deterred by China's aggression in protecting Philippine sovereignty in the disputed sea.
Aside from China and the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei also have overlapping claims in the resource-rich and busy waterway, where a bulk of the world's commerce and oil transits.
The United States lays no claims to the disputed sea but has deployed forces to patrol the waters to promote freedom of navigation and overflight — moves that have angered Beijing, which has warned Washington to stop meddling in what it says is a purely Asian dispute.
The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps held joint exercises in the South China Sea over the weekend at a time of heightened tensions with Beijing over the shooting down of a suspected Chinese spy balloon. The U.S. has been taking steps to rebuild its military might in the Philippines more than 30 years after the closure of its large bases in the country and reinforcing an arc of military alliances in Asia.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.kunm.org/npr-news/2023-02-13/the-philippines-accuses-a-chinese-ship-of-aiming-a-laser-at-a-filipino-boat-crew | 2023-02-13 09:49:29 | 0 | https://www.kunm.org/npr-news/2023-02-13/the-philippines-accuses-a-chinese-ship-of-aiming-a-laser-at-a-filipino-boat-crew |
Growing Consumer Interest in Connected Services Highlights Untapped Opportunities for U.S. Automakers to Engage, Retain and Enhance Customer Experience
ATLANTA, July 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. consumers want to hear from their automakers about connected services, safety recalls, warranties, insurance discounts and other benefits, according to a new LexisNexis® Risk Solutions study, "The Driver's Mindset: Connectivity and Connectedness," published today. Insights from more than 2,000 U.S.-based connected car owners1 highlight the opportunities for automakers to further engage with their customers, create new and used vehicle brand loyalists, and realize the return on investment for connected vehicle technology.
"Our study shows that automakers are at a confluence. While automakers face increasing competitive pressure to offer the best vehicle ownership experience, and connectivity is mainstream in many aspects of consumers' lives, there still seems to be lower consumer activation and conversion rates within connectivity programs, despite the benefits," said Dave Nemtuda, head of OEM product, U.S. connected car, LexisNexis Risk Solutions. "The automotive industry can take action on these insights to improve the customer experience, educate consumers on the benefits of connected services and help achieve connectivity-related business objectives."
Connected Car Study Highlights:
- Low activation rates of a connected services free trial are related to lack of awareness and opportunity to enroll, rather than lack of interest. Two-thirds (66%) of survey respondents were not aware of connected services before purchasing/leasing their new or used connected car and over half (57%) were not offered a Connected Services free trial at the dealership. Our study findings suggest activation rates of a free trial would be higher if car buyers were offered the opportunity: Eight out of ten (81%) car buyers offered a free trial enrolled and nearly half (45%) converted to a paid subscription after their free trial ended. Among those not offered a free connected services trial at the dealership, seven out of ten (71%), indicate they would have been very/somewhat interested in enrolling if it had been offered.
- Consumers need to be educated on the benefits of connected services. Almost one-fifth (19%) of consumers indicated they did not enroll in a free trial of connected services offered at the dealership. The top reason, mentioned by the majority (63%) of the respondents, was that they did not see the benefit or the value of connected services. Those connected services benefits not realized can include the ability for a car to be located, unlocked or started, roadside assistance and vehicle diagnostics. In addition, over-the-air updates (OTA) can be important for consumers, including infotainment-related map or GPS information refreshes, audio updates, new app versions, streaming services, as well as drive-control-system updates, such as feature upgrades and security patches related to Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS).
- Automakers shouldn't rule out used car buyers. Buyers of new vehicles are twice as likely to be offered a free trial than buyers of used cars, even though the technology is available and accessible. 83% of used connected car owners, which comprised about a quarter of the respondents, remain untapped and serve as potential connected services clients.
- A more seamless experience could help consumers activate on their own time. 64% of survey respondents said that having their information prefilled in connected services activation forms would make them somewhat or much more likely to enroll. Automakers can help consumers by prefilling connected service activation forms.
- Consumers expect automakers to keep them informed. Used car owners also indicated that they expect to receive further information from their automaker on specific topics related to their vehicles. Nearly everyone (92%), expected to be contacted about safety recall notices, with warranty coverage coming in second, selected by 80% of respondents. Vehicle features with the highest interest noted were safety and convenience services.
- Automakers can help consumers take advantage of their driving behavior data. 67% of the respondents said they were aware that connected vehicles can capture and transmit telematics data, which can potentially be used to obtain insurance discounts. Only 22%, however, have used their data for insurance discounts. Among those respondents who had not used their data for insurance discounts, 71% said they would be interested.
"Now is the time for automakers to advance their customer journeys and develop a comprehensive customer experience strategy using the advanced data and analytics available today, or face losing to the competition in a challenging market," said Greg Ross, connected car practice lead, motormindz. "Consumers are telling us they are open to the engagement that connectivity provides and, in many cases, they expect it. Automakers can differentiate themselves from other automakers by creating a unique and high-quality customer experience that engages new and subsequent owners throughout the vehicle lifecycle and educates consumers on how connected services can support their needs and busy lives."
"One of the biggest takeaways is that by understanding their customers better, automakers can offer products and services at the right time, in a way that makes their customers feel valued and rewarded," said Adam Hudson, vice president and general manager of connected car, LexisNexis Risk Solutions. "That ongoing customer connection can help automotive brands continue to innovate and expand their connected services programs while improving the user experience. Automakers with fully maximized connected capabilities are able to more quickly develop and deploy new services and partnerships, gaining a competitive advantage by leading the market and increasing profits."
For more information, download the LexisNexis Risk Solutions Connected Car eBook or learn more about its suite of offerings for automakers.
About LexisNexis Risk Solutions
LexisNexis® Risk Solutions harnesses the power of data and advanced analytics to provide insights that help businesses and governmental entities reduce risk and improve decisions to benefit people around the globe. We provide data and technology solutions for a wide range of industries including insurance, financial services, healthcare and government. Headquartered in metro Atlanta, Georgia, we have offices throughout the world and are part of RELX (LSE: REL/NYSE: RELX), a global provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers. For more information, please visit www.risk.lexisnexis.com, and www.relx.com.
Media Contacts:
Regina Haas
LexisNexis Risk Solutions
Phone: +1.678.896.1463
Regina.Haas@lexisnexisrisk.com
Dean Carney
Brodeur Partners for LexisNexis Risk Solutions
Phone: +1.646.746.5607
Dcarney@brodeur.com
1 Methodology: A total of 2,045 interviews were completed November 18-30, 2021. The online panel sample was managed to ensure a representative sample of U.S. recent car buyers purchasing a model year 2017 or newer. Key demographics, including age, income, gender and geographic region, were monitored to ensure the characteristics of respondents matched U.S. Census demographic distributions.
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BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary’s government has ordered an investigation of domestic low-cost carrier Wizz Air over what it calls possible breaches of consumer protection laws, the second such investigation it has launched against an airline since June.
The probe, ordered by Hungary’s Ministry of Justice comes after the ministry said it received an increase in complaints against the Budapest-based airline over its failure to provide information and assistance to customers whose flights are delayed or cancelled, according to Hungary’s state news agency MTI.
Other complaints included Wizz Air failing to provide accommodation and rebooking for affected passengers, failure to respond to consumer complaints within 30 days and operating a paid customer service line, which violates Hungarian law and consumer rights, the ministry said in a statement.
It is the second investigation against an airline launched by Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s nationalist government since June, when it announced it would impose windfall taxes on industries from banking to insurance to airlines that have enjoyed “extra profits” arising from soaring demand after the pandemic — a claim some companies have contested.
Earlier this month, Hungary accused budget carrier Ryanair of consumer protection violations and fined it more than three-quarters of a million euros after the company raised ticket prices to cope with the new tax, which Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has called “highway robbery” and “idiotic.”
The government hopes to raise 815 billion forints ($2.1 billion) from the tax policy to see the country through a period of soaring inflation and energy prices, and budget shortfalls from pre-election handouts earlier this year in which Orban won a fourth consecutive term.
Wizz Air didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
In a statement, the Ministry of Justice said the aim of the procedure is to “detect, stop and sanction any possible illegal behavior, since all businesses must comply with the law.” | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-business/hungarys-govt-launches-investigation-against-second-airline/ | 2022-08-23 10:35:14 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/business/us-world-business/hungarys-govt-launches-investigation-against-second-airline/ |
OXFORD, England, July 18, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Infleqtion, the world's quantum information company, and QinetiQ, a leading defense company, are thrilled to announce their successful bid for the Quantum End-to-end Compilation for Combinatorial Optimisation (QECCO) project through Innovate UK. This groundbreaking initiative will focus on using quantum algorithms to solve complex combinatorial optimisation problems in logistics and deliver this crucial quantum software capability to the UK National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC). These optimisation problems are critical for national security yet often computationally intractable using classical computers, but quantum computers have the potential to provide significant speedups.
QECCO will address key challenges in the logistics sector, including job-shop scheduling, packing, routing, and satisfiability problems. These complex problems possess high business value, limited classical solutions, and tremendous potential for quantum solutions. Through stakeholder workshops and collaborations with end-users in logistics and transport, QECCO will identify specific high-impact target problems and refine algorithmic implementations.
The project team comprises experts in quantum software development, algorithmic implementation, and benchmarking, with a strong foundation from Infleqtion's Superstaq platform, which has already demonstrated enhanced solution quality on real quantum hardware, along with the Supermarq benchmarking infrastructure for performance evaluation.
"We are delighted to be part of the QECCO project and collaborate with QinetiQ to unlock the full potential of quantum computing," said Dr Timothy Ballance, GM of Infleqtion UK. "This project aligns perfectly with our vision of applying quantum technology to solve real-world problems. With our cutting-edge software capabilities and QinetiQ's expertise in dual-use logistics applications, we are confident that we can deliver groundbreaking solutions for the UK."
Dr Gillian Marshall, QinetiQ's Senior Fellow for Quantum Technologies said "QinetiQ is excited to be supporting Infleqtion on the QECCO project. Infleqtion is a natural partner of choice for QinetiQ. Their market-leading quantum technologies fit well with QinetiQ's own quantum information processing and classical/quantum engineering and integration expertise, and we look forward to building on this success together."
"The advances being made in Quantum technology offer some of the most exciting opportunities in the innovation pipeline for the years ahead, potentially revolutionising everything from medical diagnostics and autonomous vehicles, to military navigation and cybersecurity. This report highlights just how important the commercialisation of quantum technology will be in unleashing the UK's full potential as a science superpower," said Minister of State at the new Department for Science, Innovation and Technology George Freeman MP.
"Our exceptional researchers, businesses and innovators are continuously pushing the boundaries of Quantum Technology development, placing the UK at the leading edge of this field," said Will Drury, executive director of digital and technologies at Innovate UK.
In May 2022, Infleqtion acquired Chicago-based Super.tech, a leading quantum software company that accelerates the development and adoption of quantum computing. The company was spun out of pioneering quantum computing research from EPiQC, an NSF Expedition in Computing at the University of Chicago. Super.tech is embedded in Argonne National Laboratory's Chain Reaction Innovations program and also incubated by Duality, the first accelerator dedicated exclusively to supporting quantum startups, operated by the Chicago Quantum Exchange and UChicago's Polsky Center.
"We are pleased to see Infleqtion's software capabilities expand in the UK as the country has a strong track record of innovation in science and technology. We recognize the strong partnership between the UK and Chicago as global partners, and we look forward to working with our UK colleagues to accelerate the development and adoption of quantum computing," said Infleqtion's VP of Quantum Software, Pranav Gokhale.
"Quantum is unquestionably one of the most exciting new technologies in development, with the potential to reshape global solutions for generations to come. And that ripple effect comes from auspicious beginnings in the heart of Illinois," said Governor JB Pritzker. "Rooted in the groundbreaking quantum computing research coming out of the University of Chicago, Argonne Laboratory, and the Chicago Quantum Exchange, the impact of Infleqtion's work will now stretch to our global partners in the United Kingdom to increase efficiency and continue to build the quantum network worldwide," said Illinois Governor JB Pritzker.
The partnership is expected to last for three years and will result in the development of new software tools and applications for quantum-enabled systems. By compiling end-user applications directly to quantum hardware, Infleqtion aims to leverage the unique characteristics of quantum computing to achieve faster and more efficient solutions, making quantum technology more accessible and easier for various finance, healthcare, and national security applications.
About Infleqtion
Infleqtion delivers high-value quantum information precisely where it is needed. By operating at the Edge, our software-configured, quantum-enabled products deliver unmatched levels of precision and power, generating streams of high-value information for commercial organizations, the United States, and allied governments. With 16 years of ColdQuanta's pioneering quantum research as our foundation, our hardware products and AI-powered solutions address critical market needs in PNT, global communication security and efficiency, resilient energy distribution, and accelerated quantum computing. Headquartered in Austin, TX, with offices in Boulder, CO; Chicago, IL; Madison, WI; Melbourne, AU; and Oxford, UK. Learn how Infleqtion is revolutionizing how we communicate, navigate, and discover at www.Infleqtion.com.
Infleqtion UK is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the flagship commercial brand Infleqtion. Infleqtion UK has a fully equipped quantum research laboratory and established production facilities in Oxford for its UK-developed Photonically Integrated Cold Atom Source (PICAS) product. The company conducts advanced research and development in inertial sensing and advanced timing for navigation within GNSS-denied environments, radiofrequency sensors for communications and defense applications, memory modules for secure quantum networks, and quantum information platforms for computation and simulation.
About QinetiQ
Headquartered in the UK, QinetiQ is a leading global research and engineering company that creates, tests, and uses the latest technologies for defence and security customers, providing mission-critical solutions that deliver operational advantage. The company's expertise in the application of quantum computing to real-world problems makes it a natural partner for Infleqtion in the QECCO project.
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SOURCE Infleqtion | https://www.wagmtv.com/prnewswire/2023/07/18/infleqtion-qinetiq-win-award-apply-quantum-computing-logistics/ | 2023-07-18 13:02:17 | 1 | https://www.wagmtv.com/prnewswire/2023/07/18/infleqtion-qinetiq-win-award-apply-quantum-computing-logistics/ |
After a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, several pastors around the country challenged their conservative counterparts with this question: Are you pro-life if you are pro-gun?
One of those faith leaders is the Rev. Steven Marsh, senior pastor of Geneva Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods, California. That’s where a gunman, who officials say was fueled by hate against Taiwan, opened fire on May 15 at a luncheon organized by members of the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church, killing one and injuring five others.
“I’ve heard people tell me I’m not Christian because I’m pro-choice,” Marsh said. “I ask those people: How can you be pro-life and not support getting rid of assault rifles? You can’t pick and choose where you want to be pro-life.”
Marsh’s emotional statement is a vignette in the larger narrative of a nation divided on how – or if – guns should be regulated. The faith community is not monolithic on this issue.
People of faith who are tired of years of failed gun control efforts and grieving the latest mass shooting victims are pointing out what they say is hypocrisy – conservative Christians pushing to abolish abortion and grant unfettered access to guns. Those who disagree contend the real problem is sin and soft targets. It’s not guns, but the “evil” in people and abortions that kill, they say.
These entrenched, partisan divisions in the U.S. on abortion and gun rights are stark after high-profile massacres in New York, California, Texas and elsewhere as the country awaits a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that could overturn the constitutional right to abortion.
According to 2017 Pew Research Center data analyzed for Christianity Today, 41% of white evangelicals own a gun compared to 30% of Americans overall – the highest share of any religious group. The survey also shows 74% of all gun owners in the U.S. agree that their right to gun ownership is essential to their sense of freedom. Most states also allow firearms in places of worship.
Christian author and activist Shane Claiborne disputes the notion that the U.S. has a sin problem, but not a gun problem; he says it has both. Claiborne recently went to Uvalde to support victims, and to Houston to pray and protest at the National Rifle Association’s convention held days after the massacre.
He passed out tracts asserting “We can’t be pro-life and ignore gun violence” and asking “Will we choose the gun or the cross?” Claiborne said he was among those asked to leave the NRA’s Sunday prayer breakfast after disrupting the program to call for prayer for the Uvalde victims.
Claiborne wants to see laws change, including policies that would raise the age of gun ownership, limit magazine capacity, ban assault-style weapons and mandate training. He said laws can’t make people love each other, but they can make it more difficult to take a life.
“We want to make it harder for folks to kill other people, and we’re making it really easy right now,” Claiborne said.
Conservative pastors have said mass shootings and other social harms are the result of an overall degradation in moral values and disregard for human life.
Pastor Tim Lee, an evangelist and a former U.S. Marine who lost both legs during the Vietnam War, was one of the featured speakers at the NRA prayer breakfast that Claiborne and others were asked to leave.
After the Uvalde shooting, Lee posted on his Facebook page: “This is so heartbreaking. I have said it so many times – When kids hear adults say that it’s OK to kill babies (abortion) then all respect for human lives is gone.”
The gun debate is deeply personal for the Rev. Chineta Goodjoin. Her best friend, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, was one of nine people shot and killed by Dylann Roof in June 2015 as they sat in prayer at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
Goodjoin, who leads New Hope Presbyterian Church in Anaheim, California, said people of faith must rise up in “righteous anger” to demand common-sense gun regulation. When massacres occur in community spaces like churches, schools and supermarkets, it tests an entire community’s resiliency, she said.
“How can you teach in schools when people are traumatized by gun violence?” she said. “When a church is no longer a safe space, do I work to enhance security or enhance people’s faith? The impact is like an epidemic that touches every fiber of our being.”
But others, like the Rev. Russ Tenhoff, say it is simply not possible to “legislate safety.”
“There are plenty of laws, but people who are lawless don’t obey them,” said Tenhoff, lead pastor of Mountainside Community Fellowship in Kingwood, West Virginia. “Murders are going to happen even without firearms. We’re never going to be able to prevent gun violence.”
As a firearms safety officer who trains adults and children, Tenhoff says the solution is to “harden the schools,” which have become soft targets.
“We need to put one-way locks on schools, have metal detectors and an armed officer in every school,” he said.
For a Catholic pastor in Newtown, Connecticut, who a decade ago experienced the grief that now envelops Uvalde, the lack of political will to enact gun legislation is unfathomable.
Monsignor Robert Weiss, who leads the St. Rose of Lima parish, presided over the funeral of eight victims who were murdered in Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012. He held an evening Mass in his church the day after the Texas shooting.
“I guess I was a fool to think Sandy Hook was going to change the world,” he said in a video recording of the service.
Weiss also questioned the consequences of individualism in America.
“Is that what our forefathers intended for us?” he asked. “To live in a country where unborn babies are aborted, where children are murdered in school where they should be safe, where you can’t even go to a grocery store or to a church or to a library and feel like you’ll be OK?”
Pastor Mike McBride, who leads The Way Christian Center in Berkeley, California, said those on different sides of the gun issue must find common concerns to unite around and work on solutions together.
McBride says many who are pro-gun are also worried about accidental gun deaths, intimate partner violence and suicides.
“Those shared concerns can be addressed with targeted strategies that don’t keep us bogged down in the Second Amendment fight,” he said.
McBride suggests having listening campaigns across church groups and neighborhoods — a “peace infrastructure” to combat violence.
Marsh, the Laguna Woods pastor, says the shooting in his church and other recent massacres have inspired him to have “more serious conversations about this issue” in his community. He would like to see diverse faith communities organize marches in local seats of government to push legislators to act.
“Enough is enough,” he said. “We need to stop using Christianity as a veneer to deny reality.”
___
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/shootings-expose-divisions-on-gun-issue-in-faith-communities/ | 2022-06-04 19:25:14 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/news/u-s-world/shootings-expose-divisions-on-gun-issue-in-faith-communities/ |
Amistad Project Director Phill Kline applauds bipartisan deal, but raises constitutional concerns
AMHERST, Va., July 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Phill Kline, director of The Amistad Project, sent a letter to Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), reacting to their bipartisan proposal to reform the Electoral Count Act.
After sending the letter, Kline issued the following statement:
"It's good to see a sincere and bipartisan effort to address the ambiguity and structure of the Electoral Count Act, which resulted in confusion and continuing disagreements in the 2016 and 2020 elections. The proposal has much to commend it, including its express statement that the Vice-President does not have unilateral authority to accept or reject electors. The authority to determine the electors rests with the state legislatures under our Constitution.
"A key provision of the proposal, however, appears to run headlong into the plenary power of the state legislatures to determine the manner of appointment of presidential electors under Article II, Section 1, Clause 2 of the US Constitution. The proposal states that Congress will only recognize electors certified by the Governor. The power of the Governor, however, to certify an election result is dependent on a state legislature granting that power to the governor – and legislatures have the ability to remove that power.
"The proposal does a good job of articulating that one person – the Vice-President – cannot determine electors, but then in defiance of the Constitution claims the authority to potentially allow one person – a Governor – to choose electors contrary to the will of the people and the legislature of that state.
"I believe we are all in agreement that the majority vote of the people within a state should determine that state's electors. All states have passed laws to this effect and that should not change. A simple amendment to the proposal would resolve this issue and, I believe, be consistent with its objectives. Congress should recognize only those electors certified by a state in a manner consistent with provisions passed by the state legislature of that state."
Mr. Kline requested to meet with the senators to discuss his insights in greater detail and advise them as they shepherd the legislation through Congress.
For more information about The Amistad Project, please visit www.theamistadproject.org.
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SOURCE Amistad Project | https://www.wafb.com/prnewswire/2022/07/21/election-watchdog-responds-senate-election-plan/ | 2022-07-21 19:38:04 | 1 | https://www.wafb.com/prnewswire/2022/07/21/election-watchdog-responds-senate-election-plan/ |
BEIJING, June 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The renowned Chinese film company, CMC Pictures, announced that it has successfully acquired the distribution rights for the highest-grossing Hong Kong crime thriller franchise, THE WHITE STORM 3: HEAVEN OR HELL in US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK & Ireland. The film is directed by acclaimed filmmaker Herman Yau and follows the highly successful THE WHITE STORM 2: DRUG LORDS which grossed nearly $200 million globally in 2019.
THE WHITE STORM 3 is set to release in mainland China in July this year and will also be released in US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, UK & Ireland soon.
Featuring a star-studded cast including Aaron Kwok, Sean Lau, and Louis Koo, the film brings together the three legendary Hong Kong actors for the first time on the big screen. While the storyline is not directly connected to its prequel, it continues to explore the life-and-death struggles between undercover narcotics officers and drug lords. Set in the notorious "Golden Triangle" region, the film delves deeper into the moral dilemmas and the blurred boundaries between good and evil.
CMC Pictures, the global distributor of THE WHITE STORM, is also the production company behind this summer's highly anticipated blockbuster "MEG 2 THE TRENCH", starring Jason Statham and Chinese star Wu Jing. It is one of the most active Chinese film companies in the international market at present.
For inquiries and more information, please contact: info@cmcpix.com
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SOURCE CMC PICTURES | https://www.dakotanewsnow.com/prnewswire/2023/06/07/cmc-pictures-secured-distribution-rights-white-storm-3-heaven-or-hell/ | 2023-06-07 08:44:19 | 0 | https://www.dakotanewsnow.com/prnewswire/2023/06/07/cmc-pictures-secured-distribution-rights-white-storm-3-heaven-or-hell/ |
The OECD supports Boric's tax reform in Chile
The agency also warned about the stagnation of productivity in the southern country.
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September 19th, 2022Through its General Secretary, Mathias Cormann, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) recently announced that the increase in public revenue that the new Chilean government seeks to guarantee is "ambitious, but feasible.”
The initiative of the Administration of Gabriel Boric, whose vote has been set for next week in the Finance Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, seeks to collect 4.1% of GDP in four years, about $12 billion.
Tax revenues of only 21% of GDP are insufficient to meet growing social demands, while preserving the necessary public investment in infrastructure, education and health.
“The general tax collection of the Chilean government is very low, not only by OECD standards, but it is also very low for Latin America. A surprisingly low percentage actually pays income tax (20%), allowing significant room to move. Increasing public revenue by 4 points of GDP, as the authorities plan, is ambitious but it is feasible through a comprehensive tax reform,” added Cormann.
New Economic Report
The support of the OECD comes hand in hand with the launch of the Economic Study of Chile 2022, which celebrates the path of economic recovery after the pandemic, but warns about the complex scenario that lies ahead in the short term driven by phenomena such as productivity stagnant, informal employment that affects more than a quarter of the population, high income inequality, and a fiscal rule that has failed to curb the increase in public debt.
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Some of the figures that stand out are:
Avanza en la @Camara_cl el proyecto de Reforma Tributaria que tiene entre otros objetivos, aumentar la PGU a 250 mil.
— Jeannette Jara Román (@jeannette_jara) September 26, 2022
- A slowdown in growth: 1.9% by 2022 -half a percentage point above the estimate in June-, but recession in 2023, with a drop of 0.5% of GDP.
- Inflation has increased to 14.1% in August — its highest rise in three decades, surpassed only by Venezuela and Argentina — and whose projection exceeds the Central Bank's goal until the beginning of 2024.
- Also, when it comes to sustainability, the report highlights valuable advances in sustainable energy, with renewable sources currently accounting for 47% of electricity generation.
Recommendations
The Minister of Finance, Mario Marcel, assured that out of the 19 recommendations of the entity, the Boric Government is already working on 14.
“In the reforms that are now being planned for the social protection system, it is important to take into account that companies have incentives to formalize because the costs are very high, especially for low-wage workers. This incredibly reduces the incentives for companies to create formal jobs,” told El País Isabell Koske, deputy director of the OECD Economic Department, one of the authors of the report.
The OECD makes the following recommendations, despite its support for the reform, to control inflation:
- Maintain a restrictive monetary policy to ensure the return of inflation to the target.
- Ensure that part of future pension contributions are saved and invested in the capital markets.
- Reduce regulatory barriers and spend more on research and innovation to strengthen productivity and competition.
"With the incorporated indications, it will already have some important adjustments, collecting many of the observations and suggestions that have been made to us in the legislative process, and in all the other instances in which we have been discussing this matter," Marcel assured. | https://www.aldianews.com/en/politics/policy/tax-reform-chile | 2022-09-26 23:41:07 | 1 | https://www.aldianews.com/en/politics/policy/tax-reform-chile |
If it seems as though you spent a lot more on produce during your most recent grocery shopping trip, you’re probably right. According to the most recent Producer Price Index from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, vegetable prices increased 38% from October to November. And compared to last November, veggie prices are up more than 80%.
But why?
Multiple factors are to blame for the price increases that will likely last for some time.
Drought
States across the western U.S. suffered severe drought conditions this year. As a result, the Colorado River, which supplies Arizona, California, Nevada and parts of Mexico, and Lakes Powell and Mead (the country’s two largest reservoirs), is drying up.
About 80% of the water from the Colorado River is used for agriculture. Over one-third of the country’s vegetables are grown in California, and Arizona is the nation’s second-largest producer of leafy greens.
“The prolonged droughts that we’re seeing [present] some increased risk that inflation remains higher for a longer time,” Wells Fargo economist Charlie Dougherty told CNN.
Weather, Disease And Other Factors
In September, hurricane Ian caused almost $2 billion in damage to Florida’s agriculture industry. In addition, Russia’s war against Ukraine has led to a shortage of fertilizer, with prices nearly tripling. Worker shortages and high energy prices are also factors.
“When you’ve put all that together, farmers and ranchers have experienced extraordinary cost pressures,” Dougherty told CNN. “And those higher costs are being passed on to consumers.”
Experts also blame an insect-borne virus for soaring prices of lettuce. Impatiens necrotic spot virus (INSV) caused widespread damage to crops in the Salinas Valley, California, an area that produces more than half of the country’s lettuce, resulting in a yield loss of more than 80%. Warmer winters in recent years have allowed the virus to thrive year-round.
“In October most of the nation’s lettuce comes from the Salinas Valley and they are having very low production because the virus affected their crop,” Bruce Babcock, an agricultural economist at the University of California, Riverside, told NBC Bay Area. “A case of romaine is $75 now, and last January it was $25, so that’s almost a tripling of prices at the wholesale level.”
Ways To Save On Produce
While high prices on vegetables may stick around for a while, you can take steps to stay within your budget. For instance, check your local grocery ads before making your shopping list and create a menu based on sale items. You can also use comparison-shopping apps to locate the best deals.
Buy vegetables in their simplest form, which is cheaper than getting them already chopped or in kits. Frozen and canned veggies tend to be less pricey, as well.
Shop at nearby farmer’s markets when you can. Not only does this help your local economy, but you can also save money since there’s no expensive shipping or packaging.
Finally, you may want to consider starting a garden this spring. Growing your own fresh produce means you’ll have an abundance of the veggies your family enjoys for a fraction of the cost at the grocery store.
By Tricia Goss, for Newsy.
This story originally appeared on Don't Waste Your Money. Checkout Don't Waste Your Money for product reviews and other great ideas to save and make money. | https://www.abcactionnews.com/why-vegetable-prices-are-so-high-us | 2022-12-30 13:36:33 | 0 | https://www.abcactionnews.com/why-vegetable-prices-are-so-high-us |
(KRON) – In the North Bay early Thursday morning, the city of Rohnert Park reported a mountain lion sighting. Earlier this week, several coyotes were seen roaming the streets of San Francisco.
In the city’s Marina District, a coyote could be seen eating what appears to be a rat. Moments later, three more made their way through the neighborhood.
Coyotes are not uncommon in San Francisco, but these recent sightings may be a result of coyote pupping season. Warning signs are posted around the city and trails are closed off at Presidio Park until the fall to keep pets safe.
According to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, coyotes thrive in urban and residential areas. Experts say it is best to leave them alone, and if you encounter one, you should make yourself big and make noise to scare the coyote away.
In the North Bay, a mountain lion was reportedly spotted in the area of Copeland Creek Trail which is near a school. Police were unable to find it and issued a Nixle alert to the public, saying to use caution and stay aware of your surroundings when you’re out walking — especially with pets and children.
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A spokesperson with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife says the ongoing drought and wildfires are contributing factors to wildlife sightings in urban areas but added that half of California is considered mountain lion territory and that sightings like this caught on home surveillance video are usually a young male passing through looking for new territory. The big cats are usually looking for deer and pets.
Wildlife experts say if you encounter a mountain lion, stay calm, do not approach it, never run away, and try your best to appear intimidating. Whether it’s a coyote or a mountain lion you see, Fish and wildlife officials say it is a reminder that wildlife is out there. | https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/coyotes-seen-roaming-san-francisco-streets/ | 2022-08-19 06:47:02 | 1 | https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/coyotes-seen-roaming-san-francisco-streets/ |
Noodle, a senior pug who went viral on TikTok for deciding whether it would be a bones day or a no bones day, has died. His owner, Jonathan Graziano, posted on Instagram that the 14-year-old dog died Friday.
The little dog became famous in 2021 when Graziano began posting morning videos of Noodle deciding whether he was going to stand up or flop down in his soft dog bed. This coined the phrase “a no bones day” if Noodle decided to sleep in.
Graziano would encourage his fans to follow his lead and treat themselves to soft pants and self-care.
Graziano said Noodle lived 14 and a half years and made millions of people happy. | https://www.kgun9.com/news/national/pug-who-went-viral-on-tiktok-for-no-bones-day-dies | 2022-12-04 00:36:27 | 0 | https://www.kgun9.com/news/national/pug-who-went-viral-on-tiktok-for-no-bones-day-dies |
Used car prices are falling.
“Everything is kind of coming down in terms of price,” said Karl Brauer, an executive analyst at iSeeCars.com. The company is an online car research resource and car search engine.
Used car prices fell 2% in November and 3% in December, according to a January report by iSeeCars.com
The car market has been on a rollercoaster since 2020.
“What we saw at the beginning of the pandemic, of course, was a complete drop in sales as everything shut down,” Brauer said. “Then once we got past those initial lockdown stages, there was a huge rush of people wanting to buy cars.”
However, supply chain issues impacting new car production coupled with high demand caused an increase in prices.
At first, most of the demand was for trucks and convertibles, but then it slowly became the entire car market, according to Brauer.
Used car prices went up 45% from June 2020 to June 2021, according to the Consumer Price Index.
“This was all due to a supply chain issue that kept new cars from being produced. The new and used car markets are closely tied together. If you can't buy a new car, your next option is to buy a used car,” said Brauer.
The drop in prices is due to a number of factors. Supply chain issues that we saw during the pandemic aren’t as bad. Demand is dropping off because of high interest rates on car loans and inflation. Experts say people are also more concerned about their expenses.
If you’re looking to buy a car, experts say now might be your time.
“If you’re thinking of buying a car and you've been on the sidelines for the past two years, the time for you to consider purchasing is probably moving up substantially now and in the next three to six months or even earlier if you really need a car, the prices should continue to come down,” said Brauer.
The average used car price was down more than $1,000 in December 2022, the first substantial drop in more than two years, according to a January report by iSeeCars.com.
A January report from Cox Automotive also found auto loan performance is decreasing as of December. According to the report, loans delinquent by more than 60 days increased by 5.3% and were up 26.7% from a year ago.
“The automotive industry is considered one of the biggest components of our economy. So when it slows down, it definitely impacts other quadrants and other components of the economic health,” said Brauer. | https://www.wptv.com/news/national/experts-falling-prices-make-now-a-good-time-to-buy-a-used-car | 2023-01-18 23:03:31 | 1 | https://www.wptv.com/news/national/experts-falling-prices-make-now-a-good-time-to-buy-a-used-car |
PARIS (AP) — Sparks are flying over French President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to raise the retirement age — not just in the streets, but in parliament too. The proposed pension reforms have unleashed the most turbulent debate in years in the National Assembly, with uncertainty looming over the final outcome.
Tensions at parliament are fed by the unpopularity of the reform aimed at raising the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64 and requiring people to have worked for at least 43 years to be entitled to a full pension, amid other measures.
The bill started being examined in the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, last week. Over 20,000 amendments have been proposed, mostly by the leftist opposition coalition Nupes. This makes the debate almost impossible to finish before a Friday night deadline. The government denounced the tactic.
“What do our fellow citizens see? asked Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne at the National Assembly on Tuesday. “A held-up debate — held up by the multiplication of amendments… held up by the multiplication of insults… held up by abhorrent personal attacks.”
In recent days, multiple incidents have marked the debate, from legislators shouting and interrupting each other to insulting remarks toward a minister. In addition, a leftist lawmaker was excluded for 15 days after he tweeted a photo of himself and a soccer ball representing the head of Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt.
On Monday, another lawmaker of the hard-left France Unbowed party called Dussopt “a murderer” while speaking about growing numbers of fatal workplace accidents in France, prompting outrage across the Assembly’s ranks. The lawmaker apologized.
If the debate is not over in the lower house by Friday, the bill will be sent without a vote to the Senate. The end of the legislative process is not expected before next month.
The parliamentary situation is challenging for Macron, who has made the reform the centerpiece of his second term in office. In last year’s elections, his centrist alliance won the most seats but lost its majority in the National Assembly. That allowed opposition lawmakers from the left and the right to reject article 2 of the bill — requiring companies to publish reports about the proportion of older employees — in a vote late on Tuesday evening. The debate was to resume Wednesday.
The speaker of the National Assembly, Yael Braun-Pivet, said on RTL radio that the situation is “serious” because “we have been demonstrating for a week … that we are not able to conduct a democratic debate up to the French people’s expectations.”
Last week, Braun-Pivet also reported that the bill had triggered anonymous voicemails, graffiti and a threatening letter to the head of the chamber’s Social Affairs Committee.
Alexis Corbière, vice-president of the France Unbowed group at the National Assembly, defended lawmakers’ actions in the debate.
“If you blame lawmakers for proposing amendments, it’s as if you’re blaming butchers for cutting meat or bakers for making bread … A lawmaker is about speaking. If you want silent MPs, try totalitarian societies, but here, fortunately, we are in a democracy,” he said.
Sebastien Chenu, vice-president of the far-right National Rally party, which opposes the pension plan, denounced the toxic atmosphere in parliament.
“I believe that this government is irresponsible for having given too little time to debate and that the Nupes coalition is completely irresponsible in creating a blockade when we must … vote against (the bill),” he said.
Opinion polls consistently show the pension plan is widely unpopular — yet they also show a majority of the French believe it will still be implemented.
“I first want the work to be able to continue at parliament,” Macron said last week. “That’s how democracy must function.”
He also urged unions to show a “spirit of responsibility” and “not block the life of the rest of the country” while staging protest actions.
A fifth round of demonstrations and strikes is scheduled on Thursday. Nearly 1 million people took to the streets in the latest protest day Saturday according to authorities — up to 2.5 million according to the CGT union, one of the organizers.
Macron’s alliance hopes it will get support from conservative legislators to ultimately be able to pass the bill.
The Republicans party said in a statement Tuesday the French pension system “will collapse in five to 10 years” without changes. That’s why, despite being in the opposition, the party decided to support the reform, it said.
Yet some Republican lawmakers have publicly expressed their disagreement with the bill and said they won’t approve it, making the outcome of the vote hard to predict.
In addition, if legislators don’t manage to vote on the text by the end of next month, the government could choose to use a special constitutional power to force the bill through. Such a decision would be highly unpopular.
____
AP journalists Jeffrey Schaeffer, Oleg Cetinic and Catherine Gaschka contributed to the story. | https://cw33.com/business/ap-business/ap-french-pension-tension-triggers-turbulent-parliament-debate/ | 2023-02-15 23:24:39 | 1 | https://cw33.com/business/ap-business/ap-french-pension-tension-triggers-turbulent-parliament-debate/ |
BERLIN (AP) — Germany and France on Monday backed calls to subsidize Europe’s green industries in a bid to counter financial aid that the United States has put in place for American manufacturers.
The European Union has warned of a possible trans-Atlantic trade war over the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, a $369 billion plan that favors American-made products and the EU claims unfairly discriminates against its firms.
In a joint statement, Berlin and Paris said they want to “secure the industrial base in Europe, in particular critical green industries.”
German Economy Minister Robert Habeck and his French counterpart, Bruno Le Maire, suggested “targeted subsidies and tax-credits” for industrial sectors such as wind and solar power generation, heat pump manufacturing and hydrogen production.
At the same time, they urged the EU’s executive commission to negotiate with Washington for European manufacturers to get the same exemptions the U.S. grants to Mexico and Canada, which are free-trade partners.
Many of the ideas coming from the EU’s two biggest economies echo proposals by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who wrote to European leaders last week saying the bloc should adjust its rules on state aid to achieve the “unprecedented transformation” from fossil fuels to green power.
Von der Leyen also said the EU should work with the United States to ensure “that our respective incentive programs reinforce each other,” such as by working together to find alternative sources of key raw materials currently supplied by China.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of the climate and environment: https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment | https://who13.com/news/politics/ap-politics/ap-germany-france-seek-to-counter-us-climate-aid-with-own-plan/ | 2022-12-19 21:19:13 | 1 | https://who13.com/news/politics/ap-politics/ap-germany-france-seek-to-counter-us-climate-aid-with-own-plan/ |
- Automate 2023 set record attendance with more than 30,000 registrants
- Automate is heading to Chicago in 2024 and will return to Detroit in 2025
ANN ARBOR, Mich., June 6, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Automate, the largest robotics and automation trade show in North America, celebrated its most successful event to date with record numbers. More than 30,000 people from around the world registered to visit the sold-out show floor featuring 757 exhibitors during Automate's four-day run May 22-25, 2023 in Detroit, Michigan.
Due to the extraordinary demand for automation and the growing need companies have – both to learn how automation can benefit them as well as connect with partners who can help them deploy automation solutions – the Association for Advancing Automation (A3) will now hold Automate annually.
"I want to take a moment to thank all the sponsors, speakers, exhibitors, and attendees who contributed to making Automate 2023 such a tremendous success," said Jeff Burnstein, president of A3. "As this show demonstrated, demand for robotics and automation technologies is accelerating as companies in every industry seek automation solutions to improve their competitiveness."
Previously held every other year, the show featured four halls of exhibits, keynote speakers each day, relevant show floor theater sessions, a start-up competition, and a comprehensive educational conference attended by over 1,000 people with courses on topics such as robotics, artificial intelligence, machine vision and motion control taught by more than 200 industry experts. Attendees said the mix of exhibitions, discussions and people energized the show floor all week.
"We found tremendous value exhibiting at Automate," said Kevin Barker, president of Beckhoff Automation. "The audience was knowledgeable, engaged, and excited about automation technology and we look forward to continuing to participate every year moving forward."
Startup Competition Highlights
On the second day of Automate, nine technology startups went head-to-head to win the Phoenix Contact Startup Challenge.
ESTAT Actuation was selected by a panel of venture capital judges for its game-changing technologies and received a $10,000 cash prize. ESTAT electroadhesive products are 10x lighter, 10x more compact, and 1000x more efficient than conventional versions, enabling groundbreaking new solutions for robotic joints, end of arm tooling gripping, and untethered robot designs.
"Automate was incredible for generating customer interest and connections. Everyone loved seeing and experiencing our hardware demos, and winning the startup challenge gave us a great avenue to build awareness of our products and gain industry advocates," said Stuart Diller, CEO of ESTAT Actuation.
Engelberger Award Winners Honored
Recipients of the 2023 Engelberger Awards, the world's most prestigious robotics honor, were celebrated at the Joseph F. Engelberger Awards Dinner and Ceremony on May 24. Roberta Nelson Shea of Universal Robots was recognized as the Application winner for her outstanding work in global robotics safety; and Jeff Burnstein of the Association for Advancing Automation was honored in Leadership for his work promoting the robotics industry for the past four decades at the Association for Advancing Automation.
Automate Rewind
For anyone unable to attend the event live or who missed keynote speeches and discussions, there's still a chance to check them out. Automate Rewind will be launched the week of June 12, 2023. It will feature an entire digital library of content from Automate 2023, including recordings of keynote sessions, theater talks, Automate LIVE interviews, exhibitor spotlights, and more. Automate Rewind will be available here.
2024 and 2025 Event Details
Next year, Automate will be held May 6-9 at McCormick Place in Chicago and the show will return to Detroit May 12-15, 2025. 2024 booth space is already more than 60% reserved. If your company would like to reserve space, contact Jim Hamilton, A3's VP of Sales, here to book a booth or explore sponsorship opportunities.
For more details on Automate, visit www.AutomateShow.com.
About Association for Advancing Automation (A3)
The Association for Advancing Automation (A3) is the leading global advocate for the benefits of automating. A3 promotes automation technologies and ideas that transform the way business is done. Members of A3 represent nearly 1,200 manufacturers, component suppliers, system integrators, end users, academic institutions, research groups and consulting firms that drive automation forward worldwide.
A3 hosts a number of industry-leading events, including the Robotic Grinding & Finishing Conference (July 25-26, Minneapolis, MN), Autonomous Mobile Robots & Logistics Conference (October 4-5, Memphis, TN.), the International Robot Safety Conference (October 9-11, Pittsburgh, PA), the AI & Smart Automation Conference (October 10-11, Pittsburgh, PA), the A3 Business Forum (January 15-17, 2024, Orlando, FL), and Automate (May 6-9, 2024, Chicago, IL).
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SOURCE Association for Advancing Automation | https://www.kmvt.com/prnewswire/2023/06/06/record-automate-2023-event-leads-annual-show/ | 2023-06-06 18:24:54 | 0 | https://www.kmvt.com/prnewswire/2023/06/06/record-automate-2023-event-leads-annual-show/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Paul Tonko wins Democratic nomination for U.S. House in New York's 20th Congressional District.
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MERIDIAN, Idaho — We have been following adorable 7-year-old twins, Milo and Charlie McConnel, for a few years now; they also go by the nicknames Chuckles and Meatloaf!
These Nampa fraternal twins have Down syndrome, which is incredibly rare. They have fans all over the country! The boys have half a million followers on social media, and they bring people so much joy.
October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month, and the twins are starring in a national ad campaign for Scentsy! They are making big strides to raise awareness and acceptance.
"Charlie and Milo are showcasing some of their products and just having a great time," said Julie McConnel, the twins' mom.
Scentsy executives reached out to Nampa mom Julie McConnel, to see if her boys would star in an exciting Lilo and Stitch product campaign.
Scentsy, is one of the most successful companies in Idaho, with a billion dollars a year in revenue. It is headquartered in Meridian, Idaho.
"We saw a need for a safer candle in the world, and we designed these incredible wickless candles with warmers," said Lacey Hanson, Vice President of Consultant Sales at Scentsy. "Then we expanded to clean products, and laundry products, and what we call our pets and buddies over the last 18 years."
Scentsy knew the twins would be the perfect fit for the brand, and for this special collaboration with Disney.
"We really wanted to showcase them, knowing their story and knowing how they just make everyone around them feel," said Hanson. "It really spoke to our company, our values, and our products that we wanted to feature. It was just a no-brainer for us to include them in this incredible campaign."
Mom Julie was over the moon about the idea. She is dedicated to raising awareness and acceptance for her boys, and for the entire Down syndrome community. That is why she shares the twins' lives on social media.
"People with different abilities, people of different races, when they see themselves represented in the media, advertising, magazines, billboards, anything, it makes people feel included. It makes them feel like they are valued and important," said McConnel. "It makes them feel seen. it makes them feel empowered, like they can do anything. They can dream big things and see that they can do those things!"
The twins are naturals in front of the camera, and they just radiate joy.
"The boys had a great time, they love the camera, they are very animated, they are hams, it wasn't like work at all for them it was a party, they had a great time," said Julie McConnel.
"One, they were just super fun on set, they were laughing. There was so much smiling, there was so much fun. We just really enjoyed being around them, that day everyone just seemed happier," said Hanson.
For Scentsy, inclusivity is important.
"As a community, it's just making sure that everyone feels that they belong. Making sure that everyone feels that they have a place," said Hanson.
That means so much to McConnel, and her family.
"I do appreciate that Scentsy really wants to show people of all abilities and all different kinds of people showing diversity in their ads and marketing. I think it's fantastic that they have taken that mission on and made it a priority of theirs," said McConnel. "I know other companies are doing the same. I'm seeing that more and more big companies in marketing in the community, big companies, just making that a conscious choice. To show that we are all valuable we all belong."
Charlie and Milo are representing the Down syndrome community on the national stage, paving the way for so many others to come.
The Scentsy ads with the twins will be shared with Scentsy consultants starting in February of 2023, and will be featured in a new catalog that launches on March 1.
Watch more '7's Hero'
See all of the heartwarming segments in our YouTube playlist here: | https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/outreach/sevens-hero/7s-hero-nampa-idaho-twins-with-down-syndrome-star-in-scentsy-advertising-campaign/277-21814348-18bb-43f6-8a74-278be9dbcc60 | 2022-10-31 05:33:24 | 1 | https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/outreach/sevens-hero/7s-hero-nampa-idaho-twins-with-down-syndrome-star-in-scentsy-advertising-campaign/277-21814348-18bb-43f6-8a74-278be9dbcc60 |
By integrating with SAP Ariba® solutions, TealBook's supplier data platform delivers supplier diversity visibility to customers
TORONTO, Oct. 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- TealBook Inc. today announced that its Supplier Diversity Intelligence platform is now available on SAP® Store, the online marketplace for SAP and partner offerings. The platform integrates with the SAP Ariba® Supplier Lifecycle and Performance, SAP Ariba Supplier Risk and SAP Ariba Buying solutions and provides users with visibility into small and diverse business certificates within their supply base.
"Through this partnership, TealBook's supplier data platform enables businesses that use SAP technology to have better visibility into their supply base and the ability to truly capture, leverage and accurately report their qualified small and diverse suppliers," said Stephany Lapierre, founder and CEO of TealBook. "TealBook's integration with SAP software is the next step in advancing the digital enterprise and empowering procurement with trusted supplier data."
Thanks to this technology, businesses that use SAP technology now have access to enriched supplier data, enabling them to evaluate the status of their spend with qualified and certified small and diverse businesses. This data can then be used to drive additional diverse spend through strategic sourcing and guided buying, helping ensure that their innovation strategy focuses on diversity, equity and inclusion priorities.
SAP Store, found at store.sap.com, delivers a simplified and connected digital customer experience for finding, trying, buying and renewing more than 2,000 solutions from SAP and its partners. There, customers can find the SAP solutions and SAP-validated solutions they need to grow their business. And for each purchase made through SAP Store, SAP will plant a tree.
TealBook is a partner in the SAP PartnerEdge® program. The SAP PartnerEdge program provides the enablement tools, benefits and support to facilitate building high-quality, disruptive applications focused on specific business needs – quickly and cost-effectively.
TealBook Inc. provides the leading supplier data platform that automates the collection, enrichment and distribution of supplier data to power the end-to-end procurement lifecycle. Using AI and ML, the TealBook platform enables procurement teams to unlock and realize the investment made in suppliers, people, source-to-pay and ERP systems. The world's most innovative procurement organizations are building their data foundations with TealBook's trusted supplier data.
TealBook Supplier Diversity Intelligence has been adopted by Fortune 100 companies and is the winner of many prestigious awards including: Spend Matters 50 Vendors to Know, ProcureTech Top 100, LinkedIn Top Startups and Gartner Cool Vendor. For more information, visit www.tealbook.com.
Copyright TealBook 2022 © All rights reserved.
SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and other countries. Please see https://www.sap.com/copyright for additional trademark information and notices. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.
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SOURCE TealBook | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2022/10/20/tealbook-supplier-diversity-intelligence-platform-now-available-sap-store/ | 2022-10-20 13:57:18 | 0 | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2022/10/20/tealbook-supplier-diversity-intelligence-platform-now-available-sap-store/ |
A roundup of the week's most newsworthy auto and transport industry press releases from PR Newswire
NEW YORK, Oct. 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- With thousands of press releases published each week, it can be difficult to keep up with everything on PR Newswire. To help journalists covering the auto and transportation industries stay on top of the week's most newsworthy and popular releases, here's a roundup of stories from the week that shouldn't be missed.
The list below includes the headline (with a link to the full text) and an excerpt from each story. Click on the press release headlines to access accompanying multimedia assets that are available for download.
- Rolls-Royce Spectre Unveiled: The Marque's First Fully-Electric Motor Car
Spectre marks the start of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars full electrification and Rolls-Royce has confirmed that by 2030 its entire product portfolio will be fully electric. - The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection Sets Sail
Stopping at both intimate and signature ports of call, most voyages range from 7 to 10 nights, with no two journeys alike so that guests can combine itineraries without repeating a destination. Depending on the season, Evrima visits the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. - Kodiak Robotics and IKEA Announce Cooperation for Autonomous Freight Delivery in the U.S.
The cooperation, which began on August 8, 2022, includes a Kodiak autonomous heavy-duty truck transporting IKEA products seven days a week between the IKEA Distribution Center in Baytown, Texas, and the IKEA Store in Frisco, Texas. - Alef Launches The Alef Flying Car, First and Only Drivable Flying Car with Vertical Takeoff and Landing Fitting Today's Road Infrastructure
The first Alef flying car is available for pre-sale to consumers on October 19, 2022, for $300K. The Alef "Model A" has a driving range of 200 miles and a flight range of 110 miles. - Toyota Boosts 2023 Corolla Hybrid with All-New Infrared Edition, New Grades and Available AWD
Debuting a more powerful hybrid system and available Electronic On-Demand All-Wheel Drive, the 2023 Corolla Hybrid also gains new safety and multimedia systems, updated styling and new paint colors. - Hertz Partners with Palantir to Drive Operational Excellence and Enhance Customer Experience
Hertz is using the Palantir Foundry operating system to create a platform that will help the company more efficiently manage and operate its fleet of nearly 500,000 vehicles, which includes tens of thousands of EVs. - Expedia Releases Top Air Travel Hacks for U.S. Travelers Ahead of Holiday Season
Chuck Thackston, managing director of data science and research at Airlines Reporting Corporation, said, "Airlines have improved their performance while both capacity and traveler demand continue to increase. We're also starting to see business travelers return to the skies following the surge of leisure travel in the first half of 2022." - flyExclusive, One of the Fastest-Growing Providers of Premium Private Jet Charter Experiences, to Become Publicly Traded via Business Combination Agreement with EG Acquisition Corp.
Proceeds will allow flyExclusive to continue its growth, better serve customers, and execute its strategic plan to become the nation's first fully vertically integrated private aviation company. - Honda Aircraft Company Reveals Latest Aircraft - the HondaJet Elite II
With an expanded range of 1,547 nm, the Elite II now extends HondaJet's reach to more destinations while maintaining its position as the most fuel-efficient aircraft in its class. The addition of ground spoilers completes the performance upgrades, optimizing takeoff and landing field performance. - bp invests in free local electric transit business Freebee
Freebee's free-to-the-user trips are financed through local governments as part of municipalities' public transport networks, and also by private entities such as corporate business parks, hotels and resorts, and university campuses.
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SOURCE PR Newswire | https://www.wflx.com/prnewswire/2022/10/21/this-week-transportation-news-10-stories-you-need-see/ | 2022-10-21 12:44:13 | 1 | https://www.wflx.com/prnewswire/2022/10/21/this-week-transportation-news-10-stories-you-need-see/ |
New analysis from Bain & Company shows the biopharma sector, a productivity powerhouse for the past 30 years, will need to evolve to preserve productivity in the coming years
NEW YORK, July 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Biopharma companies have enjoyed 30 years of high productivity, with average total shareholder return (TSR) growing at a compound annual rate of 17%. New research from Bain & Company shows that the biopharma sector will continue to be productive but see dampened returns over the next five years. Beyond that, companies will face an increasingly challenging landscape.
Bain's new study, "Three Prescriptions for the Future of Biopharma Productivity," shows that to preserve productivity, biopharma companies will need to adapt tried-and-true approaches to the evolving environment and adopt new practices.
"With rapid advances in innovation and patient outcomes over the past few decades, biopharma has brought life-sustaining medicines to patients across disease areas and geographies," said Eli Weinberg, partner at Bain & Company. "The sector has consistently enjoyed strong financial returns as a result, even amid previous downturns. However, that tune may be changing in today's tumultuous environment, and we expect pressures to intensify from multiple directions in the years ahead. Biopharma companies that develop a refined definition of category leadership and embrace new digital enablers around that will be best positioned to continue to deliver financial performance and patient benefits."
30 years of standout productivity
Compared with other industries, biopharma has been a productivity powerhouse. Biopharma companies' average TSR grew at a compound annual rate of 17% from 1990 to 2022. While TSR growth dipped slightly over the past two years, it remains considerably high at 13%.
Revenue growth has been a strong contributor to this success: The biopharma sector's combined revenue is 16 times higher now than it was in 1990. Such revenue growth alone is enough to deliver healthy TSR, but other factors have also been influential.
Multiple expansion has played nearly an equal role to revenue growth, serving as one of the biggest swing factors in a company's TSR, particularly during periods of low revenue growth. And while capital structure has made a minimal contribution to overall industry TSR, it has made a significant difference for some individual companies that have managed their capital effectively.
Revenue growth slowing over the next five years
Bain's research shows that revenue growth may now be slowing, reducing TSR growth and marking the end of an era.
A confluence of factors is already casting a shadow on the outlook. Historically somewhat immune to downturns, biopharma is feeling the effects of the uncertain macroeconomic environment more acutely than in the past. Pricing pressure from multiple governments, increased competition for patients, loss of exclusivity, and saturation across geographies are threatening revenues. Margins are being squeezed by the increasing costs of manufacturing, marketing, clinical trials, labor, and more in today's high-inflation environment.
Over the next five years, Bain expects TSR to be slightly lower but still positive, around 6% to 10%, which is in line with the historical S&P 500. There are, of course, substantial influences that will play a role, including the effect of pricing and exclusivity legislation in the US and Europe, regulatory scrutiny on M&A, and the success of new therapeutic modalities.
Headwinds to intensify beyond the next five years
Past this five-year outlook, Bain expects headwinds to intensify, slowing biopharma's productivity drastically from 2027 to 2032. Over that time, Bain estimates that maintaining more than 10% industrywide TSR could require adding more than $500 billion per year in revenue—compared with the current $300 billion per year in biologics and $200 billion per year in oncology—while modestly expanding margins, according to our estimates.
Building resilience through category leadership
It will be important for companies to learn from what has worked consistently for the past 30 years and apply it in the current context. For example, focusing on category leadership, the strategy of leading in a set of disease areas that have overlapping physician call points is consistently linked to high TSR. From 2010 to 2022, the most focused category leaders achieved a median annual TSR of 16.7%, compared with just 8.7% for their peers that took a broader approach. That's because category leaders enjoy multiple advantages that support both the enterprise value and capital structure components of TSR. They have more successful R&D trials, higher launch revenues, greater M&A opportunities, and stronger capital structure performance than their counterparts.
Three paths to maintaining TSR in the years ahead
- Redefine category leadership in the era of genomic medicine. As treatment regimens and therapies become more complex and increasingly biomarker driven, category leadership will continue to be important.
- Don't shy away from digital disruption. The biopharma sector was already being disrupted by process automation, digital-based customer interactions, machine learning, and more. Now, generative AI is accelerating the pace of change tremendously, with use cases that extend across functions. Companies that take a digital-first approach and disrupt their operating models ahead of the pack will be productivity leaders, outpacing companies that move more slowly or take a wait-and-see approach.
- Embrace consortia approaches. Novel modalities have unprecedented clinical potential, but they also carry high risks and financial uncertainty. Going forward, basket trials (those that test a new drug on different diseases with the same mutation or biomarker) and umbrella trials (those that evaluate multiple therapies for a single disease) can spread the high costs of clinical trials across multiple biopharma companies. This democratization will play a critical role in the progress of advanced modalities for rare diseases.
Editor's Note: For more information or interview requests please contact Katie Ware at katie.ware@bain.com or +1 646 562 8107.
About Bain & Company
Bain & Company is a global consultancy that helps the world's most ambitious change makers define the future.
Across 65 cities in 40 countries, we work alongside our clients as one team with a shared ambition to achieve extraordinary results, outperform the competition, and redefine industries. We complement our tailored, integrated expertise with a vibrant ecosystem of digital innovators to deliver better, faster, and more enduring outcomes. Our 10-year commitment to invest more than $1 billion in pro bono services brings our talent, expertise, and insight to organizations tackling today's urgent challenges in education, racial equity, social justice, economic development, and the environment. We earned a platinum rating from EcoVadis, the leading platform for environmental, social, and ethical performance ratings for global supply chains, putting us in the top 1% of all companies. Since our founding in 1973, we have measured our success by the success of our clients, and we proudly maintain the highest level of client advocacy in the industry.
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SOURCE Bain & Company | https://www.wymt.com/prnewswire/2023/07/26/biopharma-sector-is-likely-see-dampened-returns-over-next-five-years-with-increasing-headwinds-years-beyond/ | 2023-07-26 14:33:40 | 0 | https://www.wymt.com/prnewswire/2023/07/26/biopharma-sector-is-likely-see-dampened-returns-over-next-five-years-with-increasing-headwinds-years-beyond/ |
CROUCH, Idaho — The Starlight Mountain Theatre opened in 2000, realizing a dream for Eddy Davis who always wanted to open his own theatre, he decided Crouch was the place to do it so he moved his family from Atlanta back to Idaho.
"My dad was a college professor and he taught theatre speech and drama," said Skye Davis, Eddy's son who has helped take over this family business as his parents got older. "He just wanted to have his own theatre, he was turning 40 and he realized if he didn’t do it now he might never do it so we took a leap of faith."
More than two decades later, the Davis family helps people enjoy the mountains in a unique way as the cast puts on a live performance Monday through Saturday night at 8:00 p.m.
Starlight cycles through a number of different plays, this year they started with Cinderella, currently they are performing the Little Mermaid, Calamity Jane and Pirates of the Penzance Goes West, in August they will add the Play that Goes Wrong.
"I mean my favorite thing is singing, it’s what I love doing," said Maddie Jorgenson who plays Ariel in the Little Mermaid. "But I love doing it as a character, I always say acting is just playing make believe and we get to wear pretty costumes while we do it and bring other people into the story, which is just a fun thing to do."
The Starlight Mountain Theatre recruits young adults who bring youthful energy to shows, but it is also a chance for them to gain confidence, build their resume and spend the summer in the mountains of Idaho.
"We have a lot of talented kids here at the theatre," said Davis. "We travel the country during our audition tour in January and February to find all these kids, bring them out here and we are thankful they keep coming back,"
Jorgenson will return to southern California for her senior year as she looks forward to graduating with a degree in voice performance, but she will always remember her summer in Garden Valley.
"Absolutely, I’m from Nampa so it is a little bit hotter every time every time I go down the mountain," said Jorgenson. "I love being up here by the trees, by the river I go for drives all the time and just smell the mountain air, I feel really lucky."
Jorgenson enjoys taking tickets and helping people to their seats, it's all part of the job at the Starlight Mountain Theatre that mixes the magic of the mountains with the magic of live performances in a intimate setting that seats up to 300 people.
"It’s a blast I love that we seat everybody at Starlight so I get to see a lot of the people come through and talk to them before the show," said Jorgenson. "In the pre-show we don’t have lights on us so we get to make eye contact with the people in the audience and then just looking up it’s fun when I sing about the sun as the Little Mermaid, I actually get to gesture towards the sun."
Disclaimer, in out video we showed clips from the pre-show, we weren't able to record any video of Calamity Jane because like most plays at Starlight those have copyright restrictions, but I can tell you it was a very enjoyable performance.
For more information on tickets and a calendar of performances click here. | https://www.kivitv.com/news/outdoors/starlight-mountain-theatre-brings-magic-to-the-mountains-with-live-performances | 2022-07-28 18:51:58 | 1 | https://www.kivitv.com/news/outdoors/starlight-mountain-theatre-brings-magic-to-the-mountains-with-live-performances |
NEW YORK, Sept. 5, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Color Star Technology Co., Ltd. (Nasdaq: CSCW) ("Color Star" or the "Company"), an entertainment technology company with a global network that focuses on the application of technology and artificial intelligence in the entertainment industry, has recently signed an official strategic partnership agreement with Global Digital Club ("GDC"). From now on, the focus of this partnership will be on the metaverse digital economy, and both parties will jointly develop a series of related digital businesses in [Color World_Metaverse].
Global Digital Club is a world-renowned professional digital investment club, with members including global elites and top executives from leading companies around the world. Every year, the GDC holds major industry summits and organizes regular invite-only member meetings to more accurately and effectively enhance the globalization of the digital economy, providing the most accurate and representative outlook analysis for the industry, and to help corporate members establish effective cooperation with each other. As an authority in the digital economy industry, Color Star and GDC will utilize their respective advantages and resources to actively cooperate on the metaverse platform [Color World_Metaverse], connecting relevant NFTs, metaverses and other relevant content together.
CEO of Color Star, Farhan Qadir said: "Color Star has always viewed smart intelligence as its technical core, and while we continue to develop the entertainment metaverse, we expect to further develop more industrial content, the digital economy and artificial intelligence since they will certainly be profitable developments for the company. The partnership with GDC will not only allow us to progress further with our digital economy, but also allow Color Star to attract more partners, which is a very good thing. Next, we will partner with more corporate organizations, which suggests that the future developments of Color Star will be more diversified and comprehensive, bringing our partners and investors more guaranteed revenue."
Forward-Looking Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements that are other than statements of historical facts. When the Company uses words such as "may," "will," "intend," "should," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "project," "estimate" or similar expressions that do not relate solely to historical matters, it is making forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantee of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations discussed in the forward-looking statements. These statements are subject to uncertainties and risks including, but not limited to, the following: the Company's goals and strategies; the Company's future business development, including the development of the metaverse project; product and service demand and acceptance; changes in technology; economic conditions; the growth of the educational and training services market internationally where CSCW conducts its business; reputation and brand; the impact of competition and pricing; government regulations; fluctuations in general economic and business conditions and assumptions underlying or related to any of the foregoing and other risks contained in reports filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. For these reasons, among others, investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements in this press release. Additional factors are discussed in the Company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available for review at www.sec.gov. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly revise these forward–looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that arise after the date hereof unless required by applicable laws, regulations or rules.
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SOURCE Color Star Technology Co., Ltd. | https://www.wflx.com/prnewswire/2022/09/06/color-star-technology-global-digital-club-forms-strategic-partnership-with-metaverse-digital-economy-focus/ | 2022-09-06 13:02:43 | 0 | https://www.wflx.com/prnewswire/2022/09/06/color-star-technology-global-digital-club-forms-strategic-partnership-with-metaverse-digital-economy-focus/ |
HOUSTON TEXANS (4-13)
CAMP SITE: Houston
LAST YEAR: The Texans won just four games for the second straight season after winning the AFC South the previous two seasons, costing coach David Culley his job after just one year. With QB Deshaun Watson sitting out amid a trade request and multiple lawsuits from women alleging sexual harassment or assault, the Texans relied on Tyrod Taylor early before giving rookie Davis Mills a chance at quarterback. Ineffective play at quarterback paired with a defense that ranked near the bottom of the NFL in the first season without star J.J. Watt left the Texans as one of the league’s worst teams.
IMPORTANT ADDITIONS: Coach Lovie Smith, DB Derek Stingley, Jr., OL Kenyon Green, WR John Metchie III, DB Jalen Pitre, RB Dameon Pierce, RB Marlon Mack, QB Kyle Allen, LB Christian Harris, LB Jalen Reeves-Maybin, WR Chris Conley, DE Jerry Hughes, CB Steven Nelson, DE Ogbonnia Okoronkwo, DE Rasheem Green, RG A.J. Cann, LB Blake Cashman.
IMPORTANT LOSSES: Watson, S Justin Reid, CB Lonnie Johnson, Jr., RB David Johnson, TE Jordan Akins, DE Jacob Martin, QB Tyrod Taylor, CB Terrance Mitchell, S A.J. Moore.
CAMP NEEDS: Now that Watson has been traded to Cleveland, the Texans are focused on developing Mills. Houston has committed to him as the starter for this season, but he’ll need to show that he’s made progress in camp after a subpar rookie season. Metchie, a second-round pick, could help Mills in his second season, but must show that he’s healthy after offseason knee surgery. The Texans expect Stingley, the third overall pick in the draft, to step in immediately to improve their secondary, which makes his work in camp particularly important.
KEY CAMP COMPETITIONS: Houston has had the worst running game in the NFL for the past two seasons but made some additions this offseason to attempt to improve it with Johnson gone. Mack is expected to be the starter, but Pierce, a fourth-round pick, could use a good camp to earn some carries behind him and veteran Rex Burkhead this season. Christian Kirksey and Kamu Grugier-Hill are two of the team’s starting linebackers but performance in camp will determine the last spot. Christian Harris, a third-round pick, and offseason acquisition Maybin, are two of the top options for the job.
EXPECTATIONS: Multiple high draft picks and several free agent additions should make the Texans better than they were last season. Smith, the team’s former defensive coordinator, is committed to turning around the defense and believes the additions of Stingley and Pitre, a second-round pick, can transform a secondary that was terrible last year. If the rookies improve the defense and Mills takes a step forward in Year 2, Houston should win a few more games than last season, but it’s unlikely that this young team will be good enough to contend for the playoffs.
FANDUEL SUPER BOWL ODDS: +30000
___
More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL | https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/texans-look-to-mills-at-qb-after-trading-watson-to-browns/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all | 2022-07-15 17:21:53 | 0 | https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/texans-look-to-mills-at-qb-after-trading-watson-to-browns/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all |
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have reached an agreement in principle on legislation to increase the nation’s borrowing authority and avoid a default.
Negotiators are now racing to finalize the bill’s text. McCarthy said the House will vote on the legislation on Wednesday, giving the Senate time to consider it ahead of the June 5 deadline to avoid a possible default.
While many details are unknown, both sides will be able to point to some victories. But some conservatives expressed early concerns that the deal doesn’t cut future deficits enough, while Democrats have been worried about proposed changes to work requirements in programs such as food stamps.
A look at what’s in and out of the deal, based on what’s known so far:
TWO-YEAR DEBT INCREASE, SPENDING LIMITS
The agreement would keep non-defense spending roughly flat in the 2024 fiscal year and increase it by 1% the following year, as well as provide for a two-year debt-limit increase — past the next presidential election in 2024. That's according to a source familiar with the deal who provided details on the condition of anonymity.
VETERANS CARE
The agreement will fully fund medical care for veterans at the levels included in Biden's proposed 2024 budget blueprint, including for a fund dedicated to veterans who have been exposed to toxic substances or environmental hazards. Biden sought $20.3 billion for the toxic exposure fund in his budget.
WORK REQUIREMENTS
Republicans had proposed boosting work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents in certain government assistance programs. They said it would bring more people into the workforce, who would then pay taxes and help shore up key entitlement programs, namely Social Security and Medicare.
Democrats had roundly criticized the proposed changes, saying they would lead to fewer people able to afford food or health care without actually increasing job participation.
House Republicans had passed legislation that would create new work requirements for some Medicaid recipients, but that was left out of the final agreement.
However, the agreement would expand some work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, formerly known as food stamps. The agreement would raise the age for existing work requirements from 49 to 54, similar to the Republican proposal, but those changes would expire in 2030. And the White House said it would at the same time reduce the number of vulnerable people at all ages who are subject to the requirements
SPEEDING UP ENERGY PROJECTS
The deal puts in place changes in the the National Environmental Policy Act that will designate “a single lead agency” to develop environmental reviews, in hopes of streamlining the process.
WHAT WAS LEFT OUT
Republicans had sought to repeal Biden's efforts to waive $10,000 to $20,000 in debt for nearly all borrowers who took out student loans. But the provision was a nonstarter for Democrats. The budget agreement keeps Biden's student loan relief in place, though the Supreme Court will have the ultimate say on the matter.
The Supreme Court is dominated 6-3 by conservatives, and those justices’ questions in oral arguments showed skepticism about the legality of Biden’s student loans plan. A decision is expected before the end of June. | https://www.myfoxzone.com/article/news/nation-world/debt-ceiling-deal-whats-in-it/507-ffa815cc-5dea-4294-af41-d1c8e9a721ec | 2023-05-28 05:21:18 | 1 | https://www.myfoxzone.com/article/news/nation-world/debt-ceiling-deal-whats-in-it/507-ffa815cc-5dea-4294-af41-d1c8e9a721ec |
The Union look likely, for the first time in franchise history, to enter a season with all three allotted designated player roster spots full. At a time when the youth development strategy of Ernst Tanner is getting the most bang for the buck, the club happens to be spending the most bucks in their history, in absolute terms and in trying to keep up with the league.
That’s a reason to be bullish about the club’s hopes for continuing a recent upward trajectory in 2023, Tanner told media Tuesday.
“I’m grateful to ownership that they made it possible, and we earned a lot of trust,” Tanner said via Zoom. “Finally we are really spending, and having three DPs is novel for Philadelphia Union. And that is a statement in a way.”
Tanner, is his typically calculated way, allowed that “the probability at least is very, very high” that the Union will have three DP spots. Daniel Gazdag just signed a new contract that elevated his salary above the threshold, while Mikael Uhre and Julian Carranza filled spots last year. (DP spots cap a player’s salary budget charge no matter how much they earn.)
It’s possible the Union pay down one of those salaries with allocation money. But more likely, with no need for another starting-caliber player, that money will be spent on depth signings. That means the Union will be at a higher capacity in terms of spending than in years past.
It doesn’t hurt that the three players making that money are at premium positions, and producing like it. The trio accounted for 49 goals and 25 assists last season for the team that finished first in the Eastern Conference and reached the MLS Cup final. And that’s with Uhre, who had 13 goals and six assists, slowed for a third of the season by a quad injury. Freed of that and travel delays after being acquired, Tanner believes Uhre could blossom into a 20-goal scorer.
“Mikael himself knows that last season has not been his best season, even if he scored meaningful goals for us,” Tanner said. “But when we remembered how it started and how it continued through summer, we can do massively better, and that’s what you see now.”
• • •
Jim Curtin is entering the final year of his contract, which Tanner and ownership are well aware of.
“We already started discussions,” Tanner said. “We had a meeting with our ownership already and we brought that up already last year. It’s on my radar.”
Curtin started as an interim coach in 2014 and is entering his ninth full season. He’s ninth in MLS history in wins. The club has the most wins and most points in MLS over the last four seasons.
Tanner, who last year signed a long-term deal, and Curtin began working together on a speculative basis. Their success together has been immense, and both seem keen to continue it.
“That grew over the years, and success helps,” Tanner said. “It’s not everything in a relationship, but I think it’s very respectful, very well-trusted.”
• • •
Garrison Draper, Vice President of Player Health and Performance, left to become Inter Miami’s High Performance Director. Draper had been a massive figure for the Union in staying fit and preventing injuries – the club lost fewer than 20 man games to injuries in 2022.
Draper, who joined the Union in 2015, was irreplaceable to the point of Tanner splitting his role into two departments. Max Lankheit was hired from the San Jose Earthquakes to head the sports performance, while Brad Papson, a long-time Union employee, was promoted to lead the health department.
Both Tanner and Curtin gave Draper rave reviews and best wishes on his departure.
“Garrison is at the very top of his field, not just in MLS but I think in the world,” Curtin said last week. “Miami targeted him and came in a way that, let’s just say, was an offer he couldn’t refuse. … I’m so grateful for the years that I worked with Garrison. He’s a big part of the history of this club.”
“You don’t love to lose employees, that’s for sure,” Tanner said. “But you need to respect what the employee wants to do as well.”
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Chicago Brother Rice left no doubt on Thursday, controlling Chicago Mt. Carmel from start to finish for a 16-8 victory in Illinois high school baseball on April 27.
In recent action on April 21, Chicago Mt Carmel faced off against Chicago De La Salle and Chicago Brother Rice took on Aurora Marmion on April 20 at Aurora Marmion Academy.
You're reading a news brief powered by ScoreStream, a world leader in fan-driven sports results and conversation. Help us collect and deliver more game results from your favorite teams and players by downloading the ScoreStream app. Nearly a million users nationwide share team scores and player performance stats with this convenient free app. | https://pantagraph.com/sports/high-school/baseball/boys/chicago-brother-rice-makes-chicago-mt-carmel-walk-the-plank-16-8/article_777eaa86-0fa1-5b40-aa86-4d642123c4ad.html | 2023-04-28 04:22:48 | 0 | https://pantagraph.com/sports/high-school/baseball/boys/chicago-brother-rice-makes-chicago-mt-carmel-walk-the-plank-16-8/article_777eaa86-0fa1-5b40-aa86-4d642123c4ad.html |
Inmates help corrections officer being assaulted in jail
BISHOPVILLE, S.C. (WCSC/Gray News) – Two inmates helped a corrections officer in South Carolina who was being assaulted Monday night, the state’s department of corrections said.
South Carolina Department of Correction officials said the officer was punched in the face, pushed down a flight of stairs and stomped on the head during the assault at Lee Correctional Institution.
One of the two inmates grabbed the person assaulting the officer while the other pulled the officer to safety, officials said.
The officer was taken to the hospital to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
The inmate was moved to another facility where they await pending charges.
“Thank you to these 2 inmates who helped stop this serious assault,” the Department of Corrections said on Twitter.
Copyright 2022 WCSC via Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.wbay.com/2022/12/22/inmates-help-corrections-officer-being-assaulted-jail/ | 2022-12-22 16:47:55 | 0 | https://www.wbay.com/2022/12/22/inmates-help-corrections-officer-being-assaulted-jail/ |
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Extortionists dumped stolen client records relating to pregnancy terminations on the dark web on Thursday in their latest effort to pressure Australia’s largest health insurer to pay a ransom.
The cybercriminals began dumping customer records on Wednesday including treatments for HIV and drug addiction after Medibank this week ruled out paying a ransom for the return of the hacked data.
The criminals, who used the name “Extortion Gang,” on Thursday posted that they had demanded $9.7 million — $1 for the records of each of the 9.7 million current and former Medibank customers that were stolen.
Most concerning was the theft of health claims for almost 500,000 customers that include diagnoses and treatments.
Medibank CEO David Koczkar condemned the release of Thursday’s tranche of data as “disgraceful.”
“The weaponization of people’s private information in an effort to extort payment is malicious, and it is an attack on the most vulnerable members of our community,” Koczkar said in a statement.
Cybersecurity Minister Clare O’Neil described the targeting of women who had terminated pregnancies as “morally reprehensible.”
“Yesterday, I indicated to the Parliament that the consequences of the Medibank hack were likely to get worse, and today those fears have been realized,” O’Neil told Parliament.
“And I want to say, particularly to the women whose private health information has been compromised overnight, as the minister for cybersecurity but, more importantly, as a woman, this should not have happened,” she added.
Medibank and government services were standing ready to support all customers in need even if a “large data dump occurs,” O’Neil said.
The extortionists have warned that the dumps will continue daily.
Cybersecurity expert and Medibank customer Nigel Phair spoke of his frustration at not knowing how much of his personal data had been stolen.
“You just don’t know what’s been lost of your own details: Is it your name, your date of birth, is it your address, is it everything and more?” Phair told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Medibank had failed to adequately address basic risk management questions on what data was stored, where it was stored, who had access and how that data was accessed, Phair said.
“If they’d done that competently beforehand, and put appropriate controls (in place), this wouldn’t have happened,” Phair said. | https://www.wearegreenbay.com/international/ap-international/ap-abortions-exposed-among-australian-health-insurer-customers/ | 2022-11-10 22:31:20 | 0 | https://www.wearegreenbay.com/international/ap-international/ap-abortions-exposed-among-australian-health-insurer-customers/ |
BILLINGS - Law enforcement is searching for two escapees from the Yellowstone County jail.
The inmates escaped through a window that had been dislodged, Sheriff Mike Linder said in a press release issued at about 10:30 p.m. Sunday.
Linder identified the inmates as 31-year-old Cody Flesch and 23-year-old Quincy Pfister.
According to state prison records, Flesch has a felony conviction in Powell County for aggravated assault and three felony convictions in Cascade County for burglary, tampering with witnesses, and accountability for theft. Flesch was booked into the county jail on June 18, 2021 on numerous charges, including escape, assault, robbery, kidnapping, and tampering, jail records show.
Pfister has felony convictions in Custer County for assault on a peace officer and assault with a weapon, according to state prison records. He was booked into the county jail on Feb. 2 and was being held on two felony contempt of court charges and a warrant for failing to appear, jail records show.
Anyone with information about the escaped inmates or may see them is advised not to approach them but call law enforcement at 406-657-8200 or 406-256-2929.
22-64012 9/11/22 2025 hrs
— BillingsPD (@BillingsPD) September 12, 2022
ESCAPE FROM YCDF
Cody Flesch and Quincy Pfister
If located do not engage and contact emergency dispatch 657-8200/ 911
-Sgt Schnelbach pic.twitter.com/yfJSbQDUpB | https://www.kxlf.com/news/crime-and-courts/search-launched-for-2-yellowstone-county-jail-escapees | 2022-09-12 14:22:52 | 0 | https://www.kxlf.com/news/crime-and-courts/search-launched-for-2-yellowstone-county-jail-escapees |
DENVER (AP) — A mentally ill man charged with killing three people at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic in 2015 because it offered abortion services can be forcibly medicated to try to make him competent to stand trial, a federal judge ruled Monday.
The prosecution of Robert Dear, 64, has stalled because he has been repeatedly found mentally incompetent since his arrest and he has refused to take anti-psychotic medication for delusional disorder.
During a three-day hearing this summer, prosecutors argued that medication had a substantial likelihood, based on research and the experience of government experts, to make Dear well enough to meet the legal standard for mental competency — being able to understand proceedings and assist in his defense.
Dear’s lawyers and experts, however, said the government’s plan did not take into account Dear’s age and his health problems, including untreated high blood pressure and high cholesterol, which could be worsened as a result of the medication’s side effects.
Dear, who has called himself a “warrior for the babies," intended to wage “war” against the clinic because it offered abortion services, arming himself with four semi-automatic rifles, five handguns, two other rifles, a shotgun, propane tanks and 500 rounds of ammunition, prosecutors have alleged. He began shooting outside the clinic before getting inside by shooting his way through a door, according to his federal indictment.
According to experts who testified and Dear’s lawyers, Dear has persecutory delusions that cause him to believe that the FBI is following him because he called a radio show in 1993 to criticize the agency over the law enforcement siege against the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. He also believes his lawyers are working for the FBI and the judge is also in on the arrangement.
Dear mentioned the radio call in one of many outbursts during the recent hearing, where he also claimed the shooting was a “success” and told the judge to go to hell because he did not get to testify. He largely remained quiet after Blackburn warned him that he would not tolerate any more disturbances. The judge said he concluded the outbursts were not the result of Dear’s mental illness but of “selfish, childish and disaffected arrogance.”
After Dear’s prosecution bogged down in state court over the competency issue, Dear was charged in federal court in 2019 under the 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. Federal prosecutors have said they would not seek the death penalty against him if he is convicted, but life in prison instead.
Two of the people killed in the attack were accompanying friends to the clinic — Ke’Arre Stewart, 29, an Army veteran who served in Iraq and was a father of two, and Jennifer Markovsky, 36, a mother of two who grew up in Oahu, Hawaii. The third person killed was a campus police officer at a nearby college, Garrett Swasey, who responded to the clinic after hearing there was an active shooter. | https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/Judge-says-alleged-clinic-shooter-can-be-forcibly-17452789.php | 2022-09-19 22:54:07 | 0 | https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/Judge-says-alleged-clinic-shooter-can-be-forcibly-17452789.php |
Cam Jones, D.J. Matthews out for IU football vs. Michigan; Jones' injury long-term
Linebacker Cam Jones, the Big Ten's leading tackler, expected to miss several weeks for IU football. Jones is one of several notable absences for Saturday's game against Michigan.
BLOOMINGTON – IU will be without several starters for its Saturday game against Michigan. The most high-profile of players is expected to miss significant time.
Linebacker Cam Jones (foot), wide receiver D.J. Matthews (hamstring), cornerback Jaylin Williams (shoulder) and tight end A.J. Barner (foot) will all miss Saturday's game against the Wolverines. Matthews has been dealing with his hamstring issue for the last two weeks, while a source characterized Williams and Barner both as week-to-week.
Jones is the greater concern.
One of the Big Ten's most-productive and impactful linebackers this season, Jones is expected to miss several weeks, per the source, with a foot problem. The conference's leader in both total tackles and tackles per game has been integral to the Hoosiers' defensive success through the first five games of this season. His absence presents coach Tom Allen a difficult challenge.
Indiana did get some good news Saturday as Cam Camper, the Hoosiers' leading wide receiver, returned to face Michigan. Camper sat out last weekend's game at Nebraska with a non-COVID illness, and had been described by Allen as a gametime decision as recently as Thursday.
Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman. | https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/college/indiana/2022/10/08/cam-jones-d-j-matthews-out-for-iu-football-vs-michigan-jones-injury-long-term/69549179007/ | 2022-10-08 17:16:01 | 1 | https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/college/indiana/2022/10/08/cam-jones-d-j-matthews-out-for-iu-football-vs-michigan-jones-injury-long-term/69549179007/ |
WFO CORPUS CHRISTI Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Sunday, December 25, 2022
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FREEZE WARNING
URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE
National Weather Service Corpus Christi TX
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251 AM CST Sun Dec 25 2022
...FREEZE WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM CST THIS
MORNING...
...FREEZE WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 11 PM THIS EVENING TO 9 AM CST
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MONDAY...
* WHAT...For the first Freeze Warning, sub-freezing temperatures
as low as 24. For the second Freeze Warning, sub-freezing
temperatures as low as 30 expected.
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* WHERE...Webb, Inland Kleberg, Inland Nueces and Inland San
Patricio Counties.
* WHEN...For the first Freeze Warning, until 10 AM CST this
morning. For the second Freeze Warning, from 11 PM this
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evening to 9 AM CST Monday.
* IMPACTS...Frost and freeze conditions will kill crops, other
sensitive vegetation and possibly damage unprotected outdoor
plumbing.
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PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
Take steps now to protect tender plants from the cold. To prevent
freezing and possible bursting of outdoor water pipes they should
be wrapped, drained, or allowed to drip slowly. Those that have
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in-ground sprinkler systems should drain them and cover above-
ground pipes to protect them from freezing.
* WHAT...Sub-freezing temperatures as low as 26.
* WHERE...Coastal Aransas, Coastal Kleberg, Coastal Nueces,
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Coastal San Patricio, Coastal Refugio and Coastal Calhoun
Counties.
* WHEN...Until 10 AM CST this morning.
...HARD FREEZE WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM CST THIS
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* WHAT...For the Hard Freeze Warning, sub-freezing temperatures as
low as 22. For the Freeze Warning, sub-freezing temperatures as
low as 27 expected.
* WHERE...La Salle, McMullen, Live Oak, Bee, Goliad, Victoria,
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Duval, Jim Wells, Inland Refugio and Inland Calhoun Counties.
* WHEN...For the Hard Freeze Warning, until 10 AM CST this
morning. For the Freeze Warning, from 11 PM this evening to 9
AM CST Monday.
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Copyright 2022 AccuWeather | https://www.seattlepi.com/weather/article/TX-WFO-CORPUS-CHRISTI-Warnings-Watches-and-17676598.php | 2022-12-25 09:14:04 | 1 | https://www.seattlepi.com/weather/article/TX-WFO-CORPUS-CHRISTI-Warnings-Watches-and-17676598.php |
National average savings account interest rate
The average annual percentage yield (APY) on savings accounts is 0.16% APY, according to a Bankrate data.
However, there's no need to settle for a savings account that only pays the national average rate. You can find savings accounts with APYs above 3.5% if you shop around, particularly with online banks.
Interest rates on savings accounts at popular big banks
The biggest banks typically don't offer the best rates on savings accounts, primarily because they don't need to attract new deposit accounts to fund their lending operation.
"Big banks are swimming in deposits," said Greg McBride, CFA, Bankrate chief financial analyst. "They're not going to raise their rates. When they do, it'll be in the tiniest of increments."
Below are savings account APYs at the biggest banks in the U.S.
Note: Annual percentage yields (APYs) shown are as of Oct. 31, 2022. CNET's editorial team updates this information regularly, typically biweekly. APYs may have changed since they were last updated and may vary by region for some products.
Interest rates for savings accounts at online banks
Online banks offer the same services and banking products as traditional brick-and-mortar banks except all transactions are conducted either via telephone or over the internet using laptops, smartphones or tablets.
Online banks generally offer very competitive rates on savings accounts. They're a safe place to store your money and have less overhead than traditional banks that operate physical branches. As such, online banks can pass the savings on to customers in the form of fewer fees and higher annual percentage yields (APYs).
Here's a sample of what popular online banks are paying on their savings accounts.
Note: Annual percentage yields (APYs) shown are as of Oct. 31, 2022. CNET's editorial team updates this information regularly, typically biweekly. APYs may have changed since they were last updated and may vary by region for some products. | https://www.cnet.com/personal-finance/banking/what-is-the-average-interest-rate-for-savings-accounts/ | 2022-10-31 22:24:13 | 0 | https://www.cnet.com/personal-finance/banking/what-is-the-average-interest-rate-for-savings-accounts/ |
DES MOINES, IOWA — A bipartisan bill under consideration by the Iowa legislature right now would ban the use of chemicals linked to bladder cancer from use in catheters in the State of Iowa.
The bill would ban Di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate or DEHP, which is in a family of chemicals that are described as toxic, endocrine-disrupting chemicals which are added to certain plastic products. The chemical has been banned by the FDA for use in children’s toys, and a democratic lawmaker wants to see this chemical banned for catheter use in the state.
“The bladder cancer rates in the disabled population are between four and ten times higher,” said State Representative Josh Turek, (D) from District 20. Turek is the first permanently disabled member of the Iowa House and wants to use his freshman term to tackle this issue.
“It’s something that sadly is taking all the way for me to address. This is something that should have been done years and years ago. It’s something that has already been banned in almost every other country,” said Turek.
The bill passed the subcommittee on Tuesday, making it one of the only Democrat-sponsored bills to advance this session. Other disabled people came to speak and let their stories be told to the panel of lawmakers.
“We have a friend right now that’s going through bladder cancer treatment. And I heard she’s really struggling and we are doing this for her and almost everybody in the community knows somebody because it’s so prevalent,” said Jennifer Wolff, a disabled occupational therapist, who herself is disabled.
The bill must pass through committee to have a chance at being signed into law this session. | https://who13.com/news/iowa-news/bill-would-ban-toxic-chemical-in-catheters-linked-to-bladder-cancer/ | 2023-03-01 13:29:38 | 0 | https://who13.com/news/iowa-news/bill-would-ban-toxic-chemical-in-catheters-linked-to-bladder-cancer/ |
Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, built during the Soviet era and one of the 10 biggest in the world, has been engulfed by fighting between Russian and Ukrainian troops in recent weeks, fueling concerns of a nuclear catastrophe.
Here is a look at the current situation:
WHAT IS HAPPENING NOW
The plant has six reactors, only one of which was operational as of Saturday.
The shelling so far hasn’t damaged the plant’s reactors or spent nuclear fuel storage, but has repeatedly struck some auxiliary equipment.
On Monday, the plant was knocked off Ukraine’s electricity grid after its last transmission line was disconnected because of a fire caused by shelling.
Pending repairs, the plant’s only operational reactor was generating the power the plant needs for its own safety in so-called “island mode.”
Two inspectors from the U.N.’s atomic watchdog have remained at the plant following a visit by a larger team last week.
WHAT ARE THE POTENTIAL THREATS
Fighting near the plant has fueled fears of a disaster like the one at Chernobyl, where a reactor exploded and spewed deadly radiation, contaminating a vast area in the world’s worst nuclear accident.
Nuclear experts say while the buildings housing Zaporizhzhia’s reactors are protected by reinforced concrete that could withstand an errant shell or rocket, a disruption in the electrical supply could knock out cooling systems essential for the reactors’ safety. Emergency diesel generators can be unreliable.
“If power is lost in the fog of war, then we are in unchartered territory,” says Paul Dorfman, a nuclear safety expert at the University of Sussex in England.
WHAT IS “ISLAND MODE”
Functioning in “island mode” supplies power for the residual heat removal of the reactor cores and the spent fuel pools.
Experts say it is very unreliable.
Mycle Schneider, an independent policy consultant and coordinator of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report, said if the diesel generators fail, a core meltdown could occur within hours.
If the reactor is already turned off, the risk depends on the time since shutdown. The less time has passed, the more cooling is required, said Schneider.
While the pool containing Zaphorizhzha’s spent fuel is located inside the plant’s containment area, a serious reactor accident would likely affect the pool as well.
“Irradiated fuel overheats and catches fire spontaneously if it exposed to air and not cooled anymore,” said Schneider.
___
This story was corrected to show that the plant has had only one reactor operational since Saturday, not Monday. | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-whats-happening-with-ukraines-threatened-nuclear-plant/ | 2022-09-06 19:57:38 | 1 | https://www.wric.com/news/u-s-world/ap-whats-happening-with-ukraines-threatened-nuclear-plant/ |
Suspect in deadly U-Haul truck rampage admitted hitting several people, sources say
By Web staff
Click here for updates on this story
NEW YORK, NY (WABC) — The suspect who police say went on a violent rampage with a U-Haul truck in Brooklyn that left one person dead and nine others injured is in custody.
Eyewitness News has learned that during questioning at the 68th precinct in Bay Ridge, 62-year-old Weng Sor admitted that he struck at least three to four people while driving the truck.
He explained that he wanted police to shoot him. Sor made the statements, which were videotaped, after waiving his Miranda rights.
Sor is charged with one count of murder in the second degree and seven counts of attempted murder. He was walked out of the 68th Precinct on Tuesday night and taken to Brooklyn Criminal Court where he’ll be arraigned sometime Wednesday.
Investigators have said they have no reason to believe he was motivated by any sort of terrorist ideology.
“We believe Mr. Sor was suffering from a mental health crisis, at this time there is no nexus to terrorism,” Chief of Detectives James Essig said.
Sor told police he saw an “invisible object” come toward his vehicle and said “I’ve had enough” before beginning what police later called a “violent rampage” through Brooklyn, Essig said.
Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell promised to work with the Brooklyn DA’s office to achieve a “measure of justice” for the victims.
When police finally stopped Sor near the Battery Tunnel he said to the officers “You should have shot me,” Essig said.
Sor lives with his mother in Las Vegas where he has eight prior arrests dating back to 2002 for DWI, evading a police officer, battery, resisting arrest, domestic battery, battery with a deadly weapon. He was also stopped in South Carolina in the rented U-Haul February 5 for reckless driving and marijuana possession.
In the past he has had to undergo at least one court-ordered mental health evaluation.
His brother has also revealed Sor has a history of mental illness.
Surveillance video showed that U-Haul box truck flying up onto sidewalks Monday morning.
The truck mowed down pedestrians and people on bikes across eight different crime scenes in Sunset Park, Bay Ridge and Red Hook.
The nearly hour-long rampage ended near the Brooklyn Battery tunnel when an NYPD cruiser boxed the truck in.
A total of ten people were hit, and one of the victims has died.
We spoke to witnesses of who say as bad as this was, it could have been even worse.
Shannon Sohn in Newscopter 7 describes the mayhem left behind in Brooklyn:
We reached out to U-Haul, which tells us the truck was rented from their facility in West Palm Beach Florida on February 1 with a return date of March 3.
Former NYPD Chief of Detectives and ABC News Contributor Robert Boyce said it is difficult not to compare this incident to the man who drove a truck through a crowded street in Manhattan killing several people back in 2017.
Monday’s incident coincided with the start of the death penalty phase in Saipov’s trial.
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://localnews8.com/cnn-regional/2023/02/15/suspect-in-deadly-u-haul-truck-rampage-admitted-hitting-several-people-sources-say/ | 2023-02-15 19:26:21 | 1 | https://localnews8.com/cnn-regional/2023/02/15/suspect-in-deadly-u-haul-truck-rampage-admitted-hitting-several-people-sources-say/ |
Migrants fearing deportation set mattresses ablaze at an immigration detention center in northern Mexico, starting a fire that killed at least 40 people, the president said Tuesday, in one of the deadliest events ever at a Mexican immigration lockup.
Hours after the fire broke out late Monday, rows of bodies were laid out under shimmery silver sheets outside the facility in Ciudad Juarez, which is across from El Paso, Texas, and a major crossing point for migrants. Ambulances, firefighters and vans from the morgue swarmed the scene.
Twenty-nine people were injured and are in “delicate-serious” condition, according to the National Immigration Institute.
At the time of the blaze, 68 men from Central and South America were being held at the facility, the agency said.
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Immigration authorities identified the dead and injured as being from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador, with Guatemalans being the largest contingent, according to a statement from the Mexican attorney general’s office.
Guatemala Foreign Affairs Minister Mario Búcaro said 28 of the dead were Guatemalan citizens.
“We are going to look to find those responsible for this,” Búcaro said.
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Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the fire was started by migrants in protest after learning they would be deported.
“They never imagined that this would cause this terrible misfortune,” López Obrador said, adding that the director of the country’s immigration agency was on the scene.
The detention facility is a short walk from the U.S. border and across the street from Juarez’s city hall.
At the facility's doors, Venezuelan migrants gathered Tuesday to demand information about relatives.
Katiuska Márquez, a 23-year-old Venezuelan woman with her two children, ages 2 and 4, was seeking her half-brother, Orlando Maldonado, who had been traveling with her.
“We want to know if he is alive or if he’s dead,” she said. She wondered how all the guards who were inside made it out alive and only the migrants died. “How could they not get them out?”
Márquez and Maldonado were detained Monday with the children and about 20 others. They had been in Juarez waiting for an appointment from U.S. authorities to request asylum. They were staying in a rented room where 10 people were living, paying for it with the money they begged in the street.
“I was at a stoplight with a piece of cardboard asking for what I needed for my children, and people were helping me with food,” she said. Suddenly agents came and detained everyone.
“Immigration grabbed me by the jacket and put me in the truck with my brother and other families,” she said.
Everyone was taken to the immigration facility but only the men were placed in the cells. Three hours later, the women and children were released.
Tensions between authorities and migrants had apparently been running high in recent weeks in Ciudad Juarez, where shelters are full of people waiting for opportunities to cross into the U.S. or for the asylum process to play out.
More than 30 migrant shelters and other advocacy organizations published an open letter March 9 that complained of a criminalization of migrants and asylum seekers in the city. It accused authorities of abusing migrants and using excessive force in rounding them up, including complaints that municipal police questioned people in the street about their immigration status without cause.
The high level of frustration in Ciudad Juarez was evident earlier this month when hundreds of mostly Venezuelan migrants tried to force their way across one of the international bridges to El Paso, acting on false rumors that the United States would allow them to enter the country. U.S. authorities blocked their attempts.
The national immigration agency said Tuesday that it “energetically rejects the actions that led to this tragedy” without any further explanation.
The “extensive use of immigration detention leads to tragedies like this one,” Felipe González Morales, the United Nations special rapporteur for human rights of migrants, said via Twitter. In keeping with international law, immigration detention should be an exceptional measure and not generalized, he wrote.
As Mexico has stepped up efforts to stem migration to the U.S. border under pressure from the American government, the agency has struggled with overcrowding in its facilities. The country’s immigration lockups have seen protests and riots from time to time.
Mostly Venezuelan migrants rioted inside an immigration center in Tijuana in October that had to be controlled by police and National Guard troops. In November, dozens of migrants rioted in Mexico’s largest detention center in the southern city of Tapachula near the border with Guatemala. No one died in either incident.
Mexico has emerged as the world’s third most popular destination for asylum-seekers, after the United States and Germany. But it is still largely a country that migrants pass through on their way to the U.S.
It holds tens of thousands of migrants in an expansive network of detention centers and attempts to closely monitor movements across the country in cooperation with American authorities.
Asylum-seekers must stay in the state where they apply in Mexico, resulting in large numbers being holed up near the country’s southern border with Guatemala. Tens of thousands are also in border cities with the U.S., including Ciudad Juarez.
An estimated 2,200 people are in Ciudad Juarez’s shelters, along with more migrants outside shelters who come from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Colombia, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru and El Salvador, according to the Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas at Austin.
Associated Press writers Sonia Pérez D. in Guatemala City and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report. | https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/national-international/fire-started-at-mexico-detention-center-near-el-paso-kills-40-2/3534477/ | 2023-03-28 19:48:54 | 1 | https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/national-international/fire-started-at-mexico-detention-center-near-el-paso-kills-40-2/3534477/ |
NEW YORK — An early-morning shooting Monday at a gathering in Harlem left a man dead and eight other people wounded, New York City police said.
Officers responded about 12:40 a.m. to reports of a shooting on a footpath along the FDR Drive and found five people shot, police said, citing preliminary information. They were taken to hospitals for treatment.
The shooting took place during Father's Day weekend, when many families go out to celebrate and enjoy the summer weather. The nine shot Monday may have been at a barbecue or other social event, police said.
Four other people who were shot also arrived at hospitals for treatment, police said. A 21-year-old man was pronounced dead at a hospital, police said, and the wounded included six other males and two females.
“This Father’s Day weekend is a weekend where people were supposed to be able to enjoy themselves with their families,” New York City Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said at a news conference.
The investigation was ongoing Monday and police didn’t immediately have details about the gathering or what may have led to the shooting.
Information about possible suspects wasn’t immediately released, but police said on Twitter that a gun was recovered from the scene. Tips were being sought from the public as part of the investigation.
The gun recovered from the scene appears to be a small handgun. It's also unclear if there were multiple shooters or multiple guns used in the incident.
“The emboldened individuals responsible for this are exactly who our officers are battling every day to make our city safe," Sewell said. | https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/nation-world/9-shot-harlem/507-aac37676-79ba-4b36-b5ce-77c5fc4c64a8 | 2022-06-20 15:11:07 | 0 | https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/nation-world/9-shot-harlem/507-aac37676-79ba-4b36-b5ce-77c5fc4c64a8 |
Gov. Wes Moore’s candidate for Maryland’s top cop faced questions Monday from a Senate panel about his leadership role in the embattled state police agency.
Lt. Col. Roland Butler, who has spent 28 years with the Maryland State Police, most recently served as chief of the field operations bureau, overseeing patrol and investigative personnel.
During that time, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a probe into the agency to examine if it racially discriminated in its hiring and promotion practices, and a group of troopers of color alleged similar wrongdoing in a federal lawsuit. Both are ongoing.
How, then, some state lawmakers asked, is he best-suited to lead the agency forward?
Butler’s answer: “Yes, I was a part of that structure. But as a bureau chief, you don’t get to see everything. I wish I would have seen more. But you just don’t get to see everything. We’re talking about 1,000 troopers and 23 [barracks].”
The nominee for superintendent of the state police told the Senate Executive Nominations Committee he stands by his record and knows he’s “up to the task” to move the agency into a “new era.”
“We must get this right,” Butler said. “That begins with building a department that reflects the values of our great state, that is diverse, well-trained, thoroughly prepared and is ready for any challenge.”
[ ‘National embarrassment’: Multiple Maryland State Police challenge coins prompt disciplinary actions ]
The Senate committee held Butler’s nomination, along with a few others, for a subsequent voting session. Lawmakers noted during the discussion that Butler had received several letters of recommendation from law enforcement leaders across the state, along with dozens of written statements in opposition. Those were not made public.
Moore, a Democrat, nominated Butler more than a month ago, calling him a professional with the background, knowledge and character to lead the agency. Butler would be the first Black person to lead the state police, if confirmed by the full Senate, and is the sixth Black lieutenant colonel in the agency’s 102-year history.
State senators on Monday acknowledged Butler had met personally with many of them, suggesting some behind-the-scenes discussions amid some criticism about Butler’s nomination. Critics have questioned the agency’s culture and Butler’s success in addressing those issues while in leadership positions.
Moore has stood by his selection, reiterating last week that Butler’s “three-decade career in the Maryland State Police makes him well-prepared to serve as superintendent and move the department forward.”
The governor met with the Coalition of Black Maryland State Troopers and Butler last week, which the group’s president, Sgt. Anthony Alexander, said went well. Alexander said the group talked about the governor’s vision for the agency and building a plan to address concerns about the agency.
“The governor is involved in making sure the department runs well. We trust him on that. We’re definitely going to work with him to get it done,” Alexander said.
Daily Top Stories
He said priorities included rebuilding the agency’s culture and addressing concerns in recruiting, promotion, transfers and discipline.
[ Maryland State Police troopers allege racial discrimination in proposed class-action filing ]
Carter Elliott, a spokesperson for Moore, said after the meeting that Butler “takes the suggestions provided by the troopers and other stakeholders seriously and knows their voices are critical to making much-needed changes.”
Butler echoed that sentiment in his remarks on Monday, saying he would prioritize building trust and communication and visit troopers across the state to hear their concerns.
In response to questions about how concerns or issues didn’t reach him in his time as bureau chief, Butler said he would surround himself by “independent thinkers.”
Asked to respond to the idea that he was complacent while in leadership toward things that weren’t favorable toward Black officers, Butler said he disagreed with that assessment.
Groups like the Black troopers’ coalition had his phone number, Butler said, and could bring issues to his attention. He said he had the power to bring concerns or matters to his boss .
A date for the panel’s vote on Butler’s nomination has not been set. | https://www.capitalgazette.com/news/crime/bs-md-cr-roland-butler-maryland-state-police-superintendent-nomination-20230328-xqwlagk33za43dr4sy3led7w54-story.html | 2023-03-28 01:30:06 | 0 | https://www.capitalgazette.com/news/crime/bs-md-cr-roland-butler-maryland-state-police-superintendent-nomination-20230328-xqwlagk33za43dr4sy3led7w54-story.html |
DALLAS, Aug. 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Sunoco LP (NYSE: SUN) ("SUN" or the "Partnership") today announced that its 2021 Schedule K-3 reflecting items of international tax relevance is available online. Unitholders requiring this information may access their Schedules K-3 at www.taxpackagesupport.com/sunocolp.
A limited number of unitholders (primarily foreign unitholders, unitholders computing a foreign tax credit on their tax return and certain corporate and/or partnership unitholders) may need the detailed information disclosed on Schedule K-3 for their specific reporting requirements. To the extent Schedule K-3 is applicable to your federal income tax return filing needs, we encourage you to review the information contained on this form and refer to the appropriate federal laws and guidance or consult with your tax advisor.
To receive an electronic copy of your Schedule K-3 via email, unitholders may call Tax Package Support toll free at (844) 289-8131.
Sunoco LP (NYSE: SUN) is a master limited partnership with core operations that include the distribution of motor fuel to approximately 10,000 convenience stores, independent dealers, commercial customers and distributors located in more than 40 U.S. states and territories as well as refined product transportation and terminalling assets. SUN's general partner is owned by Energy Transfer LP (NYSE: ET).
The information contained in this press release is available on our website at www.SunocoLP.com
Contacts
Investors:
Scott Grischow, Treasurer, Vice President – Investor Relations and Mergers & Acquisitions
(214) 840-5660, scott.grischow@sunoco.com
James Heckler, Director – Investor Relations and Corporate Finance
(214) 840-5415, james.heckler@sunoco.com
Media:
Alexis Daniel, Manager – Communications
(214) 981-0739, alexis.daniel@sunoco.com
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SOURCE Sunoco LP | https://www.1011now.com/prnewswire/2022/08/29/sunoco-lp-announces-availability-2021-schedule-k-3s/ | 2022-08-29 21:14:22 | 1 | https://www.1011now.com/prnewswire/2022/08/29/sunoco-lp-announces-availability-2021-schedule-k-3s/ |
PROVIDENCE — State treasurer candidate James A. Diossa on Wednesday called for Stefan Pryor to immediately step down as Rhode Island’s commerce secretary, saying his expected opponent in the treasurer’s race is using his state position for “future political gain.”
When Pryor announced on May 24 that he planned to run for state treasurer, he said he planned to transition out of his Commerce position within two weeks. But Diossa noted that Pryor is still the Commerce secretary, nearly three weeks later.
Diossa claimed that Pryor has “recklessly clung to power” at Commerce in order to participate in the ongoing negotiations over the Tidewater Landing project, which includes a proposed soccer stadium in Pawtucket.
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In a statement, Diossa said Pryor’s continued presence puts the Tidewater negotiations “at risk” and that it is “of the highest ethical and legal importance that Mr. Pryor immediately resign as secretary of commerce while negotiations continue.”
Diossa noted that Pawtucket Mayor Donald R. Grebien has endorsed him for treasurer. But he did not mention in his statement that his fiancee, state Senator Sandra Cano, a Pawtucket Democrat, works as commerce director for the city of Pawtucket, or that she played an integral role in the tax incremental financing legislation that is being used for the Tidewater Landing project.
In response, Pryor dismissed Diossa’s claims. “I’m glad I’m being welcomed onto the campaign trail so eagerly,” he said. “Everyone knows I’m transitioning from my current job shortly. Can’t wait to hit the ground full force.”
The Tidewater Landing project is well over-budget due to inflation and increased construction costs. The project was supposed to fill the economic development void left by the 2021 departure of the Pawtucket Red Sox for Worcester.
Governor Daniel J. McKee’s administration said there was an agreement in principle between the state, Pawtucket, and developer Fortuitous Partners to shift $20 million in state funding to support building the 10,000-seat stadium itself. That money had previously been approved for a later stage of project, which includes housing, commercial, and retail space near the stadium.
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But during a meeting on Tuesday, board members of the Commerce Corporation, the state’s economic development agency chaired by McKee, questioned whether moving those funds to the stadium would result in only a stadium — and nothing else — getting built.
In his statement, Diossa called the Tidewater Landing development “a special, once-in-a-generation project for all of Rhode Island.”
“Rhode Islanders, particularly in our urban centers, deserve to benefit from investment in great public spaces, housing, and family entertainment,” he said. “We need to capitalize on opportunities like Tidewater Landing to grow our economy and enhance our quality of life, rather than shrink from the stage due to political fear.”
Diossa argued that the plan contains “significant taxpayer protections,” and the public investment is built on revenue bonds that won’t place taxpayers on the hook. “The economics are strong here, the taxpayer protections are stronger, and this opportunity for Rhode Island and the City of Pawtucket cannot be missed,” he said.
Diossa claimed that one board member, Donna Sams, “expressed frustration about having been kept in the dark until such a late stage.” But Sams disagreed, saying in a statement that she did not have a problem with Pryor’s involvement, and that she was not consulted by the Diossa campaign on the use of her name or the interpretation of her questions.
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“I would never rush Stefan’s departure,” she said in a statement Wednesday. “I have worked with him over the course of his tenure and have found him to be proactive in providing information and, in general, an outstanding public official.”
Karl Wadensten, another Commerce board member and the president and CEO of VIBCO Vibrators, also stood up for Pryor in an emailed statement.
“Stefan Pryor has been working tirelessly and selflessly for our board, for Pawtucket, and for our state,” Wadensten said. “To say otherwise is disingenuous. In fact I was one of the people who encouraged Stefan to stay in his position in order to get us to this point in process, and I thank Stefan for doing so.”
Both Diossa and Pryor are Democrats. Republican James L. Lathrop, the North Kingstown finance director, is also running for treasurer. They are vying to replace term-limited General Treasurer Seth Magaziner, a Democrat who is running for the 2nd Congressional District seat.
Brian Amaral of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at edward.fitzpatrick@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @FitzProv. | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/06/16/metro/diossa-calls-pryor-step-down-commerce-secretary/ | 2022-06-16 14:06:53 | 0 | https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/06/16/metro/diossa-calls-pryor-step-down-commerce-secretary/ |
Orbital Energy Group Reports Record Revenues in First Quarter 2022 of $70.3 Million
Published: May. 16, 2022 at 6:30 AM CDT|Updated: 1 hour ago
Records Positive Adjusted EBITDA of $3.8 Million and Reiterates Full-Year 2022 Financial Guidance
HOUSTON, May 16, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Orbital Energy Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: OEG) ("Orbital Energy" or the "Company") today reported its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2022.
First Quarter Summary
Revenues of $70.3 million, compared to $41.0 million in the prior quarter and $5.6 million for the first quarter of 2021;
Gross profit of $11.6 million compared to a gross loss of $2.5 million in the first quarter of 2021;
Operating loss of $1.8 million, an improvement of $13.8 million from the first quarter of 2021;
Loss from continuing operations, net of income taxes of $36.7 million, including a non-cash charge of $26.0 million. Excluding this charge, loss from continuing operations would have been $10.4 million, a $5.3 million improvement from the prior quarter and a $5.9 million improvement from the first quarter of 2021;
Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations was a positive $3.8 million compared to a loss of $1.2 million in the prior quarter and a loss of $9.6 million in the first quarter of 2021;
Backlog of $513.5 million as of March 31, 2022, with $294.6 million expected to be recognized in the next twelve months.
Items Subsequent to the End of First Quarter
Named Robert Burns as President of Orbital Solar Services
Extended maturity on portion of seller notes to December 31, 2022
Completed a registered direct offering of $21 million;
Completed the sale of Orbital Gas Systems Ltd.
"Our first quarter results reflect the continued progress of building out our infrastructure services platform, and we accomplished a significant milestone in achieving positive adjusted EBITDA for the first time since I joined the company," said Jim O'Neil, Vice Chairman and CEO of Orbital Energy Group. "Our backlog and end market drivers remain strong, as well as customer demand for our services and we believe we are well positioned to achieve our 2022 financial guidance provided on our year end call, which we are reiterating today."
First Quarter 2022 Financial Results
Total revenue was $70.3 million, compared to $41.0 million in the previous quarter and $5.6 million in the first quarter of 2021. The sequential and year-over-year improvement is primarily due to the acquisitions of GTS and Front Line Power last year.
Electric Power revenue for the first quarter was $39.7 million, compared to $23.3 million in the prior quarter and $3.2 million in the first quarter of 2021. The increase was primarily due to the acquisition of Front Line Power. Telecommunications revenue for the first quarter was $16.1 million, compared to $13.0 million in the prior quarter and zero revenue in the first quarter of 2021. Renewables revenue for the first quarter was $14.5 million, compared to $4.8 million in the prior quarter and $2.4 million in the first quarter of 2021.
Gross profit in the first quarter was $11.6 million, compared to gross profit of $7.4 million in the prior quarter and gross loss of $2.5 million in the first quarter of 2021. Total operating expenses in the first quarter were $13.4 million, compared to $16.1 in the prior quarter and $13.1 million in the first quarter of 2021. Loss from continuing operations before taxes in the first quarter was $36.4 million, including a $26.0 million non-cash charge. Excluding this charge, loss from continuing operations would have been $10.4 million, compared to a loss of $15.2 million in the prior quarter and a loss of $16.3 million in the first quarter of 2021.
Full Year 2022 Outlook
The Company expects full year consolidated revenue to be in the range of $375M to $425M and adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $38M to $43M. This reflects year-over-year revenue growth of 382% and an improvement of $67.5 million in Adjusted EBITDA for the full year 2022 compared to 2021 from the midpoint of the Company's guidance. This revenue growth and improvement in adjusted EBITDA is expected to be led by strong double-digit organic growth in the Company's electric power and telecommunications segments largely due to projects under contract and the unprecedented demand for the Company's services in these segments.
Conference Call
Management will host a conference call today, May 16, 2022 at 8:30 am ET to discuss these results and recent corporate developments. After management's opening remarks, there will be a question-and-answer period. To access the call, please dial (678) 894-3054 and provide conference ID 3716707. A live webcast of the conference call and accompanying slide presentation can be accessed via the Investor Relations/Events & Presentations section of the Orbital Energy website (http://www.orbitalenergygroup.com).
For those unable to attend the live call, a telephonic replay will be available until June 1, 2022. To access the replay of the call dial (404) 537-3406 and provide conference ID 3716707. An archived copy of the webcast and slide presentation will also be available via the link referenced above.
About Orbital Orbital Energy Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: OEG) is a diversified infrastructure services platform, providing engineering, design, construction, and maintenance services to customers in the electric power, telecommunications, and renewable industries.
Orbital Energy Group is dedicated to maximizing shareholder value, by striving to exceed our customers' expectations, building a diverse workforce and making a positive difference in the lives of our employees and the communities in which we operate, and contributing to reducing the carbon footprint through the services we provide.
Non-GAAP Financial Measures The financial measures not prepared in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (GAAP) that are utilized in this press release are provided to enable investors, analysts and management to evaluate Orbital Energy's performance excluding the effects of certain items that management believes impact the comparability of operating results between reporting periods. In addition, management believes these measures are useful in comparing Orbital Energy's operating results with those of its competitors. These measures should be used in addition to, and not in lieu of, financial measures prepared in conformity with GAAP. Please see the accompanying tables for reconciliations of the following non-GAAP financial measures for Orbital Energy's current and historical results (as applicable): EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations (non-GAAP financial measures) to loss from continuing operations, net of income taxes.
Forward Looking Statements This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, as amended, including those relating to the expected use of proceeds. These statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking expressions, including, but not limited to, "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "estimate," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "would" and similar expressions and the negatives of those terms. These statements relate to future events and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include the risk factors set forth in the Company's filings with the SEC, including, without limitation, its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the years ended December 31, 2021, its periodic reports on Form 10-Q, and its Current Reports on Form 8-K filed in 2021 and 2022, as well as the risks identified in the shelf registration statement and the prospectus supplement relating to the offering. Prospective investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Orbital undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
The above press release was provided courtesy of PRNewswire. The views, opinions and statements in the press release are not endorsed by Gray Media Group nor do they necessarily state or reflect those of Gray Media Group, Inc. | https://www.valleynewslive.com/prnewswire/2022/05/16/orbital-energy-group-reports-record-revenues-first-quarter-2022-703-million/ | 2022-05-16 12:32:18 | 0 | https://www.valleynewslive.com/prnewswire/2022/05/16/orbital-energy-group-reports-record-revenues-first-quarter-2022-703-million/ |
A Tesla Model S Plaid is once again the fastest production electric vehicle around Germany’s notorious Nürburgring racetrack, thanks to a new Track Package announced in May that unlocks the vehicle’s true top speed of 200 mph.
Video published by Tesla over the weekend shows a 2023 Model S Plaid Track Package completing a lap of the full 12.9-mile Nordschleife in 7:25.231, besting the previous record of 7:33.35 set by a Porsche Taycan Turbo S last August. The video shows the Tesla reaching a top speed of 289 kph (approximately 179.5 mph) during the run.
The Tesla’s time is also one of the fastest for any production vehicle with four doors. The Model S Plaid Track Package was only two seconds off the record, a time of 7:23 set by a Mercedes-Benz AMG GT 63 S in 2020.
A Model S Plaid minus the Track Package previously lapped the ‘Ring in a time of 7:35.579 in 2021, which was a record for production EVs at the time. Notably, the latest run was achieved with a conventional round steering wheel, while the previous time was set with Tesla’s yoke-style steering wheel.
The Model S Plaid packs a hypercar-rivaling 1,020 hp generated by a three-motor powertrain. The Taycan Turbo S makes do with 671 hp, though a more powerful Taycan variant may be in the pipeline.
The Track Package further enhances the Model S Plaid’s performance via carbon-ceramic brake rotors measuring larger than 16 inches at each corner, plus 6-piston calipers up front and 4-piston calipers at the rear. The package also includes brake fluid designed for track driving, performance wheels and tires, and firmware updates required to unlock the 200-mph top speed.
Adding the Track Package costs $15,000 for the standard package and $20,000 with performance wheels and tires, on top of the Model S Plaid’s starting price of $109,880, including the $1,390 destination charge.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to congratulate the team for the attempt, which took place last Friday.
“Congrats Tesla Plaid racing team,” he said.
Musk has previously hinted at possibly dropping the Model S Plaid’s time below seven minutes with further enhancements, stating in a 2021 podcast with Joe Rogan that such a feat “would be a pretty wicked act on its own.”
Video from YouTube channel CarSpyMedia also shows some of the preparation Tesla made ahead of its latest attempt. Tesla had two cars on hand for the attempt, one red and one blue, and the record was achieved with the blue car.
The Model S Plaid Track Package may not hold the record for EVs for much longer. In addition to rumors of Porsche working on a new performance flagship in the Taycan range, Rimac was also recently spotted testing its Nevera electric hypercar at the ‘Ring.
Rimac in April set 23 records with the Nevera in acceleration and braking, and said it has set its sights on setting even more records throughout the year.
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- Rimac Nevera hits the Nürburgring | https://www.wowktv.com/automotive/internet-brands/tesla-model-s-plaid-reclaims-ev-ring-record-with-track-pack/ | 2023-06-05 19:29:39 | 1 | https://www.wowktv.com/automotive/internet-brands/tesla-model-s-plaid-reclaims-ev-ring-record-with-track-pack/ |
CODY — For months now, a large number of Wapiti Valley residents has been pushing against the efforts of Horizon Tower to build a 195-foot cellphone tower on property owned by valley resident Tamara Young — a sight they say could destroy their views and way of life.
While the group of over 200 citizens had success at a county planning and zoning commission meeting on Nov. 16 — the commission voted unanimously to recommend the denial of Horizon’s application — their fight against the tower continues, this time on the county commissioner level.
During their Jan. 24 meeting, the commissioners heard over two-and-a-half hours of testimony on the proposed cell tower, including comments from 16 Wapiti residents. Almost all of the testimony was in opposition to the tower, and over 290 valley residents have signed a petition against the construction of the cell tower, said Wapiti Valley Preservation Group President Brian Clarkson.
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The commissioners ultimately decided to continue the discussion during their Feb. 7 meeting.
Many of the residents’ comments echoed similar testimony from the earlier P&Z hearing.
They said they didn’t need or want better cell service and had found other ways to function through Wi-Fi calling and satellite phone service. They expressed concerns about how the tower could impact wildlife and property values. Most frequently, they expressed their desire to maintain their rural lifestyle and their scenic views.
“This is not just that we don’t want this in our backyard,” Janet Kempner said. “This is America’s backyard, and there’s no going back (if they build this).”
Clarkson agreed that the decision facing the commissioners was a critical one.
“I don’t want to sound like an alarmist here, but I do think this is a watershed moment,” Clarkson said. “And I think we’re seeing this all over the county over the last two years. It (development) is just exploding everywhere, so it’s important that we make smart decisions. Once we put a cell tower there, things are never going to be the same.”
Amanda Seibert was one of the few who took a moderate approach on the issue. She said she understood her neighbors’ concerns and opposition, but also said she supported Young’s ability to do what she wanted on her own property.
“We are not for or against,” Seibert said. “My family believes that we cannot tell people what they can and can’t do with their property.”
Like the Wapiti residents, representatives from Horizon Tower largely echoed previous sentiments, primarily that there was a “significant gap” in cell service in the Wapiti Valley and the new tower could help bridge that gap, both for the residents and for visitors to the area.
“We’re a connected society,” Horizon representative Joshua Leonard said. “It’s what we are, more and more so. In this case, I understand the objections, but I would ask that you (the county commission) approve it.”
Horizon was requested to build the new cell tower by Verizon Wireless, which has identified service needs in the Wapiti area, Shelly Neace, director of programming and development for Horizon Tower, had previously told the planning and zoning commission. The tower could eventually be used by up to three other additional cell service providers, including T-Mobile and AT&T.
Ultimately, the county commissioners decided to continue the public hearing to their next Feb. 7 meeting. Commissioners said they needed time to consider the testimony they heard, ask more questions and ultimately make a decision.
“I know there’s a lot of anxious people here that want a decision,” commissioner Lloyd Thiel said. “But this is one of the hardest decisions I’ve faced in the short time I’ve been here, and I don’t want to make the wrong one. So I’d love to continue our decision at our next available meeting.”
“I sure hope that folks appreciate that we want to get this right,” commissioner Lee Livingston said.
Whatever decision the commissioners make, their choice could land the county in court. Both representatives of Horizon Tower and the Wapiti Valley Preservation Group told the commissioners they planned to take the county to court if the commissioners did not rule in their favor.
“Regardless of how the commissioners vote today, the county will be going to court,” Erik Kinkaid said. “Horizon has pledged to take this to the Supreme Court and today the Wapiti Valley Preservation Group, with its 290-plus supporters and landowners, also pledges to appeal this to the state Supreme Court. So the real choice here is do you want to support a corporate assault on the Wapiti Valley landowners … or do you want to support your own friends and neighbors in our fight to preserve land quality in the valley?”
The county commission is set to next discuss the issue at 11 a.m. on Feb. 7. The meeting is tentatively scheduled in the commissioners’ board room, but may be moved based on the number of attendees. | https://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/wapiti-cell-tower-pushback-continues/article_0984f30e-a018-11ed-a97a-fff0660891d0.html | 2023-01-29 22:29:19 | 1 | https://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/wapiti-cell-tower-pushback-continues/article_0984f30e-a018-11ed-a97a-fff0660891d0.html |
First-of-its-kind LIVE certification program that teaches everything about the viral chatbot.
NEW YORK, March 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Brain4ce Educations Solutions Pvt Ltd (represented by brand name Edureka), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Veranda Learning Solutions Limited ("Veranda"), a public listed edtech company (BSE: 543514) (NSE: VERANDA), has recently announced the launch of its newest course, 'ChatGPT Complete Course: Beginners to Advanced Certification Program'.
The course covers a range of advanced skills like Natural Language Processing, Fine-tuning pre-trained language models, Implementing GPT-3 model, Deploying and integrating ChatGPT, Working with OpenAI API, and Building ChatGPT-powered applications.
"In today's world, it's more important than ever to invest in skill-building," said Edureka CEO, Mr.Vineet Chaturvedi. He added, "We live in a world where technology is constantly changing, and that means the way we work is changing too. Keeping up with the pace is the only option. With our new course, we want to help learners gain the skills they need to compete in a rapidly changing job market and master the viral chatbot that the world is talking about. Our course will help learners navigate the new landscape and make the most of technology in their work."
ChatGPT is one of the most trending topics right now. This AI Chatbot has blown people's minds after it was made public in November 2022. It's breaking all records with over 1 Million users in just 5 days. It has beaten the tech giants such as Netflix, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. So, it is time one should not just learn but master one of the most advanced language models, OpenAI ChatGPT.
Edureka's 'ChatGPT Complete Course: Beginners to Advanced Certification Program', as the name suggests, is designed in a way that every learner finds growth in their career by teaching in-depth intricacies of ChatGPT's architecture and training methodology, as well as practical applications in real-world scenarios.
The training curriculum offers–
- Overview of OpenAI's GPT models
- GPT Models, Pre-processing and Fine-tuning ChatGPT
- Business Use Cases of ChatGPT
- Developing Web Application using ChatGPT
- Deploying and Integrating ChatGPT in Business Applications And a lot more.
Edureka's 'ChatGPT Complete Course: Beginners to Advanced Certification Program' is now available to all learners. For more information, please visit https://www.edureka.co/openai-chatgpt-training-course
About Edureka
Edureka today offers 100+ online certification Courses in various domains, and as they say, they are ridiculously committed to bringing out the latest upskilling opportunities for tech enthusiasts. Their commitment to providing upskilling opportunities and bridging the skill gap by providing industry-relevant training and all about trending technology is commendable.
About Veranda Learning Solutions
Founded in 2018 by the Kalpathi AGS Group, Veranda Learning Solutions is a public listed edtech company that offers a bouquet of training programs for competitive exam preparation, including State Public Service Commission, Banking, Insurance, Railways, IAS, and CA, as well as a slew of professional skilling and upskilling programmes in trending technologies. Veranda Learning Solutions aims at offering a robust learning platform riding on a network of strong mentors, educationists, and tech experts.
Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2017458/chatgpt_course_edureka.jpg
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History was made across the state this season and it was another year to remember.
The NJ Advance Media boys basketball staff combed through all the games and all the data to put together its postseason honors. Click on the links below for a complete review of the 2022-23 season.
BOYS BASKETBALL SEASON IN REVIEW
- Player of the Year
- Coach of the Year
- Team of the Year
- All-State, All-Group selections
- Conference Players, Coaches, Teams of the Year
- Final Top 20
- Final group rankings
- Final conference rankings
- Conference standings
- Tournament brackets
- Statewide & conference stat leaders
- Coverage of the 2023 state finals
- Boys basketball home page
Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription.
Kevin Minnick covers South Jersey boys basketball. He can be reached at kminnick@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @kminnicksports.
Mike Kinney covers North and Central Jersey boys basketball. He can be reached at mkinney@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MikeKinneyHS.
Brandon Gould covers North and Central Jersey boys basketball. He can be reached at bgould@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrandonGouldHS. | https://www.nj.com/highschoolsports/2023/03/boys-basketball-all-state-teams-full-postseason-honors-2022-23.html | 2023-03-20 13:26:46 | 1 | https://www.nj.com/highschoolsports/2023/03/boys-basketball-all-state-teams-full-postseason-honors-2022-23.html |
MOMBASA, Kenya (AP) — Countries on Africa’s east coast are increasingly turning to climate funding initiatives to boost livelihoods of oceanside communities, aid biodiversity and take climate action.
On the margins of the high-level political forum on sustainable development currently underway at the United Nations headquarters in New York, African coastal and island states and conservation groups outlined plans to boost ocean conservation and economic development through a system of “ blue bonds” — a method of financing projects that would also benefit ocean health.
Following on from Africa’s Great Green Wall, which spans across the continent’s Sahel region, east African nations are now seeking funds for the Great Blue Wall initiative, which aims to protect marine areas across the coastline. Both blue and green finance refers to funding aimed at preventing environmental damage and combating climate change while creating sustainable ecosystems.
“The blue bond is a powerful example of the critical role that the capital markets can play in supporting sustainable objectives,” said Jorge Familiar, Vice President of the World Bank.
The Great Blue Wall initiative, launched last year by ten western Indian Ocean states during the U.N.’s climate conference in Glasgow, aims to create a network of coastal and marine protected areas which supporters say would restore and conserve some 2 million hectares of ocean, capture 100 million tons of carbon dioxide and secure livelihoods for over 70 million people.
The project spans the continent’s east coast — from Somalia to South Africa — and includes the island states of Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, Somalia and the French territories, Mayotte and Reunion.
Jean-Paul Adam, who heads the climate division at the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa, said the blue wall initiative would recognize “the true value the environment has in future wealth creation and empowerment of local communities”.
“We need to dramatically upscale private sector investment into green and blue sectors,” he said. Less than one percent of so-called blue and green bonds, which are used for marine and land projects respectively, are issued for African countries.
“The next steps are to make these markets more accessible to African countries,” he added.
The U.N. says many of the financial climate promises made by richer countries are not being committed to in full, meaning that many African nations are unable to take necessary adaptation and mitigation measures against the effect of climate change.
In its latest assessment, the African Development Bank said that between $1.3 trillion and $1.6 trillion is needed by 2030 to implement climate action in line with nationally determined contributions — targets set by individual countries to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees F) and no more than 2C (3.6 F). But blue bonds are currently just a fraction of ocean conservation funding, the bank added.
“Bonds alone are not a panacea for the financing gap but they can allow us to raise large amounts,” Adam said.
___
This story has been corrected to show that it is countries on Africa’s east coast that are turning to climate funding.
___
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.myarklamiss.com/news/international/africa-looks-to-private-sector-to-fund-ocean-climate-action/ | 2022-07-13 22:57:11 | 0 | https://www.myarklamiss.com/news/international/africa-looks-to-private-sector-to-fund-ocean-climate-action/ |
NEW YORK — The texts started flooding D.J. Reed’s phone moments before he was about to take the field for pregame introductions.
Reed gathered himself after a few moments, jogged onto the MetLife Stadium field to join his teammates on the sideline Sunday for the season opener on the 21st anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks — and broke down.
“The national anthem was playing and I just was crying and stuff,” Reed recalled Monday. “Yeah, it was emotional, man.”
After an 18-year battle with multiple sclerosis, Reed's father died Sunday back home in Waterloo, Iowa. He was placed on life support last week and was breathing through a tube — but later told doctors he wanted it removed.
“He was tired of fighting,” D.J. Reed said.
Reed’s mother Linda called him last Wednesday to tell him his father wasn’t going to survive much longer. So he spoke to his father — Dennis Reed couldn’t speak, so he listened to his son one final time.
“I said, ‘I love you,’” Reed recalled, “and, ‘You fought a good fight. ... Thank you for everything.’”
Dennis Reed breathed on his own two more days before taking a turn and dying Sunday morning.
“He fought it,” D.J. Reed said. “The thing that I loved about my dad is, in front of me and talking on the phone with him, he always had a sense of humor. He was always smiling, chuckling, joking, cracking jokes, just trying to make light of things.
“I learned a lot from his personality and doing that during tough times.”
The 25-year-old Reed’s love for sports developed from his dad, who got him into football, wrestling, soccer, basketball and tennis, among others.
“When he was healthy, he was active very well in my life, like a great father and all that,” Reed said. “And he got sick and it kind of deteriorated his body and stuff, so he couldn’t be there like he wanted to be there.”
But his influence was always present.
Like when Reed was at Independence High School in Bakersfield, California, and became the first athlete in school history to be selected team MVP in both football and basketball. And in college stops at Fresno State, Cerritos College and finally Kansas State, where he developed into a fifth-round draft pick by San Francisco in 2018.
After two seasons with the 49ers, Reed broke out in Seattle after being claimed on waivers. A big payday came in March, when he signed a three-year, $33 million contract with the Jets to be their No. 1 cornerback.
But before he made his regular-season debut with his new team came the news about his father.
“Yeah, it was hard,” Reed said. “It was basically just controlling my energy, really, because my emotions were everywhere. But I believe in God, and I just thought for him to pass away right before the game there was a reason for that because he could have passed during that whole week. And he passed away right before the game started.
“So I just said, ‘OK, I know he’s watching, so I’m going to put on a show for him.’”
That’s exactly what Reed did in a terrific debut for the Jets, allowing no catches in the 24-9 loss, forcing a fumble and intercepting Lamar Jackson late in the fourth quarter.
After coming down with the ball, Reed ran to midfield, knelt on the NFL logo and raised his arms — with the football in his right hand.
Some assumed it was ill-timed showboating. It was actually Reed honoring his late father.
“It was just deeper than football when I got the interception,” he said. “I already knew what I was going to do and that’s what I did.”
Some of his coaches and teammates were unaware of what Reed was dealing with until seeing his Twitter post on the ride home.
“Obviously a very, very tough day for D.J.,” said coach Robert Saleh, who was told before the game. “Heart goes out to him and his family. D.J. is a pro’s pro, a man’s man.”
Reed is unsure if he’ll attend his father’s funeral in Iowa, saying the two “already chopped it up” in their numerous conversations over the last several months. Being around his teammates, Reed said, and not dwelling on his loss might be best.
He and his girlfriend are expecting a baby girl in two months, and Reed is disappointed his father won’t get to meet her during the offseason.
“That’s what really had me emotional,” Reed said. “Definitely that was like one of the first things to do is go take my daughter to go see her grandfather. So for that not to happen, it was tough.”
But he knows his father will always be with him. Still watching and rooting for him.
“I’m paying tribute to my dad this year, for sure, the whole year,” Reed said. “That’s what I told myself: This season’s for my dad.”
___
More AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl and https://twitter.com/AP_NFL | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nfl/jets-reed-plays-with-heavy-heart-dedicates-season-to-dad/2022/09/13/d377e0b8-3330-11ed-a0d6-415299bfebd5_story.html | 2022-09-13 08:27:42 | 1 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nfl/jets-reed-plays-with-heavy-heart-dedicates-season-to-dad/2022/09/13/d377e0b8-3330-11ed-a0d6-415299bfebd5_story.html |
More licensed spectrum needed to meet exploding demand for 5G and support transformative new use cases
WASHINGTON, April 17, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- A new report by Boston Consulting Group, commissioned by CTIA, evaluates America's progress on five key factors needed to unlock 5G-driven innovations across the 5G economy. The study, "Accelerating the 5G Economy," finds that while the United States has done well with deployments in the four years since the introduction of 5G, more needs to be done to secure the future benefits of 5G and new, transformative use case across industries. In particular, BCG identifies the need for additional full-power, licensed mid-band spectrum for wireless use.
"Thanks to record investments by the wireless industry, America is leading the 5G economy," said CTIA President and CEO Meredith Attwell Baker. "BCG's findings are a critical reminder that we need more 5G-ready spectrum to meet increasing data demand and enable the speeds and capacity necessary to fuel future innovation here in the United States."
The 5G economy is at an inflection point, turning from deployment to development of the applications that can leverage 5G capabilities, but today, the United States has no spectrum pipeline and Congress allowed the FCC's auction authority to lapse for the first time in 30 years. According to BCG, more full-power, licensed mid-band spectrum is key for the United States to continue to lead and grow the 5G Economy or risk ceding leadership to other countries.
"Additional spectrum, particularly licensed mid-band spectrum that provides the performance necessary to support large-scale wireless networks, is needed for the United States to continue to lead and grow the 5G economy," said Val Elbert, Managing Director and Partner, Boston Consulting Group.
The stakes are high: BCG expects the 5G economy to add $1.5T to America's economy, and 4.5M jobs by 2030, but more must be done to realize this potential. Two of BCG's five recommendations are spectrum focused, underscoring the outsized role spectrum policy will have on future 5G development. BCG's five recommendations to promote 5G in the U.S. are:
- Increase the availability of full-power, licensed mid-band spectrum for wireless use.
- Create a future pipeline for licensed spectrum auctions.
- Provide further incentives for 5G innovation.
- Develop a 5G partnership function in governments.
- Promote and support the development of large-scale IoT deployments.
This report builds on BCG's 2020 study, "Building the U.S. Economy," which first identified the five critical success factors for America's 5G Economy.
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SOURCE CTIA | https://www.kwch.com/prnewswire/2023/04/17/bcg-identifies-five-key-recommendations-help-us-lead-5g-driven-innovation/ | 2023-04-17 20:24:14 | 0 | https://www.kwch.com/prnewswire/2023/04/17/bcg-identifies-five-key-recommendations-help-us-lead-5g-driven-innovation/ |
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt announced in a video message Thursday that he is calling for a special audit of Tulsa Public Schools (TPS) for potential mishandling of public funds and said he is "also concerned that TPS may have violated state law, specifically HB 1775, which bans public schools from teaching critical race theory."
"At the request of two Tulsa School Board members, today I am calling for a special audit of Tulsa Public Schools and the potential mishandling of public funds. As one of the largest districts in the state, TPS received over $200 million in COVID federal relief funds," Stitt said.
According to the Republican governor, parents, students, teachers and board members," deserve to know how that money was spent."
"I am also concerned that TPS may have violated state law, specifically HB 1775, which bans public schools from teaching critical race theory," he added.
Oklahoma's HB 1775, which does not include the term "critical race theory," is intended to stop discrimination, according to the bill. If any educator makes part of their curriculum teachings that "an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex" or that "an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously," they could be suspended or have their license removed, according to the law.
"Specifically, the bill prohibits teaching that "one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex," Stitt said. "I firmly believe that no, not one cent of taxpayer money should be used to define and divide young Oklahomans by their race or sex. Let's teach students -- not indoctrinate them."
In a phone interview with CNN, Deborah A. Gist, Superintendent of Tulsa Public Schools, called the governor's call for an audit "baseless accusations."
"We have excellent management of funds, and there is no basis for anyone to be questioning our management of those federal dollars," she said. "There is no evidence to support anything that he is saying."
"I welcome anyone who wants to come and take a careful review," Gist said.
She also called the governor's concern that TPS may have violated state law regarding critical race theory "made up" and baseless. "It's all baseless, we are a district that believes in teaching a full and complete history of our country," she added.
Late last year, a group of students and educators filed a complaint challenging the Oklahoma law that restricts teaching about race and gender, in what the American Civil Liberties Union called the first federal lawsuit to challenge such a statewide ban.
The suit -- backed by the ACLU, the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Oklahoma state conference of the NAACP and the American Indian Movement (AIM) Indian Territory -- sought to block enforcement of the law it says inhibits free speech and education of complete history through the framework of critical race theory.
Gary Peller, a professor at Georgetown Law and author of "Critical Race Consciousness: Reconsidering American Ideologies of Racial Justice," told CNN previously that critical race theory acknowledges racism is both systemic and institutional in American society and that White people have historically held racial power.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. | https://www.albanyherald.com/news/oklahoma-governor-calls-for-public-schools-audit-for-potential-mishandling-of-public-funds-and-teaching/article_bbda03e3-e07a-5a36-853c-df5777071888.html | 2022-07-08 20:43:10 | 0 | https://www.albanyherald.com/news/oklahoma-governor-calls-for-public-schools-audit-for-potential-mishandling-of-public-funds-and-teaching/article_bbda03e3-e07a-5a36-853c-df5777071888.html |
In recognition of Global Loneliness Awareness Week (June 12th-18th), the event brings together national leaders to raise awareness about the crisis of social isolation and loneliness and to share solutions for fostering social connection.
WASHINGTON, June 13, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Last month, U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murphy, released an advisory outlining a multi-sector approach for fostering individual and institutional actions to address the healing effects of social connection. Today, the Coalition to End Social Isolation & Loneliness (CESIL), as part of Global Loneliness Awareness Week, will hold its annual Connections at the Capitol: Discussions on Loneliness, Isolation, and the Path Forward. This signature event convenes notable policymakers, thought leaders, and innovators at the U.S. Capitol and across the country to raise awareness of the country's social isolation and loneliness crisis.
The program features:
- Remarks from Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Senator Tina Smith (D-MN), longtime champions of pro-social policies, highlighting initiatives to build a path to a more socially connected nation.
- A keynote from Kier Gaines, licensed therapist and advisor, and counselor for White House mental health initiatives, offering remarks on the importance of mental and social health and disrupting the stigma against mental healthcare through his unique, transparent, and authentic approach to the conversation.
- A panel discussion moderated by Author and Poet, Brian Turner including Joy Burkhard, Founder and Director of the Policy Center for Maternal Health, Prince Taylor, National Director for the VA Center for Development & Civic Engagement, and Izzy Boring, Collegiate Student Athlete & Young Adult Advocate, that explores the effects of social isolation and loneliness on some of the most important and vulnerable members of our society: mothers, veterans, and young adults.
"Evidence shows that mothers and caregivers for young children, veterans, and young adults, are all high-risk populations for social isolation and/or loneliness. It is vital to shed light on the needs of these key populations during our annual Global Loneliness Awareness Week event where we will hear from leading experts and persons with lived experiences on approaches for strengthening social connectedness," said Jillian Racoosin, Executive Director of the Coalition to End Social Isolation and Loneliness.
The event is sponsored by Humana Inc. as part of the Far from Alone campaign, whose mission in partnership with CESIL is to increase the public's awareness of the power of human connections to help address loneliness by partnering with a diverse group of stakeholders who advocate for policy change that creates greater opportunities for social connectedness.
"Unmet social needs – including loneliness and social isolation – can severely and negatively influence health outcomes. Addressing rising levels of disconnection will require multi-stakeholder leadership and action to ensure that people from all communities have the opportunity to thrive and maintain social connectivity," said Tamara Smith, MPH, CHES, Associate VP of Health Equity Strategy at Humana. "Far from Alone in partnership with CESIL brings together thought leaders to engage in this critical discussion."
Connections at the Capitol: Discussions on Loneliness, Isolation, and the Path Forward will be held today both in-person and virtually from 4:30 PM – 6:30 PM ET. For more information about today's programming, please visit the event page, or register here to join.
The Coalition to End Social Isolation & Loneliness (CESIL) brings together a diverse set of national organizations including consumer groups, health plans, health care providers, technology innovators, patient advocates and more to develop and advocate for federal policy solutions to address the crisis of social isolation and loneliness. For more information, please visit: endsocialisolation.org
"Far From Alone" is a campaign led by Humana Inc. that brings together partners committed to improving the mental health and wellness of others by increasing social connectedness. In collaboration with a collective of partners, "Far From Alone" promotes resources that increase social connectedness and reduce feelings of loneliness. For more information about the campaign, please visit: FarfromAlone.com
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SOURCE Coalition to End Social Isolation and Loneliness | https://www.wcjb.com/prnewswire/2023/06/13/national-coalition-convenes-us-capitol-address-epidemic-loneliness-isolation/ | 2023-06-13 15:54:44 | 0 | https://www.wcjb.com/prnewswire/2023/06/13/national-coalition-convenes-us-capitol-address-epidemic-loneliness-isolation/ |
Orlando Residents Will Enjoy Weekly Flights to Freeport
NASSAU, Bahamas, June 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Beginning Thursday, 30 June 2022, Bahamasair will relaunch a weekly nonstop flight from Orlando International Airport (MCO) in Florida to Grand Bahama International Airport (FPO) in Freeport, The Bahamas. Travelers can book these flights now and start planning their adventure in The Bahamas' second largest city.
Bahamasair's weekly nonstop flights from Orlando will operate every Monday and Thursday from June 30 through September 10. Introductory fares start as low as $297 round trip.
"Travel is back in a big way this summer, and we are ready for it. We are making travel for Floridians easier than ever with more nonstop service to The Bahamas," said the Honourable I. Chester Cooper, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism, Investments & Aviation. "Florida remains a priority market for The Bahamas, and we are thrilled to expand our flight offerings from the state with these weekly nonstop options from Orlando on Bahamasair."
There are activities for every kind of traveler throughout Grand Bahama, as well as new developments.
- Lucayan National Park - Lucayan National Park is the second most visited park in The Bahamas. The 40-acre park is home to one of the world's longest charted underwater cave systems, as well as beautiful pine forests, mangrove creeks, coral reefs and the world-famous Gold Rock Beach.
- Coral Vita - Coral Vita, a high-tech coral farm that aims to restore dying reefs, is now open to the public. Using cutting edge micro fragmenting technology, the farm grows coral 50 percent faster than normal growth rates and plants the newly grown coral back into degraded reefs in order to bring them back to life.
- Grand Lucayan Sale - A rebirth is on the horizon for Grand Bahama Island as an offer has been accepted for the purchase of Grand Lucayan, a beachfront resort located in the bustling city of Freeport. Electra America Hospitality Group (EAHG), a real estate investment firm, has entered into an agreement with Lucayan Renewal Holdings to buy the resort for $100 million, with nearly $300 million in renovations planned. The agreement is projected to be completed by summer 2022, with renovations and construction to follow.
- Goombay Summer Festival - At the festival, you can experience live Bahamian music, great local cuisine, authentically Bahamian Arts and Crafts, Junkanoo and lots more. This event is held every week on Thursdays from 6.00 pm to Midnight in July at Taino beach.
For those looking further ahead to winter escapes, nonstop flights from Orlando to GBI will return 17 November 2022 – 12 January 2023 and are available to book now. Those ready to pack their bags can book flights today on Bahamasair.com.
The Bahamas has over 700 islands and cays, as well as 16 unique island destinations. See why It's Better in The Bahamas at www.bahamas.com or on Facebook, YouTube or Instagram.
PRESS INQUIRIES
Anita Johnson-Patty
Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, Investments & Aviation
ajohnson@bahamas.com
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SOURCE The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, Investments & Aviation | https://www.kswo.com/prnewswire/2022/06/29/bahamasair-relaunches-nonstop-service-orlando-grand-bahama-island/ | 2022-06-29 21:44:59 | 1 | https://www.kswo.com/prnewswire/2022/06/29/bahamasair-relaunches-nonstop-service-orlando-grand-bahama-island/ |
Top Player Prop Bets for Braves vs. Reds on June 24, 2023
Published: Jun. 24, 2023 at 8:50 AM EDT|Updated: 49 minutes ago
Player prop bet odds for Ronald Acuna Jr., Jonathan India and others are available when the Atlanta Braves visit the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park on Saturday at 4:10 PM ET.
Bet on this matchup or its props with BetMGM!
Braves vs. Reds Game Info
- When: Saturday, June 24, 2023 at 4:10 PM ET
- Where: Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, Ohio
- How to Watch on TV: BSOH
- Live Stream: Watch the MLB on Fubo!
Discover More About This Game
MLB Props Today: Atlanta Braves
Ronald Acuña Jr. Props
- Hits Prop: Over/Under 1.5 (Over Odds: +140)
- Runs Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: -179)
- Home Runs Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: +250)
- RBI Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: +115)
Acuna Stats
- Acuna has collected 100 hits with 21 doubles, a triple, 16 home runs and 37 walks. He has driven in 47 runs with 33 stolen bases.
- He's slashing .329/.403/.563 on the year.
- Acuna has hit safely in five games in a row. In his last five games he is batting .348 with a home run, three walks and two RBI.
Acuna Recent Games
Ozzie Albies Props
- Hits Prop: Over/Under 1.5 (Over Odds: +165)
- Runs Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: -141)
- Home Runs Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: +425)
- RBI Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: +130)
Albies Stats
- Ozzie Albies has 14 doubles, a triple, 17 home runs, 21 walks and 53 RBI (77 total hits). He has stolen four bases.
- He has a .266/.320/.498 slash line so far this year.
- Albies takes a five-game streak with at least one hit into this matchup. During his last five outings he is batting .333 with a double, two home runs, two walks and six RBI.
Albies Recent Games
Bet on player props for Ronald Acuña Jr., Ozzie Albies or other Braves players with BetMGM.
Buy officially licensed gear for your favorite teams and players at Fanatics!
MLB Props Today: Cincinnati Reds
Jonathan India Props
- Hits Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: -250)
- Runs Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: -120)
- Home Runs Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: +400)
- RBI Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: +140)
India Stats
- India has 77 hits with 17 doubles, 10 home runs, 31 walks and 40 RBI. He's also stolen 11 bases.
- He's slashed .266/.353/.428 so far this year.
India Recent Games
Spencer Steer Props
- Hits Prop: Over/Under 1.5 (Over Odds: +210)
- Runs Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: -115)
- Home Runs Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: +350)
- RBI Prop: Over/Under 0.5 (Over Odds: +130)
Steer Stats
- Spencer Steer has 73 hits with 18 doubles, two triples, 10 home runs and 32 walks. He has driven in 40 runs with seven stolen bases.
- He has a .271/.358/.465 slash line on the season.
Steer Recent Games
Bet on player props for Jonathan India, Spencer Steer or other Reds players with BetMGM.
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© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.wistv.com/sports/betting/2023/06/24/braves-vs-reds-mlb-player-prop-bets/ | 2023-06-24 14:40:49 | 1 | https://www.wistv.com/sports/betting/2023/06/24/braves-vs-reds-mlb-player-prop-bets/ |
NEW YORK (WPIX) — Police in New York City seized trucks used to sell cannabis on Tuesday, NYPD Chief of Patrol Jeffrey Maddrey said.
Officials on Tuesday said 20 trucks had been seized, but on Wednesday said the number was 19. The trucks did not have licenses from the Department of Health, according to Maddrey. Police officials said the seizures were part of efforts to address quality-of-life issues in New York City after 311 complaints.
“If you are looking to buy illegal cannabis from the Weed World Bus located on 5th Avenue & 40th Street it is no longer open for business,” Maddrey tweeted. “We do not anticipate it opening for business anytime soon!”
The seizures were made by the Community Response Team and the Manhattan Business Improvement District Team. In June, New York City’s Sheriff’s Office deputies seized a dozen Weed World vehicles. Those were seized because of parking debt.
New York has not yet issued licenses for the sale of recreational marijuana. The state’s legal marijuana industry is likely to be worth around $1.3 billion a year once legal sales begin, according to analysts.
Nineteen states have legalized recreational marijuana, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.
In three other states, South Dakota, Maryland and Missouri, voters will decide whether or not to legalize recreational marijuana this fall.
Missouri’s ballot measure is the first to also require courts to forgive marijuana crimes prosecuted in the past. | https://www.wivb.com/news/national/police-in-nyc-seize-trucks-being-used-to-sell-cannabis/ | 2022-08-18 23:43:31 | 0 | https://www.wivb.com/news/national/police-in-nyc-seize-trucks-being-used-to-sell-cannabis/ |
LONDON — A broken thumb, a back injury, dabbling with drugs and dating girls.
No event in the life of a young Prince Harry was too trivial or private for the journalists of Mirror Group Newspapers to resist, and the demand for such scoops led to the use of illegal means to dig up dirt, his lawyer said Monday in the opening of his phone hacking lawsuit.
“Nothing was sacrosanct or out of bounds and there was no protection from these unlawful information-gathering methods,” attorney David Sherborne said.
But a defense lawyer said it would have been foolish to spy on a figure like Harry with such tight security, and he rejected allegations that Mirror Group reporters ever eavesdropped on his phone’s voice messages.
“There is simply no evidence capable of supporting the finding that the Duke of Sussex was hacked, let alone on a habitual basis,” attorney Anthony Green said. “Zilch, zero, nil, nada, niente, nothing.”
Harry’s highly anticipated showdown with the publisher of the Daily Mirror in his battles with the British press got off to an anticlimactic start when the star failed to show up — to the chagrin of the judge and defense lawyer.
Harry was unavailable to testify that afternoon because he’d taken a flight Sunday from Los Angeles after the birthday of his 2-year-old daughter, Lilibet, Sherborne said.
“I’m a little surprised,” said Justice Timothy Fancourt, noting he had directed Harry to be prepared to testify.
Green said he was “deeply troubled” by Harry’s absence.
The case against Mirror Group is the first of the prince’s several lawsuits against the media to go to trial, and one of three alleging tabloid publishers unlawfully snooped on him in their cutthroat competition for scoops on the royal family.
When he enters the witness box, Harry, 38, will be the first member of the British royal family in more than a century to testify in court. He is expected to describe his anguish and anger over being hounded by the media throughout his life, and its impact on those around him.
Harry’s fury at the U.K. press — and sometimes at his own royal relatives for what he sees as their collusion with the media — runs through his memoir, “Spare,” and interviews conducted by Oprah Winfrey and others.
He has blamed paparazzi for causing the car crash that killed his mother, Princess Diana, and said harassment and intrusion by the U.K. press, including allegedly racist articles, led him and his wife, Meghan, to flee to the U.S. in 2020 and leave royal life behind.
While Harry’s memoir and other recent media ventures have been an effort to reclaim his life’s narrative, which had largely been shaped by the media, he will have no such control when he faces cross-examination in a courtroom full of reporters taking down every word.
Green said he plans to question the Duke for a day and a half.
Stories about Harry were big sellers for the newspapers, and some 2,500 articles had covered all facets of his life during the time period of the case — 1996 to 2011 — from injuries at school to experimenting with marijuana and cocaine to the ups and downs with girlfriends, Sherborne said.
Harry said in court documents that he suffered “huge bouts of depression and paranoia” over concerns friends and associates were betraying him by leaking information to the newspapers. Relationships fell apart as the women in his life – and even their family members – were “dragged into the chaos.”
He says he later realized the source wasn’t disloyal friends but aggressive journalists and the private investigators they hired to eavesdrop on voicemails and track him to locations as remote as Argentina and an island off Mozambique.
Sherborne suggested that a 2003 article about row with older brother, Prince William, heir to the throne, about confronting their mother’s former butler about spilling secrets, had planted the seeds of discord between the two.
“Brothers can sometimes disagree,” Sherborne said. “But once it is made public in this way and their inside feelings revealed in the way that they are, trust begins to be eroded.”
Mirror Group said it used documents, public statements and sources to legally report on the prince — with one exception.
The publisher admitted and apologized for hiring a private eye to dig up dirt on one of Harry’s nights out at a bar, but the resulting 2004 article headlined “Sex on the beach with Harry” is not among the 33 in the trial.
Sherborne, however, said phone hacking and unlawful information-gathering were carried out on such a widespread scale by Mirror Group that it was implausible it was only used once against Harry.
In the absence of concrete evidence, Sherborne said the judge to make inferences of skullduggery based on the type of information being reported, the murkiness of the sourcing, and whether the writer of an article was known to have relied on unlawful means in the past.
But Green said there was little to no evidence to support Harry’s case.
Hacking that involved guessing or using default security codes to listen to celebrities’ cellphone voice messages was widespread at British tabloids in the early years of this century. It became an existential crisis for the industry after the revelation in 2011 that the News of the World had hacked the phone of a slain 13-year-old girl.
Owner Rupert Murdoch shut down the paper and several of his executives faced criminal trials.
Mirror Group has paid more than 100 million pounds ($125 million) to settle hundreds of unlawful information-gathering claims, and printed an apology to phone hacking victims in 2015.
Judges are deciding whether Harry’s two other phone hacking cases will proceed to trial.
Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers, publisher of The Sun, and Associated Newspapers Ltd., which owns the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, have argued the cases should be thrown out, because Harry failed to file the lawsuits within a six-year deadline.
Harry’s lawyer has argued that he should be granted an exception to the time limit, because the publishers lied and deceived to hide the illegal actions. | https://www.twincities.com/2023/06/05/lawyer-says-nothing-was-out-of-bounds-for-reporters-seeking-scoops-on-young-prince-harry/ | 2023-06-06 15:36:07 | 1 | https://www.twincities.com/2023/06/05/lawyer-says-nothing-was-out-of-bounds-for-reporters-seeking-scoops-on-young-prince-harry/ |
Let the peach party commence!
Several cast members from The Real Housewives of Atlanta's inaugural season are set to reunite for the first time in 14 years as part of a special episode of OWN's interactive talk series, The Nightcap with Carlos King. Together, Atlanta OGs Kim Zolciak-Biermann, DeShawn Snow, Shereé Whitfield and Lisa Wu will rehash the drama from season one and reveal just how far they've come since then.
In E! News' exclusive sneak peek of what's to come, Carlos asks Kim how she and her husband, former NFL player Kroy Biermann, have been since her time on the show.
"Amazing. We've been married almost 11 years," Kim said. As if the group wasn't surprised by how fast the time has flown by, they were even more surprised to hear how big Kim's kids have grown.
"KJ [Kroy Biermann Jr.] will be 11 next week, Kash [Biermann] will be 10 and the twins [Kaia and Kane Biermann] are 8," she said. "I had KJ in '11, the Kash in '12 and the twins in '13."
Kroy is also the adopted father of Kim's older daughters Brielle, 25, and Ariana Biermann, 20.
"Are you kidding me?" Lisa exclaimed about how old Kim's kids are. "No, I'm not kidding you, girl," Kim responded. "And then we fixed that problem."
The problem? Having more kids. The couple has hopped off the baby train, as Kim revealed that Kroy got a vasectomy. She joked, "Honey, twins will make you."
After RHOA, Bravo fans got an inside look at the Biermann family's crazy day-to-day adventures on Kim's spin-off series Don't Be Tardy, which ran for eight seasons from 2012 to 2020.
The Nightcap with Carlos King's surprise Real Housewives of Atlanta reunion airs Saturday, June 11, at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on OWN. | https://www.eonline.com/news/1333895/the-real-housewives-of-atlanta-season-1-cast-reunites-hear-kim-zolciak-biermann-s-family-update?cmpid=rss-000000-rssfeed-365-topstories&utm_source=eonline&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=rss_topstories | 2022-06-09 17:48:30 | 0 | https://www.eonline.com/news/1333895/the-real-housewives-of-atlanta-season-1-cast-reunites-hear-kim-zolciak-biermann-s-family-update?cmpid=rss-000000-rssfeed-365-topstories&utm_source=eonline&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=rss_topstories |
DENVER (AP) — The anxious-looking women talk directly to the camera, warning that the Colorado Republican running for the U.S. Senate opposes the state’s reproductive rights law and supports the conservative Supreme Court justices who revoked the constitutional right to abortion this summer.
“It’s not even close,” one says as the ad for the Democratic senator wraps up. “We need Michael Bennet fighting for us.”
The spot is significant because the man it slams on abortion, businessman Joe O’Dea, is a rare Republican supporter of at least some abortion rights. O’Dea said he would back a law to codify the protections of Roe v. Wade, though he opposes abortions after 20 weeks except in cases of rape, incest or to protect the life of the mother.
Analysts say similarly nuanced positions were once considered the political sweet spot in the complex world of abortion politics, coming closest to representing the views of the typical conflicted voter. But that may be changing as abortion restrictions kick in following the fall of Roe with the high court’s ruling in June.
“We are here in this country, right now, with patients traveling thousands of miles for care because politicians have been given the room for the least little bit of nuance,” said Adrienne Mansanares of Planned Parenthood Action Colorado during a recent news conference to back Bennet.
The message from Democrats: Republicans can’t be trusted on the issue, regardless of their personal beliefs.
In New Hampshire, Democrats are going after Republican Chris Sununu, who is running for reelection as a self-described “pro-choice governor,” for supporting a ban on abortions after 23 weeks of pregnancy.
In Connecticut, Democrats slammed as “extreme” former state Sen. George Logan in his race against Democratic U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes — despite Logan receiving an “A” rating in 2017 and 2018 from the Connecticut chapter of NARAL, an abortion rights group. Democrats note the rating was based on Logan’s statehouse votes on other issues of importance to NARAL such as paid family medical leave, rather than abortion.
Also in Connecticut, the Republican candidate for governor, Bob Stefanowski, is out with a television ad highlighting how he and his Democratic opponent “are both pro-choice.” In an interview, Stefanowski said he was responding to repeated Democratic attacks on abortion, which he compared to lies.
“I don’t know how many times I can say I’m not going to change Connecticut law,” Stefanowski said in an interview. “I’m going to support a woman’s right to choose.”
Abortion has become an increasingly partisan issue over recent decades, but public views have always been more shades of gray.
Typically, support for abortion rights is highest for women in the earliest stages of pregnancy and tapers off as the pregnancy advances, until it is lowest for abortions very close to delivery, said Jocelyn Kiley of the Pew Research Center. Still, exceptions for rape, incest and to protect the life of the mother are popular at all stages.
“Most Americans see this as a nuanced issue and not legal all the time or illegal all the time,” Kiley said. But, she noted, “it’s possible that Americans’ underlying opinions about this are shifting in the past couple of months.”
On June 24, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court’s Republican-appointed majority overturned Roe and triggered abortion bans in at least 13 states, many of which don’t provide exceptions for rape, incest and to protect the life of the mother.
The reason this is happening, said Republican pollster Whit Ayres, is “you now have state legislatures that have taken positions opposed by 9 out of 10 Americans.”
“What the Dobbs decision has done along with these trigger laws is focus attention on the early part of pregnancy, not late term,” Ayres said.
While many people back some restrictions on abortion, especially after the first trimester, the most extreme measures introduced in some Republican-led states are at odds with public opinion, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll in July.
There are several signs that momentum is with abortion-rights backers. In conservative Kansas, a ballot measure to remove that state’s right to abortion lost by more than 150,000 votes. Democrats won a special election in a narrowly divided upstate New York swing district last week after their candidate focused on abortion. In a survey shortly after the Supreme Court ruling, Pew found that 62% of U.S. adults say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, the highest share in nearly 30 years of tracking the issue.
That’s emboldened Democrats to go after any Republican on abortion, regardless of the details of their position, said Jennifer Lawless, a politics professor at the University of Virginia who has long tracked the politics of reproductive health.
“Although the nuance on the issue is largely gone, the nuance of the case Democrats can make is stronger,” Lawless said.
She noted that Democrats can now make the more technical argument that any Republican elected increases the power of the party that overturned Roe and could spread abortion bans further across the country.
That’s an argument Colorado Democrats have tried to make, unsuccessfully, before. In 2014, Democratic Sen. Mark Udall lost his race to Republican Cory Gardner, an abortion rights opponent who defused the issue by backing over-the-counter women’s contraception to demonstrate he wasn’t hostile to reproductive health.
Gardner’s supporters mocked Udall as “Mark Uterus” for hammering relentlessly on abortion and they assured voters that Roe wasn’t at risk. Gardner lost his reelection bid in 2020, when Colorado voters replaced him with a Democrat supporting abortion rights after then-President Donald Trump picked now-Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the deciding vote in Dobbs, in the campaign’s final weeks.
Now Democrats are trying again with O’Dea. In an interview, the first-time candidate said of his opponent’s attack: “It’s pretty dishonest, pretty disingenuous.”
Yet in 2020, O’Dea voted for a statewide ballot measure to bar abortions after 22 weeks that failed by 18 percentage points. The measure didn’t contain exceptions for rape, incest or to protect the mother’s life. He now says he thinks those exceptions are essential and added that he would support allowing the termination of nonviable pregnancies.
He noted he wasn’t a candidate for office when the measure was on the ballot.
“I didn’t look at all the nuances,” O’Dea said.
Colorado has a long history of backing abortion rights. It was the first state to legalize the procedure in cases of rape, incest and to protect the mother, taking that step in 1967. Earlier this year, the Democratic-controlled Legislature passed one of the most sweeping laws protecting abortion rights, guaranteeing no restrictions on abortions regardless of when in the pregnancy they occur. O’Dea opposes that law because of his belief that abortions should be outlawed past 20 weeks.
The race is playing out as Colorado has become a refuge for women seeking care after the Dobbs decision activated trigger laws in nearby states, especially Texas.
Karen Middleton, a former Democratic state lawmaker who runs the reproductive rights group Cobalt, recalled in an interview talking to a woman with an ectopic pregnancy driving hundreds of miles from Texas to Colorado to obtain an abortion who began bleeding in a remote area between the states.
“We’re a lot less willing to compromise,” she said.
___
Haigh reported from Hartford, Connecticut.
___
Follow AP’s coverage of abortion at https://apnews.com/hub/abortion | https://www.yourbasin.com/health-2/ap-health/ap-no-more-nuance-democrats-slam-gop-abortion-rights-backers/ | 2022-09-02 15:44:29 | 1 | https://www.yourbasin.com/health-2/ap-health/ap-no-more-nuance-democrats-slam-gop-abortion-rights-backers/ |
As summer heats up, 7-Eleven is helping folks cool down with free Slurpees for a limited time.
The convenience store is giving away a free small Slurpee to customers in honor of its 96th birthday on Tuesday, July 11.
It's just birthday business as usual for 7-Eleven, which has been giving away free Slurpees each year on July 11 since 2002.
This year customers can get an extra frozen drink by utilizing 7-Eleven's or Speedway's rewards programs, and you don't have to wait until Tuesday to claim the freebie.
You'll have a chance to try limited edition Slurpee flavors like Sprite Lymonade Legacy, Fanta Dragon Fruit Zero Sugar, Hibiscus Lemonade and Summertime Citrus.
Here's how to double your chances for brain freeze:
How to get free Slurpees
Slurpee Day: July 11
On Tuesday, July 11, all customers can visit their local 7-Eleven, Speedway or Stripes convenience store and ask for their free Slurpee.
There's no coupon or app needed in-store this year, unlike the past three years. In 2020, 7-Eleven canceled free Slurpee day because of the COVID-19 pandemic, opting to give loyalty customers a coupon in its rewards app that they could redeem throughout the month of July, to discourage large crowds.
How to get an extra Slurpee
People who are part of the free 7REWARDS and Speedy Rewards programs will get a coupon in the app for an additional free Slurpee. Members can scan their app or physical rewards card at checkout to redeem the coupon starting July 1.
To sign up, download the 7-Eleven or Speedway app, or sign up in person.
Delivery
Customers can order a free Slurpee through 7-Eleven's delivery service, 7NOW, on Saturday, July 8 only.
Other deals
Loyalty members will also get access to $1 food deals on pizza slices and other snacks. | https://www.fox43.com/article/news/nation-world/7-eleven-free-slurpee-day-2023/507-2502d427-4e92-40c3-af4e-0f118c60f15d | 2023-07-10 10:57:38 | 1 | https://www.fox43.com/article/news/nation-world/7-eleven-free-slurpee-day-2023/507-2502d427-4e92-40c3-af4e-0f118c60f15d |
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