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The Federal Bureau of Investigations said an armed person tried to breach the Visitor Screening Facility at an FBI location in Cincinnati. The suspect was wearing body armor, Clinton County, Ohio, EMA said.
Ohio State Highway Patrol and the FBI pursued the man after he tried to break into the FBI office. The suspect drove to Clinton County, which is about 50 miles north of Cincinnati, where the standoff began.
Law enforcement officials have traded gunfire with a single suspect, they said. There is no word on whether anyone has been wounded.
The breach comes as FBI Director Christopher Wray acknowledged on Wednesday a rise in threats against the agency. The threats come after agents executed a search warrant at the Florida residence of former President Donald Trump.
It is unclear whether the incident in Cincinnati was motivated by Monday’s search. | https://www.wrtv.com/news/national/ohio-fbi-field-office-breached-agents-exchange-gunfire | 2022-08-11 16:55:57 | 1 | https://www.wrtv.com/news/national/ohio-fbi-field-office-breached-agents-exchange-gunfire |
China responds to US complaint over plane intercept with demand for end to surveillance flights
BEIJING (AP) — Beijing responded Wednesday to complaints from the United States about a Chinese fighter jet’s dangerous interception of an American Air Force reconnaissance aircraft in international airspace over the South China Sea by demanding an end to such flights.
The incident adds to military, diplomatic and economic tensions between the sides over U.S. support for self-governing Taiwan, China’s refusal to engage in dialogue between their armed forces and Beijing’s flying of a suspected spy balloon over the U.S.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters at a daily briefing Wednesday that China would keep taking measures it deems necessary to safeguard its sovereignty.
“The U.S. should immediately stop these dangerous provocations,” Mao said.
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command called the Chinese plane’s actions an “unnecessarily aggressive maneuver,” adding to complaints that China’s military has become significantly more aggressive over the past five years, intercepting U.S. aircraft and ships in the region.
China says it owns the South China Sea virtually in its entirety, a claim not recognized internationally and directly challenged by nations along its coast including the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia.
In a statement Tuesday, the U.S. military said the pilot of the Chinese J-16 fighter jet flew directly in front of the nose of the RC-135 conducting routine operations in international airspace last Friday.
Military-to-military contacts between the sides have all but evaporated in recent years amid a historic decline in governmental relations, even as trade and personal exchanges remain strong.
Further dampening prospects for a reduction in tensions, China said its defense chief will not meet with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin when the two men attend a security conference in Singapore over the weekend.
Austin is scheduled to address the Shangri-La Dialogue on Saturday, while Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Li Shangfu will speak at the gathering on Sunday.
China has said the U.S. is entirely responsible for the breakdown in communications, but has not publicly given a reason.
With its People’s Liberation Army as the world’s largest standing military, which answers directly to the ruling Communist Party, China frequently challenges military aircraft from the U.S. and its allies in the South and East China Seas, and the Taiwan Strait connecting the two.
Such behavior led to a 2001 in-air collision between a Chinese fighter and U.S. Navy surveillance plane in which the Chinese plane was lost and pilot killed.
In Tuesday’s statement, the Indo-Pacific Command said America will continue to “fly, sail, and operate — safely and responsibly — wherever international law allows,” and expects all other countries to do the same.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.kold.com/2023/05/31/china-responds-us-complaint-over-plane-intercept-with-demand-end-surveillance-flights/ | 2023-05-31 12:08:42 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/2023/05/31/china-responds-us-complaint-over-plane-intercept-with-demand-end-surveillance-flights/ |
KENTWOOD, Mich. (WOOD) — The rescue of a 2-year-old who was in a vehicle when it was stolen earlier this week and left on the side of the road was caught on school bus surveillance cameras.
The vehicle was stolen around 8:10 a.m. Tuesday in Kentwood, Michigan, according to the Kentwood Police Department.
Dave Skinner, a bus driver with Kelloggsville Public Schools, was passing the area when he was flagged down by parents who said their child was inside a vehicle when it was stolen.
“They screamed at me that somebody had stolen their car with their baby in it,” Skinner said. “So immediately I got on the phone with 911.”
After he relayed the information to dispatch, Skinner got on the radio to let the other bus drivers know that a vehicle had been stolen with a child inside.
Another Kelloggsville Public Schools bus driver, Sue Figueroa, quickly realized that she had just passed a boy wrapped up in a blanket in a driveway.
In the surveillance video, Figueroa can be seen circling her bus around, exiting it and rescuing the 2-year-old.
“I have the baby,” she said over the radio after bringing the boy on the bus.
“Oh my God. Thank you. Thank you,” someone on the other end of the radio can be heard saying.
The 2-year-old is put in one of the bus seats and Figueroa drives him back to his parents.
When they arrive, she can be seen yelling out the bus doors, “Mama, is this your baby?” as his parents come running over.
Kristen Nickelson, the district’s director of transportation, said Skinner and Figueroa are “heroes” and she is proud to work with them.
“This could have been worse. … That mom was so scared, and I just can’t imagine what it would have been like not knowing where your baby was,” she said.
Skinner said he was just doing his job.
“I don’t know if we’re heroes,” Skinner said. “Drivers are very attentive to all the kids in the neighborhoods while we’re picking them up. And if they see something odd or strange, they’re real quick to get on the radio and holler back.”
He added, “I’m just glad her kid is home safe. Cars are replaceable. But I’m glad her child’s home. It was a good day and a good outcome.”
Police say the stolen vehicle was soon found in Grand Rapids. Officers have not been successful in finding a suspect. | https://www.pahomepage.com/uncategorized/i-have-the-baby-2-year-olds-rescue-captured-on-school-bus-camera/ | 2022-10-10 18:02:12 | 1 | https://www.pahomepage.com/uncategorized/i-have-the-baby-2-year-olds-rescue-captured-on-school-bus-camera/ |
The winners of the 2023 Whiting Awards might not have many, or any, well-known titles to their name — but that's the point.
The recipients of the $50,000 prize, which were announced on Wednesday evening, show an exceeding amount of talent and promise, according to the prize's judges. The Whiting Awards aim to "recognize excellence and promise in a spectrum of emerging talent, giving most winners their first chance to devote themselves full time to their own writing, or to take bold new risks in their work," the Whiting Foundation noted in a press release.
The Whiting Awards stand as one of the most esteemed and largest monetary gifts for emerging writers. Since its founding in 1985, recipients such as Ocean Vuong, Colson Whitehead, Sigrid Nunez, Alice McDermott, Jia Tolentino and Ling Ma have catapulted into successful careers or gone on to win countless other prestigious prizes including Pulitzers, National Book Awards, and Tony Awards.
"Every year we look to the new Whiting Award winners, writing fearlessly at the edge of imagination, to reveal the pathways of our thought and our acts before we know them ourselves," said Courtney Hodell, director of literary programs. "The prize is meant to create a space of ease in which such transforming work can be made."
The ceremony will include a keynote address by Pulitzer Prize winner and PEN president Ayad Akhtar.
The winners of the 2023 Whiting Awards, with commentary from the Whiting Foundation, are:
Tommye Blount (poetry), whose collection, Fantasia for the Man in Blue, "plunges into characters like a miner with a headlamp; desire, wit, and a dose of menace temper his precision."
Mia Chung (drama), author of the play Catch as Catch Can, whose plays are "a theatrical hall of mirrors that catch and fracture layers of sympathy and trust."
Ama Codjoe (poetry), author of Bluest Nude, whose poems "bring folkloric eros and lyric precision to Black women's experience."
Marcia Douglas (fiction), author of The Marvellous Equations of the Dread, who "creates a speculative ancestral project that samples and remixes the living and dead into a startling sonic fabric."
Sidik Fofana (fiction), author of Stories from the Tenants Downstairs, who "hears voices with a reporter's careful ear but records them with a fiction writer's unguarded heart."
Carribean Fragoza (fiction), author of Eat the Mouth That Feeds You, whose short stories "meld gothic horror with the loved and resented rhythms of ordinary life, unfolding the complex interiority of her Chicanx characters."
R. Kikuo Johnson (fiction), author of No One Else, a writer and illustrator — the first graphic novelist to be recognized by the award — who "stitches a gentle seam along the frayed edges of three generations in a family in Hawaii."
Linda Kinstler (nonfiction), a contributing writer for The Economist's 1843 Magazine, whose reportage "bristles with eagerness, moving like the spy thrillers she tips her hat to."
Stephania Taladrid (nonfiction), a contributing writer at the New Yorker, who, "writing from the still eye at the center of spiraling controversy or upheaval, she finds and protects the unforgettably human — whether at an abortion clinic on the day Roe v. Wade is overturned or standing witness to the pain of Uvalde's stricken parents."
Emma Wippermann (poetry and drama), author of the forthcoming Joan of Arkansas, "a climate-anxious work marked not by didacticism but by sympathy; It conveys rapture even as it jokes with angels..."
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.iowapublicradio.org/news-from-npr/news-from-npr/2023-03-29/2023-whiting-awards-recognize-10-emerging-writers | 2023-03-29 23:17:01 | 1 | https://www.iowapublicradio.org/news-from-npr/news-from-npr/2023-03-29/2023-whiting-awards-recognize-10-emerging-writers |
New Report from AI for the Planet Alliance, BCG, and BCG GAMMA Reveals a Strong Appetite for Using AI to Tackle Climate Change, but Organizations Face Obstacles to Achieving Impact at Scale
BOSTON, July 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Climate change will have significant impacts on environmental, social, political, and economic systems around the world. Climate change mitigation, along with adaptation and resilience, is therefore crucial. Efforts to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 will be essential, as will efforts to prepare for the consequences of climate change and to minimize the resulting harm. Applying advanced analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) to climate challenges provides a vital way to make meaningful change at this critical moment.
According to a new report from the AI for the Planet Alliance, produced in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and BCG GAMMA, 87% of public- and private-sector leaders who oversee climate and AI topics believe that AI is a valuable asset in the fight against climate change. The report, titled How AI Can Be a Powerful Tool in the Fight Against Climate Change, is being released today.
Based on survey results from over 1,000 executives with decision-making authority on AI or climate-change initiatives, the report finds that roughly 40% of organizations can envision using AI for their own climate efforts (see the exhibit). However, even among these experts, there is widespread agreement that significant barriers to broad adoption remain in place: 78% of respondents cite insufficient AI expertise as an obstacle to using AI in their climate change efforts, 77% cite limited availability of AI solutions as a roadblock, and 67% point to a lack of confidence in AI-related data and analysis.
"AI's unique capacity to gather, complete, and interpret large, complex data sets means it can help stakeholders take a more informed and data-driven approach to combating carbon emissions and addressing climate risks," said Hamid Maher, managing director and partner at BCG and BCG GAMMA, and a coauthor of the report. "However, most existing AI-related climate solutions are scattered, tend to be difficult to access, and lack the resources to scale. These shortcomings need to change."
Uses of AI in Combating Climate Change
Global leaders can use AI to achieve their goals in multiple ways:
- Mitigation. One of the most critical uses of AI is in the measurement, reduction, and removal of emissions and greenhouse gas (GHG) effects. More than 60% of public- and private-sector leaders see the greatest business value for their organizations in the reduction and measurement of emissions. According to BCG, use of AI can drive reductions of 5% to 10% GHG emissions, or 2.6 to 5.3 gigatons of CO2e if applied globally.
- Adaptation and Resilience. Adapting to climate change is a critical undertaking for policy makers and the public, as it boosts resilience to the effects of both long-term climate trends and extreme weather events. AI is well suited to help project climate-related hazards, whether by improving long-term projections of localized events such as sea-level rise or by upgrading early warning systems for extreme phenomena such as hurricanes or droughts.
- Fundamentals. AI can be used to support research and education efforts about climate change, helping stakeholders understand the risks and implications involved and encouraging them to share what they learn. These efforts support and magnify ongoing work toward mitigation and adaptation and resilience.
Need for Meaningful Support
A multitude of critical uses for AI exist in the climate change arena, but any successful AI solution must be user-friendly and readily accessible. It must offer tangible benefits to the user and provide clear recommendations that are easy to act on. AI solutions therefore need much more meaningful support, including access to capital investment, decision makers, and trained practitioners.
"AI has strong promise to help solve the climate crisis, but AI alone is not enough. It depends on the will of decision makers to act and make necessary changes—supported in part by AI and other emerging technologies," said Damien Gromier, founder of AI for the Planet and a coauthor of the report.
AI for the Planet has invited all interested parties to participate in its call for solutions, with proposals in any stage of maturity (if ready for a first pilot, at a minimum) and from any sector, whether private, public, academic, or nonprofit. Support for each solution chosen will be tailored to its needs and may range from customized commercial or technical support to investor relationships and network development.
To learn more about the call for solutions or to apply, please see here.
See detailed survey findings and information about the report here:
https://www.bcg.com/publications/2022/how-ai-can-help-climate-change
Media contact:
BCG: Eric Gregoire, gregoire.eric@bcg.com
AI for the Planet Alliance: Damien Gromier, damien.gromier@startupinside.com
About the AI for the Planet Alliance
AI for the Planet is an alliance created by Startup Inside, with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and BCG GAMMA as knowledge partners, and in collaboration with the AI for Good Foundation; the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); and the UN Office of Information and Communications Technology (OICT).
It is a unique, multidisciplinary, and diverse coalition intended to: 1. Promote innovation in applying advanced analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) to climate challenges, supported by global experts from academia, startups, and the public and private sectors; 2. Act as a global platform for identifying and prioritizing the leading tools and use cases for AI in addressing the climate crisis; 3. Identify and champion the most promising solutions for addressing climate change mitigation and adaptation and resilience, especially in the Global South, offering the solutions visibility and recognition; 4. Ensure impact at scale through concrete and measurable actions, such as building access to funding and to practitioners on the ground; and 5. Facilitate the development of networks between project teams, investors, and experts in the field—including startups, corporations, and the public sector.
About Boston Consulting Group
Boston Consulting Group partners with leaders in business and society to tackle their most important challenges and capture their greatest opportunities. BCG was the pioneer in business strategy when it was founded in 1963. Today, we work closely with clients to embrace a transformational approach aimed at benefiting all stakeholders—empowering organizations to grow, build sustainable competitive advantage, and drive positive societal impact.
Our diverse, global teams bring deep industry and functional expertise and a range of perspectives that question the status quo and spark change. BCG delivers solutions through leading-edge management consulting, technology and design, and corporate and digital ventures. We work in a uniquely collaborative model across the firm and throughout all levels of the client organization, fueled by the goal of helping our clients thrive and enabling them to make the world a better place.
About BCG GAMMA
BCG GAMMA is BCG's global team dedicated to applying artificial intelligence and advanced analytics to critical business problems at leading companies and organizations. The team includes more than 1,500 data scientists and engineers who utilize AI and advanced analytics (including machine learning, deep learning, optimization, simulation, natural language, and image analytics) to build solutions that transform business performance. BCG GAMMA's approach builds value and competitive advantage at the intersection of data science, technology, people, business processes, and ways of working.
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SOURCE Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | https://www.wkyt.com/prnewswire/2022/07/07/87-climate-ai-leaders-believe-that-ai-is-critical-fight-against-climate-change/ | 2022-07-07 13:35:45 | 0 | https://www.wkyt.com/prnewswire/2022/07/07/87-climate-ai-leaders-believe-that-ai-is-critical-fight-against-climate-change/ |
Landlords and Property Managers Can Now Customize Their Prequalification and Rental Application Processes to Find Most Qualified Tenants
NEW YORK, July 11, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- RentRedi has added new customization features to its innovative cloud-based property management software, further easing the rental process for both landlords and renters. Using the new customizable options within the RentRedi platform, landlords and property managers can now build their own pre-qualification and application processes that best serve their individual needs and help them attract and identify more qualified tenants.
The new update provides landlords with a choice to either customize their application process through RentRedi's template builder, or rely on RentRedi's standard application template if they prefer not to apply customizations. Landlords also have the option to either start a template from scratch or start by using RentRedi's default templates. From there, they can add or delete sections and decide whether to mark sections as required.
The customization option invites prospective renters to answer specific questions to collect information that can help landlords make better decisions. Finding tenants that are a better fit for rentals leads to less turnover and evictions. This provides landlords with peace of mind that their investments are protected and will generate steady income.
Landlords can also add supplemental questions that are conditional to answers to prior questions, such as requiring additional details about pets or prior rental history. For example, a landlord can configure their application so that if a renter answers "no" to a question about having pets, they move on to the next question. However, if a renter answers "yes" that they have pets, follow up fields will appear that require further information about the pets.
This update also improves the renter's experience by eliminating the need for them to repeat answers to common questions. Applicant answers to repetitive information gathered from previous questions are stored in the RentRedi system, and the information automatically populates each time renters file applications with other landlords that use RentRedi.
"We aim to make landlords and their tenants' lives easier by giving them everything they need, and nothing they don't," said RentRedi Co-founder and CEO Ryan Barone. "Our custom applications are a result of direct feedback from real estate investors, independent landlords, and tenants."
Demonstrating its leadership in the PropTech market, RentRedi was named an "Established Player" on Capterra's exclusive 2023 Property Management Software Shortlist based on the software's user ratings and popularity. The company also recently won three TITAN Business Awards and was recognized by G2, earning three 2023 High Performer awards and one 2023 Momentum Leader award based on a high volume of rave five-star reviews from its customers.
ABOUT RENTREDI
RentRedi offers a modern, cloud-based property management platform that eases the renting process for landlords and their renters by automating and streamlining processes. For landlords, RentRedi provides all-in-one web and mobile apps to collect rent, list and market vacancies, find and screen tenants, sign leases, and manage maintenance and accounting. For tenants, RentRedi's easy-to-use mobile app allows them to pay rent, set up auto-pay, build their credit by reporting rent payments to TransUnion, prequalify and sign leases, and submit maintenance requests through Latchel.
Founded in 2016, RentRedi is VC-backed and a proven leader in the PropTech market, earning recognition as a Capterra "Established Player," a G2 High Performer and a G2 Momentum Leader based on the software's user ratings and popularity. The company has partnered with other platforms such as Zillow, REI Hub, Realtor.com, Plaid, Stripe, and Sure Insurance to create the best customer experience possible. For more information visit RentRedi.com.
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SOURCE RentRedi | https://www.kait8.com/prnewswire/2023/07/11/rentredi-adds-customization-features-its-property-management-software/ | 2023-07-11 11:15:46 | 0 | https://www.kait8.com/prnewswire/2023/07/11/rentredi-adds-customization-features-its-property-management-software/ |
Empowering the Innovators of Tomorrow, STEM Journey Ignites the Flame of Curiosity and Exploration
LINCOLN, R.I., July 24, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- STEMWerkz, an industry leader in digital STEM learning, today announced the launch of its latest initiative, the STEM Journey. This unique series of programmes is designed to 'See Possibilities, Explore Concepts, Empower Teachers and Students, and Facilitate Learning through Making', thus taking STEM education to new heights.
Seeing Possibilities STEMWerkz paves the way for students to perceive their world differently. By understanding scientific laws and engineering concepts, students are inspired to delve deeper into their learning subjects, opening up myriad possibilities for their future.
Exploring Concepts STEMWerkz programmes serve as a launchpad for students' curiosity. The platform's interactive quests and games challenge them to broaden their understanding of the world, preparing them for their next educational phase.
Learning Through Making The Lab in the Box Explorer and Innovator series, central to STEMWerkz's approach, deliver hands-on learning. These interactive kits engage students actively in their learning journey, providing a deeper comprehension of the topics and stimulating a thirst for knowledge.
Empowering Teachers and Students STEMWerkz bolsters teachers with standardized lesson plans that adhere to the 5 "E" pedagogy — Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate. Furthermore, the platform's differentiated learning algorithms dispense level-appropriate content to students, motivating them to continually improve their academic performance.
In partnership with Fablab, STEMWerkz offers students opportunities to explore concepts through hands-on creation and collaborative learning. Teachers, too, benefit from this partnership, gaining practical skill sets to implement the 'learning through making' methodology.
"STEM education is vital in today's rapidly changing world," said Mark Salata, a spokesperson for STEMWerkz. "Our STEM Journey programme aims to lay a solid foundation for students and empower teachers to deliver effective STEM education. Join us in our journey towards revolutionizing K-12 STEM learning."
About STEMWerkz STEMWerkz is a pioneering STEM digital learning platform that merges knowledge, interactivity, fun, and motivation into one innovative learning experience. With its vast resources, integrated services, and focus on learner autonomy and gamification, STEMWerkz revolutionizes the learning experience, setting the bar for STEM education.
Press Contact info@werkzpublishing.com
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SOURCE Werkz Publishing Inc. | https://www.wistv.com/prnewswire/2023/07/24/stemwerkz-unveils-stem-journey-an-innovative-approach-transform-stem-education/ | 2023-07-24 13:07:48 | 1 | https://www.wistv.com/prnewswire/2023/07/24/stemwerkz-unveils-stem-journey-an-innovative-approach-transform-stem-education/ |
All judges must adhere to ethical standards. Yes, even Supreme Court justices
The U.S. Supreme Court is the pinnacle of the American judicial system, so one might assume that justices on the highest court in the land would be held to the highest possible ethical standards. In fact, they are exempt from a code of conduct that applies to other federal judges, though Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has said that they consult that code in assessing their ethical obligations.
That’s not good enough at a time when the court is facing a crisis of public confidence, with trust falling to a 50-year low even before justices overturned Roe vs. Wade in June. If the justices don’t act expeditiously on their own to establish a robust ethics code and meaningful enforcement measures, Congress will have good reason to step in.
Among other provisions, the Code of Conduct for United States Judges promulgated by the U.S. Judicial Conference says that a judge “should avoid Impropriety and the appearance of Impropriety in all activities.” But this code doesn’t formally apply to Supreme Court justices.
The high court is breaking with tradition by reaching out to decide cases to further its conservative vision even when there is no disagreement among the lower courts.
The justices are covered by statutes mandating financial disclosure and prohibiting them from participating in cases when their “impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” But there is no enforcement mechanism to guarantee that justices follow that requirement (other than the rarely used impeachment process). Nor are justices covered by the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act, a law that allows people to file complaints alleging that a federal judge has engaged in “conduct prejudicial to the effective and expeditious administration of the business of the courts” such as accepting bribes or giving special treatment to friends or relatives.
Some experts in legal ethics believe that Justice Clarence Thomas should recuse himself from cases stemming from the 2020 presidential election because of the involvement of his wife, conservative activist Virginia Thomas, in efforts to overturn the results, including emailing two Arizona lawmakers urging them to choose their own slate of electors. We agree. But while a motion could be filed with the court asking Thomas to recuse from such cases, neither he nor the court would be obligated to respond to it.
In response to the Thomas controversy, several members of Congress — including California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla — wrote a letter last year urging Thomas to recuse himself from cases involving the election and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. They also asked that Roberts commit to creating a binding Code of Conduct for the high court that would include enforcement provisions and a requirement that justices explain their recusal decisions in writing.
It does not matter whether Thomas imposed or denied Sen. Lindsey Graham’s desired stay of a Georgia subpoena; he wasn’t supposed to rule at all.
So far the court hasn’t acted, despite a comment by Justice Elena Kagan in 2019 that Roberts was studying the question. The Washington Post reported earlier this month that the justices have discussed a possible code of conduct but haven’t reached a consensus.
If the court doesn’t act on its own, Congress seems increasingly willing to fill the vacuum. The Supreme Court Ethics Act, a bill introduced earlier this month, would require the U.S. Judicial Conference to adopt a Code of Conduct that would apply to Supreme Court justices and would require the court to appoint an Ethics Investigations Counsel who could probe public complaints about violations of the code. The bill also would obligate justices to explain why they recused from a case or denied a motion that they do so.
A more expansive bill, the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal and Transparency Act, would have chief judges of federal appeals courts investigate complaints about possible misconduct by Supreme Court justices. Like the other bill, it would provide for a Supreme Court code of conduct (in this case adopted by the court itself) and require justices to explain their recusal decisions. But it also would ensure that requests for a justice to recuse would be reviewed by his or her colleagues.
The best outcome would be legislation combining the proposals. An ideal bill would require a code of conduct for the high court, establish the position of Ethics Investigation Counsel and empower other justices to review a colleague’s refusal to recuse.
Fixed terms would lower the political temperature of Supreme Court appointments
Legislation wouldn’t be necessary, of course, if the court took the responsible action on its own to establish a code of ethics with mechanisms to enforce it.
Earlier this month the American Bar Assn. approved a resolution calling on the Supreme Court to adopt an ethics code “comparable to the Code of Conduct for United States Judges.” A report accompanying the resolution said: “The absence of a clearly articulated, binding code of ethics for the justices of the court imperils the legitimacy of the court.”
It’s understandable that Roberts and his colleagues might worry about micromanagement of the court by members of Congress. But he should be more concerned about maintaining the legitimacy of the high court. If the justices continue to dawdle, Congress will have little choice but to act.
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BUCHAREST, Romania, Sept. 30, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- PureSoftware, a leading global software products and digital services company focused on fintech, 5G and digital transformation, announced the opening of its new delivery centre in Bucharest, Romania. This new delivery centre will further expand the reach of PureSoftware's digital solutions and its software products – Arttha Fintech and Arttha5G in the continent.
The opening of the PureSoftware's Bucharest delivery centre will enable the company's vast employee base in the region to be more agile in responding to the evolving needs of its existing and growing client base in Romania, Europe. Located in the heart of Bucharest, the new centre will support the company's extensive clientele. Backed by consistent high double-digit growth in the past 3 years, the company is aggressively expanding to realize its strategic goals aimed towards providing an on-shore and near-shore capability to its customers.
PureSoftware's digital service offerings and award-winning flagship microservices-based software platform, Arttha Fintech, is already enabling businesses across six continents, including Europe, to accelerate digital transformation. In addition, Arttha5G will equip businesses globally to meet the connectivity needs of tomorrow.
Sameer Jain, Chief Business Office, PureSoftware, said, "In line with our aggressive expansion plans, we are excited to announce the opening of our delivery centre in Bucharest, Romania. Romania's Information and Technology sector has seen significant and sustained growth over the years, and it was a logical next move for us to continue bringing top-tier service to our clientele in Europe."
He added, "Our Bucharest deliver centre will allow us to continue supporting the professional growth of our team members in Romania, and collectively go the extra mile to contribute to the success of our clients."
About PureSoftware:
PureSoftware is a global software products and digital services company that has been driving transformation for the world's top organizations across multiple verticals, such as banking and financial services, telecom, healthcare, gaming, and entertainment. Arttha, from PureSoftware, is a globally trusted financial technology platform. It helps businesses embrace digital solutions in the areas of consumer and MSME banking, agency/ branchless banking, digital lending, payments, BNPL and merchant management. Arttha5G is an ORAN-compliant 5G platform that enables companies to deploy digital RF front-end solutions for enhanced connectivity.
For more information, visit https://puresoftware.com/.
Contact: Amitabh Chaudhary, amitabh.chaudhary@puresoftware.com
Image: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1911348/PureSoftware_Sameer_Jain.jpg
Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1450649/PureSoftware_Logo.jpg
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SOURCE PureSoftware | https://www.kswo.com/prnewswire/2022/09/30/puresoftware-expands-its-presence-europe-with-its-new-delivery-centre-bucharest-romania/ | 2022-09-30 12:25:09 | 0 | https://www.kswo.com/prnewswire/2022/09/30/puresoftware-expands-its-presence-europe-with-its-new-delivery-centre-bucharest-romania/ |
Photographer Lori Grinker's relationship with her mom was strained for much of their lives. Lori recalls Audrey Grinker as a woman who had her kids very young and struggled to be a mother.
Their relationship had also been marked by loss; first her parents' divorce when Lori was 16, then the death of her brother from AIDS in 1996.
In 2015, Audrey, who already suffered from Crohn's disease, began to experience mysterious new health problems. She started mixing up her prescription medications, saying hurtful things to Lori, forgetting key details of their lives.
Lori didn't understand what was going on but she began to document her mother's life. It gradually became clear she was suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
In March 2020, Lori traveled to Florida to help Audrey move into an assisted living facility, a plan that was immediately upended with the arrival of nationwide lockdowns. In the next three months, Lori lived with Audrey in her apartment, sleeping in the same bed with her by night and teaching college classes remotely by day.
Lori also became a caregiver for her mom, helping her as the Alzheimer's progressed and she went through treatment for cancer.
While her mother's health spiraled, Lori's relationship with Audrey actually began to mend. Lori began photographing objects around the apartment and that brought back shared memories and triggered deep conversations. Thrown into a new intimacy by the pandemic and caregiving, she and her mom were able to "heal the rifts of a lifetime," she says.
Eventually Lori went home to New York but she continued visiting and photographing her mom until Audrey passed away in March 2021 at age 85.
Lori's project about this time, titled, "All the Little Things," won the Bob and Diane Fund Grant in 2022, which supports visual stories focused on Alzheimer's disease or dementia. Here, Lori reflects on the experience of making the photos and her changing relationship with Audrey.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What was your relationship with your mom like before this project began?
My mother was 18 [when she got married], and she had my brother at 20 or 21 and me at 21 or 22. So she was just totally ill-prepared to be a mother. And she was also still kind of a kid herself and wanted to be taken care of. When my parents divorced when I was 16, it was really hard on her. And so it again became about taking care of her. It was hard for me and I resented it. I even went to a boarding school in junior high school because I didn't really want to live with my mother when my parents split up.
[Then] she moved to Florida when I was 21 to be closer to her sister. We would go visit her and she would be out playing golf instead of picking us up at the airport. So that's how my mom was. It was just all about her.
When my brother was sick [with AIDS], my mother and I switched off every few weeks taking care of him when he was really unable to take care of himself. But she was still very selfish, because everything was on her schedule. And then in 2000, I got cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which is the same thing my mother was diagnosed with in March of 2020. But when I was sick, she wanted to take care of me. So she had that [maternal] instinct.
And how did your relationship start to shift toward reconciliation?
In 2020, when she was going to move into assisted living, I was going to help her, but then COVID started so we couldn't move in on the day we were supposed to. I had to stay there in her one-bedroom apartment and I actually slept in the bed next to her.
There was very little you could do because everything was on lockdown. And we would talk. And we just started getting through stuff. My mother and I were having fights and I started to understand that part of it was dementia and part of it was her stubborn personality, because she didn't like change. But we started talking and I recorded everything.
And we said, I love you for the first time, and she thanked me for helping her, which was a huge thing for her to say thank you. So, you know, we really started to melt away all that stuff from so many years. And it was this kind of beautiful, magical, but very difficult time.
How did you get started taking these pictures of the things in her apartment and why?
We started talking about these objects and things that she had around her apartment and I wanted to photograph them. And I don't know if it was just a response to the confusion and the grief – I guess making art is a natural process, when you're dealing with something. I had this idea to make 20 pictures, and I ended up making over 100.
Her apartment was on the 27th floor, and was bright, but it wasn't really bright enough to photograph inside. I would take the blank newsprint that I was using for [packing Audrey's possessions] and take it outside and tape it down and photograph when the light was always changing throughout the day. It was really great to photograph them and then show them to her and talk about them and it brought back all these memories. And it really helped build our relationship back.
What are some ways that being your mom's caregiver at the end of her life helped heal your relationship?
It was always difficult for her to eat because she was afraid she would have to go to the bathroom [during her chemo appointments]. And she had to eat to take the drugs. I would make these meals for her, just desperate to get her to eat. I photographed each thing, like her favorite type of muffin or her favorite type of ice cream pop. For dinners, I would order the foods she really liked, whether it was Chinese, or chicken wings, or I tried to make this spaghetti dish she used to make for my brother and I when we were kids. It was, again, a bonding thing, and trying to find commonalities.
I slept in the bed with her. Sometimes she would get really sick at night and she wouldn't make it to the bathroom and I would have to clean the bed. She felt so bad, and we would talk about it. And we would lie there in bed and just talk, and talk about things that didn't work in our relationship, and why she never said I love you. And just other things that were much smaller.
If she had just died and we didn't go through this, I would still have all this anger – even though she really wasn't equipped for motherhood and she wasn't a very good mother, and she was a selfish person — I don't have any of that anymore. And, you know, when I saw that pictures of her were going to be getting published, it's hard. It makes me really sad. It makes me miss her. And I don't think there's any experience that's much deeper than helping somebody go through the end of their life except for maybe helping them come into the world, which, you know, she didn't do very well. So, in a way, we were lucky that we had that time.
Why hadn't she said I love you?
I don't know, she just wasn't an expressive person. And, you know, I was a messed up teenager. Part of it was her fault, part of it is just my makeup I guess as a human being. Her father was a tyrant, and my grandmother was very, very quiet. So I think she wasn't given a lot of love. She was afraid and very insecure.
Would you say that by the time she passed, you two were on a good page together and, there's nothing else maybe you wanted to say or to reconcile?.
There wasn't anything else I wanted to say. And some of the stuff that, again, was so hurtful during this period, I realized, was dementia related. Just things she didn't remember or the way she reacted to things. When I was young and I had a diary I would write that I didn't love my mother. And I think that's kind of a horrible thing to have to admit. And we did find some love for each other during this period. And there is a part of my heart that misses her.
So I'd say that we really healed a lot, and we had some laughs there, and we certainly had some tears, and we certainly did have some huge fights during this period. I don't have any anger anymore. I don't really forgive her for some of the things, but I understand it much better.
Your mom, was she perfectly fine with the camera? Did she ever object to it?
It was interesting how patient she was with that. And, I think she liked the attention. I think, again, that also brought us closer. I think she liked that, after all these decades of me going around the world doing stories about people, I was doing a story on her.
A common question with this sort of documentation of a loved one who is ill is whether showing them in their weak moments could be exploitative. How do you feel about that?
I did it with her permission, and she was aware of what I was doing, even with her dementia. ... I think a few photographs are difficult to look at for sure. Others are sad, but some are funny and some show human resilience.
When my brother was diagnosed with AIDS, I read and watched and searched for everything that would help me prepare for what was ahead. I needed to know more. Looking at photographs, reading people's personal stories, and viewing some narrative films helped me in so many ways. When I was diagnosed with cancer, I did the same.
I hope this work will help others prepare for some of the unknowns. From the comments received, I know it has helped some people with their situations. I think projects like this help others know they are not alone. They can help us recognize things we can't quite pinpoint, even place our grief, and in some cases help us find some closure.
A native New Yorker, Lori Grinker is an award-winning photographer, artist, educator and filmmaker. She teaches at The New School University and at New York University's Arthur L Carter Journalism Institute.
This story was edited by Carmel Wroth. Visual editing and production by Max Posner.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.kasu.org/health-science/2023-01-08/as-she-nursed-her-mom-through-cancer-and-dementia-a-tense-relationship-began-to-heal | 2023-01-08 11:45:41 | 0 | https://www.kasu.org/health-science/2023-01-08/as-she-nursed-her-mom-through-cancer-and-dementia-a-tense-relationship-began-to-heal |
I am opposed to the proposed route of "Interstate 11" through Avra Valley. If the soon-to-be-automated semi-trucks need a more efficient way to get from Nogales to California, let us make them a dedicated lane for certain hours of the night and early morning in the already existing Interstate 10 corridor.
Holly Finstrom
West side
Disclaimer: As submitted to the Arizona Daily Star. | https://tucson.com/opinion/letters/local-issues/letter-stop-i-11/article_3af2ddbe-15c2-11ee-b5b9-b32463dbb6dd.html | 2023-06-29 20:29:43 | 0 | https://tucson.com/opinion/letters/local-issues/letter-stop-i-11/article_3af2ddbe-15c2-11ee-b5b9-b32463dbb6dd.html |
WFO HOUSTON/GALVESTON Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Saturday, August 20, 2022
_____
SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
Special Weather Statement
National Weather Service Houston/Galveston TX
241 PM CDT Sat Aug 20 2022
...A strong thunderstorm will impact portions of southeastern Harris
County through 315 PM CDT...
At 240 PM CDT, Doppler radar was tracking a strong thunderstorm over
Magnolia Park, or over Galena Park, moving north at 25 mph.
HAZARD...Winds in excess of 30 mph.
SOURCE...Radar indicated.
IMPACT...Gusty winds could knock down tree limbs and blow around
unsecured objects.
Locations impacted include...
Northwestern Pasadena, South Houston, Humble, Galena Park, Jacinto
City, Midtown Houston, Cloverleaf, Downtown Houston, Northside /
Northline, Second Ward, Greater Heights, Neartown / Montrose, Greater
Eastwood, Near Northside Houston, Greater Fifth Ward, Aldine, Greater
Hobby Area, Greater Third Ward, Fourth Ward and University Place.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
If outdoors, consider seeking shelter inside a building.
LAT...LON 2959 9524 2966 9542 2998 9538 2992 9508
TIME...MOT...LOC 1940Z 190DEG 21KT 2974 9528
MAX HAIL SIZE...0.00 IN
MAX WIND GUST...30 MPH
...FLOOD WARNING NOW IN EFFECT UNTIL LATE TOMORROW MORNING...
* WHAT...Minor flooding is occurring and minor flooding is forecast.
* WHERE...Rio Grande below Presidio 5SE.
* WHEN...Until late tomorrow morning.
* IMPACTS...At 9.0 feet (2.7 meters), the river reaches minor flood
stage, and low lying areas begin to flood.
At 11.0 feet (3.4 meters), minor flooding continues along the
river. Irrigation pumps may need to be removed. No threats to
residences or other structures are known to occur.
At 13.0 feet (4.0 meters), the river reaches moderate flood
stage. Farmland near the river will be inundated. Water may
begin flooding low lying areas of FM 170.
* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...
- At 2:15 PM CDT Saturday the stage was 11.1 feet (3.4 meters).
- Recent Activity...The maximum river stage in the 24 hours
ending at 2:15 PM CDT Saturday was 11.3 feet (3.4 meters).
- Forecast...The river is expected to fall below flood stage
late this evening and continue falling to 3.0 feet (0.9
meters) Thursday morning.
- Flood stage is 9.0 feet (2.7 meters).
- Flood History...This crest compares to a previous crest of
13.0 feet (4.0 meters) on 08/18/2022.
- http://www.weather.gov/safety/flood
Below are the latest river stages and forecasts (feet):
Fld Observed Sat Sun Sun Sun
Location Stg Stg Day/Time 7pm 1am 7am 1pm
Rio Grande
Presidio 5SE 9.0 11.1 Sat 2pm 10.2 6.9 5.0 3.8
Below are the latest river stages and forecasts (meters):
Presidio 5SE 2.7 3.4 Sat 2pm 3.1 2.1 1.5 1.2
* WHERE...Rio Grande at Presidio International Bridge.
* IMPACTS...At 12.0 feet (3.7 meters), the river reaches bankfull,
after which the flood plain between the levees begins to flood.
No damage is expected.
At 15.5 feet (4.7 meters), the river reaches minor flood stage,
and flooding between the levees occurs. No damage to structures
is expected.
At 20.0 feet (6.1 meters), the river reaches moderate flood stage,
inundating the plain between the levees. Erosion of the levees is
likely. Water may seep through the levees, flooding adjacent
farmland.
- At 2:15 PM CDT Saturday the stage was 18.4 feet (5.6 meters).
ending at 2:15 PM CDT Saturday was 19.1 feet (5.8 meters).
late this evening and continue falling to 6.4 feet (2.0
- Flood stage is 15.5 feet (4.7 meters).
18.2 feet (5.5 meters) on 08/18/2022.
Fld Observed Sat Sun Sun Sun
Location Stg Stg Day/Time 7pm 1am 7am 1pm
Presidio Internation 15.5 18.4 Sat 2pm 17.4 13.9 10.7 8.6
Presidio Internation 4.7 5.6 Sat 2pm 5.3 4.2 3.3 2.6
...FLOOD WARNING IN EFFECT FROM LATE TONIGHT TO EARLY MONDAY
MORNING...
* WHAT...Minor flooding is forecast.
* WHERE...Rio Grande at Johnson Ranch.
* WHEN...From late tonight to early Monday morning.
minor lowland flooding occurs, and no significant damage is
expected.
At 15.0 feet (4.6 meters), flood stage is reached. Moderate
lowland flooding begins. Roads that lead to Cottonwood Campground
and River Road may flood. Stages are practically synonymous with
the gage at Cottonwood Campground at Castolon (CSTT2), and
therefore represent the reach from Santa Elena Canyon through
Cottonwood Campground, where damage may occur. Cattle also graze
in the lowlands, and may be threatened.
- At 2:15 PM CDT Saturday the stage was 9.7 feet (3.0 meters).
- Forecast...The river is expected to rise above flood stage
late tonight to a crest of 16.6 feet (5.1 meters) early
tomorrow afternoon. It will then fall below flood stage
tomorrow afternoon.
- Flood stage is 15.0 feet (4.6 meters).
- Flood History...No available flood history.
Fld Observed Sat Sun Sun Sun
Location Stg Stg Day/Time 7pm 1am 7am 1pm
Johnson Ranch 15.0 9.7 Sat 2pm 10.4 13.2 15.5 16.6
Johnson Ranch 4.6 3.0 Sat 2pm 3.2 4.0 4.7 5.1
_____
Copyright 2022 AccuWeather | https://www.ourmidland.com/weather/article/TX-WFO-HOUSTON-GALVESTON-Warnings-Watches-and-17386974.php | 2022-08-20 21:07:47 | 0 | https://www.ourmidland.com/weather/article/TX-WFO-HOUSTON-GALVESTON-Warnings-Watches-and-17386974.php |
NEWTOWN, Pa., April 6, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- EPAM Systems, Inc. (NYSE: EPAM) will host a conference call at 8:00 a.m. ET, on Friday, May 5, 2023, to discuss its first quarter 2023 financial results. A news release containing these results will be issued before the call.
The conference call will be available live on the EPAM website at https://investors.epam.com.
Please visit the website at least 15 minutes prior to the call to register for the event. For those who will not be able to attend the live webcast, a replay will be available in the Investor Relations section of the website.
About EPAM Systems
Since 1993, EPAM Systems, Inc. (NYSE: EPAM) has leveraged its advanced software engineering heritage to become the foremost global digital transformation services provider – leading the industry in digital and physical product development and digital platform engineering services. Through its innovative strategy; integrated advisory, consulting, and design capabilities; and unique 'Engineering DNA,' EPAM's globally deployed hybrid teams help make the future real for clients and communities around the world by powering better enterprise, education and health platforms that connect people, optimize experiences, and improve people's lives. In 2021, EPAM was added to the S&P 500 and included among the list of Forbes Global 2000 companies.
Selected by Newsweek as a 2021 and 2022 Most Loved Workplace, EPAM's global multi-disciplinary teams serve customers in more than 50 countries across six continents. As a recognized leader, EPAM is listed among the top 15 companies in Information Technology Services on the Fortune 1000 and ranked four times as the top IT services company on Fortune's 100 Fastest Growing Companies list. EPAM is also listed among Ad Age's top 25 World's Largest Agency Companies for three consecutive years, and Consulting Magazine named EPAM Continuum a top 20 Fastest Growing Firm.
Learn more at www.epam.com and follow EPAM on Twitter and LinkedIn.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This press release includes estimates and statements which may constitute forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, the accuracy of which are necessarily subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions as to future events that may not prove to be accurate. Our estimates and forward-looking statements are mainly based on our current expectations and estimates of future events and trends, which affect or may affect our business and operations. These statements may include words such as "may," "will," "should," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "estimate" or similar expressions. Those future events and trends may relate to, among other things, developments relating to the war in Ukraine, political and civil unrest or military action in the geographies where we conduct business and operate, developments relating to COVID-19, and the effect that they may have on our revenues, operations, access to capital, profitability and customer demand. Other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied include general economic conditions, the risk factors discussed in the Company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and the factors discussed in the Company's Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, particularly under the headings "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" and "Risk Factors" and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Although we believe that these estimates and forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, they are subject to several risks and uncertainties and are made based on information currently available to us. EPAM undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities law.
Mailing List
To opt out from the automatic mailing list for EPAM news please submit your request to unsubscribe at https://investors.epam.com/unsubscribe.
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SOURCE EPAM Systems, Inc. | https://www.kait8.com/prnewswire/2023/04/06/epam-announces-date-first-quarter-2023-earnings-release-conference-call/ | 2023-04-06 21:33:46 | 0 | https://www.kait8.com/prnewswire/2023/04/06/epam-announces-date-first-quarter-2023-earnings-release-conference-call/ |
US opens investigation into Tesla seat belts coming loose
DETROIT (AP) — U.S. highway safety regulators have opened yet another investigation into problems with Teslas, this time tied to complaints that the seat belts may not hold people in a crash.
The investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration covers an estimated 50,000 Model X SUVs from the 2022 and 2023 model years.
The agency says it has two complaints from Tesla owners that the front belts weren’t sufficiently connected at the factory.
Documents posted by the agency Tuesday say the belt linkage and pretensioners, which tighten the belts before a crash, are anchored to the seat frames.
Both complaints allege that the linkage and pretensioner separated from the frames when the vehicles were driving and force was exerted. Neither incident involved a crash.
The agency says it’s opening the probe to look into Tesla’s manufacturing processes, how often the problem happens and how widespread it is. Investigations can lead to recalls.
A message was left early Tuesday seeking comment from Tesla.
NHTSA also is investigating complaints about problems with Teslas that date to 2020. The probes include Teslas with partially automated driving systems that can brake for no reason or can run into emergency vehicles parked on highways.
There also are investigations into complaints that some steering wheels can suddenly disconnect and that suspension parts can fail.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wflx.com/2023/03/28/us-opens-investigation-into-tesla-seat-belts-coming-loose/ | 2023-03-28 11:35:54 | 0 | https://www.wflx.com/2023/03/28/us-opens-investigation-into-tesla-seat-belts-coming-loose/ |
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- Infamous S.F. coyote was shot dead. Could this lead to more conflict?A year after a USDA sharpshooter executed Carl the coyote, San Francisco park officials warn of a possible population increase — and urge residents not to feed the feral canines.By Rachel Swan | https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/article/Denver-Broncos-17488374.php | 2022-10-05 15:37:21 | 1 | https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/article/Denver-Broncos-17488374.php |
MSP Airport's mock airplane cabin aims to help build travelers' confidence
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Minnesota is now home to a one-of-a-kind facility designed to help people prepare for air travel and ease their anxieties in a realistic setting.
The Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Monday debuted the Travel Confidently MSP Education Center, which is a mock aircraft cabin complete with a 33-foot-long cabin with 42 seats.
It is designed to help people with sensory, physical or cognitive disabilities practice boarding and travel procedures without the pressure of an actual travel day. Those with a fear of flying and service dogs can also practice the pre-flight experience, while first responders and airline support crews can use it to train.
"This unique facility will be a hallmark for MSP’s programs that support equitable and inclusive travel," Brian Ryks, executive director and CEO of the Metropolitan Airports Commission, which runs MSP Airport, said in a news release. "Thanks to a generous donation from Delta Air Lines, we can provide a life-like training environment without the use of an actual aircraft, which will build confidence in air travel for more people in our community."
Delta Air Lines donated the mock aircraft cabin. It was previously used to train airline in-flight teams in Atlanta but now calls Gate C16 at MSP’s Terminal One home.
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This is part of the Navigating MSP program. Those interested in practicing the pre-flight experience can make reservations on the program’s website here. The pre-flight experience covers the TSA screening process, getting around the terminal, boarding an airplane, and preparing for takeoff. | https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/msp-airport-mock-airplane-cabin-travel-anxiety | 2022-05-26 00:29:27 | 0 | https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/msp-airport-mock-airplane-cabin-travel-anxiety |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI searched the University of Delaware in recent weeks for classified documents as part of its investigation into the potential mishandling of sensitive government records by President Joe Biden.
The search, first reported by CNN, was confirmed to The Associated Press by a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The person would not say whether anything was found.
A Justice Department special counsel is investigating how classified documents from Biden’s time as vice president and senator came to wind up in his home and former office — and whether any mishandling involved criminal intent or was unintentional. Biden’s personal lawyers disclosed in January that a small batch of documents with classified markings had been found weeks earlier in his former Washington office, and they have since allowed FBI searches of multiple properties.
The university is Biden’s alma mater. In 2011, Biden donated his records from his 36 years serving in the U.S. Senate to the school. The documents arrived June 6, 2012, according to the university, which released photos of the numbered boxes being unloaded at the university alongside blue and gold balloons.
Under the terms of Biden’s gift, the records are to remain sealed until two years after he retires from public life.
Biden’s Senate records would not be covered by the presidential records act, though prohibitions on mishandling classified information would still apply.
The White House referred questions to the Justice Department, which declined to comment. The University of Delaware also referred questions to the Justice Department.
The university is the fourth known entity to be searched by the FBI following inspections of his former office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, where records with classified markings were initially found in a locked closet by Biden’s personal lawyers in November, and more recently of his Delaware homes in Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach.
Those searches were all done voluntarily and with the consent of Biden’s legal team.
The FBI took six items that contained documents with classified markings during its January search of the Wilmington home, Biden’s personal lawyer has said. Agents did not find classified documents at the Rehoboth Beach property but did take some handwritten notes and other materials relating to Biden’s time as vice president for review.
The Justice Department is separately investigating the retention by former President Donald Trump of roughly 300 documents marked as classified at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago. The FBI served a search warrant at the home last August after months of resistance by Trump and his representatives to returning the documents to the government.
The FBI also searched the Indiana home of former Vice President Mike Pence last week after his lawyers came forward to say they had found a small number of documents with classified markings. A Pence adviser said one additional document with classified markings was found during that search.
_____
Associated Press writers Colleen Long and Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report. | https://www.wane.com/news/politics/ap-politics/ap-ap-source-fbi-searched-u-of-delaware-in-biden-docs-probe/ | 2023-02-16 20:47:28 | 0 | https://www.wane.com/news/politics/ap-politics/ap-ap-source-fbi-searched-u-of-delaware-in-biden-docs-probe/ |
DETROIT (AP) — Stellantis and the U.S. government are warning owners of 276,000 older vehicles to stop driving them after Takata air bags apparently exploded in three more vehicles, killing the drivers.
The company, formerly Fiat Chrysler, is telling people to stop driving Dodge Magnum wagons, Dodge Challenger and Charger muscle cars and Chrysler 300 sedans from the 2005 through 2010 model years.
Stellantis says it confirmed the driver's air bag inflators blew apart in two cases, killing two drivers. The company suspects an inflator rupture in another case that also killed a driver. All three deaths were in warm-weather U.S. states and happened in the past seven months in 2010 model year vehicles, the company said.
The fatalities bring the death toll from exploding Takata air bags to at least 32 worldwide, including 23 in the United States.
Takata used ammonium nitrate to create a small explosion to inflate air bags in a crash. But the chemical can become more volatile over time when exposed to moisture in the air and repeated high temperatures. The explosion can blow apart a metal canister and hurl shrapnel into the passenger compartment.
Most of the deaths and about 400 injuries have happened in U.S. states with warmer weather.
The Stellantis vehicles under the “Do Not Drive” warning were all recalled in 2015, and free repairs were available since then. Stellantis said it made numerous attempts to reach owners but the repairs were not made. The recalls affect vehicles in which the air bag inflators have not been replaced as part of the recall.
“Left unrepaired, recalled Takata air bags are increasingly dangerous as the risk of an explosion rises as vehicles age,” Ann Carlson, acting administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said in a statement. “Every day that passes when you don't get a recalled air bag replaced puts you and your family at greater risk of injury or death.”
On Thursday, NHTSA urged all owners to check to see if their vehicles have an unrepaired Takata air bag recall. Drivers can go to https://www.nhtsa.gov/recalls and key in their 17-digit vehicle identification number to see if they have any open recalls.
The agency said even minor crashes can cause air bags to inflate with the potential for explosions that can kill or hurt people.
Stellantis said any of its customers who aren’t sure if their vehicles have been recalled can call (833) 585-0144.
The company said it has made 210 million attempts to reach owners with recalled Takata air bag inflators, including letters, courier deliveries, emails, text messages, phone calls and home visits. The company has recalled nearly 2 million vehicles with Takata inflators.
In the three recent cases in which people were killed, Stellantis said it made 153 attempts to reach owners.
The company "extends its sympathies to the families and friends of those affected by these incidents,” Stellantis' statement said.
Potential for the dangerous malfunction led to the largest series of auto recalls in U.S. history, with at least 67 million Takata inflators recalled. The U.S. government says that millions have not been repaired. About 100 million inflators have been recalled worldwide. The exploding air bags sent Takata Corp. of Japan into bankruptcy.
Most of the deaths have been in the U.S., but they also have occurred in Australia and Malaysia. | https://www.wtvr.com/news/national/exploding-airbags-warning-issued-for-older-model-dodge-and-chrysler-vehicles | 2022-11-03 15:53:19 | 1 | https://www.wtvr.com/news/national/exploding-airbags-warning-issued-for-older-model-dodge-and-chrysler-vehicles |
Shut that off! Why Amber Alerts jolt us awake in NJ
Here are New Jersey's top stories on this morning's First News with Eric Scott.
☃ Say it ain't snow
Chief Meteorologist Dan Zarrow says colder weather arrives today, and could bring snow by the end of the weekend.
Money, money, money!
Tonight's Mega Millions Lottery jackpot heads toward a billion dollars. If you win, do you have to tell anybody?
Death Threats
The owners of a cow that captured the hearts of South Jersey residents has been euthanized. The owners says he is getting death threats.
What is that noise?
If you were jolted awake by an Amber Alert this week, you were not alone. What sets is off? We can explain.
Here we go again
State health officials are warning of a new COVID variant that seems to evade vaccine protections.
I'd like a 600% raise
A New Jersey mayor is in line for a big payday, and local residents are not happy.
Eric Scott is the senior political director and anchor for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach him at eric.scott@townsquaremedia.com
Click here to contact an editor about feedback or a correction for this story. | https://nj1015.com/shut-that-off-why-amber-alerts-jolt-us-awake-in-nj/ | 2023-01-06 11:00:07 | 0 | https://nj1015.com/shut-that-off-why-amber-alerts-jolt-us-awake-in-nj/ |
Fox News host Sean Hannity says Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg is relying on "unreliable" and "dishonest" star witness with conflicting statements in his case against former President Donald Trump as a possible indictment looms.
SEAN HANNITY: You're running for office to be Manhattan District D.A. – getting Donald Trump, that's your top issue? Over a nondisclosure agreement from seven years ago. Not rape, not murder, not theft. Nope. Now, is this a system of justice that we really want in this country? Now, sadly, the legal system we now know has been weaponized. We have now criminalized political differences.
Somebody should tell Alvin Bragg that this is called persecution, not prosecution. Alvin Bragg has given violent felons the best deals imaginable. In fact, Senator Rand Paul is now calling for Bragg to be locked up, quote, ‘A Trump indictment would be a disgusting abuse of power and the D.A. should be put in jail.’
TRUMP PROBE: LAW ENFORCEMENT DON'T EXPECT ARRAIGNMENT UNTIL NEXT WEEK, VIRTUAL OPTION NOT CONSIDERED
Now, think about this. Bragg is dedicating valuable time, limited time resources, millions of taxpayer dollars to prosecute a cooked up misdemeanor case involving Donald Trump, all while giving actual violent criminals a free pass. In his very first memo, he instructed his staff to seek misdemeanor charges for perpetrators accused of armed robbery, so long as no one was seriously injured. But it's not just armed robbery under Bragg, 52% of all felony cases get reduced to misdemeanors. And of the felony cases that he actually tries, he's lost 49% of them. That is an atrocious record by any account.
CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP | https://www.foxbangor.com/news/national/sean-hannity-somebody-should-tell-alvin-bragg-that-this-is-called-persecution-not-prosecution/article_937af12b-b3ba-5698-877a-cb799a1ae3f1.html | 2023-03-22 06:23:29 | 0 | https://www.foxbangor.com/news/national/sean-hannity-somebody-should-tell-alvin-bragg-that-this-is-called-persecution-not-prosecution/article_937af12b-b3ba-5698-877a-cb799a1ae3f1.html |
JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Jan. 17, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Fortegra Group, Inc ("Fortegra"), a global specialty insurer and subsidiary of Tiptree Inc. (NASDAQ: TIPT) today announced the launch of a Catalytic Converter Theft Deterrent Product under the company's Smart AutoCare brand. This limited warranty, which is designed to protect U.S. car owners against the rising threat of catalytic converter thefts, is already available at dozens of auto dealers across the country, with new dealers joining daily.
"When a thief sees your vehicle, they see an opportunity to wrongfully acquire valuable parts and pieces. It's a reality far too many people experience every day," said Peter Masi, Smart AutoCare Founder and CEO. "This new limited warranty gives vehicle owners a valuable tool to level the playing field and protect their investment."
Catalytic converter thefts have skyrocketed across the nation. According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, there were more than 52,000 converter thefts with a claim in 2021 compared to roughly 1,300 in 2018. New converters range from around $1,000 to $4,000 and are not often covered by traditional insurance policies.
Along with the heightened protection and economic peace of mind, purchasers of this limited warranty will benefit from a theft deterrent system. This unique, tamperproof, and permanent seal makes the converter identifiable to law enforcement and reputable scrap dealers via a registration number.
About Smart AutoCare
Smart AutoCare is the brand name for the vehicle service contract operations and the warranty, F&I and reinsurance solutions of the subsidiaries of Fortegra Warranty Holdings, LLC, a Fortegra company. Smart AutoCare's best-in-class customer service, professional adjudication, comprehensive product offering, and proprietary technology solution make it one of the most respected F&I brands. Learn more here: https://www.smartautocare.com/
About Fortegra
For more than 40 years, Fortegra and its subsidiaries have underwritten risk management solutions that help people and businesses succeed in the face of uncertainty. As a global specialty insurer, we offer a diverse set of admitted and surplus insurance products and warranty solutions. Fortegra's A.M. Best Financial Strength Rating of A- (Excellent) is a result of our strict underwriting standards, consistent profitability, and high cash flows. For more information, please visit: https://www.fortegra.com.
Contact:
Holly Bohn Pittman
hbohn@fortegra.com
View original content:
SOURCE Fortegra | https://www.cleveland19.com/prnewswire/2023/01/17/fortegra-announces-launch-smart-autocare-branded-catalytic-converter-limited-warranty/ | 2023-01-17 15:50:58 | 1 | https://www.cleveland19.com/prnewswire/2023/01/17/fortegra-announces-launch-smart-autocare-branded-catalytic-converter-limited-warranty/ |
BASEBALL
Noon;Spring: Phillies vs. Yankees;MLB
6 p.m.;World Classic: Puerto Rico vs. Dominican Republic;FS1
8 p.m.;Spring: Cubs vs. Reds;Marquee
9 p.m.;World Classic: U.S. vs. Colombia;FS1
MEN'S BASKETBALL
6:40 p.m., NCAA Tournament: Fairleigh Dickinson vs. Texas Southern, First-Four, Dayton, Ohio;TRUTV
7 p.m., NIT Tournament: UCF at Florida, First Round;ESPN2
9 p.m., NIT Tournament: Virginia Tech at Cincinnati, First Round;ESPN2
9:10 p.m., NCAA Tournament: Nevada vs. Arizona St., First-Four, Dayton, Ohio;TRUTV
11 p.m., NIT Tournament: UC Irvine at Oregon, First Round;ESPN2
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
7 p.m., NCAA Tournament: Mississippi St. vs. Illinois, First-Four, South Bend, Ind.;ESPNU
9 p.m., NCAA Tournament: Sacred Heart vs. Southern U., First-Four, Stanford, Calif.;ESPNU
NBA
6:30 p.m.;76ers at Cavaliers;ESPN
6:30 p.m.;Grizzlies at Heat;BSMW
7 p.m.;Kings at Bulls;NBCSCH
8 p.m.;NCAA Tournament;TruTV
9 p.m.;Warriors at Clippers;ESPN
HOCKEY
6 p.m.;Avalanche at Maple Leafs;TNT
8:30 p.m.;Wild at Blues;TNT
SOCCER
2:30 p.m.;Brentford at Southampton;USA | https://pantagraph.com/on-tv-today-3-15-23-update-ncaa-games/article_e08ed988-bdf9-11ed-88a5-b78a3732afec.html | 2023-03-14 23:28:19 | 0 | https://pantagraph.com/on-tv-today-3-15-23-update-ncaa-games/article_e08ed988-bdf9-11ed-88a5-b78a3732afec.html |
NEW YORK (AP) — The Latest on the Tony Awards (all times local):
6:30 p.m.
It has taken playwright Michael R. Jackson almost two decades to take his musical “A Strange Loop” to Broadway and he says the recognition is a sort of validation.
“It feels wonderful. It feels like a real validation of all the time, the blood, the sweat, the tears we put into this piece. I’ve worked on this musical for almost 20 years, and so to be here after having stuck to my guns feels like such a validation,” Jackson said on the Tony red carpet.
In the musical, we meet the character Usher, an unhappy playwright slumming as an usher at “The Lion King.” Usher is haunted by a Greek chorus of voices — his thoughts as well as homophobic family members — who pummel, undercut and berate him. Jackson said there's a little Usher in him.
“Usher is a character that I’ve certainly created to sort of deal with some things that I was thinking about. But he’s grown so far beyond that and I’ve grown so far beyond that,” he said. “Watching every night feels really exciting because I’m watching a piece of art that I started from like a really formative time, sort of really become something bigger than any sort of personal experience that I was having.”
___
MORE ON THE TONYS
— On Broadway, more visibility, yes, but also an unseen threat
— Pioneering Camille A. Brown creates a Broadway rainbow
— Tracy Letts on writing his play and then having to act in it
___
9 a.m.
Darren Criss’ favorite night of the year has arrived. It’s the Tony Awards. “I’ll never shut up about the Tonys. I love the Tonys,” he says.
Criss will not only be watching the Tonys on Sunday, he’ll also be working. He’s co-host with Julianne Hough of a one-hour pre-Tony celebration at Radio City Music Hall, and he’s even written an original song about the show that he’ll perform, revealing “a bit of my nerdy proclivities.”
Criss and Hough will be handing out creative arts Tonys on Paramount+ and then pass hosting duties to Ariana DeBose for the main three-hour telecast on CBS from the same stage, live coast to coast for the first time. | https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Tonys-Latest-Michael-R-Jackson-reflects-on-his-17236909.php | 2022-06-12 23:01:00 | 1 | https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Tonys-Latest-Michael-R-Jackson-reflects-on-his-17236909.php |
HANGZHOU, China, May 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Youdao, Inc. ("Youdao" or the "Company") (NYSE: DAO), a leading technology-focused intelligent learning company in China, today announced its unaudited financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2022.
First Quarter 2022 Financial Highlights[1]
- Total net revenues were RMB1.2 billion (US$189.4 million), representing a 26.6% increase from the same period in 2021.
- Net revenues from learning services were RMB826.0 million (US$130.3 million), representing a 36.1% increase from the same period in 2021.
- Net revenues from smart devices were RMB253.2 million (US$39.9 million), representing a 25.4% increase from the same period in 2021.
- Net revenues from online marketing services were RMB121.4 million (US$19.1 million), representing a 12.7% decrease from the same period in 2021. - Gross margin was 53.5%, compared to 52.4% for the same period in 2021.
"We are pleased to report our solid performance in the first quarter of 2022 following the cessation of our K-9 academic AST business at the end of December 2021, with record-breaking revenues and overall gross margin, as well as a significant improvement in operating loss," said Dr. Feng Zhou, Chief Executive Officer and a Director of Youdao. "Our transition is smooth. We were able to grow our smart devices and STEAM courses as originally planned. Our net revenue was RMB1.2 billion, up 26.6% year-over-year and 14.5% quarter-over-quarter, achieving new record-high revenue. We also achieved new record in quarterly gross margin with an overall gross margin of 53.5% in this quarter. Furthermore, we narrowed operating loss by 49.6% quarter-over-quarter to RMB125.1 million, from a loss of RMB248.3 million in Q4 2021, and by 41.6% year-over-year from a loss of RMB214.3 million in Q1 2021. These results amid a challenging macro environment clearly reflect our strengthening fundamentals as well as the effectiveness of our strategy."
"Looking ahead, we will continue to implement our strategy of four growth pillars, i.e. smart devices, STEAM courses, vocational education and education digitization. The first two, smart devices and STEAM courses, are at a larger scale and already contribute a significant portion of our business. The latter two are making good progress in terms of product development and business model validation. We expect to see challenges, including this new wave of COVID pandemic in China. We will endeavor to overcome them through our diversity of businesses, large user bases and deep technical roots for innovation," Dr. Zhou concluded.
First Quarter of 2022 Financial Results
Net Revenues
Net revenues for the first quarter of 2022 were RMB1.2 billion (US$189.4 million), representing a 26.6% increase from RMB948.0 million for the same period of 2021.
Net revenues from learning services were RMB826.0 million (US$130.3 million) for the first quarter of 2022, representing a 36.1% increase from RMB607.0 million for the same period of 2021. The year-over-year growth from learning services was driven by the growth in active users compared with the same period of 2021.
Net revenues from smart devices were RMB253.2 million (US$39.9 million) for the first quarter of 2022, representing a 25.4% increase from RMB201.9 million for the same period of 2021, primarily driven by the increase in sales volume of Youdao Dictionary Pen in the first quarter of 2022.
Net revenues from online marketing services were RMB121.4 million (US$19.1 million) for the first quarter of 2022, representing a 12.7% decrease from RMB139.1 million for the same period of 2021. The decrease was mainly attributable to the curtailed advertising budget of partial advertising customers.
Gross Profit and Gross Margin
Gross profit for the first quarter of 2022 was RMB641.8 million (US$101.2 million), representing a 29.3% increase from RMB496.4 million for the same period of 2021. Gross margin increased to 53.5% for the first quarter of 2022 from 52.4% for the same period of 2021.
Gross margin for learning services increased to 63.9% for the first quarter of 2022 from 63.4% for the same period of 2021.
Gross margin for smart devices decreased to 33.7% for the first quarter of 2022 from 44.1% for the same period of 2021. The decrease was due to more sales contributed from offline distributors, which had lower gross margin.
Gross margin for online marketing services was 23.7% for the first quarter of 2022, compared with 16.4% for the same period of 2021. The increase was mainly attributable to the improved distribution of third parties' internet properties, which improved gross margin over the same period of 2021.
Operating Expenses
Total operating expenses for the first quarter of 2022 were RMB766.9 million (US$121.0 million), compared with RMB710.8 million for the same period of last year.
Sales and marketing expenses for the first quarter of 2022 were RMB506.4 million (US$79.9 million), representing a decrease of 7.7% from RMB548.7 million for the same period of 2021. This decrease was due to the reduction in marketing expenditures in tutoring services in the first quarter of 2022 due to the changing regulatory environment, and partially offset by the increase in marketing expenditures in smart devices.
Research and development expenses for the first quarter of 2022 were RMB203.0 million (US$32.0 million), representing an increase of 59.0% from RMB127.7 million for the same period of 2021. The increase was primarily due to higher payroll-related expenses associated with a larger number of development and technology professionals in smart devices and education digitalization solutions sectors.
General and administrative expenses for the first quarter of 2022 were RMB57.6 million (US$9.1 million), representing an increase of 67.6% from RMB34.3 million for the same period of 2021. The increase was mainly attributable to an increase in employee headcount and related expenses in the first quarter of 2022.
Loss from Operations
Loss from operations for the first quarter of 2022 was RMB125.1 million (US$19.7 million), compared with RMB214.3 million for the same period in 2021. The margin of loss from operations was 10.4%, compared with 22.6% for the same period of last year.
Net Loss from Continuing Operations Attributable to Youdao's Ordinary Shareholders
Net loss from continuing operations attributable to Youdao's ordinary shareholders for the first quarter of 2022 was RMB95.4 million (US$15.1 million), compared with RMB219.3 million for the same period of last year. Non-GAAP net loss from continuing operations attributable to Youdao's ordinary shareholders for the first quarter of 2022 was RMB70.9 million (US$11.2 million), compared with RMB204.8 million for the same period of last year.
Basic and diluted net loss per American depositary shares ("ADSs") of the Company from continuing operations attributable to ordinary shareholders for the first quarter of 2022 was RMB0.77 (US$0.12), compared with RMB1.85 for the same period of 2021. Non-GAAP basic and diluted net loss from continuing operations per ADS attributable to ordinary shareholders was RMB0.57 (US$0.09), compared with RMB1.73 for the same period of 2021.
Balance Sheet
As of March 31, 2022, Youdao's cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, time deposits and short-term investments totaled RMB1.2 billion (US$183.0 million), compared with RMB1.6 billion as of December 31, 2021. For the first quarter of 2022, net cash used in continuing operating activities was RMB425.6 million (US$67.1 million), capital expenditures totaled RMB6.5 million (US$1.0 million), and depreciation and amortization expenses amounted to RMB8.2 million (US$1.3 million). Youdao's ability to continue as a going concern is dependent on management's ability to implement an effective business plan in future periods in light of the changing regulatory environment, generate operating cash flows and continue to be able to obtain outside sources of financing as necessary for Youdao's future development. As of the date of this release, Youdao has received various financial support from the NetEase Group, including, among others, RMB878.0 million short-term loans and US$70.0 million long-term loans with maturity dated March 31, 2024 drawn down under the US$300.0 million revolving loan facility. In support of Youdao's future business, NetEase Group has agreed to provide financial support for Youdao's continuing operations.
As of March 31, 2022, the Company's contract liabilities, which mainly consisted of deferred revenues generated from Youdao's learning services, were RMB729.5 million (US$115.1 million), compared with RMB1.1 billion as of December 31, 2021.
Conference Call
Youdao's management team will host a teleconference call with simultaneous webcast at 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, May 24, 2022 (Beijing/Hong Kong Time: 7:00 p.m., Tuesday, May 24, 2022). Youdao's management will be on the call to discuss the financial results and answer questions.
Dial-in details for the earnings conference call are as follows:
A live and archived webcast of the conference call will be available on the Company's investor relations website at http://ir.youdao.com.
A replay of the conference call will be accessible by phone one hour after the conclusion of the live call at the following numbers, until May 31, 2022:
About Youdao, Inc.
Youdao, Inc. (NYSE: DAO) is a leading technology-focused intelligent learning company in China dedicated to developing and using technologies to provide learning content, applications and solutions to users of all ages. Building on the popularity of its online knowledge tools such as Youdao Dictionary and Youdao Translation, Youdao now offers smart devices, STEAM courses, adult and vocational courses, and education digitalization solutions. In addition, Youdao has developed a variety of interactive learning apps. Youdao was founded in 2006 as part of NetEase, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTES; HKEX: 9999), a leading internet technology company in China.
For more information, please visit: http://ir.youdao.com.
Non-GAAP Measures
Youdao considers and uses non-GAAP financial measures, such as non-GAAP net income/(loss) from continuing operations attributable to the Company's ordinary shareholders and non-GAAP basic and diluted income/(loss) from continuing operations per ADS, as supplemental metrics in reviewing and assessing its operating performance and formulating its business plan. The presentation of non-GAAP financial measures is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America ("U.S. GAAP").
Youdao defines non-GAAP net income/(loss) from continuing operations attributable to the Company's ordinary shareholders as net income/(loss) from continuing operations attributable to the Company's ordinary shareholders excluding share-based compensation expenses, amortization of intangible assets from business combination, impairment of intangible assets from business combination and impairment of long-term investments, adjusted for GAAP to non-GAAP by reconciling items for the income/(loss) attributable to noncontrolling interests. Non-GAAP net income/(loss) from continuing operations attributable to the Company's shareholders enables Youdao's management to assess its operating results without considering the impact of these items, which are non-cash charges in nature. Youdao believes that these non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information to investors in understanding and evaluating the Company's current operating performance and prospects in the same manner as management does, if they so choose.
Non-GAAP financial measures are not defined under U.S. GAAP and are not presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Non-GAAP financial measures have limitations as analytical tools, which possibly does not reflect all items of expense that affect our operations. In addition, the non-GAAP financial measures Youdao uses may differ from the non-GAAP measures uses by other companies, including peer companies, and therefore their comparability may be limited.
The presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures is not intended to be considered in isolation from or as a substitute for the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP. For more information on these non-GAAP financial measures, please see the table captioned "Unaudited Reconciliation of GAAP and non-GAAP Results" set forth at the end of this release.
The accompanying tables have more details on the reconciliations between our GAAP financial measures that are most directly comparable to non-GAAP financial measures. Youdao encourages you to review its financial information in its entirety and not rely on a single financial measure.
Exchange Rate Information
This announcement contains translations of certain RMB amounts into U.S. dollars ("US$") at specified rates solely for the convenience of the reader. Unless otherwise stated, all translations from RMB to US$ were made at the rate of RMB6.3393 to US$1.00, the exchange rate on March 31, 2022 set forth in the H.10 statistical release of the Federal Reserve Board. The Company makes no representation that the RMB or US$ amounts referred could be converted into US$ or RMB, as the case may be, at any particular rate or at all.
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about the Company's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties, and a number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by words or phrases such as "may," "will," "expect," "anticipate," "target," "aim," "estimate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "potential," "continue," "is/are likely to" or other similar expressions. The Company may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its reports filed with, or furnished to, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in its annual reports to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about the Company's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Further information regarding such risks, uncertainties or factors is included in the Company's filings with the SEC. All information provided in this press release is as of the date of this press release, and the Company does not undertake any duty to update such information, except as required under applicable law.
For investor and media inquiries, please contact:
In China:
Jeffrey Wang
Youdao, Inc.
Tel: +86-10-8255-8163 ext. 89980
E-mail: IR@rd.netease.com
The Piacente Group, Inc.
Emilie Wu
Tel: +86-21-6039-8363
E-mail: youdao@thepiacentegroup.com
In the United States:
The Piacente Group, Inc.
Brandi Piacente
Tel: +1-212-481-2050
E-mail: youdao@thepiacentegroup.com
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SOURCE Youdao, Inc. | https://www.wkyt.com/prnewswire/2022/05/24/youdao-reports-first-quarter-2022-unaudited-financial-results/ | 2022-05-24 08:48:13 | 1 | https://www.wkyt.com/prnewswire/2022/05/24/youdao-reports-first-quarter-2022-unaudited-financial-results/ |
STAMFORD, Conn., June 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Synchrony (NYSE: SYF) plans to report its second quarter 2022 results on Monday, July 18, 2022. The earnings release and presentation materials are scheduled to be released and posted to the Investor Relations section of the Company's website, www.investors.synchronyfinancial.com, at approximately 6:00 a.m. Eastern Time. A conference call to discuss Synchrony's results will be held at 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time on that day; the live audio webcast and replay can be accessed through the same website under Events and Presentations.
About Synchrony
Synchrony (NYSE: SYF) is a premier consumer financial services company delivering one of the industry's most complete digitally-enabled product suites. Our experience, expertise and scale encompass a broad spectrum of industries including digital, health and wellness, retail, telecommunications, home, auto, powersports, pet and more. We have an established and diverse group of national and regional retailers, local merchants, manufacturers, buying groups, industry associations and healthcare service providers, which we refer to as our "partners." We connect our partners and consumers through our dynamic financial ecosystem and provide them with a diverse set of financing solutions and innovative digital capabilities to address their specific needs and deliver seamless, omnichannel experiences. We offer the right financing products to the right customers in their channel of choice.
For more information, visit www.synchrony.com and Twitter: @Synchrony.
Contacts
Investor Relations:
Kathryn Miller
(203) 585-6291
kathryn.miller@syf.com
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SOURCE Synchrony | https://www.kait8.com/prnewswire/2022/06/27/synchrony-announce-second-quarter-2022-financial-results-july-18-2022/ | 2022-06-27 14:14:14 | 1 | https://www.kait8.com/prnewswire/2022/06/27/synchrony-announce-second-quarter-2022-financial-results-july-18-2022/ |
YouTube Chef-Turned-CCO Proves There's an Egg for Every Occasion
CHICAGO, July 11, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Whether this summer has you feeling fried, scrambled or sunny side up, there's no problem too big for the Incredible Egg, no meal or moment that an egg couldn't crack. That's why the American Egg Board (AEB) has enlisted social media chef sensation and eggs aficionado Josh Elkin to serve as its inaugural Chief Cracking Officer (CCO). This new role was created to demonstrate and celebrate the versatility of eggs and to inspire Americans to #CrackItWithAnEgg in uneggspected new ways.
From the morning rush to the mid-day slump, witching hour to cocktail hour, bikini season to cuffing season, eggs offer countless ways to help you crack your cravings. They're an easy, affordable way to add protein and other eggscitement to your shopping list.
"I've made it my life's mission to champion the limitless potential of the incredible egg," Elkin said. "Eggs inject so much flavor and texture to any dish, without breaking the bank. It's an honor to be recognized for my efforts and to serve as the inaugural Chief Cracking Officer."
As CCO, Elkin will be sharing innovative egg recipes with his followers on Instagram and TikTok and challenging them to share their favorite ways to #CrackItWithAnEgg as well. Before being named CCO, Elkin built a large following on social media as a result of his daily cooking videos and viral breakfast dishes. He also hosted two seasons of Sugar Showdown on Cooking Channel and served as head chef for the YouTube series Epic Meal Time.
"The genius of an egg is there's nothing it can't crack, whether you're looking to surprise your family with a new weeknight favorite, spice up date night or stretch your budget a little further," Emily Metz, president and CEO of the American Egg Board, said. "Josh's 'never skip egg day' mantra is what distinguished him from the other applicants we considered for this critical new role. He knows what an egg can crack and pushes the boundaries of what they can do culinarily. We can't wait to see what he cracks next!"
In addition to Elkin, the AEB has commissioned a variety of other culinary and lifestyle influencers to crack summer entertaining, midnight snacking and more with eggs, and will be sharing additional tips and recipes via Instagram. For more egg recipes and other inspiration, visit IncredibleEgg.org.
Josh Elkin is an Internet personality, chef, host, cookbook author and content creator. He is most known for his unique take on food and recipes that have resulted in viral Internet sensations, especially on Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat. He hosted the Cooking Channel show Sugar Showdown and was the head chef for the YouTube show Epic Meal Time. He currently hosts his own popular cooking series across social media.
Home of the Incredible Egg, the AEB is the U.S. egg industry's national commodity marketing organization. The AEB's mission is to increase demand for eggs and egg products through research, education and promotion. The AEB is located in Chicago, Ill. For more, visit IncredibleEgg.org.
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SOURCE American Egg Board | https://www.wflx.com/prnewswire/2022/07/11/americas-egg-farmers-appoint-first-ever-chief-cracking-officer-challenge-americans-crackitwithanegg-this-summer/ | 2022-07-11 18:03:54 | 1 | https://www.wflx.com/prnewswire/2022/07/11/americas-egg-farmers-appoint-first-ever-chief-cracking-officer-challenge-americans-crackitwithanegg-this-summer/ |
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Rafael Nadal bowed his head during changeovers and rested his elbows on his knees, the very picture of resignation.
What already was a poor start to 2023, following a year marred by all manner of health issues, reached a low point at the Australian Open on Wednesday.
The defending champion and No. 1 seed at Melbourne Park, Nadal injured his left hip and lost to Mackenzie McDonald 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 in the second round, abruptly ending his bid for a record-extending 23rd Grand Slam trophy.
“It’s a tough moment. It’s a tough day,” said Nadal, a 36-year-old Spaniard. “I can’t say that I am not destroyed mentally at this moment, because I would be lying.”
He pulled up awkwardly at the end of a point late in the second set against the 65th-ranked McDonald.
Nadal was visited by a trainer on the sideline, then left the court for a medical timeout. Up in the stands, his wife wiped away tears. Nadal returned to play, but was clearly compromised and not his usual indefatigable self, saying afterward that he could not hit his backhand properly and could not run much, either.
But Nadal added that, as the reigning champion of the tournament, he did not want to leave the court via a mid-match retirement.
He said the hip had been bothering him for a couple of days, but it was never as bad as it became on Wednesday. Nadal was not sure exactly what the nature of the injury was, saying that he will have medical tests to determine if it has to do with a muscle, joint or cartilage.
“’It’s never over until it’s over’ type thing. He didn’t even want to roll over and quit. He kept fighting until basically the end, even though he maybe didn’t have all his game,” said McDonald, a 27-year-old who won NCAA championships in singles and doubles for UCLA in 2016.
“I was in the locker room,” McDonald said about the aftermath of the match, “and I was like, ‘Hey, that’s actually really big for me, because I haven’t beaten someone of that caliber.’”
This is Nadal’s earliest exit at any Grand Slam tournament since bowing out in the first round in Melbourne in 2016 against No. 45 Fernando Verdasco. That also made Verdasco the lowest-ranked player to defeat Nadal in Australia — until, of course, McDonald on Wednesday.
McDonald has never been past the fourth round at a major tournament. In his lone previous matchup against Nadal, at the 2020 French Open, McDonald won a total of just four games in a lopsided loss.
“He kicked my butt,” McDonald recalled Wednesday.
This result overshadowed everything else going on in Melbourne, of course, on a day that persistent rain pushed back the start of play on all but the three courts with retractable roofs until after 5 p.m. local time.
That meant some players — most notably, No. 1 Iga Swiatek, No. 3 Jessica Pegula and No. 6 Maria Sakkari — won matches that put them in the third round before more than a dozen others even had contested a single point in the first round.
At night, 2022 French Open runner-up Coco Gauff got past 2021 U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu 6-3, 7-6 (4) in a second-round meeting between two of the sports young stars.
“I know a lot of people were looking forward to that matchup,” said Gauff, an 18-year-old American. “I’m glad we got the prime spot. I hope we delivered.”
Seeded men who won included No. 3 Stefanos Tsitsipas, No. 6 Felix Auger-Aliassime, No. 7 Daniil Medvedev — the runner-up to Nadal last year and to Novak Djokovic in 2021 — No. 15 Jannik Sinner and No. 16 Frances Tiafoe.
“I told him, ‘You’re going to be in a position to win today. You can win today,” Tiafoe said about fellow American McDonald. “Sort of seeing how he feels, I’m happy for Mackie. ’GOAT wins’ don’t come easy. Something to tell his grandkids one day, and you have to be happy for that guy.”
A year ago, Nadal won the Australian Open for the second time to earn his 21st major championship, then raised his total to 22 — the most for a man — at Roland Garros.
He is currently ranked No. 2 but was the top seed at Melbourne Park because No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz is sitting out the Australian Open with a bad leg.
Nadal’s body has betrayed him quite a bit recently.
He needed pain-killing injections for his left foot on the way to winning the French Open last June, pulled out of Wimbledon last July before the semifinals because of a torn abdominal muscle and also dealt with a problem with rib cartilage in 2022.
Nadal’s exit drains the tournament of yet more star power. In addition to his absence and Alcaraz’s, 2022 Wimbledon runner-up Nick Kyrgios pulled out because his left knee needs arthroscopic surgery, four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka is off the tour while she is pregnant, two-time major champ Simona Halep is serving a provisional doping ban and Venus Williams is hurt.
That is all on top of this: The 2023 edition of the Australian Open is the first Grand Slam tournament since Serena Williams and Roger Federer announced their retirements.
Nadal arrived in Melbourne with an 0-2 record this season, making him 1-6 dating to September, when he lost to Tiafoe in the fourth round of the U.S. Open.
Even during a first-round victory Monday, a four-setter against a cramping Jack Draper, Nadal never quite seemed to be at his chase-every-ball, put-every-high-spin-shot-on-target best. He looked, somehow, his age.
The same was the case from the outset against McDonald.
“I’m really happy with how I started that match. I thought I was playing really well, serving great, returning well, too,” McDonald said. “So I was really taking it to him.”
That is true. From the get-go, McDonald was on, Nadal was off.
The very first game served as something of a harbinger: McDonald broke for a 1-0 lead thanks a trio of unforced errors by Nadal — two off his feared lefty forehand side.
Out of sorts, Nadal got into a back-and-forth with chair umpire Marijana Veljovic during breaks in action about whether she was starting the between-points serve clock too quickly for his liking.
Soon, McDonald was up a set. Then he went up a break right away in the second.
After one point in that set, Nadal showed real signs of trouble. He squatted behind the baseline and placed his racket down on the court. Then he went over and leaned on a sign, prompting Veljovic to ask whether Nadal was OK.
Nadal watched a couple of serves off McDonald’s racket fly past him, then was checked on by the trainer. While the match would proceed, it essentially was over right then and there.
___
AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://who13.com/sports/ap-sports/ap-no-1-swiatek-eases-by-osorio-into-round-three-in-australia/ | 2023-01-18 12:36:37 | 0 | https://who13.com/sports/ap-sports/ap-no-1-swiatek-eases-by-osorio-into-round-three-in-australia/ |
Two-time Minnies winner recognized for its revolutionary operating system, which addresses AI implementation challenges by enabling one unified system to deliver numerous clinical AI applications across native clinical workflows
NEW YORK, Oct. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Aidoc, the leading provider of healthcare AI solutions, was recognized as the 2022 best new radiology software from AuntMinnie.com's prestigious Minnies awards. For 22 years, the Minnies have recognized top innovators and pioneers in the field of medical imaging. Aidoc won the Minnies award for its AI operating system (aiOS™), which integrates AI algorithms into customizable clinical workflows, activating physicians across service lines to deliver timely care interventions and next-best actions for the patients they serve.
Aidoc's aiOS is a proprietary, first-of-its-kind operating system that enables organizations to reliably deploy AI solutions in high volumes and overcome the challenges associated with legacy IT systems and separate physician workflows. The aiOS seamlessly integrates with existing IT infrastructure, enabling the scale needed to realize the full potential of AI in healthcare. Aidoc's aiOS is also the only platform integrated into electronic health records (EHR).
"The challenge for hospitals bringing in AI is integrating it effortlessly into their existing workflows and systems," shared Elad Walach, co-founder and CEO of Aidoc. "What excites me about our aiOS is that it is truly an enterprise platform. We created it with the focus of helping connect different service lines and meeting the physician where they live - in the workstation, in the PACS, in the EHR or in the mobile. It works within a facility's existing IT infrastructure and enables systems to talk to each other, taking facilities from a system of records to a system of action and collaboration."
Aidoc's aiOS has also been proven to enable big data analysis and registries in population health studies involving multiple sites. Nature published a first-of-its-kind peer-reviewed study that used a multi-institutional data harvesting (MIDH) method to observe changes in the prevalence of pulmonary embolism on CTPA exams before and during the early COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. Researchers from 13 different health systems leveraged the aiOS to access, collect and analyze radiology reports for over 40,000 CT scans breaking the typical challenges of multi-institution data silos.
2022 is the second time Aidoc has been recognized in the Minnies best new radiology software category. The company also received the best new radiology software in 2019 for its triage and notification of suspected pulmonary embolism. Aidoc will showcase its aiOS solution during RSNA – South Hall A, Level 3, where teams can learn how the aiOS addresses many of the AI implementation challenges from system integration and IT alignment to efficiently integrating AI algorithms into existing workflows.
"Being recognized by industry leaders with the Minnies is a tremendous honor," added Walach. "We built Aidoc with a focus on radiology and the criticalness of this profession in healthcare. This award illustrates that the innovation we continue to bring forward matters and impacts today's real challenges."
About Aidoc
Aidoc is the leading provider of artificial intelligence healthcare solutions that empower physicians to expedite patient treatment and enhance quality of care. Aidoc's AI-driven solutions analyze medical images directly after the patient is scanned, suggesting prioritization of time-sensitive pathologies, as well as notifying and activating multidisciplinary teams to reduce turnaround time, shorten length of stay, and improve overall patient outcomes.
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SOURCE Aidoc Medical LTD | https://www.kbtx.com/prnewswire/2022/10/28/aidoc-aios-wins-best-new-radiology-software-minnies-awards/ | 2022-10-28 21:34:14 | 1 | https://www.kbtx.com/prnewswire/2022/10/28/aidoc-aios-wins-best-new-radiology-software-minnies-awards/ |
Off-centered brewery to air first-ever Big Game commercial in a super small way, spending 1,000 times less than some advertisers
MILTON, Del., Jan. 24, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Bringing its off-centered ethos to the football field, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery sprints into next month's Big Game with one of the year's smallest ad buys.
With some advertisers reportedly spending up to $7 million for a 30-second commercial during the Big Game this year, Dogfish Head is spending 1,000 times less.
Airing exclusively in the Delmarva (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia) area, a subset of the Salisbury Designated Market Area (DMA), which is ranked 137 out of 210 – and the region Dogfish Head calls home – the brewery's 30-second spot will cost just $7,000 to air.
Dogfish Head's spot – its first ever Big Game commercial – pokes a little fun at Big Game marketing hoopla, and instead of highlighting professional football, it highlights Electric Football. Featuring the brewery's Founder & Brewer, Sam Calagione, the commercial pays homage to his use of Tudor Games' iconic Electric Football game to invent the brewing method of continual hopping, from which the brewery's beloved beers, 60 Minute IPA, 90 Minute Imperial IPA and 120 Minute IPA, were born.
By rigging an Electric Football game over a brew kettle, Calagione was able to cascade hops into his beers at a consistent rate to create a lineup of IPAs that are outrageously hoppy, without being crushingly bitter. To honor this invention's impact on the craft brewing community, Dogfish Head's original continual hopping mechanism now sits in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Museum.
"Throughout our 27+ years in business, our only game plan has been venturing off the beaten path, and this commercial, as well as our partnership with Tudor are perfect examples of that overarching passion for off-centered exploration," said Calagione. "From one of the smallest craft breweries in America to one of the smallest Big Game commercial spends, we felt it only fitting to air our spot featuring a tiny football game exclusively in our slight but mighty backyard, coastal Delaware. At Dogfish, we take what we do seriously … ourselves? Not so much."
Continuing its longtime relationship with Tudor Games, Dogfish Head recently announced its exclusive beer sponsorship of the "not-so" big game, the Electric Football World Championships. Slated for Saturday, Feb. 4, and Sunday, Feb. 5, the only weekend of the professional football season without any live games, the Electric Football World Championships is expected to draw elite coaches from across the country to battle for one coveted title. Taking place at Dogfish Head's Tasting Room & Kitchen in Milton, Del., the brewery will livestream the event's most anticipated moments on its YouTube channel for those unable to attend.
To complement the brewery's big game spot and sponsorship of the Electric Football World Championships, Dogfish Head will launch a custom beer-themed edition of Tudor Games' Electric Football game. Later this month, boards will be available at www.dogfish.com/shop for $110 each. Supplies are limited.
For more on Dogfish Head, visit www.dogfish.com. To learn about Tudor Games, check out www.tudorgames.com.
Dogfish Head:
Dogfish Head has focused on brewing beers with culinary ingredients outside the Reinheitsgebot since the day it opened as one of the smallest American craft breweries more than 27 years ago. A Delaware-based brand and supporter of the Independent Craft Brewing Seal, Dogfish consists of Brewings & Eats®, an off-centered brewpub, Chesapeake & Maine®, a seafood and cocktail spot, Dogfish Inn®, a beer-themed hotel and Dogfish Head Craft Brewery®, a production brewery and distillery featuring the Tasting Room & Kitchen and Dogfish Head Distilling Co.® For more, visit www.dogfish.com.
Tudor Games:
Since 1949, Tudor Games has sold over 40 million Electric Football games, igniting the imagination of football fans young and old. Since buying the company in 2012, we have been re-imagining and re-designing Electric Football. Our amazing new products bring kids and adults of all ages together for healthy play. What could be more fun than that?
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SOURCE Dogfish Head Craft Brewery | https://www.1011now.com/prnewswire/2023/01/24/cheapskates-or-brilliant-marketers-dogfish-head-craft-brewery-breaks-into-big-game-with-one-years-smallest-ad-buys/ | 2023-01-24 16:11:19 | 0 | https://www.1011now.com/prnewswire/2023/01/24/cheapskates-or-brilliant-marketers-dogfish-head-craft-brewery-breaks-into-big-game-with-one-years-smallest-ad-buys/ |
US unemployment claims rise by 14,000 to 262,000
By PAUL WISEMAN
AP Economics Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans who signed up for unemployment benefits rose last week to the highest level since November, though the U.S. job market continues to show signs of strength.
Applications for jobless aid climbed by 14,000 to 262,000 and now have risen five out of the last six weeks, the Labor Department reported Thursday.
The four-week average for claims, which smooths out weekly ups and downs, rose by 4,500 to 252,000, also the highest since November.
The number of Americans collecting traditional unemployment benefits increased by 8,000 the week that ended July 30 to 1.43 million, highest since early April.
Unemployment applications are a proxy for layoffs and are often seen as an early indicator of where the job market is headed.
So far this year, hiring in the United States has been remarkably strong and resilient in the face of rising interest rates and weak economic growth.
The Labor Department reported last week that U.S. employers added 528,000 jobs last month, more than double what forecasters had expected. The unemployment rate dipped to 3.5% in July, tying a 50-year low reached just before coronavirus pandemic slammed the U.S. economy in early 2020.
The United States recovered with unexpected strength from 2020’s COVID-19 recession, leaving businesses scrambling to find enough workers.
But the U.S. economy faces challenges. Consumer prices have been surging, rising 8.5% in July from a year earlier — down slightly from June’s 40-year high 9.1%. To combat inflation, the Federal Reserve has raised its benchmark short-term interest rate four times this year.
Higher borrowing costs have taken a toll. The economy contracted in the first half of the year — one rule of thumb for the onset of a recession. But the strength of the job market is inconsistent with an economic downturn.
“Demand for labor remains quite strong,″ economists Thomas Simons and Aneta Markowska of Jefferies wrote Thursday. “The modest pickup in claims suggests that turnover may be increasing in weaker firms that are struggling with slowing growth.″ | https://kion546.com/news/ap-national-business/2022/08/11/us-unemployment-claims-rise-by-14000-to-262000-2/ | 2022-08-11 13:43:09 | 0 | https://kion546.com/news/ap-national-business/2022/08/11/us-unemployment-claims-rise-by-14000-to-262000-2/ |
3 people die in Arizona after being caught in floodwaters
PAYSON, Ariz. (AP) — At least three people were found dead this week after their vehicles were swept away by floodwaters in Arizona, authorities said.
Gila County Sheriff’s officials said the bodies of a couple missing after their vehicle was stuck in floodwaters in the Payson area were located Thursday. They were identified as Phon Sutton, 85, and Dara Sutton, 72, both of Payson, Arizona.
In a separate incident, the Navajo County Sheriff’s Office said the body of a 64-year-old woman was recovered after the vehicle she was traveling in with her husband was swept downstream at a river crossing.
Flooding caused by recent rainfall and snowmelt has created issues across parts of central and northern Arizona with residents in several low-lying communities told to evacuate.
Gila County authorities said search and rescue crews were dispatched Wednesday morning after county authorities received a 911 call about a pickup truck found in Tonto Creek. The vehicle was located about 18 miles (29 kilometers) east of Payson.
Sheriff’s officials said search efforts were complicated and dangerous due to weather conditions and flooding. The Hell’s Gate Fire Department, Tonto Rim Search and Rescue, Payson Police Department and Arizona Department of Public Safety took part in the search.
The Navajo County Sheriff’s Office received a call at 10:48 a.m. Thursday from a man who reported his wife was missing. The man said that during the previous night they were traveling on Hutch Road, about 16 miles (25 kilometers) west of State Route 377, when their Jeep was swept downstream by swift-moving water at a wash known as Seymour’s Crossing.
The vehicle came to rest and after an hour they were able to leave the vehicle and reach the riverbank, but they were separated in the dark while seeking assistance. The man was assisted by local residents.
The body of the woman, who was not immediately identified, was found about 200 feet (61 meters) from the water, the sheriff’s office said.
Navajo County Search and Rescue, Hashknife Sheriff’s Posse, Joseph City Fire, Holbrook EMS and the Arizona Department of Public Safety’s Air Rescue Unit participated in the search for the woman.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wbtv.com/2023/03/24/3-people-die-arizona-after-being-caught-floodwaters/ | 2023-03-24 09:47:10 | 1 | https://www.wbtv.com/2023/03/24/3-people-die-arizona-after-being-caught-floodwaters/ |
The ‘That ’70s Show’ Cast Returns in New ‘That ’90s Show’ Trailer
The first That ’90s Show teaser didn’t feature any of the original teenagers from That ’70s Show — although it did, of course, include Debra Jo Rupp and Kurtwood Smith as Kitty and Red, now the grandparents of the new show’s lead, Leia (Callie Haverda). But what everyone was waiting for was the return of some of the old That ’70s Show stars.
Here they are. The latest trailer for the That ’90s Show series coming to Netflix in early 2023 includes the first appearances in 15 years by Topher Grace as Eric and Laura Prepon as Donna. And they look great! (They still kinda look ’70s-ish though? But maybe that’s only fitting.)
Watch the trailer below, which also includes very brief appearances by fellow former castmates Mila Kunis (Jackie), Ashton Kutcher (Kelso) and, thankfully, Wilmer Valderrama as Fez:
I mean, come on...
Okay, this one actually does look quite a bit like a sitcom that’s set in the ’90s.
Here is the show’s official synopsis:
It’s 1995 and Leia Forman is desperate for some adventure in her life or at least a best friend who isn’t her dad. When she arrives in Point Place to visit her grandparents, Red and Kitty, Leia finds what she’s looking for right next door when she meets the dynamic and rebellious Gwen. With the help of Gwen’s friends, including her lovable brother Nate, his smart, laser-focused girlfriend Nikki, the sarcastic and insightful Ozzie, and the charming Jay, Leia realizes adventure could happen there just like it did for her parents all those years ago. Excited to reinvent herself, she convinces her parents to let her stay for the summer. With a basement full of teens again, Kitty is happy the Forman house is now a home for a new generation and Red is, well...Red.
That ’90s Show premieres on Netflix on January 19, 2023. So far, Netflix has ordered ten episodes of the series. | https://nj1015.com/ixp/442/p/eric-donna-fez-that-90s-show-first-look/ | 2022-12-23 00:12:06 | 0 | https://nj1015.com/ixp/442/p/eric-donna-fez-that-90s-show-first-look/ |
LIBERTY LAKE, Wash. (AP) _ Itron Inc. (ITRI) on Thursday reported a loss of $37 million in its second quarter.
On a per-share basis, the Liberty Lake, Washington-based company said it had a loss of 82 cents. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, were 7 cents per share.
The results fell short of Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of six analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 21 cents per share.
The energy and water meter company posted revenue of $431.9 million in the period, also missing Street forecasts. Five analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $492.4 million.
Itron expects full-year earnings in the range of 70 cents to 90 cents per share, with revenue in the range of $1.85 billion to $1.9 billion.
_____
This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on ITRI at https://www.zacks.com/ap/ITRI | https://www.mrt.com/business/article/Itron-Q2-Earnings-Snapshot-17350877.php | 2022-08-04 14:09:34 | 0 | https://www.mrt.com/business/article/Itron-Q2-Earnings-Snapshot-17350877.php |
An independent investigation into the scandals that erupted in the National Women’s Soccer League last season found emotional abuse and sexual misconduct were systemic in the sport, impacting multiple teams, coaches and players, according to a report released Monday.
“Abuse in the NWSL is rooted in a deeper culture in women’s soccer, beginning in youth leagues, that normalizes verbally abusive coaching and blurs boundaries between coaches and players,” former acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Q. Yates wrote in her report on the investigation.
U.S. Soccer commissioned the investigation by Yates and the law firm King & Spaulding after former NWSL players Sinead Farrelly and Mana Shim came forward with allegations of harassment and sexual coercion dating back a decade involving former coach Paul Riley. Their account was published by The Athletic in September 2021.
Riley, who denied the allegations, was quickly fired as head coach of the North Carolina Courage, and NWSL Commissioner Lisa Baird stepped down.
But it was clear the problems were widespread. Five of the 10 head coaches in the NWSL last season either were fired or stepped down amid allegations of misconduct.
“The verbal and emotional abuse players describe in the NWSL is not merely ‘tough’ coaching. And the players affected are not shrinking violets. They are among the best athletes in the world,” Yates wrote.
More than 200 people were interviewed by investigators. Some two dozen entities and individuals provided documents. U.S. Soccer also provided documents and the firm reviewed 89,000 deemed likely to be relevant.
U.S. Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone called the findings “heartbreaking and deeply troubling.”
“The abuse described is inexcusable and has no place on any playing field, in any training facility or workplace,” she said in a statement. “As the national governing body for our sport, U.S. Soccer is fully committed to doing everything in its power to ensure that all players — at all levels — have a safe and respectful place to learn, grow and compete.”
The report made numerous recommendations to prioritize player health and safety. Among them is the requirement that teams accurately disclose coach misconduct to the league and the soccer federation to ensure coaches aren’t allowed to move between teams. It also calls for meaningful vetting of coaches and timely investigation into allegations of abuse.
The NWSL said it was in the process of reviewing the report. The league and the NWSL Players Association is also conducting an investigation.
“We recognize the anxiety and mental strain that these pending investigations have caused and the trauma that many – including players and staff – are having to relive. We continue to admire their courage in coming forward to share their stories and influence all the changes necessary to keep moving our league forward,” NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman said in a statement. “Establishing trust and confidence between the league, its players and other key stakeholders remains a central focus for the NWSL, and we know that we must learn from and take responsibility for the painful lessons of the past in order to move the League into a better future.”
The investigation focused on three former coaches, Riley, Christy Holly of Racing Louisville and Rory Dames of the Chicago Red Stars.
It recounts an April 2021 encounter between Holly and a player, Erin Simon, who now plays in Europe. Holly invited her to watch game film with him and allegedly told her that for every pass she messed up, he was going to touch her. Simon told investigators Holly “pushed his hands down her pants and up her shirt.”
Simon, now with Leicester City, said too many athletes suffer in silence because they are afraid they won’t be heard.
“I know because that is how I felt,” the 28-year-old said in a statement. “Through many difficult days, my faith alone sustained me and kept me going. I want to do everything in my power to ensure that no other player must experience what I did. This report allows our voices to finally be heard and is the first step toward achieving the respectful workplace we all deserve.”
Holly was terminated for cause but Racing Louisville declined to publicly state the reason. Yates’ report noted that Racing did not provide investigators with details about Holly’s employment, citing mutual nondisclosure and non-disparagement clauses.
Farrelly said the harassment she experienced began in 2011 when she was a player with the Philadelphia Independence of the Women’s Professional Soccer league. Riley was her coach.
She told The Athletic the abuse by Riley continued when she was with the Portland Thorns in 2014 and 2015. Shim, a former Thorns player, also said she experienced harassment. Neither woman is playing in the NWSL now.
The Thorns said they investigated Riley in 2015 while he was with the team and reported the findings to the league. They did not renew his contract but did not make the reasons public.
The report said the Thorns were not forthcoming with certain information and they attempted to prevent investigators from using the team’s 2015 report.
“The Portland Thorns interfered with our access to relevant witnesses and raised specious legal arguments in an attempt to impede our use of relevant documents,” Yates wrote.
Riley went on to coach the Western New York Flash, which later moved to North Carolina and was renamed.
When the scandal broke last year, former Thorns forward Alex Morgan, posted to social media: “The league was informed of these allegations multiple times and refused multiple times to investigate the allegations. The league must accept responsibility for a process that failed to protect its own players from this abuse.”
Morgan also said Shim and Farrelly asked the NWSL earlier last year for a new investigation into Riley’s behavior but were rebuffed.
The U.S. Women’s National Team Players Association released a statement: “All Players and employees deserve to work in an environment free of discrimination, harassment, and abusive conduct. The USWNTPA commends the courage of the survivors, current Players, and former Players who came forward to speak out against abusive practices that have become far too normalized in the NSWL and women’s soccer generally. At the same time, USWNTPA is dismayed that some NWSL clubs and USSF staff impeded the investigation; those who have not done so should fully cooperate with the ongoing NWSL/NWSLPA investigation immediately.”
U.S. Soccer said its board of directors and a leadership team would immediately begin implementing the report’s recommendations.
“U.S. Soccer and the entire soccer community have to do better, and I have faith that we can use this report and its recommendations as a critical turning point for every organization tasked with ensuring player safety,” Parlow Cone said. “We have significant work to do, and we’re committed to doing that work and leading change across the entire soccer community.” | https://www.yourbasin.com/news/national-news/systemic-emotional-sexual-abuse-found-in-womens-pro-soccer-report-says/ | 2022-10-03 21:22:30 | 0 | https://www.yourbasin.com/news/national-news/systemic-emotional-sexual-abuse-found-in-womens-pro-soccer-report-says/ |
How to Watch San Diego State vs. Furman on TV or Live Stream - NCAA Tournament Second Round
Published: Mar. 18, 2023 at 6:17 AM EDT|Updated: 48 minutes ago
The No. 5 seed San Diego State Aztecs (28-6) and the No. 13 seed Furman Paladins (28-7) square off in the NCAA Tournament with a trip to the Sweet 16 of the South Region bracket up for grabs on Saturday at Amway Center, beginning at 12:10 PM.
In the story below, we lay out all the info you need to know about how to watch this matchup on fuboTV.
Use our link to get a free trial of fuboTV, where you can watch college hoops and tons of other live sports without cable!
San Diego State vs. Furman Game Info
- When: Saturday, March 18, 2023 at 12:10 PM ET
- Where: Amway Center in Orlando, Florida
- TV: CBS
- Live Stream on fuboTV: Start your free trial today!
Watch college hoops all season without cable on all your devices with a seven-day free trial to fuboTV!
San Diego State Stats Insights
- The Aztecs are shooting 44.4% from the field this season, 0.2 percentage points lower than the 44.6% the Paladins allow to opponents.
- San Diego State has a 16-0 straight-up record in games it shoots better than 44.6% from the field.
- The Paladins are the 112th-ranked rebounding team in the country, while the Aztecs sit at 100th.
- The Aztecs average only 0.7 more points per game (71.8) than the Paladins give up (71.1).
- When San Diego State puts up more than 71.1 points, it is 17-1.
Furman Stats Insights
- The Paladins' 48.1% shooting percentage from the field this season is 6.8 percentage points higher than the Aztecs have given up to their opponents (41.3%).
- Furman is 21-7 when it shoots better than 41.3% from the field.
- The Aztecs are the rebounding team in the nation, the Paladins rank 161st.
- The Paladins put up an average of 81.7 points per game, 18.3 more points than the 63.4 the Aztecs give up.
- When Furman gives up fewer than 71.8 points, it is 15-1.
San Diego State Home & Away Comparison
- Offensively San Diego State has fared better in home games this season, posting 75.4 points per game, compared to 68.9 per game away from home.
- Defensively the Aztecs have been better in home games this season, surrendering 60.4 points per game, compared to 65.6 when playing on the road.
- In terms of total threes made, San Diego State has performed better at home this season, making 8.2 per game, compared to 7.5 on the road. Meanwhile, it has posted a 37.4% three-point percentage when playing at home and a 38.7% mark in away games.
Furman Home & Away Comparison
- Furman is putting up more points at home (86.5 per game) than on the road (77.5).
- In 2022-23 the Paladins are giving up 1.2 more points per game at home (71.5) than on the road (70.3).
- At home, Furman makes 9.1 triples per game, one fewer than it averages away (10.1). Its 3-point shooting percentage is lower at home (34.2%) than away (35.8%) too.
San Diego State Schedule
Furman Schedule
© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.wsaz.com/sports/betting/2023/03/18/san-diego-state-furman-ncaa-tournament-live-stream-tv-second-round/ | 2023-03-18 11:05:48 | 0 | https://www.wsaz.com/sports/betting/2023/03/18/san-diego-state-furman-ncaa-tournament-live-stream-tv-second-round/ |
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Timberwolves suspended center Rudy Gobert for their play-in game against the Los Angeles Lakers, after the 10-year veteran threw a punch at teammate Kyle Anderson in an argument in the huddle during a timeout.
The Timberwolves announced on Monday that Gobert would serve his one-game punishment when they face the Lakers on Tuesday night. Gobert took a swing at Anderson and hit him in the upper chest in the second quarter of Minnesota’s game against New Orleans on Sunday, when the flustered Timberwolves were trailing by 12 points.
“It’s not something we condone. Veterans can get upset, too, so I don’t want to be too hard on him,” coach Chris Finch said after the game. ‘But obviously it’s not something we’re going to be able to tolerate here.”
Gobert sent a group-text request for forgiveness to his teammates, according to point guard Mike Conley, and later posted a public apology on Twitter.
“It’s an emotional game,” Conley said. “You’re talking about two guys in Kyle and Rudy who are two of the biggest competitors you’ll meet. Stuff happens, honestly.”
Gobert was playing through back spasms that had him listed as questionable for the game.
“We’ve got to be mature, especially late in the season like this,” Conley said. “We can’t let our emotions get the best of us. He knows better than that. Kyle challenges everybody. We know how that works. We have to be able to accept it and move forward.”
Anderson said he didn’t think he and Gobert, who has struggled to find his groove in his first season with Minnesota, would have trouble getting along in the aftermath of their very public conflict.
“We’ll speak about it and move on,” Anderson said. “We’re grown men. It is what it is.”
The Timberwolves rallied to beat the Pelicans 113-108 and take eighth place in the Western Conference. That gives them two chances to win a play-in game to qualify for the playoffs.
If they beat the Lakers they’ll get the No. 7 seed and face Memphis in the first round. If they lose, they’ll host the winner of the New Orleans-Oklahoma City game on Friday night for the No. 8 seed and a first-round date with Denver.
The Wolves also lost forward Jaden McDaniels indefinitely to a broken right hand after he hit a wall in the tunnel that leads to the locker room after being called for his second foul in the first quarter on Sunday. Another key player, backup center Naz Reid, is done for the season with a broken left wrist from a fall on the court in the game on March 29 at Phoenix.
The Wolves announced on Monday that McDaniels has been placed in a cast with two fractures — the third and fourth metacarpals — in his hand. No timetable for his return was revealed.
This is far from the ideal way to face the surging Lakers, who overtook the Wolves with a rally for a 123-111 win in Minnesota on March 31. Gobert and McDaniels are the team’s two best defenders, a major setback for their ability to guard Anthony Davis and LeBron James.
That will only make third-year All-Star Anthony Edwards more important on both ends of the floor. Edwards had 26 points, 13 rebounds, four blocks and four steals against the Pelicans and figures to continue to pick up the assignment of covering the opponent’s best perimeter player.
“That’s what I’m here for,” Edwards said.
Said Anderson: “I know how good defensively he is. I think we’ve just got to challenge him on being better all the time defensively and not just pick his spots.”
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.wowktv.com/sports/wolves-suspend-gobert-post-punch-for-play-in-game-vs-lakers/ | 2023-04-11 11:52:41 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/sports/wolves-suspend-gobert-post-punch-for-play-in-game-vs-lakers/ |
HART, Jr., William L. Age 84, of Washington Twp., passed away May 12, 2022. Newcomer Funeral Home, Kettering, OH.View the obituary on Legacy.comIn Other News1Grusenmeyer, Daniel2ETTER, Jane3CLANIN, James4BALES, Geraldine5DONOHOE, Keith | https://www.springfieldnewssun.com/obituaries/hart-william/EESHUGB7DVBZ7HXDW7THHXWNZI/ | 2022-05-19 05:43:31 | 0 | https://www.springfieldnewssun.com/obituaries/hart-william/EESHUGB7DVBZ7HXDW7THHXWNZI/ |
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wasn’t seeking political retaliation when he removed a prosecutor over abortion and transgender views, but simply wanted to ensure state law would be enforced, the governor’s attorney told a federal judge Thursday.
Lawyers for Andrew Warren, a Democrat suspended from his twice-elected post as state attorney in Hillsborough County, disagreed, saying it’s clear DeSantis’ action was based on what Warren said and believed and not on his competence as a prosecutor.
DeSantis suspended Warren in August over the prosecutor’s signing of statements that said he would not pursue criminal charges against seekers or providers of abortion or gender transition treatments, as well as his policies about not charging people with certain minor crimes. Warren is suing to be reinstated.
“The motivating focus … is all about enforcement of the law,” said George Levesque, a private attorney representing DeSantis.
The issue arose after Florida passed a law banning abortions after 15 weeks. Florida doesn’t have a law addressing gender-confirmation treatments.
Lawyers for Warren said the suspension was clearly motivated by politics considering DeSantis made his announcement at a campaign-like rally with cheering supporters during which he attacked “woke” ideology. They noted he made similar statements that night on Fox News.
“For Gov. DeSantis it was a chance to kill three political birds with one stone,” said David O’Neil, who represents Warren. He said the one act allowed DeSantis to score political points by opposing abortion, projecting a strong “law-and-order” stance and by attacking “woke” ideology.
The three-day trial over Warren’s lawsuit against DeSantis concluded Thursday evening. U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle said it will be at least two weeks before he rules.
“I don’t know who’s going to win,” Hinkle said.
Warren was elected in 2016 and 2020 as prosecutor of Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa. He has said DeSantis overturned the will of voters by removing him from office.
More than 90 district attorneys, state attorneys general and other elected prosecutors throughout the U.S. have signed a letter saying they don’t intend to prosecute people for seeking, providing or supporting abortions. Dozens of prosecutors and law enforcement leaders also signed the letter opposing the criminalization of gender-confirmation treatments.
Warren’s suspension came as DeSantis, a potential 2024 GOP presidential candidate, joined a wave of Republican opposition to progressive prosecutors who exercise discretion over whether to charge people with what they deem to be low-level crimes.
In San Francisco, voters in June recalled Chesa Boudin, a former public defender who was elected district attorney in 2019 on a criminal justice reform platform. Boudin faced criticism over crime rates after declining to prosecute most drug offenses. A similar effort to recall the Los Angeles district attorney failed to garner enough signatures. | https://fox59.com/news/national-world/ap-us-news/ap-trial-over-desantis-removal-of-prosecutor-on-abortion-ends/ | 2022-12-02 11:22:47 | 0 | https://fox59.com/news/national-world/ap-us-news/ap-trial-over-desantis-removal-of-prosecutor-on-abortion-ends/ |
Conference races across the country are getting tight as the regular season winds toward the finish.
Topping the marquee will be No. 10 Texas at No. 4 Tennessee.
The Vols have one of the nation’s best defenses and moved up five spots in this week’s AP Top 25 after lopsided wins over Mississippi State and LSU.
The Longhorns lost three spots in this week’s poll following a loss to No. 12 Iowa State and a win over West Virginia.
Two blue-blood programs heading in opposite directions will face off when No. 5 Kansas plays at Kentucky.
The Jayhawks last week had consecutive losses in the state for the first time since 1989 after losing in overtime to rival Kansas State and being blown out by TCU at home. Kansas continued its downward trend against No. 17 Baylor on Monday night, losing 75-69 for its fourth three-game losing streak under Self.
Kentucky is no longer ranked, thanks to some lackluster losses, but seems to be rounding back into form. The Wildcats blew out Georgia and beat Texas A&M by 10 points last week.
Baylor beat Kansas for its fifth straight wins, but has another difficult game against Arkansas on Saturday.
The Razorbacks were near the top-10 most of the season before hitting a rough patch of four straight losses. Arkansas bounced back with a win over Mississippi State last week, but it wasn’t enough to keep the Razorbacks in this week’s poll.
No. 2 Alabama has its highest ranking since reaching No. 1 in 2002-03 and is right behind top-ranked Purdue, receiving 23 first-place votes from a 62-person media panel in Monday's poll.
The Crimson Tide host Mississippi State on Wednesday before what will likely be a tough road game at Oklahoma.
Kansas State hopes to keep its momentum after an emotional win over Kansas last week helped it climb to No. 5 in this week’s poll, the program’s highest ranking since reaching No. 3 in 2010-11.
The Wildcats have a huge test at No. 12 Iowa State, then host Florida on Saturday.
The Cyclones, coming off a two-point loss to Oklahoma State, have to follow up playing Kansas State by heading to Missouri on Saturday to face a team desperate to get back on track after losing three of four.
TCU handed Kansas one of its worst losses in 20 years under coach Bill Self with its 83-60 win on Saturday. That helped the Horned Frogs move up three spots to No. 11 in this week’s poll. They play Oklahoma on Wednesday before hosting Mississippi State on Saturday.
No. 15 Auburn has been on a nice run, winning five straight since a rough stretch last month. But the Tigers may have the toughest road draw in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge by playing at West Virginia.
The Mountaineers lost five of their first six Big 12 games, but they play a physical game and Morgantown is always a difficult place to play.
PURDUE BACK ON TOP
After a four-week run at No. 1. Purdue dropped out of the top spot in the poll with a loss to Rutgers on Jan. 2.
The Boilermakers bounced back from their only loss of the season with six straight wins to move back atop the AP Top 25 this week.
Purdue has what could be a pair of difficult games this week, at Michigan on Thursday and at home against Michigan State Sunday.
BIG EAST BATTLE
No. 13 Xavier has a half-game lead over No. 16 Marquette at 8-1 in the Big East, with Providence a game back at 7-2.
The Musketeers had their 11-game winning streak come to an end with a surprising loss to sub-.500 DePaul last week, but bounced back to beat Georgetown.
They’re next game, Wednesday against No. 19 UConn, won’t be easy.
Connecticut is 5-5 in Big East play, but is still ranked No. 19. The Huskies beat Alabama early in the season and climbed to No. 2 in the AP Top 25 before plummeting through a stretch of five losses in six games.
UConn is top 12 nationally in offensive and defensive efficiency, according to KenPom.com, and have one of the nation’s best big men in Adama Sanogo.
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AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/secbig-challenge-will-feature-marquee-nonconference-games/2023/01/24/33f12892-9bd6-11ed-93e0-38551e88239c_story.html | 2023-01-24 11:40:09 | 1 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/secbig-challenge-will-feature-marquee-nonconference-games/2023/01/24/33f12892-9bd6-11ed-93e0-38551e88239c_story.html |
The pandemic inspired many workers to reevaluate work and home-life. NPR's Rachel Martin speaks with individuals about how they try to be truer to themselves in the workplace.
Copyright 2022 NPR
The pandemic inspired many workers to reevaluate work and home-life. NPR's Rachel Martin speaks with individuals about how they try to be truer to themselves in the workplace.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.wvasfm.org/business/business/2022-07-08/as-people-return-to-the-office-some-want-a-less-rigid-work-personal-boundary | 2022-07-08 10:30:01 | 1 | https://www.wvasfm.org/business/business/2022-07-08/as-people-return-to-the-office-some-want-a-less-rigid-work-personal-boundary |
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The operator of a pipeline that spilled about 14,000 bathtubs’ worth of heavy crude oil into a northeastern Kansas creek said Friday that it has permission from U.S. government regulators to reopen the repaired segment where the rupture occurred.
Canada-based TC Energy did not say exactly when it would reopen the section of its Keystone pipeline system from Steele City near the Nebraska-Kansas border to Cushing in northern Oklahoma. The company said it will have crews working through the Christmas holiday and also conducting “rigorous testing and inspections.”
“This will take several days,” the company said in a statement. “We will continue to prioritize the safety of people and the environment.”
The Dec. 7 spill forced the company to shut down the Keystone system and dumped about 14,000 barrels of crude into a creek running through rural pastureland in Washington County, about 150 miles (240 kilometers) northwest of Kansas City. Each barrel is 42 gallons, the size of a household bathtub.
The company and government officials have said drinking water supplies were not affected, and no one was evacuated. However, Kansas City’s KCUR-FM reported this week that the Kansas Department of Health and Environment found chemicals from the spill downstream past two earthen dams constructed to contain the oil, potentially endangering animals that ingest it.
TC Energy reopened most of the 2,700-mile (4,345-kilometer) Keystone system last week. The system carries crude oil extracted from tar sands in western Canada to the Gulf Coast, with a spur also moving crude to south-central Illinois.
The Kansas spill was the largest onshore in nine years and larger than 22 previous spills on the Keystone system combined, according to U.S. Department of Transportation data. The company received permission to reopen the pipeline across Kansas and into northern Oklahoma from the Department of Transportation’s pipeline safety arm.
Concerns that spills could pollute waterways spurred opposition to plans by TC Energy to build another crude oil pipeline in the same system, the 1,200-mile (1,900-kilometer) Keystone XL, across Montana, South Dakota and Nebraska. President Joe Biden’s cancelation of a permit for the project led the company to pull the plug last year.
The company has not identified the Kansas spill’s cause. Zack Pistora, who lobbies at the Kansas Statehouse for the Sierra Club, said the pipeline segment shouldn’t reopen until the cause is known.
“Isn’t the next spill just an accident waiting to happen?” he said in an interview Friday.
The company said it has removed the ruptured pipeline section and sent it to an independent lab for analysis. It also said it had recovered almost 7,600 barrels of oil, a little more than half of what was leaked.
Meanwhile, some Democrats in the Republican-controlled Legislature want to reconsider the state’s policy of exempting companies from local property taxes for 10 years if they build pipelines through Kansas to spur energy development. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly told The Topeka Capital-Journal in an interview this week that the policy was “a big mistake” and should have been reconsidered “a long time ago.”
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Follow John Hanna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/apjdhanna | https://www.wearegreenbay.com/business/ap-business/ap-company-regulators-ok-reopening-of-kansas-pipeline-segment/ | 2022-12-24 19:09:59 | 0 | https://www.wearegreenbay.com/business/ap-business/ap-company-regulators-ok-reopening-of-kansas-pipeline-segment/ |
New Law Enhances Warehouse Safety, Free Speech on the Job
ST. PAUL, Minn., May 24, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Teamsters are commending Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and the state legislature for including critical pro-worker provisions in a $1.37 billion jobs bill. The new law protects warehouse workers from unrealistic and dangerous work conditions by requiring transparency on worker quotas and performance metrics. It also prevents all workers from being forced to sit through anti-union propaganda sessions on the job known as "captive audience meetings."
"This legislation is critical to curtailing the abuse and rapacity of Amazon," said Tom Erickson, Teamsters Central Region International Vice President, Warehouse Division Director and President of Joint Council 32. "This is a company that writes off the millions of dollars in taxes that it spends on union busters every year, all while maintaining the highest on-the-job injury rate in the industry – by far. Amazon does not have the interest of Minnesotans in mind, and I for one applaud everyone in our state government who is holding it accountable."
Amazon has been cited by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Agency (OSHA) multiple times in 2023 for conditions at their warehouses across the country, where workers are expected to reach unrealistic performance metrics that are never disclosed to them and can change by the hour, leading to massively high injury and employee turnover rates. As one recent OSHA report said, "each of these inspections found work processes that were designed for speed but not safety, and they resulted in serious worker injuries."
In addition to enhancing warehouse safety and workers' freedom of association rights, the omnibus bill strengthens prevailing wage protections for construction workers, provides additional needed funding to the State's Department of Labor, and updates protections for packinghouse workers. Minnesota is the latest in a slew of states that are considering laws to protect occupational safety in the supply chain and the right of workers to be free from anti-union propaganda. Washington, California, and New York have all passed warehouse quota bills, and Connecticut has passed legislation restricting captive audience meetings. Similar legislation is pending in 13 other states with support from local Teamsters.
Teamsters Joint Council 32 represents 40,000 Teamsters in Minnesota, Iowa and the Dakotas. For more information, go to teamstersjc32.org/
Contact:
Matt McQuaid, (202) 624-6877
mmcquaid@teamster.org
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SOURCE Teamsters Joint Council 32 | https://www.wbtv.com/prnewswire/2023/05/24/minnesota-teamsters-celebrate-passage-pro-worker-omnibus-legislation/ | 2023-05-24 20:24:57 | 1 | https://www.wbtv.com/prnewswire/2023/05/24/minnesota-teamsters-celebrate-passage-pro-worker-omnibus-legislation/ |
Montenegro court sentences founder of cryptocurrency firm Terraform Labs to 4 months in prison
PODGORICA, Montenegro (AP) — A court in Montenegro on Monday sentenced the founder of cryptocurrency firm Terraform Labs, Do Kwon, and another citizen of South Korea to four months in prison for using forged documents.
Kwon was arrested in Montenegro in March on an international arrest warrant in connection with the $40 billion crash of Terraform Labs’ cryptocurrency, which devastated retail investors around the world.
Both South Korea and the United States have requested his extradition from Montenegro. The courts in the country are yet to decide on those requests in separate proceedings.
Authorities said Kwon and the other man were arrested at Podgorica Airport while trying to fly to Dubai using fake Costa Rican passports.
The Basic Court in Podgorica, Montenegro’s capital, said on Monday that time already spent in detention since the pair’s arrest on March 23 will be included in the sentence, state RTCG television reported.
“The court found they were guilty of the criminal act of forging identification documents,” said Kwon’s lawyer in Podgorica, Goran Rodic.
Rodic said he is yet to consult with his clients about further steps and a possible appeal.
South Korea asked Interpol in September to circulate a “red notice” asking the agency’s 195 member nations to find and apprehend Kwon.
The two are believed to have hidden in Serbia but moved to Montenegro after South Korean investigators tracked their whereabouts and asked Serbian authorities to detain them, the South Korean Justice Ministry said when the arrests were made.
Kwon and five others connected to Terraform are wanted on allegations of fraud and financial crimes in relation to the implosion of the firm’s digital currencies in May 2022.
TerraUSD was designed as a “stablecoin,” a currency that is pegged to stable assets like the U.S. dollar to prevent drastic fluctuations in prices. However, around $40 billion in market value was erased for the holders of TerraUSD and its floating sister currency, Luna, after it plunged far below its $1 peg.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://www.kob.com/news/business-money/montenegro-court-sentences-founder-of-cryptocurrency-firm-terraform-labs-to-4-months-in-prison/ | 2023-06-19 13:58:01 | 1 | https://www.kob.com/news/business-money/montenegro-court-sentences-founder-of-cryptocurrency-firm-terraform-labs-to-4-months-in-prison/ |
Johnny Lujack was one of the faces of Notre Dame’s golden age, the second of three Irish players to win the Heisman Trophy in the 1940s and the quarterback of three national championship teams.
“Even by Notre Dame standards, you always felt he was larger than life,” said John Heisler, who has written a dozen books on the history of the storied program where he was once was an associate athletic director. “Part of that comes with winning the Heisman Trophy, part comes from being a quarterback at Notre Dame and part comes from the sheer force of his personality.”
Lujack died at age 98 in Naples, Florida, on Tuesday following a brief illness. His granddaughter, Amy Schiller, said he had recently entered hospice care after having been in good health until a couple of weeks ago.
“He was not only a legend in Notre Dame football and the sports world,” Schiller said, “he was a legend as a father and grandfather and great grandfather.”
Lujack is considered one of the greatest Notre Dame players of all time. He was a two-time unanimous All-American who won the Heisman in 1947 and led the Irish to national titles in 1943, 1946 and 1947. He also lettered in baseball, basketball and track.
Lujack was ahead of his time as a passer and posted a 20-1-1 record as starting quarterback for coach Frank Leahy. The native of Connellsville, Pennsylvania, played for the Irish in 1942 and ‘43, served two years in the Navy during World War II, and returned to Notre Dame for the 1946 and ’47 seasons.
He was The Associated Press athlete of the year in 1947, when he was a first-round draft pick of the Chicago Bears. He played four seasons for the Bears, leading the team in scoring each year before retiring at age 26.
While Lujack had plenty of offensive highlights at Notre Dame, he is best remembered for a play he made as a defensive back in an era when players stayed on the field for nearly every play.
A standing-room-only crowd of about 75,000 packed Yankee Stadium in 1946 to see No. 1 Army — the two-time defending national champions — face then-rival Notre Dame, which was ranked No. 2. Lujack made the game-saving tackle against Doc Blanchard in a 0-0 tie in what is frequently referred to as the game of the century.
With the ball at the Army 44, Blanchard broke through the line and had open field down the left sideline before Lujack came from the other side to make a diving, shoestring tackle at the Irish 36.
“Understanding that people were playing both ways in that period, in some ways it’s ironic a guy who was a quarterback, and a great one, is remembered for that one play,” Heisler said.
Lujack downplayed the tackle of Blanchard, who won the Heisman in 1945.
“You were back there,” Lujack said. “You were supposed to make the tackle.”
Lujack finished third in Heisman voting in 1946 before he won the award as the college game’s outstanding player the next year, when he led the Irish to a 9-0 record and their second straight title.
Lujack intercepted eight passes as a rookie with the Bears and in 1949 he threw for 468 yards and six touchdowns in a 52-21 win over the Chicago Cardinals. He played in the Pro Bowl his final two seasons before retiring. He later owned a car dealership in Davenport, Iowa.
Lujack maintained strong ties to his alma mater. Though he spent much of his post-football life in Iowa, California and Florida, it was not uncommon for him to show up in South Bend for games and other functions. He still held eight season tickets as of last season.
When he lived in Indian Wells, California, Notre Dame’s glee club flew out to sing for him on his 90th birthday, a moment that moved his late wife, Pat, to tears.
“He epitomizes what it means to be a Notre Dame man — family man, generous, kind,” said Beth Hunter, a senior associate athletic director who came to know Lujack during her time as executive director of the school’s Monogram Club.
Lujack was an avid golfer who recorded eight holes-in-one and continued to ride around courses on his cart long after he quit playing. He liked to tell people about the time he spilled a milkshake on his most famous golf partner — former President Gerald Ford.
“He was a celebrity and enjoyed it, very comfortable in his own skin,” Heisler said.
Heisler said it would be difficult to rank Lujack among greatest Notre Dame quarterbacks, let alone college quarterbacks.
“Those post-war years, and not just at Notre Dame but particularly at Notre Dame, there were unbelievably talented teams,” Heisler said. “If you were successful during the 1940s, you had to be pretty darned good because there were so many other great players you were rubbing elbows with. He was one of them.”
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Former AP Sports Writer Tom Coyne contributed.
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Connie Nielsen's Danish fantasy drama makes US debut
To celebrate Women’s History Month — there's a new insightful fantasy drama that premieres Thursday on Viaplay: "The Dreamer - Becoming Karen Blixen."
It stars an actress who is used to portraying prolific women on screen. She's starred as Princess Lucilla in the Oscar-winning film "Gladiator" alongside Russell Crowe. And she portrays Hippolyta - the mother of Wonder Woman in the DC film franchise. And now Danish actress Connie Nielsen is executive producer and star of "The Dreamer - Becoming Karen Blixen."
The series, set in the 1930s, follows Blixen, an author returning to Denmark after years in East Africa, and her journey from penniless, sick and divorced to renowned writer.
READ MORE: Actress Katee Sackhoff talks Season 3 of 'The Mandalorian'
Nielsen tells FOX 5’s Ryan Kristafer that most films about female artists and authors focus on their sex lives or physical appearance, whereas Nielsen wanted to share the story of a woman’s struggle for success.
Danish actress Connie Nielsen poses for a photo session during the 5th edition of the Cannes International Series Festival (Canneseries) on April 4, 2022 in Cannes, southern France. (Photo by JOEL SAGET/AFP via Getty Images)
"I wanted to show what is that artistic process, and so we chose a story called ‘The Dreamer,’ and we wanted to show how this author is actually seeing herself in all of these different characters (also played by Nielsen). And they’re all sort of female archetypes. Inside this short story, we see Karen (Blixen) in all of these characters, and for me that was tough, let me just tell you. I had to first lose a lot of weight to look like a sick little bird, because I went from ‘Wonder Woman’ and ‘Justice League’ where I was so pumped up. And then all of a sudden, I had to look like a little sparrow."
We tried to find out if Nielsen is going to be part of "Paradise Lost," the upcoming "Wonder Woman" series created by newly appointed DC boss, James Gunn. She replied:
READ MORE: Previews begin: 'New York, New York' the musical on Broadway
"Well, I have no idea what they’re going to do about it yet. No one has said anything, so we don’t know anything yet."
And as for the Ridley Scott’s "Gladiator" sequel that’s set to be released in 2024: Will we see Princess Lucilla in the second installment of the epic?
"I can’t tell you yet."
READ MORE: Watch: 3-year-old learns about notable women during Women’s History Month
Nielsen did tell us what it was like when she first arrived to the set of "Gladiator" in 1999.
"You drove up on set in Malta, at the arrival and there’s a quarter of the actual Colosseum built there. And a city square of Rome and Ridley chomping on his cigar, walking down one of the lanes to welcome me. I realized in that moment the sheer scale of what we were about to do."
"The Dreamer - Becoming Karen Blixen" premieres Thursday on Viaplay. | https://www.fox5ny.com/news/the-dreamer-becoming-karen-blixen-connie-nielsen-viaplay | 2023-03-30 14:36:31 | 1 | https://www.fox5ny.com/news/the-dreamer-becoming-karen-blixen-connie-nielsen-viaplay |
BERLIN (AP) — Ford said Tuesday that it will cut 3,800 jobs in Europe over the next three years in an effort to streamline its operations as it contends with economic challenges and increasing competition on electric cars.
The automaker said 2,300 jobs will be eliminated in Germany, 1,300 in the United Kingdom and 200 elsewhere on the continent. It said its strategy to offer an all-electric fleet in Europe by 2035 has not changed and that production of its first European-built electric car is due to start later this year.
The Dearborn, Michigan-based company said it is looking for “a leaner, more competitive cost structure for Ford in Europe.” The automaker will embark on consultations “with the intent to achieve the reductions through voluntary separation programs.”
The job cuts come amid a sea change in the global auto industry from gas-guzzling combustion engines to electric vehicles. Governments are pushing to reduce the emissions that contribute to climate change, and a resulting race to develop electric vehicles has generated intense competition among automakers.
It’s even stirred tensions among Western allies as the U.S. rolls out big subsidies for clean technology like EVs that European governments fear could hurt homegrown industry.
Ford aims to cut 2,800 of the European jobs in engineering by 2025 as a result of the transition to electric cars that are less complex, though it plans to keep about 3,400 engineering jobs on the continent. The remaining 1,000 jobs will be cut on the administrative side.
“Paving the way to a sustainably profitable future for Ford in Europe requires broad-based actions and changes in the way we develop, build and sell Ford vehicles,” Martin Sander, general manager of Ford’s Model e unit in Europe, said in a statement. “This will impact the organizational structure, talent and skills we will need in the future.”
“These are difficult decisions, not taken lightly,” he added. “We recognize the uncertainty it creates for our team, and I assure them we will be offering them our full support in the months ahead.”
Ford also announced in August cuts of about 3,000 white-collar jobs in North America as it reduces costs to help make the long transition from internal combustion to battery-powered vehicles.
In a step in that direction, it said Thursday that it plans to build a $3.5 billion factory in Michigan that would employ at least 2,500 people to make lower-cost batteries for new and existing EVs.
Company officials reported that its net income fell 90% in the last three months of 2022 from a year earlier. It said costs were too high and that it contended with a global shortage of computer chips and other parts used in its vehicles.
In Europe, Ford has some 34,000 employees at wholly owned facilities and consolidated joint ventures. | https://www.wearegreenbay.com/international/ap-international/ap-ford-to-cut-3800-jobs-in-europe-mostly-in-germany-uk/ | 2023-02-14 19:39:53 | 0 | https://www.wearegreenbay.com/international/ap-international/ap-ford-to-cut-3800-jobs-in-europe-mostly-in-germany-uk/ |
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Construction can proceed related to a major oil project on Alaska’s petroleum-rich North Slope after a federal judge on Monday rejected requests to halt work until challenges to the Biden administration’s recent approval are resolved.
The decision means ConocoPhillips Alaska can forge ahead with cold-weather construction work, including mining gravel and using it to extend a road toward the Willow project.
U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason in Anchorage refused requests by environmental groups and an Alaska Native organization to delay construction related to Willow. In separate lawsuits, the groups ultimately want Gleason to overturn the project’s approval, saying the U.S. Bureau of Land Management failed to consider an adequate range of alternatives.
A ConocoPhillips Alaska executive, Stephen Bross, in court documents warned that an order blocking construction could make it “impossible” for the project to begin production by Sept. 1, 2029, and that the company risks having its leases expire if the unit hasn’t produced oil by then.
One of the suits, filed by Earthjustice on behalf of numerous environmental groups, says the government analyzed an inadequate range of alternatives “based on the mistaken conclusion that it must allow ConocoPhillips to fully develop its leases.” It also says the environmental review underlying Willow’s approval didn’t assess the full climate consequences of authorizing the project because it didn’t analyze greenhouse gas emissions from other projects in the region that could follow.
To prevent the worst of climate change’s future harms — including even more extreme weather — the head of the United Nations recently called for an end to new fossil fuel exploration and for rich countries to quit coal, oil and gas by 2040.
The Willow project is in the northeast portion of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, where there has been debate over how much of the region should be available to oil and gas development.
The Biden administration in 2022 limited oil and gas leasing to just over half the reserve, which is home to polar bears, caribou, millions of migratory birds and other wildlife. There are multiple exploration and development projects within 50 miles (80 kilometers) of the Willow project, including other discoveries being pursued by ConocoPhillips Alaska, the largest oil producer in the state.
The other lawsuit over the Willow project, filed by Trustees for Alaska on behalf of Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic and environmental groups, said federal agencies failed to take a “hard look at the direct, indirect and cumulative impacts” of Willow and that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service failed to address impacts to polar bears, a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.
Justice Department lawyers said the decision approving Willow was “based in science and consistent with all legal requirements.” They also said the environmental review thoroughly analyzed emissions related to the use of oil produced by the project and that the analysis sought by Earthjustice is overreaching.
State political leaders, including Alaska’s bipartisan congressional delegation, and labor unions have touted Willow as a job creator, expected to send up to 180,000 barrels of oil a day through the trans-Alaska pipeline. That’s significant, because major existing fields are aging and the flow of oil through the pipeline is a fraction of what it was at its peak in the late 1980s.
Many Alaska Native leaders on the North Slope and groups with ties to the region have argued that the project is economically vital for communities in the region. But some Alaska Native leaders in the community closest to the project, Nuiqsut, have expressed concerns about impacts to their subsistence lifestyles, and worried that their voices haven’t been heard.
Using the oil that Willow would produce over the 30-year life of the project would emit roughly as much greenhouse gas as the combined emissions from 1.7 million passenger cars over the same time period. Climate activists say the project flies in the face of President Joe Biden’s pledges to cut carbon emissions and move to clean energy.
But the Biden administration has defended the decision on Willow and the president’s climate record. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who opposed Willow when she was a New Mexico congresswoman, called the project a “difficult and complex issue” involving leases issued by prior administrations. She said there was “limited decision space” and that the administration “focused on how to reduce the project’s footprint and minimize its impacts to people and to wildlife.”
Global demand for crude is expected to continue rising, according to industry analysts and the U.S. Energy Information Administration. | https://www.seattletimes.com/business/judge-alaska-oil-project-can-proceed-as-lawsuits-play-out/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_seattle-news | 2023-04-03 22:34:05 | 1 | https://www.seattletimes.com/business/judge-alaska-oil-project-can-proceed-as-lawsuits-play-out/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_seattle-news |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fires feeding off modern materials found in people’s homes are burning faster and becoming deadlier at the same time that fire departments across the country are struggling to retain and recruit firefighters, officials said Thursday.
Officials with various firefighting-related agencies were in Washington to call attention to fire-related problems roughly a year after two deadly fires days apart in 2022 — one in Philadelphia and one in New York — killed 29 people. They’re also recommending a number of ways to deal with the problem.
Last year nearly 2,500 people died as a result of fires, including 96 firefighters, according to U.S. Fire Administrator Dr. Lori Moore-Merrell. More than 1 million structures caught fire and more than 7.5 million acres burned in wildfires last year, she said.
“America is still burning,” she said.
The number of fires being reported to fire departments has been going down, said Steve Kerber, the Vice President and Executive Director of the Fire Safety Research Institute, but the fires that do happen are fueled by greater use of synthetic materials in everyday items like couches and as a result burn much more quickly. Faster fires lessen the time residents can escape and fire departments can respond, Kerber said. Over the last decade fire deaths have increased by 30%, he said.
Decades ago it would likely take half an hour for a room to be completely consumed with fire, he said. But now, with materials widely used in homes, that can happen in as little as three minutes. At the same time, Americans are increasingly bringing into their homes things like scooters or electric bikes that use lithium ion batteries. If one of those is damaged and starts to burn it can become an explosive fire in seconds, he said.
“Today you have the least amount of time to safely exit your home than any time in history,” Kerber said.
At the same time, volunteer and paid fire departments around the country are struggling to retain or recruit firefighters.
Eric Bernard, board of the National Volunteer Fire Council and a volunteer firefighter in Maryland, said many volunteer fire organizations in big states such as Pennsylvania or New York have seen a steady decline in members since the 1980s. But since the pandemic there has been a “massive” drop in people who want to join both volunteer and career fire departments, he said, and more firefighters are retiring. Bernard attributed that to the stress of going on calls during the pandemic, when firefighters would often be the ones going into the homes of very sick patients and taking them to the hospital.
“That fatigue and that exhaustion physically, mentally, has caused many of the career people to retire, retire early,” Bernard said, adding, “We have health issues, mental health, post-traumatic stress and members that catch COVID.”
Bernard said fire departments also struggle to recruit women and more diverse applicants into their ranks.
Fire officials are making a number of recommendations to solve the problems, including creating an apprenticeship program to address the firefighter shortages and help diversify the ranks of firefighters; helping prepare and equip all firefighters to deal with wildfires driven by climate change; implementing and enforcing building codes; and making sure affordable housing meets safety standards. They’re also advocating for suicide prevention initiatives and a comprehensive strategy to battle cancer in firefighters.
__
Follow Santana on Twitter @ruskygal. | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/fires-becoming-deadlier-as-firefighter-recruitment-wanes/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world | 2023-01-12 21:12:42 | 0 | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/fires-becoming-deadlier-as-firefighter-recruitment-wanes/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world |
Turkey's president has agreed to withdraw his objection to Sweden joining NATO. Protests resume in Israel over a planned judicial overhaul. Heavy rain causes flash floods in the Northeast.
Copyright 2023 NPR
Turkey's president has agreed to withdraw his objection to Sweden joining NATO. Protests resume in Israel over a planned judicial overhaul. Heavy rain causes flash floods in the Northeast.
Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.nprillinois.org/2023-07-11/morning-news-brief | 2023-07-11 09:16:22 | 1 | https://www.nprillinois.org/2023-07-11/morning-news-brief |
What’s the best way to use an essential oil diffuser?
Essential oil diffusers are a popular aromatherapy tool that works by agitating the molecules in essential oils to create breathable particles which float in the air. The aromas of essential oil diffusers mist into the air and then are inhaled. The benefits of inhaling the mist vary according to the properties of the oil you’re diffusing.
Diffusing essential oils is an excellent addition to your self-care rituals and can also become an integral healthy part of your daily routine. You might choose to diffuse calming lavender when reading or taking a bath before bed. Try some energizing frankincense while washing your face and brewing your coffee in the morning. By stacking essential oil aromatherapy onto the good habits you already have, you can add balance and relaxation to your life and bring soothing aromas into your home.
What is an essential oil diffuser?
Essential oil diffusers release pleasant-smelling, relaxing or invigorating aromas into the air by breaking essential oils into small, breathable molecules.
The most commonly used type of essential oil diffuser is an ultrasonic diffuser.
Ultrasonic diffusers contain a tank holding water and oil. The diffuser sends ultrasonic vibrations into the reservoir at a frequency undetectable to humans, agitating the water and releasing a fine mist of essential oils and humidity into the air.
Other types of essential oil diffusers
We recommend that you avoid evaporative diffusers, heat diffusers and nebulizing diffusers. Evaporative diffusers turn the aroma of essential oils into a gas, which degrades the oil’s potency. Likewise, heat diffusers use electricity to heat and disperse oils. In doing so, they denature oils and strip them of their therapeutic properties.
Nebulizing diffusers use pressurized air to burst a mist of oil into the air without any humidity. Nebulizers aren’t as budget-friendly as ultrasonic diffusers and are also a bit louder. They use more oil because the oil isn’t diluted with water, and therefore they also don’t offer any of the lung and breathing benefits that ultrasonic diffusers do.
How to select which essential oils to diffuse
Different essential oils have various uses in aromatherapy, so you should familiarize yourself with the therapeutic properties of the most commonly used essential oils when deciding which oils to diffuse.
Select blends indicate to use only therapeutic-grade, high-quality essential oils. You can select a peace or sleep essential oil blend to relax and get ready for bed or an awake or happy blend to energize in the morning and start your day off in a great mood.
You can also choose individual essential oils to create your own blends or diffuse them individually to create your own ambiance and energy. Popular choices include lavender essential oil for relaxation and peppermint for energy and focus. You’ll want to invest in a collection of essential oils, which you can buy individually or in a starter kit.
How to use an essential oil diffuser
Essential oil diffusers require minimal knowledge and setup. Always refer to the specific instructions from your essential oil diffuser’s manufacturer. Here’s a general guide that will work with most models.
- Set up your diffuser by selecting a surface in your home like a shelf, nightstand or table with proximity to an electrical outlet. You might wish to place the diffuser in your living room or office to help you relax throughout the day or in your bedroom to unwind before bed.
- Fill up the diffuser’s tank with water. Be sure not to fill above the fill line indicated inside the tank.
- Add the essential oils. Add between five and 10 drops of essential oil, depending on the size of the diffuser and the room.
- Experiment with the settings on your diffuser. Some diffusers include multiple options for mist intensity and various illuminating LED light colors and patterns. You might try green light for concentration and blues and purples for relaxation.
How to clean your diffuser
You don’t need to clean your essential oil diffuser after every use. Even if some oil residue in the tank, this will simply blend with the scent of the blend you add next, which can create a pleasant, balanced aroma.
Clean your diffuser about once every six uses. To start, unplug your diffuser. Pour any leftover water into the sink and wipe the tank clean with a damp cloth.
You can use a natural cleaner if you feel inclined to, but you don’t need to use anything. Be sure not to use any harsh chemical cleaners, which can be bad for your diffuser and you.
Rinse your diffuser and discard the water in the sink. Allow the tank to dry completely before its next use.
What you need to buy for diffusing essential oils
Breathe Essential Oil Diffuser
A heatless ultrasonic diffuser with an automatic shut-off feature and a chic imitation wood design. This diffuser’s settings offer two brightness options and 16 colors to choose from.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Mabua 18 Essential Oil Set with 20 Holes Case
This is a great choice for getting started with essential oils. Includes peppermint, eucalyptus, lavender, tea tree, sweet orange, lemon grass, bergamot and more, so you can create your own blends to set whatever mood you want.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
TJ Moree Bamboo Diffuser Holder Carousel from TJ Moree
Store and display your essential oil collection in style with this essential oil carousel holder. The base of the bamboo storage carousel has slots for your essential oils, and the top will hold your essential oil diffuser.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
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Copyright 2023 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://cw33.com/reviews/br/health-wellness-br/massage-relaxation-br/how-to-use-an-essential-oil-diffuser/ | 2023-01-23 18:20:58 | 0 | https://cw33.com/reviews/br/health-wellness-br/massage-relaxation-br/how-to-use-an-essential-oil-diffuser/ |
The hype gadget for the NFL by no means stops, and its annual time table unencumber was once the most recent tournament to ramp up the offseason intrigue. With leaks popping out days earlier than its legit announcement, there weren’t as many surprises as conceivable, but the anticipation for the league’s slate of video games introduced pleasure. That was once the case for Dallas Cowboys lovers who eagerly awaited the crew’s time table. The interest will get the most efficient of many that had to know the details of the Cowboys’ 2023-2024 marketing campaign regardless of already realizing the warring parties months in the past as dictated through the NFL’s method.
Of path, that gained’t forestall the loads from going over the legit time table with a fine-toothed comb, marking off wins and losses months earlier than those video games are set to happen. Injuries, success, and different cases can temporarily impact how excellent a crew is from year-to-year, making guesses in regards to the Cowboys’ document in May appear to be an workout in futility. Much can exchange from now till September. On paper, it seems as even though it’s a more difficult street for Dallas than the only they traveled final 12 months. Here’s a have a look at the developments introduced through the time table because the Cowboys glance to make the playoffs for a 3rd instantly season underneath Mike McCarthy.
A Familiar Face to Open the Slate
Although it hasn’t took place prior to now 3 years, the league went to a at ease matchup to open the season with the Cowboys set to stand off towards the New York Giants. From 2012-2019, a span of 8 seasons, the Giants and Cowboys matched up six instances on opening weekend. The excellent news is the Cowboys have gained 5 of the ones six video games, together with all 5 night time video games, which this contest can also be. The opener was once pinned for NBC’s Sunday Night Football from MetLife Stadium. The lone loss within the sequence of openers towards New York got here all the way through Dak Prescott’s debut as a rookie in 2016.
On the Road to End, Again
The Cowboys end up their time table in Washington D.C. towards the rival Commanders for a 2d consecutive 12 months. It additionally marks the fourth consecutive season that the Cowboys will finish the 12 months at the street, one thing that turns out not likely and now not one thing another NFL crew has needed to bear. Over the previous 10 years, Dallas’ time table has concluded with seven street video games, so it would seem that the league likes to have America’s Team up towards the ropes to finish their season.
A Return to Three Games in 11 Days
After a short lived respite final season, the Cowboys are again to enjoying 3 video games in 11 days round Thanksgiving. The group has gotten used to the Sunday recreation earlier than their annual Turkey Day contest, adopted through some other Thursday night time recreation lately, so it’s no wonder it will occur once more in 2023. The certain is that the Thanksgiving recreation towards the Commanders is the start of 3 instantly house video games that culminate with a mini bye week to organize for the Philadelphia Eagles in Dallas to kick off December. It’s by no means a very easy stretch for the Cowboys, however it has grow to be not unusual to their time table.
Four of First Six Away from Home
The first six weeks of the season isn’t their hardest stretch of video games, however the Cowboys do play 4 in their first six contests at the street. Three of the ones video games come towards 2022 playoff groups and come with back-to-back video games in California towards the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Chargers in Weeks 5 and six. The crew will most likely keep out west for the ones two weeks, which is a troublesome method to get ready for high quality warring parties. Also integrated within the early run of video games is a Week 2 matchup with McCarthy’s outdated quarterback Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets. The Jets are an upstart crew who seem to be very bad heading into the season, and it’s the primary house recreation of the season for the Cowboys.
America’s Team in Prime Time
There’s a reason why the Cowboys are known as America’s Team, and it’s as a result of they get essentially the most perspectives once they’re on tv. The league is aware of this neatly, which is why the Cowboys are scheduled for the utmost six high time video games this season, with their annual Thanksgiving recreation a 7th contest the place all eyes shall be on Dallas. The carrying global shall be solely gazing the Cowboys for over a 3rd in their video games all the way through their upcoming marketing campaign.
The hardest slate of video games for Dallas comes past due within the season, when the crew will play 4 instantly playoff groups from 2022 beginning after Thanksgiving. A house recreation towards the Seattle Seahawks at the Thursday after the vacation precedes the competition with the Eagles. Afterwards, there’s a shuttle to Buffalo to play the Bills, after which the Cowboys go back and forth to Miami to play the Dolphins. Games towards competitors and a competition more likely to be performed within the harsh prerequisites of Buffalo in December gained’t be a picnic. If the Cowboys can continue to exist the past due season gauntlet, they will have to be playoff examined.
Do you suppose the time table will permit the Cowboys to take again the NFC East crown? Share your ideas with Ben on Twitter @BenGrimaldi. | https://blackchronicle.com/dallas-cowboys-2023-schedule-breaking-it-down/ | 2023-05-17 11:52:19 | 1 | https://blackchronicle.com/dallas-cowboys-2023-schedule-breaking-it-down/ |
TX Norman OK Zone Forecast for Monday, August 8, 2022
_____
149 FPUS54 KOUN 090601
ZFPOUN
Zone Forecast Product for Oklahoma
National Weather Service Norman OK
101 AM CDT Tue Aug 9 2022
TXZ086-100900-
Wichita-
Including the cities of Sheppard AFB and Wichita Falls
101 AM CDT Tue Aug 9 2022
.OVERNIGHT...Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers and
thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 90s. Lows in the mid 70s. East
winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40 percent.
.WEDNESDAY...Partly sunny with a chance of showers and
thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 90s. Northeast winds 5 to
10 mph. Chance of rain 40 percent.
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT...Partly cloudy. Lows in the lower 70s. East
winds 5 to 10 mph.
.THURSDAY...Mostly sunny. Highs in the mid 90s. Northeast winds
5 to 10 mph.
.THURSDAY NIGHT...Mostly clear. Lows in the lower 70s. East winds
5 to 10 mph.
.FRIDAY THROUGH MONDAY NIGHT...Mostly clear. Highs in the upper
90s. Lows in the mid 70s.
.TUESDAY...Sunny.
$$
TXZ083-100900-
Hardeman-
Including the city of Quanah
101 AM CDT Tue Aug 9 2022
.OVERNIGHT...Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers and
thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 90s. Lows in the mid 70s. East
winds 5 to 10 mph with gusts up to 20 mph. Chance of rain
30 percent.
.WEDNESDAY...Partly sunny with a chance of showers and
thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 90s. Northeast winds around
5 mph. Chance of rain 40 percent.
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT...Partly cloudy with a slight chance of showers
and thunderstorms. Lows in the lower 70s. East winds 5 to 10 mph.
Chance of rain 20 percent.
.THURSDAY AND THURSDAY NIGHT...Mostly clear. Highs in the upper
90s. Lows in the lower 70s. East winds 5 to 10 mph.
.FRIDAY THROUGH MONDAY NIGHT...Mostly clear. Highs 97 to 102.
Lows in the mid 70s.
.TUESDAY...Sunny.
$$
TXZ084-100900-
Foard-
Including the city of Crowell
101 AM CDT Tue Aug 9 2022
.OVERNIGHT...Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers and
thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 90s. Lows in the mid 70s. East
winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40 percent.
.WEDNESDAY...Partly sunny with a chance of showers and
thunderstorms. Highs in the mid 90s. East winds around 5 mph.
Chance of rain 40 percent.
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT...Partly cloudy with a slight chance of showers
and thunderstorms. Lows in the lower 70s. East winds around
5 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.
.THURSDAY AND THURSDAY NIGHT...Mostly clear. Highs in the mid
90s. Lows in the lower 70s. Southeast winds 5 to 10 mph.
.FRIDAY THROUGH MONDAY NIGHT...Mostly clear. Highs in the upper
90s. Lows in the mid 70s.
.TUESDAY...Sunny.
$$
TXZ087-100900-
Knox-
Including the cities of Munday and Knox City
101 AM CDT Tue Aug 9 2022
.OVERNIGHT...Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers and
thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 90s. Lows in the mid 70s. East
winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40 percent.
.WEDNESDAY...Partly sunny with a chance of showers and
thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 90s. West winds 5 to 10 mph,
becoming northeast in the afternoon. Chance of rain 40 percent.
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT...Partly cloudy with a slight chance of showers
and thunderstorms. Lows in the lower 70s. East winds around
5 mph, becoming south around 5 mph after midnight. Chance of rain
20 percent.
.THURSDAY...Mostly sunny. Highs in the mid 90s. Northeast winds
5 to 10 mph.
.THURSDAY NIGHT...Mostly clear. Lows in the mid 70s. Southeast
winds 5 to 10 mph.
.FRIDAY THROUGH MONDAY NIGHT...Mostly clear. Highs in the upper
90s. Lows in the mid 70s.
.TUESDAY...Sunny.
$$
TXZ085-100900-
Wilbarger-
Including the city of Vernon
101 AM CDT Tue Aug 9 2022
.OVERNIGHT...Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers and
thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 90s. Lows in the mid 70s. East
winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40 percent.
.WEDNESDAY...Partly sunny with a chance of showers and
thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 90s. Northeast winds around
5 mph. Chance of rain 40 percent.
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT...Partly cloudy. A slight chance of showers and
thunderstorms in the evening. Lows in the lower 70s. East winds
5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.
.THURSDAY...Mostly sunny. Highs in the mid 90s. Northeast winds
5 to 10 mph.
.THURSDAY NIGHT...Mostly clear. Lows in the lower 70s. East winds
5 to 10 mph.
.FRIDAY THROUGH MONDAY NIGHT...Mostly clear. Highs 97 to 102.
Lows in the mid 70s.
.TUESDAY...Sunny.
$$
TXZ088-100900-
Baylor-
Including the city of Seymour
101 AM CDT Tue Aug 9 2022
.OVERNIGHT...Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers and
thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 90s. Lows in the mid 70s. East
winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40 percent.
.WEDNESDAY...Partly sunny with a chance of showers and
thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 90s. Southeast winds 5 to
10 mph, becoming northeast in the afternoon. Chance of rain
40 percent.
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT...Partly cloudy with a slight chance of showers
and thunderstorms. Lows in the lower 70s. Southeast winds around
5 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.
.THURSDAY...Mostly sunny. Highs in the mid 90s. Northeast winds
5 to 10 mph.
.THURSDAY NIGHT...Mostly clear. Lows in the lower 70s. Southeast
winds 5 to 10 mph.
.FRIDAY THROUGH MONDAY NIGHT...Mostly clear. Highs in the upper
90s. Lows in the mid 70s.
.TUESDAY...Sunny.
$$
TXZ089-100900-
Archer-
Including the cities of Archer City, Holliday, Lakeside City,
and Scotland
101 AM CDT Tue Aug 9 2022
.OVERNIGHT...Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers and
thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 90s. Lows in the mid 70s. East
winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40 percent.
.WEDNESDAY...Partly sunny with a chance of showers and
thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 90s. East winds around 5 mph.
Chance of rain 40 percent.
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT...Partly cloudy with a slight chance of showers
and thunderstorms. Humid with lows in the lower 70s. Southeast
winds around 5 mph. Chance of rain 20 percent.
.THURSDAY...Mostly sunny. Highs in the mid 90s. Northeast winds
5 to 10 mph.
.THURSDAY NIGHT...Mostly clear. Lows in the lower 70s. Southeast
winds 5 to 10 mph.
.FRIDAY THROUGH MONDAY NIGHT...Mostly clear. Highs in the upper
90s. Lows in the mid 70s.
.TUESDAY...Sunny.
$$
TXZ090-100900-
Clay-
Including the city of Henrietta
101 AM CDT Tue Aug 9 2022
.OVERNIGHT...Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers and
thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 90s. Lows in the mid 70s. East
winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40 percent.
.WEDNESDAY...Partly sunny with a chance of showers and
thunderstorms. Highs in the upper 90s. Northeast winds around
5 mph. Chance of rain 40 percent.
.WEDNESDAY NIGHT...Partly cloudy. Humid with lows in the lower
70s. East winds 5 to 10 mph.
.THURSDAY...Mostly sunny. Highs in the mid 90s. Northeast winds
5 to 10 mph.
.THURSDAY NIGHT...Mostly clear. Lows in the lower 70s. Southeast
winds 5 to 10 mph.
.FRIDAY THROUGH MONDAY NIGHT...Mostly clear. Highs in the upper
90s. Lows in the mid 70s.
.TUESDAY...Sunny.
$$
_____
Copyright 2022 AccuWeather | https://www.seattlepi.com/weather/article/TX-Norman-OK-Zone-Forecast-17360834.php | 2022-08-09 06:24:12 | 1 | https://www.seattlepi.com/weather/article/TX-Norman-OK-Zone-Forecast-17360834.php |
Annie Lane: Abusive 20-year relationship must come to an end
Published 5:45 pm Friday, January 20, 2023
Dear Annie: I see that you often answer questions pertaining to families trapped in addiction. I grew up in that special hell with all of the complex trauma issues that go along with that lifestyle.
I am a card-carrying member of Al-Anon, Alcoholics Anonymous and Adult Children of Alcoholics. I have found ACA the most helpful. You never mention it, so I thought I might bring it to your attention. The Adult Children of Alcoholics and Dysfunctional Families goes beyond Al-Anon. Sometimes, these addictions were in the previous generation, and while our parents didn’t drink, all of the emotional nonsobriety was there. ACA teaches us to go back, reparent our inner child, learn what we didn’t receive as children, then reparent and provide that love and support to ourselves. Just a suggestion. May you research it and find it useful.
— Alternative Around Alcoholism
Dear Alternative: A wonderful suggestion indeed — many thanks. You’re right that ACA reaches past Al-Anon to help those plagued with experiences of alcoholism but also general dysfunction in their childhood and home lives. Some chapters are still being developed, so if you’re interested, consult the web to see what options are available in your region.
• • •
Dear Annie: I have been with my fiance for 21 years, and we’ve been engaged for nine. We have three beautiful girls together, and he has two older kids from his previous marriage. He has always made me feel like second best. He always puts his ex’s feelings before mine and never takes what I say into consideration. I bring this up to him, and he says that I need to grow up. He tells me that my daughters and I should know our place as women.
He caters to his other two kids all the time and listens to them, but when it comes to our girls, he tells them to stop being sissies and to shut up. He tells his older kids to be there for their mom and help her out, and to my girls, he says I’m lazy and don’t care. I work 50-plus hours at the hospital and take our kids to sports while he expects to have a full-course meal on the table and for me to cater to all of his needs. He says he works hard and “doesn’t have time for this crap.” I no longer know what to do. He makes me feel unworthy, unappreciated and devalued as a human. I no longer want to be intimate with him because he makes me feel so bad about myself. I am in a verbally abusive relationship. What should I do? My girls are also being verbally disrespected.
— Woman in Need of Relationship Advice
Dear Woman in Need: You aren’t a woman in need of relationship advice; you’re a woman in need of a new relationship. This man is a walking red flag, from his disrespect toward you and your daughters to his lack of contribution in your home life to his verbal abuse and, I can’t help but notice, his failure to solidify your relationship in marriage after two decades together and a ring already on your finger.
Sharing children with this man means you will always be tied to each other, but that doesn’t mean you have to be his wife-in-waiting or his keeper anymore. Put a stop to this mistreatment. Put yourself and your happiness first. Show your girls what a healthy, loving relationship looks like and what not to settle for. There’s someone else out there who is just waiting for the chance to love you.
Send your questions for Annie Lane to dearannie@creators.com. | https://www.austindailyherald.com/2023/01/annie-lane-abusive-20-year-relationship-must-come-to-an-end/ | 2023-01-21 07:57:38 | 0 | https://www.austindailyherald.com/2023/01/annie-lane-abusive-20-year-relationship-must-come-to-an-end/ |
Sherry Mayne, a security assistant at Century High School in Sykesville, was selected this month as the Educational Support Professional of the Year by the Maryland State Education Association, according to a news release from Carroll County Public Schools.
The association said Mayne was selected based on a number of criteria including professional practice, member advocacy and association involvement, community engagement, personal achievement and enhancement of the ESP image. She will represent Maryland in the national Education Support Professional awards program.
Mayne voluntarily transferred to the newly created position of security assistant in 2017. Before then she had worked as a student assistant and instructional assistant with CCPS serving special education students in kindergarten, second and fourth grades. This included work in the CCPS Autism program, where she supported nonverbal students with severe behaviors.
According to CCPS, Mayne “consistently demonstrates a high level of professionalism with her knowledge and dedication to students and the school community.”
Cindy Porter, president of the Carroll Association of School Employees, said Mayne is “very deserving” of the recognition.
“Sherry exemplifies the qualities and professionalism of education support professionals here in Carroll County and across the state, and I am so very proud of her being recognized in this manner,” Porter said in a news release.
Carroll County Daily Headlines
Mayne serves as the CASE secretary and is redesigning CASE’s professional website. Mayne also operates a food pantry in her school community and helps organize the annual Carroll NAACP Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast, among other volunteer roles in the community.
Career and Tech Center to celebrate 50th anniversary
The Carroll County Career and Technology Center is planning an open house to celebrate its 50th anniversary. The event, which is open to the public, is set for Oct. 1, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Tours of the building will be offered for participants to see how it has changed during the last 50 years. Door prizes will be given out and three local food trucks will be on-site selling refreshments.
For more information on the center, go to https://ctc.carrollk12.org/.
More than 130 colleges and universities to visit college fair
Carroll Community College and CCPS will join forces to host the 44th annual College Fair on Oct. 10. The fair is planned from 6-8 p.m., in the Danele Shipley Memorial Arena at the Carroll County Agriculture Center in Westminster.
Students and families will have the opportunity to meet with representatives from more than 130 colleges and universities. Representatives from the military, technical schools and training programs will also attend. Counselors from CCPS high schools will be on-site to answer questions.
A listing of all registered colleges and program representatives planning to attend is located in each high school counseling office and on the Carroll Community College website at https://www.carrollcc.edu/collegefair/. | https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/carroll/education/cc-school-briefs-20220920-bkbkibyosbhw5eblihy3t5adoy-story.html | 2022-09-20 20:32:22 | 0 | https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/carroll/education/cc-school-briefs-20220920-bkbkibyosbhw5eblihy3t5adoy-story.html |
ATHENS, Ga. (AP)Kario Oquendo scored 16 points, Justin Hill added 14 points off the bench, and Georgia defeated East Tennessee State 62-47 on Sunday.
Georgia built a double-digit lead after East Tennessee State tied the game at 36 in the second half, holding the Buccaneers scoreless over the next 7 1/2 minutes. Jusaun Holt, Terry Roberts and Hill hit 3-pointers and the Bulldogs went ahead 50-36 before a 4-minute scoring drought of their own.
ETSU’s Jordan King and Georgia’s Braelen Bridges traded baskets and the offenses began to connect again. A jumper by Hill at 4:43 gave the Bulldogs a 54-41 lead and Georgia took it home from there.
Hill finished with five rebounds and four assists, and Roberts added 12 points, six rebounds, six assists and four steals although he did commit five turnovers. Georgia (5-2) got most of its production from their guards as the starting frontcourt had only seven points and seven rebounds.
Jalen Haynes scored 21 points and King added 14 for ETSU (3-4).
Georgia led 25-15 in the first half before ETSU fought to get within 26-23 with 3:22 to go. Hill and Roberts hit jumpers in the last couple of minutes and Georgia led 30-26 at halftime.
The Bulldogs play two more games in the next five days, hosting Hampton on Wednesday and Florida A&M on Friday as Bulldogs coach Mike White (248 career wins) chases the 250-win milestone.
—
More AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25 | https://www.kxnet.com/scoreboard/oquendo-hill-lead-georgia-past-east-tennessee-state-62-47/ | 2022-11-28 20:13:59 | 0 | https://www.kxnet.com/scoreboard/oquendo-hill-lead-georgia-past-east-tennessee-state-62-47/ |
In New Orleans the neutral ground is the place people come together - a place where all are welcome. Inspired by this, Mignon Faget has created a collection versatile enough for anyone and everyone. Mix and match it with your favorite pieces to create a look that's perfect for you, just as you are.
NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In New Orleans, there is a place where everyone gathers, regardless of race, economic status, age, style or opinions. Anywhere else it would be called a median, but in New Orleans, this real estate between roadways is an anything-but-ordinary location to celebrate Mardi Gras parades, gather with neighbors, dance in Second Lines and share food, drink, laughter and tears with both strangers and friends. It is this culturally important piece of real estate that inspired the newest collection by iconic jewelry house Mignon Faget – Neutral Ground.
"We designed this collection to be truly universal and celebrate the beauty that comes from our differences. The collection eschews traditional ideas about jewelry and shows that there truly are no boundaries to expression. It breaks down barriers for the wearer and gives them freedom and permission to express all parts of themselves," said Maghan Oroszi, Chief Operating and Creative Officer.
Designed to create unique looks that transcend style and outdated gender norms, pieces in the collection are not labeled as men's or women's. Sturdy chains pair effortlessly with delicate pearls and soft tones. Warm and cool palettes, mixed metals, and styles combine to make Neutral Ground a collection simply for jewelry lovers, shifting seamlessly from everyday to special occasion while elevating and complementing the unique individual style of the wearer.
The brand's vibrant fall catalog perfectly captures the spirit of the collection, following a young couple as they hop off the famed New Orleans streetcar and journey beyond the evening's festivities "headed anywhere but home." They stumble upon their own "neutral ground" in the form of an all-night diner with an eclectic cast of patrons. Over coffee, milkshakes and French fries, the strangers trade stories and become friends.
In addition to the launch of the Neutral Ground line, Mignon Faget announced the revamped return of the popular Pylon and Ironworks Collections. Pylon, which evokes monumental structures that speak to power and memorability, has been updated with mixed metal pieces and pearl accents. Ironworks, inspired by the ornamental architectural detail abundant in New Orleans wrought iron, debuts new pieces sure to excite dedicated collectors of the line.
For over 50 years, the design house of Mignon Faget has handcrafted jewelry inspired by the scenery around its home of New Orleans. Mignon Faget artisans are influenced by the city's streets that are lined with wild jasmine, wrought iron balconies, and the sparkling night sky. Never shying away from standing out, Mignon Faget is preparing to withstand the test of time.
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SOURCE Mignon Faget | https://www.wistv.com/prnewswire/2022/09/14/mignon-faget-launches-neutral-ground-collection-designed-celebrate-coming-together-inclusion/ | 2022-09-14 11:49:28 | 1 | https://www.wistv.com/prnewswire/2022/09/14/mignon-faget-launches-neutral-ground-collection-designed-celebrate-coming-together-inclusion/ |
First on CNN: Top Biden adviser’s end-of-year memo celebrates president’s ‘strong jolt of momentum’ heading into 2023
By MJ Lee and Phil Mattingly, CNN
One of President Joe Biden’s top advisers is underscoring the president’s political durability and touting a “strong jolt of momentum” as Biden heads into the second half of his term.
That’s according to a memo from Mike Donilon, a senior adviser to Biden who wrote the note that was circulated to allies Monday morning and shared with CNN.
“We see the President’s approval rating on the upswing, a resilient economic climate, and strong support for the President’s agenda,” writes Donilon, who has been one of the president’s most trusted hands for decades.
The memo captures a view inside the White House that Biden ends the year in the best position he’s held since his first six months in office, carrying with him a list of concrete legislative accomplishments that officials are planning to highlight throughout the months ahead. While not explicitly detailed in the memo itself, the catalog of positive poll numbers laid out also carry an implicit nod toward the animating factors behind a potential 2024 Biden reelection bid.
Donilon writes that one of the most important factors contributing to Biden’s upswing is a “resilient economy” as he cites jobs growth, the recent drop in gas prices and the moderation of inflation. Historically high prices have been a stubborn problem plaguing the White House for much of Biden’s first term in office so far, but recent economic indicators suggest that inflation in the US may finally be starting to slow.
“While it will take time to get inflation back to normal levels as we make the transition to stable and steady growth — and we may face setbacks along the way — we are moving in the right direction,” Donilon writes.
The three-page memo also discusses the results of the midterm election, in which Democrats far outperformed expectations. There is no question that defying a so-called “red wave” handed Biden a “strong jolt of momentum” heading into 2023, Donilon says.
In trying to make sense of why Biden’s political party performed much better than expected, Donilon says a number of factors — from “Republican extremism” to the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade to concerns about threats to democracy — were contributing factors.
“But what hasn’t been fully reported on — or fully understood — is how important a role the achievements and the agenda of the President and the Democrats played in the midterms,” Donilon writes. “And this is especially important because the popularity of these achievements and agenda will be just as important in the New Year. The ability for Democratic candidates to point to a series of popular achievements was critical to their winning campaigns.”
Among the public polling that Donilon cites in his new memo is CNN’s December survey, which showed Biden’s job approval rating at 46%. That marked an improvement from the 41% approval seen in late October, and his strongest numbers in CNN polling since a year ago.
The memo comes as Biden has said he will take time over the winter holidays to deliberate with his family whether to seek a second term, with an announcement expected in the new year.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. | https://localnews8.com/politics/cnn-us-politics/2022/12/19/first-on-cnn-top-biden-advisers-end-of-year-memo-celebrates-presidents-strong-jolt-of-momentum-heading-into-2023/ | 2022-12-19 17:59:20 | 0 | https://localnews8.com/politics/cnn-us-politics/2022/12/19/first-on-cnn-top-biden-advisers-end-of-year-memo-celebrates-presidents-strong-jolt-of-momentum-heading-into-2023/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Debt ceiling talks showed few signs of outward progress Tuesday as negotiators for President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy traded more budget-cutting ideas but Republicans warned of a “lack of urgency” at the White House to resolve the standoff in time to avert a potentially chaotic federal default.
With barely a week to go before a deadline as soon as June 1, the Democratic president and the Republican speaker were staring down a financial crisis. Failure to strike a deal would be unprecedented, and certain to throw U.S. financial markets into turmoil, inflicting economic pain at home and abroad. Markets lowered Tuesday with no deal in sight.
“We’re not there yet,” McCarthy said at the Capitol, reiterating he won’t bring any bill forward “that doesn’t spend less than we spent this year.”
Behind closed doors, McCarthy urged his slim House Republican majority to “just stick together” despite their own factions as he negotiates the strongest deal possible for conservatives, said lawmakers exiting the private session.
But McCarthy did not expect a deal by day’s end. He told reporters the teams are eyeing “creative” ways of rolling back spending that all sides can accept.
“I believe we can still get there — and get there before June 1,” McCarthy, R-Calif., said.
Dragging into a third week, the negotiations over raising the nation’s debt limit, now at $31 trillion, were never supposed to arrive at this point — a crisis in the making.
From the White House, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said it was “ridiculous” to suggest Biden wasn’t acting with urgency. “He wants to see this done as soon as possible,” she said.
The White House insisted early on it was unwilling to barter over the need to pay the nation’s bills, demanding that Congress simply lift the ceiling as it has done many times before with no strings attached.
But the newly elected speaker urged the president at an Oval Office meeting in February to come to the negotiating table on a budget package that would reduce spending to reduce ballooning deficits in the post-COVID era in exchange for the vote to allow future debt.
Both men said after a crucial meeting late Monday at the White House — after the president returned from the Group of Seven summit in Japan — that talks were productive.
But with time short to strike a deal, frustrations emerged as negotiators labored to come up with a compromise that could be approved quickly by the Republican House and the Democratic Senate and be signed into law.
Negotiations are focused on finding agreement over a 2024 budget year limit. Republicans have set aside their demand to rollback spending to 2022 levels, but say that next year’s government spending must be less than it is now. But the White House instead is offering to freeze spending at current 2023 numbers.
Agreement on that topline spending level is vital. It would enable McCarthy to deliver spending restraint for conservatives while not being so severe that it would chase off the Democratic votes that would be needed in the divided Congress to pass any bill.
“We are holding firm to the speaker’s red line,” said a top Republican negotiator, Rep. Garret Graves of Louisiana. “Which is that we will not do a deal unless it spends less money than we’re spending this year.”
With talks perhaps done for the day, Graves said there were still “significant gaps” between his side and the White House.
The Republican team worked late at the Capitol engaging in late night phone conversations with the White House team. But as they left, Graves said those gaps remain.
The White House continues to argue that deficits can be reduced by ending tax breaks for wealthier households and some corporations, but McCarthy said he told the president at their February meeting that raising revenue from tax hikes is off the table.
The negotiators are now also debating the duration of a 1% cap on annual spending growth going forward, with Republicans dropping their demand for a 10-year cap to six years, but the White House offering only one year, for 2025.
Typically, the debt ceiling has been lifted for the duration of a budget deal, and in this negotiation the White House is angling for a two-year agreement that would push past the presidential elections.
Another main Republican negotiator, Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, who joined the speaker at the Oval Office Monday evening, said, “What I sense from the White House is a lack of urgency.”
But on the Senate side, Republican leader Mitch McConnell said, “Look, I think everybody needs to relax.”
Traveling in his home state of Kentucky, McConnell said of the back and forth, “This is not that unusual.”
However, time is growing short. The House speaker promised lawmakers he will abide by the rule to post any bill for 72 hours before voting, making any action doubtful until the weekend — just days before the potential deadline. The Senate would also have to pass the package before it could go to Biden’s desk to be signed.
McCarthy faces a hard-right flank in his own party that is likely to reject any deal, and that has led some Democrats to encourage Biden to resist any compromise with the Republicans and simply invoke the 14th Amendment to raise the debt ceiling on his own, an unprecedented and legally fraught action the president has resisted for now.
On Tuesday, the leader of the conservative House Freedom Caucus Rep. Scott Perry said: “We all want to stick together. But again, it’s sticking together around the right thing.”
He and others are skeptical of the June 1 deadline that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said is when “it is highly likely” the government will be unable to pay all the nation’s bills.
Treasury said Tuesday it is keeping in close contact with federal agencies on their planned spending as it monitors cashflows.
As the negotiators focus on the $100 billion-plus difference between the 2022 and 2023 spending plans as a place to cut, other priorities Republicans are pushing as part of the deal remain on the table.
Republicans also want to beef up work requirements for government aid to recipients in the Medicaid health care program, though the Biden administration has countered that millions of people could lose coverage.
The GOP additionally wants new cuts to food aid by restricting states’ ability to waive work requirements in places with high joblessness. But Democrats have said any changes to work requirements are nonstarters.
GOP lawmakers are also seeking cuts in IRS funding and, by sparing defense and veterans accounts from reductions, would shift the bulk of spending reductions to other federal programs.
The White House has countered by keeping defense and nondefense spending flat next year, which would save $90 billion in the 2024 budget year and $1 trillion over 10 years.
All sides have been eyeing the potential for the package to include a framework to ease federal regulations and speed energy project developments. They are all but certain to claw back some $30 billion in unspent COVID-19 funds now that the pandemic emergency has officially lifted.
___
Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Mary Clare Jalonick, Chris Megerian, Darlene Superville and Fatima Hussein contributed to this report. | https://www.texomashomepage.com/news/business/ap-debt-ceiling-talks-grind-on-but-republicans-say-theres-a-lack-of-urgency-from-white-house/ | 2023-05-24 12:23:47 | 0 | https://www.texomashomepage.com/news/business/ap-debt-ceiling-talks-grind-on-but-republicans-say-theres-a-lack-of-urgency-from-white-house/ |
Backed by a new round of capital, Duckbill aims high to be a dominant player in the domestic container trucking market
BEIJING, July 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Chinese digital container logistic platform Duckbill announced today the completion of a Series C financing round valued at CNY 330 million (around USD 48.85 million). This round was led by the SAIC-CICC private equity fund. Existing shareholders including Shunwei Capital, Future Capital and Furong Capital continued to pump money into this deal.
The startup will use the fresh funds to support the ongoing research and development of digitalization in container land transportation, business expansion to more ports across China, and optimization of service, the statement reported.
A latecomer, but a quick grower
Founded in 2017 and headquartered in large-port megacity Shanghai, Duckbill is an innovator in the container trucking industry, with branches and services in all the main ports in China, including Shanghai, Ningbo, Shenzhen, Qingdao, Guangzhou and Tianjin — they are also parts of the world's top 10 busiest ports in terms of container throughputs in 2021.
Although it is only a five-year-old startup, Duckbill has previously closed six rounds of funding since its inception, snagging a total of approximately USD 200 million from a bunch of notable venture capital firms. They include Singapore's state-owned investor Temasek and growth-stage venture investor Pavilion Capital Partners. Within this frame of reference, Duckbill is the most promising drayage servicer in China.
The company has long specialized in the international freight container business — a more complex but lucrative niche market — and redefined it via its state-of-the-art algorithm-empowered software and management system. Meanwhile, with a team of experienced IT professionals from the shipping logistics industry featuring deep insights and superb execution skills, giving this trucking service platform featuring intelligent dispatching and transportation management an unparalleled advantage in upgrading the whole chain of container transportation through digital systems.
There is no doubt that Duckbill, a latecomer to the industry, has made tremendous strides in its first five-year journey.
According to the official website, it garnered the crown in terms of trucking capacity and scale, with over 2,100 trucks under control and about 13,000 partnered vehicles by the end of 2021. The volume of orders topped 1.1 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) containers in the past year accordingly, 54 times larger than that of 2017, with a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 172.3% from 2017 to 2021, putting it stands heads and shoulders above other competitors in China in this regard.
However, Duckbill's ambitions go much further than that.
It is accelerating its path of expansion actively to cover four more ports this year, namely Lianyungang, Nantong, Qinzhou and Haikou. Moreover, it also plans to build a fleet of more than 10,000 trucks serving globally by 2025; in its envisioned future, orders will accordingly enlarge over six times the size of its current operations.
The scale of its business is matched by a large number of high-profile clients. The company's official website shows that it currently ships over 100,000 foreign trade factories and serves more than 9,000 companies, including Shanghai-based logistics giant Sinotrans, China Merchants Group-backed Sinotrans (SH:601598; 0598:HK), state-owned COSCO Shipping, home appliance supplier Midea (SZ:000333) and Alibaba's logistics arm Cainiao.
Digitalization: There is hope
As with all startups EqualOcean covers, we care most about future opportunities and the potential of rising stars. Through an in-depth analysis of the company, we find a keyword in Duckbill's success — digitalization.
China's foreign trade volume stood at USD 6.05 billion in 2021, up 30.1% year-on-year despite the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to weigh on global trade, official data from the General Administration of Customs (GAC) showed earlier this year.
Buoyant exports have become the backbone of China's economy, for sure; however, with rising domestic labor costs, the labor-intensive manufacturing sector is falling out of favor with developed economies. The pandemic has accelerated this shift even more, with Southeast Asia, Africa and South America becoming more preferable options. Vietnam, for example, reported upward Q1 economic figures and promising outlook when China was fighting with Omicron flare-ups in major manufacturing hubs like Shanghai.
At the same time, the game of great powers as well as the continued industrial transformation and upgrading have all contributed to a weakening of the momentum of China's foreign exports.
"This trend is irreversible. We deeply believe that in the medium to long term, the sustainable growth for the container trucking industry pivots on utilizing digitalization and mobile interconnection to accelerate industry integration, carrying out scale operation, reducing operating costs while enhancing the customers' experiences," said Duckbill, who has faith in this assertion and been decisively engaged in it. The paperless campaign that has been vigorously promoted in recent years has further strengthened the industrial base in building a digital truck land transportation industry.
In fact, the whole world is going digital, and not just shipping. Since 2016, the world's largest container firm Maersk, SIPG (SH:600018), China Merchants Group, China COSCO and a slew of others logistics companies have put forward a vision for the development of digital transformation. While only until recent years, the urgency is being rapidly amplified.
It follows that the company attaches great importance to research and development along with technological transformation, the proportion of R&D personnel reached 30% as of the end of 2021, with dozens of in-house intellectual property rights annually.
The company's self-developed intelligent transportation service platform www.yazuishou.com provides international clients and freight forwarders a fully online, instantaneous, complete freight management system that offers immediate quotations, bookings, inspection services plus real-time 24/7 shipment track and trace under 'EXWLocal Manager.' It guarantees visible, reliable and efficient transportation services in the whole process of cross-border transportation from factories to targeted ports. Such certainty is even more crucial in the current VUCA world — volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous — and is then only available in a technology-driven company like Duckbill via its forward-looking strategies.
When it comes to the internal data center, its dispatching system, transportation management and risk control system are also noteworthy. Based on big data, Chinese satellite navigation system Beidou as well as AI-powered algorithms, Duckbill enables intelligent dispatching and real-time dynamic supervision of trucks on the run. Instantaneous data exchange also creates positive synergies in processes of transportation, loading, terminal release and customs clearance. Highly granular customer data analysis is another highlight of its digitalization solutions, which enables Duckbill to maximize user contributions, helping it to personalize its services, identify and fill in the gaps in its current operational capabilities.
In addition to its ongoing digital enhancements to optimize customer experience, Duckbill also values its freight drivers truly. It has launched a one-stop service terminal for container truck drivers named Future Truck Boss, a 'freight version' of Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi's app. The mobile app provides drivers with a series of after-vehicle services such as pick-ups, collaboration, billing and refueling, which greatly lowers the thresholds for drivers to enter the industry, saves time and boosts efficiency. At the same instant, thanks to Duckbill's intelligent dispatching algorithms and 7/24 manual support, drivers on the platform can also enjoy a stable, standardized and guaranteed workflow. This is something not offered by Duckbill's rivals in the traditional trucking industry.
Tang Hongbin, the founder of Duckbill, told EqualOcean that the rational and effective application of new technology is the strongest driver of the industry. "We have made digitization our core competency at the current stage and continued to optimize customer service in exchange for a higher level of trust."
Rosy future ahead
China overtook the United States as the world's largest trader in goods for the first time in 2013, and even in the eventful 2021, China still maintained that lead.
The fact that container land transportation between factories and domestic ports is entirely undertaken by domestic freighters has created the largest as well as the most geographically concentrated niche market in the world. According to the Ministry of Transport, the container handling volume at China's ports stood at 282.72 million TEUs in 2021, which gives the A-level player Duckbill in this segment a large growth potential.
"Looking ahead, we must embrace new technologies such as autonomous driving to strengthen our overwhelming advantages," added Tang, whose team also eyes on the research and development of autonomous driving in port scenarios with a CNY 200 billion market cap. Currently, Duckbill is incubating its sub-brand BOOM, with plans to have a production model off the line by 2024 and mass production capability by 2025. "We expect auto-driving to reshape the economic model of the container logistics industry."
The fully-automated logistic plant with zero carbon emissions is also on its list, which is designed to improve both security and efficiency via intelligent algorithms and big data analysis. It would also be a showcase for Duckbill's social responsibility.
At present, Duckbill gets further ahead of its challengers in a number of key indicators, including fleet size, transport flexibility and visibility, fulfillment capacity and the volume of orders. It is telling a new story to the capital markets: starting from container trucking, it is heading towards the prosperous track of building a closed-loop for the whole on-land logistics market.
This path contains sizable opportunities, although Duckbill's future may not always be roses and rainbows; maybe, long-termism is the best answer.
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Bao Tong, who was the highest-ranking Chinese official imprisoned over the pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square that ended in mass carnage in 1989, and who later became an acerbic outsider-critic of the Communist Party, died Nov. 9 in Beijing. He was 90.
The cause was acute leukemia, said his son, Bao Pu.
For a decade, Bao was a top aide to Zhao Ziyang, the liberalizing party leader who was ousted shortly before the Tiananmen crackdown. After his release from prison, Bao — who spent the rest of his life under surveillance — used essays, interviews and Twitter to denounce China’s autocratic turn.
In the mid-1980s, he was central to devising Zhao’s political reform proposals to rein in the party’s power and expand public oversight of officials. In his later years, he saw little near-term hope that the party would reopen the way for democratic changes, yet he stayed optimistic that China would eventually take that path. And that shift, Bao said, would demand confronting the traumas of June 1989, when troops shot protesters in Beijing and other Chinese cities, with estimates of the death toll ranging from the hundreds to the thousands.
“The ‘June 4’ student democracy movement of 1989 was the great event, the one most worthy of the Chinese people’s pride, that I experienced in my life,” Bao wrote this year in an article for Radio Free Asia. But the bloodshed, he added, had “brazenly opened up a new era where state power has no constraints and civic rights have lost their safeguards.”
He had already been thrown in secret detention when soldiers began shooting their way toward Tiananmen Square on the night of June 3. He had been involved in Zhao’s efforts to stave off plans to quell the protests with force, and hard-line officials had accused Bao of leaking plans for martial law, an allegation he adamantly rejected. A driving force behind the crackdown, Bao later argued, was a “coup” to derail Zhao and his liberalizing policies.
Bao was one of the few survivors from a cohort of officials who had joined Mao Zedong’s revolution as idealistic students, fired up by hopes that the Communist Party could deliver broad democratic freedoms to China.
Bao died 2 1/2 weeks after Xi Jinping secured a new term, entrenching an authoritarian resurgence.
“What matters for all of us is the future that we strive for,” Bao said when celebrating his 90th birthday four days before his death, according to his daughter, Bao Jian. “We have to do what we can, should and must today, and do it well.”
Bao’s wife, Jiang Zongcao, died Aug. 21 at 90. Their deaths have been widely mourned by friends and supporters in China, although official media have not mentioned the deaths and social media sites have tried to stifle the news.
Bao Tong was born on Nov. 5, 1932, in Haining, Zhejiang province, in eastern China, the third of six children. His father, Bao Peiren, a manager in an enamel products factory, and his mother, Wu Heng, a homemaker, immersed their children in learning.
The family fled the Japanese invasion in 1938, settling in what was then the French-controlled section of Shanghai. Bao recalled reading “The Observer,” an influential liberal magazine, as well as Mencius, the ancient Chinese sage, who, he said, “made me understand that people should treat other people also as people.”
After Japan’s defeat, China’s ruling Nationalist Party vied for control of the country with the Communist Party, which Bao saw as an idealistic alternative to the corruption and despotism of the Nationalists. He joined the communists in April 1949, months before Mao proclaimed the People’s Republic.
“I was elated to join the Communist Party out of my striving for democracy,” Bao said in his memoirs, which are in private circulation. “Back then I didn’t have the slightest understanding that there was a conflict between seeking democracy and the supremacy of the Communist Party.”
He rose in the party organization. In 1955, he married Jiang Zongcao, a fellow official who became an expert in Spanish and later co-translated Gabriel García Márquez’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude.”
Bao was a loyal communist, but his educated background and ties to banned liberal traditions created troubles for him. During Mao’s tumultuous Cultural Revolution, Bao spent more than six years undergoing indoctrination at a school in the countryside.
After Mao died, Bao joined a wave of officials who put their energies into China’s modernization.
He was working in the State Science and Technology Commission in 1980 when Zhao Ziyang, a provincial leader with a reputation for innovation, was promoted to the central leadership in Beijing. Bao became his secretary, advising him on policy decisions and helping him navigate the political currents of the post-Mao, market-friendly era of Deng Xiaoping.
Early on, Zhao offered an oblique warning to Bao: “Some people judge me as enlightened in economic reform and conservative in political reform, and that’s quite apt.” Bao took the statement as a caution not to push for big political changes.
As China’s premier from 1980, in charge of running the government, Zhao focused on loosening state control over farmers and factories, encouraging foreign investors and nurturing private commerce, all at a time when mention of a “market economy” was heretical to many officials. Deng then decided that “political system reform” was needed to protect China’s economic gains from corruption and inefficiency.
Bao oversaw a research office integral to creating Zhao’s blueprint for political reforms. Both men knew that Deng could withdraw his support if their proposals went too far.
“We worked together, we ate together — in the first year we even didn’t have any weekends,” said Wu Guoguang, a professor at Stanford University who had been recruited to help in Bao’s office. The work led staff members to suffer dental problems, insomnia and exhaustion. “Bao Tong disease,” they called it.
Both Bao and Zhao were idealists, Wu said, but “as veteran politicians, experiencing the Cultural Revolution — Mao’s years — surviving so many purges and political campaigns, I think they were highly practical at the same time.”
In 1987, Deng abruptly demoted Hu Yaobang, the party’s liberal-minded general secretary. After Zhao replaced Hu as party leader, he and Bao scored a major victory when Deng approved — and a party congress endorsed — their proposals for measured political change. Bao’s role in helping to draft the main report for that congress, a high-water mark for liberalizing hopes in China, was one of his proudest moments, his son said.
Still, inflation and corruption were feeding public anger and provoking calls from intellectuals and students for bolder political changes.
“I thought that under the conditions then, an outbreak of a large-scale social incident was possible,” Bao wrote in his memoirs. The key, he told his staff, would be too avoid resorting to the party’s old, draconian ways and instead solve conflict through negotiation.
Bao’s fears came true the next year, when the sudden death of Hu, the ousted party leader, ignited student protests demanding democratic changes. Hard-line officials favored a tough response.
On the night of May 17, 1989, Zhao called Bao into his office and told him to draft Zhao’s resignation letter.
Eleven days later, Bao was summoned to the party’s headquarters, where a car with police number plates waited to drive him to the top-security Qincheng Prison. He had been charged with leaking word that martial law was coming, an accusation he vehemently denied.
“From now on you’re called 8901,” a guard said, Bao wrote in his memoirs. “I evaporated like a drop of water, disappearing from family and friends, from official circles.”
He refused to turn on Zhao. At his trial, held in secret, prosecutors revised the charges, accusing Bao of spreading word of Zhao’s resignation, an allegation he also fought.
“I can keep a secret,” he recalled telling Zhao.
He was expelled from the party and sentenced in 1992 to seven years in prison. He was the most senior official convicted in relation to the upheavals of 1989. (Other ousted officials, like Zhao, were detained but never convicted.)
Released in 1997 after a year in informal detention, Bao began to speak up, casting aside the reticence that had been required of him as a senior party aide.
He gave interviews and issued letters demanding that the party overturn its condemnation of the 1989 protests, and he called for China to restart political liberalization. When he turned up at gatherings in Beijing, a rustle of excitement greeted his arrival. He was often followed by plain clothes security police.
“In the past I believed in communism; now I don’t think it’s worth believing in,” he told a foreign reporter in 2012 as security officers looked on. “Now I just think that Marx had some nice ideas. He said the poor are worth helping.”
Bao’s disappointment with China’s leaders intensified after Xi took power in 2012 and reversed many of China’s gains.
Bao read widely, from classical Chinese texts to Anne Rice’s “The Vampire Chronicles,” his son said. He also jumped over China’s censorship wall to use Twitter, where he described himself as a “Chinese citizen.” After Mikhail Gorbachev’s death this year, he tweeted: “Bao Tong bows in respect.”
Wu Wei, an aide to Bao in the 1980s, said of him: “I felt he still carried the spirit of an old-style Chinese intellectual. He stayed much the same person he always was.”
His son and daughter are his only immediate survivors.
Bao was never allowed to meet with Zhao after 1989. But in 2019, the authorities let him visit the grave of Zhao and Zhao’s wife.
“They’re finally free and at peace,” Bao wrote at the time. “I wish that all Chinese people can have freedom and peace in this world.” | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/bao-tong-90-dies-top-chinese-official-imprisoned-after-tiananmen/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world | 2022-11-22 21:57:26 | 0 | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/bao-tong-90-dies-top-chinese-official-imprisoned-after-tiananmen/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world |
On a chilly spring evening, Alameda Elementary parents zipped into polyester jumpsuits and teetered atop platform shoes to a fundraiser. The theme? Disco. The cause? Hiring someone to help teach their children.
After paying $85 a ticket—plus shelling out for a babysitter and any aforementioned polyester expenses—partyers could raise their paddles in a live auction for items such as a Grand Canyon Glamping Adventure (final net sale price: $3,500), round-trip private jet service to anywhere in the Pacific Northwest ($2,300), or a chance to get lucky in the raffle (tickets: $100 each) and end up with four nights at an all-inclusive resort in Cancun.
The March 11 event was held at an industrial-chic event space in inner Southeast called The Loft at 8th Avenue and cost the school foundation $55,000 to put on. It raised about $100,000 after expenses. Two-thirds of that haul Alameda gets to keep, and one-third goes to a general fund for the half of Portland public schools that don’t have foundations.
“It’s a great social event that everyone looks forward to,” says Surina Hollingsworth, chair of the Alameda School Foundation.
Well, not everyone. Cara Haskey has been an Alameda mom for eight years but has stopped attending the auction because the event never sat right with her.
“The idea that we needed to privately fundraise for public employees? I found it astonishing that it was even permitted,” says Haskey, who grew up attending public schools in rural Washington.
She went when her oldest daughter was in kindergarten and first grade because of “a palpable sense of urgency” that parents open their wallets to keep the school afloat. But a student getting to be “principal for a day” because their parents paid handsomely for the privilege at an auction? Parents feeling uncomfortable because they can’t afford to raise their paddles or attend the auction at all? Haskey was out.
And she is not alone.
The future of school auctions has become a fight so vicious that no elected official wants to touch it. It combines all the most combustible elements of Portland Public Schools: class, race and a shrinking enrollment that leaves parents scrambling for dollars like a dropped coke vial on the bathroom floor at Studio 54.
At issue: whether parents with discretionary income should be allowed to use it at lavish fundraisers to boost staffing at their kids’ public school.
At the district level, this battle over a 29-year-old tradition is playing out via dueling groups both advocating to the Portland School Board. In this corner: “Save PPS Foundations,” backed by a coalition of parents from 17 of the schools with the most active fundraising. Their foes: “Reform PPS Funding,” also backed by parents, who say they will no longer be complicit in a system they describe as unfair at best and racist at worst.
Despite several work sessions this school year to create a new foundation policy, there is still no draft and the School Board has all but kicked the can to next school year.
At the school level, parents who run foundations say they are just trying to provide students with the basics. Dissenters argue that glitzy auctions create further disparities for kids already ill-served by the school system.
This does not make one popular, whether it’s in the form of side-eye at the PTA or “lost” invitations to social events.
“There are times I’ve felt I’m a little bit on an island,” Haskey says. “I’ve also reached the point where I’m OK on an island.”
The Reform PPS Funding movement is run by Beth Cavanaugh, a Southeast Portland parent who published her University of Portland doctoral dissertation in 2022 about equity issues with Portland Public Schools foundations. Cavanaugh began her PPS mom life in the Abernethy Elementary mainstream: helping out with classroom art projects and attending the school auction.
“I love a party,” she says. “I didn’t stop and look around to see who wasn’t there.”
Through her work on a school boundary change committee, Cavanaugh started to connect with parents across the district and dig into fundraising data. “The time was ripe,” she says, for a discussion of social and racial inequity. The Reform PPS Funding website went live shortly after the Black Lives Matter summer of 2020.
Voicing her dissent to the established power structure at Abernethy came with steep social costs. She paused, took a deep breath, and warned “it makes me a little sad to talk about this,” before answering a question about the personal impact of her advocacy work. She lost friendships.
“I didn’t feel like I was always welcome in our school community anymore,” Cavanaugh says. “I’d show up to a PTA meeting and it was like, ‘Roll your eyes, here comes Beth again.’”
There were certainly other like-minded parents on the issue: Cavanaugh received anonymous text messages thanking her for speaking up at those same PTA meetings. But for most people, it wasn’t worth sacrificing peace on the sidelines at Saturday soccer games.
Critics of auctions have a simple beef: The schools that raise the most money tend to be in the richest, whitest neighborhoods.
For example, the top-earning foundation in the district last year was Duniway Elementary School’s, which raised more than a quarter-million dollars (see “Big Spenders,” page 17). Duniway stands serenely in the leafy Eastmoreland neighborhood of Southeast Portland. The school’s student body is about 82% white this year, compared to 55% in the district overall, according to PPS. (Disclosure: My children go to Duniway, and I have paid to attend the school’s auction three times, including this April.)
Duniway’s auction this year was also disco-themed, in part to allow an easy swapping of volunteers and decorations with Alameda.
While boozy auctions remain a rite of spring at those two schools, the tradition is fading at others.
Beverly Cleary K-8 School in Grant Park hosts an online-only school auction these days. The school’s foundation raised $39,000 last school year, including proceeds from the virtual auction. In 2018, Beverly Cleary’s auction alone raked in $178,000.
Alameda, while still hosting a robust auction, has made some shifts in the name of equity. The silent auction is online so anyone can participate, “principal for a day” is a thing of the past, and families and staff can “pay what you wish” for admission.
Vernon K-8 School in Northeast Portland stopped calling it a school “auction” six years ago because “that name evokes uncomfortable feelings for a lot of our community members,” says Vernon PTA president Maya Pueo von Geldern.
Von Geldern has two children at the school. She remembers feeling astonished when a family paid $1,600 for a classroom’s quilt project at the auction she attended when her oldest was in kindergarten.
“But when I learned about things happening at other schools, where they’re fundraising to make sure all their kids have coats for the winter or food for over vacations, those moments of excitement started to feel icky,” von Geldern says.
Vernon hosted its last “Night Out for the Owls” (the school mascot) three years ago. Despite the name change and tickets priced on a sliding scale, the event still felt divisive.
“It is still a room full of people spending money,” von Geldern says. “It is never going to be comfortable if you’re trying to pay rent and get food on the table.”
While Vernon no longer has an active foundation, the PTA is planning a community carnival June 2 with live music, food trucks, bouncy slides and games. There will be items available for “silent bidding.”
To understand how Portland Public Schools fundraising got to this point, let’s rewind to Nov. 6, 1990. Voters passed property tax limit Measure 5, which put funding for public schools in the hands of the state. PPS students soon noticed that they had to use glue sticks down to the nub and tattered textbooks would have to live to see yet another school year.
To stop the hemorrhaging, the Portland School Board passed a policy in 1994 allowing schools to establish foundations. Those foundations raised $2.76 million in the 2021-22 school year—less than one-tenth of 1% of the district’s budget.
Foundations are separate from parent teacher associations, which can fundraise for classroom needs, such as art supplies or books, but not for teachers or staff.
“There is a perception that our schools are flush with programming, and that’s just not true,” says Donna Ingram, foundation chair at Rieke Elementary in Southwest. “We have no music, no band, nothing. We fundraise just for part-time art. We have no EAs [educational assistants].”
Ingram goes to Rieke frequently to assist her own neurodiverse child because “there is nobody else to help.”
Portland Public Schools’ system of foundations that can hire teachers for individual schools is rare in public education, Cavanaugh says. In the rest of the region, the Lake Oswego, West Linn-Wilsonville and Tigard-Tualatin school districts all have one central foundation. Nationally, the conversation is more about equity among school PTAs: A school district outside of Chicago is in the midst of a familiar-sounding “PTA Equity Project” to spread the wealth more evenly.
Many of the Portland schools that do not have foundations receive Title I funds from the federal government, which is extra money for schools with a high percentage of low-income children. Separate from that, the district’s budget also provides extra money for high-needs kids and students of color, allowing them to hire more teachers and have smaller class sizes.
But the biggest factor in school funding? Enrollment. And Portland elementary enrollment has dropped by 17.3% since the 2018-19 school year, according to district data (“Big Kid on Campus,” WW, April 12).
Some schools have been hit particularly hard, including Alameda, whose enrollment has fallen 26%, a loss of nearly 200 students, over the past five years.
Hollingsworth, Alameda’s foundation chair, has noticed a massive exodus to private schools. “It’s upsetting, but I also understand why families are wanting to go,” she says. “They are fed up with the district and fed up with huge class sizes.”
When students walk away from their neighborhood school, they take their attached funding with them. Fewer students mean fewer teachers and, paradoxically, larger class sizes.
All three classes of Alameda’s second grade have 30 or 31 students in them, Hollingsworth says. Districtwide, the median class size in second grade is 21, according to Portland Public Schools data.
Schools are still dealing with well-documented pandemic effects, such as learning loss and behavioral challenges.
“What’s not being discussed is the mental health crisis that is happening,” Hollingsworth says. “Whether it’s in the form of smaller class sizes or more educational assistants, we just need more help with students.”
One of the reform camp’s ideas is to do away with foundations and instead have one central fund to which parents can donate. Gary Hollands, vice chair of the Portland School Board, has floated the idea of one huge auctionlike social event at Moda Center.
Ingram, whose background is in professional fundraising, is skeptical about moving to a central fund too quickly.
“That’s a massive risk,” Ingram says. “You don’t have the relationships. Parents love the fact that they know where their money is going. Just like people vote in their best interest, they also give in their best interest.”
Board member Julia Brim-Edwards hopes that an $8 million line item in Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero’s budget will help keep the peace, at least for one year, if adopted next month. The money—about $120,000 per school—comes from leftover pandemic funds and with a lot of asterisks about how schools with foundations can use it.
“The most equitable thing to do is go down to Salem and advocate for more school funding or support the local option,” Brim-Edwards says, referring to a special levy that would raise extra property taxes for schools. “Because that is a way to help all school communities.”
Parents on both sides of the debate agree that after years of “talking to each other through the media,” as Ingram at Rieke describes it, they are finally communicating. The ice was broken after an April 12 meeting at district headquarters in which a group of about a dozen parents and School Board members talked informally for 90 minutes as custodians swept up around them and turned off the lights.
Since then, the groups have been working together to write a proposal that will revise the school district’s foundation policy. Hollingsworth uses words like “collaborative” and “civil” and “hopeful.”
“At the end of the day we all want the same thing,” Hollingsworth says. “All we want is better funding for our kids.”
Big Spenders
In the 2021-22 school year, Portland school foundations raised $2.76 million. Here are the 15 top-earning foundations that year, according to the Fund for Portland Public Schools. After the first $10,000, a school can keep two-thirds of money raised. The remaining third goes to the Fund for PPS and is distributed to schools without foundations: $10,000 to elementary, $15,000 to middle and $20,000 to high schools.
Duniway ES
$272,765
Bridlemile ES
$213,738
Richmond PK-5
$196,726
Lincoln HS
$194,569
Laurelhurst K-8
$193,701
Ainsworth ES
$157,728
Rieke ES
$125,787
Forest Park ES
$124,702
Alameda ES
$121,711
Sellwood MS
$101,400
Abernethy ES
$102,158
Cleveland HS
$97,344
Buckman ES
$77,177
Llewellyn ES
$75,692
Sunnyside K-8
$65,000
Source: Fund for Portland Public Schools | https://www.wweek.com/news/2023/05/24/are-lavish-school-auctions-a-crass-relic-or-the-way-to-give-dwindling-classrooms-a-future/ | 2023-05-24 14:22:50 | 0 | https://www.wweek.com/news/2023/05/24/are-lavish-school-auctions-a-crass-relic-or-the-way-to-give-dwindling-classrooms-a-future/ |
Physician-Lead Plastic Surgery Partnership, Supported by White Oak Global Advisors, Continues Rapid Growth Trajectory with Two New Acquisitions
MIAMI, July 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Prime Plastic Surgery & Med Spa ("Prime" or the "Company"), a healthcare partnership comprised of the country's leading board-certified aesthetic surgery practices, announced today two new acquisitions. The company also announced a strategic growth capital financing deal with White Oak Global Advisors ("White Oak" or WOGA) to fuel future acquisitions, and scale of existing operations and facilities.
Prime Plastic Surgery was founded less than three years ago by Western Metal Investments, a healthcare-focused family office lead by Dr. James Chao and George Scopetta. To date, Prime Plastic Surgery has acquired seven practices in the California and Washington DC markets to become one of the nation's largest plastic surgery groups. Addressing the challenges of a fragmented industry, Prime Plastic Surgery has created a unique physician-led business model with the goal of establishing the industry's most elite brands focused on quality surgeries and improving the patient experience.
"The cosmetic surgery industry is broken. Talented doctors spend more time worrying about backend operations and financial headaches, rather than innovating and treating their valued patients," said Dr. James Chao, Co-Founder of Prime Plastic Surgery and Western Metal Investments. "Simply put, we've found a better way. Our partnership unlocks value for leading practices, immediately reducing their cost structure, easing operational burden, and providing significant capital to scale operations. This model has proven a win-win for patients, as well as our physician-partners' bottom lines."
Prime recently completed a growth capital investment from White Oak, an alternative debt manager which has deployed over $10 billion in transactions since 2007. The initial proceeds under the deal with White Oak provided the capital necessary to execute upon these two most recent acquisitions.
White Oak, in conjunction with anticipated future growth equity from Prime's shareholders, should provide Prime Plastic Surgery with the near term capital to fuel future acquisitions, capital investment, and scaling of existing operations and facilities.
"We pride ourselves on uncovering ideas that disrupt industries and scale quickly," said Allan Marzen, Managing Director of White Oak Global Advisors. "Prime is no exception, with two visionary founders and a novel business model that will spark consolidation within an industry that direly needs it. We look forward to mutual success and significant collective returns."
Coinciding with this financing deal from White Oak, the company completed two acquisitions spanning both coasts. Changes Plastic Surgery & Spa, located in San Diego, CA is run by Gilbert Lee M.D. and Michael T. Rossi M.D. Across the country, West End Plastic Surgery, located in Washington D.C. is led by Dr Paul Ruff, M.D., Catherine Hannan, M.D., Lauren Patrick, M.D., and Lexie Wang, M.D. As with every Prime acquisition, all six doctors will remain in practice, providing continuity for patients.
"What drew me to join Prime Plastic Surgery was their Doctor-led structure and controlled operation, NOT run by a private equity fund," said Dr Michael Wong, Professor Emeritus of plastic surgery and program director at UC Davis."Private Equity is a bad word in plastic surgery, where the company is controlled by businessmen focused on profits over patients. Our goal as part of Prime is to focus on our patient service and perfecting their results."
Dr. Gilbert Lee of Changes Plastic Surgery who also recently joined Prime added. "I have friends in Dermatology and Orthopedics that sold to private equity in the past and lost control of their practice. Their practices are now on their third owner in four years because the private equity firm ultimately flipped the business for a profit. At Prime, our ultimate goal is to build and operate a world class plastic surgery practice for the long term, which is why I was comfortable incorporating my practice into Prime."
"As a doctor running a practice for decades, I understand the unique challenges of balancing medical needs with business realities," said Dr. Robert Singer, past President of The Aesthetics Society and Chairman of the medical advisory board for New Beauty magazine. "We at Prime Plastic Surgery are building something truly special, akin to an exclusive members' club where top surgeons support each other, provide best-in-class care, enhance equipment, and elevate the patient experience. This evolution makes private practice sustainable for the future."
Prime Plastic Surgery consists of the top board-certified surgeons in the country providing the highest caliber of patient care. We offer cosmetic procedures, both surgical and non-surgical, to help patients achieve truly life-changing results. Through an innovative business model, we have compiled under one corporate entity several leading practices across the country, reducing costs and enhancing patient care. For more information, visit www.PrimePlasticSurgery.com.
Western Metal Investments is a family office focusing on the healthcare industry. The Company was founded though a joint venture partnership by George Scopetta and Dr. James Chao. Through their investments in ShareMD, Revival Health and now Prime Plastic Surgery the goal is to invest in innovative and creative companies in the healthcare field that can improve on patient care and access to medicine. For more information, visit www.westernmetalinvestments.com.
White Oak Global Advisors, LLC is a leading alternative debt manager specializing in originating and providing financing solutions to facilitate the growth, refinancing and recapitalization of small and medium enterprises. Together with its financing affiliates, WOGA provides over twenty lending products to the market, including term, asset-based, and equipment loans, to all sectors of the economy. Since its inception in 2007, WOGA and its affiliates have deployed over $10 billion across its product lines, utilizing a disciplined investment process that focuses on delivering risk-adjusted investment returns to investors while establishing long term partnerships with our borrowers. White Oak's senior debt investments can extend up to $150 million. More information can be found at www.whiteoaksf.com.
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SOURCE Prime Plastic Surgery & Med Spa | https://www.mysuncoast.com/prnewswire/2022/07/21/prime-plastic-surgery-enters-strategic-financing-partnership-with-white-oak-closes-its-sixth-seventh-acquisitions/ | 2022-07-21 14:19:31 | 0 | https://www.mysuncoast.com/prnewswire/2022/07/21/prime-plastic-surgery-enters-strategic-financing-partnership-with-white-oak-closes-its-sixth-seventh-acquisitions/ |
Lightning win Game 5, deny Avs chance to take Stanley Cup
DENVER (AP) — The Tampa Bay Lightning spoiled Colorado’s party to stay in the hunt for a third straight Stanley Cup title, beating the Avalanche 3-2 on Friday night in Game 5.
Ondrej Palat scored with 6:22 remaining and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 35 shots in front of a raucous crowd hoping to celebrate the Avalanche’s first championship in 21 years. The Cup was all shined up and in the building, too.
It’s heading back to Tampa for Game 6 on Sunday night. The Lightning trail the best-of-seven series 3-2.
“Listen, this is a huge challenge for us,” Lightning forward Pat Maroon said. “An exciting challenge, too. You’ve got to be excited for this challenge and embrace it.”
Nikita Kucherov and defenseman Jan Rutta also scored for the Lightning. Valeri Nichushkin and Cale Makar had goals for Colorado. Makar’s third-period tally bounced off the skate of Erik Cernak and through the pads of Vasilevskiy to tie it at 2.
That set the stage for Palat, whose shot slipped through the pads of Darcy Kuemper. It was his 16th career go-ahead playoff goal, which trails only Brayden Point (18) in franchise history.
“I thought I played it well, slid over,” Kuemper said. “It just found a little hole.”
Tampa Bay regrouped after an emotional Game 4 loss at home on a overtime goal from Colorado forward Nazem Kadri. The Lightning felt the Avalanche might have had too many players on the ice on the winner.
A too many players on the ice penalty was called Friday on Colorado with 2:43 remaining. The Lightning went on the power play and made it so that Colorado couldn’t pull Kuemper until around 30 seconds remaining. They weathered the Avalanche’s late barrage.
Just the Lightning showing their championship mettle. They’ve already rallied back from a 3-2 deficit to Toronto in the first round, and climbed out of a 2-0 hole against the New York Rangers in the Eastern Conference finals.
Completing this comeback series win would put them in an entirely different category. Only one team has rallied to capture a Game 7 in the final after trailing 3-1 in a series — the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs.
This is a gritty Lightning squad that’s showing no signs of slowing down even against a speedy Avalanche team and even after all the contests they’ve logged. Tampa Bay has played in 67 postseason games since the start of the first round in 2020. That’s basically an entire extra season.
Their resolve has impressed Lightning coach Jon Cooper. His team improved to 3-0 this season when facing potential elimination games.
The Avalanche are trying to capture their first title since 2001. The Avalanche fans were out in full force — both inside the building (an upper-level ticket on game day was going for around $1,500) and outside at a nearby watch party.
“It’s not supposed to be easy and it’s not going to be easy,” Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said. “We knew that coming into this. We knew that coming into tonight. ... Short memory in the playoffs and that’s what we’re going to do.”
The Avalanche are 2 for 2 in their visits to the Stanley Cup Final. They also won in 1996, which was their inaugural season in Denver after relocating from Quebec.
Soon after Nichushkin tied it at 1-apiece in the second, Kucherov knocked in a goal off the post. The power-play goal was with Alex Killorn in the box for holding, along with J.T. Compher (holding the stick) and Makar (tripping), making for a 4-on-3 situation.
Bednar wasn’t thrilled with the call on Makar.
“There was no intent there. I don’t even think he was checking that guy,” Bednar said. “Look to me like he kind of tripped over a stick. It’s a tough one.”
Rutta zapped some of the energy from the crowd with his first goal of the playoffs. It was on a slapshot from the side that slipped through Kuemper.
It bode well for the Lightning — teams that score the first goal when staring at elimination in the final are now 55-25.
“The mental fortitude you have to have to play in the environment they just played in, there’s a reason these guys have a couple rings on their fingers,” Cooper said.
___
More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.dakotanewsnow.com/2022/06/25/lightning-win-game-5-deny-avs-chance-take-stanley-cup/ | 2022-06-25 04:37:46 | 1 | https://www.dakotanewsnow.com/2022/06/25/lightning-win-game-5-deny-avs-chance-take-stanley-cup/ |
If Camden Yards is to host more concerts like the upcoming Paul McCartney show or the Billy Joel performance from 2019, the Orioles do not want to share the profits with the state.
The Orioles’ lease with the Maryland Stadium Authority, which owns Oriole Park at Camden Yards, gives the MSA the option to participate (or not participate) financially in non-baseball special events at the venue. If the MSA opts in to an event, it receives 45 percent of the revenue while the Orioles receive 55 percent.
However, for the June 12 show featuring music legend McCartney, the Orioles have asked the MSA to opt out. The MSA Board of Directors unanimously agreed to do so during a meeting Tuesday.
“The Orioles have told us that our participation in these will be and is a significant disincentive for them to bring further events to the stadium,” MSA executive director Michael Frenz said during the meeting. “We obviously have a desire to maximize these events, so in this case, we have elected to acquiesce to what they have told us and opt out from this financial participation in the Paul McCartney concert.”
So, the Orioles will receive all revenue from the event. But they also accept all the risk. Should the concert lose money due to inclement weather or any other reason, the MSA would not suffer a loss, but the Orioles would.
“Hopefully June 12 turns out to be a beautiful night, but it could rain, things happen,” said MSA chairman Thomas Kelso, “and so there are risks when you have these concerts and under this scenario, we have zero risk.”
There is a 10% amusement tax on tickets to the event, from which 20% goes to the city and 80% goes to the MSA.
“It’s a great thing. We take no risk and we make 8% of the total amount of tickets sold,” Kelso said of the amusement tax. He estimated tax revenue for the MSA to be $700,000 or $800,000. “If they don’t do events, we don’t get anything. We get 8% of zero.”
Leonard Attman, a member of the MSA board, asked what the potential loss in revenue would be for opting out, which Frenz said was not known. Minerva Riddick, another member of the Board, asked if the decision to opt out was a “permanent no.” Kelso didn’t directly answer, but said the MSA should be amenable to opting out in the future because they still will yield 8% of the amusement tax — which they wouldn’t receive if the Orioles weren’t hosting concerts at all.
Oriole Park has historically been very much a baseball-specific venue. A sold-out crowd of about 40,000 watched Billy Joel in 2019, which was the park’s first major concert.
“The Orioles never did anything other than play baseball and have the pope,” Kelso said, referencing a visit by Pope John Paul II in 1995.
Like the McCartney concert, the MSA also opted out of sharing revenue from the Billy Joel show three years ago, a concession the MSA made to encourage the team to continue to bring in more non-baseball events.
When the Orioles were asked if, in the future, they would ask the state to opt out of financial participation in concerts, the team did not answer directly. The Orioles provided a statement to the Baltimore Sun, saying it was investing resources in making Camden Yards “one of the premier, year-round entertainment destinations for world-renowned artists and tourists alike.”
“After experiencing incredible success with the sold-out Billy Joel concert in 2019, we intend to build upon that achievement by hosting one of the greatest musicians of all-time in Sir Paul McCartney, a major step in bringing more concerts, festivals, and entertainment events to Charm City,” the statement continued. “We look forward to continuing our collaborative efforts with the city, the state, and our many community partners to drive another 75 million people to Downtown Baltimore and ultimately extend upon the club’s more than 10 billion dollar impact for the State of Maryland.”
In their 2019 financial and annual review, the MSA wrote that it was pleased with the Billy Joel concert and “looks forward to future bookings at the beloved ballpark.”
McCartney will play Camden Yards on Sunday, June 12 beginning at 8 p.m. as part of the “Got Back” tour. It’s his first show in Baltimore since the Beatles played in the city in 1964.
() | https://www.twincities.com/2022/05/04/orioles-say-sharing-concert-profits-with-state-is-a-disincentive-to-hosting-acts-like-paul-mccartney-billy-joel/ | 2022-05-05 08:27:01 | 0 | https://www.twincities.com/2022/05/04/orioles-say-sharing-concert-profits-with-state-is-a-disincentive-to-hosting-acts-like-paul-mccartney-billy-joel/ |
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Reese Congleton grew up in Colorado Springs feeling as if she had to keep her queer identity quiet, and because she hadn’t come out to many people, she was nervous to go to Club Q for the first time.
But on Monday she recalled how the rainbow lights bounced around the room and the lively crowd shared her excitement. Congleton, 19, said she went from feeling like she had been merely tolerated in public to “being celebrated. … It’s really special not to feel alone.”
In the mostly conservative city of Colorado Springs, Club Q has long been a go-to spot for members of the LGBTQ community — a safe space where many felt they could let down their guard and just be themselves. It’s a place where LGBTQ teenagers can’t wait to be old enough to enter. It’s one of the first spots new LGBTQ residents are sent to meet others in the community and feel a sense of belonging.
But that sense of safety was shattered this weekend when a gunman entered the club as people were drinking and dancing — killing five people and leaving 17 with gunshot wounds. As the community mourned the lives lost, many were also grieving because it happened at a place that’s seen as a sanctuary for many longing to fit in.
“We weren’t out harming anyone. We were in our space, our community, our home, enjoying ourselves like everybody else does,” said Joshua Thurman, who was on the dance floor when the shooting started. “How can we now do anything knowing something like this can happen?”
An 18-and-up gay and lesbian nightclub, Club Q features dancing, drag shows, karaoke and drag bingo, according to its website. Its Facebook page boasts “Nobody Parties like Club Q!,” and posts flyers for a Halloween party, a shots party, as well as trivia. Some described it as a cozy, welcoming place that drew those who wanted to sit down for a meal and relax, as well as those who wanted to dance into the morning hours.
The club’s doors remained closed after the shooting, as many people left flowers at a growing memorial nearby.
Stoney Roberts, the southern Colorado field organizer for One Colorado, an LGBTQ advocacy group, described it as a sacred space and said the shooting felt like a “desecration.”
Roberts, who identifies as a nonbinary trans person, graduated from high school in 2007 and couldn’t wait to be old enough to go to Club Q, which, Roberts said, back then was one of the only safe spaces in Colorado Springs for LGBTQ people.
“I came of age there,” said Roberts, who performed in Club Q’s drag shows from 2009 through 2011. “If it were not for Club Q, if it were not for the experiences I had there, I would not be the person I am.”
A sense of home for members of the LGBTQ community is what Matthew Haynes, one of the club’s co-founders, hoped to create when he started the club two decades ago.
“There have been so many happy stories from Club Q,” Haynes told The Colorado Sun. “People meeting and relationships being born. So many celebrations there. We’re a family of people more than a place to have a drink and dance and leave.”
Colorado’s laws are now among the country’s friendliest to LGBTQ people, though it wasn’t always that way, and Colorado Springs was particularly unwelcoming.
The city of 480,000 located 70 miles (110 kilometers) south of Denver has long held a prominent place for the American evangelical Christian movement. Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian ministry that lobbied for years against LGBTQ rights, has its headquarters there.
After the attack, Focus on the Family president Jim Daly said in a statement that the shooting “exposes the evil and wickedness inside the human heart. We must condemn in the strongest terms possible the taking of innocent life.”
The city’s extensive military presence also contributes to its conservative slant. It’s home to the United States Air Force Academy, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), Peterson Space Force Base and a large Army base, Fort Carson. Many military veterans also live there.
After the shooting, Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez said in a statement that Club Q is a safe haven for LGBTQ people, and “every citizen has the right to be safe and secure in our city; to go about our beautiful city without fear of being harmed or treated poorly.”
Congleton and Ashlyn May, 18, said growing up in Colorado Springs they often felt they had to keep their true selves hidden. May recalled being looked at with disgust when, in a middle school class, she proposed that Queen’s song “I Want to Break Free” was about exploring coming out as gay.
Even now, “it’s scary to hold hands in public,” Congleton said.
But Club Q gave them a place to be themselves. May regularly attends bingo on Wednesday evenings, where a drag queen’s compliment about an outfit tore away their insecurities. “Yes, I am hot!” said May, who was excited to bring their queer younger sister to Club Q for bingo this week to show her “it’s okay to be queer, and it’s okay to love who you love.”
Justin Godwin, 24, and his friend visited Club Q for the first time Saturday and left in an Uber just minutes before the shooting. He said he’s been thinking of all the people who were dancing, sitting at the bar and enjoying the night.
“They’re all there for different reasons, whether they’re regulars, their first time, they’re celebrating something. It’s just supposed to be a fun environment where we feel safe, where people aren’t judging you, giving you looks or anything,” Godwin said. “You’re just being yourself, like no matter how you look, like everyone just feels welcome.”
“It’s just crazy to think someone had the intentions to go in there and just do any harm to anybody,” he said. “It’s just sad for people who find a home somewhere and it gets ruined.”
Korrie Bovee, who identifies as queer, said Club Q has been the cornerstone of a community of like-minded people who have each others’ backs, in a city where verbal harassment is not uncommon and freedom to be oneself is not always found in schools or churches.
“My kids live here,” the 33-year-old said, wiping a tear from her eye. “It’s just hard to know I’m raising my kids in this context.”
Roberts said that as a Black queer person, most places in Colorado Springs seem welcoming, but there is always that “underlying nuance of realizing where you are.”
At Club Q: “You can take a deep breath and you can be your authentic self.”
__
Forliti reported from Minneapolis. Associated Press writers Jamie Stengle in Dallas and David Crary in New York contributed. | https://www.conchovalleyhomepage.com/ap-health/ap-some-say-gay-club-shooting-was-desecration-of-safe-space/ | 2022-11-22 17:27:05 | 1 | https://www.conchovalleyhomepage.com/ap-health/ap-some-say-gay-club-shooting-was-desecration-of-safe-space/ |
NEW YORK, Jan. 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --
WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of the securities of Sunlight Financial Holdings Inc. f/k/a Spartan Acquisition Corp. II (NYSE: SUNL, SPRQ) between January 25, 2021 and September 28, 2022, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), of the important February 14, 2023 lead plaintiff deadline.
SO WHAT: If you purchased Sunlight securities during the Class Period you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement.
WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the Sunlight class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=10554 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than February 14, 2023. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.
WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources, or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually handle securities class actions, but are merely middlemen that refer clients or partner with law firms that actually litigate the cases. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm has achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs' Bar. Many of the firm's attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers.
DETAILS OF THE CASE: According to the lawsuit, throughout the Class Period, defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Sunlight lacked effective underwriting and risk evaluation with respect to its contractor advance program; (2) Sunlight lacked the oversight and periodic monitoring systems necessary to timely detect bad debt associated with its contractor advance program; (3) Sunlight lacked effective internal controls over accounting and reporting of non-cash advance receivables; (4) as a result, Sunlight would be forced to take a non-cash advance receivables impairment charge exceeding $30 million; and (5) as a result, defendants' statements about its business, operations, and prospects were materially false and misleading and/or lacked reasonable basis at all relevant times. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.
To join the Sunlight class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=10554 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email pkim@rosenlegal.com or cases@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action.
No Class Has Been Certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you retain one. You may select counsel of your choice. You may also remain an absent class member and do nothing at this point. An investor's ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff.
Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/.
Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Contact Information:
Laurence Rosen, Esq.
Phillip Kim, Esq.
The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.
275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Tel: (212) 686-1060
Toll Free: (866) 767-3653
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SOURCE Rosen Law Firm, P.A. | https://www.wsaz.com/prnewswire/2023/01/27/rosen-highly-recognized-law-firm-encourages-sunlight-financial-holdings-inc-fka-spartan-acquisition-corp-ii-investors-secure-counsel-before-important-deadline-securities-class-action-sunl-sprq/ | 2023-01-27 02:02:36 | 0 | https://www.wsaz.com/prnewswire/2023/01/27/rosen-highly-recognized-law-firm-encourages-sunlight-financial-holdings-inc-fka-spartan-acquisition-corp-ii-investors-secure-counsel-before-important-deadline-securities-class-action-sunl-sprq/ |
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- Everything to know about riding S.F.'s new Muni Central SubwayThe city’s latest transit project opens with a soft launch on Saturday, after many years of delays and expectations.By Ricardo Cano | https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/article/Brooklyn-Nets-Stax-17597407.php | 2022-11-19 16:23:51 | 1 | https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/article/Brooklyn-Nets-Stax-17597407.php |
- Announces encouraging secondary endpoint results from NIH-sponsored Phase 2 clinical trial of Bryostatin-1 in advanced Alzheimer's disease patients
- Maintains strong financial position with approximately $37.5 million in cash as of December 31, 2022
- Exploring opportunities which may include acquiring rights to new assets; continuing collaborative research with strategic partners
NEW YORK, March 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Synaptogenix, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNPX) ("Synaptogenix" or the "Company"), an emerging biopharmaceutical company developing regenerative therapeutics for neurodegenerative disorders, today provided a corporate update and announced encouraging results of its analysis of secondary endpoints and post hoc analysis from its National Institute of Health ("NIH") - sponsored Phase 2 extended clinical trial evaluating the safety, tolerability, and long-term efficacy of Bryostatin-1 for the treatment of advanced Alzheimer's disease (AD).
Dr. Alan Tuchman, Synaptogenix Chief Executive Officer, stated, "Senior management and our Board of Directors have concluded an exploratory review of our business operations. With encouraging results from our secondary, exploratory, and post hoc analysis of our Phase 2 Bryostatin-1 trial results, we are continuing to evaluate next steps and will seek a validating third party strategic and non-dilutive investment partner to move forward with that program. In the meantime, we continue to evaluate the use of Bryostatin-1 with our previously announced strategic partners for additional indications, Cleveland Clinic and Nemours A.I. DuPont Hospital. Additionally, Synaptogenix remains well-funded with approximately $37.5 million in cash as of year-end 2022 and a relatively low cash burn rate, which could support a potential acquisition of asset rights or funding trials for other assets. As we evaluate these business opportunities, our primary focus is creating shareholder value, and we look forward to updating our investors on our new initiatives in the near term."
Phase 2 Bryostatin-1 Trial: Secondary and Exploratory Endpoints, Post Hoc Analysis
Synaptogenix Scientific Advisory Board Chair Dr. George Perry commented, "The secondary endpoints, together with post hoc analysis of this trial and the results of the previous trials, show material consistency in the MMSE-2 10-14 stratum, indicating that there may be continued promise for the use of Bryostatin-1 for the segment of the Alzheimer's patient population with the most advanced cases of the disease."
As previously announced, the Phase 2 Bryostatin-1 trial's primary endpoint of change from baseline in the SIB (Severe Impairment Battery) total score assessment obtained after completion of the second course of treatment (week 28) was not met with statistical significance. In the secondary endpoint analysis, changes from baseline at Weeks 9, 20, 24, 30, and 42 in the SIB total score were not statistically significant in the total patient population, and no pre-specified secondary endpoints* were met with statistical significance in the low-to-moderately severe AD patient stratum. However, nearly all pre-specified secondary endpoints in the most advanced and severe AD (MMSE: 10-14) patient population, with baseline MMSE-2 (Mini-Mental State Examination, 2nd Edition) scores of 10-14, were achieved with statistical significance (p = <0.05, 2-tailed). Data also showed statistical significance in exploratory secondary endpoints for the MMSE-2 10-14 stratum, and post hoc analysis was positive.
Secondary efficacy endpoints met with statistical significance (MMSE-2 10-14 stratum):
- Changes from baseline at weeks 20, 24, and 30 in the SIB total score.
Exploratory endpoint met with statistical significance (MMSE-2 10-14 stratum):
- Change from baseline in MMSE-2 total score at week 42.
Post hoc analysis:
- Treatment differences from the baseline SIB total score for the MMSE-2 10-14 stratum confirmed statistical significance at weeks 13, 15, 28, and 42 using Bryostatin-1.
- Trend analysis of the MMSE-2 10-14 stratum was also statistically significant.
"Our latest statistically significant results for the severe AD patient stratum (MMSE 10 -14) reinforce the observed clinical benefit for this same severe stratum in our two previous, shorter duration Phase 2 Bryostatin-1 trials. I believe these data provide promising evidence that Bryostatin-1 can prevent – not only slow – cognitive decline in advanced AD patients," stated Dr. Daniel Alkon, President and Chief Scientific Officer.
About the NIH-Sponsored Phase 2 Clinical Trial
The Phase 2 clinical trial was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study comparing 6 months' Bryostatin-1 to placebo for long-term efficacy in the treatment of advanced and moderately severe AD in the absence of memantine. The study was conducted with financial support from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), both part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
About Synaptogenix
Synaptogenix is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that has historically worked to develop novel therapies for neurodegenerative diseases. Synaptogenix has conducted clinical and preclinical studies of its lead therapeutic candidate, Bryostatin-1, in Alzheimer's disease. Preclinical studies have also demonstrated bryostatin's regenerative mechanisms of action for the rare disease Fragile X syndrome, and for other neurodegenerative disorders such as multiple sclerosis, stroke, and traumatic brain injury. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted Orphan Drug Designation to Synaptogenix for Bryostatin-1 as a treatment for Fragile X syndrome. Bryostatin-1 has already undergone testing in more than 1,500 people in cancer studies, thus creating a large safety data base that will further inform clinical trial designs. Additional information about Synaptogenix, Inc. may be found on its website: www.synaptogen.com
Forward-Looking Statements
Any statements contained in this press release that do not describe historical facts may constitute forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include statements regarding the Phase 2 clinical trial of Bryostatin-1 and further studies, and continued development of use of Bryostatin-1 for AD and other cognitive diseases. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties and other influences, many of which the Company has no control over. There can be no assurance that the clinical program for Bryostatin-1 will be successful in demonstrating safety and/or efficacy, that the Company will not encounter problems or delays in clinical development, or that Bryostatin-1 will ever receive regulatory approval or be successfully commercialized. Actual results and the timing of certain events and circumstances may differ materially from those described by the forward-looking statements as a result of these risks and uncertainties. Additional factors that may influence or cause actual results to differ materially from expected or desired results may include, without limitation, the Company's inability to obtain adequate financing, the significant length of time associated with drug development and related insufficient cash flows and resulting illiquidity, the Company's patent portfolio, the Company's inability to expand its business, significant government regulation of pharmaceuticals and the healthcare industry, lack of product diversification, availability of the Company's raw materials, existing or increased competition, stock volatility and illiquidity, and the Company's failure to implement its business plans or strategies. These and other factors are identified and described in more detail in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company does not undertake to update these forward-looking statements.
* MMSE-2 scores of 10-14 and 15-18 were the only pre-specified secondary analysis of the separate MMSE strata in the trial.
Contact:
Investors:
800-811-5591
ir@synaptogen.com
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SOURCE Synaptogenix, Inc. | https://www.kswo.com/prnewswire/2023/03/07/synaptogenix-provides-corporate-update-outlines-potential-business-opportunities/ | 2023-03-07 14:54:04 | 0 | https://www.kswo.com/prnewswire/2023/03/07/synaptogenix-provides-corporate-update-outlines-potential-business-opportunities/ |
Pope Emeritus Benedict is 'very sick,' Pope Francis reveals
Benedict, 94, stepped down from the papacy in 2013 due to health concerns
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is suffering from ill health, Pope Francis announced Wednesday as he finished his weekly general audience.
"I would like to ask all of you for a special prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict, who, in silence, is sustaining the Church," Pope Francis told attendees.
POPE WARNS OF 'ELEGANT DEMON' LURKING IN THE VATICAN
He added, "Let us remember him. He is very sick, asking the Lord to console and sustain him in this witness of love for the Church, until the end."
The Holy See Press Office later confirmed the pontiff's announcement and said Benedict has taken a turn for the worse medically, according to a report in Catholic News Agency.
POPE SAYS SOCIETY DOES NOT 'KNOW HOW TO LIVE' WITH THE RISING PROPORTION OF ELDERLY CITIZENS
"I can confirm that in the last few hours there has been a worsening due to advancing age," said Matt Bruni of the Holy See Press Office. "The situation at the moment remains under control, constantly followed by doctors."
Benedict was elected to the papacy in 2005. He later claimed that he prayed he would not be chosen but was forced to accept what he believed God calling him to service.
POPE FRANCIS WROTE A LETTER OF RESIGNATION IN 2013 IN CASE OF HEALTH IMPAIRMENTS
In February 2013, at 85 years old, Benedict became the first pope in centuries to resign from his post.
"I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise," he said at that time.
Despite his optimism, the pope emeritus has expressed exhaustion at the longevity of his own life post-papacy.
POPE CALLS FOR END TO 'SENSELESS' WAR IN UKRAINE DURING CHRISTMAS MESSAGE
Last year, Prefect of the Papal Household Archbishop Georg Gänswein recounted conversations he has had with the aging former pontiff, noting that no other pope has lived to 94 years of age.
"He tells me, ‘I’m nearly 94 years old, what do you want from me?’ He didn’t expect to live to this age," Gänswein said. "He’s even told me he didn’t imagine it would take so long to travel the distance from the end of his pontificate to meet Saint Peter at the Gate."
POPE FRANCIS DESCRIBES PRESSURES OF THE PAPACY: 'SOMETIMES, YOU FEEL YOU ARE NUMB'
Francis and Benedict have remained close since the changing of the pontificate. The two often dine together and celebrate events such as birthdays in the Papal Apartments.
Reflecting on his own advanced age, Pope Francis has previously warned that the modern world has begun to forget the importance of the elderly, and that society is not sure how to handle citizens' longer lives and advanced ages
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"We cannot speak about family without talking about the importance of the elderly among us," Pope Francis said in the announcement.
He added, "We don’t quite know how to live this new stage of life — there are many plans for assistance for the old age, but few projects for existence." | https://www.foxnews.com/world/pope-emeritus-benedict-very-sick-pope-francis-says | 2022-12-28 14:24:42 | 1 | https://www.foxnews.com/world/pope-emeritus-benedict-very-sick-pope-francis-says |
‘Gender Queer’ tops library group’s list of challenged books
NEW YORK (AP) — With Florida legislators barring even the mention of being gay in classrooms and similar restrictions under consideration in other states, a report released Monday says books with LGBTQ+ themes remain the most likely targets of bans or attempted bans at public schools and libraries around the country.
The American Library Association announced that Maia Kobabe’s graphic memoir “Gender Queer” was the most “challenged” book of 2022, the second consecutive year it has topped the list.
The ALA defines a challenge as a “formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness.”
Other books facing similar trials include George M. Johnson’s “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” Mike Curato’s “Flamer,” Stephen Chbosky’s “The Perks of Being a Wallflower,” John Green’s “Looking for Alaska,” Jonathan Evison’s “Lawn Boy” and Juno Dawson’s “This Book Is Gay.”
“All the challenges are openly saying that young people should not be exposed to LGBTQ materials,” said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, who directs the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom.
The list also includes Toni Morrison’s first novel, the 1970 release “The Bluest Eye,” which has been criticized for its references to rape and incest; Sherman Alexie’s “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” (sexual content, profanity) and Sarah J. Maas’ “A Court of Mist and Fury” (sexual content).
The ALA usually compiles a Top 10 list, but this year expanded it to 13 because the books ranked 10 to 13 were in a virtual tie.
“In the past, when it was that close, we would flip a coin to see who got in the list. This year, we got rid of the coin,” Caldwell-Stone said.
The ALA last month reported there were more than 1,200 complaints in 2022 involving more than 2,500 different books, the highest totals since the association began compiling complaints 20 years ago. The number is likely much higher because the ALA relies on media reports and accounts from libraries.
In charts accompanying Monday’s announcement, the ALA reported the majority of complaints — nearly 60% — come from parents and library patrons. “Political/religious” groups such as the conservative Moms for Liberty account for just 17% of complaints, but they object to a disproportionate number of books, according to Caldwell-Stone. Moms for Liberty, which advocates for parental rights in schools, objected to more than 1,000 books in 2022.
Caldwell-Stone cited the web site booklooks.org, a popular resource for conservatives to evaluate books that defines itself as “unaffiliated” with Moms for Liberty, but does “communicate with other individuals and groups with whom there is an intersection of mission and values.”
“Many of the books on our most challenged list appear on booklooks,” Caldwell-Stone said.
The ALA list followed last week’s report from PEN America, which found a continued rise in book bans at public schools during the first half of the 2022-2023 academic year.
According to PEN, there were 1,477 individual book bans affecting 874 different titles, up from 1,149 bans in the second half of 2021-2022. “Gender Queer” and “Flamer” tied at 15 for the most times banned during the more recent period, with other frequently banned books including “The Bluest Eye,” “A Court of Mist and Fury” and a graphic novel edition of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.newschannel6now.com/2023/04/24/gender-queer-tops-library-groups-list-challenged-books/ | 2023-04-24 11:07:56 | 0 | https://www.newschannel6now.com/2023/04/24/gender-queer-tops-library-groups-list-challenged-books/ |
PRAGUE (AP) — European Union leaders converged on Prague Castle on a crisp Friday morning to try to bridge significant differences over a natural gas price cap as winter approaches and Russia’s war on Ukraine fuels a major energy crisis.
The price cap is one of several measures the 27-nation bloc is preparing to contain an energy crisis in Europe that is driving up prices for consumers and business and which could lead to rolling blackouts, shuttered factories and a deep recession over the winter.
As the Europeans bolster their support for Ukraine in the form of weapons, money and aid, Russia has reduced or cut off natural gas to 13 member nations, leading to surging gas and electricity prices that could climb higher as demand peaks during the cold months.
Standing in the way of an agreement is the simple fact that each member country depends on different energy sources and suppliers, and they’re struggling to see eye-to-eye on the best way ahead.
A group of 15 member countries has urged the EU’s executive branch, the European Commission, to propose a cap on gas prices as soon as possible, but the idea has not secured unanimous support, with Germany notably blocking.
For now, the commission says, Europe’s gas storage capacity stands at about 90%, even as Russian gas supplies to the EU declined by 37% between January and August, with the U.S. and Norway stepping in to provide liquefied natural gas. But those replacement supplies have not been cheap.
“I therefore recommend stepping up negotiations with our reliable suppliers to reduce the prices of imported gas of all kinds,” commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a letter to the leaders ahead of Friday’s summit in the Czech capital.
Von der Leyen also recommended that countries work together to “develop an intervention to limit prices in the natural gas market,” where prices have fluctuated wildly over jitters about the war and potentially uncoordinated national responses to the problem.
For now, a breakthrough on the price cap seems a distant prospect, but the leaders may make enough progress to conclude some kind of agreement when they meet again in Brussels on Oct 20-21.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/ap-online/2022/10/07/eu-leaders-struggle-to-bridge-gas-price-cap-divide | 2022-10-07 07:58:09 | 0 | https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/ap-online/2022/10/07/eu-leaders-struggle-to-bridge-gas-price-cap-divide |
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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The sheriff in Kansas' most populous county says he took it for granted that local elections ran smoothly — until former President Donald Trump lost there in 2020.
Now he's assigned detectives to investigate what he claims is election fraud, even though there has been no evidence of any widespread fraud or manipulation of voting machines in 2020. Calvin Hayden in Johnson County, which covers suburban Kansas City, isn't the only sheriff in the U.S. to try to carve out a bigger role for their office in investigating elections.
Promoters of baseless conspiracy theories that the last presidential election was stolen from Trump are pushing a dubious theory that county sheriffs can access voting machines and intervene in how elections are run — and also have virtually unchecked power in their counties.
Voting-rights advocates and election experts said any attempts by law enforcement to interfere in elections would be alarming and an extension of the threat posed by the continued circulation of Trump's lies about the 2020 election.
“What we have seen time and again is that those who support the ‘Big Lie’ find conduits to groups of people who they think can help perpetuate this conspiracy theory and erode confidence in elections and potentially cast doubt on them going forward,” said David Levine, a former election official who is now a fellow with the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a nonpartisan institute with staff in Washington and Brussels whose mission involves combatting efforts to undermine democratic institutions.
To be sure, law enforcement can play an important role in elections by sharing intelligence, protecting election workers and equipment, and investigating potential election crimes. But that is typically done after election administrators request the help.
Hayden appeared at the “FreedomFest” in Las Vegas earlier this month, held by the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, although his office said he is not a member of the group.
Onstage with him were sheriffs Dar Leaf of Barry County in southwest Michigan and Chris Schmaling of Racine County in Wisconsin, south of Milwaukee. Both say they are investigating election fraud claims, and both accuse state officials of violating election laws.
“We’ve been educating ourselves about elections,” Hayden told the gathering. “I've sent my detectives through — I’ve got a cyber guy. I sent him through to start evaluating what’s going on with the machines.”
Hayden, a Republican, did not elaborate and declined to be interviewed this week, citing what he said was his ongoing investigation. State and local election officials in Kansas said his office has not gained access to voting machines, and other Johnson County officials said there are no indications of any problems with the 2020 elections there.
The constitutional sheriffs' group declares on its website that a sheriff's power in a county is greater than that of any other official and "even supersedes the powers of the President.” Leaf filed a lawsuit in June against Michigan's attorney general and secretary of state, accusing them of trying to stifle his investigation. He said a sheriff “has no superiors in his county.”
The “constitutional sheriffs” movement has gained visibility in recent years, as some sheriffs — including Hayden — resisted enforcing mask or vaccination requirements during the coronavirus pandemic.
“All of a sudden, it’s like the lights went on. It’s the sheriffs,” said Catherine Engelbrecht, founder of the election-conspiracy group True the Vote, speaking as part of a panel at the recent constitutional sheriffs gathering in Las Vegas. “That’s who can do these investigations. That’s who we can trust.”
It's not clear how many sheriffs are part of the movement, though the national group's founder, Richard Mack, said last year that about 300 of the nation's 3,000 sheriffs were members, according to The Washington Post. Mack did not respond this week to telephone and email requests for an interview.
“It’s like a lot of these theories — it legally has no basis whatsoever,” said Stephen McAllister, the top federal prosecutor for Kansas during most of the Trump administration. “They are subject to state law. They are certainly subject to federal law. They are not sort of supreme little kings within their counties, whether they think so or not.”
Hayden said in a public statement that since the fall of 2021, he has received more than 200 tips alleging fraud in local elections. He said his department has a legal obligation to investigate “any criminal claim.”
But a memo from Peg Trent, Johnson County's chief legal counsel, suggested Hayden went further in a July 5 meeting with her and county election officials.
Trent said Hayden questioned the use of ballot drop boxes at libraries, called for limiting the hours they would be available and offered to have his staff pick up the ballots. She said his staff also asked to have a deputy in the room as ballots are counted.
“As we discussed, my concern is that these requests give the appearance that the Sheriff's office is attempting to interfere with an election,” she wrote in the July 7 memo, sent to Hayden, county commissioners and the county manager.
Hayden issued a statement that he would “whole-heartedly disagree” with her account of the meeting.
There is no evidence to support Trump’s claims of a stolen election in 2020 or to suggest widespread fraud or tampering with voting machines or ballot drop boxes. Dozens of legal claims made by Trump and his allies after the election were rejected by judges, including ones appointed by Trump.
“With the exception of a tiny handful of individual cases of voter fraud around the country, there is absolutely no reason to suspect that a crime was committed in 2020 with regard to the election,” said David Becker, a former U.S. Department of Justice attorney and election law expert who now leads the Center for Election Innovation and Research.
But false claims have sowed doubt among many Republican voters, triggered death threats to election officials and led to a host of new voting restrictions in GOP-controlled states. Trump allies have sought access to voting equipment and turned the normally routine process of certifying election results contentious.
“The danger of anyone embracing a conspiracy theory is the loss of confidence in election results,” said Chris Harvey, the former state elections director in Georgia. “It’s an added danger if it’s law enforcement. Their job is to enforce laws and maintain order. If they are seen as not having confidence in what’s going on, it’s just going to further trickle down into society.”
Harvey is part of a new group bringing together election officials and law enforcement. The Committee for Safe and Secure Elections is comprised of 32 current and former election and law enforcement officials, with a goal of build stronger relationships and providing training.
Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab, the state's top election official, said Hayden has not contacted his office as part of his investigation. Schwab has repeatedly said he is confident that state elections ran well in 2020.
“I think overwhelmingly people trust the election system," he said.
Hayden said during the Las Vegas gathering that his concerns about election fraud were piqued after Democrat Joe Biden carried Johnson County in the 2020 presidential election because the county had consistently “voted Republican” for more than a century. But that argument — made by election conspiracy promoters — ignores that Democrats have carried Johnson County multiple times in governor's races during that time, including in Laura Kelly's winning campaign in 2018.
Republicans maintain their traditional advantage in voter registration there, but Johnson County is more Democratic than it was 30 years ago.
“Johnson County going for Biden — well, that’s not an anomaly," said Davis Hammet, leader of the Kansas voting-rights group Loud Light. “That happened in suburban counties all across the country.”
___
Cassidy reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writer Ali Swenson in New York also contributed.
___
Follow John Hanna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/apjdhanna | https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Conspiracy-promoting-sheriffs-claim-vast-election-17323008.php | 2022-07-22 19:33:41 | 0 | https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Conspiracy-promoting-sheriffs-claim-vast-election-17323008.php |
CNN Poll: Biden’s approval rises, but national economic outlook remains gloomy
By Ariel Edwards-Levy, CNN
Americans’ views of President Joe Biden have rebounded slightly from their dismal outlook over the summer, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS. But public assessment of the economy remains grim, and Americans remain largely unconvinced that Biden, Congress or the government as a whole are meaningfully addressing major issues facing the country.
Biden’s overall job approval rating has recovered modestly from its worst summer doldrums: 44% of US adults approve, up from 38% in CNN’s June and July polling. Biden’s ratings have risen 9 percentage points among Democrats and 8 points among independents since that previous poll, with the President’s image also seeing particularly marked improvement among Black Americans (up 17 points) and adults younger than age 45 (11 points). Enthusiasm about Biden’s presidency, however, remains scarce, with around 15% of the public strongly approving of his overall job performance. By contrast, roughly 4 in 10 strongly disapprove.
Just 22% of Americans rate economic conditions in the country as good, with 41% calling conditions somewhat poor, and another 37% saying they’re very poor. The percentage saying conditions are good is a slight uptick from 18% this summer. The public’s short-term outlook is somewhat more positive, with 40% expecting that economic conditions in the country will be good a year from now, and only 26% expecting them to remain very poor. That optimism is driven mostly by Democrats, 63% of whom expect economic conditions to improve to that level by next year. Most independents and Republicans, by contrast, expect conditions to remain poor over that time.
Biden’s ratings for dealing with economic issues, while improved from CNN’s last survey, remain lower than his approval rating overall. Just 32% of the public approves of his handling of inflation (up from 25% in summer) and 36% of his handling of the economy as a whole (up from 30%). Roughly 4 in 10 Americans currently approve of Biden’s handling of gun policy (37%), immigration (38%), helping the middle class (41%) or foreign affairs (42%), with a 55% majority approving of the way he’s handled the Covid-19 pandemic.
Half of Americans say that Biden’s policies have served to worsen economic conditions, 26% that his policies have improved conditions, and 24% that they’ve had no effect. This is a slight improvement from a CNN poll taken in April and May, when 19% thought Biden’s economic policies were helping and 55% that they were worsening conditions. Roughly half of Democrats (53%) now say Biden’s policies have helped, up from 45% in spring, as do 20% of independents, up from 11%.
More broadly, the public remains largely underwhelmed by the federal response to a range of economic and domestic issues. Most Americans say the US government is doing too little to reduce the rate of violent crime (81%), reduce inflation (73%), protect democracy (72%), prevent a recession (72%) or help people like them financially (about 70%). In an exception to the general sentiment for further action, about half say the government is doing the right amount to control the spread of Covid, with the rest split between saying it’s doing too much and too little.
Ahead of November’s midterm elections, a majority of Americans also take a dim view of efforts made by national lawmakers to deal with the biggest issues: 62% say that the current Congress has done nothing to effectively address the problems facing the country. Most Republicans (87%) and independents (67%) say Congress hasn’t done anything effective, an opinion shared by just one-third of Democrats.
Perceptions of Biden’s and Congress’ effectiveness are bleaker in 50 of the country’s most competitive congressional districts than they are nationally. Just 31% of US adults living in those districts say Congress has done anything to effectively address the nation’s problems, and just 21% say Biden’s policies have improved the country’s economic conditions. Biden’s job approval rating in these districts is 42%, similar to where he stands nationally; his economic approval rating is 31%, slightly lower than in the country as a whole.
Americans do give Biden some credit for his work with legislators, the polling suggests. Roughly half, 49%, say he’s demonstrated an ability to work effectively with Congress — the share saying this includes 79% of Democrats, 50% of independents, and nearly a fifth of Republicans. About half of US adults also credit Biden with being honest and trustworthy (48%) and caring about people like them (46%), although both those numbers have fallen from the majorities who said the same in April 2021. Only about 41% think Biden will unite the country and not divide it, down from 53% last spring. And in the biggest shift, barely over one-third now see Biden as inspiring confidence (35%), down from 52% previously.
Only 41% of Americans think Biden is doing a good job of keeping the important promises he made during the 2020 presidential campaign, down from 59% in April 2021. That’s lower than his two predecessors heading into their first midterms: 52% said Donald Trump was keeping his campaign promises in October 2018, while 51% said the same of Barack Obama in September 2010. About three-quarters of Democrats think Biden is doing a good job keeping his promises (75%), but younger Democrats are less likely than older ones to say so, with only about 57% of Democrats under 35 crediting Biden with living up to his campaign promises.
The new CNN Poll was conducted by SSRS on September 3 through October 5 among a random national sample of 1,982 adults initially reached by mail. Surveys were either conducted online or by telephone with a live interviewer. Results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. The survey includes an oversample of adults living in 50 competitive congressional districts, with districts chosen based on publicly available race ratings at the time the sample was chosen. That subset was weighted to its proper share of the overall adult population of the United States.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
CNN’s Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report. | https://kion546.com/politics/cnn-us-politics/2022/10/12/cnn-poll-bidens-approval-rises-but-national-economic-outlook-remains-gloomy-2/ | 2022-10-12 13:40:44 | 1 | https://kion546.com/politics/cnn-us-politics/2022/10/12/cnn-poll-bidens-approval-rises-but-national-economic-outlook-remains-gloomy-2/ |
RADNOR, Pa., Dec. 30, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The law firm of Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP (www.ktmc.com) informs investors that a securities class action lawsuit has been filed against The Gap, Inc. ("Gap") (NYSE: GPS). The action charges Gap with violations of the federal securities laws, including omissions and fraudulent misrepresentations relating to the company's business, operations, and prospects. As a result of Gap's materially misleading statements and omissions to the public, Gap's investors have suffered significant losses.
CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR GAP LOSSES. YOU CAN ALSO CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINK OR COPY AND PASTE IN YOUR BROWSER: https://www.ktmc.com/new-cases/the-gap-inc?utm_source=PR&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=gps&mktm=r
TO VIEW OUR VIDEO, PLEASE CLICK HERE
LEAD PLAINTIFF DEADLINE: FEBRUARY 3, 2023
CLASS PERIOD: NOVEMBER 24, 2021 THROUGH JULY 11, 2022
CONTACT AN ATTORNEY TO DISCUSS YOUR RIGHTS:
Jonathan Naji, Esq. at (484) 270-1453 or via email at info@ktmc.com
Kessler Topaz is one of the world's foremost advocates in protecting the public against corporate fraud and other wrongdoing. Our securities fraud litigators are regularly recognized as leaders in the field individually and our firm is both feared and respected among the defense bar and the insurance bar. We are proud to have recovered billions of dollars for our clients and the classes of shareholders we represent.
GAP'S ALLEGED MISCONDUCT
After market hours on November 23, 2021, Gap issued a press release announcing it results for the third quarter ended October 30, 2021. In that release, Gap also touted the success of its sales related to its BODEQUALITY launch at Old Navy.
On April 21, 2022, Gap announced that Nancy Green, CEO of Old Navy, had stepped down. Following this news, the price of Gap stock fell nearly 18%.
Then, on May 20, 2022, The Wall Street Journal published an article revealing that Gap had improperly managed its inventory of plus size clothing at its Old Navy stores, causing material declines in margins and business results. Specifically, the article stated that "Old Navy set out to make clothes shopping more inclusive for women of all body types. It ended up with too many extra-small and extra-large items and too few of the rest, a mismatch that frustrated customers and contributed to falling sales and a management shake-up." Further, the article stated that "Gap warned that sales for the spring quarter would fall short of expectations in part due to troubles at Old Navy[,]" but that "[t]he extended sizes were the culprit, according to current and former employees." Finally, the article indicated that "Old Navy's stumbles don't bode well for Gap Inc. In 2021, Old Navy accounted for 54% of the company's sales and roughly 80% of profits[.]" Following this news, the price of Gap stock fell approximately 7% over the next two trading sessions.
Thereafter, on May 27, 2022, Gap admitted that execution missteps in size and assortment of inventory at Old Navy adversely impacted Gap's financial results. Following this news, the price of Gap stock fell nearly 5%.
Finally, on July 11, 2022, Gap announced that its President and CEO, Sonia Syngal, was stepping down from her position as President and CEO of Gap and had resigned from the Board of Directors. Following this news, the price of Gap stock fell an additional 5%.
WHAT CAN I DO?
Gap investors may, no later than February 3, 2023, move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff for the class, through Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP or other counsel, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member. Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP encourages Gap investors who have suffered significant losses to contact the firm directly to acquire more information. The class action complaint against Gap, captioned Diaz v. The Gap, Inc. et al., Case No. 1:22-cv-07371, is filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York before the Honorable Diane Gujarati.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE CASE
WHO CAN BE A LEAD PLAINTIFF?
A lead plaintiff is a representative party who acts on behalf of all class members in directing the litigation. The lead plaintiff is usually the investor or small group of investors who have the largest financial interest and who are also adequate and typical of the proposed class of investors. The lead plaintiff selects counsel to represent the lead plaintiff and the class and these attorneys, if approved by the court, are lead or class counsel. Your ability to share in any recovery is not affected by the decision of whether or not to serve as a lead plaintiff.
ABOUT KESSLER TOPAZ MELTZER & CHECK, LLP
Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP prosecutes class actions in state and federal courts throughout the country and around the world. The firm has developed a global reputation for excellence and has recovered billions of dollars for victims of fraud and other corporate misconduct. All of our work is driven by a common goal: to protect investors, consumers, employees and others from fraud, abuse, misconduct and negligence by businesses and fiduciaries. The complaint in this action was not filed by Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP. For more information about Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP please visit www.ktmc.com.
CONTACT:
Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP
Jonathan Naji, Esq.
(484) 270-1453
280 King of Prussia Road
Radnor, PA 19087
info@ktmc.com
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SOURCE Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP | https://www.wagmtv.com/prnewswire/2022/12/30/kessler-topaz-meltzer-amp-check-llp-announces-securities-fraud-class-action-lawsuit-filed-against-gap-inc-gps-encourages-investors-with-significant-losses-contact-firm/ | 2022-12-31 05:05:59 | 0 | https://www.wagmtv.com/prnewswire/2022/12/30/kessler-topaz-meltzer-amp-check-llp-announces-securities-fraud-class-action-lawsuit-filed-against-gap-inc-gps-encourages-investors-with-significant-losses-contact-firm/ |
Today (6/17) you published two letters from MAGA people whose arguments are based on falsehoods. David Garcia attempts to equate Trump’s handling of classified documents to Clinton’s and Biden’s. Anyone who follows the news, even credible Fox journalists like Bret Baer, knows that there is no comparison. Amanda Blakely states four distinct falsehoods in her defense of MAGA violence. Again, following the news makes this clear.
I would refute these falsehoods, but why bother. It seems it is not possible to have a fact-based discussion with MAGA people. They appear to be locked into their fantasy world. It would be nice to see some actual fact-based arguments from the MAGA crowd, but I suspect there aren’t any facts that support their views.
Steven Brown
Midtown
Disclaimer: As submitted to the Arizona Daily Star. | https://tucson.com/opinion/letters/letter-maga-facts/article_bfc88f00-20e6-11ee-95a4-8743a78c008a.html | 2023-07-12 20:38:47 | 0 | https://tucson.com/opinion/letters/letter-maga-facts/article_bfc88f00-20e6-11ee-95a4-8743a78c008a.html |
No. 10 Arizona tops No. 14 Indiana 89-75 in Vegas clash
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Azuolas Tubelis scored 21 points and No. 10 Arizona defeated No. 14 Indiana 89-75 on Saturday night in the Vegas Clash.
The Wildcats (8-1) held off Indiana’s surge after their lead was trimmed to 59-56 on consecutive 3-pointers by the Hoosiers midway through the second half. Arizona responded with three straight 3s to build its cushion back to double digits.
Indiana (8-2) got as close as five late in the game, but the Wildcats’ dominance near the rim kept the Hoosiers at bay. Oumar Ballo’s dunk with 1:42 left added an exclamation point.
"I love the way these guys play and we love getting up and down," Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd said. "And then there is no panic. It’s fun. It’s fun being in those moments. I like to tell our guys, just let it rip and let’s run our stuff and trust our offense and usually that’ll be the solution in and of itself."
Ballo had 15 points and 12 rebounds. Pelle Larsson scored 16 and Kerr Kriisa finished with 14.
Arizona also got a huge boost with 17 points from a bench that generally doesn’t provide that much offense.
"It’s huge, because people before the season were talking that we don’t have depth," Kriisa said. "But I think today our young guys really showed their character."
Indiana had five players in double figures, led by Race Thompson with 16 points and nine rebounds. Miller Kopp scored 14, Tamar Bates added 13, and Xavier Johnson and Trayce Jackson-Davis each finished with 11.
The Wildcats, who entered leading the nation in field goal percentage (55.2%), including a 64.5% clip from 2-point range, finished 31 of 63 (49.2%), with 21 of 38 (55%) coming from inside the arc.
Arizona finally found its groove from the 3-point line after going 8 of 48 (16.7%) from beyond the arc, hitting 10 of 25 (40%) from long range.
Arizona used a 17-0 run to build a 27-8 lead, but the Hoosiers tightened their defense and battled back to within five. Indiana’s 23-9 spurt late in the first half was sparked by four 3-pointers.
The Wildcats shot 45.5% from the floor before halftime, including 4 of 12 from 3-point range. Indiana was 12 for 37 (32.4%), including 5 of 15 from beyond the arc.
For the game, Arizona outscored the Hoosiers 42-22 in the paint.
"We got down early but I thought we fought. I can’t fault effort," Indiana coach Mike Woodson said. "I thought we gave great effort, but you’ve got to give a lot of credit to this team. This Arizona team is a good team. I thought the game was won in the paint and they were the better team tonight in the paint."
BIG PICTURE
Indiana: Both teams created 10 takeaways, but the Hoosiers were outscored 18-6 in points off turnovers.
Arizona: Improved to 8-3 against Top 25 opponents under Lloyd, including 3-0 this season with wins over then-No. 17 San Diego State and then-No. 10 Creighton.
UP NEXT
Indiana: Hosts No. 6 Kansas next Saturday.
Arizona: Hosts Texas A&M Corpus Christi on Tuesday.
More sports news
- World Cup Saturday guide: Morocco tops Portugal, France beats England to advance to semifinals
- Coyotes end 19-game losing streak to Bruins with 4-3 win
- American soccer journalist Grant Wahl 'laughing at a joke' on Twitter minutes before collapse, witness says
UofA sports | https://www.fox10phoenix.com/sports/no-10-arizona-tops-no-14-indiana-89-75-in-vegas-clash | 2022-12-11 16:33:54 | 0 | https://www.fox10phoenix.com/sports/no-10-arizona-tops-no-14-indiana-89-75-in-vegas-clash |
AMES, Iowa, July 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Summit Carbon Solutions announced today that Lee Blank has been hired as Chief Executive Officer. He will assume day-to-day leadership of Summit Carbon Solutions, working closely with the company's sponsor, Summit Agricultural Group, to deliver on the company's mission to decarbonize the agriculture and biofuels industries.
Blank has more than 30 years of leadership experience as an executive with various companies spanning the agricultural supply chain. Most recently, Blank was Chief Executive Officer of Advance Trading, Inc., an advisory and risk management firm that serves agricultural customers from producers through end users. Previously, Blank was Chief Executive Officer of GFG Ag Services, LLC, an integrated agricultural retailer, and before that was President and Chief Executive Officer of Twin Rivers Technologies, an agricultural processing company, where he was responsible for the development and construction of a $210 million processing facility in Canada. Blank spent the first 15 years of his career with Archer Daniels Midland managing operations across commodity merchandising, logistics, and processing.
"We are excited to welcome Lee as CEO of Summit Carbon Solutions as we continue to build momentum towards executing a transformational project for the agriculture and biofuels industries," said Bruce Rastetter, CEO of Summit Agricultural Group. "This company is deeply rooted in agriculture, as are its stakeholders in rural communities across the Midwest. Lee's background as an accomplished leader and entrepreneur, his experience in project delivery, and his ability to develop relationships and to engage with these stakeholders make him a perfect fit."
"I couldn't be more thrilled to join Summit Carbon Solutions at this critical stage," said Lee Blank, CEO of Summit Carbon Solutions. "Throughout my career in the agriculture industry, there has never been a more urgent need, nor a more difficult challenge than decarbonization, but at Summit Carbon Solutions we have an opportunity to make a tremendous impact on the industry's carbon footprint, while bolstering its long-term economic fundamentals. Summit has assembled a world class team to build this world class project and I look forward to leveraging my experience and skillset to lead its execution."
Summit Carbon Solutions was founded in 2020, and in partnership with 32 bioethanol plants across the Midwestern United States, is developing infrastructure to capture and permanently sequester over 10 million tons per year of carbon dioxide beginning in 2024. Summit recently announced several significant project milestones, including a successful $1.1 billion equity fundraise anchored by TPG Rise, Continental Resources, Tiger Infrastructure Partners, and SK Group, and a partnership with Minnkota Power Cooperative, which provides Summit access to the largest fully permitted carbon storage facility in the United States.
Summit Carbon Solutions seeks to lower greenhouse gas emissions by connecting industrial emitters via strategic infrastructure to store carbon dioxide safely and permanently in the Midwestern United States. For more information, visit: www.summitcarbonsolutions.com
Summit Agricultural Group is a diversified agribusiness operator and investment manager with operations in the United States and Brazil. Summit deploys capital across the agricultural supply chain with a particular focus at the intersection of agriculture and renewable energy. For more information, visit: www.summitag.com
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SOURCE Summit Carbon Solutions | https://www.kmvt.com/prnewswire/2022/07/21/summit-carbon-solutions-appoints-lee-blank-chief-executive-officer/ | 2022-07-21 18:37:05 | 0 | https://www.kmvt.com/prnewswire/2022/07/21/summit-carbon-solutions-appoints-lee-blank-chief-executive-officer/ |
LEOMINSTER, Mass. (AP) — The music was blaring on a February afternoon when Francisco Torres stopped by a Massachusetts barbershop, proclaiming he was half-angel, half-devil.
He wanted a dozen people to come outside the shop and shoot him with an automatic weapon stored in his car trunk. Before anyone could make sense of the request, Torres fled the shop and drove off. They never saw a weapon and he didn’t return.
“I didn’t get what he was saying but then I realized he was talking about a gun. I told him there are kids in here, why are you saying this,” said Saul Perez, who was visiting friends at the shop and noted that an employee called 911, ushered children into the back and shut down the shop. “I was spooked.”
The incident took place about a week before Torres would be arrested for attacking a flight attendant and attempting to open the plane’s emergency door on a cross-country United flight from Los Angeles to Boston earlier this month.
Confrontations on flights have skyrocketed since the pandemic started, with some altercations captured and replayed endlessly on social media.
In a video taken by a fellow passenger, Torres loudly threatens to kill people and promises a bloodbath before charging the front of the plane, where a group of passengers tackled him down to the ground to restrain him.
He remains behind bars pending a mental health evaluation, with a judge ruling he “may presently be suffering from a mental disease or defect rendering him mentally incompetent.”
Torres objected to the evaluation through his federal public defender, Joshua Hanye, who didn’t return a call Thursday seeking additional comment. A relative for Torres would not comment on the case.
The flight attack was part of a decadeslong pattern of Torres demonstrating signs of a mental illness. He spent time in mental health facilities, according to lawsuits since closed that he filed in 2021 and 2022 against two hospitals in Massachusetts. Torres says he argued in one of the lawsuits that he was misdiagnosed for a mental illness and, in the other, that he was discriminated against for being vegan.
In December 2022, police confronted him at his house in Worcester County, where he was outside in his underwear saying he was protesting climate change, according to a police report. On another occasion in 2021, police responded to a call from his mother reporting that he was yelling “homicidal threats” out a window. He told police that he was in World War III and he had a special device giving him “super sonic hearing,” which he used to listen to his neighbors talking about him.
His case history demonstrates the challenges facing airlines and federal regulators when handling passengers like Torres. Especially since experts say data shows those with mental illnesses are more often the victims of crimes than those responsible for committing violent acts.
Despite repeated run-ins with police, authorities said that he rarely acted violent. He once was accused of grabbing his mother’s arm, but those charges were dismissed. He didn’t legally own a weapon, even though he often talked about guns. And there were no signs of trouble when he boarded that cross-county flight last month, a passenger said, or during the first five hours in the air.
“He is really a nonviolent offender,” said Leominster Police Chief Aaron Kennedy, who is familiar with Torres from previous run-ins. “This guy was pretty mild.”
And even if past incidents raised red flags, experts said there isn’t a whole lot that airline companies can or should be doing. Airlines say they don’t share banned passenger lists with each other, though there have been a few cases so notorious that the passenger’s name became widely known.
The FBI maintains a no-fly list for people suspected of terrorism, to which special agents and other approved government employees can submit names for consideration.
People with mental illnesses are not prohibited from getting on a plane, according to Jeffrey Price, an aviation-security expert at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Federal law gives U.S. citizens “a public right of transit through the navigable airspace,” he said.
Legislation backed by airlines and their labor unions was introduced in Congress last year to create a new no-fly list including people who were charged or fined for interfering with airline crews. The bills died without hearings in the Senate or House, but backers plan to re-introduce them later this month.
Several Republican senators opposed the proposal, saying it could be used to punish critics of the federal rule requiring passengers to wear masks — even to “equate them to terrorists.” From January 2021 to April 2022, while the federal mask mandate was still in effect, the vast majority of unruly-passenger cases reported by airlines involved disputes over masks, according to Federal Aviation Administration figures.
Some liberal groups also opposed the legislation, arguing that the current no-fly list of people suspected of terrorism is opaque and unfair.
The American Civil Liberties Union has sued the government several times over the last decade on behalf of people who didn’t know why they were on the list or how to be removed from it. The ACLU also has accused the FBI of putting some people on the list to pressure them to become informants in counter-terrorist investigations against Muslim communities in the U.S.
The captain of an airline flight can decide not to fly with a particular passenger on board, although flight attendants say this usually happens when a passenger appears to be drunk.
The government runs what it calls “trusted traveler” programs such as TSA PreCheck, which lets people who are fingerprinted and pass a background check speed through security without removing shoes, belts, jackets and laptops from their bags. People can be denied PreCheck for certain crimes, which extends to those who are found not guilty by reason of insanity. But of course people who are denied PreCheck can still fly.
Adding travelers like Torres to any no-fly list or barring them from a flight raises a host of logistical and constitutional questions. And determining who would get on a list would be controversial in a country that prides itself on protecting individual rights and keeping health information private by following strict HIPAA rules.
Plus, having a “mental health challenge” is “not a prediction, necessarily, that someone’s going to have outbursts, have unpredictable behavior,” said Lynn Bufka, a psychologist and the American Psychological Association’s associate chief of practice transformation. “That’s not going to be a good marker for determining whether or not someone should safely board.”
Before Torres became agitated and threatened those around him, fellow passenger Jason Loomis said he didn’t exhibit any strange behavior during boarding and was quiet for the beginning of the flight. Hours later though, Loomis witnessed his outburst. Initially, he spoke with Torres to try to calm him down, but when Torres’ anger escalated, Loomis joined other passengers in restraining him.
Still, Loomis said he couldn’t envision keeping Torres off the flight in the first place. Instead, he said it was a reminder that society needs to take better care of mentally ill people.
“I know there has been a lot of talk about airplane security and safety these days, but this was a very rare occurrence,” Loomis said. “It wasn’t like he was shouting in the airport. He wasn’t threatening anything. He was perfectly fine and then something just snapped.” | https://www.kark.com/news/health/ap-health/flight-attack-raises-questions-about-security-mental-health/ | 2023-03-17 16:55:51 | 1 | https://www.kark.com/news/health/ap-health/flight-attack-raises-questions-about-security-mental-health/ |
EDINBURG, Texas (AP) — Justin Johnson's 25 points helped UT Rio Grande Valley defeat Abilene Christian 103-86 on Wednesday night.
Johnson added five rebounds for the Vaqueros (9-8, 1-4 Western Athletic Conference). Dima Zdor scored 24 points while going 6 of 7 and 12 of 15 from the free throw line, and added eight rebounds, three steals, and five blocks. Will Johnston shot 3 for 9 (2 for 4 from 3-point range) and 11 of 12 from the free throw line to finish with 19 points, while adding 10 assists.
The Wildcats (9-8, 1-3) were led in scoring by Immanuel Allen, who finished with 26 points, three steals and two blocks. Abilene Christian also got 12 points, five assists and three steals from Tobias Cameron. In addition, Ali Abdou Dibba finished with 10 points.
NEXT UP
Both teams next play Saturday. UT Rio Grande Valley hosts Chicago State while Abilene Christian visits Tarleton State.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar. | https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/UT-Rio-Grande-Valley-beats-Abilene-Christian-17712352.php | 2023-01-12 04:29:32 | 1 | https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/UT-Rio-Grande-Valley-beats-Abilene-Christian-17712352.php |
No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Michigan to meet with much at stake
By LARRY LAGE
AP Sports Writer
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — One of the greatest rivalries in sports seems set up for another classic. No. 2 Ohio State and No. 3 Michigan will both be ranked in the top five of the AP poll for the 12th time when they meet Saturday at the Horseshoe in what’s known as The Game. The winner will earn a trip to the Big Ten championship game and a probable spot in the College Football Playoff. The Wolverines are coming off a rare win in the series. Until Jim Harbaugh finally beat the Buckyes last year at home, they had won a school-record eight straight and 15 of 16 against Michigan. | https://localnews8.com/sports/ap-national-sports/2022/11/20/no-2-ohio-state-no-3-michigan-to-meet-with-much-at-stake/ | 2022-11-21 01:04:39 | 1 | https://localnews8.com/sports/ap-national-sports/2022/11/20/no-2-ohio-state-no-3-michigan-to-meet-with-much-at-stake/ |
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — Rory McIlroy was one of the strongest voices in private player meetings that led to a season in which top players agreed to play in 17 designated events. A later update allowed them to miss one of those events.
McIlroy now has missed two and risks losing $3 million of his $12 million Player Impact Program bonus.
McIlroy was a favorite at the Masters and then shot 77 in the second round to miss the cut. Three days later, he withdrew from this week’s RBC Heritage with its $20 million purse. He already withdrew from another designated event, the Sentry Tournament of Champions at Kapalua, at the start of the year.
In announcing the PIP results in November — McIlroy was No. 2 behind Tiger Woods — the tour originally said 25% of the bonus would be paid after Kapalua. A memo sent to players in December said 75% would be paid after Kapalua, and the rest paid when a player met the rest of his obligations, which included playing in 16 of 17 designated events.
So now what?
McIlroy has not said what led to his withdrawal from Hilton Head, whether it was an injury, family emergency or some other reason that would excuse him. And then there’s the footnote at the bottom of the PIP:
“The Commissioner, in his sole discretion, may modify, waive, or adjust eligibility requirements, program commitments and/or program metrics based on extraordinary circumstances.”
As strong a voice as McIlroy has been against the threat of Saudi-funded LIV Golf, the tour has to weigh whether to enforce its policy or give McIlroy a $3 million way out for his leadership during such radical change and division in golf.
McIlroy never spoke at the Masters after missing the cut. Storms rolled in as he finished, the second round was suspended and Augusta National ordered the course evacuated.
Jason Day and Alex Noren also withdrew from the RBC Heritage. Day finished 18th in the PIP while Noren was not among the top 23 players and has no obligations.
SLOW PLAY
The final round of the Masters took nearly five hours in twosomes, and Brooks Koepka was not the least bit happy. Koepka and Masters champion Jon Rahm are known to not dawdle when it comes to golf.
“The group in front of us was brutally slow,” Koepka said. “Jon went to the bathroom like seven times during the round, and we were still waiting.”
Patrick Cantlay and Viktor Hovland were in the group in front. Cantlay on Tuesday said Koepka and Rahm weren’t the only ones waiting.
“We finished the first hole, and the group in front of us was on the second tee when we walked up to the second tee, and we waited all day on pretty much every shot,” Cantlay said at the RBC Heritage. “We waited in 15 fairway, we waited in 18 fairway. I imagine it was slow for everyone.”
Anecdotally, the pace of play is becoming a leading topic again. There was one stretch where the PGA Tour did not make the 36-hole cut until Saturday (except for events with multiple courses) from November at Mayakoba until the middle of March.
“When you play a golf course like Augusta National where all the hole locations are on lots of slope and the greens are really fast, it’s just going to take longer and longer to hole out,” Cantlay said. “I think that may have been what attributed to some of the slow play on Sunday, and then also when the wind is gusting and the wind is blowing maybe inconsistently, that’s when guys will take a long time, too.”
MASTERS RATINGS
The long final day at the Masters pulled in big numbers for CBS Sports, which reports just over 16.2 million viewers combined across all platforms for the conclusion of the rain-delayed third round and the final round.
Jon Rahm overcame a two-shot deficit against Brooks Koepka, with 52-year-old Phil Mickelson making a late run with a 65. Rahm beat both by four shots in the end.
CBS said the final round alone averaged just over 12 million viewers, up 19% from last year and the high number for a golf telecast on any network since just over 13 million viewers for the 2018 Masters.
LAWSUIT UPDATE
About the time Augusta National was clearing away three pine trees that fell during Friday’s second round of the Masters, a federal judge in California had little choice but to delay any potential trial date in LIV Golf’s antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour.
U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman vacated the Jan. 8, 2024, trial date. She has set Jan. 11, 2024 for a hearing on summary judgement, indicating the earliest the trial could be would be four months later.
Part of the delay is because Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and its governor, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, are appealing Freeman’s ruling that they cannot claim sovereign immunity under the Foreign Services Immunity Act because of their commercial activity.
The case management hearing got testy toward the end. Freeman was setting a trial date for May when the attorney for the PIF argued about the judge limiting pages to 25 per side for a motion. Freeman said the PIF and LIV would have to share the page limit.
“I’m not setting a summary judgement schedule, it’s vacated. I’m not setting a trial, it’s vacated and I will now look at my schedule when I can hear all of your motions,” Freeman said. “It may be two years from now.”
She eventually stuck with the Jan. 11 hearing without setting a trial date.
Freeman also was leaning against a Saudi request to hear the cases separately — the antitrust case against the PGA Tour and the tour’s countersuit claiming LIV interfered.
LIV Golf would be in its third season at the earliest when the case goes to trial.
ASIAN TOUR TO THE UK
The Asian Tour is expanding in the U.K.
The Asian Tour’s International Series was held in the London area last year — one week before the debut of LIV Golf.
The London area event this year will be Aug. 17-20, followed a week later by the Asian Tour’s first tournament in Scotland, the St. Andrews Bay Championship on the Torrance course at the Fairmont St. Andrews resort.
LIV Golf has pumped some $300 million into the Asian Tour, particularly its International Series events that allow for promotion to the LIV Golf league. Several LIV Golf players have competed in International Series events on the Asian Tour.
The series this year goes to Oman, Qatar, Thailand, Vietnam (this week) and the U.K.
“This is testament to the global vision of The International Series,” said Cho Minn Thant, the commissioner and CEO of the Asian Tour.
DIVOTS
Phil Mickelson earned $1,584,000 from his tie for second in the Masters. That’s roughly the same as he has made in his seven LIV Golf events combined. Mickelson now has 10 finishes in the top three at the Masters, second only to the 12 by Jack Nicklaus. … The Kevin and Brittany Kisner Foundation has given $1.2 million to Children’s Hospital of Georgia. The gift is part of the foundation’s $5.3 million pledge to create the Kisner Foundation & Friends Center for Pediatric Development, Behavioral Health and Well-being at the hospital. … Patrick Reed and U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick were the only players with every round at par or better in the Masters this year.
STAT OF THE WEEK
The last four Masters champions had at least a four-shot lead when they stood on the 15th tee Sunday.
FINAL WORD
“I love these weeks so much that I hate having to wait another year for this to come around.” — Shane Lowry after the Masters.
___
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.cenlanow.com/sports/mcilroy-wd-from-hilton-head-could-mean-3m-bonus-deduction/ | 2023-04-12 02:59:39 | 0 | https://www.cenlanow.com/sports/mcilroy-wd-from-hilton-head-could-mean-3m-bonus-deduction/ |
The Great Retention helps organizations improve the employee experience through educational podcasts, live events, and online community.
ATLANTA, Aug. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- In late March, Cooleaf launched The Great Retention, a community and podcast series focused on employee experience. The series, aimed at bringing people-first organizations together and highlighting employee engagement leaders, has featured ten high-profile guests from diverse backgrounds since its debut. Recent guests include Donald Knight, Chief People Officer of Greenhouse Software, and Nigel Zelcer, CoFounder and Managing Partner at Jabian Consulting.
With years of experience in the human resources space, Donald Knight holds advanced degrees in business and HR from Cornell and Virginia Commonwealth University. Knight's passion and sole mission is helping organizations empower top talent to do their best work. Knight credits a people-first mentality as the secret to unlocking talent in today's world globally through Greenhouse, the hiring software company on a mission to improve employee retention at every company.
In his role as CPO, Knight provides global strategy and leadership in developing and administering talent management programs.
Knight joined Cooleaf co-founder, John Duisberg for episode 8 of TGR to discuss Greenhouse's growing commitments to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and allyship, sharing that an increased sense of belonging across its distributed, global workforce serves as a driver of growth.
"70% of our workforce is geographically distributed globally across the world, and we want our entire team to feel celebrated and engaged," Knight said. "We represent what the world really looks like. Our workforce diversity goals are a constant improvement on how we can continue to evolve and have even more nationalities represented. At the same time, we want people to feel like they belong here. Our goal is to curate these experiences where we bring people together very intentionally so that when you go back out, and you're distributed, you're still a part of Greenhouse."
Episode 9 found Duisburg joined by Nigel Zelcer of Jabian Consulting. Jabian, a top business consulting firm specializing in strategic management and IT consulting, encourages 100% of its staff to find their passion by employing their skill set in the community. Company culture is structured around a belief that layoffs are avoided at all costs and that people are valued first.
Since founding Jabian in 2006, Zelcer has grown the consulting firm into one of the industry's most respected organizations, while developing an equitable work culture designed around the principles of "conscious capitalism."
Zelcer sat down with Duisberg to share his vision for Jabian's growth as a "conscious capitalist" organization. Among Zelcer's principles for maintaining a phenomenal work environment? Safety, empathy, and embracing change.
"There are things we've done since day one to create the culture that we have," shared Zelcer. "For example, we do employee surveys about once a year and they take about an hour to do – that's a long commitment. About 94% of all employees will complete it and most of the questions are open-ended and say, what can we do better? What we take from that is 2-3 initiatives every year that we make into employee strategic initiatives for the following year. We're a continuous improvement organization and this is just one example of cultural change. It changes daily, but how can you improve that culture?"
Episodes 1-10 of The Great Retention Podcast are available now for streaming on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube, Stitcher, and The Great Retention's website. Subscribe for a free monthly update with the latest episodes and news on The Great Retention and the future of work.
Contact
Melissa Perry, Senior Marketing Manager at Cooleaf
marketing@cooleaf.com
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SOURCE Cooleaf | https://www.kwch.com/prnewswire/2022/08/03/great-retention-podcast-highlights-industry-leaders-donald-knight-greenhouse-jabian-consultings-nigel-zelcer-among-others/ | 2022-08-03 13:55:42 | 0 | https://www.kwch.com/prnewswire/2022/08/03/great-retention-podcast-highlights-industry-leaders-donald-knight-greenhouse-jabian-consultings-nigel-zelcer-among-others/ |
CHICO — Tuesday’s Northern Section Division III Super Regional semifinal between the No. 1 seed Pleasant Valley and No. 4 Las Plumas was a game of twos for PV.
The Vikings scored two runs in the second inning, two runs in the sixth inning and starting pitcher Ella Thurman held the Thunderbirds to just two hits in PV’s 4-0 victory Tuesday at PV.
Thurman allowed two hits and two walks while striking out seven in her complete-game shutout.
“Ella gets out there and we’re pretty confident. Our team rallies behind her and she’s comfortable with the girls behind her — it’s a team thing,” said Pleasant Valley coach Tony Tallerico, who called Thurman the team’s leader.
“When she’s on she’s tough to beat and we just got to give her some good defense and run support.”
At the plate sophomore Bella Cox led the Vikings with three hits and two stolen bases. Grace Ferro and Macey Gallaty had two hits each as the Vikings’ offense collected 12 hits.
In the bottom of the second inning Kodi Aisthorpe singled to shallow left field and advanced to second on the throw. A single by Gallaty moved Aisthorpe to third base, Ava Dunn walked and Ferro reached on an infield single to score a run. Lily Thurman then singled to score a second run.
In the sixth inning Ferro led off with a single to right field, and after a sacrifice bunt Cox reached on an infield single. With runners at the corners Cox stole second base, the Thunderbirds tried to throw her out at second but Cox was safe and Ferro came home to give PV a 3-0 lead. Cox then scored two batters later on a wild pitch to make PV’s lead 4-0.
For Thurman, the two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning were key.
“I think those two runs really boosted our confidence and kept us going,” Thurman said. “We knew there was a job to be done and we all had to keep our energy up and without confidence we wouldn’t get anywhere.”
When asked about the key to the Vikings’ success this season, Tallerico said he breaks it down to his team in stages. First you must battle a tough preseason, then you want to win as many league games as possible, then it is playoff time.
“Once you get there it’s one more step closer to a section championship, so each level gets a little bit more intense,” Tallerico said. “Hopefully you’re ticking on all cylinders when you get to game time.”
PV went 8-6 in its non-league schedule, but finished 9-1 in Eastern Athletic League play. With Tuesday’s win the Vikings, who defeated Foothill in last season’s NSCIF D-III championship, have won 10 straight games.
PV (17-7) will have one day off before facing No. 2 seed Foothill at 4 p.m. Thursday at PV for the NSCIF D-III Super Regional championship. Foothill defeated No. 3 Chico High 3-2 Tuesday to advance.
Thursday’s game between Foothill and PV will be the third matchup of the season between the two teams. Foothill defeated PV 9-8 in nine innings March 30 at PV, and PV defeated Foothill 9-0 in Palo Cedro on April 27. | https://www.chicoer.com/2023/05/17/pleasant-valley-softball-advances-to-nscif-super-regional-championship/ | 2023-05-17 17:47:51 | 0 | https://www.chicoer.com/2023/05/17/pleasant-valley-softball-advances-to-nscif-super-regional-championship/ |
Boston residents are going crazy over a food waste curbside collection program, which the city launched last year to reduce its reliance on landfills and incinerators.
Officials are expanding the initiative to reach 30,000 households as it heads into its second year, an increase from the current servicing capacity of 10,000, Mayor Michelle Wu announced Friday.
“The strong interest in our pilot program gave us a clear sign that residents are eager to participate in curbside food waste collection if the resources are available,” the mayor said in a release. “This expansion will make it easier for more residents to help our city fight the effects of climate change.”
After participating residents fill what the city describes as compost bin “starter kits,” the food waste is then recycled to make clean energy and nutrient-rich compost.
Residents in June will start receiving the starter kits which include an onboarding manual, a roll of liners, kitchen and collection bins, and a magnet highlighting what food scraps are and are not accepted in the program. Collections begin in July, with another round starting in August.
Accepted materials include coffee grounds, fruits and vegetables, meat and seafood, and eggs.
So far, the initiative has collected more than 800 tons of curbside food waste at no cost to residents, according to city officials overseeing the program.
New households participating in the program will be onboarded through the city’s Waste Reduction Division Program starting in July, and more will be added monthly until the targeted capacity of 30,000 is reached. The collections will coincide on the same day as trash pickup.
To be eligible, city residents must live in a residential building with no more than six units. Officials say those who live in what the state considers “environmental justice communities” will receive priority.
The Wu administration says this is part of the city’s “Zero Waste Plan”.
City Council President Ed Flynn has been leading an effort to address food waste, which he says has been on the rise since the COVID-19 pandemic. That, in turn, has led to an increase in rats scurrying city streets seeking trash treats.
Flynn has floated the idea of hiring a rat czar, which would oversee all aspects of the city’s pest-control operations, working closely with municipal departments, residents and civic organizations
“I believe this program is part of the solution for cleaner streets as we separate food sources from our trash,” Flynn said in a release about the expanded food waste curbside collection initiative. “This is much better for the environment and will help improve the quality of life for all our residents.” | https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/04/22/boston-expanding-its-food-waste-curbside-collection-program-due-to-high-demand/ | 2023-04-22 20:14:46 | 1 | https://www.bostonherald.com/2023/04/22/boston-expanding-its-food-waste-curbside-collection-program-due-to-high-demand/ |
4 still hospitalized at burn centers after bonfire explosion
TOWN OF MAPLE GROVE, Wis. (AP) - Four people remain hospitalized in Wisconsin burn centers with injuries from a bonfire explosion last week during a party in the Town of Maple Grove. The Shawano County Sheriff’s Office says the explosion happened late Friday when a 55-gallon drum that was a quarter full of a mixture of gas and diesel fuel was placed on the fire. The sheriff’s office says some of the victims are listed in critical condition, but wasn’t specific. Investigators say 17 of the injured people were privately transported to hospitals in Green Bay, which is about about 25 miles (40.2 kilometers) southeast of the scene of the explosion.
(Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.) | https://www.weau.com/2022/10/21/4-still-hospitalized-burn-centers-after-bonfire-explosion/ | 2022-10-21 21:21:27 | 1 | https://www.weau.com/2022/10/21/4-still-hospitalized-burn-centers-after-bonfire-explosion/ |
PHILADELPHIA — Home Depot workers in Philadelphia rejected the first store-wide labor union at the world’s largest home improvement retailer Saturday night, a loss for a fledgling movement to organize at major U.S. companies.
The National Labor Relations Board oversaw the voting. A board spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request from The Associated Press for information about the vote.
The defeat for the organizers, who sought to join Home Depot Workers United, could discourage activist workers who have successfully formed the first unions at big chains, including Amazon, Starbucks, Trader Joe’s and Apple, but have since suffered setbacks in getting collective bargaining off the ground or organizing more unions.
The Atlanta-based company employs about 500,000 people at its 2,316 stores in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
Vincent Quiles, the Home Depot employee leading the unionization effort, told WHYY that the attempt to organize workers had been a “tall order.”
“I knew when I filed this petition we’d be taking on a $300 billion company,” Quiles said after the vote. “It wouldn’t be an easy fight to have. But you do these things because you believe them to be right.”
Quiles previously said worker discontent with working conditions, understaffing and lack of training are among the grievances that spurred the effort to organize. He also said workers are upset they have not shared more in the record profits Home Depot saw during the coronavirus pandemic.
Home Depot firmly opposes unionization, saying it has an open door policy allowing employees to bring concerns directly to managers.
After the failed union vote, Home Depot spokesperson Margaret Smith told WHYY, “We’re happy that the associates at this store voted to continue working directly with the company. That connection is important to our culture, and we will continue listening to our associates and making The Home Depot a great place to work and grow.”
Quiles filed a complaint of unfair labor practices with the NRLB, alleging managers engaged in inappropriate surveillance and interrogation tactics against union supporters. Quiles said managers followed him around the stores and tried to disrupt any conversations he tried to have with co-workers, even if it wasn’t about the union.
Instead, Quiles said he relied on TikTok videos, group text messaging and e-mailing to campaign for the union. Although more than 100 workers signed the petition demanding the election, Quiles said he was never able to persuade any co-workers to join him in speaking out publicly.
Home Depot is cooperating with the investigation into the complaint and “is confident we haven’t committed the alleged violations,” company spokeswoman Sara Gorman said.
Fierce legal fights have characterized organization efforts at other companies.
Amazon has filed more than two dozen objections in an attempt to undo the Amazon Labor Union’s surprise election victory at a Staten Island warehouse last spring, the group’s only successful attempt so far to form a union. The ALU, meanwhile, has filed more than two dozen charges with the National Labor Relations Board accusing Amazon of unfair labor practices that damaged its ability to organize.
Starbucks is negotiating contracts at a handful of the more than 250 stores where workers have voted to unionize, but the company has asked the NLRB to temporarily halt other elections because of alleged misconduct.
The labor relations board has filed a complaint against Chipotle alleging the restaurant chain unlawfully closed a store in Augusta, Maine, and fired its workers for union activity. | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/philadelphia-home-depot-workers-vote-to-reject-unionization/2022/11/06/16e52464-5da7-11ed-bc40-b5a130f95ee7_story.html | 2022-11-06 10:21:34 | 0 | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/philadelphia-home-depot-workers-vote-to-reject-unionization/2022/11/06/16e52464-5da7-11ed-bc40-b5a130f95ee7_story.html |
76ers have questions to solve on Harden, Rivers after another 2nd-round exit
PHILADELPHIA - Trust the Process?
Joel Embiid doesn’t even trust his teammates. At least the ones not named James Harden, just the players — ones like Tobias Harris and Tyrese Maxey that he’s won a lot of games with over the years — that he deemed didn’t rise to the occasion for the Philadelphia 76ers.
Yet, when the 76ers truly needed Embiid to play like an MVP, where was he?
Embiid scored just 15 points in Game 7 against Boston in a landmark defeat that thrust the franchise into its most pivotal offseason since 2013 when it launched the decade-long program toward a championship.
Doc Rivers might not come back. Harden, too.
Embiid will return, though, saying all the right things about how much he cares and wants to win all while the stench of a third Game 7 loss in the Eastern Conference semifinals since 2019 lingers over Philly.
Jalen Hurts led the Eagles to the Super Bowl. Bryce Harper took the Phillies to the World Series. Embiid’s legacy in Philly is quickly getting stamped as a second-round kind of guy.
Embiid is smart enough to realize that if he has any shot at a championship, he needs Harden — or at least another star — by his side. Harden has a player option for next season.
"I’m gonna stay out of it. But I still believe that me and him, we got the chance to win," Embiid said. "It’s going to take more than us. We’ve all got to look at ourselves. I got be better and I will be better. That’s what I’m focused on. All of us, we got to come back and find ways to just keep improving and help the team. We can’t win alone, I can’t win alone, me and James, we just can’t win alone. That’s why basketball is played five-on-five. So, we just need everyone to just try to keep finding ways to get better."
Can’t win alone. Me and James.
Embiid’s critique was quickly ripped by fans, media, even fellow NBA players, who questioned why the All-Star needed to drag his teammates into the muck after his disappearing act the last two games was a huge reason for the early exit. Embiid won his second straight scoring title at 33.1 points but averaged — while he played through a sprained right knee — 23.7 points in nine playoff games. The 9.4 drop-off is the largest by that year’s MVP in NBA history.
The Sixers have lost six times in the conference semis since Allen Iverson carried an unheralded group of teammates all the way to the 2001 NBA Finals. The 76ers lost to the Lakers that season — and then failed to even reach the second round until 2012.
Philly lost five times in the second round with Embiid. The Sixers, who haven't won a championship since 1983, churned through Ben Simmons and Jimmy Butler and other insignificant Embiid wingmen until they thought they hit the bull's-eye last season with Harden.
Harden, who turns 34 in August, comes with his own baggage. He scored 45 points in Game 1 and 42 in Game 4 victories but was 0 for 6 on 3s in Game 2 and Game 6 losses and scored only nine points in Game 7. Harden went scoreless in the second half Sunday.
"I know we’ve got to point somewhere, right? But I thought James, in particular, he was trying to do the right things tonight," Rivers said. "I really did."
So now what?
Harden, who played the last few months with nagging left Achilles soreness, has a player option of $35.6 million. He was vague on what he might do this summer.
"I just want to have a chance to obviously compete," he said.
Asked to describe his relationship with Rivers and if he’d like Rivers to return for a fourth season, Harden said "our relationship is OK" and didn’t answer the second part of the question.
Not exactly a ringing endorsement.
Rivers, who is 6-10 in Game 7s, said he expected to return next season to finish the final two years of his contract. But he understood the reality of the NBA, where coaches such as Nick Nurse (Toronto) and Mike Budenholzer (Milwaukee) have been fired already after winning championships since 2019.
"No one is safe in our business and I get that," Rivers said.
Here's a wrinkle the 76ers probably didn't expect — Nurse, Budenholzer and former Sixers assistant Monty Williams (who coached Phoenix in the 2021 NBA Finals) are all available.
Embiid turns 30 next March — just as another grueling postseason run awaits — and his banged-up body likely can’t survive too many more legitimate attempts at winning it all. Team president Daryl Morey heads into the summer trying to figure out how to get Embiid that championship parade, and if Harden and Rivers are still part of the plan to get him there. | https://www.fox29.com/news/76ers-have-questions-to-solve-on-harden-rivers-after-another-2nd-round-exit | 2023-05-15 18:57:30 | 1 | https://www.fox29.com/news/76ers-have-questions-to-solve-on-harden-rivers-after-another-2nd-round-exit |
Supreme Court’s abortion ruling sets off new court fights
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The fall of Roe v. Wade shifted the battleground over abortion to courthouses around the country Monday, as abortion foes looked to quickly enact statewide bans and the other side sought to buy more time.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Friday to end constitutional protections for abortion opened the gates for a wave of litigation from all sides.
Many of the court cases will focus on “trigger laws,” adopted in 13 states in anticipation of the ruling and designed to take effect quickly. Lawsuits could also target old anti-abortion laws that went unenforced under Roe, and cases over abortion restrictions that were put on hold awaiting the Supreme Court ruling have also started to come back into play.
“We’ll be back in court tomorrow and the next day and the next day,” Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which argued the case that resulted in Supreme Court ruling, told reporters in a video call Friday.
On Monday, abortion rights advocates asked a judge in Florida to block a new state law, which bans abortions after 15 weeks with some exceptions and is set to take effect July 1. The Planned Parenthood Association of Utah has already challenged a trigger law with narrow exceptions. The American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona and an abortion-rights group filed an emergency motion Saturday seeking to block a 2021 law that they worry can be used to halt all abortions.
Brigitte Amiri, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Reproductive Freedom Project, said the organization would look at “all options” to protect access to abortion. As of Saturday, abortion services had stopped in at least 11 states — either because of state laws or confusion over them.
In some cases, the lawsuits may only be a play for time. Even if courts block some abortion bans or restrictions from taking hold, lawmakers in many conservative state could move quickly to address any flaws cited.
Challenges to trigger laws could be made on the grounds that the conditions to impose the bans have not been met, or that it was improper for a past legislature to bind the current one to a new law. Laura Herner, a professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, said trigger bans or restrictions could also be challenged using equal protection arguments.
She said other challenges might call into question whether laws sufficiently and clearly allow for exceptions to protect the life or health of a pregnant woman.
Still other cases could be filed as states try to sort out whether abortion bans in place before Roe was decided — sometimes referred to as “zombie laws” — apply now that there is no federal protection for abortion.
For instance, Wisconsin passed a law in 1849 banning abortions except to save the life of the mother. Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, said he does not believe it’s enforceable. Pro-Life Wisconsin and other abortion opponents have called on lawmakers to impose a new ban.
In the meantime, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin said it immediately suspended all abortions, though the district attorneys in the counties that include Madison and Milwaukee have both suggested that they would not enforce the ban.
In Michigan, Planned Parenthood was proactive, challenging a 1931 abortion ban ahead of the Supreme Court ruling. In May, a judge said the ban could not be enforced because it violates the state’s constitution. Abortion rights supporters are now trying to get a proposed state constitutional amendment on the ballot in November to spell out that people can make their own decisions about abortion and birth control.
Advocates and experts also expect to see court fights over state efforts to pursue legal action against people who cross state lines to seek abortions — or to protect people from such action.
Idaho, Oklahoma and Texas have adopted laws that allow people to seek bounties against those who help others get abortions. There’s a question over whether that means people can be pursued across state lines — and some states acted to prevent that.
For instance, the California Legislature, controlled by Democrats, passed a bill Thursday to shield abortion providers and volunteers in the state from civil judgments imposed by other states. In liberal Massachusetts, Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, signed an executive order on Friday that prohibits state agencies from assisting other states’ investigations into anyone who receives or delivers reproductive health services that are legal in Massachusetts.
“It’s going to be very confusing and have a lot of moving parts and the patients are really going to be the ones who bear the brunt of this. There’s going to be a lot of confusion about where people can access abortion,” said Amiri, of the ACLU.
___
Forliti reported from Minneapolis and Mulvihill from Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Associated Press writers Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin; Kate Brumback in Atlanta; Steve LeBlanc in Boston and Don Thompson in Sacramento, California, contributed to this report.
___
For AP’s full coverage of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, go to https://apnews.com/hub/abortion.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.kfyrtv.com/2022/06/27/supreme-courts-abortion-ruling-sets-off-new-court-fights/ | 2022-06-27 14:54:11 | 0 | https://www.kfyrtv.com/2022/06/27/supreme-courts-abortion-ruling-sets-off-new-court-fights/ |
WASHINGTON — More than 40 million Americans could see their student loan debt reduced — and in many cases eliminated — under the long-awaited forgiveness plan President Joe Biden announced Wednesday, a historic but politically divisive move in the run-up to the midterm elections.
Fulfilling a campaign promise, Biden is erasing $10,000 in federal student loan debt for those with incomes below $125,000 a year, or households that earn less than $250,000. He’s canceling an additional $10,000 for those who received federal Pell Grants to attend college.
It’s seen as an unprecedented attempt to stem the tide of America’s rapidly rising student debt, but it doesn’t address the broader issue — the high cost of college.
Republicans quickly denounced the plan as an insult to Americans who have repaid their debt and to those who didn’t attend college. Critics across the political spectrum also questioned whether Biden has authority for the move, and legal challenges are virtually certain.
Biden also extended a pause on federal student loan payments for what he called the “final time.” The pause is now set to run through the end of the year, with repayments to restart in January.
“Both of these targeted actions are for families who need it the most: working and middle-class people hit especially hard during the pandemic,” Biden said at the White House on Wednesday afternoon.
The cancellation applies to federal student loans used to attend undergraduate and graduate school, along with Parent Plus loans. Current college students qualify if their loans were issued before July 1. For dependent students, their parents’ household income must be below $250,000.
Most people will need to apply for the relief. The Education Department has income data for a small share of borrowers, but the vast majority will need to prove their incomes through an application process. Officials said applications will be available before the end of the year.
Biden’s plan makes 43 million borrowers eligible for some debt forgiveness, with 20 million who could get their debt erased entirely, according to the administration. About 60% of borrowers are recipients of federal Pell Grants, which are reserved for undergraduates with the most significant financial need, meaning more than half can get $20,000 in relief.
Sabrina Cartan, a 29-year-old media strategist in New York City, is expecting her federal debt to get wiped out entirely. When she checked the balance Wednesday, it was $9,940.
Cartan used the loans to attend Tufts University, and with Biden’s plan she will be able to help her parents repay the additional thousands they borrowed for her education. As a first-generation college student, she called it a “leveling moment.”
“I know there are people who feel that this isn’t enough, and that is true for a lot of people,” said Cartan, who already has repaid about $10,000 of her loans. “I can say for me personally and for a lot of people, that is a lot of money.”
For Braxton Simpson, Biden’s plan is a great first step, but it’s not enough. The 23-year-old MBA student at North Carolina Central University has more than $40,000 in student loans. As an undergraduate student she took jobs to minimize her debt, but at $10,000 a semester, the costs piled up.
As a Black woman, she felt higher education was a requirement to obtain a more stable financial future, even if that meant taking on large amounts of debt, she said.
“In order for us to get out of a lot of the situations that have been systemically a part of our lives, we have to go to school,” Simpson said. “And so we end up in debt.”
The plan doesn’t apply to future college students, but Biden is proposing a separate rule that would reduce monthly payments on federal student debt.
The proposal would create a new payment plan requiring borrowers to pay no more than 5% of their earnings, down from 10% in similar existing plans. It would forgive any remaining balance after 10 years, down from 20 years now.
It would also raise the floor for repayments, meaning no one earning less than 225% of the federal poverty level would need to make monthly payments.
As a regulation, it would not require congressional approval. But it can take more than a year to finalize.
Biden’s plan comes after more than a year of deliberation, with the president facing strong lobbying from liberals who wanted sweeping debt forgiveness, and from moderates and conservatives who questioned its basic fairness or said it does nothing to fix the debt crisis.
“In my view, the administration should have further targeted the relief, and proposed a way to pay for this plan,” said Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo. “While immediate relief to families is important, one-time debt cancellation does not solve the underlying problem.”
Once a popular campaign promise during the presidential primary, the issue created an almost unwinnable situation. Still, many Democrats rallied around it, including support from those who wanted Biden to go beyond $10,000.
“I will keep pushing for more because I think it’s the right thing to do,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who had urged Biden to forgive up to $50,000 a person. “But we need to take a deep breath here and recognize what it means for the president of the United States to touch so many hard-working middle class families so directly.”
Proponents see cancellation as a matter of racial justice. Black students are more likely to take out federal student loans and at higher amounts than their white peers.
The NAACP, which pressed Biden to cancel at least $50,000 per person, said the plan is “one step closer” to lifting the burden of student debt.
Derrick Johnson, the group’s president, urged Biden to cancel the debt quickly and without bureaucratic hurdles for borrowers.
Biden’s decision to impose an income cap goes against objections from some who say adding the detailed application process to verify incomes could deter some borrowers who need help the most.
The Biden administration defended the cap as a gate against wealthier borrowers. Politically, it’s designed to counter arguments from critics who call debt cancellation a handout for the wealthy. Republicans hit hard with that argument on Wednesday despite the cap.
Breaking News
“President Biden’s inflation is crushing working families, and his answer is to give away even more government money to elites with higher salaries,” Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell said. “Democrats are literally using working Americans’ money to try to buy themselves some enthusiasm from their political base.”
One of the chief political sticking points has been the cost: Biden’s new plan, including debt cancellation, a new repayment plan and the payment freeze, will cost between $400 billion to $600 billion, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonprofit that advocates for lower deficits.
Asked about the cost Wednesday, Susan Rice, Biden’s domestic policy adviser, said, “I can’t give you that off the top of my head.”
There are also lingering questions about the administration’s authority to cancel student loan debt. The Justice Department released a legal opinion concluding that the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act gives the education secretary the “authority to reduce or eliminate the obligation to repay the principal balance of federal student loan debt.”
The legal opinion also concluded that the forgiveness could be applied on a “class-wide” basis in response to the coronavirus pandemic, a national emergency..
Lawsuits are likely nonetheless. The Job Creators Network, which promotes conservative economic policies, said it was considering legal options, with president and CEO Alfredo Ortiz calling the president’s effort “fundamentally unfair” to those who never took out loans for college.
AP writers Zeke Miller, Annie Ma and Sharon Lurye contributed to this report. | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/ct-aud-nw-student-loan-foregiveness-20220825-owxfet5ya5dwbnrlottoldyc7q-story.html | 2022-08-26 01:13:16 | 0 | https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/ct-aud-nw-student-loan-foregiveness-20220825-owxfet5ya5dwbnrlottoldyc7q-story.html |
HONG KONG (AP) — A Hong Kong court on Monday rejected a jailed publisher’s request to terminate his national security trial, pressing ahead with a landmark case seen as part of Beijing’s crackdown on the city’s pro-democracy movement.
Jimmy Lai, the 75-year-old founder of the now-defunct newspaper Apple Daily, faces up to life in prison if convicted under a Beijing-imposed national security law. His lawyers earlier filed an application to halt the trial, raising concerns that his case was being heard by three judges approved by the city’s leader, instead of a jury.
When Hong Kong returned to China in 1997, it was promised that trials by jury, previously practiced in the former British colony, would be maintained under the city’s constitution. But in a departure from the city’s common law tradition, the security law allows no-jury trials for national security cases.
On Monday, Judges Esther Toh, Susana D’Almada Remedios and Alex Lee unanimously rejected Lai’s request, saying there was no reason to believe they “would be biased, actually or apparently, against” Lai.
The national security law was enacted in June 2020 following months of anti-government protests calling for an investigation into police conduct during the unrest and universal suffrage. It outlaws secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign collusion to intervene in the city’s affairs, and has been used to stamp out dissent.
Lai is accused of conspiring with others to call for sanctions or blockades, or engage in hostile activities, against Hong Kong or China. He also faces a charge of collusion with foreign forces to endanger national security, and a separate sedition charge under a colonial-era law that is also increasingly used to crush the opposition.
Under the security law, the secretary for justice may direct national security cases to be tried without a jury if state secrets need to be protected, foreign forces are involved, or if the personal safety of jurors needs to be protected. In such cases, they will be heard by a panel of three hand-picked judges.
Earlier this month, Robert Pang, one of Lai’s lawyers, pointed to the lack of transparency in the appointment of the judges, saying that might affect the public’s confidence in the judiciary and the judicial process.
Pang also alleged the executive’s move to block British lawyer Timothy Owen from representing Lai could be fairly described as “persecution.”
In the ruling Monday, the judges disagreed that the city’s leader had a complete free rein in their selection. They said that judicial officers are appointed by the city’s leader upon the recommendation of an “independent advisory body.”
There was also no evidence to show that the committee for safeguarding national security, which blocked Owen from defending Lai, was acting in bad faith, they said. They added that a person has no right to insist on being represented by a lawyer who does not have a general right to practice in Hong Kong.
“It is certainly not the case that (Lai) is left without adequate and competent legal representation. Rather, (Lai) has the service of a firm of solicitors and a team of six counsel,” they wrote.
Lai’s trial, originally scheduled to begin Dec. 1, was postponed until September as the city awaited Beijing’s decision over a row on his decision to hire a British lawyer. Lai was sentenced to five years and nine months in a separate fraud case in December.
In a report last week, U.K. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said Hong Kong authorities have used the security and sedition laws to target prominent pro-democracy figures, journalists and politicians.
The report said that he had raised Lai’s case with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng. The Hong Kong government firmly rejected what it called the slandering remarks in the report.
Also Monday, a separate trial opened for other less prominent activists who were allegedly part of a group that occupied the Hong Kong legislature for three hours during the 2019 protests. Among those who appeared in court was former student leader Althea Suen.
Suen pleaded guilty to the charge of rioting, according to local media reports. She wrote earlier on Facebook that she had no regrets over fighting for freedom, justice and democracy. | https://www.wane.com/news/national-world/ap-international/ap-hong-kong-court-rejects-publisher-jimmy-lais-bid-to-terminate-his-national-security-trial/ | 2023-05-29 15:04:23 | 0 | https://www.wane.com/news/national-world/ap-international/ap-hong-kong-court-rejects-publisher-jimmy-lais-bid-to-terminate-his-national-security-trial/ |
NASA plans to test launch its newest rocket — one it hopes will eventually take astronauts back to the moon. But the rocket's big price tag has some critics skeptical about its future.
Copyright 2022 NPR
NASA plans to test launch its newest rocket — one it hopes will eventually take astronauts back to the moon. But the rocket's big price tag has some critics skeptical about its future.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.wbaa.org/2022-08-28/nasas-pricey-new-moon-rocket-is-it-worth-the-cost | 2022-08-28 22:54:17 | 0 | https://www.wbaa.org/2022-08-28/nasas-pricey-new-moon-rocket-is-it-worth-the-cost |
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Stories that affect your life across the U.S. and around the world. | https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/national-international/5-former-memphis-police-officers-charged-in-death-of-tyre-nichols/3483279/ | 2023-01-26 21:21:58 | 0 | https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/national-international/5-former-memphis-police-officers-charged-in-death-of-tyre-nichols/3483279/ |
IV Therapy Franchise makes Supplements more Accessible for Clients
WRENTHAM, Mass., Nov. 17, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The DRIPBaR - an IV vitamin therapy franchise growing expeditiously across America, is happy to announce its new partnership with Fullscript, an industry-leading supplement planning and delivery tool for patient-centered care and optimal health. The collaboration will create a more fulfilling experience for The DRIPBaR clients as they will be able to pair supplements with their IV vitamin drip of choice. The DRIPBaR and Fullscript have identified several high-quality vitamins and supplements that pair well with select IV drip protocols to support heart, brain and gut health, improve energy and immune function, and assist with anti-aging and weight loss efforts.
"We know this partnership with Fullscript will be a huge benefit for our franchisees and clients. Now more than ever, people are becoming focused on their health and Fullscript will help us in our effort to guide everyone to meet their wellness goals," said CEO, Ben Crosbie. "This partnership will provide a unique experience for clients, as they get to combine their favorite IV Drips with additional vitamins and supplements."
Fullscript makes it easier for clients to receive supplements that are carefully reviewed and selected by licensed medical professionals by allowing them to order supplements while in a DRIPBaR location and have them mailed to their home. The new partnership is sure to create a hassle-free experience as clients don't have to wait for supplements to come in stock at stores. Autoship and refill reminders, along with fast, convenient shipping will also ensure clients exceptional convenience.
"We're thrilled about our new partnership with The DRIPBaR and look forward to providing more people easy access to professional-grade vitamins and supplements that will further enhance their health goals between infusions," said Jeff Gladd, MD, a practicing integrative medicine physician and the chief medical officer at Fullscript.
Each DRIPBaR location offers 20 IV Lifestyle or Health Support drips including the Jet Setter, Time Machine, Restoration, Flu Fighter, and High C. All IV drips are handled by registered nurses under the guidance of a licensed medical director. For those who don't have time for a full IV vitamin infusion but are looking for the benefit, The DRIPBaR can give your body a boost in just five minutes with one of its five IM Quick Shots. IV therapy provides positive nourishment for conditions such as the common cold, headaches, cancer, and chronic illness and even helps slow the signs of aging.
To learn more about The DRIPBaR, please visit their website at thedripbar.com. To learn more about Fullscript, please visit their website at https://fullscript.com/.
About The DRIPBaR
Founded in 2016 and franchising since late 2019, The DRIPBaR is a franchise focused on helping people obtain their best physical and mental health using intravenous therapies. Through advances in cellular and biological science, The DRIPBaR helps clients fight the consequences of chronic illness, address the effects of aging, and achieve balanced wellness. With 37 locations currently open and operating, The DRIPBaR already has over 450 additional locations in various stages of development across 28 states. For more information, visit www.thedripbar.com.
About Fullscript
Fullscript is a digital health platform that helps practitioners build better patient relationships through quality supplementation and intuitive tools for treatment adherence — all at no cost.
Practitioners write online supplement plans where patients order wellness products and find resources to improve their health education. Practitioners control what their patients pay so they can grow their practices, offer deep discounts, or strike a comfortable balance of both. Fullscript's US catalog also supports wholesale orders for in-office dispensing.
Beyond supplement planning, Fullscript delivers evidence-based resources, ready-made protocols, personalized refill reminders, and more to help sustain optimal health over time. Learn more at Fullscript.com.
Contact: Raylin Taylor, Franchise Elevator PR, (914) 486-0330, rtaylor@franchiseelevator.com
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SOURCE The DRIPBaR | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2022/11/17/dripbar-begins-new-partnership-with-fullscript/ | 2022-11-18 00:52:45 | 0 | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2022/11/17/dripbar-begins-new-partnership-with-fullscript/ |
The Heyworth school board meets Thursday in special session to accept the resignation of eighth grade English teacher Sarah Bonner.
Mateusz Janik
Bryanna Tidmarsh, who said she is a doctoral student at Illinois State University studying children's literature, expresses her support for teacher Sarah Bonner at Thursday's Heyworth School Board meeting..
HEYWORTH — A Heyworth teacher has resigned following public backlash over a sex education book in her classroom.
The Heyworth school board approved a separation agreement at a special meeting Thursday with eight grade English teacher Sarah Bonner. The vote came after a closed session and more than an hour of public comment, generally in her favor.
Bonner declined a request for an interview with The Pantagraph following the meeting.
The book in question was Juno Dawson's “This Book is Gay,” a young adult nonfiction work on sexuality and gender. It was not in the school library but was Bonner's own book in her classroom, Taylor said.
Parent Jeff Klawitter, who spoke twice, said the issue had nothing to do with Bonner's teaching style but he believed the book was inappropriate and was brought into the classroom without his or other parents' knowledge.
"What happens in my household, that's my son," Klawitter said. "It's not the school's son, it's not the teacher's son, and most importantly it's not the teacher's union son."
Parent Krista Reichert, who identified herself as a mental health practitioner, said she was surprised by the backlash and felt photos of the book on social media were taken out of context. She added there are plenty of other books that include sex education that are not an issue.
"We talk about not wanting to have uncomfortable conversations; we need to have uncomfortable conversations," Reichert said. "Change doesn't happen when we all are turning inward and choosing the path that is most comfortable."
Bonner has been a classroom teacher for about 20 years and remains an assistant professor in the College of Education at Illinois State University.
She recently received her doctorate at ISU and was the winner of the National Council of Teachers of English Media Literacy Award in 2018, which showcases educators who integrate media analysis and writing into their instruction.
Superintendent Lisa Taylor said the agreement was mutually negotiated between both parties and the board agreed to terms for an voluntary resignation including the remainder of salary and benefits. The terms were not disclosed.
Taylor said there was no resignation submitted before Thursday.
She also said there had been a lot of misinformation on social media that made it difficult for people to know what was really happening.
"I think that's part of the most challenging piece of this, that the district is in a position where you can't share details of it but you see all of this misinformation flying by,” Taylor said.
Taylor said supplemental resources that teachers bring are not reviewed. District officials have discussed whether books in classrooms should come from a preapproved library list or get administrative approval, but no decision has been made.
"We want to take the time to really work with staff (and) involve parents in that right and not rush to make a decision but really take your time and make the right decision so that's what we'll be focusing on," Taylor added.
Prior to the vote on the agreement, public comment came from 11 people, including other teachers, students and parents both for and against Bonner's actions.
Bryanna Tidmarsh said she's a doctoral student at Illinois State University studying children's literature and mother of a 9-year-old queer nonbinary child. There is value in the books that Bonner chooses for her classroom, especially when it revolves around representation, she said.
Tidmarsh said the section that talks about sex begins with a warning that tells the reader they can skip the chapter if they are not ready to learn more about same-sex relationships.
"During this critique that has come from community members (and) that has come from even other educators, you are not only telling Dr. Bonner but you are making other educators feel unsafe," Tidmarsh said. "And you are telling all of these kids in this district, all of these queer kids have been made to feel less safe because of you."
"I hope that folks will actively ask experts in career literature, children's literature and education who know the nuances of some these choices before making up their minds," Tidmarsh added.
Anna Hanrahan said the reaction from the public was not appropriate and suggested a conversation should have happened between the school, parents and Bonner to clarify her reasoning.
"She would send an email every single week detailing the curriculum in the class for that week. Have the students add their insight to it and send it out every single week," Hanrahan said. "I never in my life received more communication from an educator than I did from her and we just did not afford her that same respect we received."
Two students who identified as queer also said they were upset by the public's reaction to the situation and shared concerns about safety in their community.
As for moving forward, Taylor said counseling services are already offered to students experiencing any hardships from the incident and that the English class will have a substitute through the end of the year before the school finds a replacement for next year.
Photos: Cornerstone Christian wins over Lexington during the Sectional Finals at Heyworth
Contact Mateusz Janik at (309) 820-3234. Follow Mateusz on Twitter:@mjanik99
Bryanna Tidmarsh, who said she is a doctoral student at Illinois State University studying children's literature, expresses her support for teacher Sarah Bonner at Thursday's Heyworth School Board meeting.. | https://pantagraph.com/news/local/education/heyworth-teacher-resigns-amid-public-backlash-over-sex-ed-book/article_95316d5c-c9e8-11ed-99e9-03a0c6ab024d.html | 2023-03-24 05:23:34 | 0 | https://pantagraph.com/news/local/education/heyworth-teacher-resigns-amid-public-backlash-over-sex-ed-book/article_95316d5c-c9e8-11ed-99e9-03a0c6ab024d.html |
WASHINGTON, Feb. 22, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- RCB Fund Services LLC, the Fund Administrator for the Kraft Heinz Co. ("KHC") Fair Fund (the "KHC Fair Fund"), announces the opening of the claims process for the KHC Fair Fund. The KHC Fair Fund was established by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") enforcement action against KHC to distribute more than $62 million in civil money penalties to investors harmed by KHC's alleged accounting misconduct that resulting in KHC reporting inflated earnings metrics during the period from 2015 through 2018. Pursuant to the Plan of Distribution (the "Plan") approved on December 23, 2022, the KHC Fair Fund will compensate certain investors who purchased KHC common stock between February 26, 2016 and February 21, 2019 and who satisfy the conditions of the Plan. The Plan can be found at: khcfairfund.com or sec.gov.
Who is Eligible to Participate?
Any person or entity that purchased or acquired KHC common stock during the period from February 26, 2016 to February 21, 2019 may be eligible for compensation from the KHC Fair Fund subject to certain eligibility limitations described in the Plan.
Eligible Security
Kraft Heinz Common Stock – (KHC) CUSIP: 500754106
Determination of Eligible Losses
The amount of compensation will be determined in accordance with the Plan and will vary based on the dates of transactions in KHC common stock, the number of shares purchased and/or sold, and the total dollar value of eligible claims submitted to KHC Fair Fund.
How to Apply?
You must submit a completed claim form and supporting documentation on or before the claims deadline. The easiest way to participate is to file a claim online through the KHC Fair Fund website: khcfairfund.com. If you are not able to utilize the online filing, you may download a copy of the claim form from the website and mail the completed claim form to the KHC Fair Fund at the address shown below. You may also request a claim form by calling us toll free at (800) 218-5449, or by sending an email request to info@khcfairfund.com.
Claim Filing Deadline
Claim forms must be postmarked no later than midnight on June 21, 2023
APPLY NOW!
KHC Fair Fund, P.O. Box 6977, Syracuse, NY 13217-6977.
Toll free number: (800) 218-5449.
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SOURCE RCB Fund Services | https://www.wkyt.com/prnewswire/2023/02/22/fair-fund-compensate-certain-investors-kraft-heinz-co-common-stock/ | 2023-02-22 16:00:24 | 0 | https://www.wkyt.com/prnewswire/2023/02/22/fair-fund-compensate-certain-investors-kraft-heinz-co-common-stock/ |
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SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The Republican nominee for governor in New Mexico has proposed a statewide referendum that could place new limitations on access to abortion procedures, pitching the idea in a television ad Thursday.
Mark Ronchetti has advocated for a ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy with exceptions for rape, incest and risk to the physical health of the mother. That’s in line with a proposal this week for a nationwide abortion ban from Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
“I’ve made my position clear: end late-term abortion,” Ronchetti says in the ad, seated on a sofa alongside wife Krysty Ronchetti. “Put it on a statewide ballot so everyone gets a say.”
Referendums in New Mexico are limited to proposed state constitutional amendments that can be scheduled by the Legislature, with or without the governor’s consent.
New Mexico state law ensures access to abortion with few restrictions even after the U.S. Supreme Court rolled back guaranteed access in a June decision.
Incumbent Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham voiced immediate opposition to her opponent's referendum proposal.
The governor has cast herself as a staunch defender of access to abortion, signing an executive order in August that pledges $10 million to build a clinic that would provide abortion and other pregnancy care.
In a statement, Lujan Grisham spokesperson Delaney Corcoran said the governor “will oppose any attempt to undo New Mexico’s progress in protecting abortion rights. She stands against Mark Ronchetti’s clear attempt to ban abortion through a constitutional amendment.”
In 2021, Lujan Grisham and state legislators repealed a dormant 1969 statute that outlawed most abortion procedures as felonies.
Albuquerque is home to one of only a few independent clinics in the country that perform abortions in the third trimester without conditions.
Under current state law, New Mexico can expect to continue to see a steady influx of people seeking abortions from neighboring states with more restrictive abortion laws. It already hosts patients from Texas and Oklahoma, where some of the strictest abortion bans in the country were introduced this year.
Ronchetti and Lujan Grisham have cast each other as extremists on abortion policy. Anti-abortion activist Karen Bedonie also is running for governor as the Libertarian Party nominee. | https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/GOP-candidate-wants-referendum-on-abortion-in-New-17445060.php | 2022-09-16 00:01:39 | 1 | https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/GOP-candidate-wants-referendum-on-abortion-in-New-17445060.php |
Aesthetics from the ‘70s and ‘80s have become fashion and music staples again in the modern era, and the effect of nostalgic fashion is frequent with celebrities as well.
Celebrities like Lana Del Rey and Harry Styles share uncanny resemblances to icons from before their time, such as Elton John and Hedy Lamarr, leaving pop culture audiences with a sense of familiarity and nostalgia, Dane Harter, a second-year in fashion and retail, said. Whether it‘s the result of conscious decisions by the current music and fashion industries or not, the idea of cyclical nostalgia is not new.
“This form of nostalgia will always be prevalent in pop culture because there are iconic decades we’re always referring to in history and culture,” Harter said.
Harry Styles, known for his flashy outfits and commitment to color and sequins, is not the first one to adopt this concept. Elton John was known for this aesthetic as well, Elena Cruz-Lopez, a graduate student in musicology, said.
“Styles is really pulling from ‘70s artists right now,” Cruz-Lopez said. “Mick Jagger and Elton John were big artists at this time, and all three happen to be British as well.”
In the music industry, artists like Lana Del Rey — an indie rock singer from Manhattan— tap into nostalgia from a variety of eras with her fashion choices, Harter said.
Del Rey has characterized her look with old Hollywood glamor reminiscent of the 1930s, according to Dazed Media. Del Rey frequently dons a red lip and dry finger waves, which were staples of the time, according to GlamourDaze.
Del Rey is also typically seen with a bold cat eye similar to the style of Priscilla Presley in the 1960s, according to Billboard Media. Now, the cat eye makeup look is fall’s biggest makeup trend, according to Allure.
“This 1940s film actress Hedy Lamarr was in a film and wore this star dress with this beautiful star crown,” Harter said. “And then Lana Del Rey wore a very similar outfit to the 2018 Grammys, with just a more modern construction.”
Harter said this trend is likely to continue as people continue referencing “iconic decades” throughout history and culture
However, the return to past styles doesn’t have to mean unoriginality, Cruz-Lopez said. She said reusing these old styles can lead into a new powerful piece of art.
“I don’t think recycling styles or trends has to be a bad thing,” Cruz-Lopez said. “It’s just about taking what exists and adding a new twist to it.”
Cruz-Lopez said the reason why nostalgia in the form of new sampled music and styles always sells is because the sense of familiarity is met with a new creation.
“It’s new, but it’s recognizable,” Cruz-Lopez said. “I don’t know, I think it may just feel like home.” | https://www.thelantern.com/2022/10/from-elton-john-to-harry-styles-is-history-repeating-itself/ | 2022-10-27 02:36:09 | 0 | https://www.thelantern.com/2022/10/from-elton-john-to-harry-styles-is-history-repeating-itself/ |
MENLO PARK, Calif., June 16, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, One Concern, a climate analytics company, announced a strategic alliance with WTW (NASDAQ: WTW), a leading global advisory, broking and solutions company. The two companies are providing the U.S. insurance market with One Concern Resilience ScoreTM (1CRX™) to facilitate a better understanding of dependency risk and accelerate the adoption of parametric insurance.
The One Concern Resilience Score indicates the vulnerability a business has concerning downtime arising from the fragility of the infrastructure a business relies upon, such as the power grid, transportation infrastructure, and related community areas, in addition to direct property damage. Incorporating resilience scores into WTW's client-facing analytical platforms, along with the broking workflow, will present a complete picture of existing building damage analyses, with the potential impact of vulnerable external dependencies.
"We're thrilled to incorporate our resilience score into WTW's cutting-edge analytical solutions and demonstrate to clients that the biggest threats to their business derive from climate-related dependency risk," said Ahmad Wani, Co-Founder and CEO, One Concern. "WTW's ability to apply the latest in disaster science will enhance their clients' decision-making process in choosing how best to integrate physical climate risk into their resilience strategy."
One Concern's analytics will support and augment WTW clients' risk analyses and decision-making regarding specific mitigation steps, costs, and benefits, including alternative risk transfer mechanisms. For example, risk managers and WTW risk advisors can use One Concern insights to suggest pricing adjustments, advise on risk mitigation activities, increase their business resilience to minimize the adverse impact of natural disasters, and secure parametric insurance covers to fill the protection gap they experience when faced with a natural catastrophe.
"We are always looking for ways to help our clients thoroughly understand their risk profile, along with the opportunity for us to bring actionable insights and solutions to help them smartly reduce those risks; the ability to evaluate 'the outside the fence' risk dynamic is of critical importance, and now we can do something about it," said Ben Fidlow, Global Head of Risk Analytics, WTW. "One Concern's investment in this area is quite impressive, and we are happy to deliver this new capability to our clients. This will help us reduce the basis risk in traditional property insurance and help our clients create long-term, sustainable resilience plans."
We're a technology company building the digital infrastructure for global risk. We map, analyze and monitor every piece of the world's built environment and its connection to the global economy. Our mission is to make disasters less disastrous. www.oneconcern.com
At WTW (NASDAQ: WTW), we provide data-driven, insight-led solutions in the areas of people, risk and capital. Leveraging the global view and local expertise of our colleagues serving 140 countries and markets, we help you sharpen your strategy, enhance organizational resilience, motivate your workforce and maximize performance.
Working shoulder to shoulder with you, we uncover opportunities for sustainable success—and provide perspective that moves you.
Learn more at wtwco.com.
For media inquiries:
PR@oneconcern.com
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SOURCE One Concern | https://www.kait8.com/prnewswire/2022/06/16/one-concern-partners-with-wtw-bring-climate-resilience-scores-us-insurance-market/ | 2022-06-16 14:16:37 | 0 | https://www.kait8.com/prnewswire/2022/06/16/one-concern-partners-with-wtw-bring-climate-resilience-scores-us-insurance-market/ |
Atlanta organizers unveil plan to stop ‘Cop City’ at the ballot box
ATLANTA (AP) — Activists announced an effort Wednesday to force a referendum that would allow Atlanta voters to decide whether the construction of a proposed police and firefighter training center should proceed, in a potential last-ditch effort to halt the project that its opponents refer to as “Cop City.”
A day after the City Council rejected protesters’ pleas to refuse to fund the police and firefighter training facility, the activists returned to City Hall to file a referendum petition, hoping to take the fight to the ballot box. Under the proposed referendum, voters would choose whether they want to repeal the ordinance that authorized the lease of the city-owned land upon which the project is being built.
In order for the language to get on the ballot, though, organizers must first gather the signatures of more than 70,000 Atlanta voters over 60 days once the city clerk approves the petition. They would also have to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay canvassers to help them do that.
“The exciting thing about the referendum is that it’s a silver bullet,” said Alex Joseph, a local attorney who is helping to lead the legal effort. “If we win, it shuts down the project.”
Joseph said the campaign is modeled after a successful effort in coastal Georgia, where Camden County residents voted overwhelmingly last year to block county officials from building a launchpad for blasting commercial rockets into space.
The Georgia Supreme Court in February unanimously upheld the legality of the Camden County referendum, though it remains an open question whether citizens can veto decisions of city governments.
Opponents of the proposed training center say they need to gather the signatures of 15% of the approximately 469,000 city residents who were registered to vote in the last election, which would be 70,330 signatures. Among the groups backing the effort are the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the Working Families Party.
Construction crews have already begun clearing wide swaths of the overgrown, urban forest in unincorporated DeKalb County ahead of the planned construction of the 85-acre (34-hectare) campus. Project opponents said they plan to seek a court order to halt the work pending the outcome of their proposed referendum.
City officials say the $90 million facility would replace inadequate training facilities and would help address difficulties in hiring and retaining police officers that worsened after nationwide protests against police brutality and racial injustice three years ago.
But opponents, who have been joined by activists from around the country, say they fear it will lead to greater militarization of the police and that its construction will exacerbate environmental damage in a poor, majority-Black area.
The “Stop Cop City” effort has gone on for more than two years and at times has veered into vandalism and violence, with protesters having been accused of throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at law enforcement officers.
More than 350 people signed up Monday to deliver impassioned speeches against the facility, with testimony inside the City Council chamber lasting so long — more than 14 hours — that the 11-4 vote in favor of funding the facility did not take place until around 5:30 a.m. the next morning.
Having been unable to convince the council to halt the project, Joseph said it’s time for activists to make the case to the larger public.
“Hundreds of us have spoken and yet (city officials) have moved forward with this project,” Joseph said. “To me, in the face of being ignored like that, this calls for direct democracy.”
As approved by the City Council in September 2021, the land is being leased to the private Atlanta Police Foundation for $10 a year. The proposed referendum would seek to cancel that agreement.
Atlanta native and local organizer Clara Totenberg Green said gathering enough signatures in time will be difficult, but she thinks it’s doable.
“There are hundreds, thousands of folks that are mobilized and ready to act,” Green said. “We can absolutely get the signatures. The challenge is the fast turnaround, but we can do it. People are ready.”
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wcjb.com/2023/06/07/atlanta-organizers-unveil-plan-stop-cop-city-ballot-box/ | 2023-06-07 15:55:16 | 1 | https://www.wcjb.com/2023/06/07/atlanta-organizers-unveil-plan-stop-cop-city-ballot-box/ |
KOR's deep reporting expertise combined with cutting-edge technology delivers intelligent reporting services and new innovations for a smarter way to report trades in all asset classes.
ATLANTA, Sept. 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- KOR Financial announces the launch of its CFTC registered Swap Data Repository (SDR), the first and only SDR to go live with the newly mandated re-write changes to swaps reporting, well in advance of the December 5, 2022 final compliance date. The first SDR to be licensed in eight years, KOR introduces reporting-as-a-service to improve data quality, reduce errors and improve efficiency through actionable insights. Launch clients include clearing, exchange and end user firms.
Powering the heart of trade reporting, the KOR SDR validation engine introduces sub-second data processing and rejection details backed by 100k+ hand-written automated testing scenarios. KOR's innovations of submission timeliness analytics, pattern control frameworks, data driven correction recommendations and peer benchmarking usher in new approaches to reporting compliance and operations.
Led by former executives of CME Group, ICE, and London Stock Exchange regulatory reporting businesses, KOR SDR is built to address systemic industry reporting failures of the last decade, inadequate service levels, and the lack of client in-house expertise to support sweeping global regulatory changes.
"The well defined API documentation and the KOR system design allowed us to integrate quickly and switch SDRs with confidence, says Brandon Kotara, CTO at FTX US Derivatives. The ability to get fast and declarative submission responses is a game changer."
KOR's 'API-first' services enable clients to integrate all data, analytics, reports and insights seamlessly into their environment and operations. With user-centric designs, KOR's user interface prioritizes actionable insights and organizes data for efficient workflows. According to KOR CEO and Founder Jonathan Thursby, "Building from a fresh start, the vision was to take lessons and insight from the past 10 years and create smart solutions to address industry systemic deficiencies and the upcoming waves of global regulatory changes. Only a clean slate start and use of 100% cloud infrastructure for scale and reliability could enable our unique design and reporting innovations."
KOR also introduces a market first with on-demand access to data history, extensive self-administration tools and a vast knowledge base carefully crafted by industry experts.
By going live with the CFTC re-write over two months before the industry's big bang cutover approach for December 5, 2022, KOR has lowered project and compliance risks for the industry while already delivering on CFTC phase 2 reporting with implementation of UPI and an architecture ready for ISO XML 20022 translations.
KOR is licensed by the CFTC in all asset classes and is supporting all client segments. "The specialized support for crypto markets to correctly model all product fields along with on-the-fly support of natural persons is unique in the market and was a big factor in our decision to use KOR. KOR is and has been a solid industry partner", states Todd Miller, Amber Group - Americas COO. With all reporting firms having mandatory projects to support the new CFTC reporting rules, timing has never been better to upgrade SDRs. Switching of SDRs is now simplified with a snapshot cut-over of only open trades and positions.
KOR is in the application process for US SEC and pan-Canadian trade repository licenses, with expansion into the UK, EU, Australia and Singapore starting later this year.
For more information visit www.korfinancial.com
For media inquiries, please contact: Meggie Machado at mmachado@korfinancial.com
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SOURCE KOR Financial | https://www.mysuncoast.com/prnewswire/2022/09/29/kor-sdr-is-live-with-cftc-re-write-reporting-rules-advance-december-deadline/ | 2022-09-29 11:41:13 | 0 | https://www.mysuncoast.com/prnewswire/2022/09/29/kor-sdr-is-live-with-cftc-re-write-reporting-rules-advance-december-deadline/ |
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