text string | url string | crawl_date string | label int64 | id string |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Piers Morgan, host of "Piers Morgan Uncensored" on Fox Nation, criticized President Biden for his underwhelming performance in office. Morgan argued on "Fox & Friends" Monday that Biden's repeated gaffes and delayed response to the Chinese surveillance flight have cost him "trust" on the international stage.
SPY BALLOON LIKELY SENT EXTENSIVE INTELLIGENCE TO CHINA, EXPERTS SAY
PIERS MORGAN: You see a guy who has shown discernible evidence that he is feeling his age. This is a man in his eighties, who is already the oldest American president ever, that doesn't instill much confidence when he keeps forgetting his words. He keeps going back on things he said before. He denies what we've seen him say with his own mouth. It doesn't instill confidence. Add to that the debacle of the Afghanistan withdrawal. Add to that, certainly in the U.K., a complete freezing of the so-called special relationship. There's no trade deal. There's no real ongoing relationship at all with our two great countries. I think certainly from the U.K. perspective, I think he's been very underwhelming. Now we have this extraordinary spectacle of watching from afar as a Chinese balloon just seems to go over America for a week with complete impunity. We're all thinking, ‘What the hell is going on here?’ So I think Biden's big issue on the foreign stage is trust. | https://www.foxbangor.com/news/national/piers-morgan-goes-off-on-biden-over-china-spy-flight-what-the-hell-is-going/article_62b2b8cf-ab9e-5bc9-98d1-ccdcbcd0ff2e.html | 2023-02-06 19:37:34 | 0 | https://www.foxbangor.com/news/national/piers-morgan-goes-off-on-biden-over-china-spy-flight-what-the-hell-is-going/article_62b2b8cf-ab9e-5bc9-98d1-ccdcbcd0ff2e.html |
A federal judge has rejected former President Donald Trump's motion for a new trial in the civil case brought by the writer E. Jean Carroll.
A jury had previously found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll and defaming her, and awarded her $5 million in damages.
Senior district Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York wrote in an order issued Wednesday that the jury in the case did not reach "a seriously erroneous result" and its verdict is not "a miscarriage of justice," as Trump had alleged.
"Now that the court has denied Trump's motion for a new trial or to decrease the amount of the verdict, E Jean Carroll looks forward to receiving the $5 million in damages that the jury awarded her," Robbie Kaplan, Carroll's attorney said in a statement.
Attorneys for Trump didn't immediately comment on the decision.
The ruling came a week after the U.S. Justice Department declined to shield Trump from Carroll's other defamation claim, reversing course on one of its most controversial decisions during the early stretch of the Biden administration.
Carroll filed this first defamation lawsuit three years ago. At that time, then-Attorney General Bill Barr sided with Trump and said the former president had been acting within the bounds of his office as president. But Judge Kaplan had rejected that position — only to watch as the new Biden attorney general, Merrick Garland, also extended a legal shield to Trump.
The change in course added yet another legal burden for Trump, who is fighting criminal charges over accounting for alleged hush money payments in Manhattan, separate federal charges for alleged obstruction and willful retention of highly classified documents at his Florida resort, and a grand jury investigation in Georgia over his attempts to overturn the results of that 2020 presidential election in that state.
Separately, on Tuesday, Trump said that he had received word from the Justice Department that he's a target of the grand jury probe into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. An indictment could be imminent.
Rewind to the start of the Carroll legal case
In 2019, Carroll first publicly came forward saying Trump had raped her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s when the future president was just a businessman.
She made the allegations with the publication of her memoir What Do We Need Men For: A Modest Proposal.
Trump responded, denying the accusation and saying that the writer had ulterior motives.
Carroll sued Trump — twice (in 2019 and later in 2022) — for his public rebuke of her accusation.
The columnist filed the second lawsuit against Trump (this time for both defamation and rape) after the state of New York lifted the statute of limitations for survivors of sexual assault to file civil claims.
In May, jurors sided with her in this case. The jury didn't find Trump raped Carroll, however. The jury awarded her $5 million in total damages agreeing that he "sexually abused" her and that he defamed her when he denied her story.
But this case, much like Trump's criminal cases, is far from over.
Her first lawsuit filed in 2019, referred to as Carroll I in the court, was filed for Trump's alleged defamatory statements. Following her victory in May, Carroll and her lawyers asked a court to expand the scope of the Carroll I case against Trump, seeking at least an additional $10 million in damages.
Kaplan also said in her statement to NPR that Carroll "also looks forward to continuing to hold Trump accountable for what he did to her at the trial in Carroll I, which is scheduled to begin on January 15, 2024."
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.kvpr.org/npr-news/2023-07-19/a-federal-judge-denies-trumps-request-for-new-trial-in-e-jean-carroll-legal-saga | 2023-07-19 23:14:21 | 0 | https://www.kvpr.org/npr-news/2023-07-19/a-federal-judge-denies-trumps-request-for-new-trial-in-e-jean-carroll-legal-saga |
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia is still in the money, with tax collections on track to deliver another big surplus in its state budget.
The state has already collected roughly $2 billion more in general tax revenue than it's on track to spend in the budget year that ends June 30, according to figures released Wednesday.
Plus, Georgia will bank another month of tax collections before it closes the books on the 2022 budget year, which could add another $2.5 billion to the surplus.
The bulging bank account could make it possible for the state to further cut taxes or expand services. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp has already extended a temporary waiver on gas taxes through the middle of July, and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams on Tuesday called on Kemp to extend the gas tax holiday through the end of the year. Kemp can make that move without legislative approval as long as lawmakers later ratify it.
That would require the state to transfer roughly $150 million a month from its saving to maintain roadbuilding efforts.
Georgia ran a $3.7 billion surplus in the 2021 budget year, filling its rainy day fund to the legal limit and leaving $2.3 billion in additional undesignated surplus Kemp has used to give income tax refunds worth $1.1 billion, in addition to paying for the gas tax holiday.
Abrams has made expanding the Medicaid health insurance program to uninsured adults a top priority.
But lawmakers could be cautious because they have set a big income tax cut to begin on Jan. 1, 2024. Changing Georgia's income tax from a system with a top rate of 5.75% with lower brackets below there to a flat tax of 5.49% could forgo $450 million in tax revenue. After that, the measure calls for the tax rate to fall one-tenth of 1% each year, reaching 4.99% by as early as 2029, unless overall revenue stalls.
Revenue figures have been hard to follow during the spring because Georgia delayed the deadline to file income taxes in 2021 into May because of the pandemic. But that smoke cleared with the May revenue report, showing tax collections running 24% ahead of this time last year and more than 10% ahead of what's needed for a 2022 budget. That's even after Kemp and lawmakers added nearly $3 billion in spending, mainly by paying more to employees and K-12 teachers and increasing other spending on education.
Georgia’s budget pays to educate 1.7 million K-12 students and 435,000 college students, house 47,000 state prisoners, pave 18,000 miles (29,000 kilometers) of highways and care for more than 200,000 people who are mentally ill, developmentally disabled or addicted to drugs or alcohol.
A few hundred million of the extra money will go into the state rainy day fund, which by law contains 15% of tax collections from the previous year. But most of it will end up as undesignated surplus, basically cash Kemp and lawmakers can spend as they please. | https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Georgia-likely-to-again-run-multibillion-budget-17227875.php | 2022-06-08 20:10:22 | 0 | https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Georgia-likely-to-again-run-multibillion-budget-17227875.php |
ST. JULIAN'S, Malta, Aug. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- BEQUANT, the digital asset prime brokerage and exchange, is pleased to announce the launch of BEQUANT Dollar Index (BQDI). The new Index measures the dollar's strength against the basket of top eight cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum and Cardano by market cap. Each coin has a weighting based on its market capitalization and volumes traded. The basket of coins is updated every month to reflect market movements.
The index is crucial for investors to understand the spillover effects of the U.S. monetary policy on the crypto universe. By comparing the BEQUANT Dollar Index to U.S. 10Y Treasury or the traditional DXY, users can understand if the macroeconomic environment is directly linked to the broader crypto market.
If the correlation is strong, investors can expect new releases of economic data to add volatility to the market like in the traditional finance space. It also can help investors assess coins that are independent of the market volatility.
Martha Reyes, the Head of Research at BEQUANT, commented: "The new BEQUANT Dollar Index is another tool to help our clients make more informed investment decisions. Our research team has worked hard to quantify and capture the latest economic story into the broader crypto market. This is another way for investors to analyze the interconnectedness of the two and navigate through fundamental analysis in crypto more clearly."
The BEQUANT Dollar Index will be included in the team's weekly market roundup which can be found here: https://insights.bequant.pro/
BEQUANT
BEQUANT is where traditional investing meets cryptocurrency - a one-stop solution for professional digital asset investors and institutions.
BEQUANT's breadth of products includes prime brokerage and exchange, all enhanced by market-leading institutional trading platforms providing low-latency trading, liquidity and direct market access for investors across 13+ CeFi exchanges and two brand new DeFi protocols.
The BEQUANT team is composed of experts from institutional, retail and digital financial services with experience in banking, derivatives, electronic trading and prime brokerage.
© BEQUANT Holding Ltd. 2022
Contact
Frank Chatzigeorgiou
Head of Marketing
Frank.Chatzigeorgiou@bequant.io
Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1870946/BEQUANT_Dollar.jpg
Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1737138/BEQUANT_Logo.jpg
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE BEQUANT SERVICING LTD | https://www.wibw.com/prnewswire/2022/08/03/bequant-launches-new-bequant-dollar-index-bqdi/ | 2022-08-03 09:45:45 | 0 | https://www.wibw.com/prnewswire/2022/08/03/bequant-launches-new-bequant-dollar-index-bqdi/ |
(NEXSTAR) – Why so shocked, Pat? We were all thinking it.
Pat Sajak was briefly left speechless during a recent episode of “Wheel of Fortune” after a contestant made a silly, yet completely logical remark after failing to solve the bonus-round puzzle.
The category was “What are you doing?” and the contestant, Kate Mock Elliot from Cincinnati, was given 10 seconds to uncover a three-word phrase.
Her guesses included “Moving a leaf” and “Raking a leaf,” but time ran out before she was able to come up with the correct phrase: “Fixing a leak.”
After the buzzer rang, Mock Elliott told Sajak she had considered the last word could be “leak,” but ruled it out.
“I kept thinking of doing something else with a leak, and I didn’t think that was it,” Mock Elliott politely explained.
Sajak, looking slightly shocked, stared into the camera as the studio audience began to giggle. He then dropped the prize card he was holding in his hand.
“Excuse me,” he said as he bent down to pick up the card. “These get heavy sometimes.”
The clip has since been viewed more than half a million times on social media, with many viewers praising her appearance and empathizing with her plight.
“We all thought it, Kate!” one viewer replied.
“Wish she won but that was a very funny moment,” another said.
Mock Elliott, too, seems to be taking her loss in stride.
“If you can’t win the Bonus Round, at least make Pat Sajak do a double-take,” she wrote on Facebook over the weekend. | https://www.binghamtonhomepage.com/news/national-news/pat-sajak-briefly-stunned-by-wheel-of-fortune-contestants-leak-remark-during-bonus-round/ | 2022-12-16 18:08:46 | 0 | https://www.binghamtonhomepage.com/news/national-news/pat-sajak-briefly-stunned-by-wheel-of-fortune-contestants-leak-remark-during-bonus-round/ |
Boy, 13, dies days after being diagnosed with RSV
EL RENO, Okla. (KOCO) - The family of a 13-year-old boy from Oklahoma is struggling to understand his death just days after he was diagnosed with respiratory syncytial virus.
Daniel Maifield, 13, was diagnosed with RSV at urgent care on Sunday, but he progressively got sicker and started having trouble breathing. He was rushed to the hospital Monday night, where he died the next day.
“He was always happy,” said Kambry Maifield, Daniel’s sister. “He was always laughing, even when he got in trouble.”
His family says the 13-year-old had an autoimmune deficiency disorder.
“Every time when I would see him weak, it would make me so sad for him,” Maifield said. “He would get so weak that he could barely talk… like his tongue was swollen. You could barely understand what he said.”
Daniel was a 7th grader at Etta Dale Junior High School. He was one of the only boys in his large, blended family, and he was quite the daredevil with a passion for riding dirt bikes.
“Daniel was a great young man,” said El Reno Public Schools Superintendent Matt Goucher. “He just had an infectious smile.”
Family and friends also say the 13-year-old gave the best hugs, and the world will not be the same without him.
Copyright 2022 KOCO via CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.wistv.com/2022/11/20/boy-13-dies-days-after-being-diagnosed-with-rsv/ | 2022-11-20 07:12:17 | 0 | https://www.wistv.com/2022/11/20/boy-13-dies-days-after-being-diagnosed-with-rsv/ |
MIAMI (AP) — Subtropical Storm Nicole began strengthening and transitioning into a tropical storm early Tuesday as it churned toward the northwestern Bahamas and Florida’s Atlantic coastline, forecasters said.
“With Nicole’s structure beginning to take on more tropical characteristics, strengthening is likely to commence later today,” the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said in an advisory.
A range of warnings and watches remain in place. Many areas are still reeling from damage caused by Hurricane Ian, which hit Florida’s southwestern Gulf Coast as a Category 4 storm in late September, before dumping heavy amounts of rain across much of central part of the state.
Hurricane warnings were in effect for the Abacos, Berry Islands, Bimini and Grand Bahama Island, the advisory said. Other areas of the Bahamas, including Andros Island, New Province and Eleuthera remained under a tropical storm warning.
The hurricane center said the storm’s track shifted slightly north overnight, but the exact path remains uncertain. It was expected to make landfall along Florida’s coast as a Category 1 hurricane late Wednesday or early Thursday.
In the U.S., tropical storm warnings and hurricane watches were issued for much of Florida’s Atlantic coastline north of Miami, to Altamaha Sound, Georgia. The warning area stretches inland, covering Florida’s Lake Okeechobee, with tropical storm watches in effect on the state’s Gulf Coast — from Bonita Beach in southwest Florida to the Ochlockonee River in the Panhandle.
The difference between a subtropical and tropical storm is largely academic. A subtropical storm is a non-frontal low-pressure system that has characteristics of both tropical and extratropical cyclones and tend to have a larger wind field, extending much farther from their centers.
At 7 a.m., the storm was about 385 miles (615 kilometers) east northeast of the northwestern Bahamas and moving at 8 mph (13 kph), with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (80 kph). | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/nicole-strengthens-threatens-bahamas-and-florida-coastline/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world | 2022-11-08 13:34:54 | 0 | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation/nicole-strengthens-threatens-bahamas-and-florida-coastline/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world |
Chicago Fire is addressing Taylor Kinney's absence.
On Wednesday's season 11 episode, titled "Damage Control," while Kinney's character, Lieutenant Kelly Severide, was not seen, his absence was definitely felt by his wife, Stella. At the top of the episode, Stella is seen in their empty apartment, while Severide is off at an arson investigation program in Alabama.
As OFI boss Van Meter explained to Boden, who was visibly upset that he lost one of his best firefighters with one day’s notice, the last-minute opportunity was just too good for Severide to pass up. Van Meter also tried to smooth things over by reminding Boden that Severide joining the program doesn't mean he's going to transfer to OFI and leave the firehouse altogether.
While the rest of the crew was happy for Severide, Brett did note that she doesn’t envy Stella's situation, because she knows how difficult it is to maintain a long-distance relationship.
The events of the episode come after last week's Chicago Fire installment, where Severide seemingly received a concerning message on his phone about his Office of Fire Investigation boss, Van Meter. As Stella Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) inquired about the matter, he showed her his screen, prompting her to ask him what he was going to do.
Kinney's surprise departure from Chicago Fire surfaced Jan. 20 when a source close to production confirmed to ET that the longtime star, who has led the NBC firefighter drama since its debut in 2012, would be taking a leave of absence to deal with a personal matter.
While details of the circumstances surrounding his exit were not provided, the news came as a shock. Cast and crew were reportedly informed of Kinney's surprising departure earlier that day, Deadline reported, with scripts being tweaked and rewritten in order to account for his absence.
It remains unclear whether Kinney's time away from the show will become permanent.
The uncertainty around Kinney's future with Chicago Fire comes amid major changes in recent years for the OneChicago universe, following Brian Tee's Chicago Med send-off last year, Jesse Lee Soffer's Chicago P.D. departure in 2022 and Jesse Spencer's Chicago Fire exit in 2021.
Chicago Fire airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.
RELATED CONTENT: | https://www.kvue.com/article/entertainment/entertainment-tonight/how-chicago-fire-addressed-taylor-kinneys-absence/603-77ccbde0-5d75-4c37-8a1f-76b7b456befc | 2023-03-02 13:55:59 | 1 | https://www.kvue.com/article/entertainment/entertainment-tonight/how-chicago-fire-addressed-taylor-kinneys-absence/603-77ccbde0-5d75-4c37-8a1f-76b7b456befc |
Pop artist Lizzo stunned audiences with her performance Tuesday on a historic glass flute once owned by James Madison. The flute is currently housed in the Library of Congress.
Copyright 2022 NPR
Pop artist Lizzo stunned audiences with her performance Tuesday on a historic glass flute once owned by James Madison. The flute is currently housed in the Library of Congress.
Copyright 2022 NPR | https://www.nepm.org/national-world-news/2022-09-28/lizzo-may-have-just-become-the-first-person-to-play-james-madisons-crystal-flute | 2022-09-28 22:14:59 | 0 | https://www.nepm.org/national-world-news/2022-09-28/lizzo-may-have-just-become-the-first-person-to-play-james-madisons-crystal-flute |
COLUMBIA, Md. — An 18-year-old victim suffered a deep stab wound outside Long Reach High School and stumbled into the lobby looking for help.
He was starting to bleed out, but help came fast.
Within a minute, a school resource officer had used a Quikclot kit to save his life.
“It comes with multiple sets of gloves, multiple sets of this combat gauze, which is a hemostatic agent. It comes with multiple tourniquets and multiple bandages---tactical control bandages,” said Howard County Police Lt. Jason Baker as he displayed the kit’s contents.
The kits have previously been available to community centers, schools and fire and rescue personnel, but Police Chief Gregory Der says he’s ready to expand their use.
“After the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, we recognized our need for more robust, mass trauma response,” said Der. “By the time the fire department gets there, we’re able to utilize these kits to save lives.”
Initially, the department plans to put 42 of the kits out into the field insuring that every school resource officer gets one.
The ultimate goal is to have every police officer equipped with one as well by the end of the year.
Each kit carrys an array of advanced medical supplies to stop the bleeding and to save lives.
“Up to 44 lives,” said Baker. “So with all the stuff that we’ve equipped in here, we can treat up to 44 separate injuries with just one bag. And with multiple sergeants on the road and multiple kits arriving and school resource officers having them on scene, you could have up to three kits arrive on scene.” | https://www.wmar2news.com/news/local-news/18-year-old-stabbed-in-columbia-quickclot-kit-saved-his-life | 2022-08-10 20:04:53 | 0 | https://www.wmar2news.com/news/local-news/18-year-old-stabbed-in-columbia-quickclot-kit-saved-his-life |
Police investigate firearm missing from home
Published: Jun. 8, 2022 at 10:31 PM CDT|Updated: 1 hour ago
JONESBORO, Ark. (KAIT) - Jonesboro Police are searching for a suspect in a possible firearm theft.
According to an incident report, a victim contacted JPD dispatch on June 7 regarding a missing firearm.
The report states the victim had several people helping them move to a new home, and that’s when she decided to look for the firearm and noticed it was missing.
Officers said she could not provide any other details regarding the theft, other than the gun had not been seen in at least six months.
If you have information about the case, call the Jonesboro Police Department at 870-935-5551.
Copyright 2022 KAIT. All rights reserved. | https://www.kait8.com/2022/06/09/police-investigate-firearm-missing-home/ | 2022-06-09 04:35:12 | 1 | https://www.kait8.com/2022/06/09/police-investigate-firearm-missing-home/ |
Work Is Just Getting Started to Protect Preborn Life on Cusp of the Overturn of Roe v. Wade
WASHINGTON, June 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the Guttmacher Institute released new data concerning abortion in America, showing an alleged increase in abortion from 2017 to 2020. Live Action's Founder and President, Lila Rose, released the following comment:
"Nearly a million American children won't be here to see say their first words or walk their first steps because they were killed by abortion in 2020. The human tragedy of this alleged increase in abortion cannot be overstated. Over sixty-seven thousand more abortions were performed in 2020 than in 2017. That should make us all sick with grief. This 8% increase in abortion is accompanied by a 6% decline in births.
These numbers are a searing indictment of our society and a harsh picture of our civilizational atrophy towards the ability to love and care for our children.
These heartbreaking numbers also illustrate the effectiveness of pro-life laws restricting, or better yet, banning abortion. In Missouri, the number of abortions per year fell from 4,710 in 2017 to 170 in 2020 after Missouri passed a series of protections for pre-born life. That's a 96% decline in abortion in Missouri.
This decline in abortion tracks with the numbers we have seen out of Texas, which has seen its monthly abortion numbers cut in half since a law protecting children from their first detected heartbeat went into effect last September. Protections for life like those passed recently in Texas, Oklahoma, and elsewhere across the nation are not reflected in the data released this morning, but we can be encouraged that these laws do work to stop abortion. We must act boldly to pass even stronger protections for life immediately.
Every child callously killed by the poison or steel instruments of the abortion industry deserves to be remembered and mourned. Their memory demands that we stop the killing."
Live Action News compiled Key takeaways from this new data:
- Abortions numbers in 2020 (930,160) increased by nearly eight percent (7.87%) from 2017 (862,320), rising by 67,840.
- Abortion rate in 2020: (abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44) climbed by 7% (13.5 in 2017 to 14.4 in 2020).
- Abortion ratio in 2020: (the number of abortions per 100 pregnancies) increased by 12% (18.4% in 2017 to 20.6% in 2020).
- The increase in abortion was accompanied by a 6% decline in births between 2017 and 2020, Guttmacher reported.
- 12% decline from 1,058,000 abortions reported in 2011, dropping by 127,840.
- 42% decline from the 1,608,600 abortions committed in 1990, a difference of 648,440 babies' lives.
- The abortion rate (the number of abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44) fell by 15%, from 16.9 in 2011 to 14.4 in 2020 and a drastic 47.45% decrease from the 27.4 abortion rate reported in 1990.
- Between 1980 (29.3) and 2020 (14.4), the U.S. abortion rate has fallen by over 50 percent
About Lila Rose & Live Action – Lila Rose founded and serves as president of Live Action. Live Action is a 501(c)3 human rights non-profit and the digital leader of the global pro-life movement. Live Action exists today to shift public opinion on abortion and defend the rights of the most vulnerable. With over 5.6 million social media followers and 1.4 billion lifetime video views, Live Action reaches up to 100 million people per month – saving lives and transforming hearts, with 38% of surveyed followers saying Live Action's content has changed their position on abortion. Through compelling educational media, human interest storytelling, investigative reporting and community activism, Live Action reveals the humanity of the preborn and exposes the abortion industry exploiting women and families for profit. Lila is also the author of 'Fighting for Life: Becoming a Force for Change in a Wounded World. Find Lila on Twitter at @lilagracerose, and Instagram at @lilaroseofficial, and Facebook at @lilagracerose. Find out more at http://www.liveaction.org.
View original content:
SOURCE Live Action | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2022/06/15/tragic-increase-abortion-must-prompt-bold-swift-action-protect-human-life/ | 2022-06-15 20:42:45 | 0 | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2022/06/15/tragic-increase-abortion-must-prompt-bold-swift-action-protect-human-life/ |
Distillery makes crab-flavored whiskey to help protect ecosystem
(CNN) - Seafood fans may want to try out a new alcoholic drink from a Northeast distillery.
Tamworth Distilling has joined forces with the University of New Hampshire to create “Crab Trapper,” a whiskey that features the flavor of green crabs.
Officials said these crabs have been a terror to much of New England’s coastal ecosytem for more than two centuries.
They prey on other species, destroy their habitats and compete with their food sources, so Tamworth figured the best way to protect other underwater life forms was to take the crabs and turn them into a drink.
“Crab Trapper” is made with a bourbon base steeped with crabs, corn and spices. It is compared to a Lowcountry Boil.
This limited run of 200-milliliter bottles costs $65 each and can be found on Tamworth’s website.
Copyright 2022 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.wbay.com/2022/06/27/distillery-makes-crab-flavored-whiskey-help-protect-ecosystem/ | 2022-06-27 13:10:01 | 1 | https://www.wbay.com/2022/06/27/distillery-makes-crab-flavored-whiskey-help-protect-ecosystem/ |
Now that spring has sprung, it’s time to update your beauty arsenal. Dr Michelle Henry is here with tips, tricks and the latest must-haves to get longer, thicker, stronger, and healthier lashes at home.
Close
Thanks for signing up!
Watch for us in your inbox.
Subscribe Now | https://phl17.com/phl17-extra/morning-extra-new-season-new-beauty-must-haves/ | 2023-04-24 19:30:46 | 1 | https://phl17.com/phl17-extra/morning-extra-new-season-new-beauty-must-haves/ |
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Thursday evening's drawing of the Washington Lottery's "Hit 5" game were:
03-13-21-26-32
(three, thirteen, twenty-one, twenty-six, thirty-two)
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) _ The winning numbers in Thursday evening's drawing of the Washington Lottery's "Hit 5" game were:
03-13-21-26-32
(three, thirteen, twenty-one, twenty-six, thirty-two) | https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/lottery/article/Winning-numbers-drawn-in-Hit-5-game-17657934.php | 2022-12-16 05:04:42 | 0 | https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/lottery/article/Winning-numbers-drawn-in-Hit-5-game-17657934.php |
Now that he’s back on Twitter, neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin wants somebody to explain the rules.
Anglin, the founder of an infamous neo-Nazi website, was reinstated Thursday, one of many previously banned users to benefit from an amnesty granted by Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk. The next day, Musk banished Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, after he posted a swastika with a Star of David in it.
“That’s cool,” Anglin tweeted Friday. “I mean, whatever the rules are, people will follow them. We just need to know what the rules are.”
Ask Musk. Since the world’s richest man paid $44 billion for Twitter, the platform has struggled to define its rules for misinformation and hate speech, issued conflicting and contradictory announcements, and failed to full address what researchers say is a troubling rise in hate speech.
As the “ chief twit ” may be learning, running a global platform with nearly 240 million active daily users requires more than good algorithms and often demands imperfect solutions to messy situations — tough choices that must ultimately be made by a human and are sure to displease someone.
A self-described free speech absolutist, Musk has said he wants to make Twitter a global digital town square. But he also said he wouldn’t make major decisions about content or about restoring banned accounts before setting up a “ content moderation council ” with diverse viewpoints.
He soon changed his mind after polling users on Twitter, and offered reinstatement to a long list of formerly banned users including ex-President Donald Trump, Ye, the satire site The Babylon Bee, the comedian Kathy Griffin and Anglin, the neo-Nazi.
And while Musk’s own tweets suggested he would allow all legal content on the platform, Ye’s banishment shows that’s not entirely the case. The swastika image posted by the rapper falls in the “lawful but awful” category that often bedevils content moderators, according to Eric Goldman, a technology law expert and professor at Santa Clara University law school.
While Europe has imposed rules requiring social media platforms to create policies on misinformation and hate speech, Goldman noted that in the U.S. at least, loose regulations allow Musk to run Twitter as he sees fit, despite his inconsistent approach.
“What Musk is doing with Twitter is completely permissible under U.S. law,” Goldman said.
Pressure from the EU may force Musk to lay out his policies to ensure he is complying with the new law, which takes effect next year. Last month, a senior EU official warned Musk that Twitter would have to improve its efforts to combat hate speech and misinformation; failure to comply could lead to huge fines.
In another confusing move, Twitter announced in late November that it would end its policy prohibiting COVID-19 misinformation. Days later, it posted an update claiming that “None of our policies have changed.”
On Friday, Musk revealed what he said was the inside story of Twitter’s decision in 2020 to limit the spread of a New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Twitter initially blocked links to the story on its platform, citing concerns that it contained material obtained through computer hacking. That decision was reversed after it was criticized by then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Facebook also took actions to limit the story’s spread.
The information revealed by Musk included Twitter’s decision to delete a handful of tweets after receiving a request from Joe Biden’s campaign. The tweets included nude photos of Hunter Biden that had been shared without his consent — a violation of Twitter’s rules against revenge porn.
Instead of revealing nefarious conduct or collusion with Democrats, Musk’s revelation highlighted the kind of difficult content moderation decisions that he will now face.
“Impossible, messy and squishy decisions” are unavoidable, according to Yoel Roth, Twitter’s former head of trust and safety who resigned a few weeks into Musk’s ownership.
While far from perfect, the old Twitter strove to be transparent with users and steady in enforcing its rules, Roth said. That changed under Musk, he told a Knight Foundation forum this week.
“When push came to shove, when you buy a $44 billion thing, you get to have the final say in how that $44 billion thing is governed,” Roth said.
While much of the attention has been on Twitter’s moves in the U.S., the cutbacks of content-moderation workers is affecting other parts of the world too, according to activists with the #StopToxicTwitter campaign.
“We’re not talking about people not having resilience to hear things that hurt feelings,” said Thenmozhi Soundararajan, executive director of Equality Labs, which works to combat caste-based discrimination in South Asia. “We are talking about the prevention of dangerous genocidal hate speech that can lead to mass atrocities.”
Soundararajan’s organization sits on Twitter’s Trust and Safety Council, which hasn’t met since Musk took over. She said “millions of Indians are terrified about who is going to get reinstated,” and the company has stopped responding to the group’s concerns.
“So what happens if there’s another call for violence? Like, do I have to tag Elon Musk and hope that he’s going to address the pogrom?” Soundararajan said.
Instances of hate speech and racial epithets soared on Twitter after Musk’s purchase as some users sought to test the new owner’s limits. The number of tweets containing hateful terms continues to rise, according to a report published Friday by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a group that tracks online hate and extremism.
Musk has said Twitter has reduced the spread of tweets containing hate speech, making them harder to find unless a user searches for them. But that failed to satisfy the center’s CEO, Imran Ahmed, who called the rise in hate speech a “clear failure to meet his own self-proclaimed standards.”
Immediately after Musk’s takeover and the firing of much of Twitter’s staff, researchers who previously had flagged harmful hate speech or misinformation to the platform reported that their pleas were going unanswered.
Jesse Littlewood, vice president for campaigns at Common Cause, said his group reached out to Twitter last week about a tweet from U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene that alleged election fraud in Arizona. Musk had reinstated Greene’s personal account after she was kicked off Twitter for spreading COVID-19 misinformation.
This time, Twitter was quick to respond, telling Common Cause that the tweet didn’t violate any rules and would stay up — even though Twitter requires the labeling or removal of content that spreads false or misleading claims about election results.
Twitter gave Littlewood no explanation for why it wasn’t following its own rules.
“I find that pretty confounding,” Littlewood said.
Twitter did not respond to messages seeking comment for this story. Musk has defended the platform’s sometimes herky-jerky moves since he took over, and said mistakes will happen as it evolves. “We will do lots of dumb things,” he tweeted.
To Musk’s many online fans, the disarray is a feature, not a bug, of the site under its new ownership, and a reflection of the free speech mecca they hope Twitter will be.
“I love Elon Twitter so far,” tweeted a user who goes by the name Some Dude. “The chaos is glorious!” | https://www.wfla.com/business/ap-business/ap-as-musk-is-learning-content-moderation-is-a-messy-job/ | 2022-12-04 18:52:03 | 1 | https://www.wfla.com/business/ap-business/ap-as-musk-is-learning-content-moderation-is-a-messy-job/ |
LIMA, OH (WLIO) - A local golf program is teaching kids the basics of the game while on summer break.
Mulligans Golf Association started up their annual youth golf program at Tamarac Golf Course. The program is free and open for area kids ages 8 to 17 years old. The program has been around for more than a decade and teaches the fundamentals of golf to any kids eager to learn. Coaches with the program say it's much more than just learning a new sport, it's the life lessons that golf teaches along the way.
"From the start of the program to the end of this program those kids they are really improving a lot and a lot of times we see that they keep coming back and you know, eventually go off to try to play for high school and in the summer leagues here in the areas," said Leiahnni Smith, lead instructor at Mulligans Golf Association.
"You get to see that light in their eyes when they capture the magic of anything, whether it's golf, or their studies, or science, and to see that is really important," said Arthur Edwards, coach with Mulligan's Youth Golf Program.
The program runs through July 12th, every Monday and Wednesday from 9 to 11:30 a.m. You can still register your child by visiting Tamarac Golf Course, located at 500 North Stevick Road on Lima's west side. | https://www.hometownstations.com/news/area-youth-can-learn-the-fundamentals-of-golf-thanks-to-free-annual-program-from-mulligans/article_47447e80-094f-11ee-b111-0bfc264d8a79.html | 2023-06-12 22:01:26 | 1 | https://www.hometownstations.com/news/area-youth-can-learn-the-fundamentals-of-golf-thanks-to-free-annual-program-from-mulligans/article_47447e80-094f-11ee-b111-0bfc264d8a79.html |
Josh Bell Player Prop Bets: Guardians vs. Brewers - June 25
Published: Jun. 25, 2023 at 10:24 AM EDT|Updated: 1 hour ago
The Cleveland Guardians and Josh Bell, who went 1-for-3 with a double last time in action, take on Corbin Burnes and the Milwaukee Brewers at Progressive Field, Sunday at 1:40 PM ET.
In his most recent game he had a one-hit showing (1-for-3) against the Brewers.
Josh Bell Game Info & Props vs. the Brewers
- Game Day: Sunday, June 25, 2023
- Game Time: 1:40 PM ET
- Stadium: Progressive Field
- Live Stream: Watch this game on Fubo!
- Brewers Starter: Corbin Burnes
- TV Channel: MLB Network
- Hits Prop: Over/under 0.5 hits (Over odds: -222)
- Home Runs Prop: Over/under 0.5 home runs (Over odds: +600)
- RBI Prop: Over/under 0.5 RBI (Over odds: +175)
- Runs Prop: Over/under 0.5 runs (Over odds: +120)
Looking to place a prop bet on Josh Bell? Check out what's available at BetMGM and use bonus code "GNPLAY" when you sign up with this link!
Read More About This Game
Josh Bell At The Plate
- Bell has 15 doubles, seven home runs and 35 walks while batting .230.
- Bell has picked up a hit in 44 of 69 games this season, with multiple hits 10 times.
- In 10.1% of his games this season, he has hit a long ball, and 2.5% of his trips to the plate.
- Bell has had an RBI in 28 games this year (40.6%), including four multi-RBI outings (5.8%).
- In 13 of 69 games this season, he has scored, including multiple runs once.
Ready to play FanDuel Daily Fantasy? Get in the game using our link.
Josh Bell Home/Away Batting Splits
Brewers Pitching Rankings
- The 8.2 strikeouts per nine innings put together by the Brewers pitching staff ranks 25th in the league.
- The Brewers have the 13th-ranked team ERA among all MLB pitching staffs (4.04).
- The Brewers rank 22nd in baseball in home runs given up (96 total, 1.3 per game).
- Burnes makes the start for the Brewers, his 16th of the season. He is 5-5 with a 3.96 ERA and 86 strikeouts in 88 2/3 innings pitched.
- The righty last appeared on Tuesday against the Arizona Diamondbacks, when he went five innings, allowing seven earned runs while giving up eight hits.
- The 28-year-old ranks 37th in ERA (3.96), 27th in WHIP (1.150), and 34th in K/9 (8.7) among qualifying pitchers in MLB play this season.
© 2023 Data Skrive. All rights reserved. | https://www.cleveland19.com/sports/betting/2023/06/25/josh-bell-mlb-player-prop-bets/ | 2023-06-25 15:37:38 | 0 | https://www.cleveland19.com/sports/betting/2023/06/25/josh-bell-mlb-player-prop-bets/ |
As Congress once more struggles through acrimonious and so far fruitless negotiations over gun reforms in the wake of a mass shooting, Americans may find themselves looking north in befuddlement.
Canada’s government has begun moving to ban handgun sales and buy back military-style rifles — dramatic changes in a country with one of the world’s highest gun ownership rates outside of the United States, expected to pass easily and with little fuss.
Ask Americans why Canada’s government seems to cut through issues that mire their own in bitterness and frustration, and you might hear them cite cultural differences, gentler politics, even easygoing Canadian temperaments.
But ask a political scientist, and you will get a more straightforward answer.
Differences in national culture and issues, while meaningful, do not on their own explain things. After all, Canada also has two parties that mostly dominate national politics, an urban-rural divide, deepening culture wars and a rising far right. And guns have been a contentious issue there for decades, one long contested by activist groups.
Rather, much of the gap in how these two countries handle contentious policy questions comes down to something that can feel invisible amid day-to-day politicking but may be just as important as the issues themselves: the structures of their political systems.
Canada’s is a parliamentary system. Its head of government, Justin Trudeau, is elevated to that job by the legislature, of which he is also a member, and which his party, in collaboration with another, controls.
If Trudeau wants to pass a new law, he must merely ask his subordinates in his party and their allies to do it. There is no such thing as divided government and less cross-party horse-trading and legislative gridlock.
Canada is similar to what the United States would be if it had only a House of Representatives, whose speaker also oversaw federal agencies and foreign policy.
What the U.S. has instead is a system whose structure simultaneously requires cooperation across competing parties and discourages them from working together.
The result is a U.S. system that not only moves slower and passes fewer laws than those of parliamentary models like Canada’s, research has found, but also stalls for years even on measures that enjoy widespread support among voters in both parties, such as universal background checks for gun purchases.
Many political scientists argue that the United States’ long-worsening gridlock runs much deeper than any one issue or the interest groups engaged with it, to the basic setup of its political system.
The perils of presidents
Scholar Juan Linz warned in a much-discussed 1990 essay, as much of the developing and formerly Soviet worlds moved to democracy, that those countries not follow what he called one of the foundational flaws of the United States: its presidency.
“The vast majority of the stable democracies in the world today are parliamentary regimes,” Linz wrote.
Presidential systems, on the other hand, tended to collapse in coups or other violence, with only the United States having persisted since its origin.
It’s telling that when American diplomats and technocrats help to set up new democracies abroad, they almost always model them on European-style parliaments.
Subsequent research has found that parliamentary systems also perform better at managing the economy and advancing rule of law than presidencies, if only for the comparative ease with which they can implement policy — witnessed in Canada’s rapid response to gun violence or other crises.
America’s legislative hurdles, requiring cooperation across the president, Senate and House to pass laws, are raised further by the fact that all three are elected under different rules.
None represents a straight national majority. Presidential elections favor some states over others. The Senate tilts especially toward rural voters. All three are elected on different schedules. As a result, single-party control is rare. Because competing parties typically control at least one of those three veto points on legislation, legislation is frequently vetoed.
Americans have come to accept, even embrace, divided government. But it is exceedingly uncommon. While Americans may see Canada’s legislative efficiency as unusual, to the rest of the world it is American-style gridlock that looks odd.
Still, America’s presidential system does not, on its own, explain what makes it function so differently from a country like Canada.
“As long as things are moderate, a presidential system is not so bad,” said Lee Drutman, a political scientist who studies political reform.
Rather, he cited that the U.S. is nearly alone in combining a presidency with winner-take-all elections.
Zero-sum contests
Proportional votes, common in most of the world, award seats to each party based on its share of the vote.
Under American-style elections, the party that wins 51% of a race controls 100% of the office it elects, while the party with 49% ends up with nothing.
This all but ensured that politics would coalesce between two parties because third-ranked parties rarely win office. And as those two parties came to represent geographically distinct electorates struggling for national control, their contests took on, for voters, a sensation of us versus them.
Canada, too, has winner-take-all elections, a practice inherited from Britain. Still, neither of those countries holds presidential contests, which pit one half of the nation against the other.
And in neither country do the executive and legislative branches share power, which, in times of divided government, extends the zero-sum nature of U.S. elections into lawmaking, too. And not only on issues on which the parties’ supporters disagree.
In 2013, shortly after a gunman killed 20 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, polls found that 81% of Republicans supported background checks for gun purchases. But when asked whether the Senate should pass such a bill — which would have required Republicans to side with the then-Democratic majority — support dropped to 57%. The measure never passed.
The episode was one of many suggesting that Americans often privilege partisan victory, or at least denying victory to the other side, over their own policy preferences, scholar Lilliana Mason wrote in a book on partisanship.
“Even when policy debates crack open and an opportunity for compromise appears,” Mason wrote, “partisans are psychologically motivated to look away.”
Unstable majorities
Still, there is something unusual to Canada’s model, too.
Most parliamentary systems, as in Europe, elect lawmakers proportionally. Voters select a party, which takes seats in the legislature proportional to its overall vote share. As a result, many different parties end up in office and must join in a coalition to secure a governing majority. Lawmaking is less prone to gridlock than in the U.S., but it’s not seamless, either: A prime minister must negotiate among the parties of their coalition.
Canada, like Britain, combines American-style elections, which produce what is not quite a two-party system in those countries but is close, with European-style parliaments.
As a result, Canada’s prime minister usually oversees a legislative majority, allowing him or her to breeze through legislation even more easily than in European-style parliaments.
This moment is an exception: Trudeau’s Liberal Party controls slightly less than half of the House of Commons. Still, his party dominates a legislative alliance in which he has only one partner. Canada also includes a Senate, though its members are appointed and rarely rock the boat.
But the Canadian system produces what Drutman called “unstable majorities,” prone to whiplashing on policy.
“If you have a 52% margin for one party, and then you throw the bums out because 4% of the vote went the other way, now you’ve moved completely in the other direction,” he said.
Gun laws are a case in point. After a 1989 mass shooting, Canadian lawmakers passed registration rules but phased them in over several years because they were unpopular among rural communities.
Those rules were later abolished under a Conservative government. Though Trudeau has not reimposed the registry, he has tightened gun laws in other ways.
In a European-style system, by contrast, a 4-point shift to the right or left might change only one party in the country’s governing coalition, prompting a slighter policy change more proportional to the electorate’s mood.
American liberals may thrill at the seeming ease with which Canada’s often-left-leaning government can implement policy, much as conservatives may envy Britain’s more right-wing, but similarly rapid, lawmaking under a similar system.
But it is the slow-and-steady European model, with its frustratingly incremental advances, that, over the long run, research finds, tend to prove the most stable and effective. | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation-politics/why-canada-races-on-gun-policy-when-america-crawls/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all | 2022-06-02 23:31:48 | 0 | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation-politics/why-canada-races-on-gun-policy-when-america-crawls/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all |
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Some people said West Virginia needs a law to codify the right of residents to challenge government regulations that interfere with their religious beliefs because of growing threats to their constitutional freedoms.
Others who spoke during a public hearing at the state Capitol Friday said they are worried the proposal advancing in the Legislature will be used as a tool to discriminate against LGBTQ people and other marginalized groups.
“Exercising your religion does not mean discriminating or condemning people because they do not have same beliefs as you,” said Jessica Eplin, who said she is worried about how the proposed law could affect her as an atheist and her child, who is transgender.
The bill, which passed the House Judiciary Committee earlier this week and is now before the full House of Delegates, would require a government entity to have a compelling reason to burden someone’s constitutional right to freedom of religion and to meet its goals in the least restrictive way possible.
A similar bill failed in 2016 after lawmakers voiced concerns about how it could affect LGBTQ residents. Then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch Carmichael wiped away tears on the Senate floor as he spoke in support of Democratic-proposed amendment that would bar the legislation from being used to discriminate against LGBTQ people.
The bill also dictates that the proposed law could not be used to permit access to abortion, which was banned by West Virginia lawmakers last year. The provision was included as abortion rights groups are challenging abortion bans in some states by arguing the bans — supported by certain religious principles — violate the religious rights of people with different beliefs.
Republican sponsors say the bill has good intentions. Del. Chris Pritt of Kanawha County, who is a Christian, said the bill would make West Virginia attractive to economic development. He said it’s not just about protecting Christians, but religious minorities in the state, too.
But Catherine Jones, a gay woman, said the bill would do nothing but “legalize discrimination against already marginalized communities.” She said she fears the bill could allow businesses to challenge city ordinances prohibiting discrimination in housing or employment based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
“I should not be afraid of not being served at a restaurant because I have a different relationship than you do,” she told lawmakers. “This bill will do nothing but spread hate and violence across our state.”
At least 23 other states have religious freedom restoration acts. The laws are similar to the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, signed in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, which allows federal regulations that interfere with religious beliefs to be challenged.
Eli Baumwell, advocacy director and the Interim executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia, said the 1993 federal law was designed to designed to protect people, especially religious minorities, from laws that affected their ability to engage in personal practices of their faith.
“Unfortunately, people have seized upon a good idea and turn it a shield into a sword,” said Baumwell, who spoke in opposition to the bill. “RFRAs today are promoted by organizations and ideologies and aren’t concerned about individual religious observances. They’re focused on circumventing laws that require fair and equal treatment.”
People who spoke in support of the bill said they were concerned about the government imposing vaccination requirements against people’s religious beliefs and restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic that limited in-person worship in states across the U.S.
Monica Ballard Booth said she supports the bill because she wants to see equal protection for people of all faiths. “Since some have questioned why this was necessary, I’ll tell you why it’s necessary: Christians are the most persecuted group in the world,” she said.
Pastor Burgess of West Virginia Baptists for Biblical Values said he doesn’t believe the bill could be used to discriminate against anyone — it’s about protecting people from discrimination, she said.
“This legislation doesn’t allow me or a business to go around and attack other people groups,” he said. “There’s no people group language in the bill.”
Baptist Pastor Dan Stevens of Wood County said people like him want the same benefits of equal protection as people who oppose the bill.
“We live out our firmly-held religious beliefs and convictions about marriage, the family, human sexuality, the value of human life from conception to the grave without fear,” he said. “This bill designed not as a tool of discrimination used by people of faith but to protect the people of faith against discrimination for those who are opposed to our beliefs and our lifestyle.” | https://www.qcnews.com/news/politics/election/ap-west-virginians-clash-over-religious-freedom-bill-at-hearing/ | 2023-02-25 13:09:29 | 1 | https://www.qcnews.com/news/politics/election/ap-west-virginians-clash-over-religious-freedom-bill-at-hearing/ |
SAN FRANCISCO -- Mass shootings across the country have increased in recent years, up from pre-pandemic numbers.
There were :
- 47 in 2022
- 691 in 2021
- 611 in 2020
- 417 in 2019
The ABC7 Data Team created an interactive map showing mass shootings for 2023 so far.
Data is taken from the Gun Violence Archive, a research group that uses over 7,500 law enforcement, media, government and commercial sources to compile an up-to-date list of mass shootings across the United States.
The organization defines mass shootings as an incident in which four or more victims are shot or killed, not including the perpetrator.
Look at the map below to see injuries and deaths for each incident this year.
Graph not displaying correctly? Click here to open in a new window. | https://abc11.com/mass-shooting-2023-interactive-map-shootings-this-year-what-is-considered-a/12732265/ | 2023-01-25 02:59:38 | 1 | https://abc11.com/mass-shooting-2023-interactive-map-shootings-this-year-what-is-considered-a/12732265/ |
SUVA, Fiji (AP) — Pacific island national leaders declared a climate emergency on Friday and agreed to try to bring Kiribati back to the region’s main diplomatic grouping.
Kiribati announced it had withdrawn from the 18-member Pacific Islands Forum ahead of a leaders’ summit in Fiji this week. The move was seen as a sign of China’s growing influence in the region.
In a soon-to-be released communique, the leaders “welcomed and fully supported” the new Australian government’s commitment to the forum’s climate change priorities, Australian Associated Press reported after seeing the document.
Australia, the wealthiest and most populous of the forum nations, has committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 43% below 2005 levels by the end of the decade under a new government elected in May.
The previous Australian government had committed to reductions of only 26% to 28% by 2030.
Another clause in the communique pointedly urges all forum nations to deliver “clear progress on turning pledges and commitments into action” consistent with containing global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).
Australia’s current targets of a 43% reduction by 2030 and net zero by 2050 fall short of that aspiration.
The leaders, many of whom are confronting an existential threat from a warming planet, consider climate change their greatest security risk and declared a climate emergency.
Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, who chaired the summit, used Twitter to urge Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to take further action.
“Australia’s new climate pledge is a step-up that Fiji has long sought — but out of the duty I owe every young person in the Pacific, I have urged @AlboMP to go further for our family’s shared future by aligning Australia’s commitment to the 1.5-degree target,” Bainimarama posted.
Pacific unity was another key topic for leaders, heightened by Kiribati’s withdrawal.
Australia and New Zealand will fund the Suva Agreement, which reforms the forum and new diplomatic efforts to bring Kiribati back to the fold.
While China was not named in the communique, its growing influence in the region was a subject of much discussion among leaders.
The United States, Australia and New Zealand have been among the most vocal critics of a security pact signed between China and the Solomon Islands, host of next year’s annual forum leaders’ summit.
Details of the pact haven’t been made public, but the deal has raised fears of a permanent Chinese military facility within 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) of the northeast Australian coast.
Australia already has a security treaty with the Solomons and Australian police have been in the capital, Honiara, maintaining peace since riots late last year.
Australia has argued that the family of forum nations should manage their own security concerns instead of turning to outsiders such as China. The communique appeared to support that view with a commitment to “family first” security in the Pacific.
Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare said Thursday his country’s new security pact would not allow China to build a military base in his nation and make his citizens “targets for potential military strikes.”
The forum’s dialogue partners — including the United States, China, Britain and France — had not been invited to this year’s summit in Fiji’s capital, Suva.
But Bainimarama invited U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris to deliver a virtual address on Wednesday, in which she proposed increasing U.S. diplomatic engagement and financial aid.
Two Chinese embassy defense attaches who were watching Harris’ address from media seating were spotted by a journalist and reported to police. Police asked them to leave, The Guardian reported.
On Harris’ address, a Chinese official in Beijing said his government welcomes greater support from others to help develop and revitalize the Pacific islands. But the official warned that such efforts should not be undertaken to counter China.
Both the Solomon Islands and Kiribati recently shifted their diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to Beijing. | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/pacific-island-national-leaders-declare-climate-emergency/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world | 2022-07-15 08:51:30 | 1 | https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/pacific-island-national-leaders-declare-climate-emergency/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_nation-world |
Veteran among those thanked for stopping gunman at LGBTQ nightclub
Video above: Memorial outside of Club Q after deadly shooting
Law enforcement is crediting two patrons of a Colorado Springs LGBTQ club for saving lives by tackling and subduing a 22-year-old gunman who went on a shooting rampage there Saturday night.
Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez on Monday said Richard Fierro and Thomas James stopped the shooter, who was armed with an AR-15-style semi-automatic weapon, a handgun and additional ammunition magazines. The suspect faces murder and hate crime charges.
Vasquez said Fierro, an army veteran and the co-owner of a local brewery, acted courageously when he became aware that a gunman was attacking the town's preeminent LGBTQ club over the weekend.
"I have never encountered a person who had engaged in such heroic actions who was so humble about it," Vasquez said of Fierro. "He simply said to me, 'I was trying to protect my family.'"
The mass shooting left five dead and at least 17 injured with gunshot wounds at Club Q, where Fierro was celebrating someone's birthday Saturday night with his daughter, Kassy, her boyfriend Raymond Green Vance and other friends, according to social media posts from Kassy and Atrevida Beer Co., which Fierro co-owns.
Fierro and James, who little was known about as of Monday evening, grabbed a handgun from the gunman, hit him with it and pinned him down until police arrived minutes later.
Fierro's wife, Jess, wrote on Facebook that her husband had bruised his right side and injured his hands, knees and ankle while apprehending the gunman. "He was covered in blood," she wrote on Atrevida Beer Co.'s Facebook.
Before police revealed the names of the men who subdued the shooter, Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers said the men had "heroically intervened."
"We praise those individuals who did so because their actions saved lives," he wrote in a Sunday statement.
Associated Press reporter Jamie Stengle contributed from Dallas. | https://www.wtae.com/article/veteran-among-those-thanked-for-stopping-gunman-at-lgbtq-nightclub/42031690 | 2022-11-22 02:55:34 | 1 | https://www.wtae.com/article/veteran-among-those-thanked-for-stopping-gunman-at-lgbtq-nightclub/42031690 |
Recent Accomplishments Include Financial Times Ranking, Financial Advisor Magazine's RIA Ranking and Crain's Cleveland Investment Adviser List
CLEVELAND, Sept. 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- C2P Enterprises, a holding company comprised of four distinct brands, each designed to simplify financial planning for advisors and the clients they serve, has recently been recognized for its industry contributions, rapid growth and success. C2P Enterprises has been named to Financial Times' ranking of "The Americas' Fastest Growing Companies 2022". C2P Enterprises subsidiary, Prosperity Capital Advisors, an SEC Registered Investment Adviser (RIA), has earned a spot on Financial Advisor Magazine's Registered Investment Advisers ranking, as well as named to Crain's Cleveland Business' Investment Advisers List 2022.
"To say that I am proud of our team's success over the past year and the positive impact we've had on the industry would be an understatement," said Jason L Smith, Founder & CEO, C2P Enterprises. "We built this company as advisors first, so we understand the unique challenges one can face in growing a financial practice. Our recent accomplishments are proof that what we've always set out to do – provide actionable, easy-to-follow, proven processes that allow advisors to grow and scale their business – is resonating within the industry."
According to the Financial Times, C2P Enterprises experienced a three-year compound annual growth rate of nearly 18 percent between 2017 and 2020. Additionally, Financial Advisor Magazine's ranking found that Prosperity Capital Advisors saw nearly 17 percent annual growth in assets from 2020 to 2021. Recent accomplishments for Clarity 2 Prosperity include The Bucket Plan®, a best interest planning process that has been recognized as a proven approach for turning assets into income, became academically recognized after the concept has been incorporated into The American College of Financial Services® RICP® curriculum. The Bucket Plan Certified® (BPC) designation for professionals who master this signature planning process also became recognized by FINRA, an achievement that will continue to expand the firm's reach and delivery of its mission of simplifying holistic financial planning. Financial professionals that hold the BPC designation possess skillsets representing elevated knowledge as a holistic financial planning professional and deliver clients a Best Interest Planning Process and customized financial plan in the form of The Bucket Plan.
For more information about C2P Enterprises and its subsidiaries, click here.
Financial Times Methodology
The FT Americas' Fastest-Growing Companies 2022 is a list of the 500 companies in the Americas that have the highest growth in publicly disclosed revenues between 2017 and 2020. The ranking was created through a complex procedure. Although the search was very extensive, the ranking does not claim to be complete, as some companies did not want to make their figures public or did not participate for other reasons. Full the full list and methodology visit: www.ft.com/content/6ee8f978-a2e0-4644-b7c7-0718a334adb7
Financial Advisor Magazine Methodology
Financial Advisor Magazine's RIA ranking is an independent listing produced by FA Magazine. Firms must be registered investment advisers and provide financial planning and/or related services to individual clients. Eligible firms must be either independently owned or a freestanding subsidiary of another business and have at least $100 million AUM as of Dec. 31, 2020. Neither the RIA firms nor their employees pay a fee to FA Magazine to be included in the listing. The full list can be found at www.fa-mag.com/research/ria-survey.
Crain's Cleveland Business Methodology
This list consists of registered investment advisers in Northeast Ohio ranked by how much money they managed out of their local offices as of Dec. 31, 2018 (these firms mainly focus on allocating those assets to diversified funds and other advisors; local firms that invest most of their assets directly into stocks and bonds appear on our Money Managers list). The list includes services offered, minimum account size, local executive names and basic contact information for each firm, including email addresses for some companies. The full list can be found at www.crainscleveland.com/data-lists/10802/investment-advisers.
About C2P Enterprises: C2P Enterprises is a holding company comprised of four distinct brands, each designed to simplify financial planning for advisors and the clients they serve. United by the vision to provide planning and financial products in the best interest of the client, each company offers education, training, resources and tools to meet a client's unique financial situation, along with access to an array of investment and insurance vehicles to help accomplish their goals. Each organization is committed to fiduciary best interest practices and training industry standards for a higher qualify of holistic financial planning services to families nationwide and worldwide. For more information, visit www.c2penterprises.com.
Investment advisory services are provided by C2P Capital Advisory Group, LLC d/b/a Prosperity Capital Advisors, LLC ("PCA") an investment adviser federally registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
CONTACT
AdvisorPR®
(702) 685-7450
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE C2P Enterprises | https://www.valleynewslive.com/prnewswire/2022/09/29/c2p-enterprises-receives-three-accolades-rapid-growth-success/ | 2022-09-29 12:46:56 | 0 | https://www.valleynewslive.com/prnewswire/2022/09/29/c2p-enterprises-receives-three-accolades-rapid-growth-success/ |
As games draw to a close, plight of migrant workers has cast a shadow over World Cup
By Bethlehem Feleke and Larry Madowo, CNN
Boniface Barasa worked for three years as a construction worker in Qatar, but the life-long football fan now says he was so traumatized by the experience that he was torn about watching matches during the World Cup.
Barasa, 38, says he witnessed a co-worker die after collapsing from the extreme heat, which can get as high as 120 degrees. He suspects that person could have been dehydrated because of limited water breaks offered to workers.
CNN could not independently verify his claim.
He added: “I saw the supervisor call another Kenyan a lazy Black monkey. Then when the Kenyan asked him: ‘Why are you calling me a Black monkey?’ the supervisor slapped him,” Barasa, who worked on the Lusail stadium, told CNN.
His account echoes those of other foreign workers, mostly from South Asia and Africa, who’ve played a significant role in preparing the country for the World Cup.
Authorities have acknowledged hundreds of deaths in construction and related industries in the 13 years since FIFA awarded the tournament to the Gulf nation.
Two migrant workers have also died in unexplained circumstances during the tournament.
On December 10, 24-year-old Kenyan security guard John Njue Kibue fell from the eighth floor of Lusail stadium and died in the hospital, his family told CNN.
Another died at a resort used by Saudi Arabia during the group stages of the tournament.
Organizers say they are investigating Kibue’s death, which has renewed scrutiny of Qatar’s treatment of migrant workers as the World Cup draws to a close.
Fighting for labor rights
While the investigation is underway, complaints from workers currently in Qatar continue, according to a campaigner for migrants’ rights based in Kenya, who says he receives thousands of messages from workers based in the Gulf region.
Geoffrey Owino, 40, says he worked as a safety officer in the country from 2018 until this past June, when Qatari authorities deported him.
He campaigned for migrants’ rights when he was there and continues to do so today.
Many of the complaints he receives range from withheld wages to physical assault, Owino told CNN.
Owino says he experienced firsthand the abuses that some migrant workers face when he worked in Qatar.
In his first week in 2018, he says he was pressured to sign an employment contract he had not read. He initially refused but eventually signed after thinking about the recruitment fee of $1,500 he had paid to an agent in Kenya to secure a job that promised $400 a month.
When he got there, he says he was only paid $200 a month and lived with seven other people in a room.
Owino says as a safety inspector he spoke up frequently about construction workers at Lusail stadium working in extreme temperatures. But he was ignored, he says, as officials rushed to finish the construction.
He said authorities detained him three times without giving him a reason and sent him to a deportation camp because he complained about the mistreatment of his fellow employees.
He says he contested deportation twice and was released. But after authorities detained him a third time, he says he gave up fighting and was expelled from the country.
CNN has contacted the Qatari government for comment on migrant working conditions in the country, as well as Owino’s claims but a Qatari government official previously told CNN that any claims workers were being “jailed or deported without explanation” were false.
Now back in Nairobi, Owino’s fight for fair treatment of migrants in Qatar has earned him the nickname “Mr. Labor” and Owino says he continues to help workers abroad and advocates for compensation from bodies such as FIFA for them.
The lure of opportunities abroad
Owino also works with Equidem, a human and labor rights organization, to document the experiences of workers who have returned to Kenya. He spends time in the Gachie neighborhood, on the outskirts of the capital Nairobi.
Once known for crime and gang violence, the low-income district has since become a prime target for recruiters promising lucrative opportunities in the Middle East.
The promises are seductive considering Kenya’s high unemployment rate, which at 5.7% is the highest in East Africa.
Equidem is investigating claims of mistreatment by current and former migrant workers across the Gulf but in a report last month focused on Qatar, Equidem revealed widespread violations including forced labor, unpaid wages, nationality-based discrimination, and systemic abuse in interviews with 60 migrant workers employed at the World Cup stadiums.
In a written response to the report, World Cup organizers said it was “rife with inaccuracies” and underscored the measures put in place to protect workers and the progress the country has made with the reforms, noting that “their commitment to ensuring the health, safety and dignity of workers” has been “steadfast” since construction began.
The Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy went on to say that while “there is always room for improvement…. the report presents a completely unbalanced picture of the significant progress versus the inevitable challenges that remain,” adding: “We have always been transparent about our challenges and progress throughout our journey and maintain an open dialogue with all our stakeholders.”
Qatar’s World Cup Chief Hassan Al-Thawadi said in a British TV interview last month that between 400 and 500 migrant workers had died in their efforts to get the Gulf nation ready for the World Cup, which is a far greater figure than authorities had previously acknowledged. But he said only a handful of deaths were directly connected to the construction of stadiums.
Qatar has taken steps towards reform in response to criticism and signed an agreement with the International Labor Organization (ILO) in 2017.
For example, it dismantled the state sponsorship system, known as the kafala, and gave workers the freedom to change jobs before the end of a contract without the consent of their employer.
It also became the first country in the region to introduce a non-discriminatory minimum wage and a policy requiring employers to pay workers on time. And it adopted a new health and safety and inspection policy.
Qatar has been lauded for the steps it took to better protect migrant workers. However, last month the ILO recognized that more needed be done as reports of vulnerable workers facing retaliation from employers and delayed wages persisted.
Internet fame for migrants
As the World Cup got underway, some Black migrant workers took on highly visible roles in a country where they are often invisible — part of the workforce but not society.
Kenyan Abubaker Abbas — aka “Metro man” — became a social media sensation for showing fans the route to the subway using a foam finger and a megaphone.
Tournament organizers elevated the 23-year-old Kenyan’s profile in an apparent bid to counter criticism about Qatar’s treatment of migrant workers.
He even came out on the pitch as a surprise guest before the highly anticipated England v US match, leading the packed stadium in chants of “Metro!”
Elsewhere in Doha, another Kenyan, Dennis Kamau, has also enjoyed internet fame as an enthusiastic traffic controller, dancing as he directs cars and pedestrians at the games.
However, the spectacle belies the grim reality for those working behind the scenes, says Malcolm Bidali, a Kenyan migrant rights defender and former security guard in Qatar who tried to expose the working and living conditions endured by migrants.
He describes conditions in the metro station Abbas was directing fans to as appalling for migrant workers.
Bidali says Qatari authorities placed him in solitary confinement in 2021 after he campaigned for better conditions for migrant workers on social media.
The Qatari government charged him for allegedly taking money from “foreign agents” for his work with international NGOs and accused him of spreading disinformation online
After organizations like Amnesty International campaigned for his release, he was eventually freed. The traumatic ordeal prompted him to leave Qatar, he said.
Bidali says he worries about the fate of the workers in Qatar once the World Cup is over and the attention goes away. He fears the rights of workers will be limited without any accountability.
“As we speak, we still have people not getting paid, people are still living in cramped conditions, we have people still facing physical, verbal, sexual assault, discrimination, long working hours, and horrible working conditions,” Bidali said.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. | https://kion546.com/news/national-world/cnn-europe-mideast-africa/2022/12/18/as-games-draw-to-a-close-plight-of-migrant-workers-has-cast-a-shadow-over-world-cup/ | 2022-12-18 18:10:16 | 0 | https://kion546.com/news/national-world/cnn-europe-mideast-africa/2022/12/18/as-games-draw-to-a-close-plight-of-migrant-workers-has-cast-a-shadow-over-world-cup/ |
FORT WORTH, Texas, Feb. 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Rural Media Group announces today the official launch of The Cowgirl Channel, a new television network dedicated to women in western sports and the modern-day cowgirl. The Cowgirl Channel will officially launch in HD on Dish Network Channel 269 and on SLING in February of 2023. The new network will be offered as part of Dish Network's "America's Top 120 Package" to further the satellite company's dedication to providing programming and services to rural America and those that love the rural lifestyle.
The Cowgirl Channel will primarily feature content around western sports for women, including barrel racing, breakaway roping, and women's ranch rodeo. The new network will also feature programming around western fashion, western home design, and more. The initial television line-up will include the following series: Women's Western Sports Roundup, Rodeo Queens, RanchHer, FarmHer, Grit & Grace, and more. The Cowgirl Channel will showcase the WPRA (Women's Professional Rodeo Association), Cowgirl Hall of Fame, Art of the Cowgirl, and Cowgirl Gathering, along with work with many western associations to produce programming around special events such as Reining, Cutting, National High School Rodeo Association, the American Paint Horse Association, and more.
"Women of all ages participating in western sports and embracing the western lifestyle is experiencing explosive growth," said Patrick Gottsch, Founder and President of Rural Media Group. "The popularity of this content on The Cowboy Channel is undeniable, and with so much original content and women's events now being produced not only in the United States but all over the world, the launch of The Cowgirl Channel to go with The Cowboy Channel just makes sense. I am so excited about the initial feedback we are receiving from individuals and organizations who have worked so hard to develop opportunities for women and their love of horses over the years."
The Cowgirl Channel will serve as the sister network to The Cowboy Channel, the official network of ProRodeo, and in addition to programming designed around the interests of cowgirls, will also provide Rural Media Group the opportunity to program more professional rodeo and western sporting events. Together, The Cowboy Channel and The Cowgirl Channel will be the foundation for Rural Media Group's effort to revolutionize western sports and invest in the future of the western lifestyle.
Headquarters for The Cowgirl Channel will be in the historic Fort Worth Stockyards. Rural Media Group is expanding its existing footprint, which includes The Cowboy Channel studios in the old auction barn, and is building out a devoted television studio for The Cowgirl Channel in the front entrance of the parent company's office along the bricks of Exchange. Now, when visitors and viewers are in the Fort Worth Stockyards, they will have the opportunity to watch a live recording of a show for The Cowgirl Channel in one building and then see another show being recorded for The Cowboy Channel just down the street.
Live streaming + on demand for The Cowgirl Channel will be available by subscribing to Cowboy Channel+. Subscribers will now have access to live television network feeds for both The Cowboy Channel and The Cowgirl Channel, along with access to all on-demand content for both networks as part of one $9.99 monthly or $99.99 yearly subscription. The Cowgirl Channel will also be available through the SLING app on all supported devices.
More information about The Cowgirl Channel will continue to be released in the coming weeks. To stay up to date on future programming updates, news, and information, please sign up for The Cowgirl Channel newsletter at www.thecowgirlchannel.com.
About the Cowgirl Channel:
The Cowgirl Channel is a 24-hour television network featuring content centered around women in western sports and the modern-day cowgirl. The network primarily broadcasts programming around barrel racing and breakaway roping, plus western fashion, western home design, and the everyday cowgirl lifestyle. The programming lineup also features many live western sporting events from around the country. The Cowgirl Channel is owned by the parent company, Rural Media Group, Inc. and is the sister network to The Cowboy Channel. The Cowgirl Channel is soon to be available in 5 million homes on Dish Network Channel 269 and SLING TV. The Cowgirl Channel live streaming + on demand will be available on Cowboy Channel+, Roku, iOS, Android, Firestick and Apple TV. Headquarters and new studios for The Cowgirl Channel are located in the Historic Fort Worth Stockyards in Fort Worth, Texas, as part of Rural Media Group's effort to revolutionize western sports and the western way of life. For more information, please visit www.thecowgirlchannel.com
Facebook: @officialcowgirlchannel
Instagram: @officialcowgirchannel
Twitter: @cowgirlchannel
TikTok: @cowgirlchannel
About Rural Media Group, Inc. (RMG):
Rural Media Group, Inc. is the world's leading provider of multimedia content dedicated to the rural and western lifestyle. With a mission of reconnecting "city with country," RMG is the parent company of RFD-TV (52 million homes), RURAL RADIO on SiriusXM Radio Channel 147 (33 million units), The Cowboy Channel (42 million homes), and now The Cowgirl Channel (5 million homes). Corporate headquarters are in Omaha, Nebraska; broadcast operations are in Nashville, Tennessee, for RFD-TV and RURAL RADIO Channel 147 on SiriusXM Radio, and in the Fort Worth (Texas) Stockyards for The Cowboy Channel and The Cowgirl Channel. Live streaming and on-demand services are available on Cowboy Channel+ and RFD-TV NOW.
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Rural Media Group | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2023/02/01/cowgirl-channel-set-launch-dish-network-sling-tv/ | 2023-02-01 22:28:59 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2023/02/01/cowgirl-channel-set-launch-dish-network-sling-tv/ |
HONOLULU (AP) — The last bits of ash and greenhouse gases from Hawaii’s only remaining coal-fired power plant slipped into the environment this week when the state’s dirtiest source of electricity burned its final pieces of fuel.
The last coal shipment arrived in the islands at the end of July, and the AES Corporation coal plant closed Thursday after 30 years in operation. The facility produced up to one-fifth of the electricity on Oahu — the most populous island in a state of nearly 1.5 million people.
“It really is about reducing greenhouse gases,” Hawaii Gov. David Ige said in an interview with The Associated Press. “And this coal facility is one of the largest emitters. Taking it offline means that we’ll stop the 1.5 million metric tons of greenhouse gases that were emitted annually.”
Like other Pacific islands, the Hawaiian chain has suffered the cascading impacts of climate change. The state is experiencing the destruction of coral reefs from bleaching associated with increased ocean temperatures, rapid sea level rise, more intense storms and drought that is increasing the state’s wildfire risk.
In 2020, Hawaii’s Legislature passed a law banning the use of coal for energy production at the start of 2023. Hawaii has mandated a transition to 100% renewable energy by 2045, and was the first state to set such a goal.
But critics say that while ending the state’s dirtiest source of energy is ultimately a good move, doing so now is not. Renewable sources meant to replace coal energy are not yet on line because of permitting delays, contract issues and pandemic-related supply-chain problems. So the state will instead burn more costly oil that is only slightly less polluting than coal.
“If you are a believer that climate change is going to end because we shut down this coal plant, this is a great day for you,” said Democratic state Sen. Glenn Wakai, chair of the Committee on Economic Development, Tourism and Technology. “But if you pay an electricity bill, this is a disastrous day for you.”
The end of coal and the additional cost of oil will translate to a 7% increase in electricity bills for consumers who already face the nation’s highest energy and living costs.
“What we’re doing … is transitioning from the cheapest fossil fuel to the most expensive fossil fuel,” Wakai said. “And we’re going to be subjected to geopolitical issues on pricing for oil as well as access to oil. ”
The AES coal plant closure means Hawaii joins 10 other states with no major coal-fired power facilities, according to data from Global Energy Monitor, a nonprofit advocating for a global transition to clean energy. Rhode Island and Vermont never had any coal-fired power plants.
While Hawaii is the first state to fully implement a ban on coal, a handful of others previously passed laws. The 2015 law in Oregon, the first state to pass a ban, isn’t effective until 2035. Washington state’s 2020 coal ban starts in 2025. California, Maine and Texas are among states that have restricted construction of new coal-fired plants.
The number of coal-burning units in the United States peaked in 2001 at about 1,100. More than half have stopped operating since then, with most switching to more cost-effective natural gas.
U.S. Energy Information Administration data shows oil generated about two-thirds of Hawaii’s electricity in 2021. That makes Hawaii the most petroleum-dependent state, even as it tries to make a rapid transition to renewables.
Hawaii already gets about 40% of its power from sustainable sources including wind, solar, hydroelectric and geothermal.
State Sen. Kurt Fevella, a Republican and the Senate Minority Leader, suggested that Hawaiian Electric Company and other energy corporations should absorb the additional cost of shifting to renewables.
“The fact that Hawaii’s families are already doing what is necessary to reduce their energy uses while still paying the most in the nation for household electricity is unsustainable,” said Fevella. “While I believe utility companies like HECO can do more to reduce the energy burden passed on to Hawaii’s ratepayers, I also believe developers of renewal energy projects should also bear a greater portion of the transmission costs.”
Hawaiian Electric Company, the state’s sole distributor of electricity, said it can do little to change the prices to consumers.
“We’re a regulated monopoly,” said Vice President of Government and Community Relations and Corporate Communications Jim Kelly. ”So we don’t set the prices. We don’t make any money on the fuels that we use to generate electricity.”
AES, the operator of Hawaii’s last coal plant, has transitioned to creating clean energy and is working on large solar farms across the state, including one in West Oahu that will replace some lost coal energy when completed next year.
“Renewables are getting cheaper by the day,” said Leonardo Moreno, president of AES Corporation’s clean energy division. “I envision a future where energy is very, very cheap, abundant and renewable.”
Sustainable energy experts say getting rid of coal is critical in curbing climate change. While the current renewable landscape is not perfect, they say technologies are improving.
“This is the decade of climate action that we really need to be moving on right now,” said Makena Coffman, University of Hawaii professor and director for the Institute for Sustainability and Resilience. “And so these are available technologies and they might get incrementally better, but let’s not wait 10 years to do it.”
Profits from the increased electricity costs to Hawaii consumers will go mostly to overseas oil producers, said Hawaii’s Chief Energy Officer Scott Glenn.
Hawaii’s petroleum is distributed by Par Pacific, a Houston-based company which has traditionally sourced the state’s oil from Libya and Russia. But after the invasion of Ukraine, Hawaii halted oil shipments from Russia and replaced it with products from Argentina.
Extending the coal plant’s operation would be complicated and costly, Glenn said, noting that the plant has been planning decommissioning for years and would now have to buy coal at market price.
“Coal is going up. It’s getting more expensive,” he said of the supply Hawaii gets from clearcut rainforests in Indonesia. “If we were using U.S. coal, it would not be the cheapest energy source on the grid.”
Why would Hawaii, a small U.S. state in the middle of the Pacific, try to lead the way in moving to sustainable energy?
“We are already feeling the effects of climate change,'” Glenn said. “It’s not fair or right to ask other nations or states to act on our behalf if we are not willing and able to do it ourselves. If we don’t, we drown.”
___
Associated Press data journalist Mary Katherine Wildeman in Hartford, Conn. contributed to this report.
___
Follow Caleb Jones on Twitter: @CalebAP. Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment
___
Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content. | https://www.texomashomepage.com/news/national/ap-hawaii-closes-last-coal-fired-power-plant-as-ban-begins/ | 2022-09-01 13:49:29 | 0 | https://www.texomashomepage.com/news/national/ap-hawaii-closes-last-coal-fired-power-plant-as-ban-begins/ |
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – A higher education bill touted by supporters as promoting intellectual freedom and equality has university faculty across the state worried about its potential to do the opposite.
Senate Bill 83, known as the “Higher Education Enhancement Act,” prohibits a slew of things on college campuses, including mandatory diversity training; faculty strikes during contract negotiations; working with Confucius Institutes and other Chinese research institutions; and using “political and ideological litmus tests” in hiring and admissions decisions. Its sponsor, Sen. Jerry Cirino (R-Kirtland), called it a “course-correction” for universities and colleges that have focused too much on diversity and inclusion at the expense of “diversity of opinion.”
“We need to teach our students how to think, not what to think,” Cirino, who is also the chair of the Senate Workforce and Higher Education Committee, said.
Cirino’s bill asks colleges and universities to commit to the mission of educating students “by means of free, open, and rigorous intellectual inquiry to seek the truth.” That includes fostering academic spaces where all viewpoints and opinions are welcomed, Cirino said.
But the bill’s critics, including professors and other university faculty, use other words to describe the bill: It’s “censorship,” an “overreach,” “Draconian,” “anti-education.”
“It’s going to hurt the ability to teach our students what we need to teach them, to give our students a good education,” said Theresa Kulbaga, a feminist theory scholar and communications committee chair of the Faculty Alliance of Miami University.
SB83 requires universities to post on their websites all course syllabi, including the instructor’s biographical information, a list of reading materials and descriptions of what each lecture will discuss. It’s not realistic for professors to offer a play-by-play of each class period before the semester starts, Kulbaga said. She noted that many faculty members, herself included, put significant research into their syllabi during academic breaks and often have to adjust class topics or units to fit students’ knowledge levels and needs.
“The syllabus is a living document,” Kulbaga said. “It shouldn’t be something that is fixed.”
Provisions of the bill bar teaching on concepts that, among other things, include the belief that “one race or sex is inherently superior to another” and that someone “should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish” or any form of “psychological distress” because of their race or sex. Cirino emphasized that he’s not trying to dictate curricula but rather ensure students are accessing high-quality education.
“This bill is all about the students,” Cirino said.
Students and faculty across the state, Cirino said, have reached out to him to say they disagreed with their university’s diversity training or class subject material but feared retribution if they voiced their concerns.
“In a true academic environment, in diversity of thought, there would be no fear,” Cirino said.
To that end, SB83 requires student evaluations of professors to include a question of whether the instructor created a classroom “free of political, racial, gender and religious bias.” It also requires universities to list each instructor’s average student evaluation rating online.
Most portions of the bill amount to “state surveillance of curricula,” said Pranav Jani, director of Asian American Studies at Ohio State University and president of Ohio State’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors. Ethnic and gender studies programs across the country, including at Ohio State, arose out of student and faculty protests, Jani said, and he views SB83 as part of conservative push-back against those programs and social progress for minority communities.
For Jani and Kulbaga, the stakes are high: Their academic careers are based on ethnic and gender studies, respectively, the kind of topics centered on concepts of social justice, allyship, systemic racism and other things deemed prohibited “specified concepts” under SB83. Both professors consider other aspects of the bill to be designed to intimidate, including the establishment of post-tenure review of faculty and blocking faculty from striking during contract negotiations.
“Whether or not each element of this bill is implemented, it creates a climate of fear,” Jani said. “It comes off as very powerful – ‘Look, we can impact each area of your work.’”
The bill requires colleges and universities to affirm in writing that they will not “endorse, oppose, comment, or take action” on “public policy controversies of the day, or any other ideology,” unless it is to support U.S. military action against another country or otherwise support the nation and Ohio. Although most of the specifics apply to public education, the bill requires private institutions receiving state funds to submit a statement declaring they don’t require diversity training, are committed to intellectual freedom and comply with the syllabus requirements.
Cirino pointed to federal regulations barring discrimination on the basis of gender or race, such as Title IX and Title VI, as proof that institutions have meaningfully moved toward equality. He said in some aspects, the push in institutions of higher education to emphasize diversity has “taken some of this backward.”
But Jani said the bill is couched in “double-speak” about freedom of expression – it purports to uplift academic freedom while cracking down on instructors’ ability to develop their courses, engage in research and advocate for fair contracts.
“They talk in the language of equity and restoring equality in the classroom, but that itself is based on the notion that white men are being attacked, in society, in culture as a whole, in all these universities,” Jani said.
SB83 will have its first hearing Wednesday. | https://www.wdtn.com/news/bill-would-ban-faculty-strikes-teaching-controversial-beliefs-at-ohio-colleges/ | 2023-03-21 18:01:27 | 1 | https://www.wdtn.com/news/bill-would-ban-faculty-strikes-teaching-controversial-beliefs-at-ohio-colleges/ |
CONNOR TOWNSHIP, Maine — The last place many might expect to find the Caribou region’s newest bakery is in a home kitchen on a quiet country road.
But that’s exactly where Autumn Labreck has been honing her skills in breadmaking.
Across Maine, restaurants, farmers markets and even school lunches showcase locally sourced food. Since the pandemic frenzy waned, Aroostook’s grocery stores and bakeries have no shortage of breads. But Labreck has found that many people crave the special tastes that rise out of a home oven.
“People are becoming more aware of what they’re eating and where it comes from,” Labreck said. “So the more local food you can buy, the better.”
Labreck is the owner and only employee of Lovely Loaves, which is based at her home in Connor, an unincorporated township outside Caribou.
In just one year, she has gone from not even considering herself a baker to opening a fully licensed bakery, where she crafts artisan breads, doughnuts and other treats that are becoming popular with her fanbase.
In February 2022, Labreck was experimenting with homemade pizza dough when she first thought she might try baking her own breads. Though she had always loved cooking, she had no experience with breads or pastries, so she taught herself by listening to podcasts and reading all the recipes and social media advice she could find.
As Labreck’s enthusiasm for baking grew, she began selling white, whole wheat, sourdough and half-wheat breads at summer festivals to good reviews. In August, she officially launched Lovely Loaves, a pick-up and delivery-based business, and began attending local farmers markets.
Labreck’s expanded menu now includes her four original breads as well as sweet brown mini loaves, bagels, rolls, oatmeal bread, gluten-free bread and glazed raised doughnuts. Her website and Facebook page display photos of some of her artfully designed products.
Part of her growth strategy is asking customers what they want.
“Rather than guess what people might like, I’ve been asking them what they want to see on the menu,” Labreck said. “That’s really how it has grown.”
Though Labreck has gained many loyal customers, especially during the summer market season, one challenge remains: letting people know where she is.
Her home on Madawaska Road is a far cry from the busier downtown streets. That’s why she is working toward opening a storefront in Caribou that would have a commercial oven, more space to display her products and visibility beyond social media and local events.
For now, Labreck remains committed to growing as a baker and seeing where her newfound talents will take her. She said she often compares her journey with breadmaking to life in general.
“Life can be messy. You take all that messiness and mix it in a bowl. Then you dump it on a table and knead it until it comes together,” Labreck said. “If you stick with it, you usually end up with something beautiful.” | https://www.bangordailynews.com/2023/02/14/news/aroostook/self-taught-baker-lovely-loaves-rural-maine-home-joam40zk0w/ | 2023-02-14 07:36:45 | 1 | https://www.bangordailynews.com/2023/02/14/news/aroostook/self-taught-baker-lovely-loaves-rural-maine-home-joam40zk0w/ |
Which art set for adults is best?
If you’re looking into starting an art hobby, taking an art class or even just refreshing old art materials, art sets are a good investment. They come with everything you will need to get started. While the term “art set” may make you think it’s intended for kids, there are many art sets available that contain advanced brushes, paints and other supplies specifically marketed to adults and art students.
Our top pick, the Royal Langnickel All Media Artist Set, has everything you need to paint, draw and color.
What to know before you buy an art set for adults
Art set skill levels
Art sets will come in a variety of different skill levels, each with its own added benefits. For example, if you are a novice or an aspiring artist, you may want to look for art sets that are marketed to beginners. These art sets are more likely to include tools that are easier to use as well as useful guides to get you started.
Advanced art sets, on the other hand, are likely to come with more challenging types of products and no guides to help beginners. Advanced art sets are usually more expensive and come with more quality art supplies.
Types of art sets
There are many different varieties of art sets, with some being more specific to a certain media type and others being more generalized. For example, the US Art Supply 162-Piece Painting and Drawing Art Set is a multimedia set and contains everything that you will need in order to draw, paint and color.
Other types of art sets include drawing sets and painting sets. These are more specific to a specific medium. For example, the Zenacolor 74-Piece Drawing Set only comes with pencils and tools for sketching.
If you are interested in comparing different types of art sets, check out our full BestReviews art set buying guide.
Art set sizes
Art sets will normally be sized according to the amount of materials that they come with and will come labeled with a size such as 160-piece. The size of the art set should have no effect on the quality of the supplies. When buying an art set, the most important thing to consider is whether or not the art set has all of the supplies you want to work with.
What to look for in a quality art set for adults
Quality supplies
If you’re buying an art set, chances are that you are tired of using second-rate supplies. Check that the brand of the art set is known for producing quality art supplies. Price and quality are often correlated.
Storage and physical size of the set
Sets that have more pieces can seem daunting, which is a huge reason why it’s important to consider how the physical set stores the supplies. For example, the Royal Langnickel All Media Set comes in an attractive wood case with several different drawers designed to hold different types of supplies.
Aside from thinking about how the actual set will store your supplies, also consider how and where you will want to store the entire set.
Portability
Carrying around a bunch of separate art supplies can be a real chore. If you’re looking to paint or draw on the go, get an art set that can be easily transported.
How much you can expect to spend on an art set for adults
Art sets for adults range from $50 to $150. The quality of the art supplies in the set is often correlated with price.
Art sets for adults FAQ
Should I get a multimedia art set or a specific art set?
A. This will depend on your own experience with the mediums in the art set and what you want to practice. If you are a beginner, you should start with a multimedia set since it is the more generalized option. You will be able to explore and try out different mediums.
Which art supplies are toxic?
A. Some art supplies are not safe to be used around small children or pets. If this is a concern of yours, look for an art set that does not include oil paints and always check what ingredients are in the supplies.
What’s the best art set for adults to buy?
Top art set for adults
Royal Langnickel All Media Artist Set
What you need to know: This multimedia set is gorgeous thanks to its wooden case and comes with some ideal supplies. This set is great for both novice and seasoned artists.
What you’ll love: The case doubles as an easel, so it’s perfect for use on-the-go.
What you should consider: Some users have reported problems with shipping. There are not a lot of options for those who prefer charcoal, graphite or pens.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Top art set for adults for the money
US Art Supply 162-Piece Painting and Drawing Art Set
What you need to know: This set is perfect for beginners and comes with a wide range of supplies.
What you’ll love: The wooden case is stylish, well-organized and sturdy.
What you should consider: Experienced artists may not be satisfied with the quality of the supplies.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Worth checking out
Castle Art Supplies Graphite Drawing Pencils and Sketch Set
What you need to know: This 40-piece sketch set from Castle, a trusted name in art, has everything that both beginner and veteran artists will need to sketch.
What you’ll love: The supplies in this set are great and will satisfy even professional artists.
What you should consider: The set doesn’t come with any color options. Consider buying pastels or colored pencils separately.
Where to buy: Sold by Amazon
Want to shop the best products at the best prices? Check out Daily Deals from BestReviews.
Sign up here to receive the BestReviews weekly newsletter for useful advice on new products and noteworthy deals.
Addison Hoggard writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
Copyright 2022 BestReviews, a Nexstar company. All rights reserved. | https://www.cbs42.com/reviews/br/lawn-garden-br/tools-br-lawn-garden-br/arts-crafts-br/best-art-set-for-adults/ | 2022-07-03 15:25:47 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/reviews/br/lawn-garden-br/tools-br-lawn-garden-br/arts-crafts-br/best-art-set-for-adults/ |
Althing (all - thing) is a U.S. medical innovation leader, establishing modernized clinical services and pioneering full equity in care. Althing innovations feature:
- zero wait time from door to provider
- complete patient self navigation with self charting, in any language or literacy
- private, self-serve MedBay encounter rooms featuring automated vital sign sensors and staff augmented examination
A new virtual and onsite staff hybrid model for modernized primary, convenience care and behavioral health clinic services. In clinic, in school districts, and in homes.
AUSTIN, Minn., April 12, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Althing (myalthingclinic.com) announced the successful launch of its flagship clinic in Austin, Minnesota. Austin is a diverse community in Southeast Minnesota where more than 56 languages are spoken in a region serving more than 103 languages and cultures. This rural region will now benefit from the first Civil Rights capable, innovative, clinic.
Althing Clinic is located on the Austin Riverland Community College campus offering walk-in convenience care and access to primary and behavioral health care. The Althing model of healthcare is a state-of-the-art, efficient, human oriented service. Althing does what conventional care models struggle to do; serve rural regions and diversity, equitably with excellence. Zero-delay-to-provider is available to all demographics while enabling patient empowered navigation through the entire care process.
"Innovative, equal and proactive models of healthcare, that efficiently provide vital services, are a key need for our communities. Extending access to specialists not only improves community health but empowers economic growth. Innovation finds partnership where it is most needed; Southeast Minnesota is a region due for modernized healthcare. Althing is partnering with regional leaders to develop and expand a model of care that better serves everyone, in their own region, city and home." Said Mat Johnson, CEO of Althing, LLC. "Our services also proactively bring behavioral health to school districts and employers, onsite. Our goal is an equitable care model, for rural communities without compromise in quality and reach."
"During my time as a School Administrator, over the years it became more and more critical to address student physical and mental health needs." Said David Krenz "Trying to work within the traditional model to deliver services became more and more difficult. Resources dried up and family's abilities to access local care were not available, either because of lack of finances, cultural beliefs or language barriers. We needed new and innovative systems to meet the needs. To fill a void, we formed a partnership with Althing to utilize their innovation model to assess and deliver, real time assessment and treatment services without barriers. Althing has truly become the system to meet the healthcare needs for our students, families and the whole community!"
About Althing
Althing creates innovative solutions that lead to equity, access, and modernization of healthcare in rural communities. Althing's commitment to access is highlighted in its clinic, school district and home health solutions. Whether serving diverse populations or proactively bringing health services to the community, Althing holds to its principles: equity, quality, access, and value. To learn more about Althing visit althingmodel.com and subscribe to https://www.youtube.com/@althing7525/videos
Contact Katja Kressmann at 218-461-0655
katja.kressmann@geacom.net
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Althing, LLC. | https://www.kbtx.com/prnewswire/2023/04/12/althing-llc-launches-new-innovative-clinic-austin-minnesota/ | 2023-04-12 12:58:49 | 1 | https://www.kbtx.com/prnewswire/2023/04/12/althing-llc-launches-new-innovative-clinic-austin-minnesota/ |
DENVER, June 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Leiters, a trusted FDA-registered 503B outsourcing provider of compounded sterile preparations and pharmacy services, announced today it has joined a new coalition of diverse stakeholders to address drug shortages in the United States. The End Drug Shortages Alliance provides a forum for key stakeholders to take strategic aim at one of health care's more pressing and enduring issues, drug shortages that disrupt patient care.
"Drug shortages impact the delivery of critical medicines and the delivery of patient care," said Robin Smith Hoke, President and CEO of Leiters. "As a member of the alliance, we will work collaboratively across the supply chain to develop strategies to address factors that contribute to these shortages."
Leiters provides high-quality compounded sterile preparations and pharmacy services across the healthcare continuum to hospitals, surgery centers and physician offices. Leiters offers an end-to-end suite of product types including pre-filled syringes, IV bags and concentrated vials; pain services including opioid free medications; pharmacy fill service for the ON-Q* Pain Relief System; and ophthalmic medications and services including, FDA-Compliant Repackaged Avastin®.
The End Drug Shortages Alliance was launched in late 2021 to bring together industry stakeholders, including providers, group purchasing organizations, manufacturers, distributors and other industry thought leaders and champions. Efforts will focus on improving access to medications through greater transparency across market participants, leading to improved quality manufacturing of medications and production of additional supply.
"We are grateful to have Leiters join the alliance to end drug shortages," said Eric Tichy, division chair of pharmacy supply solutions for Mayo Clinic, who serves as the Chair for the Alliance advisory board. "Collaboration among organizations strengthens our ability to improve the quality of life for patients that rely on these medications. Together, we can make a difference."
Learn more at www.EndDrugShortages.com
The End Drugs Shortages Alliance is a collaboration of select health systems, supply chain, industry and other stakeholders including group purchasing organizations, manufacturers, distributors and other industry thought leaders dedicated to solving the pharmaceutical supply challenges that disrupt access to essential medications in the U.S. We prioritize initiatives focused on transparency, quality, redundancy and production of additional supply to achieve undisrupted access to essential medications for health care providers and patients.
Leiters is a trusted FDA-registered 503B outsourcing provider of high-quality compounded sterile preparations and pharmacy services. It is committed to providing healthcare professionals and their patients with critically needed outsourced medications. Its team of experts in sterile pharmaceutical manufacturing, repackaging and compounding provide a sophisticated understanding of what it takes to elevate quality and consistency of supply in pharmaceutical outsourcing. Leiters combines a highly experienced team, with robust automated processes, in a state-of-the-art outsourcing facility, to ensure delivery of the highest quality medicines. All sterile preparations are produced under the Human Drug Outsourcing Facilities under 503B of the FD&C Act (503B Guidance) and follow Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP). To learn more about how Leiters is Compounding Health™ please visit www.leiters.com.
Leiters Contact:
Kari Cashmore
720-414-7216
View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/leiters-a-wcas-portfolio-company-joins-the-end-drug-shortages-alliance-301577578.html
SOURCE Leiters | https://www.wfmz.com/news/pr_newswire/pr_newswire_business/leiters-a-wcas-portfolio-company-joins-the-end-drug-shortages-alliance/article_a229bf09-c6bc-5e42-aa70-3414aa0ef8f9.html | 2022-06-29 13:47:54 | 1 | https://www.wfmz.com/news/pr_newswire/pr_newswire_business/leiters-a-wcas-portfolio-company-joins-the-end-drug-shortages-alliance/article_a229bf09-c6bc-5e42-aa70-3414aa0ef8f9.html |
Aiello brings more than 20 years of global experience in HR with technology, retail, and fashion brands
WEST CHESTER, Pa., Oct. 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Qurate Retail GroupSM, a world leader in video commerce ("vCommerce") across linear TV, ecommerce sites, digital streaming and social platforms, today announced that Linda Aiello will be appointed as Chief People Officer (CPO), effective October 31, 2022. As CPO, Aiello will oversee the full team member-related portfolio, including Team Member Experience and Talent Management, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, People and Organization, and other functions. Aiello will report to David L. Rawlinson II, President and CEO of Qurate Retail, Inc. Qurate Retail Group is part of Qurate Retail, Inc. (Nasdaq: QRTEA, QRTEB, QRTEP), a Fortune 500 company.
"As we continue to execute against our strategic growth plan, Project Athens, we must enable our teams to deliver their best work, and part of this is continuing to strengthen our unique company culture," said Rawlinson. "This starts with team member programs, policies and processes that are human-centered as well as best-in-class. I am confident that Linda will immediately help elevate our team member experience and build our employment brand as we strive to become a best place to work."
Aiello brings more than 20 years of international experience leading People functions at modern technology businesses and luxury fashion brands. She has deep expertise in culture, high growth environments, and digital transformations. Most recently, Aiello served as Chief People and Culture Officer at Stitch Fix, one of the world's leading online personalized shopping and styling experiences, where she led the People and Culture teams across the U.S. and U.K.
Prior to Stitch Fix, Aiello spent more than five years as a senior People executive at Salesforce, a Fortune 500 global leader in customer relationship management software. As EVP, Employee Success (HR), she ran the global People organization, with a focus on international growth and expansion, mergers and acquisitions integration, and culture and service scaling. Previously, Aiello expanded the international People organization at Uber Technologies, a Fortune 500 tech-based mobility leader. Among other roles, she led the People function for the Europe-Middle East-Africa (EMEA) and Asia-Pacific (APAC) regions, which spanned 64 countries and included multiple new market entries and the launch of UberEATS. Prior to Uber, Aiello served in multiple People management roles with global prestige brands, including LVMH Fashion Group, Louis Vuitton, Jimmy Choo and Bruno Magli.
Qurate Retail GroupSM comprises seven leading retail brands – QVC®, HSN®, Zulily®, Ballard Designs®, Frontgate®, Garnet Hill® and Grandin Road® – all dedicated to providing a more human way to shop. Qurate Retail Group is the largest player in video commerce ("vCommerce"), which includes video-driven shopping across linear TV, ecommerce sites, digital streaming and social platforms.
The retailer reaches more than 200 million homes worldwide via 14 television channels, which are widely available on cable/satellite TV, free over-the-air TV, and digital livestreaming TV. The retailer also reaches millions of customers via its QVC+ and HSN+ streaming experience, websites, mobile apps, social pages, print catalogs, and in-store destinations. Qurate Retail Group combines shopping and entertainment to curate products, experiences, conversations and communities for millions of highly discerning shoppers. Headquartered in West Chester, Pa., Qurate Retail Group has team members in the U.S., the U.K., Germany, Japan, Italy, Poland and China. For more information, visit www.qurateretailgroup.com, follow @QurateRetailGrp on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, or follow Qurate Retail Group on YouTube or LinkedIn.
Qurate Retail, Inc. (NASDAQ: QRTEA, QRTEB, QRTEP) is a Fortune 500 company that includes the Qurate Retail Group portfolio of brands as well as other minority interests and green energy investments.
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Qurate Retail Group | https://www.kait8.com/prnewswire/2022/10/14/qurate-retail-group-names-linda-aiello-chief-people-officer/ | 2022-10-14 15:10:15 | 1 | https://www.kait8.com/prnewswire/2022/10/14/qurate-retail-group-names-linda-aiello-chief-people-officer/ |
Politics Biden and lawmakers postpone debt ceiling meeting as their staffs keep negotiating Published May 12, 2023 at 7:19 AM EDT Twitter LinkedIn Email Listen • 4:41 NPR's Leila Fadel speaks with Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina about the debt ceiling. Copyright 2023 NPR | https://www.wvasfm.org/politics/politics/2023-05-12/biden-and-lawmakers-postpone-debt-ceiling-meeting-as-their-staffs-keep-negotiating | 2023-05-12 11:57:16 | 1 | https://www.wvasfm.org/politics/politics/2023-05-12/biden-and-lawmakers-postpone-debt-ceiling-meeting-as-their-staffs-keep-negotiating |
EATONTON, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia prisoner convicted of killing two guards during an escape from a prison transport bus five years ago has been sentenced to die.
A jury on Thursday agreed unanimously on a death sentence for Ricky Dubose in the June 2017 shooting deaths of Sgt. Christopher Monica and Sgt. Curtis Billue, news outlets reported. The jury on Monday had found him guilty of charges including murder.
A second prisoner charged in the killings, Donnie Rowe, was convicted of murder in September. A judge sentenced him to serve life in prison without parole after jurors couldn’t agree whether he should be sentenced to death.
Dubose and Rowe escaped together from the bus in Putnam County, southeast of Atlanta, on June 13, 2017, and were arrested in Tennessee days later.
Dubose was accused of firing the gun that killed the officers after he and Rowe slipped out of handcuffs and burst through an unlocked gate at the front of the bus. Prosecutors say Dubose grabbed one of the officers’ weapons and shot Monica, the guard, and then Billue, the driver, both in the head. Security cameras on the bus recorded the violent escape and roughly 30 other prisoners witnessed the killings.
An attorney for Dubose had acknowledged in her opening statement that Dubose was guilty, but she said the jury should find him guilty and intellectually disabled or guilty but mentally ill. That would have made him ineligible for the death penalty.
Prosecutors rejected the defense arguments, saying Dubose was an intelligent and calculated killer.
Dubose, 29, was already serving a 20-year sentence for a 2015 armed robbery and assault in Elbert County when he escaped. He had been in prison earlier, as well. | https://www.wivb.com/news/u-s-headlines/georgia-prisoner-sentenced-to-die-in-guard-killings/ | 2022-06-19 23:47:10 | 0 | https://www.wivb.com/news/u-s-headlines/georgia-prisoner-sentenced-to-die-in-guard-killings/ |
BALTIMORE (AP) _ Medifast Inc. (MED) on Monday reported first-quarter profit of $41.8 million.
The Baltimore-based company said it had profit of $3.59 per share.
The weight-loss company posted revenue of $417.6 million in the period.
_____
This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on MED at https://www.zacks.com/ap/MED | https://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/Medifast-Q1-Earnings-Snapshot-17142746.php | 2022-05-02 23:18:35 | 1 | https://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/Medifast-Q1-Earnings-Snapshot-17142746.php |
Strong top line growth and improved revenue mix led to higher profitability
Net Revenues up 61.0% YoY with Adjusted Gross Margin expanding 650bps to 33.8% in Q1
SÃO PAULO, May 5, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Zenvia Inc. (NASDAQ: ZENV), the leading cloud-based CX communications platform in Latin America, empowering companies to transform their existing communications with end-customers along their life cycle, today reported its fiscal 2022 first quarter operating and financial metrics. Q1 2022 numbers fully consolidate D1 and SenseData.
Cassio Bobsin, Founder & CEO of ZENVIA, said: "We are pleased with the strong start for 2022. The first quarter results attest to the successful execution of our strategic plan. The proceeds from the IPO were critically allocated to M&A and R&D events, which contributed to the acceleration of a more mature ecosystem of products and services.
The recently closed Movidesk transaction is the last of the three acquisitions we funded with the proceeds. More importantly, it concludes our plan A for the first phase of our M&A strategy. Put another way, we bought the exact capabilities and companies that we had targeted. Also, R&D for 2021 drastically increased to represent 12% of our revenue, up from 2% in the prior year. We believe this active management style will continue to benefit our firm and stakeholders, as the healthy increase in our revenues and solid margin expansion from the integration of acquisitions and organic growth confirms so.
One of the main projects where we used our R&D funds is Zenvia Campaign; an intuitive, effortless, and integrated SaaS solution launched in early April, designed to answer the highly demanded needs of our clients, that can now manage multichannel communications throughout their entire user journey. The solution was also constructed to unlock the full potential of data-analytic tools and convert consumers' reactions into effective success metrics, improving the strategic decision-making process and achieving higher customer loyalty and profitability. We believe this is a game changer in campaigning solutions for the Latin American market.
With the conclusion of the Movidesk transaction, the launch of Zenvia Campaign and the ongoing integration of recently acquired companies, we are well-positioned to offer a full suite of end-to-end solutions and capture all the opportunities in the market."
Financial Highlights Q1 2022
- Net Revenues increased 61.0% YoY to BRL 197.6 million, with organic growth of 36.0%
- Net Revenue Expansion Rate (NRE) of 122%, +13p.p. vs Q1 2021
- Adjusted Gross Profit totaled BRL 66.8 million, +100% YoY, with Adjusted Gross Margin expanding 650bps to 33.8%
M&A and Integration Activity
- Closing of Movidesk acquisition on May 2nd, 2022. Movidesk adds a help desk SaaS tool for ZENVIA with +75 performance indicators to further empower companies in customer service and support; in 2021, the firm revenues expanded 96% to BRL 33 million, while gross margin was approximately 70%. Movidesk had 2,500 clients as of March 2022, with Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) of BRL 46 million
- Integration of D1 moving as planned with teams already fully integrated as of April, and synergies on the cost side (suppliers and systems) being implemented; cross-selling of solutions is positively received by the clients
- Integration of SenseData is also moving as expected, with back-office activities and structures fully integrated, while team integration is still in progress; on track to target selected customers with cross-selling solutions beginning in Q3
Key Metrics and Recent Business Highlights
- Number of active customers grew by 21.7% YoY to 12,400
- ZENVIA Campaign SaaS tool launched in early April. Unlike other tools in the market, this product was developed to offer multichannel communication throughout the entire end-customer journey. Companies can now interact with consumers using a combination of direct and indirect channels, allowing them to react to the brand's actions in the channel they are most active in, effectively contributing to the campaign's success. It is possible to orchestrate the journey so that messages always arrive at the most opportune moment. The launch is aligned with ZENVIA's strategy of leveraging organic growth by introducing new SaaS products to its growing client base.
Consolidated Revenue
Consolidated Revenue in Q1 2022 totaled BRL 197.6 million, an increase of 61.0% YoY, reflecting both solid organic growth and M&A gains.
The organic growth rate of 36.0% reflects a higher number of active customers (+21.7% YoY) and a 13 p.p. increase in the Net Revenue Expansion rate to 122%.
Q1 2022 fully consolidates D1 and SenseData, which jointly contributed BRL 30.7 million to our consolidated net revenues in the period. Movidesk transaction was concluded on May 2nd, 2022, and therefore will be fully consolidated as of that date, with numbers already incorporated into ZENVIA's 2022 earnings guidance.
In terms of revenue mix, revenue from Beyond SMS Termination, which carries higher gross margins, represented 40.6% of the total revenue in Q1 2022, compared to 25.2% in Q1 2021, attesting to solid execution and the positive impacts of our M&A strategy.
Our strong revenue growth for the quarter demonstrates our ability to keep delivering results through a combination of organic expansion in both client base and usage and integrating acquired companies, further improving our revenue mix.
Profitability
Adjusted Gross Profit increased a solid 100% in the quarter to BRL 66.8 million, reflecting the strong revenue growth and improved mix, while Adjusted Gross Margin expanded 650bps to 33.8%. Adjusted Gross Margin in Q1 2022 was up 120bps sequentially, due to the impact of seasonal higher SMS volumes over profitability in Q4. On a like-for-like basis (pro-forma excluding D1 and SenseData), the Adjusted Gross Margin expanded by 360bps YoY in the quarter.
Adjusted Gross Profit from Beyond SMS Termination reached 79.6% of the total in Q1 2022, compared to 68.6% in the same period of 2021, as a direct result of our diversification strategy and recent acquisitions to position ZENVIA as a SaaS company.
Non-gaap Adjusted EBITDA was negative BRL 9.5 million and includes earn-out expenses related to the acquisitions of Total Voice and Sirena. Excluding these non-cash expenses , non-gaap Adjusted EBITDA in Q1 2022 was negative BRL 7.6 million.
Guidance
(1) Includes D1 and SenseData from January 1 to December 31, 2022 and Movidesk from May 1 to December 31, 2022.
(2) Organic revenue growth guidance excludes revenue from acquisitions that closed after January 1, 2021
Conference Call
The Company will host a webcast on Friday, May 06, 2022, at 12:00 pm EDT to discuss its operational and financial metrics. To access the webcast presentation, click here. Additional information can be found on the Zenvia Investor Relations website at https://investors.zenvia.com.
Contacts
About ZENVIA
ZENVIA is driven by the purpose of empowering companies to create unique experiences for customer communications through its unified end-to-end platform. ZENVIA empowers companies to transform their existing customer communications from non-scalable, physical and impersonal interactions into highly scalable, digital-first and hyper contextualized experiences across the customer journey. ZENVIA's unified end-to-end CX communications platform provides a combination of (i) SaaS focused on campaigns, sales teams, customer service and engagement, (ii) tools, such as software application programming interfaces, or APIs, chatbots, single customer view, journey designer, documents composer and authentication and (iii) channels, such as SMS, Voice, WhatsApp, Instagram and Webchat. Its comprehensive platform assists customers across multiple use cases, including marketing campaigns, customer acquisition, customer onboarding, warnings, customer services, fraud control, cross-selling and customer retention, among others. ZENVIA's shares are traded on Nasdaq, under the ticker ZENV.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date they were first issued and were based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and projections, as well as the beliefs and assumptions of management. Words such as "expect," "anticipate," "should," "believe," "hope," "target," "project," "goals," "estimate," "potential," "predict," "may," "will," "might," "could," "intend," variations of these terms or the negative of these terms and similar expressions are intended to identify these statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which involve factors or circumstances that are beyond Zenvia's control. Zenvia's actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied in forward-looking statements due to several factors, including but not limited to: our ability to innovate and respond to technological advances, changing market needs and customer demands, our ability to successfully acquire new businesses as customers, acquire customers in new industry verticals and appropriately manage international expansion, substantial and increasing competition in our market, compliance with applicable regulatory and legislative developments and regulations, the dependence of our business on our relationship with certain service providers, among other factors.
SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA
Consolidated Balance Sheet
Indebtedness
View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/zenvia-reports-q1-2022-results-301541342.html
SOURCE ZENVIA Inc. | https://www.wfmz.com/news/pr_newswire/pr_newswire_stocks/zenvia-reports-q1-2022-results/article_b9b17081-156b-54ac-8f2b-9a4699b73583.html | 2022-05-05 23:28:55 | 0 | https://www.wfmz.com/news/pr_newswire/pr_newswire_stocks/zenvia-reports-q1-2022-results/article_b9b17081-156b-54ac-8f2b-9a4699b73583.html |
April 7th is International Health Day. Pamper yourself with deals from Amazon, Walmart, Urbansteams and more. Create unique ways to live a healthier lifestyle. Listed is a round up of ways to realize the importance of good health as well as take advantage of the health day deals.
Amazon has ways to relax. Discover Stress Less Cards which includes 50 Mindfulness & Meditation Exercises Helps Relieve Stress and Anxiety, plus find deals on deals on 5 minute journals also great stress relievers. Get fast free shipping with Amazon Prime.
Nordstrom has Spring Sale deals, save 60% on select items including skincare products. Walmart has deals on Bert’s Bee scrubs to keep your hands and feet moisturized and mineral bath soak for aches and pains.
Lululemon has the popular athletic tech wear for healthy lifestyles. Save on everything from align yoga pants to comfortable men’s golf wear.
Urbanstems has beautiful floral arrangements great for many health reasons. Research shows that the presence of flowers improves focus, sleep, improves moods, cleans the air and a host of other benefits.
Find more International Health Day deals:
- Amazon Self Care
- Walmart Self Care
- LuluLemon - Comfortable clothes. Eye mask. Muscle rollers.
- UncommonGoods Self Care
- Ulta Self Care
- Nordstrom Self Care
- Thirteenlune
- Noom
- Future
- Manduka
- Shopbala
- Nectarusa Bath and Body
- HerbivoreBotanicals: oils, scrubs, soaks
- Unhide Blankets
- OutdoorVoices CloudKnit
Other ideas
- Headspace Meditation App
- Therabody TheraFace PRO - Relaxing facial massager
- DSW Slippers
- Homesick Candles
- MackWeldon Slippers
- Balooliving Weighted Blanket
- RepublicOfTea
- Amazon Sleep Masks
- Amazon Stress Less Deck
- Amazon Five Minute Journals
- Urbanstems Flower Subscription | https://www.mlive.com/business/2023/04/celebrate-international-heath-day-with-great-deals-on-stress-relief-skincare-and-sportswear.html | 2023-04-07 20:40:18 | 1 | https://www.mlive.com/business/2023/04/celebrate-international-heath-day-with-great-deals-on-stress-relief-skincare-and-sportswear.html |
Police identify remains of missing 8-year-old boy; nationwide arrest warrant includes father
PASCO, Wash. (Gray News) - Police in Washington have identified human remains found in rural Benton County earlier this year as 8-year-old Edgar Casian, who went missing in September 2020.
The Pasco Police Department updated the case on Wednesday that the remains of a young child found by hikers back on Feb. 5 were indeed the missing boy after dental records matched.
Multiple agencies including Pasco police, Franklin County Sheriff’s Office and the Benton County Sheriff’s Office responded to the area to recover the remains.
The Pasco Police Department reported it first initiated a missing child report for Edgar on May 27, 2021.
Currently, a nationwide extraditable arrest warrant has been issued for the boy’s father Edgar Salvador Casian-Garcia and Araceli Medina for first-degree murder, according to Pasco police.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reports they were the last two seen with Edgar back in September 2020.
Police also report the current whereabouts of Edgar’s father and Medina are unknown.
Authorities urged anyone with more information on this case to contact the Pasco Police Department at 509-545-3421 or email Det. Davis at davisj@pasco-wa.gov and reference PPD case #21-15039.
Copyright 2022 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/14/police-identify-remains-missing-8-year-old-boy-nationwide-arrest-warrant-includes-father/ | 2022-04-14 02:05:22 | 0 | https://www.kttc.com/2022/04/14/police-identify-remains-missing-8-year-old-boy-nationwide-arrest-warrant-includes-father/ |
Parts of US see record start to allergy season
(CNN) - We’re seeing a record-early start to allergy season.
Allergy-triggering pollen is hitting the southern and eastern U.S. earlier this year than ever before.
Waves of the yellow-green dust are flooding the air and coating everything from car windshields to sidewalks.
In Atlanta, the pollen count climbed to the “extremely high” range Monday, the earliest it has done so in 30 years of record-keeping.
By Tuesday, the tree pollen count had doubled.
In Washington D.C., the first “high” tree pollen count appeared a month ago, hitting a record high for this time of year.
It comes after an exceptionally warm February in the South and East and is part of a trend blamed on climate change.
A Wednesday report from the nonprofit group Climate Central found that allergy season has gotten longer on average since 1970.
Copyright 2023 CNN Newsource. All rights reserved. | https://www.wsaz.com/2023/03/08/parts-us-see-record-start-allergy-season/ | 2023-03-08 16:03:58 | 1 | https://www.wsaz.com/2023/03/08/parts-us-see-record-start-allergy-season/ |
This story is part of the My Unsung Hero series, from the Hidden Brain team, about people whose kindness left a lasting impression on someone else.
In 1994, Leah Bartell was 20 years old and living on her college campus. One night, she went over to a friend's house across campus.
Around 2:30 a.m., she left to make the long walk home. As she was walking down a dark street, two men approached her.
"They were both really tall, and I'm about 5 feet tall and small. And they were clearly drunk," she recalled.
One of them moved in front of her, and the other one moved behind her. She didn't know what to do, and she was scared.
"I didn't know what was going to happen, but I knew it was going to be bad," she said.
All of a sudden, a car pulled over, and a man and a woman got out.
"The man asked me, 'Are you OK?' And I said, 'No.' "
The man began to talk to the two strangers, to get them to leave her alone. Bartell isn't sure what happened next between the men, because at that point, she began to run.
"I was so terrified. I ran straight to my house and locked the doors," she said.
Almost 30 years later, Bartell still thinks about those strangers who helped her that night. If she could address them today, she would say this: "Thank you for noticing what so many people would have driven past. And for speaking up at a moment when you didn't have to."
My Unsung Hero is also a podcast — new episodes are released every Tuesday. To share the story of your unsung hero with the Hidden Brain team, record a voice memo on your phone and send it to myunsunghero@hiddenbrain.org.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wunc.org/2023-05-19/2-men-cornered-her-on-a-dark-street-then-she-saw-a-car-and-a-glimmer-of-hope | 2023-05-19 15:15:48 | 1 | https://www.wunc.org/2023-05-19/2-men-cornered-her-on-a-dark-street-then-she-saw-a-car-and-a-glimmer-of-hope |
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – A Fort Wayne man convicted of three counts of murder in connection to a 2018 triple homicide received the maximum sentence allowed Thursday.
An Allen Superior Court judge sentenced 30-year-old Jacquail Belcher to 215 years for the killings a jury found him guilty of in late May.
Belcher had been accused of killing 28-year-old Breondon Pinkston, 26-year-old Dernail Ivory Brown and 25-year-old Deshaun Devon Richards a few minutes after midnight on July 28, 2018 as they rode in a small passenger car at Fourth and Harrison streets.
Fort Wayne Police determined that Richards was killed first with a shot to the right temple, a disabling wound that caused an immediate loss of life. He was in the passenger seat behind Pinkston, the driver, who was shot four times, two of them to the upper and lower back, severely injuring his lungs and heart.
Brown, known as Ivory, was seated in the passenger front seat and was shot in the back, but exited the car before it tore off across Wells Street.
At trial, an Allen County jail informant came forward with testimony regarding Belcher’s nickname – “Mad Max” because he was always mad – and claimed Belcher said he wanted to turn his life around and that he’d “smoked” three people.
A jury deliberated for an hour and a half before returning a guilty verdict after the trial back in May. | https://www.wane.com/news/crime/courts-convicted-killer-gets-maximum-215-year-prison-sentence/ | 2023-07-06 16:07:38 | 1 | https://www.wane.com/news/crime/courts-convicted-killer-gets-maximum-215-year-prison-sentence/ |
Former Mountaineer Alek Manoah has been tabbed as the Opening Day starter for the Toronto Blue Jays.
The team announced via Twitter Friday that Manoah will serve as the team’s starting pitcher for its first game. It’s a noteworthy honor to be sure, but it’s also unsurprising, following Manoah’s rapid rise in the majors.
The righty is coming off a breakout season in 2022. He appeared in the MLB All-Star game and was a finalist for the Cy Young. Both were firsts in his career.
Manoah finished third in the voting for the Cy Young and is the only former Mountaineer to become a finalist for the award.
In 2022, Manoah produced a 16-7 record as a starter, finishing the season with a 2.24 ERA. He also made his first postseason appearance.
The Blue Jays begin the regular season Thursday, March 30 on the road against St. Louis. | https://www.wowktv.com/goldandbluenation/manoah-to-start-on-opening-day-for-blue-jays/ | 2023-03-24 19:58:33 | 0 | https://www.wowktv.com/goldandbluenation/manoah-to-start-on-opening-day-for-blue-jays/ |
(KTLA/NEXSTAR) — Actor Lance Reddick, perhaps best known for his role on “The Wire,” has died at the age of 60, his representatives confirmed Friday.
“Acclaimed actor Lance Reddick passed away suddenly this morning from natural causes,” his representatives confirmed to Nexstar. “He is survived by his wife Stephanie Reddick and children Yvonne Nicole Reddick and Christopher Reddick… Lance will be greatly missed.”
Reddick had a long career in TV and film, but he will most likely be remembered as Lt. Cedric Daniels on “The Wire,” one of the most critically acclaimed shows of all time.
He also appeared in the “John Wick” franchise and was set to appear as Zeus in next year’s “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” on Disney+.
Tributes poured out for Reddick online after news of his death was made public, including from his “Wire” co-stars.
“A man of great strength and grace,” said Wendell Pierce, who played Detective William “Bunk” Moreland. “As talented a musician as he was an actor. The epitome of class. An sudden unexpected sharp painful grief for our artistic family. An unimaginable suffering for his personal family and loved ones. Godspeed my friend. You made your mark here. RIP.”
Others in the entertainment world also paid compliments to Reddick.
“Lance Reddick was an incredibly nice guy, and an incredibly talented actor. This is heartbreaking. My love goes out to all his family, friends, and collaborators,” director James Gunn tweeted.
Actor, writer and director Ben Stiller also had kind words for Reddick.
“Lance Reddick was an beautiful and compelling actor. And a beautiful person. He worked with my mom Anne Meara in her play ‘Afterplay,’ playing Raziel, the waiter slash angel of death. He was exquisite in that and all he did,” he wrote on Twitter.
“Lance Reddick is the kind of actor that improved every single project just by being there. This loss is immeasurable. May he rest in peace,” added writer and producer BJ Colangelo.
Reddick’s representatives said donations in the actors memory can be made to the mother support resource Mom Cares, an organization out of his hometown, Baltimore. | https://www.ksn.com/entertainment/lance-reddick-of-the-wire-dead-at-60-reports/ | 2023-03-17 21:11:08 | 0 | https://www.ksn.com/entertainment/lance-reddick-of-the-wire-dead-at-60-reports/ |
NATO wrapped up a key summit this week with one new member at the table and two more on the way — a significant expansion of the alliance that, its head says, shows Russia miscalculated when it invaded Ukraine.
"The reality is that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin now is getting the exact opposite of what he wanted when he went to war against Ukraine," says Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, referring to Russia's concerns about NATO expanding eastward. "It was a big strategic failure."
The war was front and center at the gathering in Vilnius, Lithuania, where leaders from NATO's 31 member countries discussed support for Ukraine, national defense spending and the makeup of the alliance itself.
Russia's invasion pushed Finland, Sweden and Ukraine to apply for membership last year, though only Finland met the requirements to join in time for the summit.
Turkey blocked Sweden's bid, saying it wasn't doing enough to crack down on Kurdish militant groups that Turkey considers terrorists. But earlier this week, that stance shifted.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to withdraw his objection Monday after meeting with Stoltenberg and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. He has since said that Turkish lawmakers would take up ratification in October.
"So this is a good day for Sweden and a good day for the whole of NATO," Stoltenberg says, crediting President Biden with making it possible.
Meanwhile NATO members have agreed that Ukraine can only join after the war ends, in part because earlier admission would draw the rest of the alliance into direct conflict with Russia. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy left the summit without receiving a clear timeline for membership, but with pledges for long-term security assistance from the U.S. and other G-7 nations.
Stoltenberg says the summit has moved Ukraine "closer to NATO membership," but hesitated to speculate about its exact path forward.
"The most imminent task now is to ensure that Ukraine prevails as a sovereign, independent nation," he added. "Because unless Ukraine prevails as a democratic nation in Europe, there is no membership issue to be discussed at all."
By the end of the summit, NATO members also had agreed on plans for countering a potential Russian attack on its territory, and had pledged to put at least 2% of their national GDP toward defense spending (expanding on a previous goal that only a handful of countries have met so far).
Stoltenberg spoke to Morning Edition's Steve Inskeep about how the alliance is changing.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Interview highlights
On how NATO regards Turkey
Turkey is a very important ally. They are extremely important in our fight against ISIS ... in Iraq and Syria, the only NATO ally bordering Iraq and Syria. And PKK [the Kurdistan Workers' Party] — it's a terrorist organization in Turkey, but they are also responsible for organized crime in Sweden and in other countries in Europe. So the fact that we now are stepping up our cooperation on fighting terrorist organizations like PKK is important both for Turkey but also for the rest of Europe.
On the significance of Scandinavian countries' membership
It will strengthen NATO. But it's of course also extremely important for the Nordic region, where all our countries are now part of the same security arrangements, are members of NATO, and Sweden soon will be a full member. And by having Finland, NATO's border with Russia is more than doubling ... [Putin] is getting more NATO and more members in NATO.
On what must happen for Ukraine to join
As the situation is in Ukraine now, with a full-fledged war going on, of course that makes it impossible to have Ukraine as a member. Because NATO supports Ukraine, we help them uphold the right for self-defense, but NATO is not directly involved in the conflict. And since NATO is based on the idea of "one for all, all for one" ... we need to find a way to try to make Ukraine a member which doesn't then trigger a full-scale conflict between Russia and NATO.
On NATO's support for Ukraine's counteroffensive
The U.S. has demonstrated leadership, provided [an] unprecedented level of support with ammunition, with advanced weapons systems. And European allies have also stepped up and increased defense spending — record high numbers this year — and also more support for Ukraine. So all our dollars support Ukraine.
The broadcast interview was produced by Naina Rao and Shelby Hawkins, and edited by Arezou Rezvani.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.wdiy.org/npr-news/npr-news/2023-07-13/key-takeaways-from-this-weeks-nato-summit-according-to-the-groups-leader | 2023-07-13 17:02:24 | 1 | https://www.wdiy.org/npr-news/npr-news/2023-07-13/key-takeaways-from-this-weeks-nato-summit-according-to-the-groups-leader |
$2 Million in Seed Grants Available for Community-Led Initiatives
MILWAUKEE, July 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment (AHW) is making $2 million in grant funding available to eligible community-based organizations for projects designed to improve the health and well-being of Wisconsin residents.
The application period for AHW Seed Grant funding opens on Aug. 1 and closes on Sept. 12, 2022. Wisconsin-based 501c3 nonprofit, IRS tax exempt or governmental organizations are eligible for up to $50,000 grant funding to be used for direct, project-specific expenses. Organizations applying for AHW Seed Grants must do so jointly with an eligible Medical College of Wisconsin academic partner.
"Effectively addressing Wisconsin's health challenges requires local insight, ingenuity, and action," said AHW Director Jesse Ehrenfeld, MD, MPH. "Community-based organizations throughout Wisconsin are in the best position to identify opportunities for improving the health of their populations and to form the necessary partnerships and programs to make meaningful public health improvements."
AHW Seed Grants fuel the development of new approaches, ideas and collaborations to address Wisconsin's health challenges. Successful applicants will clearly identify a health need or an immediate gap in knowledge or practice and propose project methods to test novel approaches to address the gap and inform future efforts to impact the health need. At the conclusion of the AHW award, projects will be poised to continue, scale, or replicate successful practices, achieving long-term, positive impact on health and health equity.
AHW will host an informational webinar for community-based organizations interested in learning more about Seed Grant funding on Tuesday, Aug. 2, at 10 a.m. Those interested in attending can register here. The informational webinar will be recorded and posted to the AHW website. More information about funding requirements and an application form are accessible from the AHW Funding Opportunities page.
About the Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment
The Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment (AHW) is a statewide health philanthropy established by the Medical College of Wisconsin to steward a generous financial gift from Blue Cross & Blue Shield United of Wisconsin. Since 2004, AHW has invested more than $336 million in more than 570 health research, workforce development, and community health initiatives statewide. Learn more at www.ahwendowment.org.
View original content:
SOURCE Medical College of Wisconsin | https://www.wsaz.com/prnewswire/2022/07/28/ahw-invites-applications-health-improvement-project-funding/ | 2022-07-28 16:05:58 | 1 | https://www.wsaz.com/prnewswire/2022/07/28/ahw-invites-applications-health-improvement-project-funding/ |
ROME (AP) — Officials at the Catholic shrine in Lourdes announced the creation of a study group Friday to decide what to do with one of the French sanctuary’s most famous but now controversial attractions: mosaics by a Jesuit artist who has been sanctioned by the Vatican and his religious order for sexually, spiritually and psychologically abusing women.
The Rev. Marko Ivan Rupnik designed the facade of one of the three basilicas at Lourdes with a series of mosaics in 2008 to mark the 150th anniversary of the Marian apparitions that turned the shrine in southwest France into one of the world’s biggest pilgrimage sites, attracting around 3 million visitors a year.
In December, the Jesuits revealed that Rupnik had been declared excommunicated by the Vatican in 2020 for committing one of the worst crimes in church law — using the confessional to absolve a woman with whom he had engaged in sexual activity — and had also been accused by nine women of related sexual, spiritual and psychological misconduct in the 1980s.
The Vatican’s sex abuse office, which is headed by Jesuits, decided their claims were too old to prosecute. Amid an outcry and testimony from 15 more people, the Jesuits in February announced a new internal canonical inquiry while toughening sanctions against Rupnik, including preventing him from continuing his artistic activity, since that was presumably where some of the abuse originated.
Aside from posing questions about how the Jesuits and the Vatican handled the allegations, the Rupnik scandal has prompted a broader question about what to do with his art, since his mosaics decorate important basilicas, shrines, chapels and churches around the globe, including one of the chapels inside the Apostolic Palace.
On Friday, Bishop Jean-Marc Micas, whose diocese includes Lourdes, announced the creation of a study group to consider what to do with the Basilica of the Rosary mosaics, placing the needs of abuse survivors first. Nothing is being ruled out, he said in a statement.
“Lourdes is a place where many victims come … to seek consolation and healing. Their distress is great in front of the Rev. Rupnik’s mosaics in this same place: We cannot ignore it,” he said in a statement.
In an earlier interview with French Catholic La Vie, Micas said he and the shrine had received letters from abuse victims from around the world seeking a “gesture” from Lourdes. They described Rupnik’s mosaics there as an additional source of pain as they seek healing from their abuse.
“If this place, by displaying these works, increases the suffering of people who come there to be healed, this is not possible,” Micas told La Vie.
The study group includes the bishop, the rector of the shrine, a survivor of abuse, an expert in sacred art and a psychotherapist. They will come up with the elements necessary to decide what to do with the mosaics, with all options on the table, the statement said.
The status of the Slovenian-born Rupnik’s status remains somewhat in limbo as the Jesuits’ canonical investigation plays out, even as they have received more complaints against him, Rupnik’s superior, the Rev. Johan Verschueren, told The Associated Press in an email Friday.
“Every week one or two new testimonies knock at our door,” he said. “We get ever more, a clear and a comprehensive view of what happened in the past and what is the real nature and size of the case.”
While Lourdes is the first major basilica to publicly announce a review of Rupnik’s artistic works, other church entities have taken their distance. The diocese of Versailles, which is home to a church decorated with Rupnik mosaics, terminated all collaboration with him in December.
Recently, the religious publisher San Paolo removed Rupnik’s books from prominent display at its store near the Vatican, though his coffee table books, calendars and books on spirituality are available on the website of the Centro Aletti art studio and ecumenical center in Rome that Rupnik founded. | https://www.ksn.com/news/national-world/ap-international/lourdes-shrine-reviewing-mosaics-after-jesuit-abuse-claims/ | 2023-04-01 16:19:19 | 0 | https://www.ksn.com/news/national-world/ap-international/lourdes-shrine-reviewing-mosaics-after-jesuit-abuse-claims/ |
___
- MPD: More human remains found in east Midland
- Video: Bobcat perched on Texas family's backyard fence
- Tall City Bagel crowdfunding for brick-and-mortar
- Midland ISD presents 2023-24 school calendar drafts
- Midland park ponds restocked with trout
- Shortage of officials impacting basketball games across Basin
- Photos: H-E-B set to open with new concept and design in February
- Musical performers and upcoming events happening in Midland
Most Popular
More from MRT
- Opinion: Most of the mass tort lawsuits today are simply orchestrated campaigns that aim to...
- Opinion: Every child deserves access to a school that meets their needs
- Natural gas producers and providers have a full plate this year, from emissions to permitting...
- "The state could be stronger,” said Mike Sommers, president and chief executive officer of the...
- Pfluger: Republicans voted to pass two strong pro-life initiatives, including the Born-Alive...
- The Midland High boys soccer team remained unbeaten with a 3-0 shutout of Grapevine during the...
- The Trinity boys basketball team won its second home game in consecutive days with a 52-41...
- More human remains were found Saturday in an east Midland location, according to Midland police.
- Here is the Building Permit report from the City of Midland for Dec. 19-Jan. 6.
- Texas RRCD 7C Concho County Henderson Natural Resources LLCWeishuhn #1Wildcat; 2500 fwl, 990... | https://www.mrt.com/sports/article/Atlanta-Hawks-Stax-17720831.php | 2023-01-16 15:58:40 | 1 | https://www.mrt.com/sports/article/Atlanta-Hawks-Stax-17720831.php |
Ironman, Art Fair bring road, park closures in Salem this weekend
City of Salem officials are warning residents and visitors to expect multiple, temporary road and park closures due to two of major events Friday through Sunday.
The third Ironman 70.3 Oregon returns Sunday. The event will host thousands of athletes from around the world. It consists of a 1.2-mile downriver swim in the Willamette River, 56-mile bike ride along River Road to the Ankeny Natural Wildlife Refuge and a 13.1-mile run through Minto-Brown Island Park.
Several road closures are planned Sunday along River Road South from Riverfront Park in downtown Salem and south toward Riverside Street.
Riverfront Park also will have some parking restrictions and limited access to the park as the Ironman crew sets up in advance for the event.
The route from Riverfront Park on Front Street SE, Commercial Street SE, Mission Street SE, Saginaw Street S, Owens Street S and River Road S toward the Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge and back will face closures.
City officials said information is being sent to residents that live along the racecourse and signs will be posted to warn drivers of the potential traffic impacts that may occur throughout the day. They advised attendees to find more information about parking downtown online at cityofsalem.net/community/neighborhoods/parking/where-to-park/find-free-parking-in-downtown-salem.
Attendees will be able to gather at Riverfront Park to cheer on participants but will not be able to travel over the Peter Courtney Minto Island bridge that connects Riverfront to Minto.
The bridge will be closed Sunday to everyone except competitors, emergency personnel and event staff.
Those with questions concerning race day road or park closures can reach out to the city's Dispatch Center at 503-588-6311.
The 74th annual Salem Art Fair & Festival opens Friday for the weekend. Temporary closures will be in place on Northbound High Street between Bush Street and Miller Street SE while organizers clear out of Bush's Pasture Park from from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday.
Due to traffic and parking Sunday from Ironman, art fair attendees are encouraged to use 12th Street SE and avoid lane closures on Front Street and Commercial Street.
For questions, comments and news tips, email reporter Whitney Woodworth at wmwoodworth@statesmanjournal.com, call 503-910-6616 or follow on Twitter at @wmwoodworth | https://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/local/2023/07/20/ironman-art-fair-bring-road-park-closures-salem-oregon/70439051007/ | 2023-07-20 21:50:30 | 0 | https://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/local/2023/07/20/ironman-art-fair-bring-road-park-closures-salem-oregon/70439051007/ |
RENTON — To Pete Carroll, Ken Walker is a reason to get excited.
Sure, the Seahawks’ rushing game has been poor, combining for 112 total yards over the first two weeks of the season, including just 36 on Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers. But this week Carroll hopes for some big improvement.
The alway-optimistic Seahawks coach enthusiastically spoke about Walker, a rookie running back who is finally fully recovered from hernia surgery and primed for a larger workload in the coming weeks.
Seahawks fans got their first look at Walker last week, as the speedy second-round draft made his NFL debut in Seattle’s 27-7 loss in Santa Clara, California.
It wasn’t a big day statistically for Walker, who carried just four times for 10 yards, but Carroll said this week on Seattle Sports 710 AM that Walker will see more action in the weeks to come.
“Doggone it, we didn’t get to see him,” Carroll said. “We’ll see him, it’ll happen. We didn’t make enough space for him. He’s going to be an exciting football player for us.”
Walker is penciled in as starter Rashaad Penny’s backup. For some players, going from star running back in college to RB2 in the NFL might lead to some hard feelings, but not for Walker.
He’s been a backup before, and he did just fine.
Walker didn’t get the starting snaps in his first two college seasons at Wake Forest but managed to twice rushing for 579 yards as the Demon Deacons’ secondary option, first behind Cade Carney and then behind Christian Beal-Smith.
When he finally got the chance to be the starter after transferring to Michigan State for his junior season, Walker exploded for 1,636 yards and 18 rushing touchdowns. He also won the Doak Walker Award as the nation’s top running back, and the 2021 Walter Camp Player of the Year Award.
Give him a chance, and Walker will take advantage.
“There’s nothing that Ken can’t do,” Carroll said. “ … There are really no restrictions on his play at all other than just getting back into game shape, because he hasn’t played in a while. The fact that he made it through the game, and he felt all right and got hit a couple times and all that, that just helps us progress. He’ll be calling for a regular workload as we are going forward.”
Walker is eager to help improve a disappointing start to the season for the team’s running backs, a position group expected to be among the Seahawks’ stronger units.
Through the first two weeks, Seattle ranks last in the NFL in rushing yards.
“If we get our run game going, I believe we can make a big impact,” Walker said. “ … I think that can make a big difference in the passing game as well. It could open it up, and I think we can do both. We’re a balanced offense.”
Walker has had to adjust on and off the field, from to the speed of the NFL to life in the Northwest.
Being a native of Arlington, Tennessee, near Memphis, Walker had never been on a boat before taking a Seattle’s water taxi this summer. He’s been too busy to explore other Seattle’s tourist attractions, but he has grown to appreciate the state’s natural beauty and potential for outdoor activities.
“I went jet skiing, too,” Walker said. “I love jet skiing.”
He also has quickly learned to appreciate the 12s.
Sunday will be his home debut, but Walker saw the spectacle from the sideline for the Sept. 12 opener against the Broncos. He is excited to finally show off his skills in front of a new fan base.
“I loved it at [Michigan] State,” Walker said. “The fans, they always showed me so much love. They showed our team so much love. … And when I got here, actually being on the field at the stadium, and seeing how loud the fans are and how loyal the fans are, it’s pretty cool to see. It’s exciting.”
While Seahawks fans haven’t gotten the chance to see the full scope of Walker’s talent yet, his teammates are impressed.
“That kid is explosive,” quarterback Geno Smith said. “I mean, super explosive, he runs hard, he’s quick, shifty, all the things you look for in a great back. I think he’s got the potential to be a really good back, and as he gets going along, and as Rashaad gets going along and [Travis] Homer and DeeJay [Dallas], it can be special. It really can be.” | https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/seahawks/seahawks-ken-walker-hopes-to-provide-needed-boost-to-run-game/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_seahawks | 2022-09-24 13:17:33 | 0 | https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/seahawks/seahawks-ken-walker-hopes-to-provide-needed-boost-to-run-game/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_seahawks |
SYDNEY (AP) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi struck new agreements Wednesday with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese on migration and green hydrogen, while raising concerns about attacks on Hindu temples in Sydney.
Modi was welcomed Tuesday by around 20,000 cheering fans, many chanting “Modi,” at a Sydney stadium for his second visit to Australia as India’s leader.
But his visit has also been protested by activists who accuse his government of restricting Muslim and other minorities’ rights, as well as press freedom. Anti-Modi posters appeared around Sydney, and Hindu temples in Sydney’s west were recently vandalized. Sikhs have also used the visit to demand a separate state.
Modi, a Hindu, said he had raised the issue of attacks on temples with Albanese, who assured him that authorities would take “strict actions” against the culprits.
“We will not accept any elements that harm the friendly and warm ties between India and Australia by their actions or thoughts,” Modi told reporters through an interpreter in a joint press conference with Albanese. Neither leader took questions.
The Indian diaspora accounts for only 3% of Australia’s population but is the nation’s fastest growing ethnic minority. Modi described the diaspora as the real strength in the growing bilateral relationship.
Modi is the only leader of the Quad nations to continue with his scheduled visit to Australia after U.S. President Joe Biden pulled out of a planned meeting of the group in Sydney to return to Washington to focus on debt limit talks. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who hosted a Group of Seven summit last week, later canceled his Australia trip as well.
Modi arrived Monday night in Sydney from Papua New Guinea, where he hosted a meeting with Pacific Island leaders to discuss ways to better cooperate.
Modi and Albanese’s meeting Wednesday “reinforced their commitment to an open, prosperous and secure” Indo-Pacific region, the Australian prime minister’s office said in a statement.
The prime ministers announced a new migration agreement that will promote two-way mobility of students, graduates, academic researchers and business people. They also agreed on the terms of reference on a bilateral Green Hydrogen Task Force that will promote cooperation on producing the gas without use of fossil fuels.
The leaders said they expect to complete negotiations on a free trade deal before the end of the year. They also announced new diplomatic posts in Bengaluru, India, and Brisbane, Australia.
Modi last visited Australia in November 2014, just months after his government was first elected.
___
McGuirk contributed from Canberra, Australia. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-indian-prime-minister-modi-strikes-new-agreements-on-migration-and-green-hydrogen-in-australia/ | 2023-05-24 12:09:45 | 0 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/international/ap-indian-prime-minister-modi-strikes-new-agreements-on-migration-and-green-hydrogen-in-australia/ |
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully, whose dulcet tones provided the soundtrack of summer while entertaining and informing Dodgers fans in Brooklyn and Los Angeles for 67 years, died Tuesday night, the team said. He was 94.
Scully died at his home in the Hidden Hills section of Los Angeles, according to the team, which spoke to family members.
As the longest tenured broadcaster with a single team in pro sports history, Scully saw it all and called it all. He began in the 1950s era of Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson, on to the 1960s with Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax, into the 1970s with Steve Garvey and Don Sutton, and through the 1980s with Orel Hershiser and Fernando Valenzuela. In the 1990s, it was Mike Piazza and Hideo Nomo, followed by Clayton Kershaw, Manny Ramirez and Yasiel Puig in the 21st century.
The Dodgers changed players, managers, executives, owners — and even coasts — but Scully and his soothing, insightful style remained a constant for the fans.
He opened broadcasts with the familiar greeting, “Hi, everybody, and a very pleasant good evening to you wherever you may be.”
Ever gracious both in person and on the air, Scully considered himself merely a conduit between the game and the fans.
Although he was paid by the Dodgers, Scully was unafraid to criticize a bad play or a manager’s decision, or praise an opponent while spinning stories against a backdrop of routine plays and noteworthy achievements. He always said he wanted to see things with his eyes, not his heart.
Vincent Edward Scully was born Nov. 29, 1927, in the Bronx. He was the son of a silk salesman who died of pneumonia when Scully was 7. His mother moved the family to Brooklyn, where the red-haired, blue-eyed Scully grew up playing stickball in the streets.
As a child, Scully would grab a pillow, put it under the family’s four-legged radio and lay his head directly under the speaker to hear whatever college football game was on the air. With a snack of saltine crackers and a glass of milk nearby, the boy was transfixed by the crowd’s roar that raised goosebumps. He thought he’d like to call the action himself.
Scully, who played outfield for two years on the Fordham University baseball team, began his career by working baseball, football and basketball games for the university’s radio station.
At age 22, he was hired by a CBS radio affiliate in Washington, D.C.
He soon joined Hall of Famer Red Barber and Connie Desmond in the Brooklyn Dodgers’ radio and television booths. In 1953, at age 25, Scully became the youngest person to broadcast a World Series game, a mark that still stands.
He moved west with the Dodgers in 1958. Scully called three perfect games — Don Larsen in the 1956 World Series, Sandy Koufax in 1965 and Dennis Martinez in 1991 — and 18 no-hitters.
He also was on the air when Don Drysdale set his scoreless innings streak of 58 2/3 innings in 1968 and again when Hershiser broke the record with 59 consecutive scoreless innings 20 years later.
When Hank Aaron hit his 715th home run to break Babe Ruth’s record in 1974, it was against the Dodgers and, of course, Scully called it.
“A Black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol,” Scully told listeners. “What a marvelous moment for baseball.”
Scully credited the birth of the transistor radio as “the greatest single break” of his career. Fans had trouble recognizing the lesser players during the Dodgers’ first four years in the vast Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
“They were 70 or so odd rows away from the action,” he said in 2016. “They brought the radio to find out about all the other players and to see what they were trying to see down on the field.”
That habit carried over when the team moved to Dodger Stadium in 1962. Fans held radios to their ears, and those not present listened from home or the car, allowing Scully to connect generations of families with his words.
He often said it was best to describe a big play quickly and then be quiet so fans could listen to the pandemonium. After Koufax’s perfect game in 1965, Scully went silent for 38 seconds before talking again. He was similarly silent for a time after Kirk Gibson’s pinch-hit home run to win Game 1 of the 1988 World Series.
He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame that year, and also had the stadium’s press box named for him in 2001. The street leading to Dodger Stadium’s main gate was named in his honor in 2016.
That same year he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama.
“God has been so good to me to allow me to do what I’m doing,” Scully, a devout Catholic who attended mass on Sundays before heading to the ballpark, said before retiring. “A childhood dream that came to pass and then giving me 67 years to enjoy every minute of it. That’s a pretty large thanksgiving day for me.”
In addition to being the voice of the Dodgers, Scully called play-by-play for NFL games and PGA Tour events as well as calling 25 World Series and 12 All-Star Games. He was NBC’s lead baseball announcer from 1983-89.
While being one of the most widely heard broadcasters in the nation, Scully was an intensely private man. Once the baseball season ended, he would disappear. He rarely did personal appearances or sports talk shows. He preferred spending time with his family.
In 1972, his first wife, Joan, died of an accidental overdose of medicine. He was left with three young children. Two years later, he met the woman who would become his second wife, Sandra, a secretary for the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams. She had two young children from a previous marriage, and they combined their families into what Scully once called “my own Brady Bunch.”
He said he realized time was the most precious thing in the world and that he wanted to use his time to spend with his loved ones. In the early 1960s, Scully quit smoking with the help of his family. In the shirt pocket where he kept a pack of cigarettes, Scully stuck a family photo. Whenever he felt like he needed a smoke, he pulled out the photo to remind him why he quit. Eight months later, Scully never smoked again.
After retiring in 2016, Scully made just a handful of appearances at Dodger Stadium and his sweet voice was heard narrating an occasional video played during games. Mostly, he was content to stay close to home.
“I just want to be remembered as a good man, an honest man, and one who lived up to his own beliefs,” he said in 2016.
In 2020, Scully auctioned off years of his personal memorabilia, which raised over $2 million. A portion of it was donated to UCLA for ALS research.
He was preceded in death by his second wife, Sandra. She died of complications of ALS at age 76 in 2021. The couple, who were married 47 years, had daughter Catherine together.
Scully’s other children are Kelly, Erin, Todd and Kevin. A son, Michael, died in a helicopter crash in 1994.
___
Former Associated Press staffer Stan Miller contributed biographical information to this report.
___
More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sport | https://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Vin-Scully-Dodgers-broadcaster-for-67-years-17347240.php | 2022-08-03 03:58:49 | 1 | https://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Vin-Scully-Dodgers-broadcaster-for-67-years-17347240.php |
NASA’s 1st moon crew in 50 years includes 1 woman, 3 men
(AP) - NASA on Monday named the four astronauts who will fly to the moon by the end of next year, including one woman and three men.
The four were introduced during a televised ceremony from Houston, home to the nation’s astronauts as well as Mission Control.
“This is humanity’s crew,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
The three Americans and one Canadian will be the first to fly NASA’s Orion capsule, launching atop a Space Launch System rocket from Kennedy Space Center no earlier than late 2024. They will not land or even go into lunar orbit, but rather fly around the moon and head straight back to Earth, a prelude to a lunar landing by two others a year later.
The mission’s commander, Reid Wiseman, will be joined by Victor Glover, an African American naval aviator; Christina Koch, who holds the world record for the longest spaceflight by a woman; and Canada’s Jeremy Hansen. All are space veterans expect Hansen.
“This is a big day. We have a lot to celebrate and it’s so much more than the four names that have been announced,” said Glover.
This is the first moon crew to include a woman and someone not from the U.S. — and the first crew in NASA’s new moon program named Artemis. Late last year, an empty Orion capsule flew to the moon and back in a long-awaited dress rehearsal.
During Apollo, NASA sent 24 astronauts to the moon from 1968 through 1972. Twelve of them landed. All were military-trained test pilots except for Apollo 17′s Harrison Schmitt, a geologist who closed out that moonlanding era alongside the late Gene Cernan.
Provided this next 10-day moonshot goes well, NASA aims to land two astronauts on the moon by 2025 or so.
NASA picked from 41 active astronauts for its first Artemis crew. Canada had four candidates.
___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.wbtv.com/2023/04/03/nasas-1st-moon-crew-50-years-includes-1-woman-3-men/ | 2023-04-03 17:32:07 | 0 | https://www.wbtv.com/2023/04/03/nasas-1st-moon-crew-50-years-includes-1-woman-3-men/ |
Former President Donald Trump announced that two of his top attorneys, Jim Trusty and John Rowley, have resigned less than a day after news broke that Trump faces a federal indictment.
The news was a surprise, as Trusty made several national news appearances late Thursday and Friday morning. Trump said that Todd Blanche and a firm to be named later will represent him moving forward.
“I want to thank Jim Trusty and John Rowley for their work, but they were up against a very dishonest, corrupt, evil, and 'sick' group of people, the likes of which has not been seen before.” Trump saidon his Truth Social account.
Trusty spent the last day staunchly defending Trump’s innocence. The case involves Trump’s handling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence. Last August, officials said federal agents seized dozens of classified documents, some being top secret, from his residence.
“This morning we tendered our resignations as counsel to President Trump, and we will no longer represent him on either the indicted case or the January 6 investigation,” Trusty and Rowley said in a joint statement. “It has been an honor to have spent the last year defending him, and we know he will be vindicated in his battle against the Biden Administration’s partisan weaponization of the American justice system.”
SEE MORE: Why prosecutors are choosing South Florida to try Donald Trump
While Trump has not denied having the documents, he has claimed the documents were declared unclassified before he left office.
"I know all attorneys go on the air and say my client's innocent and then after the trial, we're going to win the appeal. Well, here, he is innocent. I mean, everything about this case is absolutely rotten,” Trusty told CNN late Thursday. “The misconduct that we've documented for an attorney general who hides behind Jack Smith."
Smith is the independent special counsel selected by the Justice Department to oversee the case.
Trending stories at Scrippsnews.com | https://www.ksby.com/trump-attorneys-resign-as-the-former-president-faces-indictment | 2023-06-09 17:35:02 | 0 | https://www.ksby.com/trump-attorneys-resign-as-the-former-president-faces-indictment |
By STAN CHOE
AP Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks fell on Wall Street, posting their biggest drop in four weeks, after another reading on inflation came in hotter than expected. The S&P 500 fell 1.4% Thursday after inflation at the wholesale level slowed by less than economists forecast last month. Treasury yields rose as traders upped their bets for how high the Federal Reserve will raise rates to combat inflation. Higher rates hurt the economy and weigh on financial markets. A suite of mixed data on the economy also chipped away at hopes that the Fed could get inflation to continue to come down without creating a severe recession.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
NEW YORK (AP) — Another reading showing inflation remains hotter than feared rattled Wall Street further on Thursday.
The S&P 500 was 1% lower in late trading following a report that showed inflation at the wholesale level slowed by less last month than economists forecast. It echoed a report on prices at the consumer level from earlier this week that suggested inflation isn’t cooling as quickly and as smoothly as hoped.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 260 points, or 0.8%, at 33,866, as of 3:23 p.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was 1.2% lower.
Stocks have been churning recently as worries about sticky inflation joust against data suggesting the economy remains more resilient than feared. The worry has been that persistently high inflation will push the Federal Reserve to get even more aggressive on interest rates. Higher rates can drive down inflation but also drag on investment prices and raise the risk of a serious recession.
Such fears have been most clear in the bond market, where yields have leaped this month as traders up their bets for how high the Fed will take interest rates this year.
The yield on the two-year Treasury, which tends to track expectations for Fed action, rose to 4.65% from less than 4.60% before the inflation report’s release and from less than 4.10% earlier this month. It’s near its highest level since November, when the yield reached levels last seen in 2007.
Thursday’s report showed that prices at the wholesale level were 6% higher last month than a year earlier. While that was a slowdown from December’s 6.5% inflation rate, it was worse than the 5.4% that economists expected to see. Perhaps more concerning was that inflation accelerated in January on a month-to-month basis even after stripping out prices for food, energy and other layers.
The inflation report thudded onto Wall Street along with a batch of other data painting a mixed picture of the economy.
Fewer workers applied for jobless benefits last week than expected, a sign that layoffs remain low across the economy. That’s good news for workers and another signal of strength for the job market, but the Fed worries it could also add upward pressure on inflation.
Other reports showed a measure of manufacturing activity in the mid-Atlantic region plunged this month, while homebuilders broke ground on fewer homes last month than economists expected.
Altogether, the reports cast some doubt on Wall Street’s hopes that the Federal Reserve could pull off the tightrope walk of slowing the economy just enough to stamp out inflation but not so much that it creates a severe recession. But hopes for a “soft landing” for the economy nevertheless remain firmly in the market, with the S&P 500 still up 7% for the year.
“I would go further and say ‘no landing,’” said Nate Thooft, senior portfolio manager at Manulife Investment Management. “It’s almost as if there’s no softness perceived, or it’s so minimal that it’s not really viewed as recessionary at all.”
Those hopes have helped the stock market remain resilient even as the bond market moves sharply on expectations for a firmer Fed.
Thooft said there’s a chance both markets could ultimately be proven correct, that the Fed could keep rates higher for longer while the economy avoids a recession, but he’s skeptical. He thinks what’s more likely is a shallow recession or slowdown in growth, but one that lasts longer than markets may be prepared for.
Recently, he was thinking weakness in the economy could last a few months. But his expectations for a “higher-for-longer” Fed have him now thinking it may even last up to a year.
The Fed has already hiked its key overnight rate up to a range of 4.50% to 4.75%, up from basically zero a year ago. It has said that it expects to push through a couple more increases before holding rates at a high level at least through the end of this year.
The strong recent reports on inflation and the job market have forced Wall Street to align its forecasts for rates closer to the Fed’s. Earlier this year, there was a wide disconnect between them. Investors were betting the Fed wouldn’t go as high as it was saying, while also holding out significant hopes for a cut to rates in the latter part of the year.
The fear now is that if inflation proves sticker than expected that the Fed will have to go beyond what it’s been prepping the market for.
Loretta Mester, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, said in a speech Thursday that she saw “a compelling economic case” at the Fed’s meeting earlier this month to raise rates by double what it ended up doing. .
Some stocks on Wall Street were able to buck the overall downward trend after reporting stronger earnings for the latest quarter than expected. Networking giant Cisco Systems rose 5.8%, for example.
Big tech stocks were helping to lead the overall market lower, though, because they’re seen as some of the most vulnerable to higher interest rates. In earlier years, their stocks shot higher in part because of record-low interest rates.
A 2.1% fall for Microsoft and 2.5% drop for Nvidia were some of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500.
___
AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. | https://wtmj.com/national/2023/02/16/us-stocks-drop-as-inflation-remains-stubbornly-hot/ | 2023-02-18 21:00:21 | 0 | https://wtmj.com/national/2023/02/16/us-stocks-drop-as-inflation-remains-stubbornly-hot/ |
The world's largest gathering of Apache Cassandra® community members features 60 sessions showcasing how organizations everywhere are bridging Cassandra to the future.
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 18, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, today announced the full schedule for Cassandra Summit, a 2-day conference focused on Apache Cassandra®, the massively scalable open source NoSQL distributed database. The event is taking place March 13-14 in San Jose, CA and virtually. The schedule can be viewed here.
Cassandra Summit is where the industry connects to share best practices and use cases, celebrate makers and users, forge critical relationships, and learn about advancements in Apache Cassandra and the ecosystem driving today's open source data infrastructure. The event will feature a robust program of 60 sessions, covering a wide range of topics including developing applications with Cassandra, cloud-native deployments and strategies, what's coming for future Cassandra versions, and much more.
- Apache Cassandra: What's New and What's Next - Scott Andreas, Apple, Inc.
- Journey for Modernizing Traditional Banking with Online Data Platform - Suvarna Potdar & Dean Chen, U.S. Bank
- Code That Can't Fail, Backed by Cassandra - Loren Sands-Ramshaw, Temporal
- K8ssandra: External Secrets Backend - Steven Seidman, Datadog
- Cassandra on ACID: This Changes Everything - Patrick McFadin, DataStax
- Securing Multi-Cluster Cassandra Deployments - Jiong Liu, Wiz
Keynote speakers will be announced in the coming weeks.
Registration (in-person) is offered at the early price of US$499 through January 28. Registration to attend virtually is $40. Members of The Linux Foundation receive a 20 percent discount off registration and can contact events@linuxfoundation.org to request a member discount code.
Applications for diversity and need-based scholarships are currently being accepted. For information on eligibility and how to apply, please click here. The Linux Foundation's Travel Fund is also accepting applications, with the goal of enabling open source developers and community members to attend events that they would otherwise be unable to attend due to a lack of funding. To learn more and apply, please click here.
Cassandra Summit 2023 is made possible thanks to our sponsors, including Diamond Sponsor: DataStax, Platinum Sponsor: Azul, Gold Sponsor: AxonOps, and Silver Sponsors: Lightbits and Portworx. For information on becoming an event sponsor, click here or email us.
Members of the press who would like to request a press pass to attend should contact Kristin O'Connell.
Founded in 2000, the Linux Foundation and its projects are supported by more than 2,950 members. The Linux Foundation is the world's leading home for collaboration on open source software, hardware, standards, and data. Linux Foundation projects are critical to the world's infrastructure including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, ONAP, PyTorch, RISC-V, SPDX, OpenChain, and more. The Linux Foundation focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users, and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit us at linuxfoundation.org.
The Linux Foundation Events are where the world's leading technologists meet, collaborate, learn and network in order to advance innovations that support the world's largest shared technologies.
Visit our website and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook for all the latest event updates and announcements.
The Linux Foundation has registered trademarks and uses trademarks. For a list of trademarks of The Linux Foundation, please see its trademark usage page: www.linuxfoundation.org/trademark-usage. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
Media Contact
Kristin O'Connell
The Linux Foundation
koconnell@linuxfoundation.org
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE The Linux Foundation | https://www.wlbt.com/prnewswire/2023/01/18/linux-foundation-announces-conference-schedule-cassandra-summit-2023/ | 2023-01-18 14:41:16 | 0 | https://www.wlbt.com/prnewswire/2023/01/18/linux-foundation-announces-conference-schedule-cassandra-summit-2023/ |
SACRAMENTO, Calif., Jan. 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Conception Nurseries announces the addition of industry veteran Kristian Andreassen to their leadership team as Senior Product Director. Andreassen will support Conception's initiative to build a diverse group of cannabis breeders to meet the needs of an ever-expanding cannabis market.
Andreassen's decade-plus expertise spans breeding, commercial cultivation, and brand development, garnering numerous Emerald Cup and High Times awards for flower, pre-rolls, concentrates, and genetics. He is a respected fixture of the cannabis industry thanks to a long track record of working with breeders through the medium of tissue culture. He is widely acknowledged to be a pioneer of cannabis tissue culture, introducing stable, high demand genetics to the commercial cannabis marketplace.
"Kristian's value to the industry can't be understated. He is an incredibly well respected and award-winning breeder with unparalleled cannabis tissue culture experience. We are absolutely thrilled to have him partner with other elite breeders while bringing to life one of the most dynamic menus in cannabis".
Conception's leadership in modeling genetic licensing and distribution for the breeders they work with has created a uniquely diverse menu that supports the changing market demands for strain profiles. The royalty structure ensures that cannabis breeders continue to create high quality strains into the future.
"There's nobody I would trust more than Kristian to take the lead on working with cannabis breeders across the U.S.," said Tawnie Scarborough, leading national expansion for Conception Nurseries.
The cannabis industry continues to face rising issues with diseased plants and weakened genetics getting into the market. Andreassen is excited to align with Conception as they are uniquely positioned as the market leader in offering clean plants with an expansive library of genetics for cultivators at scale.
"There is nothing else in the market like what has been assembled at Conception Nurseries. Every day I'm more impressed with how this team balances science, culture, business, and the art of cannabis. I think we're going to make a big splash in the market with this group," said Andreassen.
ABOUT CONCEPTION NURSERIES
Conception Nurseries is an agriculture-technology company solving cannabis cultivators' problems with tissue culture technology. Conception produces performance tested, genetically identical, and healthy plantlets, reducing cultivators' operational risks and costs while increasing their production predictability and revenue, delivering a dependable end-user experience. For more information, visit conceptionnurseries.com. (CA license numbers CCL19-0004127 and C13-0000182-LIC)
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Conception Nurseries | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2023/01/04/renowned-cannabis-cultivator-kristian-andreassen-joins-conception-nurseries/ | 2023-01-04 17:11:05 | 0 | https://www.ktre.com/prnewswire/2023/01/04/renowned-cannabis-cultivator-kristian-andreassen-joins-conception-nurseries/ |
At 15576 SE 135th Ave., Suite A
CLACKAMAS, Ore., Aug. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- BenchMark Physical Therapy opened an outpatient clinic today at 15576 SE 135th Ave., Suite A.
The clinic is open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to noon Friday. To make an appointment, call 503-339-1616 or visit benchmarkpt.com.
BenchMark operates a half-dozen clinics within 10 miles of Clackamas and has nearly 40 locations throughout Oregon.
BenchMark offers in-clinic and telehealth options for outpatient orthopedic physical therapy, including manual therapy, injury prevention, return to performance, total joint replacement, concussion management and vestibular rehabilitation programs.
Clinic director Melissa Clay has a master's degree in physical therapy from Georgia State University and a transitional doctor of physical therapy degree from Shenandoah University.
Clay is an orthopedic manual therapist and a certified athletic trainer. She is certified in dry needling and is a certified physical capacity evaluator; she is trained in selective functional movement assessments and functional movement screens; and she specializes in general orthopedic conditions, sports injuries, injured workers, physical capacity evaluations, vestibular rehabilitation and post-operative conditions.
BenchMark, part of the Upstream Rehabilitation family of clinical care, offers access to care within 24 hours and works with all insurance types.
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Upstream Rehabilitation | https://www.kxii.com/prnewswire/2022/08/01/benchmark-physical-therapy-opens-outpatient-clinic-clackamas-ore/ | 2022-08-01 15:59:21 | 0 | https://www.kxii.com/prnewswire/2022/08/01/benchmark-physical-therapy-opens-outpatient-clinic-clackamas-ore/ |
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The end of the World Golf Championships was a matter of time, especially with the arrival next year of smaller fields and enormous prize money for the elite players.
What stings is losing the Match Play.
The tournament began in 1999 at La Costa in California. If that seems like a long time ago, consider that Tiger Woods had only one major when he beat six-time major champion Nick Faldo in the opening round. “I'm not going to feel sorry for him. He's had his chances to win tournaments,” Woods said. He was 23 and already ruthless.
The final version takes place this week at Austin Country Club. It has moved to five other courses and the format has switched from single elimination to group play. What hasn't changed are memories that have left a mark on the most fickle event in golf.
___
Gene Sarazen was 97 and watching from his home in Florida when Jeff Maggert won the inaugural event in 38 holes. It reminded Sarazen of his 1923 PGA Championship win over Walter Hagen.
"I went 38 holes with Hagen, just like Jeff Maggert went 38 holes with ... what was the name of the player he beat?” he asked.
The Squire could remember details from a match 76 years earlier, but he couldn't remember the previous day's runner-up. That was Andrew Magee. And it was the first indication the Match Play rarely went according to plan.
The seeds of the first four champions sounded like a lottery drawing: 24, 19, 55, 62.
___
Stephen Ames had his clubs shipped to Tucson, Arizona, for an opposite-field event in 2006, but then he got into the Match Play when Thomas Bjorn withdrew. He was on the range at La Costa with a set of backup clubs when two reporters approached and asked him about having to play Woods, the No. 1 seed, in the opening round.
“Anything can happen, especially where he’s hitting the ball," Ames said with a smile. He quickly pointed at the reporters to make clear he was joking, yet sensing this was not going to be received very well.
Ames was on the receiving end two days later. Woods beat him, 9 and 8.
___
Match Play moved to Dove Mountain in the high desert of Arizona the following year. Ames, the No. 39 seed in 2007, played Robert Karlsson in the first round. He beat the Swede so badly that Ames didn't realize the match was over when he chipped in for birdie on the 11th.
One year after losing in 10 holes, Ames won 8 and 7. Funny game.
Most telling was the phone call to his wife. She was surprised to hear from him so soon and wanted to know if he was able to catch a flight home that night.
“I won't be coming home tonight,” he told her.
___
Match Play went Down Under in 2001 to Metropolitan Golf Club in Melbourne, a course Stuart Appleby referred to as “Augusta without the makeup.” The trouble was the timing.
It started Jan. 3 and with single elimination, not everyone was keen to fly 20-plus hours for the possibility of one match. The 64-man field had to go to No. 104 in the world ranking to fill the field.
The biggest star was Ernie Els, and he didn't show up until the sun began to set on the eve of the first round. Wearing shorts and beach sandals, Els popped open a Heineken and drove a few holes in a cart. The next morning, he played 16 holes, a practice round ahead of the first match (that's allowed in match play). Maybe the Big Easy knew something. He beat Greg Kraft in 16 holes, and eventually made it all the way to the semifinals.
Of the 34 Americans in the field, only a dozen survived the first round. The others faced a long trip home.
___
The bracket in the single elimination era, and the time of the year, made Match Play feel like March Madness with one big exception. This level of golf, over 18 holes, there's really no such thing as an upset. That's not to suggest players aren't upset.
Pat Perez comes to mind, a player whose emotions can run hot. He made his debut in 2008 and lost in the first round to Phil Mickelson. Scott Crockett, an esteemed media official for the European Tour, offered to get a quick word from Perez on his experience.
He returned a very short time later and recorded only three words from Perez.
“And I can't use two of them,” he said.
___
Woods holds the record for most titles (3) and most matches won (36). The best winning percentage belongs to Geoff Ogilvy, who was 20-5 in seven appearances.
It didn't start out that easily. Ogilvy won in his debut at La Costa in 2006, but not before having to watch 10 times as an opponent had a putt to win the match. “No one made one, which is pretty fortunate,” he said.
___
Rory McIlroy was hopeful of a quick knockout in his quarterfinal match at Harding Park in 2015 against Paul Casey. Why the rush? He had arrangements for a quick flight to Las Vegas to watch the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight at the MGM.
Instead, darkness kept them from finishing.
The fight was shown in the press center, and only when reporters looked up from their laptops did they realize McIlroy was sitting there with them.
He finished off Casey the next morning, beat Jim Furyk in the semifinals and then won his only Match Play by taking down Gary Woodland.
___
Woods has left his prints all over the Match Play. He will not be around for the finale, denying this format what would have been the most curious sight of all.
Woods has lost in the first, second and third rounds. He has lost in the quarterfinals. He lost in the championship match to Darren Clarke in 2000. But he never lost in the semifinals, meaning he never had to play a consolation match.
One can only imagine the size of the gallery watching him in the consolation match instead of the final match, much less how television would have handled it.
___
For all the amazing shots in Match Play, the best came from the guy who didn't win.
Victor Dubuisson of France was in extra holes with Jason Day at Dove Mountain in 2014 when he somehow slashed his golf ball out of a cactus and a desert bush — not just once, but twice — to stay in the match before losing on the 23rd hole.
He went 2-0-1 in the Ryder Cup later that year. He now is No. 433 in the world. But he will always be linked with the Match Play, even when it is no longer around.
___
AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports | https://www.expressnews.com/sports/article/column-memories-abound-from-20-plus-years-of-17851565.php | 2023-03-21 14:52:30 | 0 | https://www.expressnews.com/sports/article/column-memories-abound-from-20-plus-years-of-17851565.php |
(WTVO) — Medical researchers believe they’ve finally found the cause of Bruce Lee’s mysterious death almost 50 years ago.
Lee, a global phenomenon, was awaiting the release of his first major Hollywood motion picture, “Enter the Dragon,” when he died in 1973 of cerebral edema, or swelling of the brain.
Lee was known as one of the fittest people on Earth, with a low ratio of body fat to muscle, so his death took the world by surprise.
Prior to the release of “Enter the Dragon,” Lee had arranged a lunch meeting with James Bond actor George Lazenby to discuss an upcoming project. During lunch, he complained of a headache and retired to his hotel room, took a painkiller and was later found dead.
Cerebral edema was determined to be the cause. At the time, doctors believed that reaction to a painkiller may have been responsible.
Now, nearly 50 years later, as reported by Clinical Kidney Journal, researchers believe drinking excess water and prior kidney injury caused his death.
“Ironically, Lee made famous the quote ‘Be water, my friend,’ but excess water appears to have ultimately killed him,” the researchers wrote.
Doctors suggest that hyponatraemia, a low concentration of sodium in the blood, which can be caused by having too much water in the body, may have been the true cause of his death.
The researchers make the case that Lee was at risk for hyponatraemia because of his high liquid intake, marijuana usage or use of prescription drugs or alcohol, and a past history of kidney injury.
“We propose that the kidney’s inability to excrete excess water killed Bruce Lee,” the researchers wrote.
Lee’s death shocked the world, leading to rumors that he was killed by triad gangsters, a jealous lover, or was the victim of a curse.
“In conclusion, we hypothesize that Bruce Lee died from a specific form of kidney dysfunction: the inability to excrete enough water to maintain water homeostasis, which is mainly a tubular function,” researchers wrote. “This may lead to hyponatraemia, cerebral oedema and death within hours if excess water intake is not matched by water excretion in urine, which is in line with the timeline of Lee’s demise.”
Lee was survived by his wife, Linda Lee-Caldwell, daughter Shannon, and son Brandon. Brandon Lee was killed when an improperly cleaned prop gun fired a projectile into his abdomen on the set of “The Crow” in 1993.
Hyponatraemia
According to Mayo Clinic, symptoms of hyponatraemia can range from nausea/vomiting, headache, fatigue and muscle weakness. More severe symptoms include seizures and coma.
If you believe you may be experiencing hyponatraemia, it’s recommended you contact a doctor.
Those at increased risk of the condition (based on age, medications, etc.) should consult with their physician on possible preventative measures, which can include weighing water intake against water loss for balanced hydration. Additionally, doctors may recommend drinking electrolyte sports beverages like Gatorade or Powerade instead of water to refuel during high-intensity activities. | https://www.qcnews.com/news/doctors-believe-bruce-lee-may-have-died-from-drinking-too-much-water/ | 2022-11-24 22:37:56 | 1 | https://www.qcnews.com/news/doctors-believe-bruce-lee-may-have-died-from-drinking-too-much-water/ |
Nation's Leading Battery Retailer Ranks No. 41, Graces List for Ninth Year In-a-Row
HARTLAND, Wis., Oct. 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Batteries Plus, the nation's largest and fastest-growing battery, light bulb, key fob and repair franchise, has been recognized by Entrepreneur Magazine as a Top Franchise for Veterans for the ninth year in-a-row. Coming in at No. 41, the brand has climbed 26 spots since its ranking in 2019.
Entrepreneur Magazine's Top Franchises for Veterans list ranks 150 franchises offering incentives and other programs to help veterans become franchisees. This list is one of Entrepreneur's most popular rankings, and highly valued in the franchise industry. To create the list, the magazine invited companies to participate in a survey designed to help them learn more about their Veteran's programs. From there, they developed the ranking of the top 150 franchises for Veterans, taking into account each company's Veteran incentive, how Veteran franchisees are attracted to and supported by the company, and how each company scored in the 2021 Franchise 500.
Batteries Plus is IFA VetFran member and offers a $10,000 discount off the franchise fee for military veterans. With 10.5 percent of franchise-owned stores being veteran-owned, Batteries Plus offers extensive training both online and at the store level for the life of the business. The company has also launched an internal resource group to support and uplift veterans. This group highlights opportunities and education surrounding the veteran community.
"It is our mission to provide opportunities for our hard-working heroes who are often looking for ways to transition their skills from the military into entrepreneurship," said Joe Malmuth, Chief Franchising Officer for Batteries Plus. "Being recognized on this prestigious list for the fact that we offer them the freedom they want in a career while providing the ability to help them achieve their personal and professional goals is very exciting."
Over the years, Batteries Plus has seen many military veterans become highly successful as franchisees in the specialty retailer sector due to their strong work ethic and motivation to succeed.
"The business opportunity that Batteries Plus offers was exactly what I was looking for as a next step in my post-military career," said U.S. Marine Sergeant and Batteries Plus franchisee Robert Roskowski. "It allows me to strike the perfect balance of providing a service to my local community and utilizing the skills garnered during my time in the military to help grow my business and provide for my family."
Batteries Plus has been on a steady path of growth which can be attributed to the multi-billion-dollar markets that the franchise model is based on. (Batteries, $110B; Bulbs, $118.3B, Device Repair, $4B, Key Fobs, $4.82B, Smart Home Technology $28.86M). Multi-unit owners can especially benefit from this, allowing them to open locations quickly and making business even more efficient. As well as the brand's stable, lucrative business model being a determinant of the continued interest from prospective franchisees who want to make these resources more available in their communities.
With over 800 store locations in operation and development nationwide, Batteries Plus franchise owners are passionate about providing essential products and services for their local communities. Batteries Plus has also carved out a unique niche in the industry with its 'plus' services – including cell phone repair and key fob replacement – capitalizing on both its knowledge and service offerings. Positioned for the battery-powered future, Batteries Plus supplies fundamental products that power people's lives – boats, automobiles, golf carts, motorcycles, mobility scooters, thermometers, etc.
Batteries Plus was ranked on Franchise Times Top 400 list, coming in at #130 and for the 29th year in a row, the brand ranked on Entrepreneur Magazine's Franchise 500 list, climbing 69 spots over last year's rank.
To learn more about Batteries Plus, including information on the franchise opportunity or tour a store virtually, visit batteriesplusfranchise.com.
ABOUT BATTERIES PLUS:
Batteries Plus, founded in 1988 and headquartered in Hartland, WI, is a leading omnichannel retailer of batteries, specialty light bulbs and phone repair services for the direct-to-consumer and commercial channels. The retailer also offers key programming, replacement and cutting services. Through a nationwide network of stores, the company offers a differentiated value proposition of unrivaled product selection, in-stock availability and customer service. Batteries Plus is owned by Freeman Spogli, a private equity firm based in Los Angeles and New York City. To learn more about one of Forbes®' Best Franchises to Buy in America, visit https://www.batteriesplusfranchise.com.
Contact: Julianne Stevenson, Fishman Public Relations, jstevenson@fishmanpr.com or 224-558-2510
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Batteries Plus | https://www.1011now.com/prnewswire/2022/10/13/batteries-plus-lands-entrepreneurs-2022-top-franchises-veterans-list/ | 2022-10-13 16:05:57 | 1 | https://www.1011now.com/prnewswire/2022/10/13/batteries-plus-lands-entrepreneurs-2022-top-franchises-veterans-list/ |
She leaned in, and now Sheryl Sandberg is moving out.
The Facebook COO announced on June 1 that she will be leaving Meta—the platform's parent company—after 14 years. In a statement, Sandberg said it had been an "honor and privilege of a lifetime" to work with founder Mark Zuckerberg.
"Mark is a true visionary and a caring leader," she wrote on her Facebook page. "He sometimes says that we grew up together, and we have."
Sandberg, who will step down from her post this fall but remain on the board of directors, went on to recall some of the "massive ups and downs" they had shared together as colleagues, including the 2015 death of her husband Dave Goldberg and her engagement to entrepreneur Tom Bernthal five years later. "In the critical moments of my life, " she continued, "in the highest highs and in the depths of true lows, I have never had to turn to Mark, because he was already there."
"When I took this job in 2008, I hoped I would be in this role for five years. Fourteen years later, it is time for me to write the next chapter of my life," she wrote. "I am not entirely sure what the future will bring—I have learned no one ever is. But I know it will include focusing more on my foundation and philanthropic work, which is more important to me than ever given how critical this moment is for women."
Sandberg—who penned the 2013 book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, addressing issues with the lack of women in government and business leadership positions—also stated how "immensely proud of everything" her team had achieved, particularly the culture they nurtured.
"I'm especially proud that this is a company where many, many exceptional women and people from diverse backgrounds have risen through our ranks and become leaders," she said, "both in our company and in leadership roles elsewhere."
In addition to leading the company though its major Meta rebranding, Sandberg guided Facebook through several public relations crises. In 2018, Sandberg appeared before Congress to answer for Facebook's role in Russia's interference with the 2016 presidential election, testifying to lawmakers, "we were too slow to spot this and too slow to act. That's on us." She also fought though accusations of a toxic work place and the spread of misinformation at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.
In his own statement posted on Facebook, Zuckerberg thanked Sandberg for her role with the company.
"When Sheryl joined me in 2008, I was only 23 years old and I barely knew anything about running a company," he wrote on June 1. "Sheryl architected our ads business, hired great people, forged our management culture, and taught me how to run a company. She created opportunities for millions of people around the world, and she deserves the credit for so much of what Meta is today." | https://www.eonline.com/news/1333091/facebook-coo-sheryl-sandberg-leaving-meta-after-14-years | 2022-06-01 23:39:36 | 0 | https://www.eonline.com/news/1333091/facebook-coo-sheryl-sandberg-leaving-meta-after-14-years |
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
© 2022 Good Karma Brands Milwaukee, LLC. | https://wtmj.com/sports/2022/10/09/ap-top-sports-news-at-1027-p-m-edt-4/ | 2022-10-10 05:36:19 | 1 | https://wtmj.com/sports/2022/10/09/ap-top-sports-news-at-1027-p-m-edt-4/ |
Click here to subscribe today or Login.
By FATIMA SHBAIR
JABALIYA REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip (AP) — At least 17 members of one family were among those killed when a fire tore through a top-floor apartment in the Gaza Strip during a birthday party, a relative said Friday.
Officials in Hamas-run Gaza have said Thursday night’s blaze in a three-story residential building in the Jabaliya refugee camp was apparently fueled by stored gasoline. They said it was not clear how the gasoline ignited, and that an investigation is underway.
Officials put the death toll at 21, making it one of the deadliest incidents in Gaza in recent years outside the violence stemming from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The blaze destroyed the top-floor apartment in the building, home to the Abu Raya family.
Mohammed Abu Raya, a family spokesman, told The Associated Press that the extended family had gathered for twin celebrations — the birthday of one of the children and the return of one of the adults from a trip to Egypt.
Abu Raya spoke at the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, where the bodies had been taken and where sobbing relatives were waiting for funeral processions to begin.
Abu Raya challenged assertions that stored gasoline fueled the blaze, saying furniture made from flammable materials was more likely to have accelerated the flames.
“The disaster was that no one came out alive to tell us the truth of things,” he said. “I do not think that it was stored gasoline.”
Abu Raya said those killed were from three generations of Abu Rayas — a couple, their five sons, two daughters-in-law and eight grandchildren. The identities of the remaining victims were not immediately known.
Later Friday, the bodies were moved from the hospital morgue to a mosque ahead of burial.
Gaza faces a severe energy crisis, largely because of a crippling Israeli-Egyptian border blockade that has been in place since the Islamic militant Hamas seized control of the territory 15 years ago.
People often store cooking gas, diesel and gasoline in homes in preparation for winter. House fires have previously been caused by candles and gas leaks. | https://www.timesleader.com/wire/nation-world/1586386/gaza-fire-kills-17-from-one-family-during-birthday-party | 2022-11-18 15:22:34 | 0 | https://www.timesleader.com/wire/nation-world/1586386/gaza-fire-kills-17-from-one-family-during-birthday-party |
ORANGEBURG, S.C. (WCBD) – Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to address South Carolina State University students and faculty on Tuesday.
Harris will speak during the university’s fall Convocation, welcoming SC State’s largest freshman class in 15 years, for the fall semester.
Harris previously visit the school while campaigning in 2019. President Biden recently visited the university, delivering an address to graduates at the December commencement.
“South Carolina State University is honored to welcome Vice President Harris back to our campus,” SC State President Alexander Conyers said. “Her visit is a golden opportunity for our students to hear directly from the highest-ranking woman in this nation’s history. Her achievements are motivational for all of us at SC State, especially for our young minority women.”
Conyers called Vice President Harris’ visit another milestone in the university’s rich history. “This is truly a special time to be a Bulldog,” he said.
The event will take place at Smith Hammond Middleton Memorial Center in Orangeburg on Tuesday afternoon. Attendance will be limited to the SC State campus community and employees. | https://www.qcnews.com/news/u-s/south-carolina/vice-president-kamala-harris-to-visit-sc-state-university/ | 2022-09-22 20:49:09 | 1 | https://www.qcnews.com/news/u-s/south-carolina/vice-president-kamala-harris-to-visit-sc-state-university/ |
In partnership with the Pittsburgh District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rye Development is moving three regional projects toward construction
PITTSBURGH, Oct. 11, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Rye Development (Rye), the nation's leading developer of new, low-impact renewable hydropower generation, has announced the next phase of its Montgomery Lock & Dam, Emsworth Lock & Dam, and Allegheny Lock and Dam #2 projects in partnership with The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District (USACE).
"We are excited to announce that we are advancing final engineering, procurement, and design of our first bundle of projects in Pittsburgh," said Paul Jacob, Chief Executive Officer of Rye Development. "We've released additional engineering work orders for the Montgomery, Allegheny, and Emsworth projects and have secured agreements with equipment supplies across the board."
Marking an important step in the construction timeline of the Montgomery Project, Rye has submitted the 30% design package to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). The design package is significant as it is the first submission of detailed engineering based on the early design concepts for the Montgomery project and is the culmination of nearly a decade of work by Rye in the Pittsburgh Region.
"We are honored to work in close collaboration with the Army Corps on these exciting flagship projects for Rye," said Jacob. "The excellent working relationship we have developed with the Corps allows for the continued progress of not only the Montgomery project, but Emsworth and Allegheny #2, and is vital in establishing the processes and procedures we will need as we look forward to constructing additional projects in the region."
The locations for the hydroelectric projects in the Pittsburgh region are at existing lock and dam facilities owned and operated by the USACE. The Army Corps delivers vital engineering solutions to secure the Nation, energize its economy, and reduce disaster risk. The Pittsburgh District provides expertise to help the region and the nation meet water resources development, environmental and other engineering needs.
"Locks and dams are vital parts of the inland navigation system that ensure the district continues to provide safe and reliable navigation for decades to come," said Mark Jones, Chief of Engineering and Construction for the Pittsburgh District. "Collaboration with Rye and others ensure project-design concepts are unified, cohesive and bring together the teams' talent and expertise."
The Montgomery Project, located on the Ohio River in Beaver County, is the largest planned project in the region. Adjacent to Neville Island, the Emsworth Lock and Dam is located on the main channel of the Ohio River, just downstream from downtown Pittsburgh; Allegheny County has entered into a power purchase agreement with Rye to supply renewable electricity to the County from the Emsworth Project. Located next to the Highland Park Bridge, the Allegheny Lock and Dam #2 project will provide the University of Pittsburgh with on-demand, locally generated renewable power.
Each project is expected to generate 150-200 family wage jobs and Rye anticipates breaking ground in 2023. In addition to providing renewable energy, the hydropower facility includes investment in new recreational fishing facilities and a walkway leading from a parking area with designated parking spaces to the fishing platform.
To learn more, please visit www.pittsburghhydro.com.
Rye Development is a leading U.S. hydropower developer with a current pipeline of over 25 projects in 10 states. Rye's development of new hydropower on existing dams, in conjunction with financing partner, the Climate Adaptive Infrastructure Fund, and Rye's development of new closed loop pumped storage, demonstrate Rye's commitment to the responsible development of untapped hydropower resources while maintaining rivers' balance of environmental and commercial requirements. Rye brings communities around the country substantial infrastructure, job creation, and a local source of renewable, non-consumptive energy.
The Pittsburgh District is one of seven districts that comprise the Great Lakes and Ohio River Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. A civil works district, the Pittsburgh District has an Army colonel assigned as District Commander, but the technical chiefs, functional chiefs, and most of the more than 600 employees are civilians. Like all Corps civil works districts, the Pittsburgh District's boundaries are defined by the watershed basins for which it is responsible. Pittsburgh's 26,000 square miles include portions of western Pennsylvania, northern West Virginia, eastern Ohio, western Maryland, and southwestern New York. This jurisdiction includes more than 328 miles of navigable waterways, 23 navigation locks and dams, 16 multi-purpose flood damage reduction reservoirs, 42 local flood damage reduction projects and other projects to protect and enhance water resources and wetlands.
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Rye Development | https://www.wibw.com/prnewswire/2022/10/11/rye-development-advancing-low-impact-hydropower-projects-pittsburgh-region/ | 2022-10-11 18:48:03 | 1 | https://www.wibw.com/prnewswire/2022/10/11/rye-development-advancing-low-impact-hydropower-projects-pittsburgh-region/ |
LOS ANGELES, July 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP ("GPM") announces that investors with substantial losses have opportunity to lead the securities fraud class action lawsuit against 17 Education & Technology Group Inc. ("17EdTech" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: YQ).
Class Period: December 2020 IPO
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: September 19, 2022
If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff of the 17EdTech lawsuit, you can submit your contact information at www.glancylaw.com/cases/17-education-technology-group-inc/. You can also contact Charles H. Linehan, of GPM at 310-201-9150, Toll-Free at 888-773-9224, or via email at shareholders@glancylaw.com to learn more about your rights.
The complaint filed alleges that, throughout the Class Period, Defendants failed to disclose to investors that: (1) Defendant 17EdTech's K-12 Academic AST Services would end less than a year after the IPO; (2) as part of its ongoing regulatory efforts, Chinese authorities would imminently curtail and/or end 17EdTech's core business; and (3) as a result, Defendants' positive statements about the Company's business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times.
Follow us for updates on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.
To be a member of the class action you need not take any action at this time; you may retain counsel of your choice or take no action and remain an absent member of the class action. If you wish to learn more about this class action, or if you have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to the pending class action lawsuit, please contact Charles Linehan, Esquire, of GPM, 1925 Century Park East, Suite 2100, Los Angeles, California 90067 at 310-201-9150, Toll-Free at 888-773-9224, by email to shareholders@glancylaw.com, or visit our website at www.glancylaw.com. If you inquire by email please include your mailing address, telephone number and number of shares purchased.
This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules.
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/07/28/yq-investors-have-opportunity-lead-17-education-amp-technology-group-inc-securities-fraud-lawsuit/ | 2022-07-28 16:56:18 | 0 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/07/28/yq-investors-have-opportunity-lead-17-education-amp-technology-group-inc-securities-fraud-lawsuit/ |
President Clinton's former pollster called out New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg's 34-count indictment of ex-President Donald Trump as evidence the justice system is being politicized, while adding the development doesn't change much of the calculus for Democrats in 2024.
"I think the implications for the country are sad," Mark Penn told Fox News on Wednesday. "Someone has got to stop the politicization of the justice system."
Democrats seeking to discard Trump from the political scene once and for all may also be disappointed, he suggested, remarking the arrest "revived his campaign" and funneled millions in civilian donations to its coffers.
"He's the center of attention. And I think for Democrats, it doesn't do anything one way or the other -- except that I think Biden is consolidating the notion that he's actually going to run for a second term," Penn said.
BRAGG SHOULD BE DISBARRED, ATLANTA PROSECUTOR A ‘HACK’: LEVIN
Penn added the indictment, however, complicates things for other 2024 hopefuls or prospective hopefuls like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
DeSantis and others will have to thread the needle between objecting to Trump's indictment and establishing that Republicans may have to replace him as the GOP standard-bearer, he said.
Fellow pollster and former Trump White House counselor Kellyanne Conway added on "The Story" that the key for other candidates will be to answer predictable press badgering about Trump's indictment and then "get out of" the topic and focus on why they oppose President Biden.
Conway said DeSantis – who has not formally announced his candidacy – allowed himself to be seen as a Trump alternative more than a Biden alternative, which is what Republicans must do at this time.
TRUMP ATTORNEY: RULE OF LAW IN USA IS DEAD
So far, however, former Arkansas Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who announced his 2024 candidacy last weekend, instead called the indictment a "sideshow" while urging Trump to abandon his quest to be the first since President Grover Cleveland to serve two nonconsecutive terms in the White House.
"He's under indictment. That is a reason for him to withdraw from it [the presidential race] - because of how it undermines the strength of the presidency of the United States," he said Monday on "Your World with Neil Cavuto" Monday. "I've always viewed that we ought to put the position that we're seeking in public service ahead of our personal desires."
CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
For his part, Trump previously labeled Hutchinson a "RINO stiff."
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who has also entered the 2024 sweeps, called the indictment a "revenge" ploy by "some political people in New York" who despise their native son.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. | https://www.foxbangor.com/news/national/bill-clintons-ex-pollster-blasts-trump-indictment-as-politicization-of-justice-does-little-for-dems/article_34f93441-7c28-5751-a1c5-641f14e86096.html | 2023-04-09 23:48:48 | 0 | https://www.foxbangor.com/news/national/bill-clintons-ex-pollster-blasts-trump-indictment-as-politicization-of-justice-does-little-for-dems/article_34f93441-7c28-5751-a1c5-641f14e86096.html |
Jayden Holmes-Cotter starred once again for Freehold Township as he scored his 1,000th career point and finished with a double-double to lead the Patriots past Manalapan 63-59, in Freehold.
Holmes-Cotter got his 1,000th point after rebounding his own missed shot and scoring on a layup in the second quarter.
For the game, Holmes-Cotter finished with 24 points and 13 rebounds in the narrow victory for Freehold Township (8-1).
The Patriots trailed entering the fourth quarter but outscored Manalapan (5-5) by a 20-12 margin down the stretch to take the lead and ultimately win by four points.
Andrew Silverman (nine points) hit a three-pointer with under two minutes left to give Freehold Township a 61-59 lead. All of Silverman’s points came on three-pointers in the second half.
Malachi Harris added 15 points, five rebounds, and five assists for the Patriots.
Manalapan was led by Anthony Leger (16 points), Phil Pearlman (15 points), and Kassan Scott (12 points).
The N.J. High School Sports newsletter now appearing in mailboxes 5 days a week. Sign up now and be among the first to get all the boys and girls sports you care about, straight to your inbox each weekday. To add your name, click here.
Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription. | https://www.nj.com/highschoolsports/2023/01/boys-basketball-holmes-cotter-scores-1000th-point-in-victory-for-freehold-township.html | 2023-01-10 01:15:44 | 1 | https://www.nj.com/highschoolsports/2023/01/boys-basketball-holmes-cotter-scores-1000th-point-in-victory-for-freehold-township.html |
Hily Lalonde walked next door to pay the bills and grab some potatoes to cook for the night. When she neared the entrance of the building, the smell of electrical burning caught her attention.
When she walked toward the kitchen, the smoke hit her.
Toby’s Lounge and Reception Center, the iconic Opelousas gathering spot, was on fire.
Lalonde quickly called her boyfriend, Wayne Doucet, who owns the establishment, to let him know and that she was calling the fire department.
Now two weeks later they stand in front of the charred ruins of a business that was a cornerstone of Opelousas.
By the time the firefighters showed up at 3 p.m. May 16, the building was engulfed with flames, Doucet said. The business was gone.
“We had a hell of a business,” Doucet said. “It’s finished.”
There was not much Doucet could do to save his business as it burned. The fire started from old wiring in an electrical junction box, Lalonde said.
“I was just sitting there watching it go,” Doucet said. “Those guys (the firefighters) put their heart and soul putting it out.”
The business, located at 132 Toby’s Lane, will not reopen, Doucet said. The building was underinsured, and rebuilding costs are too high.
Instead, it will transition to downtown Opelousas in the former Beau’s Garage, 125 North Court St., which he purchased a few years back.
He will rebrand it as Toby’s Downtown. The transition will begin after he gets his liquor license transferred.
“I didn’t think there was no possibility it would burn,” Doucet said.
Toby’s was a place that was a popular meeting place in St. Landry Parish ever since former owner Toby Veltin first opened it in 1954 as Toby’s Little Lodge, reports indicate.
And nearly 70 years later, it was one of the few places around that still hosted live music during the pandemic, said Earl Taylor, former saxophone player with Little Bob and the Lollipops.
“I wanted to cry,” Taylor said. “It was a landmark. Everyone would say, ‘I’ll just meet you at Toby’s.’ Everybody knew where it was.”
Liz Hernandez once worked for a local TV station in Opelousas and would host Cajun dance nights on Thursdays for four years. People from across the area would come to dance.
“My heart just sunk,” Hernandez said. “It became like a second home. They loved Toby’s, and I loved watching their reactions. Most of the people that came were the same people, so we became like a big family.”
Toby’s was where Hernandez and her station hosted political debates and fundraising, including once hosting a political fundraiser for Edwin Edwards during his 1991 campaign against former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.
Toby’s roots stretch back to the Cedar Lane Club, which Veltin opened in the 1930s as a local restaurant but soon shifted over to a nightclub to accommodate bands traveling from Houston to New Orleans, reports indicate. It hosted big name performers such as Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong and Chuck Berry.
After the Cedar Lane Club burned in the 1950s, and Veltin opened Toby’s Little Lodge. Doucet bought it 12 years ago, and up until the day it burned, he had a Cedar Lane Club sign on the wall as an homage to the location’s roots.
Doucet said he hopes to start up soon at the new location.
“I want to thank all my people that supported and patronized us,” Doucet said, “I can duplicate Toby’s service, but I can’t duplicate the atmosphere.” | https://www.theadvocate.com/acadiana/news/business/article_0778e854-e358-11ec-8293-b7a92a988529.html | 2022-06-03 16:44:05 | 1 | https://www.theadvocate.com/acadiana/news/business/article_0778e854-e358-11ec-8293-b7a92a988529.html |
Michelle Aselta Brings Beauty and Wellness Expertise to Expanding Strategic Communications and Investor Relations Agency
NEW YORK, Jan. 18, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- KCSA Strategic Communications, an integrated strategic communications firm specializing in public relations, media relations, social media and investor relations, announced the addition of Michelle Aselta as Senior Vice President in its Public Relations practice.
As SVP of Beauty and Wellness, Ms. Aselta will build a new division and help expand the service offerings at KCSA. She will focus on innovative communications strategies, as well as thought provoking narratives that will make industry leaders out of brands and their founders, thereby developing strong footholds in an increasingly complex consumer market environment.
Michelle Aselta joins KCSA from Jennifer Bett Communications, where she was the Head of Strategy/SVP of Beauty + Wellness, specializing in business development, agency growth, brand development and media strategy. Michelle has more than 18 years of experience and has cultivated and grown brands both in house and at the agency level.
"Michelle brings a strong blend of consumer brand strategy and business development," said Todd Fromer, Managing Partner at KCSA. "She has a substantial track record driving agency growth and expansion, as well as catapulting startups and young brands into industry leaders. We are honored to have her join our growing bench of talent; she will be a key asset to the agency and our clients as we continue to provide best-in-class strategic communications and brand evolution."
About KCSA Strategic Communications
KCSA is a fully integrated communications agency specializing in public relations, shareholder communications and social media, with expertise in cannabis, financial and professional services, technology, healthcare, digital media and energy. Since 1969, the firm has demonstrated strategic thinking and program execution that drives results for its clients in the ever-changing communications and digital landscape. The firm's clients are its best references. For more information, please visit www.kcsa.com.
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE KCSA Strategic Communications | https://www.wsaz.com/prnewswire/2023/01/18/kcsa-expands-service-offerings-by-launching-beauty-wellness-division-led-by-industry-veteran-michelle-aselta-senior-vice-president/ | 2023-01-18 19:30:59 | 0 | https://www.wsaz.com/prnewswire/2023/01/18/kcsa-expands-service-offerings-by-launching-beauty-wellness-division-led-by-industry-veteran-michelle-aselta-senior-vice-president/ |
DUBLIN, Nov. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT), a global leader in healthcare technology, today announced that it will report financial results for its second quarter of fiscal year 2023 on Tuesday, November 22, 2022. A news release will be issued at approximately 5:45 a.m. Central Standard Time (CST) and will be available at https://news.medtronic.com. The news release will include summary financial information for the company's second quarter of fiscal year 2023, which ended on Friday, October 28, 2022.
Medtronic will host a video webcast at 7:00 a.m. CST on Tuesday, November 22, 2022, to discuss results for its second quarter of fiscal year 2023. The webcast can be accessed at https://investorrelations.medtronic.com.
Within 24 hours of the broadcast, a replay and transcript of the prepared remarks will be available by clicking on the Investor Events link at https://investorrelations.medtronic.com.
Looking ahead, Medtronic plans to report its fiscal year 2023 third and fourth quarter results on Tuesday, February 21, 2023, and Thursday, May 25, 2023, respectively. For these events, confirmation and additional details will be provided closer to the specific event.
About Medtronic
Bold thinking. Bolder actions. We are Medtronic. Medtronic plc, headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, is the leading global healthcare technology company that boldly attacks the most challenging health problems facing humanity by searching out and finding solutions. Our Mission — to alleviate pain, restore health, and extend life — unites a global team of 95,000+ passionate people across 150 countries. Our technologies and therapies treat 70 health conditions and include cardiac devices, surgical robotics, insulin pumps, surgical tools, patient monitoring systems, and more. Powered by our diverse knowledge, insatiable curiosity, and desire to help all those who need it, we deliver innovative technologies that transform the lives of two people every second, every hour, every day. Expect more from us as we empower insight-driven care, experiences that put people first, and better outcomes for our world. In everything we do, we are engineering the extraordinary. For more information on Medtronic (NYSE:MDT), visit www.Medtronic.com and follow @Medtronic on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Any forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties such as those described in Medtronic's periodic reports on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual results may differ materially from anticipated results.
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Medtronic plc | https://www.wkyt.com/prnewswire/2022/11/15/medtronic-announce-financial-results-its-second-quarter-fiscal-year-2023/ | 2022-11-15 14:40:20 | 0 | https://www.wkyt.com/prnewswire/2022/11/15/medtronic-announce-financial-results-its-second-quarter-fiscal-year-2023/ |
A Washington state woman who was diagnosed with tuberculosis has been taken into custody after months of refusing treatment or isolation, officials said on Thursday.
The Tacoma woman, who is identified in court documents as V.N., was booked into a room "specially equipped for isolation, testing and treatment" at the Pierce County Jail, the local health department said, adding that she will still be able to choose whether she gets the "live-saving treatment she needs."
A judge first issued a civil arrest warrant for V.N. in March, 14 months after he'd first approved of the health department's request to order the woman's voluntary detention.
Tuberculosis (commonly referred to as TB) is a bacterial infection that can spread easily through the air. Without treatment, it can be fatal, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Washington state law requires that health care providers report cases of active tuberculosis to the local health department for monitoring.
In Pierce County, the health department says it only sees about 20 active cases of the disease per year, and it works with patients, their families and communities to ensure that infections are treated.
V.N.'s case represents only the third time in the past two decades that a court order has been necessary to execute treatment, the health department said.
Over the course of 17 hearings, health officials repeatedly asked the court to uphold its order for V.N.'s involuntarily detention, which consistently ruled that the health officials had made "reasonable efforts" to gain V.N.'s voluntary compliance with the law.
Officers began surveilling the woman in March, and at one point observed her "leave her residence, get onto a city bus and arrive at a local casino," according to a sworn statement from the county's chief of corrections.
"Respondent's family members were also unresponsive [to] the officer's attempts to contact. It is believed that the Respondent is actively avoiding execution of the warrant," the chief said.
V.N.'s attorney argued that it was unclear whether her client willfully and intentionally defied the court's first few orders for treatment or isolation, according to a March report from NPR member station KNKX.
The attorney did not immediately respond to NPR's request for comment, and the court records cited by KNKX have since been sealed by the judge.
According to the news outlet, V.N.'s attorney cited "past behavior and interactions" that suggested V.N. may not have fully understood the significance of the proceedings and had "not acknowledged the existence of her own medical condition."
The attorney also argued that the Pierce County Jail did not meet the state's legal standards for long-term treatment of a tuberculosis patient, KNKX reported.
V.N. is being detained in a "negative pressure room," the Pierce County Sheriff's Department said in a statement shared with NPR. Such rooms are designed to restrict airflow in order to prevent the spread of disease.
The sheriff's department said V.N. was taken into custody at her home, without incident, and transported to the facility in a vehicle that blocked airflow between the cabin and backseat.
She is not facing criminal charges at this time, the department confirmed.
The court order authorizing her arrest says V.N. will be held in quarantine for no more than 45 days. She could be released earlier if medical tests "conclusively establish that she no longer presents a threat to public health," the judge said.
Tuberculosis cases have steadily declined in the U.S. since the 1990s, with only 7,882 cases reported in 2021, the latest year for which the CDC has released data.
In the late 1800s, tuberculosis killed one out of every seven people in the United States and Europe, according to the CDC.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. | https://www.iowapublicradio.org/news-from-npr/news-from-npr/2023-06-03/a-woman-is-in-custody-after-refusing-tuberculosis-treatment-for-more-than-a-year | 2023-06-03 11:51:33 | 1 | https://www.iowapublicradio.org/news-from-npr/news-from-npr/2023-06-03/a-woman-is-in-custody-after-refusing-tuberculosis-treatment-for-more-than-a-year |
Angeion Group Makes the Recorder and the National Law Journal Best of 2022
PHILADELPHIA, July 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Angeion Group, an industry leader in class action administration services, today announced that they have been named the first-place winner in The Recorder's Best of 2022 annual readers survey. Angeion Group was also inducted into The Recorder's Best of Hall of Fame after earning top three placement in three consecutive years.
Additionally, Angeion Group was voted the best claims administrator by the readers of the National Law Journal (NLJ) in its 11th annual Best of 2022 readers survey.
"We know we can only achieve these honors when our clients cast their votes for us," said Steven Weisbrot, President & CEO of Angeion Group. "As always, our clients' success, is our success!"
Headquartered in a state-of-the-art 14,000 square-foot processing and hosting facility in center city Philadelphia, Angeion is the only claims administration partner that provides strategic, comprehensive, and reliable claims administration for class action and group litigation orders, domestically and abroad. By combining customized, innovative noticing services with extensive subject matter expertise, proven processes, and technology, Angeion delivers the accuracy, efficiency, and security clients need to fulfill their claims administration with trust and confidence.
Angeion Group has also ranked #1 in The Legal Intelligencer, Connecticut Law Tribune, and Best of Texas Lawyer for providing breakthrough class action administration services.
Angeion Group is an industry-leading provider of class action claims administration and legal noticing. Angeion has handled some of the largest and most complex settlements in recent history. Angeion's operation excellence increases efficiency, provides accountability, and gives counsel and the courts peace of mind.
For more information, visit www.angeiongroup.com.
1650 ARCH STREET, SUITE 2210, PHILADELPHIA, PA 19103 | (215) 563-4116 | WWW.ANGEIONGROUP.COM
Media Contact:
Angeion Group
Shiri Lasman
(215) 563-4116
View original content:
SOURCE Angeion Group | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/07/19/angeion-group-voted-1-class-action-claims-administrator-by-recorder-national-law-journal/ | 2022-07-19 15:21:09 | 1 | https://www.kold.com/prnewswire/2022/07/19/angeion-group-voted-1-class-action-claims-administrator-by-recorder-national-law-journal/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris and U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy are warning of burnout among the nation’s health care staff after more than two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the potential for severe worker shortages in the years ahead if the situation is not addressed.
Harris and Murthy on Monday are visiting Children’s National Hospital in Washington to meet with health care providers and deliver remarks as Murthy unveils a report, “Surgeon General’s Advisory Addressing Health Worker Burnout.” It sounds the alarm over a projected shortage of “3 million essential low-wage health workers” in the next five years, as well as nearly 140,000 doctors by 2033.
“The nation’s health depends on the well-being of our health workforce. Confronting the long-standing drivers of burnout among our health workers must be a top national priority,” Murthy said in a statement. “COVID-19 has been a uniquely traumatic experience for the health workforce and for their families, pushing them past their breaking point. Now, we owe them a debt of gratitude and action. And if we fail to act, we will place our nation’s health at risk.”
The administration is calling for new investments and steps to protect the mental wellbeing of health care workers, including by expanding counseling offerings, reducing administrative burdens and promoting worker safety on the job.
The initiative comes as the Biden administration is mounting a nationwide push to address mental health issues. President Joe Biden unveiled a national strategy to expand mental health and drug abuse treatment during his State of the Union address in March. | https://pix11.com/ap-political/harris-surgeon-general-warn-of-health-care-worker-burnout/ | 2022-05-23 18:16:19 | 1 | https://pix11.com/ap-political/harris-surgeon-general-warn-of-health-care-worker-burnout/ |
SINGAPORE, March 31, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- FJDynamics, a robotics company, announced the launch of its newest portable power station FJD PONY 500, the latest model in the company's line of new energy products. The PONY 500 comes in half the size of competing products in the market and gaming-changing features that set it apart as a product in the market of off-grid power supplies.
After an extensive analysis of the market and product use cases, the product team at FJDynamics developed the PONY 500. The functionalities and design are based on user-driven insights resulting in a product that is superior in ease of use.
"Most portable power stations in the market are too big and heavy for people to carry them for long distances. Usage difficulty, safety and noise were the biggest user concerns", says Knut Niehaus.
This drove the design of the Pony 500, which redefines 'portability'. FJD PONY 500 provides up to 504 watt-hours of capacity while weighing only 3.6 kg, making it the lightest product in its class. By using FJDynamics' proprietary ternary lithium battery technology, PONY 500 has an energy density 30% higher than traditional lithium-ion batteries. The light and compact design, which boasts half the weight and size of power stations with the same power capacity, means that users can get the same power outdoors with less physical load. The product's leather handle allows it to be carried with one hand by anyone creating a hassle-free experience.
Its quiet operations is another game-changing feature of the Pony 500. The Pony 500 operates without a built-in fan which means it operates at 0dB while competing products operate at 55dB. This way users can be connected to power without disrupting the ambience outdoors.
The Pony 500 works flexibly for different needs and scenarios. It works in extreme temperatures from -20°C to 55°C, a wide temperature threshold from other products in the market. The product also has a modular design, allowing it to be combined with accessories from solar panel modules, MPPT or DC add-ons. In off-grid scenarios needing a higher power capacity, the Pony 500 can work with up to 10 power stations in parallel unlocking 10 times the power. With these game-changing features, the Pony 500 is the perfect companion for any outdoor environment - from camping trips and home backup power to outdoor work such as surveying or emergency rescue.
"We are redefining portability with the launch of our new PONY 500 portable power station," said Martin.Ivanov, R&D Director of FJDynamics. "By leveraging our innovative design and industry-leading battery technology, we have developed a power station that is vastly more portable and capable than any other product available today. This opens up new possibilities for outdoor adventures, field work, and emergency preparedness."
FJDynamics' PONY 500 Portable Power Station is now available on FJDynamics Official Online Store (store.fjdynamics.com). EU orders start shipping immediately, while the US orders will be shipped by May 2023.
About FJDynamics
FJDynamics is a robotics company focusing on digitization, automation and new energy. At present, our technology has been widely applied across precision agriculture, digital construction, geospatial, electrical applications, among others. The company has R&D and operation centers in Singapore, U.S., Sweden, mainland China and Hong Kong. With a commitment to use our technology to drive carbon neutrality and improve the working environment paired with our global reach, we are excited to work with our partners and customers to build a better future for our world.
For more information, please visit www.fjdynamics.com
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE FJDynamics | https://www.wibw.com/prnewswire/2023/03/31/fjdynamics-redefines-portability-with-its-new-power-station-pony-500/ | 2023-03-31 09:45:28 | 1 | https://www.wibw.com/prnewswire/2023/03/31/fjdynamics-redefines-portability-with-its-new-power-station-pony-500/ |
American Fluoridation Society comments on this draft report
WASHINGTON, Nov. 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Groups opposed to water fluoridation are in federal court, citing an outdated draft report about children's intelligence (IQ) by the U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP) to attack the public health practice of fluoridation. These groups ignore or downplay crucial facts about this outdated draft report. The American Fluoridation Society is sharing six facts to inform the public, researchers and health professionals:
- The NTP document is an outdated draft from over two years ago. It is one of two draft reports that failed to pass the peer review process. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine conducted this peer review in 2021, writing that NTP did not provide "clear and convincing" evidence for its conclusions about adverse effects. Fluoridation foes have referred to the NTP draft report without any mention that it failed to clear peer review.
- In its review, the National Academies instructed NTP to "make clear that the [report] cannot be used to draw conclusions about low fluoride exposure concentrations (less than 1.5 mg/L), including those in fluoridated drinking water systems." This reflects the fact that many of the studies reviewed by NTP's draft report tested levels of fluoride well above the levels used for water fluoridation.
- NTP chose to abandon its peer review relationship with the National Academies. This decision suggests that NTP lacked confidence that it could make a convincing case to support its previous conclusions about fluoride.
- Since its drafts failed to clear peer review, NTP agreed not to make a hazard assessment statement about fluoride in its upcoming "state of the science" report at any level of exposure. This indicates that NTP agrees with the National Academies that labeling fluoride as a neurodevelopmental hazard is not appropriate. There is no consensus among researchers about the biological mechanism through which fluoride could affect cognition, even at higher natural levels of fluoride exposure in China and India.
- The NTP draft report is outdated because it does not include any fluoride studies published after 2019. And sources have indicated that the next version of NTP's report also will not include any post-2019 studies. This means the NTP's "confidence" rating for its analysis was reached without including recent studies from Australia and Spain. Both of these studies cleared peer review and found no link between fluoride exposure and cognitive deficits in children.
- The research cited by opponents (including numerous studies in the last NTP draft) suffers from serious methodological issues. In fact, a 2020 fluoride-IQ study was recently retracted after the journal BMC Public Health found "inconsistencies in methodology and major misinterpretation of the primary result." Even the 2019 Canadian study, whose findings are cited often by opponents, must now be viewed with serious doubts. One reason why is that a reanalysis of the study's underlying data reported that fluoride exposures "do not significantly associate with IQ outcomes once city is controlled and FDR (false discovery rate) is applied."
Policy-makers should be aware of these facts about the NTP draft report because critics of fluoridation have frequently cited this draft report to raise unfounded concerns about fluoride, encouraging communities to cease water fluoridation. Multiple studies reveal increases in tooth decay and higher treatment costs after cities ceased fluoridation. An Alaska study found that after a city stopped fluoridation, the average preschool-age child from low income families needed one additional decay-related treatment each year at a cost of about $300.
Like the issue of vaccinations, fluoride is the target of a variety of myths and conspiracy theories. The American Fluoridation Society offers fact sheets and other materials that distinguish the myths from the facts.
The American Fluoridation Society and the British Fluoridation Society have produced a guide to help health and science professionals better understand the issues that can arise from studies about fluoride. This guide can be downloaded at https://www.porh.psu.edu/how-to-read-a-study-about-fluoride-or-fluoridation/. For more information about the American Fluoridation Society, visit https://americanfluoridationsociety.org/.
Contact: Dr. Johnny Johnson at 727-409-1770
or DrJohnny@americanfluoridationsociety.org
View original content:
SOURCE American Fluoridation Society | https://www.wbrc.com/prnewswire/2022/11/21/anti-fluoride-groups-cite-an-outdated-report-federal-court/ | 2022-11-21 15:09:06 | 0 | https://www.wbrc.com/prnewswire/2022/11/21/anti-fluoride-groups-cite-an-outdated-report-federal-court/ |
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (AP) — Ron Cook Jr. and Mike Washington each rushed for two touchdowns in the first half and Buffalo scored the opening 38 points in beating Bowling Green 38-7 on Saturday.
Washington highlighted the first half with a 92-yard touchdown run to cap a 99-yard drive for a 24-0 lead. The Bulls defense forced a three-and-out, and Washington scored again from 1-yard out to make it 31-0 at the break.
Washington finished with 155 yards on 16 carries and Cook added 89 yards on 17 carries as Buffalo (3-3, 3-0 Mid-American Conference) totaled 280 yards on the ground.
The Buffalo defense also had a 90-plus yard score when James Patterson scooped up a fumble near the end zone and raced the other way for a 38-point lead.
Matt McDonald was 21 of 42 for 281 yards with one touchdown and one interception for Bowling Green (2-4, 1-1).
___
More AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://twitter.com/ap_top25. Sign up for the AP’s college football newsletter: https://tinyurl.com/mrxhe6f2 | https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/article/Buffalo-scores-38-unanswered-beats-Bowling-Green-17496110.php | 2022-10-08 21:32:48 | 0 | https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/article/Buffalo-scores-38-unanswered-beats-Bowling-Green-17496110.php |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department asked afederal appeals court on Friday to shut down the work of an independent arbiter who was appointed last month to review documents seized during an FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate.
The appeal is the latest salvo in weeks of litigation over the scope of duties of the arbiter, also known as a special master, who was assigned to inspect the records taken in the Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago and weed out any that may be protected by claims of legal privilege.
The special master process has caused some delays to the Justice Department’s investigation into the holding of top-secret documents at the home. But a major hurdle was cleared last month when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit lifted a temporary bar on the department’s ability to use the seized classified documents as part of its criminal probe.
The move permitted a core aspect of the probe to resume, greatly reducing the odds that the process could have a significant impact on the investigation. Even so, department lawyers returned to the court Friday to ask for the entire special master review to be shut down, saying the judge who made the appointment had no basis for doing so and that Trump was not entitled to an independent review of the seized records or to claim privilege over them.
“Plaintiff has no plausible claim of executive privilege as to any of the seized materials and no plausible claim of personal attorney-client privilege as to the seized government records — including all records bearing classification markings,” according to the department’s brief.
“Accordingly,” they added, ”the special-master review process is unwarranted.”
The Justice Department says it seized about 13,000 records, including roughly 100 with classification markings, during its court-authorized search in August. The department is conducting a criminal investigation into the retention of those records as well as into whether anyone obstructed its probe.
As part of the investigation, the FBI has interviewed multiple Trump aides, including a lawyer for him who served as a custodian of the records and who in June presented investigators with a signed letter asserting that all the classified records the Justice Department had asked for in a subpoena had been located and turned over.
Agents believed more records remained at the house, returned in August with a search warrant and removed 33 boxes of documents, including material classified at the top-secret level.
Weeks later, the Trump team asked a judge in Florida, Aileen Cannon, to appoint a special master to do an independent review of the records. Cannon agreed, naming a veteran Brooklyn judge, Raymond Dearie, to inspect the records and segregate from the rest of the investigation any documents that could possibly be covered by claims of executive privilege or attorney-client privilege.
The 11th Circuit subsequently lifted Cannon’s prohibition on the department’s use of the classified documents for its investigation pending Dearie’s review, as well as a requirement that the Justice Department provide those specific records to Dearie for his review.
The Supreme Court on Thursday declined a request from Trump’s lawyers to intervene in the dispute.
The Justice Department has repeatedly rejected the idea that a special master review was needed, and though it has been able to resume its review of the classified records, it said its investigation remains slowed by its inability to use the much larger set of non-classified documents as part of its probe.
“The district court’s injunction barring review and use of the other seized records harms the government and the public as well,” the department said. “A magistrate judge has already found probable cause to believe that those records may constitute evidence of crimes, and the government has demonstrated a clear need for them.”
_____
Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP | https://who13.com/news/politics/ap-politics/ap-justice-dept-seeks-end-to-arbiters-review-of-trump-docs/ | 2022-10-14 23:33:06 | 1 | https://who13.com/news/politics/ap-politics/ap-justice-dept-seeks-end-to-arbiters-review-of-trump-docs/ |
The Hollywood community has lost a beloved star.
Actor Lew Palter—who portrayed businessman and Macy's co-owner Isidor Straus in James Cameron's 1997 film Titanic—died from lung cancer on May 21, his daughter Catherine Palter confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter. He was 94.
In addition to his job as an actor, appearing in TV shows The Flying Nun and L.A. Law over the years, Lew was also a teacher at CalArts School of Theater from 1971 to 2013.
"As a teacher," Catherine told the outlet, "he seemed to have truly changed people's lives."
Travis Preston, the dean of the CalArts School of Theater, also told THR that Lew taught his students to really love the craft of acting.
"He fostered deep curiosity, care, intellect and humor in every scene, play and class," Travis shared. "He had the utmost respect of his students and encouraged all to find truth in their work and lives."
In recent weeks, the character Lew portrayed in Titanic has made headlines over Isidor's connection to the OceanGate expedition tragedy, which took the lives of passengers Stockton Rush (the CEO of OceanGate), Hamish Harding, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Shahzada Dawood and Suleman Dawood.
The five-person crew had been en route to view the wreckage of the RMS Titanic via a research submersible when it went missing on June 18. Four days later, authorities searching for the vessel discovered debris from the sub, with OceanGate concluding that the passengers had "sadly been lost" during their expedition.
And in an eerie twist, it was revealed that Stockton's wife Wendy Rush is the great-great-granddaughter of Isidor and Ida Straus, two of the most famous victims of the 1912 Titanic disaster. According to reports, Ida refused to leave her husband behind and gave up her seat on a lifeboat to stay with him after the Titanic hit an iceberg.
The 1997 film paid tribute to the couple—with Lew portraying Isidor—showing them in bed together as the Titanic began to sink. | https://www.eonline.com/news/1378335/lessigreatertitaniclessigreater-actor-lew-palter-dead-at-94?cmpid=rss-syndicate-genericrss-us-top_stories | 2023-06-27 13:04:51 | 1 | https://www.eonline.com/news/1378335/lessigreatertitaniclessigreater-actor-lew-palter-dead-at-94?cmpid=rss-syndicate-genericrss-us-top_stories |
I have been a resident of Bismarck for the past 10 years, and recently I have started paying more attention to politics because the next generation of leaders has started to step up to serve our city and state. Sean Cleary’s candidacy for State Senate in District 35 truly makes me excited and optimistic about what the future of Bismarck holds.
With dedicated leadership, Bismarck has the potential to continue to grow. I have no doubt Sean has the values and experience required to effectively serve the citizens of our city and state.
Sean’s biggest inspiration is his family — if you talk with him about it, you can tell how grateful he is to those who have gone before us, and how important he believes it is to serve those who will come after us. Sean understands the value of family and service.
I believe Sean will make a great state senator representing District 35. As a small business owner who has high hopes for the future of our city, I feel optimistic about leaders like Sean stepping up to serve our state.
People are also reading…
Caroline Crary, Bismarck | https://bismarcktribune.com/opinion/letters/letter-cleary-knows-value-of-family-service/article_52f21d80-dac2-11ec-8914-9f8b72b25e5f.html | 2022-05-28 06:47:16 | 1 | https://bismarcktribune.com/opinion/letters/letter-cleary-knows-value-of-family-service/article_52f21d80-dac2-11ec-8914-9f8b72b25e5f.html |
Less than 15% of Shares Outstanding Supported Aviat's Director Nominees
Excluding Aviat's Stake, Less Than 10% of Shares Outstanding Supported Aviat's Director Nominees
ROSH HA'AYIN, Israel, Aug. 23, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ceragon Networks Ltd. (NASDAQ: CRNT) (the "Company", "Ceragon", "we", "us", or "our"), a global innovator and leading solutions provider of 5G wireless transport, today announced that shareholders have overwhelmingly rejected ALL proposals set forth by Aviat Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVNW) at the Company's 2022 Extraordinary General Meeting ("EGM").
Ceragon issued the following statement:
We appreciate the significant support that our Board received from our shareholders. While preparing for the EGM, we have had the opportunity to speak directly with many of our shareholders to discuss Aviat's indication of interest as well as Ceragon's strategy and performance. We are pleased that our shareholders rejected Aviat's attempts to take control of our Board. We believe Ceragon has significant business momentum and upside, and we look forward to putting this proxy contest behind us. As we indicated many times, our Board is focused on maximizing value for all shareholders and remains open to any potential transaction that delivers full, fair and certain value to Ceragon shareholders including a combination with Aviat.
At the EGM, at least ~80% of the shares cast on the Company's white proxy card voted AGAINST ALL of Aviat's proposals, and more than 90% voted against most of Aviat's proposals. While the gold proxy card has no legal basis, even combined results, of both the white and gold proxy cards, show that at least ~63% of the shares cast voted AGAINST ALL of Aviat's proposals, and ~75% voted against most of Aviat's proposals. We would also note that Aviat's director nominees received support from less than 15% of total shares outstanding, and less than 10% of total shares outstanding excluding Aviat's stake, on both cards combined.
Today's outcome reinforces that Ceragon shareholders recognize that Aviat's indication of interest significantly undervalues Ceragon and that Aviat's attempts to take control of the Ceragon Board are not in the best interest of Ceragon shareholders.
Evercore is serving as financial advisor and Shibolet & Co. and Latham & Watkins LLP are serving as legal advisors to Ceragon.
About Ceragon Networks
Ceragon Networks Ltd. (NASDAQ: CRNT) is the global innovator and leading solutions provider of 5G wireless transport. We help operators and other service providers worldwide increase operational efficiency and enhance end customers' quality of experience with innovative wireless backhaul and fronthaul solutions. Our customers include service providers, public safety organizations, government agencies and utility companies, which use our solutions to deliver 5G & 4G broadband wireless connectivity, mission-critical multimedia services, stabilized communications, and other applications at high reliability and speed.
Ceragon's unique multicore technology and disaggregated approach to wireless transport provides highly reliable, fast to deploy, high-capacity wireless transport for 5G and 4G networks with minimal use of spectrum, power, real estate, and labor resources. It enables increased productivity, as well as simple and quick network modernization, positioning Ceragon as a leading solutions provider for the 5G era. We deliver a complete portfolio of turnkey end-to-end AI-based managed and professional services that ensure efficient network rollout and optimization to achieve the highest value for our customers. Our solutions are deployed by more than 400 service providers, as well as more than 800 private network owners, in more than 150 countries. For more information please visit: www.ceragon.com
Ceragon Networks® and FibeAir® are registered trademarks of Ceragon Networks Ltd. in the United States and other countries. CERAGON ® is a trademark of Ceragon Networks Ltd., registered in various countries. Other names mentioned are owned by their respective holders.
CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
This document contains statements that constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and the safe-harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are based on the current beliefs, expectations and assumptions of Ceragon's management about Ceragon's business, financial condition, results of operations, micro and macro market trends and other issues addressed or reflected therein. Examples of forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding: projections of demand, revenues, net income, gross margin, capital expenditures and liquidity, competitive pressures, order timing, supply chain and shipping, components availability, growth prospects, product development, financial resources, cost savings and other financial and market matters. You may identify these and other forward-looking statements by the use of words such as "may", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "estimates", "targets", "expects", "intends", "potential" or the negative of such terms, or other comparable terminology, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words.
Although we believe that the projections reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, we can give no assurance that our expectations will be obtained or that any deviations therefrom will not be material. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause Ceragon's future results or performance to differ materially from those anticipated, expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, any ongoing actions taken and future actions that may be taken by Aviat Networks Inc. or other stockholders or others; the continuing impact of the components shortage due to the global shortage in semiconductors, chipsets, components and other commodities, on our supply chain, manufacturing capacity and ability to timely deliver our products, which have caused, and could continue to cause delays in deliveries of our products and in the deployment of projects by our customers, risk of penalties and orders cancellation created thereby, as well as profit erosion due to constant price increase, payment of expedite fees and costs of inventory pre-ordering and procurement acceleration of such inventory, and the risk of becoming a deadstock if not consumed; the continued effect of the global increase in shipping costs and decrease in shipping slots availability on us, our supply chain and customers, which have resulted, and may continue to result in, price erosion, late deliveries and the risk of penalties and orders cancellation due to late deliveries; the impact of the transition to 5G technologies on our revenues if such transition is developed differently than we anticipated; the risks relating to the concentration of a major portion of our business on large mobile operators around the world from which we derive a significant portion of our ordering, that due to their relative effect on the overall ordering coupled with inconsistent ordering pattern and volume of business directed to us, creates high volatility with respect to our financial results and results of operations; the effect of the competition from other wireless transport equipment providers and from other communication solutions that compete with our high-capacity point-to-point wireless products; the continued effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy and markets and on us and on the markets in which we operate and our and our customers, providers, business partners and contractors business and operations; the risks relating to increased breaches of network or information technology security along with increase in cyber-attack activities, growing cyber-crime threats, and changes in privacy and data protection laws, that could have an adverse effect on our business; risks associated with any failure to meet our product development timetable, including delay in the commercialization of our new chipset; imposition of additional sanctions and global trade limitations in connection with Russia's invasion to Ukraine, the effects of general economic conditions and trends on the global and local markets in which we operate and such other risks, uncertainties and other factors that could affect our results, as further detailed in Ceragon's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F and in Ceragon's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Such forward-looking statements, including the risks, uncertainties and other factors that could affect our results, represent our views only as of the date they are made and should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any subsequent date. Such forward-looking statements do not purport to be predictions of future events or results and there can be no assurance that it will prove to be accurate. Ceragon may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future but the company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so except as may be required by law.
Ceragon's public filings are available on the Securities and Exchange Commission's website at www.sec.gov and may also be obtained from Ceragon's website at www.ceragon.com.
Ceragon Investor & Media Contact:
Maya Lustig
Ceragon Networks
Tel. +972-54-677-8100
mayal@ceragon.com
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Ceragon Networks Ltd. | https://www.wcjb.com/prnewswire/2022/08/23/ceragon-shareholders-overwhelmingly-reject-aviats-attempt-take-control-company-by-voting-against-all-aviats-proposals-2022-extraordinary-general-meeting/ | 2022-08-23 21:30:09 | 1 | https://www.wcjb.com/prnewswire/2022/08/23/ceragon-shareholders-overwhelmingly-reject-aviats-attempt-take-control-company-by-voting-against-all-aviats-proposals-2022-extraordinary-general-meeting/ |
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) _ The winning numbers in Tuesday afternoon's drawing of the Iowa Lottery's "Pick 3 Midday" game were:
2-5-5
(two, five, five)
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) _ The winning numbers in Tuesday afternoon's drawing of the Iowa Lottery's "Pick 3 Midday" game were:
2-5-5
(two, five, five) | https://www.sfgate.com/lottery/article/Winning-numbers-drawn-in-Pick-3-Midday-game-17586749.php | 2022-11-15 19:32:19 | 0 | https://www.sfgate.com/lottery/article/Winning-numbers-drawn-in-Pick-3-Midday-game-17586749.php |
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Republicans who signed a certificate falsely stating that Donald Trump had won the state in 2020 and that they were the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors will have to appear before a special grand jury investigating whether the former president and others illegally tried to interfere in the state’s election, a judge said Thursday.
Lawyers for 11 of the 16 people who signed that certificate, all of whom have received letters saying they could face criminal charges related to the investigation, had asked the judge to quash their subpoenas. Attorney Holly Pierson said that once her clients were told they were targets of the investigation, rather than witnesses, she advised them they should invoke their rights against self-incrimination and there are no questions she would be comfortable with them answering before the panel.
“We’re asking you on behalf of our clients not to have them frog-marched in front of the cameras into this courtroom,” Pierson said to Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who’s overseeing the special grand jury.
Lawyers with the Fulton County district attorney’s office said they planned to ask questions about topics other than just the selection of an alternate slate of electors, so they shouldn’t be excused from appearing just because they won’t answer questions on that topic.
McBurney said he would issue a written order soon, but said he would not quash the subpoenas. He suggested that the lawyers for the district attorney’s office and the lawyers for those who signed the false certificate should meet before each witness testifies to talk about the topics to be covered and then he could settle any disputes.
McBurney also heard arguments from a lawyer for state Sen. Burt Jones, the Republican nominee for Georgia lieutenant governor, who had asked the judge to remove District Attorney Fani Willis from the investigation. Willis has a conflict of interest because she hosted a fundraiser last month for Jones’ Democratic opponent, Charlie Bailey, attorney Bill Dillon argued. He also suggested that the district attorney’s office had leaked the fact that Jones, who signed the false electors certificate, was considered a target of the investigation to a reporter and then publicly confirmed that in a court filing to hurt Jones and help Bailey.
Disqualification of a district attorney requires an actual conflict of interest rather than just the appearance of a conflict of interest, and routine political support by an elected district attorney for another candidate from the same party does not meet that bar, said Anna Green Cross, a lawyer for Willis’ office.
McBurney said he doesn’t disagree that there’s an appearance of a conflict: “It’s a ‘What are you thinking?’ moment. The optics are horrible.”
But he repeatedly pressed Dillon on whether there was an actual conflict. He said he’s not inclined to remove the entire district attorney’s office from the investigation and asked Dillon what he would propose. Dillon suggested having state Attorney General Chris Carr appoint another prosecutor to handle any part of the investigation that has to do with Jones.
“Find somebody who doesn’t have a dog in the hunt. Fani Willis has a dog in the hunt,” he said, referring to her known support of Jones’s opponent.
The special grand jury, which operates behind closed doors, was seated in May at Willis’s request and has the power to subpoena evidence and witnesses. It does not have the power to issue an indictment. Instead, once its investigation is completed, it will issue a report with recommendations. It will then be up to Willis to decide whether to seek an indictment from a regular grand jury.
Dillon raised concerns that Willis could release the special grand jury report in mid-October, right before the November general election, and that could hurt Jones politically.
McBurney clarified that there is no definite timeline for the special grand jury, but he said it would be him and not Willis who would receive and release the report. He said he would ensure that there is a “meaningful time buffer” between the release and the election.
Also Thursday, Willis responded in federal court to an attempt by U.S. Rep. Jody Hice to avoid testifying before the special grand jury. She rejected his arguments and asked that the matter be returned to Fulton County Superior Court “in preparation for Congressman Hice’s compliance with his lawfully issued subpoena.”
Hice was one of several GOP lawmakers who attended a December 2020 meeting at the White House in which Trump allies discussed various ways to overturn Joe Biden’s electoral win.
Willis has also said her team is looking into is a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call in which Trump urged Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to “find” enough votes to overturn his loss; calls that Sen. Lindsey Graham made to Raffensperger; and false claims of election fraud that were made by Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and others during December 2020 legislative committee hearings at the state Capitol. | https://www.wane.com/news/politics/ap-politics/judge-wont-quash-subpoenas-for-georgia-false-electors/ | 2022-07-22 10:39:33 | 1 | https://www.wane.com/news/politics/ap-politics/judge-wont-quash-subpoenas-for-georgia-false-electors/ |
Bishop Guertin teammates Brady Dumont, left, and Connor Bouvier celebrate after Dumont scored a goal in Wednesday night’s Division I semfinals. The Cardinals beat Merrimack, 18-1.
Bishop Guertin teammates Brady Dumont, left, and Connor Bouvier celebrate after Dumont scored a goal in Wednesday night’s Division I semfinals. The Cardinals beat Merrimack, 18-1.
DAN DOYON
Bishop Guertin teammates Brady Dumont, left, and Connor Bouvier celebrate after Dumont scored a goal in Wednesday night’s Division I semfinals. The Cardinals beat Merrimack, 18-1.
DAN DOYON
Bishop Guertin’s Tim Kiely looks for an opening during Wednesday night’s Division I semifinals.
THE ONE CERTAINTY for nearly two decades in New Hampshire high school sports is that every June, the Bishop Guertin boys lacrosse team will be playing in the Division I championship game.
That remarkable streak continued on Wednesday night when the top-seeded two-time defending champion Cardinals punched their ticket to an 18th consecutive title game with an 18-1 dismantling of No. 5 Merrimack in the nightcap of the Division I semifinals.
Before the Cardinals stepped on the field, they already knew they’d be in line to renew a historic championship rivalry with Pinkerton Academy, after the third-seeded Astros survived a 13-12 decision against No. 2 Exeter in the first game of the night.
“From Day 1, this is the goal to get back here,” said BG senior Connor Bouvier. “We’ve worked hard and we’re excited to be back.
“This rivalry (with the Astros) has been around a long time before my class got here, and I can’t wait to play them for the championship.”
BG (17-3) and Pinkerton (15-5) will play for the 12th time with everything on the line when they return to Exeter High School for Sunday’s championship game at 2:30 p.m.
The Cardinals hold a 7-4 advantage in those games, with their last wins in the championship rivalry coming in 2016 and 2017. Pinkerton then beat the Cardinals in 2018 and 2019, before BG upended Exeter to win the past two titles.
Chris Cameron has been part of every incarnation of the rivalry during his 20 years as coach at BG. The biggest thing he said he needs to impress upon his team entering Sunday is for his team not to lose focus, despite his team’s 16-6 win over Pinkerton three weeks ago.
“That’s the message I have to get to my team,” Cameron said. “it was 16-6 and it wasn’t even that close. I think we’ve gotten better since then, but they’ve also gotten better since then.”
Bishop Guertin comes into the game as the favorite, ranked 25th nationally in the latest Nike/USA Lacrosse poll. The Cardinals’ only three losses have come against powerhouse out-of-state opponents.
Against in-state foes, BG averages 16.4 goals a game and allows 2.5 goals per game.
Pinkerton senior goalie Tyler LeBlanc, who made six saves in the fourth quarter in Wednesday’s win over Exeter, said he was fully aware of the enormous challenge looming ahead.
And, equally, the great opportunity that it represents.
“We are playing a top-25 team in the nation, but we have the ability to stay in a dogfight,” LeBlanc said. “I’m really happy to be a part of this rivalry between Pinkerton and BG. We have the mental fortitude.”
Pinkerton started the season 5-4 and has won 10 of its past 11 games, with the loss to Bishop Guertin as the only blemish during the stretch. Since a 5-4 loss to Exeter in April, Pinkerton coach Steve Gaudreau said, the team has found ways to win and was determined to return to the same field in June.
“Back in April we were on the other side of this one-goal game, and you could tell in the room that guys wanted to be back here and we really made it a mission,” Gaudreau said. “The guys have been fighting, they’ve put in a ton of time in practice and the effort is there. It’s all about effort and attitude.”
Pinkerton senior Matt Feole netted five goals including the game winner with 4:22 left in regulation in Wednesday’s win over Exeter.
“It feels like we’re back to where we’re supposed to be,” said Feole. “We worked hard for it all week and we ended up getting the job done. We know what happened the last time we played (Pinkerton) and we want to turn that around back to 2019 the last time we won.”
The Astros will need all the confidence they can muster if they want to pull off the upset. Bishop Guertin is led by 16 seniors ready to add to their legacy.
“When you have this many seniors that have been playing for so long, they play with poise and know how to play the game right,” Cameron said. | https://www.unionleader.com/sports/highschool/boys-lacrosse-division-i-finalists-bishop-guertin-pinkerton-are-familiar-foes/article_8f74c36b-508a-5c61-845a-d3cf9ceb4803.html | 2023-06-09 01:52:47 | 0 | https://www.unionleader.com/sports/highschool/boys-lacrosse-division-i-finalists-bishop-guertin-pinkerton-are-familiar-foes/article_8f74c36b-508a-5c61-845a-d3cf9ceb4803.html |
Unknown issue brings down Riverland internet service
Published 7:06 pm Friday, November 4, 2022
Issue still being looked into in order to determine impact
A computer issue at Riverland Community College that the school has labeled as a “significant incident” has brought down internet services across all three sites in Austin, Albert Lea and Owatonna on Friday.
College officials haven’t released the cause of the incident, but a question on a newly-made FAQ page on the RCC’s website said that the school is working to determine impact.
“We have been working to determine the impact and take action to secure our operations,” the FAQ reads. “They haven’t yet completed that work.”
The school is currently working with Minnesota State system office technology personnel, Microsoft and Dell to investigate and resolve whatever the issue is. As of late Friday afternoon, it was unclear what data is involved, which is also still under investigation.
While internet across the three sites is down, Riverland student housing utilizes independent internet service and remains operational. Phones are also working on campuses.
Until the issue is resolved, the school said that classes can still be taught in person, but will have to do so without using technology. Any use of Zoom is also affected given that while Zoom teaching is still possible, it can’t be accessed through the internet on campus.
At the same time, the school has said that hotspots and cellular data can be used on campus for internet connection.
Students and staff are asked to avoid downloading files until further notice and any passwords should be reset as a precaution.
Check back to the Austin Daily Herald as more information becomes available. To stay up to date through the college, visit: http://www.riverland.edu/index.html#update. | https://www.austindailyherald.com/2022/11/unknown-issue-brings-down-riverland-internet-service/ | 2022-11-05 07:18:41 | 1 | https://www.austindailyherald.com/2022/11/unknown-issue-brings-down-riverland-internet-service/ |
by: Nichole Niemann Posted: May 23, 2023 / 03:47 PM CDT Updated: May 23, 2023 / 03:47 PM CDT SHARE Yvette Coleman, QualChoice care manager, talks to Nichole about ways to support mental health for you or your loved ones.
Addicted to pickleball? Buy these shoes Pickleball has overtaken the racket sports world as one of the most popular sports to play. Make sure you’ve got the right gear with the best pickleball shoes!
Trader Joe’s has a bunch of new products this month Trader Joe’s is adding over two dozen products to its shelves this month. Check out what’s new and try some of these storage options to store your new snacks.
The Testing Lab: Is the Briggs and Riley carry-on … The BestReviews Testing Lab put the Briggs and Riley Sympatico Hardside Carry-On to the test. Find out what they learned! | https://www.kark.com/arkansas-style/mental-health-awareness/ | 2023-05-23 23:27:26 | 1 | https://www.kark.com/arkansas-style/mental-health-awareness/ |
SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — Despite tensions over crime and policing across the country a night dedicated to strengthening communities is going strong.
Several local townships boroughs and cities are holding their annual block parties Tuesday evening. It is an annual community-building campaign, in which police departments across the country will be taking part.
National Night Out began in 1981 in Montgomery County’s lower Merion Township. It’s now a tradition that 16,000 police departments across the country participate on the first Tuesday in August.
Celebrations often include a block party, festival, parade, or cookout, with extra police-themed activities like meeting police officers, the K9 team, and other first responders, such as firefighters.
Many departments also bring police cars and other vehicles to explore. The event has gained popularity as a way to build police-community relationships, especially in recent years. | https://www.pahomepage.com/news/police-hold-national-night-out-in-scranton/ | 2022-08-03 00:12:20 | 1 | https://www.pahomepage.com/news/police-hold-national-night-out-in-scranton/ |
Defense Secretary Austin positive for COVID-19 for second time
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Monday he has tested positive for COVID-19 and is experiencing mild symptoms and will quarantine at home. It’s the second time Austin has gotten the coronavirus.
In a statement, Austin, 69, said his is fully vaccinated and has received two boosters. He said he’ll quarantine for the next five days in accordance with CDC guidelines and “will retain all authorities and plan to maintain my normal work schedule virtually from home.”
Austin said his last in-person contact with President Joe Biden was on July 29.
In January, Austin also contracted COVID and had received a booster in October.
“Now, as in January, my doctor told me that my fully vaccinated status, including two booster shots, is why my symptoms are less severe than would otherwise be the case,” Austin said. “I will continue to consult closely with my doctor in the coming days.”
He added, “Vaccinations continue to both slow the spread of COVID-19 and to make its health effects less severe. Vaccination remains a medical requirement for our workforce, and I continue to encourage everyone to get fully vaccinated and boosted.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. | https://www.weau.com/2022/08/15/defense-secretary-austin-positive-covid-19-second-time/ | 2022-08-15 17:19:39 | 1 | https://www.weau.com/2022/08/15/defense-secretary-austin-positive-covid-19-second-time/ |
Janine Kasper Joins Risk and Compliance Management Solutions Leader as Vice President of Partnerships and Channels
AUSTIN, Texas, July 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- 360factors, Inc. announced today the addition of Janine Kasper as Vice President of Partnerships and Channels. As a strategic executive innovator growing channels and partner sales, Kasper has a proven track record of success in the banking, financial services, and fintech industries. Kasper will drive top-line revenue growth for the enterprise through strategic channels.
"Janine is a key addition to 360factors' high-growth team," Carl L. McCauley, CEO of 360factors, said. "Her track record of success, subject matter expertise, and a strong background in banking and financial services will enable us to further expand our market reach for banks, credit unions, mortgage companies, FinTechs, and other financial services organizations."
"My passion is to enable financial organizations to embrace innovative technology and launch new solutions that embody the highest levels of safety and soundness. It is an exciting time to join 360factors, given their technological innovation in risk and compliance software and accelerated growth. Leading the development and execution of partnerships and channels aligns with my values and commitment to the continued success of communities that make up our great nation for economic growth," said Kasper. "I am excited to join this creative team during a high-growth period and look forward to contributing to the company's success."
Before joining 360factors, Kasper's career spanned executive leadership, Board of Director and board advisory positions, and executive and senior management roles at TBA Services Company, a subsidiary of the Texas Bankers Association, Q2 Software, Star Tech Federal Credit Union, and more.
As a risk and compliance solutions leader within the banking and financial services industries, 360factors continues to develop relationships with organizations seeking to remove inefficiencies while elevating their risk and compliance management programs.
About 360factors, Inc.
360factors empowers organizations to accelerate profitability, innovation, and productivity by predicting risks and streamlining compliance. Predict360, its flagship software product, is a Risk and Compliance Intelligence Platform augmented with Artificial Intelligence technology to predict and mitigate operational risks while streamlining regulatory compliance. Predict360 integrates regulations and obligations, compliance management, risks and controls, audits and assessments, policies and procedures, and training in a single cloud-based SaaS platform based on artificial intelligence to provide predictive analytics and unique insights for predicting risks and streamlining compliance. 360factors is the exclusively endorsed solution provider for risk and compliance management by the American Bankers Association (ABA). Visit www.360factors.com for more information.
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE 360factors | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2022/07/13/360factors-expands-executive-team-with-key-new-hire/ | 2022-07-13 13:10:42 | 1 | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2022/07/13/360factors-expands-executive-team-with-key-new-hire/ |
NEW YORK, Jan. 20, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- With thousands of press releases published each week, it can be difficult to keep up with everything on PR Newswire. To help journalists covering the business technology industry stay on top of the week's most newsworthy and popular releases, here's a roundup of stories from the week that shouldn't be missed.
The list below includes the headline (with a link to the full text) and an excerpt from each story. Click on the press release headlines to access accompanying multimedia assets that are available for download.
- Deloitte Sponsors World Economic Forum Centre for Trustworthy Technology
The Centre's mission is focused on the responsible production and use of emerging technologies, such as, the metaverse, blockchain, digital reality, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence. - MinXray and DUXS Program Take First-Ever Diagnostic Radiographs in Zero-Gravity
The purpose of this study was to prove successful X-ray imaging is possible in a zero-gravity environment and show that existing equipment is capable of producing diagnostic images in both zero-gravity and Low Earth Orbit (LEO). - Emerson Announces Premium, All-Cash Proposal to Acquire National Instruments for $53 per Share
"Although Emerson would have preferred to reach an agreement privately, given NI's announcement that it is undertaking a strategic review, and after refusing to work with us toward a premium cash transaction over the past eight months, we are making our interest public for the benefit of all NI shareholders," said Lal Karsanbhai, President and Chief Executive Officer of Emerson. - S&P Global Announces Agreement to Sell Engineering Solutions Business to KKR "Today's announcement marks the next exciting step towards executing our strategy of powering global markets," said Douglas L. Peterson, President and Chief Executive Officer of S&P Global.
- Netflix Taps Nielsen for Global Audience Insights Kim Gilberti, SVP, Product Management at Nielsen, said, "As we move closer to providing comparable and deduplicated metrics across screens and platforms with Nielsen ONE, this agreement with Netflix is another great example of why Nielsen is well positioned to lead the audience measurement movement now and in the future."
- TaxBit Announces Acquisition of Digital Asset Accounting Startup Tactic
The combination of TaxBit's enterprise-grade digital asset tax and accounting solutions with Tactic's automated accounting software enables best-in-class crypto financial visibility and compliance for businesses. - Sound pioneer Ray Dolby's personal papers are donated to Stanford Libraries' Silicon Valley Archives
Dolby, known for taking the hiss out of tape recordings and developing sound technologies that revolutionized the entertainment industry, meticulously documented his curiosity and passion for sound, which started at an early age as revealed by high school papers. - Lennox Industries Introduces Groundbreaking Smart Home Innovation
The Lennox S40 Smart Thermostat and accessories go beyond "smart" to ensure the most perfect air and peace of mind for homeowners by detecting air pollutants, customizing comfort by room, providing maintenance reminders and service alerts, and more. - SAS and project44 Team Up to Power Real-Time Visibility and Planning
Bart De Muynck, project44's Chief Industry Officer, said, "Retailers know how a purchase goes from raw material to a store shelf or consumer's door, but supply chain visibility technology enables them to track, manage, measure and optimize every step of that journey in real-time. Our work with SAS is key to unlocking the most resilient and efficient logistics operations possible." - Movano Health's Evie Ring Wins 10 "Best of CES 2023" Awards
As the first medical grade smart ring designed for women, the product was extremely well received and garnered 10 "Best of CES" awards from major media publications, including USA Today, CNN, Wired, Digital Trends, Tom's Guide and more. - Lower Unveils Mortgage as a Service Platform, Announces Opendoor as First Customer Through the MaaS platform, Lower provides a solution for consumer finance, banking and real-estate brands to offer a digital-first home financing experience quickly and easily, with white-label options available. It can be embedded into the partner's customer journey through API and no-code solutions.
- Multilateral Collaboration Essential to Bridging the Digital Economic Divide, says DCO Report The Digital Cooperation Organization (DCO) launched the Bridging the Gap Report at the World Economic Forum in Davos, highlighting the critical need for greater international, multilateral cooperation to close the digital divide and ensure all nations can benefit from digital economies.
- Grubhub Partners with RapidSOS to Enhance Driver Safety through Faster & Smarter 911 Response
The partnership will provide Grubhub delivery partners the ability to share dynamic location data as well as caller ID (name, phone number) directly to 911 responders when an emergency call is placed via the Grubhub for Drivers App.
Read more of the latest business technology releases from PR Newswire and stay caught up on the top press releases by following @PRNtech on Twitter.
Helping Journalists Stay Up to Date on Industry News
These are just a few of the recent press releases that consumers and the media should know about. To be notified of releases relevant to their coverage area, journalists can set up a custom newsfeed with PR Newswire for Journalists.
Once they're signed up, reporters, bloggers and freelancers have access to the following free features:
- Customization: Create a customized newsfeed that will deliver relevant news right to your inbox. Customize the newsfeed by keywords, industry, subject, geography, and more.
- Photos and Videos: Thousands of multimedia assets are available to download and include with your next story.
- Subject Matter Experts: Access ProfNet, a database of industry experts to connect with as sources or for quotes in your articles.
- Related Resources: Read and subscribe to our journalist- and blogger-focused blog, Beyond Bylines, for media news roundups, writing tips, upcoming events, and more.
For more than 65 years, PR Newswire has been the industry leader with the largest, most comprehensive distribution network of print, radio, magazine, television stations, financial portals and trade publications. PR Newswire has an unparalleled global reach of more than 200,000 publications and 10,000 websites and is available in more than 170 countries and 40 languages.
PR Newswire for Journalists (PRNJ) is an exclusive community that includes over 20,000 journalists, bloggers and influencers who are logging into their PRNJ accounts specifically looking for story ideas. PR Newswire thoroughly researches and vets this community to verify their identity as a member of the press, blogger or influencer. PRNJ users cover more than 200 beats and verticals.
For questions, contact the team at media.relations@cision.com.
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE PR Newswire | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2023/01/20/this-week-tech-news-13-stories-you-need-see/ | 2023-01-20 13:14:35 | 0 | https://www.kfyrtv.com/prnewswire/2023/01/20/this-week-tech-news-13-stories-you-need-see/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department said Thursday it has adopted Turkey’s preferred spelling for the name of the country, Turkiye, acceding to a request from the NATO ally after several months of hesitation.
The department has instructed that new official documents refer to Turkiye instead of Turkey, although the pronunciation will not change, officials said. But neither the State Department website nor the Foreign Affairs Manual, which guides U.S. diplomatic practices, had been revised to reflect the change as of midday Thursday.
The move comes ahead of an expected visit to Washington later this month by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu during which Turkey's position on Russia's invasion of Ukraine and its resistance to allowing Finland and Sweden to join NATO will be high on the agenda.
Several other federal agencies, including the Treasury Department, had already adopted the new spelling, which had led to inconsistencies in documents across the U.S. government.
The change was revealed as the State Department released a statement in support of a Treasury move to sanction several Turkey-related businessmen and companies for supporting the Islamic State. It was later confirmed by two department officials.
Turkey asked last year for its name to be changed to Turkiye in international forums and most, including the United Nations and NATO, had switched to the new spelling.
The State Department, however, does not often change its style on the names of foreign countries and, in at least one notable case, has refused to do so for decades.
The U.S. still refuses to refer to Burma as Myanmar although the country's military rulers formally adopted Myanmar in 1989.
The last two countries that the State Department renamed following requests by their governments were North Macedonia, which changed its name from Macedonia in 2019, and Eswatini, which changed its name from Swaziland a year earlier. | https://www.ourmidland.com/news/article/US-changes-spelling-of-Turkey-at-NATO-ally-s-17696865.php | 2023-01-05 17:47:30 | 1 | https://www.ourmidland.com/news/article/US-changes-spelling-of-Turkey-at-NATO-ally-s-17696865.php |
Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE), the technology offshoot of the Williams Formula 1 team, used this week’s Low Carbon Vehicle Show in the U.K. to present the EVR, a modular electric-vehicle platform designed specifically for hypercar applications.
The company in 2021 presented a similar platform known as the EVX, which was developed to suit a variety of body styles and could support outputs as high as 1,341 hp. The EVR is more limited in the types of vehicles it can support, though its power band runs up to 2,212 hp.
Despite still being in development, the platform already has a customer in the form of Deus. The Austrian startup in April presented an electric hypercar built around the EVR platform.
The EVR features a lightweight composite structure that serves as the passenger cell, with the battery mounted behind it instead of in the floor, like in most EVs on sale today. Porsche took a similar route with its Mission R electric race car concept unveiled in 2021. The design avoids the issue of having a raised floor, while also replicating the familiar weight distribution of a mid-engine car. The EVR has also been designed without a roof, ensuring it supports open-top body styles.
The battery is an 85-kwh unit that WAE claims should deliver approximately 280 miles of range, and both rear- and all-wheel-drive configurations are supported. The range will depend largely on how the vehicle is driven. Making 0-60 mph acceleration runs in less than 2.0 seconds and driving up to the 248-mph top speed will certainly curb the range dramatically.
WAE said the EVR can be updated over time as battery and electric motor technology improves. The company also has a version of the platform that supports a hydrogen fuel cell stack as a range extender.
While companies can order the platform as a rolling chassis, WAE also plans to offer a turnkey solution in which the company can deliver a working prototype within 12 months of the project launch and a production vehicle within 24 months.
The Low Carbon Vehicle Show runs until Sept. 8 at the U.K.’s Millbrook Proving Ground. WAE also used the event to present a modular battery system for EVs, as well as a Triumph electric motorcycle prototype featuring one of its powertrain designs.
WAE was split off from the Williams F1 team in January when it was acquired by Fortescue Metals Group, an Australian mining company that intends to tap the engineering company’s expertise for the development of eco-friendly freight trains, mining trucks, and industrial heavy mobile equipment. However, WAE plans to continue offering its engineering services to third parties, as well as off-the-shelf solutions like the EVX and new EVR platforms.
Related Articles
- Review: Volkswagen ID.Buzz EV is tripping on the future
- Ford patents pet restraints for cars
- GM willing to buy out US Buick dealers
- Lotus Eletre electric super SUV hits the ‘Ring
- 2024 Polestar 2 spy shots: Mild update planned | https://cbs4indy.com/automotive/internet-brands/williams-engineering-outfit-shows-off-2200-plus-hp-modular-ev-platform-for-hypercars/ | 2022-09-07 23:23:26 | 1 | https://cbs4indy.com/automotive/internet-brands/williams-engineering-outfit-shows-off-2200-plus-hp-modular-ev-platform-for-hypercars/ |
Ex-UFC star Jorge Masvidal's home site of shooting, one in custody: reports
A person was shot at the Miami-Dade County home of former UFC fighter Jorge Masvidal on Thursday.
Miami-Dade police arrived at the residence shortly after 3 p.m. ET and took one person into custody – the victim was sent to a local hospital in stable condition.
Police said the former fighter himself was not a suspect, but they did say the person in custody is an older relative of the former fighter, WSVN-TV reported.
Jorge Masvidal reacts his welterweight bout against Gilbert Burns of Brazil during UFC 287 at Kaseya Center on April 08, 2023 in Miami, Florida. (Carmen Mandato/Getty Images)
Detectives said it was a domestic dispute that led to the shooting.
The person was shot twice in the upper part of the body, but the injuries are not considered to be life-threatening.
The shooting is under investigation. None of those involved have been identified.
JULIANNA PEÑA SIDELINED FOR FIGHT AGAINST AMANDA NUNES DUE TO FRACTURED RIB, DANA WHITE SAYS
Jorge Masvidal poses on the scale during the UFC 287 official weigh-in at the Hilton Downtown Miami hotel on April 07, 2023 in Miami, Florida. (Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
Masvidal retired last month after losing to Gilbert Burns at UFC 287 in Miami – it was his fourth consecutive loss to end his career.
The 38-year-old hung up the gloves with a 35-17 record after starting off 32-11. | https://www.fox29.com/news/ex-ufc-star-jorge-masvidals-home-site-of-shooting-one-in-custody-reports | 2023-05-05 14:21:13 | 1 | https://www.fox29.com/news/ex-ufc-star-jorge-masvidals-home-site-of-shooting-one-in-custody-reports |
ARLINGTON, Texas, May 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The City of Arlington selected Hellas Construction to install a new SoftTop® System soccer field at AT&T Stadium, home of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys. Currently the Cowboys have a SoftTop Field Conversion System that allows the facility to switch between a variety of events to maximize venue revenues. The SoftTop System allows crews to:
- install and remove the synthetic turf within 12 hours
- increase schedule flexibility
- protect the turf during non-athletic events
Since 2009, the stadium has hosted the international soccer opening, quarterfinals, semi-final, and gold-cup CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central America, and Caribbean Association Football) matches. In fact the first match on this new turf system at AT&T Stadium will be held May 28, 2022 when the Mexican National Team squares off with Nigeria in a friendly exhibition.
Global energy and excitement will be focused on the upcoming matches in Qatar where 29 qualified teams including the United States and Mexico will participate in the World Cup. Hellas has been at the forefront of professional synthetic turf design and is the largest sports contractor in America specializing in manufacturing, construction, and installation of sports surfaces.
Third party performance testing of synthetic and natural grass fields revealed that the surfaces perform virtually identically with respect to shock absorption, energy return to athletes, rotational resistance to cleats, and a range of other metrics.
Hellas crews installed Matrix REAL® synthetic turf with RealFill® infill at AT&T Stadium. Matrix REAL features a predictable ball roll on the playing surface with a unique construction that encourages blade recovery. Athletes experience play that is closest to natural grass with reaction time and speed. The Matrix REAL system ensures maximum safety, durability, and player satisfaction that has been a proven winner internationally.
Hellas Construction takes a turn-key approach to athletic facilities. The firm manufactures its synthetic turf, track, and court surfacing materials at three Hellas factories in the United States.
AT&T Stadium, formerly Cowboys Stadium, is a retractable roof stadium in Arlington, Texas, United States. It serves as the home of the Dallas Cowboys of the NFL, who play in the NFC East Division.
About Hellas Construction Inc., headquartered in Austin, Texas, is America's largest sports contractor specializing in the construction and installation of sports surfaces. The firm owns and operates its own heavy construction equipment staffed by specially trained and certified employee crews. Controlling the supply chain and workforce means Hellas can complete any turf, track, or court project – start to finish - without delay. To learn more about Hellas visit www.hellasconstruction.com
Product Links
Matrix Turf: the best artificial turf system available
Contact: Jeff Power
Hellas Construction Director of Communications
512-297-5708
jpower@hellasconstruction.com
View original content to download multimedia:
SOURCE Hellas Construction | https://www.wagmtv.com/prnewswire/2022/05/27/hellas-softtop-soccer-system-installed-atampt-stadium-international-play/ | 2022-05-27 21:20:55 | 0 | https://www.wagmtv.com/prnewswire/2022/05/27/hellas-softtop-soccer-system-installed-atampt-stadium-international-play/ |
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it is extending the nationwide mask requirement for airplanes and public transit for 15 days as it monitors an uptick in COVID-19 cases.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was extending the order, which was set to expire on April 18, until May 3 to allow more time to study the BA.2 omicron subvariant that is now responsible for the vast majority of cases in the U.S.
“In order to assess the potential impact the rise of cases has on severe disease, including hospitalizations and deaths, and health care system capacity, the CDC order will remain in place at this time,” the agency said in a statement.
When the Transportation Security Administration, which enforces the rule for planes, buses, trains and transit hubs, extended the requirement last month, it said the CDC had been hoping to roll out a more flexible masking strategy that would have replaced the nationwide requirement.
The mask mandate is the most visible vestige of government restrictions to control the pandemic, and possibly the most controversial. A surge of abusive and sometimes violent incidents on airplanes has been attributed mostly to disputes over mask-wearing.
Airlines have lobbied for months to kill the requirement, arguing that effective air filters on modern planes make transmission of the virus during a flight highly unlikely. Republicans in Congress also fought to kill the mandate.
Critics have seized on the fact that states have rolled back rules requiring masks in restaurants, stores and other indoor settings, and yet COVID-19 cases have fallen sharply since the omicron variant peaked in mid-January.
“It is very difficult to understand why masks are still required on airplanes, but not needed in crowded bars and restaurants; in packed sports arenas; in schools full of children; or at large indoor political gatherings,” Nicholas Calio, the CEO of industry trade group Airlines for America, said Wednesday in a letter to the heads of the CDC and the Health and Human Services Department. “Simply put, an extension of the mask mandate does not make sense.”
There has been a slight increase in cases in recent weeks, with daily confirmed cases nationwide rising from about 25,000 per day to more than 30,000. More than 85% of those cases are the highly contagious BA.2 strain. Those figures could be an undercount since many people now test positive on at-home tests that are not reported to public health agencies.
Severe illnesses and deaths tend to lag infections by several weeks. The CDC is awaiting indications of whether the increase in cases correlates to a rise in adverse outcomes before announcing a less restrictive mask policy for travel.
A poll in mid-March by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that Americans are evenly divided over keeping the mask rule for transportation.
The poll found that 51% wanted the mandate to expire and 48% said it should remain in place – in effect, a tie, given the poll’s margin of error. Democrats overwhelmingly supported the rule, and Republicans were even more united in opposing it. Vaccinated people and those with chronic health conditions favored keeping the rule, but by smaller margins.
Airlines imposed their own mask mandates in 2020, when the Trump administration declined to take action. Unions representing flight attendants, which once backed mask rules, now decline to take a position because their members are divided over the issue.
It is unclear whether eliminating the rule would make people more or less likely to travel on planes or subways.
Ed Bastian, the CEO of Delta Air Lines, said that some people might start flying if they don’t have to wear a mask, and others might stop flying if other passengers are unmasked. He called both groups “fringe,” and he predicted that many people will continue to wear masks even if the rule is dropped.
___
David Koenig reported from Dallas. AP Health Writer Mike Stobbe in New York contributed to this report. | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/ap-source-cdc-to-extend-travel-mask-requirement-for-2-weeks/ | 2022-04-14 07:09:20 | 1 | https://www.cbs42.com/news/business/ap-source-cdc-to-extend-travel-mask-requirement-for-2-weeks/ |
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Tuesday he wants to allow foreign airlines to operate domestic service between Mexican cities, to drive down prices.
Mexican law currently prohibits foreign carriers from operating purely domestic flights. For example, a U.S. airline can currently fly from New York to Cancun, but not Cancun to Mexico City. Known as “cabotage,” the president wants to allow the practice to lower ticket prices.
“The other thing is to open up aviation,” López Obrador. “Let's open it up to competition. That's democracy.”
“Let foreign airlines come in, from Europe and the United States, so that they can operate flights inside the country,” he said.
The proposal would fly in the face of López Obrador’s push to make Mexico self-sufficient. But the president allows wants to lower domestic airfares, and bring service to smaller cities that lack flights.
The president is also eager to get more airlines to fly into the new airport he ordered built at a former air force base just north of Mexico City; that terminal is currently under-used. | https://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Mexico-leader-open-domestic-flights-to-foreign-17533146.php | 2022-10-25 17:07:56 | 1 | https://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/Mexico-leader-open-domestic-flights-to-foreign-17533146.php |
After landslide midterm victory, DeSantis sidesteps talk of 2024 White House bid
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday continued to sidestep questions about his political future, after former President Donald Trump announced another bid for the White House.
Appearing in the Lee County community of Matlacha, DeSantis brushed off a question about the possibility of a Republican civil war that would force party members to choose between him and Trump in the 2024 presidential primaries.
Instead, DeSantis focused on last week’s elections, when he defeated Democratic challenger Charlie Crist by more than 1.5 million votes and Florida Republicans expanded their control of state government.
"People just need to chill out a little bit on some of this stuff. I mean, seriously, we just ran an election," DeSantis said before pivoting to last week’s national results and a Dec. 6 runoff election in Georgia between Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker.
"We have this Georgia runoff coming, which is very important for Republicans to win that Georgia runoff," DeSantis said. "I know around the country Florida was kind of the biggest bright spot (for Republicans). It was not so bright in many other parts of the country. It was a substandard performance, given the dynamics that are at play."
Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis tosses hats before giving a campaign speech at a rally for Florida Republicans at the Cheyenne Saloon on November 7, 2022 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Octavio Jones/Getty Images)
DeSantis, who during his 2018 gubernatorial campaign played up a close relationship with then-President Trump, similarly deflected questions Tuesday about Trump and the future of the Republican Party during an appearance in Fort Walton Beach.
That appearance came hours before Trump announced his 2024 candidacy for president during an event at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach.
Before last week’s elections, Trump gave a disparaging nickname to DeSantis, calling him "DeSanctimonious." He also described DeSantis as "an average Republican governor," and later offered an unsubstantiated claim that he sent federal agents to South Florida to keep the 2018 election from being "stolen" from DeSantis.
Trump didn’t bring up DeSantis on Tuesday but praised Texas Gov. Greg Abbott as a "very good man" working hard to address immigration issues.
During the appearance Tuesday in Fort Walton Beach, DeSantis offered a few subtle jabs, pointing to disappointing election results last week for key Trump-endorsed candidates across the country.
"At the end of the day, I would just tell people to go check out the scoreboard from last Tuesday night," DeSantis replied to a question about Trump’s disparaging comments.
On Wednesday, DeSantis said he is focused on governing — from rebuilding after hurricanes Ian and Nicole to preparing for an expected special legislative session in December and the 2023 regular legislative session. Matlacha sustained damage in Hurricane Ian.
"I think what we showed in Florida is, just produce results, lead with conviction," DeSantis said. "I never put my finger in the wind or took polls. I just did what I thought was right. But what the election gives us the opportunity to do is to continue to deliver. And, so, we're going to continue to deliver. We're not going to look back. And I think that that's very, very significant."
While DeSantis has remained coy about a possible White House bid, he continues to draw comparisons between Florida and the federal government and other states.
"I think Florida has shown that, you know you look at all the problems that the country is having, the inflation, the open border, all these different things. A lot of failures," DeSantis said. "Florida is an example that, you know what, you can get the big things right. You can get things right."
RELATED: Will Ron DeSantis run for president? Speculation runs high after his 20-point gubernatorial victory
On Tuesday, DeSantis criticized the midterm results for the GOP as "underwhelming" and suggested other Republican leaders across the country follow the Florida "blueprint." Among other things, Republicans fell short of winning a majority in the U.S. Senate.
"People think the country's going in the wrong direction. When that happens, they almost always want to choose to correct that. Yet in a lot of these states, they didn’t do that," DeSantis said. | https://www.fox13news.com/news/after-landslide-midterm-victory-desantis-sidesteps-talk-of-2024-white-house-bid | 2022-11-16 20:15:55 | 0 | https://www.fox13news.com/news/after-landslide-midterm-victory-desantis-sidesteps-talk-of-2024-white-house-bid |
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will meet Monday with President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of next week’s Group of 20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia, a face-to-face meeting that comes amid increasingly strained U.S.-China relations, the White House announced Thursday.
It will be the first in-person meeting between the leaders of the world’s two biggest economies since Biden became president in January 2021 and comes weeks after Xi was awarded a norm-breaking third, five-year term as the Chinese Communist Party leader during the party’s national congress.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement the leaders will meet to “discuss efforts to maintain and deepen lines of communication between” the two countries and to “responsibly manage competition and work together where our interests align, especially on transnational challenges that affect the international community.”
The White House has been working with Chinese officials over the last several weeks to arrange the meeting. Biden on Wednesday told reporters that he intended to discuss with Xi growing tensions between Washington and Beijing over the self-ruled island of Taiwan, trade policies, Beijing’s relationship with Russia and more.
“What I want to do with him when we talk is lay out what each of our red lines are and understand what he believes to be in the critical national interests of China, what I know to be the critical interests of the United States,” Biden said. “And determine whether or not they conflict with one another.”
The White House sought to downplay expectations for the meeting, telling reporters there was no joint communique or deliverables anticipated from the sit-down.
“I don’t think you should look at this meeting as one in which there’s going to be specific deliverables announced,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said. “Rather the two leaders are going to give direction to their teams to work on a number of areas, both areas where we have differences and areas where we can work together.”
Biden and Xi traveled together in the U.S. and China in 2011 and 2012 when both leaders were serving as their respective countries’ vice presidents, and they have held five phone or video calls since Biden became president in January 2021. But the U.S.-China relationship has become far more complicated since those getting-to-know-you talks in Washington and on the Tibetan plateau a decade ago.
As president, Biden has repeatedly taken China to task for human rights abuses against the Uyghur people and other ethnic minorities, Beijing’s crackdowns on democracy activists in Hong Kong, coercive trade practices, military provocations against self-ruled Taiwan and differences over Russia’s prosecution of its war against Ukraine.
Weeks before Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine, the Russian president met with Xi in Beijing and the two issued a memorandum expressing hopes of a “no limits” relationship for their nations.
China has largely refrained from criticizing Russia’s war but thus far has held off on supplying Moscow with arms.
“I don’t think there’s a lot of respect that China has for Russia or Putin,” Biden said Wednesday. “And in fact, they’ve been sort of keeping the distance a little bit.”
The leaders were also expected to address U.S. frustrations that Beijing has not used its influence to press North Korea to pull back from conducting provocative missile tests and to abandon its nuclear weapons program. Biden was set to discuss threats from North Korea with the leaders of South Korea and Japan a day before sitting down with Xi.
Sullivan said Biden would meet with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Seok Yeol on Sunday on the margins of the East Asia Summit in Cambodia, where North Korea’s saber rattling is expected to be the focus of talks.
Xi’s government has criticized the Biden administration’s posture toward Taiwan — which Beijing looks eventually to unify with the communist mainland — as undermining China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The Chinese president also has suggested that Washington wants to stifle Beijing’s growing clout as it tries to overtake the U.S. as the world’s largest economy.
Tensions over Taiwan have grown since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August.
Biden said that he’s “not willing to make any fundamental concessions” about the United States’ Taiwan doctrine.
Under its “One China” policy, the United States recognizes the government in Beijing while allowing for informal relations and defense ties with Taipei. It takes a stance of “strategic ambiguity” toward the defense of Taiwan — leaving open the question of whether it would respond militarily were the island attacked.
Asked about the anticipated meeting, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a Thursday news briefing that China was looking for “win-win cooperation with the U.S.” while reiterating Beijing’s concerns about the U.S. stance on Taiwan.
“The U.S. needs to stop obscuring, hollowing out and distorting the One China principle, abide by the basic norms in international relations, including respecting other countries’ sovereignty, territorial integrity and noninterference in other countries’ internal affairs,” he said.
Biden caused a stir in Asia in May when at a news conference in Tokyo, said “yes” when asked if he was willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan if China invaded. The White House and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin were quick to clarify that there was no change in U.S. policy.
Beijing sees official American contact with Taiwan as encouragement to make the island’s decades-old de facto independence permanent, a step U.S. leaders say they don’t support. Pelosi is the highest-ranking elected American official to visit since then-Speaker Newt Gingrich in 1997.
Xi has stayed close to home throughout the global COVID-19 pandemic, where he has enforced a “zero-COVID” policy that has resulted in mass lockdowns that have roiled the global supply chains.
He made his first trip outside China since start of the pandemic in September with a stop in Kazakhstan and then onto Uzbekistan to take part in the eight-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization with Putin and other leaders of the Central Asian security group.
U.S. officials were eager to see how Xi approaches the meeting after being newly empowered with a third term and consolidating his position as the unquestioned leader of the state, saying they would wait to assess whether that made him more or less likely to seek out areas of cooperation with the U.S.
They emphasized that party congress results reinforced the importance of direct engagement with Xi, rather than lower level officials whom they’ve found unable or unwilling to speak for the Chinese leader.
Sullivan says it “remains to be seen” what impact Xi’s cementing another five years as Communist Party leader will have on his approach to the U.S.-China relationship. | https://phl17.com/national-news/ap-biden-to-meet-chinas-xi-on-monday-for-taiwan-russia-talks/ | 2022-11-10 23:03:56 | 1 | https://phl17.com/national-news/ap-biden-to-meet-chinas-xi-on-monday-for-taiwan-russia-talks/ |
Kroger Reports Third Quarter 2022 Results and Raises Full-Year Guidance
Published: Dec. 1, 2022 at 7:15 AM EST|Updated: 17 minutes ago
- Identical Sales without fuel increased 6.9%
- Operating Profit of $841 million; Adjusted FIFO Operating Profit of $1,094 million
- EPS of $0.55; Adjusted EPS of $0.88
- Company is executing its go-to-market strategy to deliver value for customers
CINCINNATI, Dec. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) today reported its third quarter 2022 results and will update investors on how Leading with Fresh and Accelerating with Digital continues to position Kroger for long-term sustainable growth.
Comments from Chairman and CEO Rodney McMullen
"Kroger achieved strong results in the third quarter as we continue to execute our Leading with Fresh and Accelerating with Digital strategy. Our associates are doing an outstanding job delivering a full, fresh and friendly experience across our seamless store and digital ecosystem.
Kroger's value proposition, which includes providing great quality, fresh products at affordable prices, data-driven promotions, trusted Our Brands products and an industry-leading fuel rewards program, is resonating with shoppers and driving increased customer loyalty.
This quarter demonstrates the strength of our approach to growing our business. By delivering for our customers, investing in our associates and supporting our communities, we are creating attractive and sustainable total returns for our shareholders."
Third Quarter Financial Results
Total company sales were $34.2 billion in the third quarter, compared to $31.9 billion for the same period last year. Excluding fuel, sales increased 6.4% compared to the same period last year.
Gross margin was 21.4% of sales for the third quarter. The FIFO gross margin rate, excluding fuel, decreased 5 basis points compared to the same period last year. This result reflected Kroger's ability to effectively manage higher product cost inflation and shrink through strong sourcing practices, while also helping customers manage their budgets and keeping prices competitive.
The LIFO charge for the quarter was $152 million, compared to a LIFO charge of $93 million for the same period last year, driven by higher product cost inflation primarily in grocery.
The Operating, General & Administrative rate decreased 3 basis points, excluding fuel and adjustment items, compared to the same period last year. The decrease in OG&A rate was driven by sales leverage and the continued execution of cost savings initiatives partially offset by investments in associates.
Rent and depreciation as a rate to sales, excluding fuel, decreased 9 basis points due to sales leverage.
Capital Allocation Strategy
Kroger continues to generate strong free cash flow and remains committed to investing in the business to drive long-term sustainable net earnings growth, as well as maintaining its current investment grade debt rating. The Company will continue to pay its quarterly dividend and expects this to increase over time, subject to board approval. Kroger has already paused its share repurchase program to prioritize de-leveraging following the proposed merger with Albertsons.
Kroger's net total debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio is 1.61, compared to 1.68 a year ago (Table 5). The company's net total debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio target range is 2.30 to 2.50.
2022 Guidance
Comments from CFO Gary Millerchip
"Kroger's focus on delivering value for customers and our disciplined approach to managing costs in an inflationary environment led to another quarter of strong results. Our consistent execution of our go-to-market strategy continues to build momentum in our business results and gives us the confidence to raise our full-year guidance. We now expect identical sales without fuel to be in the range of 5.1% to 5.3% and adjusted net earnings per diluted share to be in the range of $4.05 to $4.15.
The resiliency of Kroger's value creation model positions us well to navigate different operating environments, and as we look forward, we remain confident in our ability to deliver attractive and sustainable total shareholder returns for investors."
Full-Year 2022 Guidance - Updated
Third Quarter 2022 Highlights
Leading with Fresh
- Launched Our Brands Innovation Summit, a program designed to uncover new and exciting private brand items that highlight market trends
- Introduced 147 new Our Brands items, including products to enhance the holiday season
- Expanded Alternative Farming offerings to 792 total stores connecting more communities to locally sourced fresh and sustainable products
- Announced the top 2022 fall food trends, predicting customer behavior and popular items for the upcoming season
- Celebrated four awards earned by Murray's Cheese varieties at the World Cheese Awards
Accelerating with Digital
- Increased delivery sales by 34% over last year driven by Kroger Boost and Customer Fulfillment Centers
- Launched Kroger floral and sushi delivery in collaboration with DoorDash in more than 1,000 locations
- Expanded Kroger Precision Marketing's programmatic advertising marketplace to include Connected TV and video capabilities
- Introduced the Rachael Ray Home Chef meal kit, which guides customers through an easy-to-follow recipe created by the chef
Associate Experience
- Honored by the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce with Employee Resource Group of the Year Award for Kroger's Hispanic/Latino Associate Resource Group, KEPASA
- Celebrated the 28 company leaders named by Progressive Grocer as 2022 GenNext Honorees, an award recognizing leaders under the age of 40 who are driving change and innovation within the organizations and communities they serve
- Launched the Civic Engagement Campaign connecting associates to resources about the elections, voter registration and ways to vote in their states
- Held a virtual veteran and military family career expo event as part of Kroger's commitment to hiring veterans, military service members and their families
Live Our Purpose
- Named as the 2022 Retailer of the Year by Supermarket News for Kroger's vision and innovation in executing its Leading with Fresh and Accelerating with Digital strategy
- Awarded scholarships to 120 children of Kroger associates named as Kroger Scholars; with a total of more than $4.5 million awarded since 2008
- Hosted the Kroger Wellness Festival, a two-day event that featured an all-star lineup of celebrities, professional athletes and wellness experts in support of a holistic approach to healthy living
- Participated in the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health and made several commitments to end hunger and create healthier communities
- Awarded scholarships from the Kroger Foundation's Racial Equity Fund as part of the second annual Zero Hunger I Zero Waste Innovation Challenge in collaboration with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund
About Kroger
At The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR), we are dedicated to our Purpose: to Feed the Human Spirit™. We are, across our family of companies nearly half a million associates who serve over eleven million customers daily through a seamless digital shopping experience and retail food stores under a variety of banner names, serving America through food inspiration and uplift, and creating #ZeroHungerZeroWaste communities by 2025. To learn more about us, visit our newsroom and investor relations site.
Kroger's third quarter 2022 ended on November 5, 2022.
Note: Fuel sales have historically had a low gross margin rate and operating expense rate as compared to corresponding rates on non-fuel sales. As a result, Kroger discusses the changes in these rates excluding the effect of fuel.
Please refer to the supplemental information presented in the tables for reconciliations of the non-GAAP financial measures used in this press release to the most comparable GAAP financial measure and related disclosure. As noted above, Kroger is unable to provide a full reconciliation of the GAAP and non-GAAP measures used in its guidance without unreasonable effort because it is not possible to predict certain of our adjustment items with a reasonable degree of certainty. This information is dependent upon future events and may be outside of our control and its unavailability could have a significant impact on GAAP financial results.
This press release contains certain statements that constitute "forward-looking statements" about the future performance of the company. These statements are based on management's assumptions and beliefs in light of the information currently available to it. Such statements are indicated by words or phrases such as "achieve," "committed," "confidence," "continue," "expect," "future," "guidance," "positions," "target," and "will." Various uncertainties and other factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. These include the specific risk factors identified in "Risk Factors" in our annual report on Form 10-K for our last fiscal year and any subsequent filings, as well as the following:
Kroger's ability to achieve sales, earnings, incremental FIFO operating profit, and adjusted free cash flow goals may be affected by: the risks relating to or arising from our proposed transaction with Albertsons announced in October 2022, including, among others, our ability to consummate the proposed transaction, including on the terms of the merger agreement, on the anticipated timeline, and/or with the required regulatory approvals; COVID-19 pandemic related factors, risks and challenges, including among others, the length of time that the pandemic continues, future variants, mutations or related strains of the virus and the effectiveness of vaccines against variants, continued efficacy of vaccines over time and availability of vaccine boosters, the potential for disruptions in workforce availability and customer shopping patterns due to spikes in infection and illness rates, and interruptions in domestic and global supply chains or capacity constraints; whether and when the global pandemic will become endemic, the pace of recovery when the pandemic subsides or becomes endemic, which may vary materially over time and among the different regions we serve; labor negotiations; potential work stoppages; changes in the unemployment rate; pressures in the labor market; changes in government-funded benefit programs; changes in the types and numbers of businesses that compete with Kroger; pricing and promotional activities of existing and new competitors, including non-traditional competitors, and the aggressiveness of that competition; Kroger's response to these actions; the state of the economy, including interest rates, the current inflationary environment and future potential inflationary and/or deflationary trends and such trends in certain commodities, products and/or operating costs; the geopolitical environment including the war in Ukraine; unstable political situations and social unrest; changes in tariffs; the effect that fuel costs have on consumer spending; volatility of fuel margins; manufacturing commodity costs; supply constraints; diesel fuel costs related to Kroger's logistics operations; trends in consumer spending; the extent to which Kroger's customers exercise caution in their purchasing in response to economic conditions; the uncertainty of economic growth or recession; stock repurchases; changes in the regulatory environment in which Kroger operates; Kroger's ability to retain pharmacy sales from third party payors; consolidation in the healthcare industry, including pharmacy benefit managers; Kroger's ability to negotiate modifications to multi-employer pension plans; natural disasters or adverse weather conditions; the effect of public health crises or other significant catastrophic events; the potential costs and risks associated with potential cyber-attacks or data security breaches; the success of Kroger's future growth plans; the ability to execute our growth strategy and value creation model, including continued cost savings, growth of our alternative profit businesses, and our ability to better serve our customers and to generate customer loyalty and sustainable growth through our strategic pillars of fresh, our brands, personalization, and seamless; and the successful integration of merged companies and new partnerships. Our ability to achieve these goals may also be affected by our ability to manage the factors identified above. Our ability to execute our financial strategy may be affected by our ability to generate cash flow.
Kroger's effective tax rate may differ from the expected rate due to changes in tax laws, the status of pending items with various taxing authorities, and the deductibility of certain expenses.
Kroger assumes no obligation to update the information contained herein unless required by applicable law. Please refer to Kroger's reports and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a further discussion of these risks and uncertainties.
Note: Kroger's quarterly conference call with investors will broadcast live at 9 a.m. (ET) on December 1, 2022 at ir.kroger.com. An on-demand replay of the webcast will be available at approximately 1 p.m. (ET) on Thursday, December 1, 2022.
3rd Quarter 2022 Tables Include:
- Consolidated Statements of Operations
- Consolidated Balance Sheets
- Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows
- Supplemental Sales Information
- Reconciliation of Net Total Debt and Net Earnings Attributable to The Kroger Co. to Adjusted EBITDA
- Net Earnings Per Diluted Share Excluding the Adjustment Items
- Operating Profit Excluding the Adjustment Items
View original content:
SOURCE The Kroger Co.
The above press release was provided courtesy of PRNewswire. The views, opinions and statements in the press release are not endorsed by Gray Media Group nor do they necessarily state or reflect those of Gray Media Group, Inc. | https://www.wagmtv.com/prnewswire/2022/12/01/kroger-reports-third-quarter-2022-results-raises-full-year-guidance/ | 2022-12-01 12:32:40 | 0 | https://www.wagmtv.com/prnewswire/2022/12/01/kroger-reports-third-quarter-2022-results-raises-full-year-guidance/ |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.