The manager of a downtown Nelson business that first opened over 50 years ago says it lost all of its inventory after a fire was set outside its building in November. Nature's Health, which sells health products and supplements, has been closed since Nov. 21 when a pallet was set on fire in an alley outside its building at 461 Josephine St. The fire spread through the rear exterior stairs and destroyed three lower level rooms as well as a washroom. Although the fire didn't make it upstairs to the storefront, smoke seeped in and destroyed all of the stock. Nature's Health manager Fred Tarasoff said prior to the fire, the business had stocked up for its busiest months of the year that happen to be November, December and January. “It was really sad to see, because a lot of it seemed in really good shape. But when it comes down to smoke, it can penetrate through a lot of plastics and it was deemed that most of it was unsalvageable and unsellable.” Nature's Health is one of Nelson's oldest businesses. The store was started by Fred Tarasoff's father John in 1970 or 1971, with its first tiny storefront at Ward and Baker Streets. Fred first started working at the store when he was about eight years old, and now manages it with his brother Tom and sister-in-law Kathy acting as owners. The loss of their business right as the holiday season was beginning has been difficult for the family to cope with. “It's been a lot of ups and downs," said Fred. "I think initially I described it as sort of the stages of loss or grief that we've gone through, everything from anger to sadness to grief to you name it.” Nature's Health is currently being gutted ahead of a restoration company's arrival. Fred said the landlord supports their return, which he admitted wasn't a sure thing in the days after the fire. But now Fred says it is likely Nature's Health will reopen next year, possibly in April at the earliest. He credited community support for helping his family decide to rebuild. “A lot of these customers have become really very close to us. It’s almost like our family in some ways. A lot of them are now adults but came to my dad’s store as toddlers, and now they’re bringing their toddlers into this store.”
Connor Gaydos, a man connected to an apparent parody project to relaunch the energy company Enron and become its new CEO , was hit in the face with a pie this week as he was entering a building in New York City. The incident was caught on video and went viral on social media Thursday. The clip shows Gaydos exiting an SUV shortly before an older man slams the pie into his face as two bodyguards intervene. The bizarre incident mirrored one from more than two decades earlier, when a California woman tossed a pie into the face of Enron’s then-CEO Jeffrey Schilling . Earlier this month, a group announced the scandal-plagued Texas company was returning exactly 23 years after filing for bankruptcy amid massive fraud. “With a bold new vision, Enron will leverage cutting-edge technology, human ingenuity, and the spirit of adaptation to address the critical challenges of energy, sustainability, accessibility and affordability,” the company said in a press release that raised questions about its legitimacy. The announcement was reportedly joined by billboards in the Houston area, a full-page ad in the Houston Chronicle and a video promoting the company’s comeback. An investigation conducted by Houston station KHOU turned up a disclaimer on the company’s website that read, “The information on the website is First Amendment-protected parody , represents performance art and is for entertainment purposes only.” Many have speculated the company’s reemergence is merely a publicity stunt promoting cryptocurrency .
Hamilton and High Point knock off Hampton 76-73
An on-field interaction between a UW-Madison Police officer and a Nebraska football assistant coach after Saturday's game was a "misunderstanding" that ended in an apology, a police spokesperson said. Lt. Adam Boardman, one of the UWPD officers escorting University of Wisconsin coach Luke Fickell to the locker room amid fans rushing the field after a 44-25 Huskers victory , turned away to grab Nebraska offensive line coach Donovan Raiola by the arm, video posted to social media showed . Video of postgame encounter between Luke Fickell, Donovan Raiola circulates online That followed an apparent exchange of words between Raiola and Fickell and Badgers assistant offensive line coach Casey Rabach, who were walking in opposite directions. The context of the discussion wasn't apparent from the video, but Fickell and Raiola both pointed at the other, and Rabach later pointed at Raiola. Boardman and Raiola talked for about 15 seconds after Boardman pried Raiola away from a hug with Nebraska running backs coach EJ Barthel. UWPD spokesperson Marc Lovicott said it was a "misunderstanding amid a pretty chaotic scene." He said Boardman made contact with an "unknown individual who had approached" Badgers coaches as they were leaving the field. "Once it was confirmed that the individual was a member of the Nebraska coaching staff, the UWPD officer apologized for the misunderstanding," Lovicott wrote in an email Tuesday. "The interaction concluded cordially with a handshake." Lovicott said UW Police has made contact with counterparts at Nebraska "and they're also considering it a misunderstanding." Raiola played for Wisconsin from 2002 to 2005. "I don't want speculate without knowing, obviously Donny went to Wisconsin, so I don't know if there was some history there with somebody or something," said Nebraska coach Matt Rhule, who said he was shown video of the incident Monday. "When I asked Donny about it, he was like, 'No big deal.' Things happen after games and people are emotional, but he seemed to kinda brush it off." Fickell said he didn't know much about the interaction when he was asked about it at his weekly news conference Monday. "I mean, I don't know if he was talking to Casey, somebody said something, I don't know," Fickell said. "I just said it looked like maybe he said something to me, but I had no idea. And I had no idea that that was even something. So if it was, I didn't spend a whole lot of time thinking about it." BadgerExtra reporter Colten Bartholomew and Lincoln Journal Star reporter Luke Mullin contributed to this report. Get local news delivered to your inbox!
Luigi Mangione, charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York , penned a 262-word manifesto railing against the health insurance industry , which has been published in full for the first time. The manifesto was obtained by police when they arrested Mangione on Monday at a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Below, find the full manifesto written by Mangione. The document was published to Substack by journalist Ken Klippenstein and law enforcement sources confirmed the text to TMZ. "To the Feds, I’ll keep this short, because I do respect what you do for our country. To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasn’t working with anyone," began Mangione. "This was fairly trivial: some elementary social engineering, basic CAD, a lot of patience. The spiral notebook, if present, has some straggling notes and To-do lists that illuminate the gist of it." Luigi Mangione pictured in 'suicide prevention gown' as he's charged with CEO killing Luigi Mangione’s explosive nine-word rant as cops drag him by neck and slam him into courthouse door "My tech is pretty locked down because I work in engineering so probably not much info there. I do apologize for any strife of traumas but it had to be done," he continued. "Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming. A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy." "United is the [indecipherable] largest company in the US by market cap, behind only Apple, Google, Walmart," he added. "It has grown and grown, but as our life expectancy? No the reality is, these [indecipherable] have simply gotten too powerful, and they continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allowed them to get away with it." "Obviously the problem is more complex, but I do not have space, and frankly I do not pretend to be the most qualified person to lay out the full argument," stated Mangione. "But many have illuminated the corruption and greed (e.g.: Rosenthal, Moore), decades ago and the problems simply remain. It is not an issue of awareness at this point, but clearly power games at play. Evidently I am the first to face it with such brutal honesty." In addition to the manifesto, it was reported by the arresting officer that the man was carrying a passport and $10,000 in cash, $2,000 of it in foreign currency inside of a backpack. It was also noted that, in addition to the cash and passport, Mangione was also reportedly carrying a box of blue surgical masks and a black 3D-printed pistol and a 3D-printed silencer. Despite the cutting words, Mangione never named Thompson personally. Mangione is currently fighting to be extradited to New York where he had been charged with one count of murder, two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, one count of second-degree possession of a forged document and one count of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon. Just before the hearing on Tuesday, it was reported that the Maryland native, who was dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit and handcuffed, shouted and struggled with officers as he was led into a Pennsylvania courthouse. According to the Associated Press, the words shouted by Luigi Mangione were unintelligible, however, it claimed that it was something to the effect of “This is extremely unjust, and an insult to the intelligence of the American people .” DAILY NEWSLETTER: Sign up here to get the latest news and updates from the Mirror US straight to your inbox with our FREE newsletter.
Parkland produces first batch of low carbon jet fuel made in Canada
Middle East Luxury Furniture Market to Grow by USD 413.02 Million (2024-2028), Driven by Rising Office Spaces, AI Redefining Market Landscape - TechnavioAMMAN, Jordan — President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced Israel and Lebanon have reached a ceasefire agreement meant to pause fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah. The 14-month conflict has left more than 3,000 people dead. “Effective 4 a.m. tomorrow local time the fighting across the Lebanese-Israeli border will end. Will end,” Biden said from the White House. “This is designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities. I applaud the courageous leaders of Lebanon and Israel end the violence.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier Tuesday he had recommended that this government approve the agreement. Though the deal does not involve the separate conflict in Gaza Strip, Biden administration officials said they hoped it would lead to an agreement to end fighting there, too. Even as the deal was finalized, Israeli warplanes launched a series of airstrikes across Lebanon, striking areas in the country’s southern and eastern regions, along with the suburbs of the capital — areas where Hezbollah holds sway. Several airstrikes also hit the heart of Beirut, killing at least 10 people, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. In a televised address on Tuesday evening local time, Netanyahu said he would present the outline of the proposal to the government, pushing his ministers to accept the move despite reservations from far-right leaders who are integral members of his coalition. “The length of the ceasefire will depend on what happens in Lebanon,” Netanyahu said. He added that Israel would maintain freedom to act against violations. “If Hezbollah breaks the agreement and seeks to arm itself, we will attack,” he said. The agreement would not immediately affect the fighting in Gaza Strip with the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Netanyahu pushed his ministers to accept the agreement, arguing it would allow Israel to focus its attention on the threat from Iran, give Israeli troops an opportunity to replenish their stocks and isolate Hamas. The agreement will initiate a 60-day truce that would see both sides withdraw: Israeli troops out of south Lebanon to Israeli territory, and Hezbollah to areas north of the Litani River, some 18 miles north of the Lebanese-Israeli border. During the truce, a monitoring mechanism would be established that would ensure Hezbollah is not able to reconstitute itself or wage attacks on Israel from southern Lebanon. A U.S.-led committee would oversee implementation of the withdrawal. Lebanese officials say some 5,000 soldiers from Lebanon’s army — which has remained neutral during the conflict — would then enter south Lebanon, along with U.N. peacekeeping forces. Lebanon’s caretaker government is set to meet Wednesday morning to discuss the proposal; it is widely expected to be approved. Despite the optimism, many elements of the ceasefire proposal — which came about after vigorous negotiations brokered by the U.S. and France — remain unclear. One of the larger sticking points is whether Israel would be able to continue striking Hezbollah throughout Lebanon if the group attempts to reestablish a presence south of the Litani River, or if it continues to wage attacks on Israel or smuggle weapons. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told the U.N.’s Lebanon envoy Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert on Tuesday that Israel would act “forcefully” against any breach of the ceasefire agreement. “If you do not act, we will do it, forcefully,” Katz said in a statement. “Any house rebuilt in south Lebanon and used as a terrorist base will be destroyed, any rearming or terrorist organization will be attacked, any attempt at transferring arms will be foiled, and any threat against our forces or our citizens will be immediately eliminated.” Lebanese leaders have dismissed such an agreement as an unacceptable breach of Lebanon’s sovereignty. The ceasefire would officially be an agreement between Israel and Lebanon. It includes a Lebanese lawmaker who has been negotiating on Hezbollah’s behalf. But Hezbollah, a paramilitary faction and political party which is backed by Iran, is not officially a party to the agreement. Another question is the fate of Hezbollah’s weapons. Before the war, the group was considered one of the world’s premier paramilitary factions, with an arsenal more powerful than that of the Lebanese army. The ceasefire agreement, which is based on a U.N. resolution that established a ceasefire in the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel, has provisions that would force the group to surrender its arms. A ceasefire would end a 13-month conflict that began a day after Hamas attacked southern Israel, when Hezbollah initiated a rocket campaign in northern Israel in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. In the months of tit-for-tat strikes that followed, some 60,000 people from northern Israel and approximately 100,000 Lebanese from southern Lebanon were displaced. In September, Israel escalated its attacks, conducting thousands of airstrikes on Hezbollah-dominated parts of the country and starting an invasion that saw Israeli troops enter southern Lebanon for the first time since 2006. It also assassinated Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah . Since Oct. 8, 2023, more than 3,823 people have been killed in Lebanon and 15,859 injured, according to Lebanese government data, the majority of them in the last two months. More than 25% of those killed were women and children, according to the government data, which do not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Meanwhile, some 1.2 million people — almost a quarter of Lebanon’s population — have been displaced, with wide swaths of the country destroyed. The Israeli government said on Tuesday that 78 Israelis have been killed in attacks by Hezbollah and its allies, including 47 civilians. Even as senior Israeli ministers were meeting at Israeli military headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israeli warplanes launched some 180 airstrikes across the country, according to a statement from Israel’s military. It issued evacuation warnings for some cities. The military said it was targeting Hezbollah’s infrastructure, including the group’s financial arm. Among the targets were four neighborhoods of central Beirut with which had previously been spared from the fighting. One raid hit Hamra, a popular shopping district in the capital which in recent months has become a sanctuary for hundreds of thousands displaced from the Dahieh, the constellation of suburbs south of Beirut where many of Hezbollah’s offices are headquartered. The Dahieh too was pounded by an intense barrage of more than 20 airstrikes, leaving the area obscured by a curtain of smoke and rocking buildings in adjacent neighborhoods. “The hysterical Israeli aggression this evening on Beirut and various Lebanese regions, which specifically targets civilians, confirms once again that the Israeli enemy does not respect any law or consideration,” said Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati in a statement on Tuesday. He called on the international community “to act quickly to stop this aggression and implement an immediate ceasefire.” Meanwhile, Hezbollah continued its barrage against northern Israel, lobbing dozens of projectiles across the border. ©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Modivcare sees $539,210 stock purchase by Q Global Capital
Antimatter Propulsion Is Still Far Away, But It Could Change Everything
Rakovina Therapeutics Announces Closing of Oversubscribed $3M Private PlacementBad actors are seeking cryptocurrency in almost every scheme tracked by the FBI. From fraudulent investments to tech support and romance scams, and most recently, a surge in employment scams. And as Bitcoin reaches record highs, Special Agent David Paniwozik with FBI Baltimore sees more people wanting to capitalize on cryptocurrency. “The fear of missing out. So, they want to get involved, try to make money, and it seems like a quick, easy way to do it,” said SA Paniwozik. But a major problem is this technology is still unfamiliar to investors, making them more susceptible to scams. “There is no cap on whether you want to move $1 to hundreds of millions or billions of dollars. You can just seamlessly move that from a wallet controlled in the United States to a wallet controlled overseas, in, you know, a matter of seconds,” SA Paniwozik warned. Scammers set up their own cryptocurrency exchanges, making you believe your investment has grown exponentially, or they say you must make cryptocurrency payments to “unlock work” that offers high payouts. The FBI Internet Crime Complaint issued an alert in June about this work-from-home scam. “It's this confusing compensation structure that the scammers try to tell them, and it looks like, hey, if I pay $10 to rate this product, I'll get $15 in return, so then once they do that round, the scammer says, okay, well, you need to deposit more money to get to the next round of work,” said SA Paniwozik. And when victims go to cash out, they’re told they can’t. SA Paniwozik has seen a huge spike in reports of employment scams involving cryptocurrency. Reported losses in Maryland went from $32,033 in 2023 to $3.8 million between January and October of this year. “So you're looking at about $15,000 to $20,000 per person on average that has fallen victim in Maryland alone to these scams,” said SA Paniwozik. Cryptocurrency is desired by scammers because transactions are instant and irrevocable, but that doesn’t mean they’re untraceable. “On the blockchain, we can look up those addresses, and then if we wanted to reverse trace it, we could find, let's say it's a certain exchange that paid into this wallet, we can then serve legal processes to say, hey, can you give us a list of all user accounts that paid into this address and possibly contact those victims live and say, hey, you're currently being the victim of one of these scams,” SA Paniwozik detailed. It’s a new proactive approach by the FBI as these scams become more prevalent and costly. According to the FBI’s 2023 Cryptocurrency Fraud Report , cryptocurrency-related complaints only made up around 10 percent of total financial fraud complaints, however, the stolen value accounted for almost 50 percent of total losses. Click here to see the other 12 Scams of Christmas. This story was originally published by Mallory Sofastaii at Scripps News Baltimore .
NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart’s sweeping rollback of its diversity policies is the strongest indication yet of a profound shift taking hold at U.S. companies that are re-evaluating the legal and political risks associated with bold programs to bolster historically underrepresented groups. The on Monday followed a string of legal victories by conservative groups that have filed an onslaught of lawsuits challenging corporate and federal programs aimed at elevating minority and women-owned businesses and employees. The retreat from such programs crystalized with the election of former President Donald Trump, whose administration is certain to make dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion programs a priority. Trump’s incoming deputy chief of policy will be his former adviser , who leads a group called America First Legal that has aggressively challenged corporate DEI policies. “There has been a lot of reassessment of risk looking at programs that could be deemed to constitute reverse discrimination,” said Allan Schweyer, principal researcher the Human Capital Center at the Conference Board. “This is another domino to fall and it is a rather large domino,” he added. Among other changes, Walmart said it will no longer give priority treatment to suppliers owned by women or minorities. The company also will not renew a five-year commitment for a racial equity center set up in 2020 after the police killing of George Floyd. And it pulled out of a . Schweyer said the biggest trigger for companies making such changes is simply a reassessment of their legal risk exposure, which began after that ended affirmative action in college admissions. Since then, conservative groups using similar arguments have secured court victories against various diversity programs, especially those that steer contracts to minority or women-owned businesses. Most recently, the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty won a victory in a case against the U.S. Department of Transportation over its use of a program that gives priority to minority-owned businesses when it awards contracts. Companies are seeing a big legal risk in continuing with DEI efforts, said Dan Lennington, a deputy counsel at the institute. His organization says it has identified more than 60 programs in the federal government that it considers discriminatory, he said. “We have a legal landscape within the entire federal government, all three branches — the U.S. Supreme Court, the Congress and the President — are all now firmly pointed in the direction towards equality of individuals and individualized treatment of all Americans, instead of diversity, equity and inclusion treating people as members of racial groups,” Lennington said. The Trump administration is also likely to take direct aim at DEI initiatives through executive orders and other policies that affect private companies, especially federal contractors. “The impact of the election on DEI policies is huge. It can’t be overstated,” said Jason Schwartz, co-chair of the Labor & Employment Practice Group at law firm Gibson Dunn. With Miller returning to the White House, rolling back DEI initiatives is likely to be a priority, Schwartz said. “Companies are trying to strike the right balance to make clear they’ve got an inclusive workplace where everyone is welcome, and they want to get the best talent, while at the same time trying not to alienate various parts of their employees and customer base who might feel one way or the other. It’s a virtually impossible dilemma,” Schwartz said. A recent survey by Pew Research Center showed that workers are divided on the merits of DEI policies. While still broadly popular, the share of workers who said focusing on workplace diversity was mostly a good thing fell to 52% in the October survey, compared to 56% in a similar survey in February 2023. Rachel Minkin, a research associated at Pew called it a small but significant shift in short amount of time. There will be more companies pulling back from their DEI policies, but it likely won’t be a retreat across the board, said David Glasgow, executive director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at New York University. “There are vastly more companies that are sticking with DEI,” Glasgow said. “The only reason you don’t hear about it is most of them are doing it by stealth. They’re putting their heads down and doing DEI work and hoping not to attract attention.” Glasgow advises organizations to stick to their own core values, because attitudes toward the topic can change quickly in the span of four years. “It’s going to leave them looking a little bit weak if there’s a kind of flip-flopping, depending on whichever direction the political winds are blowing,” he said. One reason DEI programs exist is because without those programs, companies may be vulnerable to lawsuits for traditional discrimination. “Really think carefully about the risks in all directions on this topic,” Glasgow said. Walmart confirmed will no longer consider race and gender as a litmus test to improve diversity when it offers supplier contracts. Walmart says its U.S. businesses sourced more than $13 billion in goods and services from diverse suppliers in fiscal year 2024, including businesses owned by minorities, women and veterans. It was unclear how its relationships with such business would change going forward. Organizations that that have partnered with Walmart on its diversity initiatives offered a cautious response. The Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, a non-profit that last year named Walmart one of America’s top corporation for women-owned enterprises, said it was still evaluating the impact of Walmart’s announcement. Pamela Prince-Eason, the president and CEO of the organization, said she hoped Walmart’s need to cater to its diverse customer base will continue to drive contracts to women-owned suppliers even if the company has no explicit dollar goals. “I suspect Walmart will continue to have one of the most inclusive supply chains in the World,” Prince-Eason wrote. “Any retailer’s ability to serve the communities they operate in will continue to value understanding their customers, (many of which are women), in order to better provide products and services desired and no one understands customers better than Walmart.” Walmart’s announcement came after the company spoke directly with conservative political commentator and activist Robby Starbuck, who has been going after corporate DEI policies, calling out individual companies on the social media platform X. Several of those companies have subsequently announced that they are pulling back their initiatives, including , Harley-Davidson, and . Walmart confirmed to The Associated Press that it will better monitor its third-party marketplace items to make sure they don’t feature sexual and transgender products aimed at minors. The company also will stop participating in the Human Rights Campaign’s annual benchmark index that measures workplace inclusion for LGBTQ+ employees. A Walmart spokesperson added that some of the changes were already in progress and not as a result of conversations that it had with Starbuck. RaShawn “Shawnie” Hawkins, senior director of the HRC Foundation’s Workplace Equality Program, said companies that “abandon” their commitments workplace inclusion policies “are shirking their responsibility to their employees, consumers, and shareholders.” She said the buying power of LGBTQ customers is powerful and noted that the index will have record participation of more than 1,400 companies in 2025. Alexandra Olson And Cathy Bussewitz, The Associated Press
By DAVID BAUDER Time magazine gave Donald Trump something it has never done for a Person of the Year designee: a lengthy fact-check of claims he made in an accompanying interview. Related Articles National Politics | Trump’s lawyers rebuff DA’s idea for upholding his hush money conviction, calling it ‘absurd’ National Politics | Trump wants to turn the clock on daylight saving time National Politics | Ruling by a conservative Supreme Court could help blue states resist Trump policies National Politics | A nonprofit leader, a social worker: Here are the stories of the people on Biden’s clemency list National Politics | Nancy Pelosi hospitalized after she ‘sustained an injury’ on official trip to Luxembourg The fact-check accompanies a transcript of what the president-elect told the newsmagazine’s journalists. Described as a “12 minute read,” it calls into question 15 separate statements that Trump made. It was the second time Trump earned the Time accolade; he also won in 2016, the first year he was elected president. Time editors said it wasn’t a particularly hard choice over other finalists Kamala Harris, Elon Musk, Benjamin Netanyahu and Kate Middleton. Time said Friday that no other Person of the Year has been fact-checked in the near-century that the magazine has annually written about the figure that has had the greatest impact on the news. But it has done the same for past interviews with the likes of Joe Biden, Netanyahu and Trump. Such corrections have been a sticking point for Trump and his team in the past, most notably when ABC News did it during his only debate with Democrat Kamala Harris this fall. There was no immediate response to a request for comment on Friday. In the piece, Time called into question statements Trump made about border security, autism and the size of a crowd at one of his rallies. When the president-elect talked about the “massive” mandate he had received from voters, Time pointed out that former President Barack Obama won more electoral votes the two times he had run for president. The magazine also questioned Trump’s claim that he would do interviews with anyone who asked during the campaign, if he had the time. The candidate rejected a request to speak to CBS’ “60 Minutes,” the magazine said. “In the final months of his campaign, Trump prioritized interviews with podcasts over mainstream media,” reporters Simmone Shah and Leslie Dickstein wrote. David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder and https://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.Democratising AI needs a radically different approach
