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Photo: Pixabey Packman Open Hearts in Vernon is looking for community support to help supply necessary items for their upcoming Christmas dinner. The charitable group helps feed and clothe an average of 70 people per week in Vernon. Last year, their Christmas dinner helped feed 50 people in Vernon. In 2024, they are expecting that number to jump to 100. “We feed anybody that's hungry, the seniors, the homeless, anybody at all,” said Co-Founder Tracey Griffin. Needed Christmas dinner items: 4-6 turkeys 2 large boxes of instant potatoes (1.47 kg boxes) 5 bags frozen veggies (2 kg packages) 16 cans cranberries 40 gravy packages 100 dinner rolls 28 cutlery packages 100 take-away meal containers Needed stocking stuffer items: 100 pairs of gloves 93 kleenex packages 100 razors 80 socks 100 oranges 38 soap 98 face clothes 100 hot chocolate packs 89 hand or foot warmers 100 $5 Tim Hortons gift cards More information on different ways you can donate can be found here .Game-Changer Stocks! Why Gamers Should Watch Tesla’s Stock Chart
WASHINGTON, Dec. 23, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman , head of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and the voice for America’s more than 34 million small businesses in President Biden’s Cabinet, announced that the SBA has granted Small Business Lending Company (SBLC) licenses to four lending institutions committed to expanding access to capital to underserved markets. The awarding of four new SBLCs—Cooperative Business Services, A10 Capital, Lafayette Square, and Stonehenge Capital—marks the SBLC program’s second expansion during the Biden-Harris Administration and the second made in 40 years. This broadens the availability of 7(a) loans in low-income and other underserved communities nationwide from their locations in Ohio, Idaho, Washington, D.C., and Louisiana, respectively. “For the second time in over 40 years, the Biden-Harris SBA welcomes new lenders with a shared mission of filling capital gaps in underserved communities – the very same communities who are starting businesses at the highest rates in America today,” said Administrator Guzman. “With private markets playing an increasingly important role in small business lending, this expansion delivers against the Biden-Harris Administration’s unwavering commitment to providing affordable financing to the incredible entrepreneurs and new business starts revitalizing Main Streets across America. Congratulations to the four new licensees as they work alongside the mission-focused teams at the SBA to put the American dream of business ownership within reach for more entrepreneurs.” The SBA approves SBLC licenses for selected non-depository lenders to increase responsible small business lending. An SBLC license allows the lending organization to access the SBA’s 7(a) government guarantee program when underwriting small business loans to reduce the level of risk to the lender and cost to the borrower. As a result, SBLCs are positioned to underwrite higher volumes of loans to eligible small businesses than possible without a government guaranty. “Cooperative Business Services, LLC, is honored to receive an SBA SBLC license, a pivotal milestone that reinforces our commitment to serving communities through our innovative credit union consortium. By partnering with local credit unions, we can expand access to vital capital for underserved markets, empowering entrepreneurs to start, operate, and grow businesses that drive economic growth and strengthen the fabric of our communities,” said Cooperative Business Services, LLC., President and CEO Keith Reed. “This achievement underscores our dedication to fostering collaboration and supporting the credit unions that make our mission possible.” “A10 Capital is truly honored to receive a new SBLC license from the SBA. We look forward to applying our decades of knowledge, expertise and experience to provide lending solutions to small businesses nationwide that are unable to access constructive forms of credit elsewhere,” said A10 Capital CEO Anuj Gupta. “Small businesses are the backbone of the U.S. economy and we are eager to quickly launch operations and commence providing capital to small businesses across a wide range of sectors, industry groups and geographies.” “Lafayette Square USA, Inc., appreciates receiving this new SBLC license that will allow our private credit platform to expand into 7(a) lending,” said Lafayette Square USA, Inc., President and CEO Damien Dwin. “As a business development company with two SBIC licenses, we are committed to partnering with SBA in pursuit of our Goal 2030 to support 100,000 working-class jobs, invest 50% of our capital in working-class places including rural areas, and see 50% adoption of managerial assistance across our portfolio. Our business model relies upon marrying capital, services, and technology for American small businesses, making this SBLC license incredibly valuable in driving our performance. We look forward to supporting entrepreneurs in working-class places across the country.” “For over 25 years, Stonehenge Capital has supported small businesses in underserved communities across the country,” said Stonehenge Capital Senior Managing Director of L’Quentus Thomas. “With our impact focus, we have helped entrepreneurs and small business owners grow their businesses by accessing capital that can be difficult to obtain in many areas. The SBLC license will give us a new tool to provide SBA 7(a) capital to small businesses with a particular focus on low-moderate income and rural areas in the U.S. We are honored that the SBA chose Stonehenge, and we look forward to playing a part in growing strong businesses and new jobs in underserved communities.” With this second expansion of four new SBLC licenses, SBA now has expanded the network from 14 SBLCs to 20 SBLCs helping to bring capital to new markets. ### About the U.S. Small Business Administration The U.S. Small Business Administration helps power the American dream of business ownership. As the only go-to resource and voice for small businesses backed by the strength of the federal government, the SBA empowers entrepreneurs and small business owners with the resources and support they need to start, grow, or expand their businesses, or recover from a declared disaster. It delivers services through an extensive network of SBA field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations. To learn more, visit www.sba.gov . SBA HQ Press Team U.S. Small Business Administration press_office@sba.govTikTok's future uncertain after appeals court rejects its bid to overturn possible US ban A federal appeals court panel on Friday unanimously upheld a law that could lead to a ban on TikTok in a few short months, handing a resounding defeat to the popular social media platform as it fights for its survival in the U.S. The U.S. Haleluya Hadero, The Associated Press Dec 6, 2024 11:16 AM Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message A neon TikTok logo hangs in the lobby of the TikTok office building in Culver City, Calif., on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel) A federal appeals court panel on Friday unanimously upheld a law that could lead to a ban on TikTok in a few short months, handing a resounding defeat to the popular social media platform as it fights for its survival in the U.S. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied TikTok's petition to overturn the law — which requires TikTok to break ties with its China-based parent company ByteDance or be banned by mid-January — and rebuffed the company's challenge of the statute, which it argued had ran afoul of the First Amendment. “The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States,” said the court's opinion, which was written by Judge Douglas Ginsburg. “Here the Government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to gather data on people in the United States.” TikTok and ByteDance — another plaintiff in the lawsuit — are expected to appeal to the Supreme Court, though its unclear whether the court will take up the case. “The Supreme Court has an established historical record of protecting Americans’ right to free speech, and we expect they will do just that on this important constitutional issue," TikTok spokesperson Michael Hughes said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the TikTok ban was conceived and pushed through based upon inaccurate, flawed and hypothetical information, resulting in outright censorship of the American people,” Hughes said. Unless stopped, he argued the statute “will silence the voices of over 170 million Americans here in the US and around the world on January 19th, 2025.” Though the case is squarely in the court system, its also possible the two companies might be thrown some sort of a lifeline by President-elect Donald Trump, who tried to ban TikTok during his first term but said during the presidential campaign that he is now against such action . The law, signed by President Joe Biden in April, was the culmination of a years-long saga in Washington over the short-form video-sharing app, which the government sees as a national security threat due to its connections to China. The U.S. has said it’s concerned about TikTok collecting vast swaths of user data, including sensitive information on viewing habits , that could fall into the hands of the Chinese government through coercion. Officials have also warned the proprietary algorithm that fuels what users see on the app is vulnerable to manipulation by Chinese authorities, who can use it to shape content on the platform in a way that’s difficult to detect — a concern mirrored by the European Union on Friday as it scrutinizes the video-sharing app’s role in the Romanian elections. TikTok, which sued the government over the law in May, has long denied it could be used by Beijing to spy on or manipulate Americans. Its attorneys have accurately pointed out that the U.S. hasn’t provided evidence to show that the company handed over user data to the Chinese government, or manipulated content for Beijing’s benefit in the U.S. They have also argued the law is predicated on future risks, which the Department of Justice has emphasized pointing in part to unspecified action it claims the two companies have taken in the past due to demands from the Chinese government. Friday’s ruling came after the appeals court panel, composed of two Republican and one Democrat appointed judges, heard oral arguments in September. In the hearing, which lasted more than two hours, the panel appeared to grapple with how TikTok’s foreign ownership affects its rights under the Constitution and how far the government could go to curtail potential influence from abroad on a foreign-owned platform. On Friday, all three of them denied TikTok’s petition. In the court's ruling, Ginsburg, a Republican appointee, rejected TikTok's main legal arguments against the law, including that the statute was an unlawful bill of attainder or a taking of property in violation of the Fifth Amendment. He also said the law did not violate the First Amendment because the government is not looking to "suppress content or require a certain mix of content” on TikTok. “Content on the platform could in principle remain unchanged after divestiture, and people in the United States would remain free to read and share as much PRC propaganda (or any other content) as they desire on TikTok or any other platform of their choosing,” Ginsburg wrote, using the abbreviation for the People’s Republic of China. Judge Sri Srinivasan, the chief judge on the court, issued a concurring opinion. TikTok’s lawsuit was consolidated with a second legal challenge brought by several content creators - for which the company is covering legal costs - as well as a third one filed on behalf of conservative creators who work with a nonprofit called BASED Politics Inc. Other organizations, including the Knight First Amendment Institute, had also filed amicus briefs supporting TikTok. “This is a deeply misguided ruling that reads important First Amendment precedents too narrowly and gives the government sweeping power to restrict Americans’ access to information, ideas, and media from abroad,” said Jameel Jaffer, the executive director of the organization. “We hope that the appeals court’s ruling won’t be the last word.” Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, lawmakers who had pushed for the legislation celebrated the court's ruling. "I am optimistic that President Trump will facilitate an American takeover of TikTok to allow its continued use in the United States and I look forward to welcoming the app in America under new ownership,” said Republican Rep. John Moolenaar of Michigan, chairman of the House Select Committee on China. Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who co-authored the law, said “it's time for ByteDance to accept” the law. To assuage concerns about the company’s owners, TikTok says it has invested more than $2 billion to bolster protections around U.S. user data. The company has also argued the government’s broader concerns could have been resolved in a draft agreement it provided the Biden administration more than two years ago during talks between the two sides. It has blamed the government for walking away from further negotiations on the agreement, which the Justice Department argues is insufficient. Attorneys for the two companies have claimed it’s impossible to divest the platform commercially and technologically. They also say any sale of TikTok without the coveted algorithm - the platform’s secret sauce that Chinese authorities would likely block under any divesture plan - would turn the U.S. version of TikTok into an island disconnected from other global content. Still, some investors, including Trump’s former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and billionaire Frank McCourt, have expressed interest in purchasing the platform. Both men said earlier this year that they were launching a consortium to purchase TikTok’s U.S. business. This week, a spokesperson for McCourt’s Project Liberty initiative, which aims to protect online privacy, said unnamed participants in their bid have made informal commitments of more than $20 billion in capital. Haleluya Hadero, The Associated Press See a typo/mistake? Have a story/tip? This has been shared 0 times 0 Shares Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message Get your daily Victoria news briefing Email Sign Up More Science News Mexico study's surprising finding: Killer heat hit harder for the young than the elderly Dec 6, 2024 11:13 AM Mexico study's surprising finding: Killer heat hit harder for the young than the elderly Dec 6, 2024 11:10 AM Killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO spotlights complex challenge companies face in protecting top brass Dec 6, 2024 9:34 AMDrake wins 65-46 against BelmontNetflix will have one of its biggest days Wednesday since the site launched in 1998 when it airs two NFL games for the first time. "NFL Christmas Gameday on Netflix" begins with a two-hour pregame show at 11 a.m., before Pittsburgh hosts Kansas City. Baltimore faces Houston in the second game. The streaming giant agreed to a three-year contract in May to carry Christmas Day games. Netflix's 282.3 million subscribers in over 190 countries will be able to stream the games, marking the first time one outlet has distributed an NFL game globally. Netflix will have the games available in five languages — English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and German. The games will also air on CBS affiliates in Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Houston. NFL policy dictates that games on cable or being exclusively streamed must also be on an over-the-air station in the competing teams' markets. It will also be available on mobile devices in the U.S. for those who have NFL+. The biggest reason is money. The league is getting $150 million from Netflix for the two games this season. It also continues the NFL's moves into streaming — Thursday night games are in their third season on Amazon Prime Video and the "Sunday Ticket" package moved to YouTube TV last year. But Christmas is on a Wednesday when games usually aren't played. That's true, but the league wasn't about to give up Christmas after seeing the ratings. Last year's three games averaged 28.68 million viewers. The early afternoon contest between the Las Vegas Raiders and Chiefs led the way, averaging 29.48 million. The Chiefs, Steelers, Ravens and Texans played on Saturday, giving them the same turnaround they would have if they played on Sunday and then Thursday. All four have clinched playoff spots in the AFC, but seeding remains up for grabs. Kansas City (14-1) can clinch the top seed — which would mean a first-round bye and home field throughout the playoffs — with a win over the Steelers. Pittsburgh and Baltimore are tied atop the AFC North at 10-5, with the Steelers holding the tiebreaker due to a better conference record. Houston (9-6) has wrapped up the AFC South and holds the fourth seed. Netflix hopes so. Brandon Riegg, Netflix's vice president of nonfiction series and sports, said the system was stress tested, and then some, during the Nov. 14 bout, along with internet service providers reporting they were also overwhelmed by the surge that occurred before and during the fight. The bout peaked at 65 million concurrent streams, including 38 million concurrent streams in the United States. According to the website Down Detector, nearly 85,000 viewers logged problems with outages or streaming leading up to and during the fight. Possible? Yes. Likely? No. The largest audience for a streamed-exclusive NFL game was 23 million on Peacock for last season's AFC wild-card game between the Miami Dolphins and Chiefs. Nielsen will measure the ratings for the Christmas Day games, with early numbers expected late afternoon on Thursday. It will probably be at kickoff for both games, but especially around 5:45 p.m. EST. That would be near halftime of the Ravens-Texans game, and when Beyoncé will be performing. Mariah Carey will kick off the day with a taped performance of "All I Want for Christmas is You." There is no word if Taylor Swift will make the trip to Pittsburgh to watch her boyfriend, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. Swift has been spending time in Kansas City since she wrapped up her Eras Tour two weeks ago. How many Christmas games will Netflix carry in the next two seasons? The NFL will have at least two games on Dec. 25 in 2025 and '26, with Netflix slated to have at least one each year. Amazon Prime Video will have a night game with Christmas on a Thursday next year. Netflix's worldwide partnership with World Wrestling Entertainment will begin on Jan. 6 when "Monday Night Raw" moves to the streaming service. On Friday, Netflix secured the U.S. rights for the 2027 and 2031 FIFA Women's World Cup. Get local news delivered to your inbox!
Bajaj Housing Finance Share Price Today Live Updates : On the last trading day, Bajaj Housing Finance opened at 126.05 and closed slightly lower at 125.65. The stock reached a high of 128.5 and a low of 125.35 during the day. With a market capitalization of 105,667.5 crores, the stock has a 52-week high of 188.45 and a low of 124.95. The BSE recorded a trading volume of 376,567 shares. Bajaj Housing Finance Share Price Live Updates: Bajaj Housing Finance closed at ₹125.65 on last trading day & the technical trend suggests Bearish near term outlook Bajaj Housing Finance Share Price Live Updates: The stock traded in the range of 128.5 & 125.35 yesterday to end at 127. Following a strong uptrend, the stock is indicating signs of a reversal.
One of Squid Game Season 2’s most gruesome moments doesn’t come courtesy of the Netflix show’s violent games, but from a late season bathroom break. Throughout Squid Game Season 2, we know that one of the new season’s most charismatic contestants, the violet-haired, high-as-a-kite rapper “Thanos” ( Choi Seung-hyun ), has it out for crypto influencer Lee Myung-gi ( Yim Si-wan ). Player 230 Thanos, like many others drafted to play this round of Squid Game, lost all of his money investing in a phony crypto stock that Player 333 Myung-gi hyped on his channel. It doesn’t matter that Myung-gi also lost everything in the same gamble; Thanos hates Myung-gi. It’s a tense rivalry that finally boils over at the end of Squid Game Season 2 Episode 8 “O X,” leaving one of the young men murdered. **Spoilers for Squid Game Season 2, now streaming on Netflix** After the third round of games in Squid Game Season 2, the remaining players vote on whether or not they want to keep playing or go home, and the vote is tied. That means there will be a recount the next morning...which also means that with tensions high, violence amongst the players themselves is sure to break out. During a bathroom break, Myung-gi notices that Thanos is trying to bully more votes to his side and calls it out. What follows is first a verbal altercation between the two men that soon turns violent. As fighting breaks out amongst the rival tribes, Thanos comes close to choking Myung-gi to death, but Player 333 has a literal secret weapon. The game masters slipped a metal fork into his dinner. In a moment of desperation, Myung-gi stabs Thanos in the neck with the fork and then proceeds to stab more, killing the rapper. The moment Myung-gi kills Thanos seems to have an immense effect on the young man. He barricades himself in a bathroom stall for the rest of the fight and only returns to the dormitory after everyone else has left. It’s a sequence that Squid Game star Yim Si-wan told Decider was physically grueling on set and sure to have narrative repercussions when we reconnect with Myung-gi in Season 3. “The scene itself, as you could imagine, was not easy to shoot. It was a physically challenging one,” Squid Game star Yim Si-wan told Decider during a virtual roundtable. “The group of actors had to be trained before so that we can coordinate how we move in the scene.” “Also the experience of actually hurting the other person would, of course, cause an emotional distress. Or it would mean an inflection point to any character. So I think it would obviously have made some changes in how he behaves [going forward].” Up until that point, though, Myung-gi had been keeping a relatively low profile in Squid Game. Being responsible for many of the other players’ bad fortunes had already put a huge target on his back, but Yim explained to CinemaBlend’s Alexandra Ramos that he felt Player 333’s violent outburst spoke to the character’s intelligent. “To me, the character Myung-gi, even though he made a series of wrong decisions or choices before, he is actually a smart individual,” he said. “At that moment, he realized, even if he doesn’t take down the people, they’re hostile toward him. He would be the victim or the target of them. So that’s why, I think, that he decided to attack.” During that same roundtable, Yim Si-wan’s co-star Jo Yu-ri revealed that the rest of the characters might not know that Myung-gi is now a murderer. Jo Yu-ri, of course, plays Myung-gi’s pregnant ex-girlfriend, Kim Jun-hee (Player 222), who was also ruined by the crypto scam. At this point in the season, she offers her baby daddy some advice...not knowing he’s now a killer. “I think what Jun-hee was trying to do was telling Myung-gi not to lose his humanity,” Jo Yu-ri said. “Jun-hee actually had no idea what actually happened inside the restroom. Looking at Myung-gi and all of the blood on his face Jun-hee wouldn’t have imagined that Myung-gi actually already has one person got killed.” What’s going to happen if Player 222 learns 333 is a killer? Well, that’s something we assume Squid Game Season 3 will have to tackle...
Six Students Graduate From TLF Programme
New Jersey fines firms $40K for sports betting violationsWilson stays red hot as Solano College men’s basketball team beats American RiverIt's been a roller-coaster ride for Super Micro Computer's ( SMCI 11.62% ) stock this year, with a lot of big moves in both directions. After a hot start to the year, the company's shares began to slide following a short report from Hindenburg Research that accused the company of accounting manipulation. That was soon followed by the company delaying the filing of its 10-K annual report. The Wall Street Journal later reported that Supermicro was being investigated by the Department of Justice (DOJ) over potential accounting issues, addIing fuel to the fire, although the report was never confirmed by the company nor the DOJ. The stock later shot higher after the company announced that it has been shipping more than 100,000 graphic processing units (GPUs) per quarter. That rally, however, faded on news that its auditor, Ernst and Young, was resigning and that it would need to find a new auditor to file its annual report. This delay put the company at risk of its stock getting delisted from the Nasdaq Stock Market . Supermicro shares took a further hit after the company announced preliminary numbers for Q4 that came up well short of expectations. However, the stock was back to rally mode after the company announced it has found a new auditor. For the year, the stock is currently down modestly, about 7% as of this writing, although it has a tendency to make some pretty big moves in a short period of time. Against that backdrop, let's take a closer look at the company's latest news and see if investors should consider buying the stock at current levels. A new auditor arrives Supermicro shares soared over 30% after it named BDO its new auditor. Ernst and Young had earlier resigned, issuing a pretty harsh statement, saying it was "unwilling to be associated with the financial statements prepared by management" and that it has concerns about Supermicro's governance, transparency, and internal controls. The firm had only been Supermicro's auditor since March 2023 after taking over from Deloitte & Touche. Thus, getting BDO, which is one of the world's five-largest accounting firms, to take over is a big potential win for the company. In a statement, Supermicro said, "This is an important next step to bring our financial statements current, an effort we are pursuing with both diligence and urgency." In addition to announcing a new auditor, Supermicro also said that it has submitted a compliance plan with the Nasdaq in hopes to get a filing extension and remain listed of the exchange. If the company were delisted, its shares would still trade, but it would now be on the over-the-counter (OTC) market. That could lead to its removal for the S&P 500 index, which is just joined earlier this year. Is now a good time to buy Supermicro stock? Supermicro is a company that has been greatly benefiting from the artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure build out, as it helps design and assemble servers and rack systems for customers. It has found a nice niche as being one of the first companies to embrace direct liquid cooling (DLC) solutions to help keep these systems cool, which can run hot and overheat. That said, it is also in a more commoditized business, with low gross margins . The company has been having margin issues, and its latest revenue numbers were also well short of estimates. That said, its revenue still surged over 18% year over year last quarter, despite coming up short of its prior forecast. Meanwhile, from a valuation perspective, it trades a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of about 9.5 times current fiscal year analyst estimates. If those numbers hold up, that is a very inexpensive valuation for a company growing as quickly as Supermicro. SMCI PE Ratio (Forward) data by YCharts . The caveat is that Supermicro currently has a lot of scrutiny around its numbers. The SEC has fined the company in the past by the SEC over its accounting, while the combination of the short report, potential DOJ investigation, and resignation of its auditor don't look good. However, this is a real business that is seeing a lot of demand, so if the company was just "smoothing over" numbers to meet forecasts, the fallout moving forward might not be that bad. I think investors can consider taking a small position in Supermicro based on its valuation and its role in the AI infrastructure build out, but this would be a speculative position only for risk-tolerant investors.
