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Biden just got the catalyst his reelection campaign desperately needed 2024-07-08 20:23:01+00:00 - President Joe Biden’s interview on “Morning Joe” today is exactly what everyone has been waiting and wanting to see from the president. What we saw this morning was quintessential Joe Biden; it was also just great politics. And his campaign should be doing more of it. Democrats who want Biden to step aside have had over a week to get their act together and mount their insurgency. But now, that’s done. It’s over. I think the president ended it with that interview. I believe we’re going to look back at the debate, and all the chaos that followed, and see this interview as a market shift, the catalyst that the president’s campaign needed. Biden can present himself as the scrappy insurgent, waging war on the elites who want him out of the race. Biden can present himself as the scrappy insurgent, waging war on the elites who want him out of the race. There’s one person who will likely be very unhappy with that: Donald Trump. That’s the lane he’s always wanted — the “they’re ignoring you and I’m on your side” — and that’s the case Biden can now make to voters. Biden is going directly to the American people and saying he doesn’t need a filter, he doesn’t need any elite platforms, and he doesn’t need other elected officials because he is fighting for you. My only hope is that he doesn’t go totally silent for another extended six-day period. Or over plan for some news conference. Or go back up to Camp David and act like he’s prepping for the SATs or a McKinsey interview. Just let the guy be who he is. President Biden is the Democratic Party’s nominee. He’s not going to blink in this game of chicken. If any further Democrats come out against Biden, they are part of the problem, not the president. It’s time that everyone gets together, gets disciplined, and focuses on the actual problem: the existential threat to the future of this country, Donald Trump. This is an adapted excerpt from the July 8 episode of Ana Cabrera Reports.
Boeing Struck a Deal With the Justice Department. What Comes Next? 2024-07-08 20:19:30+00:00 - Boeing’s announcement on Sunday that it had agreed to plead guilty to a federal criminal charge as part of a deal with the Justice Department was the culmination of a yearslong crisis involving the company’s 737 Max plane. The agreement may help Boeing put to rest a federal case stemming from two fatal crashes of the 737 Max in 2018 and 2019. But the deal is not the final word on that saga and may have little impact on other problems, including questions about the company’s production quality that were brought to light when a panel blew out of a Max jet during a January flight. Here’s what else to know about Boeing’s deal with federal prosecutors and other challenges the company is dealing with. What is expected to happen next? Boeing and the Justice Department first reached an agreement in 2021 about the two crashes that allowed the company to avoid criminal charges. But federal prosecutors this year said that the company had violated the terms of that agreement and came up with a new one, which was agreed to in principle on Sunday.
Biden Administration Rule Would Increase Authority to Block Foreign Deals 2024-07-08 20:17:01.993000+00:00 - The Biden administration is seeking to broaden its powers significantly to block foreign investments by making it harder to buy land near military bases, a move that could make it harder for Chinese companies to build factories in the United States. The Treasury Department proposed a new rule on Monday that would add more than 50 military installations across 30 states to a list of locations it has deemed sensitive to national security. If enacted, the rule would bolster a 2018 law that gave the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States the ability to block foreign land purchases if they are within a certain proximity of a base. The proposal comes as Democrats and Republicans in Congress have become increasingly concerned that Chinese investments in the United States threaten national security and as the Biden administration has rolled out new tariffs to curb imports of Chinese electric vehicles and solar panels. The Treasury Department said the move was the result of a long-term review of the committee’s jurisdiction and that it was not directed at investments from any specific country.
These are the best and worst U.S. cities for new college grads 2024-07-08 20:15:00+00:00 - While it's hard for young people to resist the appeal of large cities and their hefty paychecks, smaller cities can sometimes offer more job prospects and overall affordability, making them better picks for new graduates. For those reasons, the top city for new degree holders isn't New York or San Francisco, or any other similarly popular metro area whose main drawback is its high cost of living, according to a new study from the ADP Research Institute (ADPRI). Taking into account a number of factors, including average wages, overall affordability and hiring rates, Raleigh, North Carolina, takes the No. 1 spot on the management services company's list of best places for young graduates to start their careers. For its ranking, researchers looked at ADP data on more than 4 million 20- to 29-year olds at more than 27,000 U.S. employers, from January 2019 through April 2024. "The basic idea is these are the questions new grads ask when planning their job search. They ask, 'Where am I likely to find a job? What kind of salary will I earn?' and 'How far will it go?'" said Ben Hanowell, ADPRI's director of people analytics research. "We put the three things together to find out where they can find the best combination of wages, affordability and robust hiring." Researchers at ADPRI found that Raleigh is relatively affordable, offers wages above the 80th percentile, and has the best hiring rate for likely new graduates of all the metro areas studied. Nicknamed the research triangle, Raleigh sits between three universities and is home to roughly 300 science and technology companies. Great average salary, but can I even get a job? The study takes into account that in some cities, though young workers could command higher wages, job opportunities are fewer than in other places and the cost of living is high, meaning that their salaries wouldn't take them very far. As a result, these types of cities were deemed less desirable than those with decent salaries, but plentiful job opportunities for workers with less experience and relatively low costs of living. "There are metro areas where you could command high wages as a recent grad, but they're not affordable and hiring isn't robust, so that's the trade-off you're making," Hanowell said. As an example, he pointed to Seattle, Washington, where wages are higher than 87% of the 55 biggest U.S. metro areas, but has a low hiring rate compared to other cities and is relatively unaffordable. "The median wage is an estimated $56,000, but once that's adjusted for the cost of living, it feels like $49,000. That's one way to look at these trade-offs," Hanowell said. By contrast, Tucson, Arizona, has a hiring rate that's greater than more than three-quarters of other metro areas, and is also more affordable than 84% of cities. "That's the opposite end of the trade-off," Hanowell said. What's the sweet spot? To be sure, the most suitable city for a new graduate depends on their individual preferences. For example, one individual might be willing to take a chance trying to land a job in a metro area that's expensive and has a low hiring rate, but where they can eventually command a high wage. "They could think of the job they land as a stepping stone to greater things," Hanowell said. "Whereas another grad might care about affordability to start building their savings early, or they are risk-averse and want to know that the place they're going is a place where they can find a job." Surprises among rankings When wages, affordability and hiring rates are considered, four metro areas stand out as the most promising places for young grads to begin their careers, according to ADPRI data. "What's surprising is these areas are not the traditional tech hubs or financial hubs you might think about for college grads," Hanowell said. Lower-ranked cities were mostly dinged in the wage and job prospects category. While they may be relatively affordable places to live, wages and hiring rates are low. Take Rochester, New York, for example, which has the lowest hiring rate of all 55 metros for likely college graduates. Although its wages are in the 13% percentile among metro areas, and it's more affordable than nearly 70% of locales studied, its lackluster job prospects make it undesirable. Here are the top 10 best and worst cities for new graduates, according to ADPRI. Top 10 best cities for new graduates Raleigh, North Carolina Baltimore, Maryland Austin, Texas Atlanta, Georgia Charlotte, North Carolina New York, New York San Francisco, California Cleveland, Ohio Nashville, Tennessee Indianapolis, Indiana Top 10 worst cities for new graduates Rochester, New York Virginia Beach, Virginia New Orleans, Louisiana Fresno, California Portland, Oregon Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Hartford, Connecticut Memphis, Tennessee Seattle, Washington Salt Lake City, Utah Click here for the full rankings.
Jamie Davis is leaving USA Volleyball to take over as CEO of USA Water Polo 2024-07-08 20:12:16+00:00 - IRVINE, Calif. (AP) — Jamie Davis is leaving USA Volleyball to take over as CEO of USA Water Polo. Davis’ appointment, effective Oct. 1, was announced by USA Water Polo on Monday. The hiring of Davis was unanimously approved by the organization’s board of directors at a recent meeting. “Jamie’s vision and leadership will be instrumental in guiding the organization into its next chapter,” Bill Smith, the chairman of the USA Water Polo board, said in a release. “We are confident that his contribution will drive USA Water Polo to new heights.” Davis is replacing Chris Ramsey, who announced in December that he is retiring after the Paris Olympics. Ramsey is among the longest-tenured leaders for the U.S. governing bodies in the Olympic movement. Davis, a former TV and sports business executive, was hired as USA Volleyball CEO in 2017. During his time at USA Volleyball, membership grew from 339,000 in 2017 to 435,000 this year. USA Water Polo has about 50,000 members. “I am honored to join USA Water Polo and look forward to working with the talented athletes, coaches, staff, and the wider water polo community,” Davis said. “Together, we will continue to promote the growth and excellence of this sport.” ___ AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
Baxter Recovers After Life2000 Ventilation Systems Recall - Baxter Intl (NYSE:BAX), DaVita (NYSE:DVA) 2024-07-08 20:11:00+00:00 - Loading... Loading... Shares of Baxter International BAX have gained 2.8% since Jun 26, after the company announced the recall of its Life2000 Ventilation System. Though the share price had declined following the news, it recovered following reports of potential discussion on divestment of BAX's kidney care segment. The device, a portable ventilator for patients suffering from chronic respiratory failure or other breathing issues, has been recalled by Baxter. The recall follows the detection of damaged battery charger dongles, which can prevent the ventilator's internal battery from charging. Baxter had acquired Life2000 through its $10.5 billion purchase of Hillrom in 2021. Significance of Life2000 Per Baxter, Life2000's recall is critical as it directly impacts the reliability of the Life2000 ventilators, potentially leaving patients without necessary respiratory support. Damaged dongles prevent battery charging, which could lead to ventilator failure and severe health consequences. Per the FDA's Database entry, Baxter has strictly advised customers to check for damage, maintain backup devices and replace faulty chargers promptly. This is the latest in a series of recalls since Baxter acquired Hillrom, underscoring the ongoing challenges in ensuring the safety and efficacy of these medical devices. More on the News According to a Jun 26 entry in the FDA‘s recall database, the recall affected more than 2,500 units distributed in the United States. The FDA has labeled the recall as a Class I event, its severest classification. In 2023, the company also recalled thousands of Life2000 systems due to the risk of patient oxygen desaturation when the devices were connected to third-party oxygen concentrators. At the time, Baxter reported that it received no reports of death related to the safety problem, though there were reports of hospitalizations. Life2000 is not the only device of Hillrom that Baxter was forced to recall since the acquisition. In 2022, Baxter felt the urgent need to recall the Volara ventilator system after an injury and two deaths were tied to a device malfunction. Industry Prospects Per a report by MARKETSANDMARKETS, the global ventilator market size was valued at $4.2 billion in 2023. It is anticipated to reach $5.7 billion in 2028 at a CAGR of 6.4% The robust growth will be driven by unhealthy diet, obesity and physical inactivity, which are some of the leading risk factors contributing to the burden of respiratory diseases. Recent Developments In May, Baxter announced the FDA approval of an expanded indication for Clinolipid (Lipid Injectable Emulsion) to include pediatric patients, including preterm and term neonates. Clinolipid is a proprietary mixed oil lipid emulsion designed to provide essential fatty acids and calories in parenteral nutrition for patients who cannot receive adequate oral or enteral nutrition. In the same month,Baxter announced new data demonstrating that expanded hemodialysis (HDx therapy), enabled by the Theranova dialyzer, is associated with approximately a 25% lower all-cause mortality risk over up to four years compared to high-flux hemodialysis (HF HD). This finding highlights the potential of HDx therapy to significantly improve patient outcomes in long-term dialysis treatment. Price Performance Shares of Baxter have declined 9.7% so far this year against the industry's 1.8% rise. The S&P 500 has witnessed a 17.5% rise in the same time frame. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Zacks Rank & Other Key Picks Currently, Baxter carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Some other top-ranked stocks in the broader medical space are DaVita Inc. DVA, Universal Health Services UHS and Ecolab Inc. ECL. DaVita, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 at present, has an estimated long-term growth rate of 13.6%. DVA's earnings surpassed estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, with the average surprise being 29.4%. DaVita's shares have gained 43.4% compared with the industry's 15.2% rise in the past year. Universal Health Services, carrying a Zacks Rank of 2 at present, has an estimated long-term growth rate of 14.80%. UHS's earnings surpassed estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, with the average being 8.12%. Universal Health Services has gained 21.3% against the industry's 20.4% decline in the past year. Ecolab, carrying a Zacks Rank of 2 at present, has an estimated long-term growth rate of 14.3%. ECL's earnings surpassed estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, with the average surprise being 1.3%. Ecolab's shares have rallied 31.3% against the industry's 12.9% decline in the past year. To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
CVS Health Falls 24% in 3 Months: Should You Buy the Dip? - CVS Health (NYSE:CVS), Herbalife (NYSE:HLF) 2024-07-08 20:04:00+00:00 - Loading... Loading... CVS Health CVS, the pharmacy retail and PBM powerhouse, has witnessed a substantial 24% decline over the past three months. In fact, during the last trading session, the stock closed at $56.62, which marked a more than 47% plunge from its 52-week high of $83.25 and was quite close to its 52-week low of $52.77. Not only this, the stock is currently trading below its 50-day and 200-day moving averages, indicating the possibility of a further bearish shift in the stock's price. CVS Below 50 & 200 Day SMA Image Source: Zacks Investment Research As the stock struggles to keep pace, it is now a big question for investors whether to get rid of CVS Health or grab a few more shares because the stock is hovering around its rock bottom. While the stock has been grappling with the industry-wide phenomenon of pharmacy reimbursement pressure, a turnaround might be in the cards, given its strategic initiatives that can change investors' perspectives in favor of CVS Health. Let us delve deeper. What Pulled CVS Down? Pharmacy Reimbursement Crisis: The entire retail pharmacy industry is currently grappling with continued pressure from non-reimbursable pharmacy expenses, which are significantly pulling down mass demand for prescription as well as over-the-counter drugs and vaccinations. Going by a National Association of Chain Drugs report, payors are substantially shrinking reimbursement, many times below the cost of buying and dispensing prescription drugs. This is putting substantial and unsustainable financial pressure on the companies to the extent that many of the industry players over the past year were seen either shutting down their entire business, reducing the number of stores or going private. CVS Health, like its industry peers, is severely affected by this ongoing crisis. In fact, despite the company reporting revenue expansion, the shrinking margins and earnings are pretty alarming. Labor Shortage Plagues the System: Despite the end of the healthcare emergency, the lingering effects forced frontline pharmacy retail workers like doctors and medical staff to leave the field. According to the article "A Public Health Crisis: Staffing Shortages in Health Care," published in Favorite Healthcare Staffing, the WHO predicts a shortfall of 15 million healthcare workers worldwide in 2030. This is naturally creating huge operational hazards for companies like CVS Health, resulting in productivity loss. Going by a 2024 Boston Globe report, CVS has, in fact, acknowledged an "unprecedented" labor shortage among pharmacists and other staff, leading customers to complain about longer lines, unanswered phones and unclean stores. Visible Silver Lining for CVS 2025 Roadmap Looks Impressive CVS Health is committed to improving its Medicare Advantage margins in 2025. Given its predicted baseline performance, 2025 will be the first stage in a three to four-year journey to re-establish the company's target margins of 4 to 5%. Improved Star Ratings in 2025 might generate a $700 million tailwind, depending on membership retention levels. The remainder of the company's margin gain in 2025 will be driven by pricing initiatives in an environment where it is experiencing headwinds from an insufficient rate notice and prescription medication coverage changes that significantly raise plan liability. CVS Health is accelerating long-term enterprise productivity measures to streamline and enhance its processes. The company's target remains to achieve low double-digit adjusted EPS growth in 2025. Shares Outperform Industry Over the past month, shares of CVS Health have lost 6.1%. However, the stock has outperformed the industry's 9.6% decline. While one of the company's peers, Herbalife Ltd HLF, registered a 2% decline, outperforming CVS, the company's prime competitor and another colossal pharmacy retail player, Walgreens Boots WBA, suffered a sharper decline of 29.4% during this period due to disappointing quarterly results and further guidance cut due to unfavorable industry forecasts. One-Month Price Comparison Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Upbeat Estimates With CVS' second-quarter 2024 results approaching, we expect the company to fare better than WBA. Not to forget, the company has the power to minimize its pharmacy reimbursement-related issues by adjusting its in-house PBM business strategies. The Zacks Consensus Estimate points to revenue improvements of 3.1% and 5.5% for 2024 and 2025, respectively. However, reimbursement issues are likely to continue through the rest of 2024, creating significant bottom-line pressure for CVS Health. The Zacks Consensus Estimate indicates an earnings decline of 19.7% in 2024. However, there is some hope for investors that 2025 might get brighter, with the estimates showing a 10.6% improvement in earnings from the year-ago period. The stock currently has a Growth Score of A. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Waiting for a Better Entry Point Seems Prudent As we have already discussed, the stock is currently positioned below its moving averages, which indicates potential negative movement. Further, the current earnings estimates show no visible sign of improvement until 2025. In terms of valuation too, CVS Health's forward 12-month price-to-earnings (P/E) is 7.65X, a premium to the market's average of 7.09X. The company is also trading at a significant premium to other industry players like Walgreens Boots (4.9X) and Herbalife (6.8X). This suggests that investors may be paying a higher price relative to the company's expected earnings growth. Premium Valuation Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Accordingly, despite the recent dip in share prices, this might not be the ideal time to invest in CVS Health. However, those who already own this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock may stay invested as the company's financial stability and 2025 roadmap offer potential pathways to recovery. To read this article on Zacks.com click here.
I flew premium economy on my long-haul Emirates flight. It was cheaper than flying coach at a better time and way nicer. 2024-07-08 19:57:47+00:00 - I secured a great deal on a premium-economy seat on a long-haul Emirates flight. This was my first time in premium economy, and I was surprised at how upgraded the experience felt. Premium economy is worth trying, especially if you can find a good deal like I did. Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. Read preview Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . You can opt-out at any time by visiting our Preferences page or by clicking "unsubscribe" at the bottom of the email. Advertisement I had to fly from Melbourne, Australia, to Dubai with only a few weeks' notice, and unfortunately, airfares for direct flights were expensive. Emirates has three direct flights from Melbourne to Dubai a day at 9 p.m., 2 a.m., and 5 a.m. I wanted to get the 9 p.m. flight as it's the most convenient time to depart, but the airfare was over $1,400. The 2 a.m. flight was a similar price. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in .
School's out, and parents' financial stress is in 2024-07-08 19:51:32+00:00 - By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . You can opt-out at any time by visiting our Preferences page or by clicking "unsubscribe" at the bottom of the email. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. Read preview Welcome back! Summer vacation have you dreaming about giving it all up and moving abroad? Luckily, six European towns are offering cash to help you move there . Speaking of money and vacations: In today's big story, summer vacation means financial stress for parents looking to keep their kids busy while school is out without breaking the bank . What's on deck: This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Advertisement But first, hello campers! If this was forwarded to you, sign up here. The big story The cost of summer iStock; Rebecca Zisser/BI School's out for summer, but the relief for kids is causing financial pain for their parents. Summer can be a money pit for parents scrambling to keep their kids entertained in July and August , write Business Insider's Juliana Kaplan and Madison Hoff. Advertisement Summer childcare isn't cheap. Nearly a quarter of recently surveyed parents with kids in a summer program said they expect to pay more than $1,000 a month per child this summer. And those costs can balloon well beyond that, with one family spending $6,000 for a three-week sleepaway camp. Further complicating things is most camps don't cover the two-plus months parents need to fill for their kids. The result is sometimes a patchwork system of camps and part-time nannies that parents need to cobble together. Sometimes costs crop up before camp even starts. Parents spend hundreds, or even thousands, on packing and prepping their kids before shipping them off . Just about everyone feels the squeeze on their wallets when the temperature rises. Advertisement An Intuit Credit Karma survey found 61% of parents with children under 18 said it "feels even more expensive to raise kids in the summer months." It's a brutal reality check for parents who thought their days of high childcare costs were behind them when they became DIPS ( dual income, public school ). Instead, some are even going into debt, despite sky-high credit card interest rates, to make it work. Kate Dehler for BI Things don't always get easier once kids are at camp, though. Advertisement This year, skincare products proved to be a lightning rod for kids and parents at elite summer camps , writes BI's Anna Silman. Outright bans or restrictions on luxury skincare products — because nine-year-olds need their daily lip oil — created chaos among their tweens. Of course, drama comes with the price of admission at these fancy establishments, which can run $16,000 for the summer. In 2021, Anna reported on how parents were up in arms over the daily photos shown from camp . Parents inundated camp employees with concerned or critical emails and calls as they tried to parent their children from hundreds of miles away. News brief Your Monday headline catchup A quick recap of the top news from over the weekend: Advertisement 3 things in markets Al Seib/Getty Images How to get in on the AI infrastructure trade everyone's talking about. You've read a lot about the role data centers and utilities play in powering AI. But where should you invest? Goldman Sachs identified 89 stocks across 10 sectors that are key to AI infrastructure. The June jobs report included a couple surprises. The US labor market added more jobs last month than expected (206,000). But an unexpected uptick in unemployment to 4.1% is good news for investors hoping for an interest-rate cut . An activist short-seller's Pyrrhic victory. Hindenburg Research wiped out $150 billion in market value from the Adani Group when it accused the Indian conglomerate of sweeping fraud. Meanwhile, Hindenburg's rewards were meager: The short-seller made just $4 million for its efforts. But its leader insists it's not about the money . 3 things in tech Courtesy of Noplace 3 things in business Getty Images; Alyssa Powell/BI Down with homeowner associations. Millions of Americans live in neighborhoods with HOAs that operate as private quasi-governments. While a new Florida law has made strides to limit HOAs' power, it will take more than some modest adjustments. We may need to break the system entirely . Stay greasy, McDonald's. Over the course of many years, McDonald's forays into healthy alternatives haven't panned out. That's probably because no one is going there to enjoy a salad. Customers know that. McDonald's does, too — and it shouldn't forget it . Gen Z in Neverland. A growing share of young Americans are living with their parents way past college, and relying on the Bank of Mom and Dad for support. But it isn't all their fault. Lacking social safety nets, American parents are often left to provide cover . In other news Advertisement What's happening today Samsung workers began a three-day strike . . Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Insider Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Jordan Parker Erb, editor, in New York. Jack Sommers, deputy editor, in London. Annie Smith, producer, in London. Grace Lett, editor, in Chicago. Amanda Yen, fellow, in New York.
The Arizona primary where the MAGA movement is devouring itself 2024-07-08 19:49:00+00:00 - By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . You can opt-out at any time by visiting our Preferences page or by clicking "unsubscribe" at the bottom of the email. It's a subject that Abe Hamadeh can't seem to avoid. In campaign trail appearances in the Phoenix area last month, the Republican congressional candidate, an Arab American with a Muslim father, inevitably made some sort of reference to the barrage of television ads and near-ubiquitous yard signs that have painted him as an Islamic terrorist sympathizer. "How many of you guys have seen these nasty ads against me?" Hamadeh asked the few dozen Republicans who had ventured to a crowded antique shop in a northern Phoenix strip mall to hear him speak. "They're pretty bad. I look at them and I'm like, 'I've got a lot of facial hair in those ads.'" On paper, Hamadeh — his party's nominee for state attorney general in 2022 — should be the presumptive winner of the GOP primary for Arizona's 8th congressional district. He's been endorsed for Congress by former President Donald Trump and has the enthusiastic backing of Kari Lake, the former gubernatorial candidate and all-but-certain Senate nominee who remains popular among the MAGA faithful in Arizona. Advertisement Yet Hamadeh remains stuck in an apparent dead heat with the man behind the nasty ads: Blake Masters, the Peter Thiel protégé and 2022 Senate nominee who's plowed millions of dollars of his own fortune into his opposing bid for the seat. "He is running a very bigoted race," Hamadeh told me of Masters, "and MAGA and the America First movement is bigger than that." This primary, described by some as the nastiest in America, will be a test of that proposition — whether conservative voters can look past any drummed-up suspicions about Hamadeh's background to elect one of Arizona's most fervent election deniers. It's also a window into what may be the future of Republican politics, where what happens on the internet can matter more to voters than what happens in the state legislature, and where politics becomes so thoroughly nationalized that one candidate, Blake Masters, can plausibly seek to represent a House district over 100 miles from his home in Tucson. Abe Hamadeh speaking to voters at an antique shop in North Phoenix on Tuesday, June 25. Bryan Metzger This congressional seat, anchored by tens of thousands of older voters from around the country who've ensconced themselves behind the gates of sprawling, palm tree-studded retirement communities, is overwhelmingly Republican. Whoever wins on July 30 is all but guaranteed to go to Washington. If Masters and Hamadeh dropped out, the race would still be crowded. There's Arizona House Speaker Ben Toma, who's been endorsed by the district's retiring congresswoman, Rep. Debbie Lesko. There's state Sen. Anthony Kern, who was on the steps of the US Capitol on January 6 and now faces charges over his role as one of the state's fake Trump electors in 2020. There's even former Rep. Trent Franks, who previously represented the district before resigning amid a sexual harassment scandal in 2017. Advertisement But those other men have largely become an afterthought. While they may possess the legislative records and strong ties to the district that Hamadeh and Masters lack, both frontrunners possess something far more crucial for winning a wide-open Republican primary in 2024, especially in a district like this: High name recognition and MAGA-world stardom. 'It's a lively primary' It's virtually impossible to drive through the suburban roads of northwest Maricopa County without seeing one: A large corrugated cardboard sign blaring the phrase "America was founded on Islamic principles" in bold yellow text beside a photo of Hamadeh at the Kaaba in Mecca, dressed in the ihram clothing that Muslims wear during the Hajj pilgrimage. One of Masters's TV ads also declares that Hamadeh "blamed Israel for 9/11" and once supported a pathway to citizenship for people living in the country illegally. As startling as the ads are, there's been little widespread outrage or condemnation among local Republicans, including the incumbent congresswoman. "You know, I've been involved in politics for a while," Lesko told me while walking to vote at the Capitol. "I expect everything. It's a lively primary, and may the best person win." An anti-Hamadeh yard sign, paid for by the Masters campaign, beside one of Hamadeh's own signs in the 8th district. Bryan Metzger While Masters is twisting his opponent's words — the 33-year-old Hamadeh made most of the statements in question when he was a teenager, browsing the same kinds of mid-2000s message boards that Masters notably used to frequent — his negative campaign is capitalizing on real complexities about the Trump-backed candidate's political identity. Advertisement Hamadeh is the son of Syrian immigrants — a Muslim father and a Druze mother — who moved to Chicago in 1989 and overstayed their visas. His name was "Ibrahem" before he anglicized it to "Abraham" in 2010. His parents faced the threat of deportation in 1996 after his father, a jeweler living in Skokie, was indicted in connection with a 1994 synagogue firebombing, though prosecutors were unable to definitively connect him to the crime, and the charges were ultimately dropped. His father successfully appealed that deportation order, citing the fact that two of his children, including Abe, were born in the United States and were thus citizens. Masters's campaign has gone as far as to call Hamadeh an "anchor baby." Hamadeh's family later moved to Arizona. "As soon as they got off the flight, they looked at each other and they said, 'Wow, we found the Middle East of America,'" he told the antique shop crowd. In his youth, Hamadeh apparently identified on some level as a Muslim, writing in a Ron Paul Forums post in 2009 that he would be the "first arab american/muslim senator ooooh yeah." It was that same year, on that same forum, that Hamadeh made the "Islamic principles" comment, in which he was arguing against the demonization of Muslims while referencing a depiction of the Prophet Muhammad at the Supreme Court. He also blamed "Israeli Mossad" for the September 11th terror attacks, though he later disavowed those views in an interview with the Daily Wire. After graduating from the University of Arizona's law school in 2016, Hamadeh worked as a prosecutor in the Maricopa County Attorney's Office and joined the US Army Reserve as an intelligence officer. He made the trek to Mecca during a 14-month deployment to Saudi Arabia from 2020 to 2021. Two years ago, Hamadeh's religious background was a clear asset for a MAGA movement that has at times been keen to highlight its non-white adherents: In 2022, a local conservative outlet promoted the Mecca photo to illustrate the GOP's "bigger tent." Yet Hamadeh himself speaks about it now with some detachment. "My dad is Muslim, my mom is Druze, I have family who are Christian," he told me. "I've been to Jerusalem, I've been to Istanbul, the Vatican, Thailand, Japan. I'm very non-denominational, I don't identify really with one particular faith. I just have a belief in God, and I believe Jesus is going to return to Earth, but I think organized religion, in many ways, has failed so many people." Advertisement The Republican Party is replete with ambitious politicians fashioning themselves to fit the moment, and Hamadeh has played his cards right. In the space of several months in 2022, he emerged from relative obscurity to become the party's nominee for attorney general, winning Trump's endorsement as the result of his unflinching devotion to the former president's stolen 2020 election claims and perhaps a well-timed loan from his wealthy brother. Running on a ticket with Masters and Lake, he came the closest of the trio to winning in 2022, falling just 280 votes short in what he calls "the closest statewide race in Arizona history that everybody just seems to ignore." He has since insisted that he is the rightful winner of that election, and he's now on his fourth lawsuit over the results. Hamadeh's chief identity is that of a fighter, a "happy warrior" as he puts it. During the first primary debate, he referred to himself as a "young man with a lot of testosterone." He's prone to trash-talking his political adversaries, quipping after our interview that Ben Toma is "gonna get 12%" in the primary and that "nobody talks about" Trent Frank's "sexual shit." He's also demonstrated a fluency in the parlance of the MAGA faithful, proclaiming to his supporters that "this is a 1776 moment" while warning them to be "cognizant of all of these psyops." Related stories "They're not just after me, they're after all of you," Hamadeh declared during his antique shop stump speech, echoing a favored line of the former president. "You all are a threat, just for being here." 'I call everybody crazy' While Hamadeh's calling card is stolen elections and a medley of contemporary MAGA bromides, Blake Masters is most closely associated with the New Right, an idiosyncratic form of conservatism that seeks national transformation along nationalistic, populist lines. The movement's most prominent spokesman in the halls of Congress is Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, who has endorsed Masters and is currently in the running to be Trump's vice-presidential pick. Advertisement But while Vance made it across the finish line in 2022, Masters did not, owing in large part to a slew of alienating comments he made during free-wheeling interviews he gave during his Senate campaign. At one point, Masters named Ted Kacynski, a domestic terrorist known more commonly as the "Unabomber," as a "subversive thinker that's underrated." This year, he appears to be taking a more disciplined approach. "Blake is really not doing any more interviews for the rest of the campaign," his spokesperson told me in June. "This guy, he lost against Mark Kelly because he's a weirdo," Hamadeh told me. "He's a weirdo and nobody likes him, quite frankly. Kari and I were trying to drag him up, and look how he repays us." Hamadeh, Lake, and Masters ran together as a statewide ticket in 2022. Brandon Bell/Getty Images Bereft of the Trump endorsement, Masters has turned to running ads blaring that Trump endorsed his Senate campaign, an apparent attempt to muddy the waters that's drawn the ire of the former president's inner circle. Lacking the "stolen election" credibility that Hamadeh and Lake have — unlike the other two, he has fully acknowledged that he lost his Senate race — Masters has made illegal immigration the centerpiece of a starkly nativist campaign, pledging at one recent debate to be the "most conservative, most right-wing, anti-immigration member of Congress." At a forum in the Sun City West retirement community, where each House candidate was given just four minutes to make their pitch to a crowd of roughly 300 Republicans, Masters spent roughly half of this allotment on the issue. Advertisement "Illegal immigration is a cancer," Masters said. "It is ruining our country. It's common sense: If you import the Third World, you become the Third World. I think the Left is obsessed with replacing us. If you're a sort of 'heritage American,' if you're a white American, they hate you. The Left hates how you look, they hate the way you think. If you're a minority here, and you're willing to come to this room as a Republican or an independent conservative, well, they hate you for being a turncoat. Look at how they treat the best Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas, right? The Left is demented." Blake Masters speaking to a group of Republicans at a candidate forum in Sun City West. Bryan Metzger In May, Masters leaked a text that Hamadeh sent to him in which the former attorney general candidate appeared to privately mock those who believe in stolen elections. "I'm not lumped in with crazies with election stuff because I'm so close at 280, but the crazies love because they see me fighting," Hamadeh said in part. When I asked Hamadeh who he was referring to when he said "crazies," he laughed it off. "We're all crazies," Hamadeh said, his face curling into a sardonic grin. "It's ironic. I call everybody crazy. It's actually a very endearing term in these times." As Hamadeh has waged his counteroffensive against Masters, he's done the same thing that Democrats did to the 37-year-old tech entrepreneur in 2022: Dredging up his long history of online commentary, including internet forum comments from his libertarian days calling for "unrestricted" immigration and his residence in a vegan co-op while attending Stanford University. Advertisement While Thiel has stepped back from overt involvement in politics this year, Hamadeh has sought to turn Masters's association with the right-wing tech billionaire — who Business Insider revealed last year to be an FBI informant — against him, pointing to a nearly $25 million bonus that Masters earned from Thiel Capital in 2023. "I think that warrants some investigative journalism," Hamadeh told me. A person familiar with Masters's compensation package, which the candidate revealed in financial disclosures this year, said that the payment was a bonus that Masters was owed in accordance with an industry-standard contract that he signed in 2018. 'I can't vote for you' Back at the antique shop, Hamadeh opened up the floor for questions, including half a dozen about whether this November's election might also be stolen, one about whether a newly concocted virus or "a meltdown of the grid" might prompt a cancellation of the election, another about "what can we do" to fight "the deep state," and precisely zero about what specific policies Hamadeh might champion if he were elected to represent the 8th district. In fact, we weren't even in the 8th district — we were five miles away from its easternmost edge. "I can't vote for you," one woman, apparently not a prospective constituent, told Hamadeh as she shook hands with him after the event, "but I'll give you a donation." Hamadeh did grow up in the area, but he's lived in Scottsdale for years. Hamadeh's campaign says that he has since re-established residency in the district, while Masters continues to live all the way in Tucson. But charges of "carpetbagging" don't exactly land the same in Arizona: Most of the state's residents are transplants from out of state, and that's even more true of the tens of thousands of retirement community residents — many of whom likely pay more attention to Fox News or alternative media sources than the Arizona Republic — who make up a large chunk of the local GOP electorate and are the most likely to actually vote. Advertisement Ben Toma, the speaker of the Arizona House, may simply be too much of a nice guy to win this race. Rebecca Noble/Getty Images It is under these conditions that this primary's top two candidates, neither of whom have held elected office, are waging an ugly fistfight, much of it via dueling "War Room" accounts on X. When Hamadeh talks about issues specific to the district, it's to speculate that Chinese nationals may be crossing the southern border to surveil the sprawling TSMC semiconductor plant undergoing construction in the northern reaches of the district. Masters, meanwhile, proudly told the Sun City West crowd that he's "honored to have won and beat Mark Kelly" by "seven or eight points" in the district when he ran for Senate. As attendees streamed out of the candidate forum, few stopped to shake hands with Ben Toma, the mild-mannered state House speaker who had politely warned the crowd to "be careful of noisemakers" and touted his record of enacting key conservative priorities on tax cuts and education reform while keeping a narrow, fractious majority in line. "I don't think this new breed of in-your-face, always rushing to tweet or post something on social media, or run after a network camera, is good for us," Toma told me. But Toma may simply be too much of a nice guy for this climate. He wasn't offering the red meat being sold by Hamadeh, who was busy holding court with a steady procession of voters on the other side of the room. He also can't compete with the personal war chest of Masters, who had apparently already bolted from the event. Advertisement Moments earlier, I had overheard Toma explaining to one attendee — apparently unaware of what office he held — that he was, in fact, the speaker of the Arizona House.
Big Tech's Next Milestone Is The $4 Trillion Market Cap - NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) 2024-07-08 19:46:00+00:00 - Loading... Loading... Big Tech is racing towards a milestone that would have seems impossible only a few decades ago, a market capitalization of $4 trillion. Nvidia Corporation NVDA, Microsoft Corporation MSFT and Apple Inc AAPL are members of the $3 trillion market cap club, with Google-parent Alphabet Inc GOOGGOOGL and Amazon.com Inc AMZN having only surpassed the $2 trillion milestone. Nvidia could win the $4 trillion race. With even more powerful chips on the way, the AI boom could be that powerful to drive Nvidia to $4 trillion valuation. For a moment, Nvidia even became the world’s most valuable company on June 18th. But, Nvidia got dethroned quickly due to concerns over the sustainability of its skyrocketing growth. On the other hand, Microsoft and Apple are ahead in terms of market size. Looking at past numbers, Apple was the first the reach the first three of the trillion valuation milestones. Both Apple and Microsoft are as strong as ever, but Nvidia has an incredible momentum on its side. But, just because it enjoys dominating the market does not mean it should not take seriously the threat of AMD or Intel catching up at some point, although Nvidia does have the resources to defend itself and continue to innovate. Perhaps Nvidia’s biggest protection lies in its expansion of revenue sources as it aims to go beyond chips and build an entire AI ecosystem, ensuring it remains in the center of things as opposed to being only one link in the chain. Nvidia’s Promise Of Blackwell At the end of June, Nvidia CEO, Jensen Huang spoke at the company’s annual general meeting and pitched the upcoming Blackwell chips as not only the most successful product in Nvidia’s history but also in the entire computer history. Huan proudly spoke of reinventing Nvidia, the computer industry, and consequently, the world. The good part is that at the absolute end, Nvidia still does not have a big rival. But only time will show if the AI hype is enough to propel Nvidia to new heights, refuting doubts of concerned investors. Putting the the economic promise of AI and the fourth Industrial Revolution aside, there is a lot that is still unknown, the market dynamic is shaped with a lot of uncertainty that is out of even Big Tech’s control, all of which would undoubtedly impact their path to a $4 trillion valuation. In addition, there’s the long-term tech battle to think about in a new AI-shaped era that is in the making. DISCLAIMER: This content is for informational purposes only. It is not intended as investing advice. This article is from an unpaid external contributor. It does not represent Benzinga's reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy.
Corning shares pop 12% as AI boom drives stronger-than-expected demand for equipment 2024-07-08 19:42:00+00:00 - Corning shares closed up 12% Monday after the company raised its second-quarter guidance, marking the stock's best trading day since March 2020. The company, known for developing the Gorilla Glass used for Apple iPhones and other phones, credits the outperformance to demand for its optical connectivity products that power networks that run generative artificial intelligence. "We've invented new fibers, new cables, new connectors and new custom integrated optical solutions to dramatically reduce installation costs, overall time and space and carbon footprint," Corning CEO Wendell Weeks said on CNBC's "Squawk Box." Corning expects second-quarter sales of $3.6 billion, up from previous guidance of $3.4 billion. It also expects earnings per share to be "at the high end or slightly above" management's guided range of 42 cents to 46 cents per share. Weeks said in a release that second-quarter earnings are also expected to mark a return to year-over-year growth. "These results reinforce our confidence in 'Springboard' — Corning's plan to add more than $3 billion in annualized sales in the next three years as cyclical factors and secular trends combine," Weeks added. The company expects first-quarter sales, which declined 6% year over year, to be the lowest of the year. It anticipates higher sales throughout 2024 due to improving market conditions. Corning said it will report second-quarter 2024 results on July 30, 2024.
Serena Williams tried to deposit her first $1 million check at a drive-thru ATM: 'If I didn't win, I wasn't thinking' 2024-07-08 19:41:00+00:00 - In the early days of her tennis career, Serena Williams cared so much about winning that she forgot to collect her earnings — repeatedly. Williams, 42, brought in $94.8 million in prize money as a tennis player before retiring in 2022, according to the Women's Tennis Association. Early in her career, she nearly left a decent chunk of it behind: She was so singularly focused on her performance that she'd nearly leave cities without picking up her money, she told First We Feast's YouTube talk show "Hot Ones" last week. "Is it true that you rarely collected your winnings your first year on tour and then once tried unsuccessfully to cash your first million-dollar check in a drive through ATM?" host Sean Evans asked her. "Those are all true," responded Williams, who won 23 Grand Slam singles titles and 73 career singles titles during her 27-year career. "I never played for money. I played because I loved the sport ... I wanted to win." Williams' professional debut — in which she played a single game, losing a qualifying match at the 1995 Bell Challenge in Quebec City, Canada — reportedly resulted in a $240 check. At age 14, she was in no rush to spend that money, she said. The same was true when Williams got her first million-dollar check. People around her were excited about the dollar figure, but all Williams wanted to do was deposit it and get back to work, she recalled. "I never really spent a lot of money," said Williams. "I just went through the drive-thru and the guy was like, 'Uh, I think you need to come inside for this.'" As her career evolved, her "tax guy" had to remind her to get her money while she toured, she recalled. "[He] would be like, 'You didn't get your money?' And I'm like, 'Oh, I didn't get that one in Zurich. I forgot that one in Moscow,'" Williams said. "I was playing to win, and if I didn't win, I wasn't thinking. I was just so angry that I wanted to just figure out a way to get better and win the next time."
Millennial couple making $230,000 will 'constantly feel poor' unless they change their habits, says money expert 2024-07-08 19:41:00+00:00 - Spending on travel, shopping, means 'losing money every single month' Going through their finances, Sethi found the couple has done relatively well at keeping their fixed costs in check. Their rent, groceries, car payment and other necessities come out to about 63% of their take home pay, even while Paul isn't working. But a look at their discretionary spending showed that Maddie has good reason to feel anxious about their finances. The couple admitted they spend around $7,000 a month on travel and shopping. That brings their total spending above their monthly income. They've managed to stay out of debt thus far aside from a small auto loan, but with several friends' weddings as well as their own around the corner and their spending habits unchecked, Sethi worries they're on a path to destruction. "I think you earn the right to feel okay about being in the red occasionally if you have a very large net worth," Sethi tells them. "But I think when we factor in the fact that you're losing money every single month, that you're planning to continue that for the foreseeable future ... that starts to be trickier." Overdoing it on trips and social events because 'we want to keep up' Maddie and Paul say they hesitate to change their lifestyle in order to rein in their spending and feel more comfortable about money. They know Paul getting a job will help improve the situation, but they don't want to rely so much on high incomes that they can never stop working. Yes, Paul bringing in any income, especially a six-figure salary as he expects, would help, Sethi agrees. But the spending is the real problem. "It's not actually normal for people making $230,000, which is a very good income, to be traveling eight times a year internationally, plus your own personal travel, plus Barry's Bootcamp, plus shopping and golf trips," Sethi says. Maddie and Paul admit that a lot of their spending is prompted by pressure from their friends and culture. "We hang out with people [for whom] money feels to be less of a concern due to their backgrounds," Maddie says. "There's definitely a sense like we need to keep up. Or not [that] we need to; we want to keep up." "It's this compulsion to be at everything and live such a social life [that] just drains us," Paul adds. 'Your income is not commensurate with your vision' Sethi presses Maddie and Paul about what they actually want out of life and what sacrifices they may be willing to make to get there. Having a big wedding for themselves is important to Maddie and Paul, as is their financial security, they reply. They plan to have kids within the next several years and want to make sure they're setting themselves up for success in that phase of life. Even if Paul gets the salary he expects at his next job, the couple would be wise to make some changes, Sethi says. "I love your vision for an even greater life. It's beautiful," he adds. "But your income is not commensurate with your vision, nor will it be." The idea of "keeping up with the Joneses" and lifestyle creep are common pitfalls because humans are social animals, Sethi says. But Maddie and Paul need to acknowledge that their friends' lifestyle choices have nothing to do with their personal financial situations and goals.
Similac Baby Formula Maker Abbott And Reckitt Face Hundreds Of Baby Formula Lawsuits - Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) 2024-07-08 19:35:00+00:00 - Loading... Loading... Abbott Laboratories ABT is set to face trial on Monday over allegations that its formula for preterm infants used in neonatal intensive care units causes a potentially deadly bowel disease known as necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). This is the second trial out of hundreds of similar lawsuits in the U.S. Also Read: Class Action Against Abbott’s Glucerna Products Proceeds in Federal Court. Lawyers for Abbott and Illinois resident Margo Gill will make their opening statements to jurors in St. Louis, Missouri, with the trial expected to last most of the month. Gill claims her premature infant developed NEC after being fed Abbott’s products for premature babies, which causes the death of bowel tissue, primarily affects newborns, and has a fatality rate of 15% to 40%. Although Gill’s child survived, they now suffer from long-term health problems. Reuters noted Abbott’s response, stating that Gill’s child “suffered from a traumatic brain injury in utero and at birth, long before she was fed any Abbott products,” and argued that “no one is to blame” for her condition. Close to 1,000 lawsuits have been filed in federal or state courts against Abbott and Enfamil formula maker Reckitt Benckiser Group Plc’s RBGLY RBGPF, alleging that cow’s milk-based formula products for premature infants caused NEC. More than 500 cases are centralized in an Illinois federal court, with others pending in Illinois, Missouri, and Pennsylvania. The lawsuits claim the companies failed to warn that infants given their products are at a higher risk of NEC than those breastfed or given donor milk or human milk-derived formula. The first lawsuit to go to trial, against Reckitt in Illinois, ended with a $60 million jury verdict in March. Reckitt appealed the verdict, arguing that the plaintiff’s case relied on unsound expert testimony. These NEC lawsuits are separate from ongoing litigation against Abbott over the shutdown of its Sturgis, Michigan, plant and subsequent recall of baby formula batches for possible contamination, which contributed to a nationwide formula shortage in 2022. No trials have been held for these cases yet. Price Action: ABT shares are down 1.48% at $102.48 at the last check on Monday. Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Read Next: Photo via Wikimedia Commons
Panama is using barbed wire to try to block a major route for U.S.-bound migrants 2024-07-08 19:30:00+00:00 - In a bid to block U.S.-bound migrants, Panama has installed barbed-wire fencing along the Darien Gap, sparking panic among migrants trying to cross the jungle that links South and Central America — but not necessarily stopping them. Videos of the barbed-wire barriers appeared as early as June 27 in WhatsApp groups for people planning to migrate to the U.S., causing users to ask who was behind the move and if they could still get across the jungle. Since then, the Ministry of Public Security of the Republic of Panama has claimed responsibility for the new installations. “The patrol at the national border service has begun to block the majority of border passages,” Panama’s minister of public security, Frank Abrego, said at a June 28 news conference during a visit to the Darien Gap. The Panamanian government said the new barriers have blocked "the majority of border passages." Obtained by NBC News Abrego said that one passage will remain open and that migrants there must present a passport or another form of identification to Panamanian migration authorities. All this, he said, is an effort to manage the flow of people coming in and to prevent organized crime from entering Panamanian cities. But videos are already circulating via WhatsApp appearing to show migrants getting around the wire fencing. In one video seen by NBC News, a large crowd of men, women and children can be seen lining up behind a fence as they take turns crawling into a hole dug under the barrier and into the jungle. Smugglers are also telling people that nothing has changed. “Listen to me, everything is active — Carreto, Acandi, Capurgana, Caledonia,” one smuggler said Sunday in a WhatsApp group, listing off popular routes he said are still open. “The guards did put a fence along Capurgana but people are passing one by one — kids, adults and they are passing the same. They have not sent anyone back nor are they sending anyone back.” “Stop believing the news, they only seek to stop the flow of migrants,” one smuggler wrote in another WhatsApp group last Tuesday, adding that the only people affected by the barriers are “negative” and “lazy” people. A family of Venezuelan migrants with young children walk through the Colombian portion of the Darien Gap on July 27, 2022. Fabio Cuttica / Thomson Reuters Foundation The only land bridge The Darien Gap is a tangle of mountains, marshes and rainforest 30 miles wide and 100 miles long that is the only land bridge between South America and Panama. An estimated half-million U.S.-bound migrants crossed the gap in 2023. An estimated total of 197,389 people have traveled through the Darien Gap since Jan. 1, with an estimated 27,375 individuals making the journey in June, according to Panama’s National Migration Service. Migrants from Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia and China have represented the majority of those crossing, Panama’s most recent migration data shows. Slowing migration through the Darien Gap has become a key issue for newly elected Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino. He paid a visit to the Darien region days before he was officially sworn in on July 1. In a statement to NBC News, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said the U.S. was not behind the fencing, despite increased cooperation between the U.S. and Panama to counter immigration in the region. “The U.S. has not provided support to the Government of Panama to erect barriers at its borders” but said the Panamanian government “has a right to protect its borders,” said the spokesperson. Stranded migrants from Cuba, Haiti and several African countries arrive in Capurgana, Colombia, near the border with Panama, on July 31, 2021. Joaquin Sarmiento / AFP via Getty Images The spokesperson also pointed to an agreement announced last week between the U.S. and Panama that will help the Panamanian government remove and repatriate migrants illegally present in the region. “By returning such individuals to their country of origin, we will help deter irregular migration in the region and at our southern border, and halt the enrichment of malign smuggling networks that prey on vulnerable migrants,” the NSC said in a statement on July 1 announcing the agreement.
The right mix of retirement accounts can lower your future taxes, experts say — here's what to know 2024-07-08 19:20:00+00:00 - Whether you're mid-career or nearing retirement, it's important to know where you're investing — and how those accounts could impact future taxes, experts say. Many workers are heavily concentrated in tax-deferred savings via a pretax 401(k) plan or traditional individual retirement accounts, which incur regular income taxes on future withdrawals, based on federal tax brackets. However, many advisors recommend using a mix of pretax, after-tax Roth and taxable brokerage accounts for more flexibility in retirement. The right mix can provide "a lot of different levers to pull to manage your adjusted gross income," explained certified financial planner Judy Brown at SC&H Group in the Washington, D.C., and Baltimore area. More from Personal Finance: I lost my wallet. Here's what experts say I should do to protect my identity and money Weddings cost over $30,000: Couples are having 'micro weddings' instead This 'bucket strategy' could lower your taxes in retirement — how to maximize it Pretax distributions could bump you into a higher tax bracket or trigger higher Medicare Part B and Part D premiums, explained Brown, who is also a certified public accountant. Medicare Part B and Part D premiums are based on so-called modified adjusted gross income, which is your adjusted gross income plus tax-exempt interest, from two years prior.
Johns Hopkins medical school will be free for most thanks to $1 billion from Bloomberg Philanthropies 2024-07-08 19:14:00+00:00 - Johns Hopkins medical school will be free for most students starting this fall, thanks to a $1 billion donation from Bloomberg Philanthropies. Tuition will be completely free for medical students whose families earn less than $300,000, with the gift also covering living expenses and fees for students from families earning up to $175,000. Previously, tuition was roughly $65,000 a year for four years. The gift aims to improve declining life expectancy in the U.S. by making medical and nursing school more accessible to lower-income students and diversifying the medical and public health fields. "As the U.S. struggles to recover from a disturbing decline in life expectancy, our country faces a serious shortage of doctors, nurses, and public health professionals — and yet, the high cost of medical, nursing and graduate school too often bars students from enrolling," said Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and Bloomberg LP in a statement Monday. "By reducing the financial barriers to these essential fields, we can free more students to pursue careers they're passionate about — and enable them to serve more of the families and communities who need them the most." Currently, future doctors graduate from Hopkins with an average total student loan debt of approximately $104,000, while the median debt from all medical schools 2023 graduates was $200,000, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. Bloomberg's gift will lower the average student loan debt for Hopkins medical school graduates to $60,279 by 2029, with most students paying nothing at all, according to Bloomberg Philanthropies. In other words, it knocks down the hurdles that can prevent aspiring doctors from low-income families from pursuing careers in medicine. The gift will also increase financial aid for students at its School of Nursing and the Bloomberg School of Public Health. It comes after the organization made a $1.8 billion financial aid donation to Johns Hopkins in 2018 to establish need-blind admissions for undergraduates. The donation isn't the first to make medical school tuitinon free for students. In February, a $1 billion donation from Dr. Ruth L. Gottesman made Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, where she is a professor and board member, free for students in perpetuity. The Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine also waived all tuition and fees for students entered between the fall of 2020 through 2025. In another move to ease costs, the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine at Case Western University offers full scholarships to all students who are admitted.
As ecotourism grows in Maine, so does the desire to maintain Downeast’s wild character 2024-07-08 19:05:19+00:00 - The roar of summer traffic on Route 1 as it zooms over the Pleasant River bridge in Columbia drowns out the burbling water below. The slip of river meandering under the road is easy to miss. Even less visible is the Pleasant River Fish and Game Conservation Association, tucked among the dense woods a short drive, or paddle, away. But the volunteer club has been around since the 1950s, working to preserve and promote the region’s vast natural resources. Later this month, the association will hold its annual Puckerbrush Primitive Gathering, where about 200 visitors from near and far will come to camp and learn traditional outdoor skills. Larry Balchen, a member of the group who helped found the event, believes Maine’s Downeast region is at an inflection point. “There are a lot of people here who don’t really understand the value of what’s around us,” said Balchen. “They want to build attractions, but the fact that there is nothing here is the attraction.” In the past decade, the state and roughly a dozen large nonprofit conservation groups have caught on to the idea that land and water preservation could also help boost the region’s lagging economy. Washington County has the highest poverty rate in the state, with nearly a fifth of residents living below the poverty line, according to the 2022 American Community Survey. Hancock County, which includes Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park, is often considered part of the region, although there is debate about where Downeast begins, and different groups use different boundaries. Far-eastern coastal Maine is rich in resources. According to the Downeast Conservation Network (DCN), the region has many of the cleanest and least developed watersheds and wildlife corridors on the East Coast. A 2018 study by University of Maine researchers for DCN reported that 19 percent of the two-county area was in some sort of conservation status — more than 700,000 acres of parks, wildlife refuges and preserves. And the figure has only grown. Much of that conserved land and water is being groomed for public access. There has been a large uptick in recreational tourism, and thus an influx of money. But some worry the quaint Downeast way of life, rooted largely in the fishing and wild blueberry industries, is shifting — the quiet replaced with crowds. ‘All the beautiful places’ On a cool June morning, more than two dozen kayaks and canoes converged on the once obscure Orange River in Whiting. Oars slapped the water as paddlers made their way through the winding water trail, around and sometimes over beaver dams, into Orange Lake. The event was organized by Maine Coast Heritage Trust (MCHT), the Downeast Salmon Federation, the Downeast Coastal Conservancy, Cobscook Shores and the state Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Jacob van de Sande, MCHT’s Washington County project manager, introduced eager paddlers to the pristine estuary teeming with fish, waterfowl and other wildlife. MCHT manages 180,000 acres along the coast, with 19 preserves Downeast alone, including portions of the water trail where MCHT shares space with the other groups. He said the groups work together to restore fish passage from the river into Cobscook Bay, and to highlight valuable resources. “What happens to rivers when you don’t have fish and you don’t have great access, is that people forget about them,” van de Sande said. “You forget about all the beautiful places and the great benefits this river offers to our community.” Much attention is also being given to the land. According to the Downeast Conservation Network, roughly 16 percent of Hancock County and 28 percent of Washington County are in some form of public or private land conservation. The estimates far exceed the roughly 12 percent conserved in the state overall, putting Downeast much closer to hitting the “30×30” goal of conserving 30 percent of land by 2030. Maine’s comprehensive outdoor recreation plan details a four-year strategy for protecting the environment while promoting ecotourism, with one goal being to “draw on (the) region’s unique assets to create or enhance experiences worthy of travel.” The report lays out a vision for developing outdoor recreation infrastructure while building ecological resilience, noting the possibility of “simultaneously enabling long distance trails and corridor protections; acquiring lands with enough topography to allow plant migrations while affording trail vistas; adding conserved land to coastal recreation sites at risk to sea level change; etc.” One Lubec resident, Chris Farr, thinks the efforts are working. When Farr, a retired medical equipment consultant, isn’t reveling in his oceanfront view of Quoddy Head Light, he takes lessons at Summerkeys, a music residency that draws people worldwide to teach and study. Farr said participants had a hard time this summer finding housing because so many tourists came to visit Lubec’s more than 20 trails and preserves. But he thinks overall the shift has had a good effect, providing free access to parks for residents and tourists. “You’re sort of being handed major tourist activity on a plate,” said Farr. “Personally, I think Lubec should be bending over backwards to embrace it.” According to the Maine Office of Tourism, Downeast visitors spent more than $1.2 billion on accommodations, transportation, restaurants, shopping, entertainment and other expenses last year — 12 percent more than the previous year. A question of taxes Not everyone in Lubec is sold on the change. Still reeling from the death of its once lucrative sardine canning industry and the dwindling fisheries, the town relies on taxes from expensive oceanfront properties. In recent years, much of that property has been absorbed by nonprofit conservation groups buying the land to create preserves for hiking and other public recreation. Under state law, those conserved lands are eligible for tax exemptions. Lubec officials say the exempt land, coupled with a nearly fourfold hike in some property assessments after a state-mandated evaluation, leaves the town struggling to fill the gap. “The state says we’re valued at $4 billion, but $2 billion of that isn’t taxable because all these people aren’t paying taxes,” said town administrator Suzette Francis. That deficit stems in part from property falling into “tree growth” or “open space” designations, equating to a reduction in the land’s assessed value. Sometimes conservation groups voluntarily pay reduced tax amounts, or make payments in lieu of taxes, usually far less than what would be owed without the tax breaks. Last year, MCHT paid Lubec 20 percent of the assessed value for the three preserves it built and manages. Cobscook Shores, meanwhile, which owns 20 parklands in Lubec, made a $2,000 donation to the town through an associated foundation. The tax bill for the group’s Red Point Nature Preserve alone would have been $6,372 last year, Francis said. The environmental group owns about 20 miles of shorefront on Cobscook Bay and its tributaries, spanning the towns of East Machias, Lubec, Whiting, Dennysville and Pembroke, according to spokesperson Betta Stothart. Last fall, Cobscook Shores purchased the 25.5-acre Leighton farm, along Leighton Point Road and the Pennamaquan River in Pembroke, for $420,000, where it has plans for another park. Cobscook Shores has paid reduced property taxes, and made grants to towns and community groups that total roughly $480,000 over a five-year period, according to Stothart. That’s far less than the organization would have paid without the tax breaks. But Cobscook Shores project manager Charlie Howe points to the group’s $19 million investments in land, equipment, operations and youth programs as a different way the organization has contributed to the local economy. He said the group is trying to meet tourist demand, and noted the growing popularity of ecotourism worldwide. “I think people, society, started realizing that they had lost the connection with the outdoors, that it can be therapeutic,” Howe said. Overflowing parking lots A number of conservationists acknowledged that maintaining a balance is crucial, pointing to the high levels of tourism in Bar Harbor as something many Downeast towns understandably want to avoid. Balchen, from the Pleasant River Fish and Game Conservation Association, said he regularly hikes many Downeast trails, including the popular Cutler Coast Public Lands. The trails flirt with soaring rock ledges, offering breathtaking views of Fundy Bay. “I remember when there was one parking lot, now there are two overflowing into the road,” Balchen said. “I used to hike the entirety of that trail without seeing a soul, but those days are gone.” Conservation leaders say their Downeast planning efforts consider a crucial question: How do you create new recreational experiences, and new economic opportunities, while maintaining the culture of the region? Up and down the coast, farmers and fishermen have started changing with the times, opening up farm-to-table eateries, art galleries, wedding venues, and offering visitors lobster boat rides where they can learn to pull traps. Lisa Hanscom saw the shift start about 20 years ago. Hanscom began offering tours of Welch Farm, her family’s 18-century wild blueberry farm in Roque Bluffs. Hanscom, who is also Washington County’s emergency management director, saw the blueberry industry was suffering, so found a way to breathe new life into the farm. Her tours bring in more than 500 visitors each season, who come to learn how to rake and pack berries. Eventually, Hanscom started renting out cabins for people who want to stay longer. “My father wasn’t really for it in the beginning,” Hanscom said. “His exact words were, ‘Who is going to want to come stay on a farm.’ ” Local heritage To help protect and nurture the region’s rural culture while building an emerging tourist economy, community leaders secured a National Heritage Area designation that was signed into law late last year, the first of its kind in the state. The legislation designates Hancock and Washington counties as an area with national importance, qualifying them for additional federal investment to help drive economic activity to the region, according to a press release announcing the designation. The bill recognizes the contributions of Downeast Maine’s agriculture industry — including wild blueberry growers — as well as the impacts of heritage fishing and forestry, added Rep. Chellie Pingree, a co-sponsor of the bill. Crystal Hitchings, the director of community promotion for the Sunrise County Economic Council, heads the Downeast Maine National Heritage Area project, now in the second year of a three-year planning phase. Hitchings said the project will eventually receive about $300,000 a year in federal support for educational programming and partnerships to help sustain fishermen, farmers and others in the region’s traditional industries who must adapt to the changing climate, new technologies, and shift toward a more tourism-based economy. Funding also will be used to help connect people with the stories, experiences and cultures rooted in Downeast’s unique natural resources. Wayne Cox, a Pembroke shell fisherman and carpenter, is a 65-year-old 10th-generation Mainer who isn’t working after suffering a boating injury. His boat, the Earnest Lowell, is moored in his Pembroke yard amid colorful flower and rock gardens. Cox often waves to neighbors driving into the new truck stop on Route 1 near his house. Adjusting his hat, Cox said he sees the value of ecotourism, especially in light of rising taxes and the region’s aging population. He just hopes community leaders and conservationists get it right. “There’s a whole different way of life Downeast than there is away,” Cox said. “I’d like to see that part of it stay.” —- This story was originally published by The Maine Monitor and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
Black lawmakers are a key line of defense for Biden as he fights to save his campaign 2024-07-08 18:59:00+00:00 - WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is counting on an important political firewall to help him stave off Democratic defections and save his flagging re-election campaign: leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus. On Monday, after a wave of congressional Democrats called for the president to step aside as the party’s nominee, Congressional Black Caucus Chair Steven Horsford, D-Nev., reaffirmed his support for Biden in the wake of his disastrous debate performance against former President Donald Trump last month. Horsford’s public support is significant given that he is facing a competitive race this fall. “President Joe Biden is the nominee and has been selected by millions of voters across the country, including voters here in Nevada,” Horsford said in a statement posted on social media, adding that Nevadans “care about a thriving and equitable economy, taking on big corporations to lower costs and protecting the hard fought freedoms, rights and opportunities we’ve earned.” “They know President Biden and Vice President Harris are fighting for them. Like me, they don’t want to see Donald Trump back in the White House and are ready to work and VOTE to ensure that doesn’t happen,” Horsford continued. “We’re not going back, we’re moving forward.” The CBC is set to hold a virtual meeting with Biden Monday night, according to multiple sources familiar with the plans. Black voters have been key to Biden's coalition. In the 2020 Democratic primaries, Black voters in South Carolina resuscitated his campaign and put him on the path to the presidency. In addition to choosing the first Black female vice president, he also nominated the first Black woman to be a Supreme Court justice. And now, keeping the support of Black lawmakers may be key to the president's political future once again. During a private call between Democratic committee leaders Sunday, four senior Democrats called on Biden to exit the race, and several other ranking members also voiced concerns about his ability to beat Trump in November. But on that same call, two former chairwomen of the CBC — Reps. Maxine Waters and Barbara Lee, both California Democrats — “forcefully” defended Biden, according to two sources familiar with their comments. In addition, another CBC member, Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., who was not on the Sunday call, issued a statement backing Biden and calling out his critics, saying: “Joe Biden and Kamala Harris defeated Donald Trump in 2020 and they are the Democratic ticket that will do so again this year. Any ‘leader’ calling for President Biden to drop out needs to get their priorities straight and stop undermining this incredible actual leader who has delivered real results for our country." “What Democrats need to be doing is stop listening to these political pundits and focus on what’s at stake this election: our democracy,” Wilson continued. “End of story. I stand with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and so should all Americans.” The CBC is largely behind Biden, the two sources said, although there are “little cracks” within the powerful group — including the fact that not all CBC members have declared their support for Biden publicly. "Most members in the Congressional Black Caucus are institutionalists,” a senior aide to a CBC member told NBC News. “It’s hard to imagine many of them going against an incumbent president that has passed many pieces of major legislation to benefit the Black community, and is connected to President Obama.” “They’ve all doubled down,” said former Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., who was a member of the CBC while in Congress and is now a co-chair of the Biden campaign. “Turbulent times don’t bother them. They’ve been through turbulent times, and they know you muscle through it.” The Biden campaign did not have an immediate comment for this story. CBC members also have pushed back against criticism of aging politicians and generally been in favor of Democrats’ seniority system, which rewards the longest-serving members with coveted committee gavels. Black lawmakers currently serve as the top Democrat on five House committees. Black voters were credited with resuscitating Biden’s left-for-dead presidential campaign in 2020, when then-Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., one of the most powerful Black leaders in Washington, endorsed him ahead of the South Carolina primary and rallied the Black community behind him. Biden would go on that year to win the crowded Democratic primary and later oust Trump from the White House. But Clyburn has not offered full-throated support for Biden in recent days. Following Biden’s stumbles in the June 27 debate, Clyburn said on MSNBC that he would strongly support Harris, a former CBC member, if Biden should step aside. He also appeared on CNN and suggested the party could hold a “mini primary” ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month. And while House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said after the debate that Biden should stay in the race, the highest-ranking Black lawmaker has spent the past week gathering input from party leaders and rank-and-file members ahead of the House's return to Washington on Monday. Seeking to shore up support from the Black community and dispel criticism that he's not up to the job, Biden last week called into two Black radio shows in the swing states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. But the president became embroiled in another controversy when the two radio hosts confirmed that Biden campaign aides had provided questions to ask him in advance. Still, it’s also notable that there are no Black lawmakers among the five House Democrats who have publicly called on Biden to step aside — Reps. Lloyd Doggett of Texas, Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, Mike Quigley of Illinois, and Angie Craig of Minnesota. Neither are there any Black lawmakers among the four Democratic committee leaders who on the Sunday call urged Biden to leave the race — Reps. Jerry Nadler of New York, Adam Smith of Washington, Mark Takano of California, and Joe Morelle of New York. “The president has done a great job. I think the only reason why we’re having this conversation is one horrible debate. That’s what he had. He had one horrible debate,” New York Rep. Greg Meeks, the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee who participated in the Sunday call, said Monday during an appearance on MSNBC. A CBC member, Meeks said he had not spoken to Biden since the debate but spent time with him last month in Normandy, France, and heard him deliver a “remarkable speech.” “The president has led, continues to lead, and the leadership that he has provided has brought the world, the democratic world closer together, to make us all safer together than we would be if we were doing this by ourselves,” Meeks continued. “That is what the authoritarians hope — that we would be divided. The leadership of Joe Biden has prevented that from happening.” One House Democrat and key Biden ally said Monday they believed that Biden can weather the storm — especially with strong CBC backing and support from other influential Democrats like Massachusetts Rep. Richard Neal, the top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee. “People are underestimating strong support for the president from senior members in the caucus like Richie Neal and many of the most respected CBC members,” the Biden ally said.