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☆ Factbox: Over a million without power on U.S. East Coast and Texas due to winter storms
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Dec 23 (Reuters) - More than a million homes and businesses were without power on the U.S. East Coast, Midwest and Texas on Friday as winter storms battered much of the country, according to data from PowerOutage.us. Most outages were in North Carolina, with over 164,000 customers without power, followed by Virginia with over 92,000 and Connecticut with more than 89,000. More than a dozen other states east of the Mississippi River plus Oregon, Washington state, Missouri, Louisiana and Arkansas west of the Mississippi River each have more than 10,000 customers facing outages due to winter storms. Temperatures in northern Georgia were forecast to hit just 10 degrees Fahrenheit (-12 Celsius) with subzero wind chills. The utility with the most outages was Duke Energy Corp (DUK.N) with over 100,000 customers without power.

☆ Factbox: More than 800,000 without power in U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Dec 24 (Reuters) - More than 800,000 homes and businesses were without power in the eastern half of the United States and Texas as winter storms battered much of the country, according to data from PowerOutage.us. U.S. utilities were working to restore power after the storms moved on from their service territories but some were still dealing with high winds. The greatest numbers of outages were in New England in the northeast, with 248,162 customers without power in Maine, followed by New Hampshire, New York, Virginia and North Carolina. Nearly half of the 50 U.S. states counted more than 10,000 customers with outages due to the storms. The utility with the most outages was Central Maine Power with 188,861 customers without power.

☆ Deep freeze grips U.S. as winter 'bomb cyclone' looms ahead of holiday weekend
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( Steve Gorman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Numbing cold intensified by high winds was expected to extend as far south as the U.S.-Mexico border. The NWS map of existing or impending wintry hazards, stretching from border to border and coast to coast, "depicts one of the greatest extents of winter weather warnings and advisories ever," the agency said. The bomb cyclone could unleash snowfalls of a half inch (1.25 cm) per hour driven by gale-force winds, cutting visibility to near zero, the weather service said. Power outages were expected from high winds, heavy snow and ice, as well as the strain of higher-than-usual energy demands. The weather service said relief from the deep freeze was in sight for the northern Rockies and High Plains, where the arctic blast first materialized on Thursday.

☆ Massive winter storm threatens holiday travel for millions of Americans
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Tyler Clifford | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

In its wake, the cyclone could spawn snowfalls of a half inch an hour and winds of more than 50 mph (80 kph) in the Upper Midwest and interior Northeast, the weather service said. "This will lead to dangerous, to at times impossible, land and air travel leading up to the holiday weekend," the agency said on its website. Temperatures in parts of the Southern Plains and Southeast could stay below freezing -- 30-plus degrees less than normal -- for multiple days, the weather service predicted. The weather service also warned of freezing rain in parts of Oregon and Washington in the Northwest, where the storm originated, late Thursday. That would be the biggest daily drop in output since the freeze of February 2021 when a winter storm cut gas supplies from Texas and forced the Texas electric grid operator to impose rolling power outages.

☆ More women are traveling alone. The hospitality industry is meeting demand with offerings like 'Alonemoons' — no partner required.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-22 | by ( Mark Ellwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

When she started traveling alone, she said, the trend was less common and locals were often surprised to see her without a companion. The Solo Female Travelers Club, a 190,000-member social network and tour operator, surveys 5,000 women annually on their habits and opinions. A Gili Lankanfushi representative told Insider six women traveling alone had booked the package in the past 18 months. "I think it's a wonderful, life-affirming experience to be a woman traveling solo and experience the nurturing care you can get from strangers. Meg Jerrard, a cofounder of the Solo Female Travelers Club, recently started a consulting division of her company to help guide other businesses as they reevaluate their offerings and staff in light of growing demand from solo female travelers.

Canada is in the midst of building a large terminal to export LNG, but its completion is two years away. Canadian gas production is on track to reach a record 18 bcfd in 2022 and 19 bcfd in 2023, according to energy consultancy Rystad Energy. Pipelines are also constrained in Canada due to swift production growth, particularly TC Energy Corp's (TRP.TO) NGTL pipeline system that ships gas around and out of western Canada. In August, gas prices in Alberta briefly turned negative because of bottlenecks stemming from NGTL maintenance. U.S. LNG exports are expected to reach 10.6 bcfd in 2022 and 12.3 bcfd in 2023, according to federal estimates.

NEW YORK, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Oil prices slid about 2% on Thursday as traders worried about the fuel demand outlook due to a stronger dollar and further interest rate hikes by global central banks. "Crude prices edged lower as ... global recession risks increased after a wave of central banks delivered another strong round of tightening. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Wednesday the U.S. central bank will raise interest rates further next year, even as the economy slips toward a possible recession. On Thursday, the Bank of England and the European Central Bank raised interest rates to fight inflation. Also pressuring oil prices, Canada's TC Energy Corp (TRP.TO) said it was resuming operations in a section of its Keystone pipeline, a week after a leak of more than 14,000 barrels of oil in Kansas triggered a shutdown.

☆ MacKenzie Scott unveils website detailing her $14 billion in donations – search to see where she's given in your neighborhood
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Jordan Hart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Billionaire MacKenzie Scott's Yield Giving website is now live. Yield Giving says it plans to offer an online application for organizations to apply for a donation. Yield Giving includes specifics on her $14 billion in donations to more than 1,600 organizations going back to 2019. On its homepage is an explanation of the name Yield Giving. Although she's considered one of the richest women in the world with a net worth over $20 billion, Scott has pledged to give away the majority of her fortune.

☆ Congress approves removing statue of Supreme Court chief justice who wrote Dred Scott decision
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Zoë Richards | Zoë Richards Is The Evening Politics Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

The House passed a bill Wednesday that would remove from public display at the U.S. Capitol a statue of Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney, who wrote the 1857 Dred Scott decision that defended slavery and denied the citizenship of Black Americans. Roger B. Taney (1777-1864), former chief justice of the Supreme Court. The House overwhelmingly passed the measure a few months later in a 305-113 vote, but it did not advance in the Senate. A statue of Taney, who lived in Maryland, was removed from Maryland's State House grounds in 2017. Congress in recent years has taken similar actions to remove other statues from the Civil War era.

☆ Congress passed a bill removing a bust from the Capitol of the Supreme Court justice who authored an infamous decision denying citizenship to Black Americans
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The House and Senate voted to remove a bust of the author of the Dred Scott decision from the Capitol. The bust of former Chief Justice Roger Taney will be replaced by a bust of Thurgood Marshall. Taney wrote in that decision that people of African descent were "beings of an inferior order." The bust of Taney is expected to be replaced with a bust of former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the high court's first Black justice. Taney wrote the majority opinion in the Supreme Court's infamous Dred Scott v. Sandford decision of 1856, which held that Black Americans could not be US citizens.

☆ These 20 companies are hiring a ton of tech workers
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Career site Indeed put together a list with recent job posting data of the places hiring tech job seekers. Deloitte ranked at the top — with 1,774 new tech job postings per 1 million based on Indeed's data. Meta, Amazon, Twitter, Lyft, and other tech companies have recently announced layoffs. "Deloitte as a management and consulting company is doing quite well right now, and they need tech workers," Dobroski said. "They're not traditional tech companies, but they really assist and support and consult so many other companies that are trying to up level their tech presence," Dobroski said about the top three.

☆ Robinhood to pay a 1% 'match' on customer contributions to retail individual retirement accounts
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Greg Iacurci | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

The retail brokerage will pay a 1% "match" on contributions its customers make to a Robinhood individual retirement account, the firm said Tuesday. The firm is billing it as the first-ever match paid to retail IRA customers (i.e., outside of a workplace retirement plan.) A 401(k) match is a common retirement benefit offered by employers that sponsor a workplace retirement plan. How the match worksA 401(k) match is generally structured as a share of employee contributions. There aren't any contribution or account minimums to get the Robinhood match, and trades don't carry commissions.

The Mexican grupera (a form of regional music) band Los Bukis become the first Latin music band to sell out two shows at the 70,000-seat SoFi Stadium. The magnitude of generational diversity could be seen when the Grammy award-winning Mexican band Los Tigres del Norte were on stage. Hernán Hernández and Jorge Hernández of the band Los Tigres del Norte perform Saturday. Scott Dudelson / Getty Images"Before, we really were invisible,” said Leila Cobo, a renowned Latin music expert and Billboard’s vice president of Latin content. "Now I think the kids go to see their parents’ music and Bad Bunny."

☆ Florida Sen. Rick Scott says Republicans should 'stop compromising' with Democrats, arguing that Senate GOP leaders 'routinely cave in' to Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Sen. Rick Scott said GOP leaders had become too accommodating to Democratic leaders in Washington. The Florida lawmaker spoke this weekend before the Jewish Republican Coalition in Las Vegas. "Republican leaders in the Senate routinely cave in and allow Schumer and Biden to win," he said. A new era where Republicans actually give the voters a positive reason for voting for them is coming," he continued to say. "I ran for leader because Republican leaders in the Senate routinely cave in and allow Schumer and Biden to win.

☆ A Beverly Hills mansion that MacKenzie Scott donated to a housing charity sold for $37 million, report says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( Sam Tabahriti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

MacKenzie Scott gave two Beverly Hills mansions to a housing charity in September. The 12,000-square-foot home was one of two properties given to the California Community Foundation by Jeff Bezos's ex-wife in September. Bezos and Scott bought the home in 2007 for about $24.5 million. The Spanish-style home in Beverly Hills has sold for $37 million. California Community Foundation didn't immediately respond to a request for comment by Insider.

☆ United States at risk of tight electric supplies this winter -NERC
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Those reliability concerns stem from higher peak demand projections, generator retirements, generator vulnerability to extreme weather and fuel supply and natural gas infrastructure limitations, the North American Electric Reliability Corp (NERC) said on a webcast of its 2022-2023 Winter Reliability Assessment. NERC said that the lack of interconnections with other regions limited Texas' ability to import power from other regions if problems arise. "Energy emergencies are likely in extreme conditions," NERC said about MISO, noting wind generator performance would be a key factory this winter. In New England, NERC warned that the amount of oil stored at power generators was just about 40% of capacity. "We encourage generators to fill up those tanks," Mark Olson, manager for reliability assessments at NERC, said on the webcast.

Sen. Linsey Graham, a Trump ally, told reporters he voted "for change." "I welcome the contest," McConnell told reporters after Scott announced his bid. "I voted for change," he told reporters. Earlier this month during an interview with Fox News host Martha McCallum, Scott denied rumors spread by Trump that Scott "hates" McConnell. So we acquainted our members with the tools they have," McConnell told reporters at the US Capitol, adding, "I think that'll be used more often.

☆ Jeff Bezos plans to give away most of his fortune: Why 'it’s a big deal,' from a philanthropy expert
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Jeff Bezos finally said he plans to give away the "majority" of his $122 billion fortune during his lifetime. Bezos had 'resisted developing a public philanthropic identity'Why is the 58-year-old Bezos just now committing to giving away the bulk of his fortune? For years, Soskis says, Bezos "resisted developing a public philanthropic identity," a position that the researcher believes had "become increasingly untenable" amid public criticism of Bezos' massive wealth. Gates and Buffett are the founders of the Giving Pledge. The analogy could be seen as an attempt to explain why Bezos has waited to announce his philanthropic plans, and why those plans still remain somewhat vague.

☆ Rick Scott — Mitch McConnell's would-be rival — dodged a question on whether he'd back the Kentucky senator for GOP leader
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Cheryl Teh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Sen. Rick Scott dodged a question about whether he would back Mitch McConnell for GOP leader. KUDLOW: Are you backing Mitch McConnell? Trump endorses Rick Scott for Republican Senate Leader: “I think Rick Scott would be much better than McConnell. I'm not a fan of McConnell and I am a fan of Rick Scott." "Because Masters said he would vote against Mitch McConnell, and so Mitch would rather be leader than have a Republican majority.

☆ MacKenzie Scott says she has given $2 billion to 343 organizations supporting underserved communities in the last 7 months, raising her total to at least $14.5 billion since she pledged to give away m
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Isabella Zavarise | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott gave nearly $2 billion to 343 organizations since 2019. In the last 7 months, Scott gave money to organizations supporting people from underserved communities. With this addition, she has now given away $14.5 billion of her fortune since signing the Giving Pledge. In a blog post on Monday, Scott said in the last seven months, she gave nearly $2 billion to 343 organizations supporting people from underserved communities. Since signing the pledge, Scott has become one of the leading philanthropists in the US.

☆ Rick Scott launches his Trump-backed challenge of Mitch McConnell to become Senate GOP leader
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | Warren Rojas | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Sen. Rick Scott is challenging Mitch McConnell to become the top Senate Republican. Scott's challenge comes as former President Donald Trump and some Senate Republicans blame McConnell for a lackluster midterm election. As Politico broke the news of Scott's challenge, McConnell's allies lashed out. As the leader of Senate Republicans' campaign arm, Scott played a key role in shaping his party's strategy. Unlike McConnell, Scott did not want the GOP to aggressively intervene in contested primaries, which led to Trump-backed challengers like Dr. Mehmet Oz and Don Bolduc emerging in key races in Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, respectively.

☆ What Cramer is watching Monday — two AMD upgrades, Microsoft hesitancy, Alzheimer's results
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Jim Cramer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Baird upgrades Advance Micro Devices (AMD) to outperform from neutral (buy from hold) and raises price target to $100 per share from $65. UBS goes to a buy from neutral as well and raises price target to $95 from $75. Oppenheimer cuts price target on Club holding Nvidia (NVDA) to $225 per share from $250. Credit Suisse analyst Scott Deuschle assumes coverage on Honeywell (HON) with a neutral rating and a $202-per-share price target. Good for Club holding Eli Lily (LLY) and Biogen (BIIB), which are each working on separate experiment treatments for the disease.

☆ How selling neighborhood 'trash' on Facebook Marketplace for 5 hours a week landed a 27-year-old an extra $37,000 this year
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-13 | by ( Jacob Zinkula | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Sarah Scott, 27, spends five hours per week selling found furniture on Facebook Marketplace. Within 48 hours, she'd sold it all on Facebook Marketplace, a section of Facebook where users can buy and sell goods, often to and from people in their local area. She says she spends just five hours per week on her side gig — three hours for driving and picking up items and two hours for staging, photographing, and listing items online. And some, like Scott, have embraced reseller platforms like Poshmark or Facebook Marketplace to earn extra cash or become full-time resellers. While she occasionally ships items, Scott leaves the vast majority of them on her porch for buyers to pick up and they can pay her through Venmo.

☆ US West faces power reliability issues from growing use of renewables
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Nov 11 (Reuters) - A group responsible for power market reliability in Western North America said the growing use of renewable generation will require the region to boost planning reserves in coming years to help maintain grid reliability. That means electric companies will have to hold more resources to account for that increased variability to maintain system reliability. WECC, however, noted that reliability through 2025 increased in the latest assessment compared with last year. That's due to actions taken after the August 2020 heat wave forced California's grid operators to impose rotating outages. "Delaying retirements provides entities more time to determine how to mitigate risks once these plants retire," WECC said.

☆ 'Bogus,' 'ridiculous,' and 'made-up crap': DOJ veterans throw cold water on Trump's claim that he 'sent in the FBI' to help Ron DeSantis
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Sonam Sheth | C. Ryan Barber | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

DOJ veterans shot down Trump's claim that he "sent in" the FBI to help Ron DeSantis win the 2018 Florida gubernatorial race. The feds are now investigating if "Stop The Steal" protests surrounding the 2018 Florida election served as a roadmap for the Capitol riot. But in another post, Trump went beyond simply relitigating the 2018 election to making a new, remarkable claim about his past support for DeSantis. It prompted eye-rolling, and with some, public denials that the Justice Department and FBI ever investigated 2018 election fraud at Trump's behest. Activities surrounding the 2018 Florida elections have attracted federal scrutiny — but not for the reasons the former president spouted off about on social media.

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