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☆ 'Selling Sunset' star Jason Oppenheim says the real-estate market bottomed out in 2022, but a full recovery may still be a couple years away
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Robert Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Jason Oppenheim said the US real estate market will have "a rough couple of years" in an interview with Yahoo. Inventory levels and high interest rates are the two primary concerns among homebuyers, he added. "I'm generally optimistic, but I don't want to pretend like the real estate market is going to be on the rise," Oppenheim said. While interest rates have steadily increased since the beginning of the pandemic, inventory remains a challenge in many markets across the country. "In terms of prices, I think there's going to be some stability, which is probably healthy for the market," Oppenheim said.

☆ Russia's war in Ukraine backfired by uniting NATO, even as cracks emerged over nearly a year of fighting
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Jake Epstein | John Haltiwanger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

When Putin invaded Ukraine, he miscalculated the response from Western countries. NATO has been largely united in its response to Russia's war, consistently providing Kyiv with military aid. Russian President Vladimir Putin has effectively succeeded in remaking the Western bloc, Araud said, adding that "the Western alliance is back." After the Soviet Union collapsed, both Finland and Sweden became NATO partner countries but stopped short of pursuing full membership. Even under the intense pressure of war, the alliance is "holding the way that they have in the past," he said.

☆ Mass Shootings in the U.S.: A Symptom of Despair - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Jillian Peterson | James Densley | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +23 min

Seven killed and 46 injured in Highland Park, Ill., on July 4, 2022He suffered from severe back pain. Eight killed and seven injured in Indianapolis on April 15, 2021He was known for being paranoid with a short temper. Five killed and seven injured in Aurora, Ill., on Feb. 15, 2019He had expressed violent thoughts. Nine killed and seven injured in Red Lake, Minn., on March 21, 2005He had been noticeably depressed and angry at church. Seven killed and seven injured in Fort Worth on Sept. 15, 1999He killed his daughter’s cat because he was upset.

☆ You Call That Snow?! See How This Winter Stacks Up.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Francesca Paris | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +7 min

If so, you’re not alone: It has been a dreary winter for children hoping for snow days and grown-up snow enthusiasts alike on the East Coast. More than 50 years of snowfall in … Interactive line chart showing cumulative snowfall for each winter season over 50 years, as well as the median snowfall for all seasons. Line chart showing Philadelphia’s cumulative snowfall for each winter season over 50 years. Loading dataLine chart showing Boston’s cumulative snowfall for each winter season over 50 years. Milwaukee Pittsburgh Providence, R.I. Pueblo, Colo. Richmond, Va. Rockford, Ill. St. Louis Topeka, Kan. About normal snow Anchorage Boise, Idaho Colorado Springs Columbia, Mo.

☆ Germany at last green lights sending Leopard tanks to Ukraine after weeks of mounting pressure
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Germany has agreed to send their much-sought-after tanks to Ukraine. "German main battle tanks, further broadening of defense support & training missions, green light for partners to supply similar weapons. Germany has until now been reluctant to send its Leopard 2 tanks or allow other countries with these tanks in their arsenals to send them. A Leopard 2A6 main battle tank of the Bundeswehr, the German armed forces, participates in the NATO Iron Wolf military exercises on October 26, 2022 in Pabrade, Lithuania. Military experts previously told Insider that these are the right tanks to send to Ukraine at this moment.

☆ Rupert Murdoch calls off proposed Fox-News Corp merger
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Lillian Rizzo | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp and co-chairman of 21st Century Fox, arrives at the Sun Valley Resort of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 10, 2018 in Sun Valley, Idaho. Rupert Murdoch has withdrawn the proposal to re-combine Fox Corp and News Corp .Fox said Tuesday its board received a letter from Murdoch, its chairman, and his son Lachlan Murdoch that "determined that a combination is not optimal for the shareholders" of either of the companies at the time. The potential merger had faced opposition from shareholders in recent months, who didn't believe a merger would show the true value of News Corp. if it merged with Fox. A combination of the two companies would have unified leadership in Murdoch's empire and cut costs. News Corp. owns Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones.

☆ A GOP-backed bill in Oklahoma would fine drag performers up to $20,000 and have them face up to 2 years in jail for performing in front of a minor
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-22 | by ( Katie Balevic | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

An Oklahoma bill would make it a felony punishable by a $20,000 fine for drag artists to perform in front of minors. The bill by GOP Rep. Kevin West would also make it a misdemeanor for one to organize drag performances in public. At least ten states have proposed legislation that targets drag performances, including drag queen story hours. State GOP Rep. Kevin West, who filed House Bill 2186 on January 19, did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. The bill is scheduled to have its first reading in the Oklahoma House on February 6, per the Oklahoma legislature's website.

☆ This is the M1 Abrams, the powerful US battle tank that Kyiv wants but can't have
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( Ryan Pickrell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

But German Leopards and American Abrams tanks are still off the table. "I just don't think we're there yet," Colin Kahl, undersecretary for defense policy, said this week, "The Abrams tank is a very complicated piece of equipment," he argued. Just over 2,000 Abrams tanks were deployed with combat units during the war, and only 23 were damaged or destroyed. In the aftermath of the Gulf War, the US military developed the M1A2 Abrams, which has steadily been upgraded over the past two decades. The Abrams tank also saw extensive combat early in the Iraq War and was used to some extent in Afghanistan.

☆ Most Abortion Bans Include Exceptions. In Practice, Few Are Granted.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-21 | by ( Amy Schoenfeld Walker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +19 min

But abortion-rights advocates say legal exceptions do nothing but make abortion bans appear more reasonable than they really are. One shows states with abortion bans with exceptions for rape or incest and the other shows states without those exceptions. One shows states with abortion bans with exceptions for fatal birth defects and the other shows states without those exceptions. One shows states with abortion bans with exceptions for patients with severe health risks and the other shows states without those exceptions. One shows states with abortion bans with exceptions for the life of the patient and the other shows states without those exceptions.

☆ March for Life returns to DC with new post-Roe v. Wade focus
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Anti-abortion activists hold a banner as they walk in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building during the annual "March for Life", in Washington, January 21, 2022. One year ago, the annual March for Life protest against legal abortion took place in Washington amid a mood of undisguised triumph. With a fresh conservative majority on the Supreme Court, thousands of marchers braved bitterly cold weather to celebrate the seemingly inevitable fall of Roe v. Wade. Now, with the constitutional right to abortion no longer the rule of the land, the March for Life returns Friday with a new focus. Instead of concentrating their attention on the Supreme Court, the marchers plan to target the building directly across the street: the U.S. Capitol.

These projects add to $440 million in wildfire mitigation efforts that launched last year using funds from Biden's $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law. Together, these resources will help protect up to 45 million acres in the western U.S., said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. This includes 134 high-risk areas of land where a wildfire could pose a serious risk to communities and infrastructure. The USDA’s Wildfire Crisis Strategy, published in January 2022, identified 250 of these high-risk “firesheds” across the western states. The USDA’s work will focus on 11 landscapes, areas that were selected based on wildfire risks to nearby communities and buildings.

These are just some of the items that investigators seized from the apartment of 28-year-old Bryan Kohberger, the former doctoral student charged with killing four University of Idaho college students, according to a search warrant released Wednesday. The warrant was served Dec. 30, the same day Kohberger was arrested at his family home in Pennsylvania. The other hair samples aren't specifically identified as human in the warrant signed by Washington State University Assistant Police Chief Dawn Daniels. The quadruple murder shocked the country and stymied police for seven weeks before Kohberger was arrested. But the four charges of first-degree murder carry sentences that could include life in prison to the death penalty.

☆ U.S. agency says Amazon.com exposed workers to safety hazards
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Jonathan Stempel | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol/File PhotoNEW YORK, Jan 18 (Reuters) - A U.S. government agency on Wednesday issued citations against Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) for failing to keep warehouse workers safe, by exposing them to ergonomic hazards that resulted in serious injuries. The agency said workers at the Florida facility were also exposed to "struck-by" hazards, where merchandise that was unevenly stacked or not secured was susceptible to collapse. Doug Parker, the head of OSHA, said Amazon's processes were "designed for speed but not safety, and they resulted in serious worker injuries." Amazon has said it invests hundreds of millions of dollars annually to ensure worker safety. Safety concerns, including after the deaths of six workers when an Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois, collapsed during a December 2021 tornado, have helped spur union campaigns at Amazon warehouses across the country.

☆ Amazon is breaking the law by putting warehouse workers at risk for back and joint injuries, federal regulators say in new citations
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Katherine Long | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Federal safety regulators fined Amazon $60,269 for putting workers at risk for back, joint injuries. Injuries linked to the "high frequency" of "repetitive tasks" at Amazon warehouses, regulators said. The citations are the latest in a series of regulatory actions targeting Amazon's warehouse injuries. Workers at Amazon warehouses are four times as likely to suffer such injuries as workers in non-Amazon warehouses, a review of Washington state workers' compensation data showed. Federal safety inspectors with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited three Amazon warehouses, in Florida, Illinois and New York.

☆ Amazon cited by Labor Department for exposing warehouse workers to safety hazards
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Annie Palmer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

The Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration has issued citations against Amazon at three of its warehouses for exposing workers to safety hazards, the department announced Wednesday. Amazon also faces a separate investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office's civil division that centers around worker safety hazards at the e-retailer's facilities nationwide. Amazon warehouse workers have previously complained that the company's pace of work prevents them from taking adequate bathroom and rest breaks, and leads to unfair disciplinary actions. In April, workers at an Amazon warehouse on New York's Staten Island voted to form the company's first U.S. union. Workers at another Staten Island facility rejected a union, while a second election at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama is being contested.

Kristi and Steve Goncalves told Dateline that their daughter, 21-year-old Kaylee Goncalves, was due to graduate college early and had lined up a job with an IT firm in Austin, Texas. Kaylee Goncalves had just moved out of the house she shared with her longtime best friend, 21-year-old Madison "Maddie" Mogen. “These girls were best friends since sixth grade, like inseparable,” Kristi Goncalves said. “Maddie had been a huge part of our life.”Steve and Kristi Goncalves during an interview with Dateline on NBC. “I hope that maybe in a struggle, she pulled it off of him,” Kristi Goncalves said.

☆ Apple CEO Cook's pay more dependent on stock performance in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

For 2023, Cook's compensation target was set at $49 million, more than 40% lower than his 2022 pay. Apple made the changes after 64% of shareholders approved Cook's pay package at its annual meeting last year, down from 94.9% the previous year. The biggest change came in Cook's stock awards. For fiscal 2022, Apple granted him $75 million in stock awards, half of which were based on how well Apple's shares performed. For fiscal 2023, Cook's stock award target was reduced to $40 million, with $30 million of the total depending on share performance.

☆ Rupert Murdoch deposition in Dominion-Fox lawsuit delayed until next week
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Lillian Rizzo | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp and co-chairman of 21st Century Fox, arrives at the Sun Valley Resort of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 10, 2018 in Sun Valley, Idaho. Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch is now slated to appear for a deposition later in January as part of Dominion Voting's defamation lawsuit against the company and its cable news networks. The deposition is set to occur Thursday and Friday next week, according to court filings. Most recently, his son and Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch faced questioning as part of the lawsuit. The trial is set to begin on April 17, with pre-trial conferences in the days prior, according to court filings.

☆ A former CVS nurse practitioner is suing the company after it fired her for refusing to prescribe birth control and Plan B for religious reasons
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Bethany Biron | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A former CVS employee in Texas is suing the company after it fired her for refusing to give out birth control. The suit claims the company granted her "religious accommodation" until it reversed the policy in August 2021. The suit claims CVS previously granted Strader religious accommodation so that she was not required to give out birth control at the MinuteClinic where she worked in Keller, Texas. Currently, six states — Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, and South Dakota — allow pharmacists to refuse to dispense birth control pills or Plan B for religious reasons. Strader's suit follows similar legal action taken by CVS nurse practitioners in Virginia and Kansas, who also claim the company fired them for refusal to provide birth control to customers.

The approach used to identify Kohberger is just one of several recent developments in DNA analysis that have transformed the way law enforcement investigates crimes. In a justice system rife with flawed science, DNA evidence is rightly viewed as the gold standard for forensics: After DNA evidence was first introduced in the criminal justice system in the late 1980s, scientists spent years developing and evaluating protocols for comparing individual DNA samples, which have been repeatedly found to produce consistent, reliable results. DNA analysis was a revolution in forensics, but like every form of scientific evidence it has the potential for error. Recent technological advancements allowing scientists to analyze increasingly small or contaminated DNA samples further complicate the process. DNA samples are also sometimes mishandled or tampered with, compromising results.

☆ Albertsons Sales up 8.5% on Higher Prices
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Will Feuer | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Albertsons Cos. sales rose 8.5% in the recently ended quarter as higher prices for food and other household products continue to boost the grocer’s top line. The Boise, Idaho-based supermarket company, which operates its namesake stores as well as the Acme and Safeway chains, said identical sales—a metric that strips out store closings and openings—rose 7.9% in its fiscal third quarter.

☆ Ohio and New Jersey ban Tiktok on government devices over Chinese surveillance fears, joining over 20 other states
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

New Jersey and Ohio are the latest states to ban TikTok on government-owned devices. New Jersey's governor Phil Murphy announced a cybersecurity order on Monday, to "prohibit the use of high-risk software and services," on government owned devices. "The proactive and preventative measures that we are implementing today will ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and safety of information assets managed by New Jersey State government. A growing number of states have banned TikTok from government devices since December including Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia and more. An analysis by website Government Technology, published before the New Jersey and Ohio bans were announced, shows more than 20 states have banned TikTok on government devices.

Alicia Victoria Lozano / NBC NewsAmong her must-have accessories this semester is a heavy flashlight with a strobe function that doubles as a baton. Brandon Moore, a freshman at Washington State University in Pullman. “It definitely makes you more aware of everyone around you.”Koryn Damiano, a sophomore at Washington State University in Pullman. Alicia Victoria Lozano / NBC NewsDamiano said she shares a sense of relief that the suspect has been caught. At the University of Idaho, students will have the option to take classes in self-defense, vigilance and stalking awareness.

☆ Sister of murdered Idaho student, Kaylee Goncalves, says it's chilling to learn 'true evil was watching'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Julianne Mcshane | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

I had no idea that true evil was genuinely watching them,” Alivea Goncalves, 26, sister of victim Kaylee Goncalves, 21, said in an interview with NewsNation on Sunday. "That’s really difficult, it’s really difficult, not to wish that you had done more and wish that you had known more." A private security officer sits in a vehicle on Jan. 3 in front of the house in Moscow, Idaho, where four University of Idaho students were killed in November. It's unclear if Alivea was there, but she told NewsNation she plans to be at "every single" hearing throughout the case. In a previous interview with NBC's “TODAY,” Alivea Goncalves called her sister “the ultimate go-getter.”

☆ Why Paid Sabbaticals Are Good for Business: Better Employees, Less Burnout
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Crissie Hoskins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

And through it all, I didn't get fired, there was no formal reprimand, and I got paid the entire time. Sabbaticals provide a proactive hedge against employee burnout, an antidote for attrition, and a protection from career wanderlust. Some employers argue that offering paid time off won't help keep employees around, but my sabbatical made me more passionate about my work — and my workplace — than ever. I love my job and want to be sure my team and clients get the best of me. Sabbaticals are good for businessMy sabbatical wasn't an anomaly — research shows that sabbaticals help employees fight burnout and improve their well-being.

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