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☆ A reckless version of free speech is spreading across America, partly because of unchecked rhetoric by Elon Musk, Kayne West, and Kyrie Irving. We can't be complicit.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Marguerite Ward | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Elon Musk and Ye are among multiple notable figures embracing a misguided notion of free speech. And it's likely to get worse amid a growing, misguided movement for free speech. Twitter CEO Elon Musk, Ye (previously known as Kanye West), and the basketball star Kyrie Irving have become strange bedfellows in a growing fight for so-called free speech. Americans are on the precipice of accepting hate speech as free speech, and nobody is stepping up to say, "This is wrong." Speaking out on social media against unbound free speech, or withholding your business from a company, sends a message to executive board rooms.

☆ 'We didn't follow the rules of defending' - Ten Hag unhappy after Man United loss
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Today we weren't on it from the start, especially at the start of the game and we lost our balance. "We didn't follow the rules defending, and we lost our battles. "You have to cross at the right moment," he added. "The right moment was from Christian Eriksen in the first half to deliver, when he found the right moment, I think he found the pocket to deliver the ball to Cristiano (Ronaldo) at the far post. That was the right moment."

☆ This 40-year-old cut his hours from 100 to 35 a week—and grew his business to over $12 million in revenue
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-06 | by ( Gili Malinsky | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The Birmingham, England, native started a website hosting company that quickly grew to thousands of users, and with them, his need to put in more hours. He put in 100 hours or more every week, working so much he'd have trouble getting out of bed in the morning. Most of his employees, at the time about 15, were working 37 or so hours per week. As his mental and emotional health improved, his company's revenue went from $1 million per year in 2011 to more than $12 million annually now. Here's how he managed to both cut his hours and grow his business significantly.

The recently authorized booster vaccine protects against the original SARS-CoV-2 virus and the more recent omicron variants, BA.4 and BA.5. But there's a new batch of so-called "Scrabble" variants circulating globally. But experts still expect the shots to ramp up your immunity against all Covid variants, to some degree. The Scrabble variants are descendants of omicronThe new variants are descendants of omicron, which is a promising initial sign for the boosters. That can "restore a level of immunity and patch up the holes that some of these new Scrabble variants have found," she explains.

☆ Alabama’s Three Largest Newspapers to Stop Printing Next Year
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Alexandra Bruell | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The print readership of the three Alabama newspapers has been shrinking rapidly. A view of downtown Birmingham, Ala.One of the nation’s biggest publishers has decided to stop printing Alabama’s three largest newspapers and make them digital-only, the latest in a long string of local paper closures across America. Advance Publications , which owns 24 newspapers as well as the Condé Nast magazine-publishing empire, plans to announce it will end the print operations of the Birmingham News, the Huntsville Times and Mobile’s Press-Register in February.

☆ A self-made millionaire who made his money investing in real estate isn't interested in taking out a mortgage right now: 'I'm not going pay more than 6% interest'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Kathleen Elkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Property investor Todd Baldwin isn't interested in getting a mortgage right now due to high rates. The millionaire is in the unique situation where he can pay in cash if the right deal comes around. "If the deal is over 6%, I'm going to pay cash and hopefully get a discount." With the interest rates where they are now, "I can still make money," he explained, "but my margin of error is a lot thinner. Baldwin understands that not everyone can simply pay cash if they want to invest right now.

Fueled by a post-lockdown buying frenzy, the average UK house price hit a record £275,000 ($315,474) in December, a £27,000 increase on the previous year’s high. UK mortgage rates have been ticking upwards since spring, in line with rising interest rates. UK house prices fell 0.9% between September and October, the first decline in 15 months, according to data from Nationwide. A drop in buying power makes a significant drop in house prices inevitable, according to Andrew Wishart, a senior economist at Capital Economics. When house prices fall, homeowners feel less confident about their personal finances, causing them to cut back on spending and hold off on making additional investments.

☆ Thermo Fisher to buy diagnostics firm Binding Site for $2.6 bln
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Oct 31 (Reuters) - Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc (TMO.N) said on Monday it would buy specialty diagnostics firm the Binding Site Group from a group led by European private equity firm Nordic Capital in an all-cash transaction valued at 2.25 billion pounds ($2.6 billion). The Birmingham-based company's test helps detect and monitor multiple myeloma, a cancer in a type of white blood cell, and is on track to deliver more than $220 million of revenue in 2022, Thermo Fisher said. Thermo Fisher, which makes scientific instruments, expects the transaction to be completed in the first half of 2023 and boost adjusted earnings per share by 7 cents on the first full-year of ownership. Reporting by Leroy Leo and Pratik Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj KalluvilaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ A 27-year-old real estate investor who owns 9 rental properties shares what it's like to be a landlord, including the biggest challenges and hacks that save him time
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-30 | by ( Kathleen Elkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Real estate investor Stephen Yin spoke to Insider about the realities of being a landlord. Yin is based in Los Angeles for his day job but buys real estate in Birmingham, Alabama, where he grew up. But when I'm not actively buying, I don't spend much time on real estate." Especially if you're investing out-of-state, having a good property manager on your team is completely worth the cost, he said. But, ultimately, "the stress is totally worth it," said Yin, who hopes to build generational wealth through real estate investing.

☆ A real estate investor who bought his first property at age 24 and now owns 11 rental units shares his top advice for new investors, including how to negotiate and where to buy: 'Look at the Sun Belt'
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Kathleen Elkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

"Some of the greatest investors have focused on real estate, such as Sam Zell," he added, referring to the billionaire who has been called the "forefather of modern real estate investment trusts." It was a single-family home in Birmingham, Alabama that he purchased with a friend for $40,000. Focus on the Sun BeltChances are, you've heard the saying "location, location, location" from a real estate agent or investor. Interview multiple lendersUnless you're buying real estate with cash, you'll need to work with a mortgage lender. He took them to lunch and asked questions about how comfortable they are doing residential real estate and what markets they do most of their deals in.

☆ Top ranked advisors say these are the 3 biggest investing mistakes people make during recessions
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Kate Dore | Cfp | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

These are some of the biggest investing mistakes, according to top advisors. "But you have to remember the stock market has done well over time." "We're more fixated on what we could potentially lose on paper than what opportunities pass us by that we never capitalize upon," said Josh Reidinger, CEO of Waverly Advisors in Birmingham, Alabama, which ranked No. Josh Reidinger CEO of Waverly AdvisorsThere's a risk of missing future gains when steering clear of the stock market, as research shows some of the best returns may follow the biggest stock market dips. Josh Reidinger CEO of Waverly AdvisorsMistake No.

☆ World’s best spicy foods: 20 dishes to try
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Terry Ward | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +17 min

When it comes to the world’s best spicy dishes, we have some of the world’s hottest peppers to thank, along with incredible layers of flavor and a long, spice-loving human history. Peppers – a headliner for heat – are rated on the Scoville Heat Units scale, which measures capsaicin and other active components of chile peppers. And it’s the perky red pepper of the same name that brings the spiciness to this complex, layered and delicious dish. “The peperoncino (red chile pepper) is what makes this sauce ‘angry’ (arrabbiata) or spicy,” Chris MacLean of Italy-based Open Tuesday Wines said via email. FomaA/Adobe StockThe fiery Ethiopian spice blend called berbere – aromatic with chile peppers, basil, cardamom, garlic and ginger – is instrumental to the flavor chorus that’s doro wat, Ethiopia’s much-loved spicy chicken stew.

Persons: ”, Saurav Dutt, “ Ginger, chiles, ” Hunter, Dutt, Nigeria Ata, Kwoklyn Wan, “, It’s, pattarasiri, Piri, piri, it’s, Mao’s, Mao Zedong’s, shao rou, Cook, Suzie Lee, Brent Hofacker, Mark Harvey, podcaster, Ayam, betutu, Todd Taulman, serrano, jalapeño, Phaal Curry, Penne all’arrabbiata, ’, Chris MacLean of, MacLean, ’ ”, marati, Doro wat, doro, you’re, Mapo, vindaloo, Julian Gonzalez, ” Gonzalez Organizations: CNN, Adobe, chiles, BBC, “, Buffalo Wild Wings, Wines, Sawmill Locations: Sichuan, Nigeria, West, China, British, Chongqing, Thailand, Isaan, Laos, Mozambique, Angola, Portuguese, Piri, chiles, Namibia, South Africa, Beijing, Jamaica, Spanish Town, Montego Bay, Boston Bay, Ayam betutu, Indonesia, Bali, Lombok, Buffalo, United States, American, Alaska, Maine, Buffalo , New York, cayenne, Worcestershire, Mexico, Mexican, Sinaloa, Bangkok, rendang, Malaysia, West Sumatra, Indonesia’s, Brunei, Philippines, South Korea, Birmingham, England, Bangladesh, Bangladeshi, Italy, Chris MacLean of Italy, Rome’s Lazio, India, South India, India’s, Tamil, Ethiopia, Goa, United Kingdom, Mafé, Senegal Senegalese, Mali, Gambia, Albuquerque , New Mexico, In Texas

☆ Here's why Goldman Sachs is warning about a stock market crash and recession.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Dust off your dictionaries because today's GDP release might reignite the recession debate that's proved as semantic as it is economic. There are a couple things on Goldman Sachs' radar at the moment, and neither are particularly upbeat. Morgan Stanley's top strategist said investors should look for the bear market to end in the first quarter of 2023. The housing market has a big disconnect that can't last and prices for new homes have a long way to fall. This 27-year-old real estate investor who owns nine properties in Alabama said you shouldn't sleep on the Birmingham market.

☆ Jill Biden holds the key to the nation's political future as her husband weighs re-election in 2024
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Nicole Gaudiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +16 min

"Joe Biden wouldn't have run in '20 if Jill Biden had not wanted him to run and he won't run in '24 if Jill Biden doesn't want him to run," he told Insider. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden watch fireworks go off on national mall from the White House on July 4, 2022, in Washington, DC. Jill Biden divorced her first husband after five years and married Joe Biden two years later. First lady Jill Biden tours a classroom at the James Rushton Early Learning Center in Birmingham, Alabama, on April 9, 2021. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden arrive at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on May 18, 2022.

It’s the first time in 50 years that a federal grant has been given to study a psychedelic drug as a possible treatment. The study, a randomized controlled trial expected to start later this year, will investigate whether psilocybin, the psychedelic compound found in “magic mushrooms,” can help people quit smoking tobacco. Hopkins researchers will lead the trial, which will be done in collaboration with researchers at NYU Langone Health and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In a study published in August, researchers found that psilocybin helped drinkers reduce alcohol cravings. Typically in studies using psychedelics, participants receive the drug during a monitored session with a therapist, which can last hours.

☆ A 27-year-old real estate investor who owns 9 properties in Alabama says you shouldn't sleep on the Birmingham market. He shares his top reasons why it's a great investment opportunity.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Kathleen Elkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Real estate investor Stephen Yin says that Birmingham is an overlooked market. He admits to "kind of falling into real estate by accident," he told Insider. One of his friends from home reached out and asked if he'd ever considered investing in real estate. After doing some research, "I realized that Birmingham has one of the best real estate markets in the nation, from a returns perspective as well as from a barrier-to-entry perspective," he said. "I could still make money, but I can't make money in the way I want to make money."

☆ Rent got cheaper in September—here are the 10 cities where it dropped the most
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Mike Winters | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

U.S. rent price growth is showing signs of leveling off, as the median rent price in September decreased month-over-month for the first time this year, by 2.48%. After soaring by nearly 20% earlier in 2022, year-over-year price growth has dropped to 8.79% in September, a Rent.com analysis found. Rents are still high, though: The national median rent price is now $2,002, compared to $1,840 at the same time last year. The downturn in rental prices follows a real estate market that has only recently started to cool off due to rising mortgage rates. Median rent prices are derived from all available inventory using data pulled from a network of rental listing sites including Rent.com, Apartment Guide and Redfin.

Due to the cold air mass plunging south before expanding east, southern cities actually woke up colder than northern cities. New York City's Central Park dipped to 42 degrees, the coldest temperature since April 29, and Charlotte's 30-degree reading set its fifth earliest freeze on record. For many locations, the early season snow was also record-setting. While not record-setting, add Chicago to the list of places that recorded the first measurable snow of the season this week. This cold snap will be short-lived, with temperatures expected to rebound beginning Friday and lasting into next week.

☆ Factbox: Windfall taxes, spending cuts on table as Hunt tries to fix UK budget
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

LONDON, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Britain's latest finance minister Jeremy Hunt needs to raise an estimated 40 billion pounds ($45 billion) to repair public finances. British banks hold around 947 billion pounds of reserves at the BoE, largely as a result of quantitative easing that the central bank is yet to reverse. Cost estimates for completing HS2 soared to 100 billion pounds before the Leeds link was removed. The change represented a saving of 3.5 billion pounds in its first year in 2021. Asked on Oct. 19 about the foreign aid budget, Truss said more details would be set out in due course.

☆ Addiction drug shows promise lifting long COVID brain fog, fatigue
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( Julie Steenhuysen | Nancy Lapid | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Lauren Nichols, who has long COVID, takes a break and rests in a lounge bed in the office in her home in Andover, Massachusetts, U.S., August 3, 2022. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterResearchers chasing long COVID cures are eager to learn whether the drug can offer similar benefits to millions suffering from pain, fatigue and brain fog months after a coronavirus infection. Younger, author of a scientific review of the drug as a novel anti-inflammatory, in September submitted a grant application to study LDN for long COVID. It worked so well that he ran a pilot study among 38 long COVID patients. He studied LDN in 18 long COVID patients, with 11 showing improvements, and said he believes larger, formal trials could determine whether LDN offers a true benefit.

☆ Fact Check-Clip showing crowd running toward film crew was captured in Birmingham in 2013
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Instead, the footage was filmed years before the Russian invasion in 2022 and shows behind-the-scenes of a science fiction movie captured in Birmingham, UK in 2013. The 28-second clip shows three individuals behind a camera with another holding a megaphone in a city square. The scene of the clip currently circulating online matches a scene that features in the trailer of ‘Invasion Planet Earth’ (0.42s) (bit.ly/3MukI87). The scene also wasn’t filmed in Ukraine, as claimed online, and instead was captured in Victoria Square, Birmingham. The clip shows filming of a scene in the movie ‘Invasion Planet Earth’ that was captured in 2013 in Birmingham, UK.

☆ UK Finance Minister Kwasi Kwarteng fired after market chaos and tax-cutting plans
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Elliot Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Kwasi Kwarteng, UK chancellor of the exchequer, speaks at a fringe event during the Conservative Party's annual autumn conference in Birmingham, UK, on Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022. LONDON — British Finance Minister Kwasi Kwarteng was fired on Friday after less than six weeks in the role, amid mounting political pressure and market chaos. "The economic environment has changed rapidly since we set out the Growth Plan on 23 September. The Medium-Term Fiscal Plan is crucial to this end, and I look forward to supporting you and my successor to achieve that from the backbenches." Jeremy Hunt — a former Health Secretary and Foreign Secretary — was announced as Kwarteng's successor.

☆ A blue-collar worker who never made more than a $52,000 salary, but built a 25-unit real estate portfolio, shares the 4 strategies he used to come up with cash to buy investment properties
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( Kathleen Elkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

One real estate investor used various strategies to get upfront cash to build his portfolio. Buying real estate requires upfront cash: In most cases, you need money for a down payment and closing costs. Still, he managed to build a 25-unit real estate portfolio in about four years, which Insider verified. Plus, he was generating positive cash flow and starting to see how real estate investing could help him build long-term wealth. He was watching a lot of real estate content on YouTube at the time and learned through one video that you can buy real estate with an IRA.

☆ Landing cut roughly a third of its Alabama staff — but first the real estate startup had the laid-off workers train their cheaper, Mexico City-based replacements
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The furnished-apartment rental company Landing laid off 110 employees last week. According to the company, it launched its Mexico operation in 2020, which has grown to include at least 100 employees. The two laid-off employees described training the Mexico City-based colleagues over Slack, Zoom, and the business-messaging application Intercom. However, two laid-off employees disagreed with this assessment and told Insider that while some employees had been moved into markets earlier this summer, they still required the help of a centralized operations team. "One of Bill's 10 business principles is to execute relentlessly," the laid-off employee said.

“He was always on, always.”Jarrín, now 86, is set to retire as the Dodgers’ Spanish-language broadcaster this year. Jaime Jarrín threw out the first pitch to mark his last year on the job on April 14 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. Jarrín was scheduled to retire on Jaime Jarrín Day, on Oct. 1, when the Dodgers played the Colorado Rockies at home. Jaime Jarrín waves to the crowd during his final regular season game at Dodger Stadium, in Los Angeles, on Oct. 5. “Jaime Jarrín has been the first voice that I can remember as a kid,” said Jose Benito Garcia, 35, of Inglewood.

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