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“It’s critically important that the Rules Committee reflect the body and reflect the will of the people. “What we’re seeing is the incredibly shrinking speakership,” former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in an interview Friday. “The reason these people want to be on the Rules Committee is they want to screw things up for McCarthy. The message the leader received from his deal-making centrists: We can live with giving Freedom Caucus members committee slots but committee gavels are a “nonstarter.”“Nobody should get a chairmanship without earning it,” Bacon said. That pisses us off.”Díaz-Balart said he had received assurances that “there are no deals cut about chairmanships” to committees as part of swaying votes to make McCarthy speaker.

☆ Unhappy New Tax Year for U.S. Business
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Happy New Year, or, if you’re in business, unhappy new tax year. American employers are getting hit in 2023 with a variety of tax increases even as the risk of recession rises along with interest rates. The tax hikes arrive for two reasons: provisions of the 2017 GOP tax reform that are phasing out, and big tax increases that passed as part of the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act. The Biden Administration doesn’t want to tell you this, so we thought we’d list the unmentionables:

As each new year emerges, I reflect on the year before and beat myself up about what didn’t work out. That someone might be a younger version of you, begging for a chance to share their insight. Instead of excitement, I often just feel relieved that the urge to do something meaningful is temporarily muted. Right now, that tween is my wisest teacher, whose first lesson was a simple demand that I try to respect myself again. I’ve been held hostage by self-loathing and perfectionism in recent years, but thanks to my inner tween, next year’s resolutions are all about liberation.

☆ Companies Spend Record Amounts on Dividends, Despite Looming Downturn
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Mark Maurer | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +7 min

They usually review their cash flow expectations for at least the next 18 months when determining whether or how much to pay in dividends, Mr. Silverblatt said. Of the S&P 500, 373 companies raised dividends in 2022 through Dec. 15, compared with 353 in 2021, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. Five S&P 500 companies decreased their dividend in 2022 through Dec. 15, compared with four in 2021. It paid $7 billion in cash dividends for the year ended Oct. 30, up 13.2% from the prior-year period. Cash and cash equivalents totaled $505.5 million as of Sept. 30, down from $673 million a year earlier, filings showed.

☆ Natural Wine and 6 Other Wine Trends From 2022 We’d Like to Leave Behind
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Lettie Teague | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

IN WITH THE NEW May your coming year be free of pretentious wine writing, massive markups and all the other things currently irking our wine editor. Now is the traditional summing-up time of the year, when past accomplishments or failures are examined and we submit all that was good—and bad—for review. While 2022 offered many oenological high points, there were also plenty of points I’d prefer not to repeat. Advent CalendarsOverall wine quality has never been higher than it is today; it’s easy to find a good wine just about anywhere. You may already have consumed some this holiday season if you bought or received a wine Advent calendar, one ever-reliable source of the stuff.

☆ This little-known firm with a weird website was central to the misappropriation of FTX customers' money, regulators say
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Gretchen Morgenson | Gretchen Morgenson Is The Senior Financial Reporter For The Nbc News Investigative Unit. A Former Stockbroker | She Won The Pulitzer Prize In For Her | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

Still, North Dimension had a crucial role in the FTX mess, regulators now say. In fact, they contend, the little-known company was central to the furtive misappropriation of FTX customers’ funds. But North Dimension Inc. also appears to have been a fake online electronics retailer, an NBC News investigation found. The second North Dimension website is sparse, with just two pages superimposed on a photo of a mountain range. An analysis by DomainTools shows this North Dimension site was created on Oct. 3, 2022, and registered in Ontario, Canada.

It’s not that theatrical film exhibition was in a particularly good place before the pandemic. Yet the astounding box-office figures of 2022 tell a different story: Movie theaters didn’t become obsolete. It offered up the best of the moviegoing experience: spectacle, plus quality, plus rewatchability. But best of all, the hunger for the overly familiar was not the only story to be told this year. But if the pandemic-era absence of theatrical releases proved one thing, it’s that people love going to the movies, really love it, and not just to see Marvel movies.

They promoted and delivered vaccines, developed prevention strategies, monitored data and did a million other unheralded things to help weave a stronger public health safety net. Meanwhile, top health officials are warning that persistent vaccine misinformation remains a serious public health threat. Particularly in vulnerable communities where access to vaccines, therapeutics and good information are lacking, there is much work to be done. And this common-sense principle is still true: When you enact and maintain good policies, good things happen. In the past two weeks, deaths from Covid are up 63%, a possible harbinger of things to come in 2023.

☆ Christmas meant real Christmas trees for my family. Then my husband got a fake one.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-25 | by ( Elizabeth Grey | Elizabeth Grey Is An Essayist | Cook. You Can Find A Link To Her Highly Unprofessional Cooking Show | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

My origin story begins on Christmas Eve. I asked my mother once if we could get silver tinsel icicles, having seen them at a friend’s house. When my brother had kids, we started driving to his house on Christmas Eve to be with them. I would use the fake tree as Exhibit A in the court wrangling over our inevitable divorce. I believe there are two kinds of people, real vs. fake tree, and real tree people are superior.

The Postal Service expects all priority mail packages shipped by Dec. 19 and express packages shipped by Dec. 23 to arrive at their destinations by Christmas. “The Postal Service has shown an inclination to do whatever it takes to avoid the nightmare that they had in 2020. “I am deeply concerned about the severe delays and interruptions in postal service experienced by Montanans,” Daines said in a statement. Earlier this year, Congress appropriated $107 million to the Postal Service to fund a systemwide overhaul to modernize equipment and facilities. “We expect a very successful 2022 peak holiday season,” said Albert Ruiz, a Postal Service spokesperson.

☆ The Year in Pictures 2022
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( The New York Times | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +57 min

Every year, starting in early fall, photo editors at The New York Times begin sifting through the year’s work in an effort to pick out the most startling, most moving, most memorable pictures. But 2022 undoubtedly belongs to the war in Ukraine, a conflict now settling into a worryingly predictable rhythm. Erin Schaff/The New York Times “When you’re standing on the ground, you can’t visualize the scope of the destruction. Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 25. We see the same images over and over, and it’s really hard to make anything different.” Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb 26.

☆ North Korea performs key test to build more threatening ICBM
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Some experts say North Korea would eventually use an expanded arsenal to seek sanctions relief and other concessions from the United States. “Unlike liquid propellant missiles, solid propellant missiles are fueled at the time of manufacture and can thus be released far more quickly in a war, all else being equal,” Panda said. North Korea already has a growing arsenal of short-range, solid-fueled ballistic missiles targeting key locations in South Korea, including U.S. military bases there. “Testing a gimbaled nozzle could therefore represent an important technological waypoint toward North Korea’s stated goal of a solid motor ICBM,” Dempsey said. If North Korea uses the technology to build an ICBM-class missile that can be fired from a submarine, that would equip the North with a threatening secondary, retaliatory attack capability against the United States, he said.

Since the early days of the invasion, Mr. Putin has conceded, privately, that the war has not gone as planned. “I think he is sincerely willing” to compromise with Russia, Mr. Putin said of Mr. Zelensky in 2019. To join in Mr. Putin’s war, he has recruited prisoners, trashed the Russian military and competed with it for weapons. To join in Mr. Putin’s war, he has recruited prisoners, trashed the Russian military and competed with it for weapons. “I think this war is Putin’s grave.” Yevgeny Nuzhin, 55, a Russian prisoner of war held by Ukraine, in October.

The little white kiosk where Juan Carlos Robles-Corona Jr. worked with his mother was barely large enough to fit three or four adults. Juan Carlos, whom relatives and close friends called Junior or J.R., pestered her for months before she gave him a part-time job there. He wanted to be like his mother’s boss: an entrepreneur who owned franchise stores in several cities. Junior with his father, Juan Carlos Robles-Corona, and his siblings Mia, Dylan and Aiden. On April 4, Juan Carlos Robles-Corona Jr. was shot on a street near his public school.

☆ From bloody Balkan war to World Cup heavyweight: the making of Croatia as a soccer nation
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Ben Morse | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

Croatia’s World Cup pedigree is an altogether different story. Štimac challenges Clarence Seedorf of the Netherlands during the 1998 World Cup third place playoff match, which Croatia won 2-1. The Croatia players celebrate a goal against France in the 1998 World Cup semifinals. Having been appointed after the team’s qualification for the 2018 World Cup, Dalić came with pressure on his shoulders. Antonio Bronic/Reuters“There is no place in the national team dressing room of Croatia for big egos, and everyone knows that.

CNN —A large winter storm system slammed into the western US over the weekend, blanketing mountain areas with heavy snow before taking aim at the South, where it’s expected to bring severe weather, with strong winds, hail and tornadoes possible. More than 15 million people in 14 states are under some sort of a winter weather alert as the powerful storm moves across the county. A multi-day severe storm threat begins Monday for parts of the South and southern central US. A slight threat for severe weather has been issued for parts of western and central Kansas and Oklahoma into northwestern Texas. Duluth, Minnesota, could also see 6 inches of snow and will be under a winter storm watch starting Tuesday morning.

In early October, my family of three got dressed up in green and posed for our local family photographer. I’d planned to print the photo on 75 Christmas cards and send them to everyone we knew. The reality TV star famously edited her daughter into her Christmas card one year when the girl “refused” to participate in the photo shoot. I knew the people on my Christmas card list wouldn’t be cruel about my daughter’s stains. I’ll keep the edited photo on my computer, just in case she wants me to reprint another canvas and Christmas card for our photo book.

My wife and I are fortunate enough to travel around the country in our 21-foot teardrop trailer. While there are many benefits to living like nomads and traveling back and forth across the U.S., we were leery when we began our first cross-country trip. As a same-sex couple, the seismic political and cultural divide that has been rapidly spreading since the 2016 presidential election made us fearful about traveling through ultra-conservative Southern states. The author's teardrop trailer on a lavender farm in Northern California. I have long believed love overcomes hate, and our teardrop trailer travels remind me that there are good people everywhere, even in those places where you least expect them to be.

☆ Grant Wahl: A charming, kind and talented journalist
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( Don Riddell | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

The American soccer journalist Grant Wahl, who’d also been covering the game at Lusail, had died. The LED board shows a photo of Grant Wahl prior to the quarterfinal match between England and France. Wahl pictured at an awards ceremony in Doha during the World Cup. Grant Wahl (left) being interviewed by CNN's Don Riddel in Qatar. He was charming, kind and just so happy to be covering his eighth men’s World Cup and the game he loved.

☆ NFL Week 14 preview: Playoff seedings on the line as season enters business end
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( Ben Morse | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Whether it be draft position or playoff seedings, each game means something to each team as Week 14 of the NFL season kicks off in earnest on Sunday. And, as a result, the Jets’ season has metamorphosed from shoots of optimism to playoff hopes. Sunday will see Tom Brady face off against seventh-round rookie Brock Purdy as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers travel west to face the San Francisco 49ers. Despite playing his first meaningful action and with his team’s season possibly on the line, Purdy never looked fazed, leading the 49ers to an important victory. Australia: NFL Game Pass, ESPN, 7PlusBrazil: NFL Game Pass, ESPNCanada: CTV, TSN, RDS, NFL Game Pass on DAZNGermany: NFL Game Pass, ProSieben MAXX, DAZNMexico: NFL Game Pass, TUDN, ESPN, Fox Sports, Sky SportsUK: NFL Game Pass, Sky Sports, ITV, Channel 5US: NFL Game Pass, CBS Sports, Fox Sports, ESPN, Amazon Prime

☆ Make the yuletide gay: Inside the making of this year's LGBTQ holiday movies
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( Max Gao | Max Gao Is A Freelance Entertainment | Sports Journalist Based In Toronto. He Has Written For Nbc News | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

Premiering Sunday on Hallmark, “The Holiday Sitter” follows Sam (Jonathan Bennett), a workaholic bachelor who reluctantly agrees to babysit his niece and nephew before his solo vacation. Jonathan Bennett, left, George Krissa and Mila Morgan in "The Holiday Sitter." Bennett, as an executive producer, originally came up with the idea of a “gay ‘Uncle Buck’ for Hallmark” on the set of another holiday movie three years ago. “We both love the Christmas holiday. After watching “The Holiday Sitter," people are “going to feel that the Hallmark holiday table is bigger than ever,” Bennett added, "and that no matter who you are, there is a seat for you."

“Voter suppression was an issue, even if it wasn’t a completely successful issue,” Albright said. Albright said the “turnout was still pretty good for a runoff election,” although he acknowledged that “voter suppression” did affect some voters. … Showing up at the polls was more than beating voter suppression. It showed we care.”The robust Black vote also showed a level of erudition, Albright said, defying some myths that Black voters don’t understand, or thoroughly consider, the issues when voting. … So, Black voters overcame a lot — and showed they are smart voters, too.”

Amid the hubbub of a busy hospital, Mel wasn’t sleeping at night. For two days, Mel was housed in the emergency department; the hospital had no regular rooms available. As far as we knew, Mel’s stroke was tended to promptly, but the lack of clear communication left us with lingering doubts. Six days after his stroke, Mel was discharged to the nursing home where he’d been living for four months following a previous hospitalization. Over the next few days, Mel’s six grandchildren and three sons and their wives traveled to be at his side.

And Wagner’s beloved fireflies – like so many insects worldwide – have largely vanished in what scientists are calling the global Insect Apocalypse. “Insects are the food that make all the birds and make all the fish,” said Wagner, who works at the University of Connecticut. Humans, too, see some 2,000 species of insects as food. “We’d see yields dropping of all of these crops.”And in nature, about 80% of wild plants rely on insects for pollination. WINNERS AND LOSERSWhile the situation is bleak for insects at large, a few types of insects are thriving.

☆ It seems like everyone’s getting sick this winter. Parents and health care workers, how are you coping?
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( ) edition.cnn.com time to read: 1 min

Parents and guardians, how have you struggled to get access to care, whether it’s getting through to a doctor or searching for medicine that’s in short supply? What lengths are you going through to get your children care? Health care workers, what measures are you taking to provide care to families in your community? How are you and your colleagues coping, and what new strategies have you put in place in this difficult virus season? Whether you’re navigating this as a parent, guardian or health care worker, we’d like to hear your story.

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