DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ ExxonMobil sued after a Black employee allegedly discovered a noose at work. It was the fifth at the same facility
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( David Goldman | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

The EEOC alleges that in January 2020, a Black employee at Exxon (XOM)Mobil’s Baton Rouge chemical plant found a noose at his worksite and reported it to the company. The company failed to investigate each event and didn’t do enough to prevent further incidents, the EEOC alleges. Todd Spitler, a spokesperson for ExxonMobil, said in a statement that the company disagrees with the EEOC’s findings. “ExxonMobil promptly performed a thorough investigation of this claim, and there was no evidence to support allegations of discrimination,” he said. “The symbols of hate are unacceptable, offensive, and in violation of our corporate policies.”In 2021, multiple nooses were discovered at the construction site of an Amazon fulfillment center in Windsor, Connecticut.

REUTERS/Lisi NiesnerBILOZERKA, Ukraine, March 1 (Reuters) - When Ukraine recaptured Kherson in November, Andrii Povod returned to find his grain farm in ruins. The institute's Baliuk said the war damage could lead to an alarming loss of fertility. ECHOES OF WORLD WAR ONEA working group of soil scientists created by the Ukrainian government estimates it would cost $15 billion to remove all mines and restore Ukraine's soil to its former health. If studies of damage to land during World War One are anything to go by, some areas will never recover. To be sure, World War One lasted four years, and the war in Ukraine only one year so far, but lead remains a key component of many modern munitions, Rintoul-Hynes said.

The U.S. Department of Labor rule, which took effect Jan. 30, lifts barriers to ESG investing imposed by the Trump administration. The new rule sets guidelines for ESG investing, including requiring that socially conscious investments are still financially sound. They claim that allowing ESG investing will jeopardize the retirement savings of millions of people and lower state tax revenue. The Biden administration rule has divided the business community. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed various rules aimed at increasing transparency related to ESG investing.

☆ How Trump allies and wealthy donors helped to fuel the GOP fight against ESG investing platforms
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Brian Schwartz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

The conference was organized by the conservative leaning State Financial Officers Foundation, a tax exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit group that does not publicly disclose its donors. Members of the State Financial Officers Foundations are all powerful state Republican officials, many of whom have scrutinized ESG practices or pulled back billions of dollars from investing firms. A representative for the State Financial Officers Foundation did not return a request for comment. Some of those organizations participated in a similar State Financial Officers Foundation gathering in Washington D.C. in November 2022, according to an agenda. One of the organizations that attended last February is the 1792 Exchange, a nonprofit sponsor of the State Financial Officers Foundation.

[1/2] U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks about the student loan forgiveness program from an auditorium on the White House campus in Washington, U.S., October 17, 2022. The program fulfilled Biden's 2020 campaign promise to cancel a portion of the nation's $1.6 trillion in federal student loan debt but was criticized by Republicans and others as an overreach of his authority. Biden's administration has said the plan is authorized under a 2003 federal law called the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act, or HEROES Act, that allows student loan debt relief during wartime or national emergencies. Beginning in 2020, the administrations of President Donald Trump, a Republican, and Biden, a Democrat, repeatedly paused federal student loan payments and halted interest from accruing, relying upon the HEROES Act. Missouri-based U.S. District Judge Henry Autrey found the states - Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and South Carolina lacked the legal standing to sue.

☆ NBA roundup: Hornets win again, lose LaMelo Ball
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Gordon Hayward added 19 points and Kelly Oubre Jr. joined ball with 18 points for Charlotte. Mark Williams provided 15 points and 11 rebounds. Heat 101, 76ers 99Jimmy Butler had 23 points, 11 rebounds, nine assists and four steals to help Miami edge host Philadelphia. Jayson Tatum, who entered Monday averaging 30.4 points per game, was limited to 14 points before he was ejected late in the fourth quarter. Moritz Wagner and Markelle Fultz added 14 points each and Wendell Carter Jr. had 11 points and 11 rebounds for Orlando, which began a three-game road trip by finishing a season series sweep against New Orleans.

"America will stand with Ukraine as long as it takes," Yellen, flanked by sandbags at the cabinet ministers' office, told Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. Yellen also announced the transfer of the first $1.25 billion from the latest, $9.9 billion tranche of economic and budget assistance from Washington. The latest funds are part of $45 billion in new military, economic and humanitarian approved by Congress in December as part of broad U.S. budget legislation. Yellen said such economic support is keeping Ukraine's government and critical public services running, schools open and pensions paid, providing a "bedrock of stability" that fuels Ukrainian resistance. 168, where the salaries of teachers, administrators and support staff are reimbursed from U.S. budget support funds.

REUTERS/Lisi NiesnerLUCH, Ukraine, Feb 27 (Reuters) - For a Ukrainian village devastated by war, Cold War bunkers built to withstand a nuclear attack that never happened have proven a lifeline for residents who have spent much of the past year living in them. In April, with their village caught between Russian and Ukrainian forces, Gynzhul, her husband Dmytro and their son moved into a warehouse basement, just before their second-storey apartment was shelled. Ukrainian soldiers pushed the Russians south away from Luch last autumn and by early November had recaptured Kherson city. Gynzhul and the others in her bunker live off humanitarian aid and her 4,000 hryvnia ($109) per month salary from her administrative job in the village. Bunker resident Iryna Sichkar said her son was captured early in the war in Mariupol.

The justices will hear the case during the court's next term, which begins in October. The case is the latest to come before the Supreme Court seeking to rein in the authority of federal agencies. The CFPB, which enforces consumer financial laws, was created after the 2008 financial crisis as part of a federal law known as the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. A Democratic-led Congress in 2010 set up the agency to draw funding annually from the Federal Reserve, the U.S. central bank, which last fiscal year transferred around $642 million to the consumer protection agency. The court heard arguments in November in two other cases involving agency power.

☆ NBA roundup: Jayson Tatum sends Celtics past 76ers
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Jaylen Brown led the Celtics with 26 points, Tatum added 18 points, 13 rebounds and six assists and Derrick White had 18 points. Gary Trent Jr. added 19 points for the Raptors, who have won four in a row for the first time this season. Tyrese Haliburton added 15 points and 14 assists, and Andrew Nembhard scored 13 points. LaMelo Ball had 19 points and 13 assists, Kelly Oubre Jr. and Dennis Smith Jr. both supplied 15 points and Terry Rozier finished with 14 points. Bam Adebayo had 14 points and Kevin Love posted 13 points and 13 rebounds for the Heat, who shot 40 percent from the field.

☆ NBA roundup: Malik Beasley leads revamped Lakers to win
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

Anthony Davis scored 12 points with 12 rebounds for Los Angeles. Klay Thompson scored 22 points and Ty Jerome added 20 for the Warriors, who were without Stephen Curry (leg) and Andrew Wiggins (personal). Evan Mobley had 31 points and nine rebounds, Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland scored 22 points each, and Jarrett Allen had 14 points and 13 rebounds for the Cavaliers. Tatum had 31 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists. Anunoby returned from a wrist injury to score 12 points, but Toronto was without Fred VanVleet (personal).

KHERSON, Ukraine, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Vladyslav Antoniuk felt euphoric three months ago when he returned to his home city Kherson, the day Ukrainian troops rolled back in and jubilant residents waved blue and yellow flags in the main square to celebrate. Russian soldiers, who retreated just across the Dnipro River, have not been pushed back further and are pummelling the city daily with artillery. On Wednesday, Russian shells hit a bus stop in the city centre, killing six people and wounding a dozen. He said his administration evacuates about 100 people from the city daily on trains and buses on a voluntary basis. Reporting by Rod Nickel in Kherson, Ukraine Editing by Peter GraffOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ U.S. Supreme Court's 'major questions' test may doom Biden student debt plan
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( John Kruzel | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

She did not realize she was setting off on a path toward another, less-welcome family first - racking up more than $150,000 in student debt. The major questions doctrine is an outgrowth of an approach favored by many conservatives and business groups to curb what they call the excesses of the "administrative state." Beginning in 2020, the administrations of President Donald Trump, a Republican, and Biden, a Democrat, repeatedly paused federal student loan payments and halted interest from accruing. Two lawsuits - one by six conservative-leaning states and the other by two student loan borrowers who opposed the plan's eligibility requirements - prompted lower courts to block it. 'INSUFFICIENT FUNDS'The major questions doctrine gives judges broad discretion to invalidate executive agency actions unless Congress clearly authorized them in legislation.

The court in a 6-3 decision authored by liberal Justice Elena Kagan decided that because the rig supervisor, Michael Hewitt, was paid a daily rate of $963 and not a salary, an overtime pay exemption in federal wage law for highly paid workers did not apply to him. Circuit Court of Appeals that Helix must face Hewitt's 2017 lawsuit seeking overtime pay. A ruling favoring Hewitt would require companies to pay overtime premiums and invite a flood of lawsuits from highly paid workers, the groups added. That coupled with his management duties made him exempt from overtime pay, Kavanaugh said. Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch in a separate dissent said Helix's appeal should have been dismissed for procedural reasons.

☆ Mass Shootings Kill One at a Mardi Gras Parade in New Orleans, One at a Memphis Nightclub
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Sara Randazzo | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Law-enforcement officers arrived Sunday night in New Orleans moments after shots were fired and arrested a suspected shooter. Two people were killed and 14 others injured in mass shootings that occurred over the weekend during the Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans and at a nightclub in Memphis, police said. In New Orleans, law enforcement arrived Sunday night moments after shots were fired around 9:30 p.m. and arrested a suspected shooter, according to the New Orleans Police Department. One male later died and two other men and two women—including one juvenile—were being treated at a hospital in stable condition, according to officials.

☆ Mass Shooting at New Orleans Mardi Gras Parade Kills 1, Injures 4
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Sara Randazzo | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The scene of a shooting during Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans Sunday night. One person died and four others were injured after a shooting during Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans Sunday night, police said Monday. The New Orleans Police Department said law enforcement arrived moments after shots were fired around 9:30 p.m. and arrested a suspected shooter. One man later died and two other men and two women—including one juvenile—were being treated at a hospital and are in stable condition, according to officials.

☆ Huey ‘Piano’ Smith, New Orleans Session Man and Hit Maker, Dies at 89
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Huey “Piano” Smith , a beloved New Orleans session man who backed Little Richard , Lloyd Price and other early rock stars and with his own group made the party favorites “Don’t You Just Know It” and “Rockin’ Pneumonia and Boogie Woogie Flu,” has died. He was 89 years old. His daughter, Acquelyn Donsereaux , told the Associated Press that he died in his sleep Feb. 13 at his home in Baton Rouge. She didn’t cite a specific cause.

☆ NBA roundup: Jayson Tatum's big 2nd half leads Celtics past Pistons
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Tatum had 24 points, including six 3-pointers, in the third quarter -- the most points he's scored in one quarter during his NBA career. Jalen Green scored 14 points before exiting in the second quarter due to a groin strain. Bane added 24 points and six rebounds, while Ja Morant tallied 20 points, nine assists and eight rebounds. Utah's Kelly Olynyk had a double-double in the first half, and he wound up with 28 points, 14 rebounds and six assists. Jordan Clarkson added 20 points, nine rebounds and six assists, while Walker Kessler logged 10 points and 14 rebounds.

☆ NBA All-Star Saturday: Damian Lillard tops 3-Point Contest field
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] Feb 13, 2023; Portland, Oregon, USA; Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard (0) stands with teammates during the singing of the national anthem before a game against the Los Angeles Lakers at Moda Center. / Troy Wayrynen-USA TODAY SportsFebruary 15 - Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard, who has hit the sixth-most 3-point shots in NBA history, will take part in the 3-Point Contest as part of All-Star Saturday Night this week in Salt Lake City. Also competing in the 3-point event will be Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro, Portland Trail Blazers guard Anfernee Simons and Sacramento Kings swingman Kevin Huerter. Curry won the 3-Point Contest in 2015 and 2021, and Allen won it in 2001. The Slam Dunk Contest will include one player, Mac McClung, who hasn't appeared in an NBA game this season.

☆ The 11 U.S. cities where rent prices fell the most in January
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Mike Winters | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

U.S. renters are finally getting a break on their rent, with prices dropping in 11 major markets in January, according to new data by online realtor Redfin. Median asking rent dropped to $1,942 last month, down from a 2022 peak of $2,053. Only four cities posted double-digit rent growth in January 2022, compared with 38 in January 2021. The number of cities with price drops also continues to climb, from just two a year ago to 11 in January. January rent prices for this study are based on 20,000 apartment listings from Rent.com for the 50 largest metro areas in the country.

☆ For fans Super Bowl no longer a game, it's an 'experience'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( Steve Keating | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

PHOENIX, Feb 11 (Reuters) - In just a half-century of evolution the Super Bowl has gone from sports event, to America's biggest party, to a week long and very expensive immersive "experience". Next year it will almost certainly make another leap when "immersive experience" and "party" morph into one big Super Bowl supernova in Las Vegas, as Sin City hosts the game for the first time. "If you go back 10 years ago Super Bowl was only about the game and now it is much, much more," said Wilder. For John Wegman, a businessman from Rochester and a Buffalo Bills season ticket holder, seeing a Super Bowl was on his bucket list. "Super Bowl with my father, my mother, my brother was a bucket list thing and we are doing it in style."

☆ NBA roundup: Bucks best Clippers for 10th straight win
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

Brandon Boston Jr. scored 20 points and Paul George added 19 points and 11 rebounds for the Clippers. Norman Powell had 16 points and Marcus Morris Sr. scored 15 for Los Angeles, which has lost two games in a row. Domantas Sabonis put up 18 points, 11 rebounds and a team-high seven assists for the Kings. Detroit's Jaden Ivey supplied 17 points, eight rebounds and eight assists, while Isaiah Stewart had 15 points and 11 rebounds. Desmond Bane added 20 points, seven rebounds and five assists, while Jaren Jackson Jr. tallied 15 points and six rebounds.

"It's judge shopping on steroids," said Sarah Lipton-Lubet, executive director of the progressive legal advocacy group Take Back the Court. The Biden administration has called the lawsuit "unprecedented" and urged Kacsmaryk to not deprive women of a long-approved safe and effective drug. At least eight have led to rulings blocking Biden policies, with several more pending. The chief judges of Texas federal courts have the authority to reallocate cases to other judges, but have largely not done so, he said. Absent a change, litigants have every right to take advantage of that structure to seek a favorable judge, he said.

☆ Factbox: Turkey earthquake and some of the worst natural disasters of this century
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

HAITI 2010 EARTHQUAKEA 7.0 magnitude earthquake on Jan. 13, 2010, devastated Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince and killed about 316,000 people. CHINA QUAKEA 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit China's Sichuan province on May 12, 2008, killing about 87,600 people. PAKISTAN QUAKEA 7.6 magnitude quake that struck northeast of Islamabad on Oct. 8, 2005, killed at least 73,000 people. JAPAN QUAKE/TSUNAMIA 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami struck Japan’s northeast on March 11, 2011, killing about 15,690 people. HAITI 2021 QUAKEA 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck southern Haiti on Aug. 14, 2021, killing more than 2,200 people and destroying or damaging about 13,000 homes.

☆ Southwest just announced 5 new and 24 returning routes this year as it bolsters its network— see the full list
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Taylor Rains | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Southwest Airlines announced five new and 24 returning routes in its latest network expansion. These are in addition to the previously announced new nonstops to Kansas City and Orlando from Long Beach, starting in March and July, respectively. Charlotte to Houston Hobby: Sundays starting on September 10Dallas Love Field to Philadelphia: Saturdays and Sundays starting on September 9. Between Long Beach and El PasoEl Paso, Texas Denis Tangney Jr./Getty ImagesSouthwest will launch daily flights between Long Beach and El Paso on July 11. Between Long Beach and AlbuquerqueAlbuquerque, New Mexico Davel5957/Getty ImagesSouthwest will launch daily flights between Long Beach and Albuquerque on September 5.

Search resuls for: "Orléans"

25 mentions found