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Facing criticism from Democrats and frustration from Republicans, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., has amended his controversial “Rescue America” plan that called for all federal legislation to sunset. The plan now lists “specific exceptions of Social Security, Medicare, national security, veterans benefits, and other essential services.”The previous language read: “All federal legislation sunsets in 5 years. If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again.”The new language says: “All federal legislation sunsets in 5 years, with specific exceptions of Social Security, Medicare, national security, veterans benefits, and other essential services. Note to President Biden, Sen. Schumer, and Sen. McConnell — As you know, this was never intended to apply to Social Security, Medicare, or the US Navy” (bold included in plan). This isn’t the first time Scott has edited his controversial 12-point plan while under fire.

☆ Republican U.S. Senator Rick Scott drops plan to cut Social Security, Medicare
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( David Morgan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

"Let me say one more time: There is no agenda on the part of Senate Republicans to revisit Medicare or Social Security. Scott's move also came a day after Republican former President Donald Trump urged him to support Social Security and Medicare in a posting on his Truth Social media platform. "Be careful, Rick, and most importantly, fight for Social Security and Medicare. It also said: "Note to President Biden, Sen. Schumer, and Sen. McConnell – As you know, this was never intended to apply to Social Security, Medicare, or the US Navy." The White House said the newly revamped Scott plan should not be taken at face value.

☆ After being attacked by both Democrats and the GOP, Rick Scott edits his plan to sunset all federal laws every 5 years. He now wants to make exceptions for Social Security, Medicare, and the military.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

He edited the plan on Friday to say he "never intended" to include Social Security, Medicare, and the military. Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell, clarifying that the five-year rule was "never intended" to apply to Social Security, Medicare, and the Navy. Scott's plan has drawn criticism from both Democrats and Republicans who have vowed to preserve Social Security and Medicare. That was the Rick Scott plan," McConnell told Kentucky radio host Terry Meiners. He also wants to make any potential cuts to Medicare and Social Security subject to a two-thirds vote from Congress.

☆ Their Super Bowl game plan: Rescue leftover food and serve it to those in need
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Parija Kavilanz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Regina Anderson, executive director of Food Recovery Network, is coordinating a campaign to rescue leftover food on game day. The Super Bowl is as much an annual food event as it is the biggest sporting event of the year. But while food is an essential part of Super Bowl celebrations, food wastage doesn’t have to be. In 2020, just before the United States was plunged into a pandemic, FRN did just that by organizing its first Super Bowl food rescue effort. Food Recovery Network collected close to 2,000 pounds of leftover food from the Players Tailgate Event at last year's Super Bowl in Los Angeles.

☆ 3 dead, 1 missing as rain pounds New Zealand’s largest city
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Authorities said Saturday that three people had died and at least one was missing after record levels of rainfall pounded New Zealand’s largest city, causing widespread disruption. He said the city was in for a big cleanup and that people should remain indoors if possible. On Friday evening, more than 15 centimeters (6 inches) of rain fell in just three hours in some places. Hundreds of people were stranded at Auckland Airport overnight after the airport stopped all flights and parts of the terminal were flooded. “It’s been a long and challenging night at Auckland Airport, we thank everyone for ongoing patience,” the airport wrote.

☆ Delta decided against using ‘fairly old’ backup system during FAA outage
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Gregory Wallace | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —Delta Air Lines has a backup to the federal aviation safety system that failed this week, but the airline decided against using it, CEO Ed Bastian said Friday. Bastian described the Delta’s secondary system as “fairly old backup technology” involving the notices known as NOTAMs distributed by the Federal Aviation Administration alerting pilots of obstacles, closures, and other information. Delta’s backup system collects data from the NOTAM database. But a new labor deal with its pilots union will trim profitability going forward. The main headwind: a new tentative labor agreement with its pilots union, reached a month ago, that will increase pay by 34% over the life of the contract.

☆ California picks up debris from latest storm, braces for the next
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Sharon Bernstein | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

At least two more storm systems were set to pound California and the Pacific Northwest starting Friday and over the weekend, the National Weather Service said, including another atmospheric river, systems of dense moisture funneled into California from the tropical Pacific. The state has already been hit with seven such weather systems over the past two weeks. In Monterey County, water from prior storms continued to swell the Salinas River, officials said. The heavy rains have eased California's historic drought but not ended it, the U.S. Drought Monitor showed on Thursday. Even with more atmospheric rivers in the immediate forecast, the state's water system will remained strained in coming years without new infrastructure to capture more storm water, restore flood plains and recycle wastewater.

☆ Hospitals rely on volunteers for $5 billion a year of free work — and some could be violating federal labor laws
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Lauren Sausser | Kaiser Health News | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

The US health system benefits from potentially over $5 billion in free volunteer labor annually. Like paid employees, hospital volunteers typically face mandatory vaccine requirements, background checks, and patient privacy training. Hedges was furloughed for the better part of six months when hospital volunteers were sent home in March 2020. Nonprofit and for-profit hospitals alike benefit from volunteersNonprofit hospitals must follow federal labor laws, too. Nonprofit hospitals are required to provide a benefit to their communities, such as offering charity care, in exchange for their special tax status.

☆ New Israel finance minister says to keep free-market policies
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Steven Scheer | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

JERUSALEM, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Incoming Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said he would pursue a broad free-market policy on Wednesday, an apparent effort to allay fears he would be guided by Jewish biblical principles. "I will pursue a broad free-market policy," he wrote. Smotrich said he would be inspired by U.S. right-to-work laws and pursue similar measures to reduce union control in Israel’s labour force. His "traditionalist bloc" in Netanyahu's nationalist-religious coalition had been "vilified" by U.S. media, he said. The $1.3 trillion fund's executive board this month had decided to exclude Israeli security and analytics software provider Cognyte Software Ltd (CGNT.O) from its portfolio citing human rights concerns.

☆ U.N. says Burkina Faso has no grounds to expel senior official
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

OUAGADOUGOU, Dec 24 (Reuters) - The United Nations on Saturday said Burkina Faso had no grounds for ordering senior U.N. official Barbara Manzi to leave the country and that the doctrine of "persona non grata" could not be applied to her. "Only the Secretary-General... has the authority to decide, after careful investigation, with respect to the withdrawal of any United Nations official." Reuters was not immediately able to verify whether Manzi, an Italian national, was still in Burkina Faso in Saturday. The U.N. provides some essential services in Burkina Faso, including supplying food to thousands of malnourished children as insecurity has crippled local economies, caused mass hunger, and restricted access for aid organisations. The Secretary-General reiterated the U.N.'s commitment to continue engaging with Burkina Faso's transitional authorities and support the country.

☆ California and the Midwest face 'high risk' of electricity shortages in next five years
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Projected energy shortfalls have been projected in that region since 2018, Olson said. The Southwest could also suffer when demand is high and wind energy generation is low in the region. For its annual long-term electricity security assessment, NERC looks at the coming decade, but energy and capacity risk assessment goes out for the coming five years, from 2023 to 2027. There are too many moving parts and uncertainties for a risk assessment past the next five years to be worthwhile, according to NERC. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission certified NERC to measure and enforce safety standards for the energy grid in the United States in 2006.

☆ Russia raised a record $13.6 billion in one day as the cost of Vladimir Putin's war with Ukraine keeps mounting
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-19 | by ( Sam Tabahriti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Russia raised more than $13 billion in a day as the cost of Putin's war in Ukraine keeps mounting. Britain's Defence Intelligence said it was the largest amount Moscow had raised in a single day. Russia's defence spending for 2023 is estimated to be 40% higher than previously forecast. The true cost of Russia's invasion of Ukraine remains unclear. The government estimated in the summer that it needed $5 billion a month to maintain essential services, and some $750 billion for reconstruction.

☆ Ukraine Races to Restore Power, Water in Kherson After Russian Withdrawal
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-13 | by ( Ian Lovett | James Marson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

MYKOLAIV, Ukraine—Ukrainian authorities set about restoring essential services in Kherson after Russia retreated from the city, leaving it without electricity, heat, water or cellphone service. Ukrainian forces that swept into the southern city over the weekend were greeted by jubilant crowds, but a municipal official said the humanitarian situation in the city was critical.

☆ Australia sees spike in cyber attacks from criminals and states
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Lewis Jackson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SYDNEY, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Cyber attacks against Australia from criminals and state-sponsored groups jumped last financial year, with a government report released on Friday equating the assault to one attack every seven minutes. The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) received 76,000 cybercrime reports last financial year, up 13% from the previous period, according to its latest annual cyber threat report. The ACSC, part of the intelligence-collecting Signals Directorate, reported 95 cyber incidents impacting critical infrastructure last fiscal year. Business losses attributable to cyber crime rose on average 14% over the period, with the average crime costing a small business A$39,000 ($24,540). The jump in attacks and damages is making insurers wary and premiums in Australia jumped 56% year-on-year in the second quarter, according to Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc (MMC.N).

☆ Ethiopia: Warring parties agree to a truce in two-year civil war. Here's what to know
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Eliza Mackintosh | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +16 min

CNN —When Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, he was lauded as a regional peacemaker. A year later, he launched a conflict that spiraled into a brutal civil war, spawning one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. In November 2020, Abiy ordered a military offensive in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region and promised that the clash would be resolved quickly. Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty ImagesThe Tigray conflict has its roots in tensions that go back generations in Ethiopia. For months at the start of the conflict, Abiy denied that civilians were being harmed or that soldiers from Eritrea had joined the fight.

☆ Asian American groups criticize Seattle's anti-Asian hate budget reduction in new proposal
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Brahmjot Kaur | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Asian American organizations are calling out the 2023 budget put forth by Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, who proposed reducing the city’s fund to combat anti-Asian hate by nearly half. The budget proposal, announced last month, would reduce the city’s hate crime funding from $400,000 in the 2022 adopted budget to $167,000 in the 2023 budget. Manjusha Kulkarni, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate, said cities cutting funding for Asian American communities is concerning. Anti-Asian hate crimes rose exponentially since the beginning of the pandemic, increasing 339% in 2021, according to data from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism. “Anti-Asian hate crimes, which surged in the past two years due to the COVID pandemic, still continue and appear in national news.

WINNIPEG, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Canada will sell a government-backed, 5-year bond to raise money for Ukraine and it will impose new sanctions on 35 Russian individuals, including Gazprom (GAZP.MM) executives, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday. "These funds will go to support the Government of Ukraine so they can continue to support the Ukrainian people," he said. Canada has one of the world's biggest Ukrainian diasporas outside of countries that border Ukraine, and the community has lobbied Ottawa to impose increasingly strict sanctions against Russia since it invaded Ukraine in February. Trudeau did not say when the bonds would go on sale. The equivalent of the income raised will be channeled "directly to Ukraine" through an International Monetary Fund administered account, the statement said.

☆ Big bargains will dominate the holiday season, but shoppers may not be sold
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Melissa Repko | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Last holiday season, shoppers started buying gifts early to avoid out-of-stocks and shipping delays. Even with the bigger discounts, industry-watchers expect a muted holiday season because of households' stretched budgets. Consulting firm Bain & Co. forecasts growth of as much as 7.5% from last holiday season, but when adjusted for inflation, that is only 1% to 3%. Computers, the category that's expected to have the highest level of discounting during the holiday season, according to Adobe, has seen cooling demand. More items were on sale during backyard barbecue season than during peak holiday season a year ago.

☆ Latino meteorologist helps create better weather terms in Spanish.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Albinson Linares | Noticias Telemundo | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +9 min

For meteorologist Joseph Trujillo, the right translation is more than a language issue, especially when it comes to weather-related warnings. A NOAA assessment revealed a lack of weather-related resources in the Spanish language that could have helped communities take action to save lives. But those linguistic differences can bring great challenges when translating emergency information, such as weather alerts, for all Hispanic people. They designed a new list of categories that better reflect the risk of climate emergencies in simpler terms: minimum, low, moderate, high and extreme. That first experience led him to pursue meteorology and his investigative work, which he presented to the National Weather Service.

Europe has nearly half a million telecom towers and most of them have battery backups that last around 30 minutes to run the mobile antennas. Swedish telecom regulator PTS is working with telecom operators and other government agencies to find solutions, it said. The telecom operators are also working with national governments to check if plans are in place to maintain critical services. Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE) will use mobile emergency power systems which mainly rely on diesel in the event of prolonged power failures, it said. France has about 62,000 mobile towers, and the industry will not be able to equip all antennas with new batteries, the FFT's president Liza Bellulo said.

☆ Canada girds for long haul after historic storm Fiona ravages east coast
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-25 | by ( John Morris | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Waves roll in near a damaged house built close to the shore as Hurricane Fiona, later downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone, passes the Atlantic settlement of Port aux Basques, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada September 24, 2022. The historic storm slammed into eastern Canada with hurricane-force winds, forcing evacuations, uprooting trees and powerlines, and reducing many homes to "just a pile of rubble." read moreThe Canadian Hurricane Centre estimated that Fiona was the lowest pressured land falling storm on record in Canada. Several university students lined up for food outside convenience stores powered by generators due to the power outage caused by Fiona. "So this is exactly the kind of work that will accompany provincial authorities in the coming weeks and months," he added.

☆ Market rout has muni bonds looking attractive. How to add them to your portfolio
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-25 | by ( Michelle Fox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

"Uncertainty around how high interest rates will go has driven redemptions in muni bond funds," he explained. Whenever we have a chance to add to muni bonds now, we do so." For instance, you can go to Fidelity Investments' website and access more than 50,000 municipal bonds as new issues or through dealers on the secondary market. Here are five Morningstar five-star rated muni bond funds. "Many closed-end bond funds are trading at prices that are below their net asset value," he said.

New York (CNN Business) The New York State Comptroller said Tuesday that several of New York City's fiscal challenges could result in a budget gap nearing $10 billion by 2026 — potentially affecting essential services in the future. Total revenue is expected to decline by $10.5 billion in fiscal year 2023, according to a new report titled "Review of the Financial Plan of the City of New York." The city's fiscal position "significantly improved" last year, the report added, but that was due to several one-time factors, including higher than expected tax revenue, extraordinary federal COVID relief aid, and record pension returns due to the stock market's gains. Many of those factors have begun to reverse, the comptroller said. New York City Mayor Eric Adams said during a press conference on Monday that the city is getting ready to "enter a financial typhoon."

Criminal hackers have recently targeted U.S. school districts and will likely continue to escalate their attacks this school year, federal agencies warned Tuesday. Hackers infected the district’s computer networks with malicious software, locking up files and demanding a ransom payment. While classes in Los Angeles weren’t canceled, the attack caused a “significant disruption” to the school district and some of its services, the district announced. Since then, there haven’t been any such high-profile ransomware attacks on energy infrastructure. Ransomware attacks on schools also run the risk of giving hackers access to children’s personal information, the government warned.

☆ A self-made millionaire shares her top 18 'recession money rules': 'Don't panic' and 'prepare to borrow'
▼ + stars: | 2022-07-06 | by ( Ann Kaplan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

To boost your chances of surviving an economic downturn, here are my top 18 recession money rules:1. If a rate reduction isn't an option, consider transferring your debt to a lower interest rate card. During a recession, many people need to borrow money to get through difficult times — and that's okay. Although no job is completely safe during a recession, certain jobs like those in essential services offer more security. Don't panic — recessions don't last forever.

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