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☆ When Every Win Means Water, Water Everywhere
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( Andrew Keh | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +8 min

When Every Win Means Water EverywherePicture yourself at work. Teleport this scene into a sports locker room, though, and suddenly the dousing is perfectly in bounds. But like many coaches, he eventually accepted his fate, removing his shoes before entering the locker room. The athletes were unwinding in the locker room when Coach Mark Few and his assistants charged in and began sousing them with ice-cold water. Isaiah Wong, the team’s star shooting guard, said they would only consider spraying water now if they won the championship.

☆ Satellite imagery venture Planet reports record quarterly revenue to cap strong year
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Michael Sheetz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The New York Stock Exchange welcomes Planet (NYSE: PL), on Wed. Dec. 8th, in celebration of its listing. To honor the occasion, Will Marshall, Co-Founder & CEO, and Robert Schingler Jr., Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer, joined by Stacey Cunningham, NYSE President, ring The Opening Bell®. Planet on Wednesday delivered another record quarter of revenue, nearing the top end of its full-year revenue forecast. For the full year, we nearly tripled our revenue growth rate," Planet cofounder and CEO Will Marshall said in a press release. Planet brought in $53 million in revenue during Q4, a 43% increase from $37.1 million a year prior.

☆ Farmers in Ukraine are forced to dig up land mines by hand to save their livelihoods: 'I don't have any other choice'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Joshua Zitser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Ukrainian farmers face a hard choice: another year without income or clearing land mines themselves. Around a third of Ukraine is contaminated by land mines. Around a third of Ukraine is currently contaminated by unexploded munitions, CNN reported, including vast stretches of farmland. He told CNN: "I don't have any other choice." But because one day of war generally equals several months of clearance work, it could take years to clear the country of unexploded munitions.

☆ Shrinking food stamp benefits for families mean yet another challenge for retailers
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-26 | by ( Melissa Repko | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

This month, pandemic-related emergency funding from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, is ending in most states, leaving many low-income families with less to spend on food. More than 41 million Americans receive funding for food through the federal program. For those households, it will amount to at least $95 less per month to spend on groceries. The nonprofit used to provide about 7 million meals per month before the pandemic and now provides between 11 million and 12 millions meals per month. "We knew these [extra SNAP funds] were going away and they were going to be sunsetted," she said.

☆ Women's NCAA roundup: South Florida tops Marquette in OT
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

South Florida won 67-65. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Blake-USA TODAY SportsMarch 18 - Elena Tsineke's jumper with 31.2 seconds left lifted eighth-seeded South Florida to a 67-65 overtime win over ninth-seeded Marquette in the first round of the NCAA Tournament's Greenville 1 Regional on Friday in Columbia, S.C."What a way to start the NCAA Tournament," South Florida coach Jose Fernandez said. Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeu had 22 points and 16 rebounds for the Bulls (27-6), with Tsineke adding 13 points. South Florida rallied from an 11-point deficit with 2:40 left in the third quarter to take a 59-55 lead with 31 seconds to play. Zia Cooke had 11 points and five rebounds, while Laeticia Amihere came off the bench to add 11 points for South Carolina, playing at home in Columbia.

☆ ‘Marie Antoinette’ Review: Boudoirs and Bloodlines on PBS
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( John Anderson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

An ornate soap opera of the sort that has become a fixture of Sunday nights on PBS, the eight-part “ Marie Antoinette ” is a little like “Titanic”: We all know the subject’s destination. The question is how long it will take to get there. It’s not a brisk trip. Not usually a problem, if the parties are eager and the plumbing is intact. But the dauphin, Louis-Auguste (Louis Cunningham), is diffident to the point of paralysis and Marie spends much time worried if he’ll ever rise to greatness.

Flood insurance is expensive because flood recovery costs are expensiveOn average, most homes' flood insurance premiums fall between $700 and $800 annually for flood insurance. "It provides insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program, a partnership between private insurers and the federal government," says Evan W. Walker, an attorney who regularly litigates flood insurance issues. However, a condo association's master insurance policy (the insurance covering the whole building) includes flood insurance. The NFIP might lower your flood insurance premiumsLight may be on the horizon if you've paid expensive flood insurance for your dream home. The National Flood Insurance Program is using a new way of calculating flood insurance costs as of 2021.

☆ SVB's collapse completely screwed things up for companies with bad credit
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Matthew Fox | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The SVB collapse is going to make it a lot more expensive for companies with bad credit to raise capital. But it's not just junk-rated companies that will face higher fund-raising costs. Credit spreads for investment grade companies have also risen in recent days as investors reprice risk across the spectrum of corporate credit quality. That's leading to more zombie companies, or companies that rely on low financing costs to fund their business, that could ultimately default. To blunt the rise in financing costs, companies need to take action, according Embarc Advisors' Jay Jung.

☆ A housing downturn is causing a reckoning in the once-hot cluster of proptech startups that let homebuyers pay all cash and win bidding wars
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Alex Nicoll | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

In that market, all-cash offers were king to sellers because they ensured quicker, stress-free closings. According to Redfin, all-cash offers quadrupled the chances that a homebuyer would win a bidding war. Ribbon has since paused its all-cash offering, but some of the other firms that Insider featured last year are still making all-cash offers. FlyhomesFlyhomes is a real-estate brokerage that featured all-cash-offer services for years and distinguished itself in December 2021 with a free all-cash-offer product. "The value to the buyer is different than in a seller's market," Garg said in the email.

☆ ChatGPT recommends 5 books to become a smarter investor - including 2 tied to Warren Buffett
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Insider's Phil Rosen asked ChatGPT to share book recommendations for someone looking to become a better investor. OpenAI's language bot listed five titles, including two with ties to Warren Buffett. ChatGPT generated a list of five books, including two that have ties to Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett. 'The Intelligent Investor' by Benjamin GrahamThis is the first book ChatGPT listed with ties to Buffett: Graham was one of Buffett's mentors. "These books provide a solid foundation for understanding how to invest in the stock market intelligently," ChatGPT concluded.

☆ Islamic Bank Fined in U.K. for Anti-Money-Laundering Violations
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Dylan Tokar | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +2 min

Al Rayan Bank, the U.K.’s largest Islamic bank, will pay £4 million, equivalent to about $4.9 million, for failing to maintain sufficient money-laundering protections, regulators said Wednesday. The regulator on Tuesday imposed a £7.6 million fine on Guaranty Trust Bank UK Ltd., the U.K. subsidiary of Nigerian bank Guaranty Trust Bank PLC, for failing to undertake customer risk assessments. PREVIEWAl Rayan is a subsidiary of Masraf Al Rayan, Qatar’s second largest bank by market value. After an inspection by the FCA in 2017, Al Rayan agreed not to take on additional high-risk customers. Al Rayan received a 30% discount off its fine for agreeing not to dispute the regulator’s finding, the FCA said.

☆ Amazon workers press company on climate change response after Pakistan floods
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Eli M. Rosenberg | Eli Rosenberg Is An Investigative Tech Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

The employees say the aid is a way for Amazon to take greater responsibility for its role in producing the greenhouse emissions that cause climate change. Scientists have said the flooding that killed more than 1,700 people and displaced millions in Pakistan was much more likely to occur because of climate change. And it is attracting some Amazon workers not previously involved in workplace activism. One letter received 8,700 signatures from Amazon employees. “It definitely had an effect on people,” said Eliza Pan, a former program manager at the company who left in 2019 to go work on climate change issues, but is still involved with Amazon Employees for Climate Justice.

☆ South Carolina congressional map deliberately hurt Black voters, judges rule
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Joseph Ax | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Jan 6 (Reuters) - South Carolina's Republican-created congressional map deliberately split up Black neighborhoods in Charleston to diminish their voting power and must be redrawn, a three-judge federal panel ruled on Friday. The Republican-controlled legislature adopted the map last year after the 2020 U.S. Census as part of the once-a-decade redistricting process that all states complete. Friday's decision focused on the state's 1st congressional district, which has long been anchored in Charleston County. The judges – all three appointed by Democratic presidents – gave the state legislature until the end of March to submit a new map. No elections can take place in the 1st district until it has been redrawn, the panel said.

☆ Walter Cunningham, last surviving Apollo 7 astronaut, dies at 90
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Walter Cunningham, the last surviving astronaut from the first successful crewed space mission in NASA’s Apollo program, died Tuesday in Houston. It was NASA’s first crewed space mission since the deaths of the three Apollo 1 astronauts in a launch pad fire Jan. 27, 1967. “We never even knew that there were astronauts when I was growing up,” Cunningham told The Spokesman-Review. After retiring from NASA in 1971, Cunningham worked in engineering, business and investing, and became a public speaker and radio host. Although Cunningham never crewed another space mission after Apollo 7, he remained a proponent of space exploration.

☆ Former astronaut Cunningham, member of first crewed Apollo flight, dies at age 90
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] Astronaut Walter Cunningham, Apollo 7 lunar module pilot, is photographed during the Apollo 7 mission in this October 1968 NASA handout photo. NASA/Handout via Reuters/File PhotoWASHINGTON, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Former astronaut Walter Cunningham, who flew to space aboard Apollo 7 in 1968, part of the first crewed Apollo mission paving the way for 12 others to land on the moon in subsequent years, died on Tuesday at age 90, NASA said. Cunningham joined crewmates Walter Schirra and Donn Eisele for the successful 11-day mission, which was conducted in low-Earth orbit as the first human test flight of the new Apollo spacecraft that would later venture to the moon. Apollo 7 marked the resumption of NASA's lunar spaceflight program 21 months after the fire that killed all three members of the Apollo 1 crew during a ground-based launch rehearsal in late January 1967. "Walt Cunningham was a fighter pilot, physicist, and an entrepreneur – but, above all, he was an explorer," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement announcing his death.

☆ Man fatally slashed two strangers in random encounters around New York City, officials say
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

After a 20-second-long, caught-on-camera dispute, Codrington, 35, slashed Cunningham across the neck with a knife, leaving him to die, Essig said. At 11:30 p.m. on Dec. 22, Codrington entered a Lower East Side bar with a pit bull and a baseball bat, Essig said. Afterward, Essig said, Codrington went home, then said he’d “cool off” with a walk through the park. In May, a 48-year-old man was shot and killed riding a train between Brooklyn and lower Manhattan. Despite random acts, the number of crimes reported on public transit by September was averaging slightly below pre-pandemic levels, though ridership was also down.

☆ Michigan’s Gender Studies Secret
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-26 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Freedom of Information Act is a popular tool for taxpayers and journalists to hold government to account. But what if the FOIA law doesn’t apply to documents or communications among many government employees? That’s the theory endorsed by Michigan state Judge Jacob James Cunningham , who ruled on Dec. 15 that the state’s Freedom of Information Act doesn’t apply to public-school teachers.

☆ Attorney for 10-year-old Wisconsin boy accused of killing his mom asks to lower bail to $100
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Mirna-Alsharif-Byline-Jm.Jpg | Mirna Alsharif | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

An attorney for a 10-year-old Wisconsin boy accused of fatally shooting his mother because she wouldn't allow him to order a virtual reality headset from Amazon asked for the child's bail to be lowered from $50,000 to $100, court records show. During a hearing Wednesday, the attorney, Angela Cunningham, asked for the lower bail amount because the child has no source of income, NBC affiliate WTMJ of Milwaukee reported. The court also set a travel restriction if bail is posted, requiring the boy to stay in Milwaukee County. He admitted that “his mother would not allow him to have something from Amazon that he wanted to have,” it said. The boy told investigators that “he has 5 different imaginary people that talk to him.”A therapist who had been meeting with the boy gave him a “concerning diagnosis,” the sister said per the complaint.

☆ Brock Purdy: From 'Mr. Irrelevant' to beating the NFL's GOAT
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Ben Morse | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

And this bull is now a steer, so he’s irrelevant. Justin Casterline/Getty ImagesWhen Purdy was selected by the 49ers – and that famous red and white jersey was brought out with “Mr. Irrelevant” celebrations began in 1976, when former 49ers receiver Paul Salata founded “Irrelevant Week” in Newport Beach, California. Purdy celebrates at midfield after the Iowa State Cyclones defeated the Oklahoma State Cowboys 24-21 at Jack Trice Stadium on October 23, 2021 in Ames, Iowa. “I’ve tried to keep myself from being surprised about Brock Purdy years ago because nothing surprises me anymore with him.”

☆ Astronauts explain why nobody has visited the moon in 50 years — and the reasons are depressing
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Dave Mosher | Hilary Brueck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

The last time a person visited the moon was in December 1972, during NASA's Apollo 17 mission. But those stays during the Apollo program didn't establish a lasting human presence on the moon. Researchers and entrepreneurs have long pushed for the creation of a crewed base on the moon — a lunar space station. But many astronauts and other experts suggest the biggest impediments to making new crewed moon missions a reality are banal and somewhat depressing. During NASA's Apollo program, 12 people landed on the moon.

☆ Former US ambassadors push for help for Afghan allies in spending bill
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Jake Tapper | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —A group of retired ambassadors, all of whom served as chief of mission at the US Embassy in Afghanistan, have written a letter to congressional leaders pushing them to include the Afghan Adjustment Act in the omnibus spending bill. The legislation “keeps our deep and binding commitments we made to our wartime allies. This is a moral imperative but also ensures we will find future allies in conflicts to come,” former ambassadors Ryan Crocker, Ronald E. Neumann, William Wood, Earl Anthony Wayne, James Cunningham, P. Michael McKinley, Hugo Llorens and Ross Wilson write in the letter being sent Wednesday evening. The letter, organized by AfghanEvac’s Shawn vanDiver and former ambassador Phil Kosnett, stands as a push from respected leaders and experts on Afghanistan that passing the bill is essential to meeting the United States’ obligations. This story is breaking and will be updated.

☆ Michael Jordan: The NBA has renamed its MVP trophy after the Bulls great
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Amy Woodyatt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +15 min

Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE/Getty Images Jordan poses for a Little League Baseball photo in the late 1970s. Ken Levine/Getty Images Jordan famously shrugs his shoulders after hitting another 3-pointer during the 1992 NBA Finals versus Portland. "There is a reason you call someone the Michael Jordan of ... neurosurgery, or the Michael Jordan of rabbis, or the Michael Jordan of outrigger canoeing. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Jordan continues to promote Nike's Jordan Brand across the world. Jordan Brand/Getty Images Jordan cries at the Kobe Bryant memorial in Los Angeles in February 2020.

☆ It's been 50 years since the last moonwalk. NASA astronauts explain why it took so long.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | Hilary Brueck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The 50th anniversary of the last Apollo astronaut moonwalk is Wednesday. NASA astronauts say it's taking so long to return to the moon because of politics and money. But NASA built Orion to send astronauts back into lunar orbit and, as early as 2025, link up with SpaceX's Starship to land astronauts on the moon. NASA astronaut Victor Glover visits the Space Launch System rocket inside Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building, on July 15, 2021. NASA/Kim ShiflettAs early as 2004, former President George Bush was setting goals to return astronauts to the moon.

☆ It's all about you: The founder who's the face of their brand is more likely to succeed in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Alexandra York | Jennifer Ortakales Dawkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

But saturated platforms make being "the face of your brand" as a founder a newly important tactic. Lisa Collum knew this and applied it to her own business by rooting the brand in her personal story. Collum is the founder and face of Top Score Writing, an 11-year-old company that sells writing curriculum to school districts and teachers. For the founder looking to grow in 2023, they need to be mindful of the way social media and the economy work hand-in-hand today. In today's business climate, being the face of your brand and speaking your mind as a founder is often the route to success.

☆ His power secure at home, China’s Xi Jinping goes on a charm offensive abroad
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Evelyn Cheng | Evelyn Cheng Is A News Associate With Cnbc. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

BEIJING — Now that he has consolidated power at home, Chinese President Xi Jinping is stepping out onto the world stage to strengthen relations with the U.S. and other countries. Most recently, Xi hosted European Council President Charles Michel in Beijing on Thursday. In a speech at the party congress, Xi said the party has “safeguarded China’s dignity” in the face of international changes and warned of “dangerous storms” ahead. The following week, the countries’ military leaders met for the first time since Pelosi’s controversial Taiwan visit in August. Heads of Japan, South Korea, Australia, Indonesia and Italy met with both Xi and Biden in the last several weeks, based on government announcements.

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