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☆ Theranos' Elizabeth Holmes loses bid to stay out of prison
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes has been rebuffed in her attempt to stay out of federal prison while she appeals her conviction for the fraud she committed while overseeing a blood-testing scam that exposed Silicon Valley's dark side. The judge's decision means Holmes, 39, will have to surrender to authorities April 27 to start the more than 11-year prison sentence that Davila imposed in November. Holmes could still file another appeal of the ruling Davila's latest ruling, a maneuver that her co-conspirator at Theranos – Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani – successfully used to delay his scheduled March 16 date to begin a nearly 13-year prison sentence. Davila has recommended that Holmes serve her sentence in a Byron, Texas, prison. Although they had separate trials, Holmes and Balwani were accused of essentially the same crimes centered on a ruse touting Theranos' blood-testing system as a breakthrough in health care.

☆ The Man Who Demystified the Human Heart
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Vincent M. Figueredo | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Deaths from heart disease have fallen from their peak in the 1950s, thanks to the development of more effective imaging and treatments. Still, even at the peak of the Covid pandemic, heart disease remained the leading cause of death in the U.S., as it has been for more than a century. Worldwide, 6.3 million people died from Covid by July 2022, while 18 million people died from cardiovascular disease in 2021 alone. This discovery was dramatically confirmed in 1641, when Harvey met a young Irish nobleman named Hugh Montgomery. The wound abscessed and healed, leaving a hole in the boy’s chest through which his beating heart was visible.

☆ New Zealand ex-PM Ardern becomes trustee of Prince William's Earthshot Prize
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, April 4 (Reuters) - Britain's Prince William has named Jacinda Ardern, the former prime minister of New Zealand, as a new trustee for his multi-million pound environmental award, the Earthshot Prize. William, heir to throne, set up the prize in 2020 with the mission of finding solutions to the planet's biggest environmental problems through new technologies and ideas. Ardern joins Earthshot's board of trustees as it gears up to select finalists for the 2023 award. Last year, five winners were each awarded 1 million pounds ($1.24 million) at a ceremony in Boston, United States. Prince William said he was grateful that Ardern, who unexpectedly stepped down as New Zealand's leader earlier this year, was joining the team.

☆ Jury orders Tesla to pay more than $3 million to Black ex-worker who endured racist abuse
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Diaz, a Black man, was hired as a contract worker at Tesla in 2015 through a staffing agency. Diaz and Tesla sought a retrial to decide damages after Judge William H. Orrick reduced the amount to $15 million. "No Black man in 2015 should ever be subjected," Alexander said, "to this plantation mentality workplace." The plaintiffs asked the jury to consider punitive damages around $150 million for Tesla, and to award Diaz $6.3 million in past non-economic damages, and $2 million in future non-economic damages. As CNBC has previously reported, where it is legal to do so, Tesla has compelled employees to agree to mandatory arbitration.

☆ 151 years before Trump was indicted, Ulysses S. Grant was arrested for speeding on a horse-drawn carriage
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-31 | by ( John Haltiwanger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

In 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant was arrested for speeding on his horse-drawn carriage in Washington, DC. In 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant was arrested for speeding on his horse-drawn carriage in Washington, DC, which was highlighted by the Washington Post back in 2018 as Trump's legal woes were growing. Grant apparently had a penchant for speeding and a love for fast horses and had more than one run-in with West. West replied, "I want to inform you, Mr. President, that you are violating the law by speeding along this street. "I cautioned you yesterday, Mr. President, about fast driving, and you said, sir, that it would not occur again," West reportedly told Grant.

☆ William Hill to Pay Record $23.7 Million in Settlement With U.K. Gambling Commission
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Richard Vanderford | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

William Hill units that operate online gambling sites will pay most of the settlement amount. Gambling company William Hill will pay about £19.2 million, equivalent to $23.7 million, in the U.K. Gambling Commission’s largest ever enforcement action, as the regulator presses an aggressive crackdown on anti-money-laundering failures. Three William Hill units have entered into settlements over alleged anti-money-laundering failures and alleged problems ensuring responsible gambling, the Gambling Commission said Tuesday. William Hill is owned by 888 Holdings PLC, a publicly traded gambling company, following a 2022 acquisition. William Hill’s U.S. operations weren’t part of the transaction.

☆ Cost-of-living hit compounds UK gambling problems, charity warns
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, March 29 (Reuters) - Some Britons with gambling problems have used betting shops as a way to keep warm and have wagered their state benefits in an attempt to cover their bills as the cost-of-living crisis escalates, a charity warned on Wednesday. A new report from GamCare, which provides support to people with gambling problems, showed this group was far more likely than the general population to struggle paying for groceries or stay warm at home. The YouGov poll showed 20% of people experiencing gambling harms had struggled to pay for groceries, compared with 11% of the wider population. At the William Hill companies, multiple failures were found by the Gambling Commission, it said on Monday. GamCare said it had launched a new Money Guidance Service to help people with gambling problems to put their finances back on track.

☆ UK's William Hill fined $24 million for widespread gambling failures
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, March 28 (Reuters) - Britain's Gambling Commission has slapped a 19.2 million pound ($23.7 million) fine on companies owned by betting shop group William Hill for failing to protect consumers and weak anti-money laundering controls, it said on Tuesday. Instead the regulator opted to hand William Hill the largest penalty in UK gambling history. "We found serious non-compliance issues around safer gambling measures ... and also anti-money laundering control failings across the company," Andrew Rhodes, chief executive of the Gambling Commission told BBC Radio. It completed its takeover of William Hill and related companies last year. "After William Hill was acquired, the company quickly addressed the identified issues with the implementation of a rigorous action plan," an 888 spokesperson said.

☆ North Korea unveils new nuclear warheads as Kim orders more weapons-grade materials
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Hyonhee Shin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

SEOUL, March 28 (Reuters) - North Korea unveiled new, smaller nuclear warheads as leader Kim Jong Un called for scaling up the production of weapons-grade nuclear material to expand the country's arsenal, state media KCNA said on Tuesday. KCNA released photos of the warheads, dubbed Hwasan-31, during Kim's visit to the Nuclear Weapons Institute, where he inspected new tactical nuclear weapons and technology for mounting warheads on ballistic missiles, as well as nuclear counterattack operation plans. Kim ordered the production of weapons-grade materials in a "far-sighted way" to boost its nuclear arsenal "exponentially" and produce powerful weapons, KCNA said. "The frantic war drills in the puppet region are not just military drills but nuclear war drills for a preemptive strike ... pursuant to the U.S. political and military option to escalate confrontation with the DPRK and finally lead to a war," it said. DPRK is an abbreviation for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

☆ A key air defense system wasn't working right when a drone killed an American in Syria, pushing the US to retaliate with force
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The main air defense system at a coalition airbase was "not fully operational" when the attack unfolded, The New York Times reported on Friday. One US official told the Times that the Avenger defense system could have been suffering from a maintenance problem. The drone, which the US intelligence community suspects is of Iranian origin, killed a US contractor and wounded five American service members and an additional contractor. The three injured service members and the contractor were transported to a coalition medical facility in Iraq, while the other two injured service members were treated on site. Austin said his thoughts are with the family and colleagues of the contractor who was killed and also with the wounded service members.

☆ Mary Hilton, Champion of Cloth Diapers, Dies at 85
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( James R. Hagerty | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Around the time that Procter & Gamble Co. was introducing Pampers in the early 1960s, Mary Hilton and her husband, William Hilton , had a different idea: They decided to go into the business of laundering cloth diapers. For the next 40 years, Ms. Hilton fought a valiant rearguard action against P&G and other makers of disposable diapers. Based in Kalamazoo, Mich., her family-owned company at its peak in the mid-1990s had about 10,000 customers in three states and more than 150 employees. Ms. Hilton, who took charge of the company after her husband died in 1978, became one of the biggest operators in a mostly mom-and-pop business and a spokeswoman for diaper-cleaning trade groups.

How 31 Presidential Budgets Compared With RealityYear of budget 1994 Deficits Budgets Reality Spending Taxes and other revenueYou have probably heard of the main reason for this: The president’s budget has no force of law. But the president’s budget is often not predictive for another reason: Unexpected, cataclysmic events end up changing the trajectory of federal spending far more than shifts in any line item in a budget table. Bill ClintonDeficits Budgets Reality Spending Taxes and other revenueMr. Clinton’s budgets matched actual spending and revenue far more than those of the presidents who followed him. Another was the Budget Control Act, a bipartisan bill that reduced federal spending across the government that Mr. Obama had not proposed. And as we’re often reminded during budget season, budgets are also important because they tell you about a president’s goals and values.

☆ House Republicans target the CFPB as the agency takes aim at 'junk fees'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Chelsey Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers discussed ways to reform, or altogether defund, the nation's foremost consumer protection agency on Thursday, as the regulator takes aim at illegal "junk fees" levied on consumers. GOP lawmakers in the hearing criticized the Biden administration's push to eradicate "junk fees," largely regulated by the CFPB. On Wednesday, the agency released a list of illegal junk fees encompassing deposit accounts; auto and mortgage loan servicing; and payday and title lending. Subcommittee member Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-Mo., said Chopra has used junk fees as an excuse to expand his authority. The CFPB's working definition of junk fees is "any fee they don't like," argued Devin Watkins, an attorney at the conservative-leaning Competitive Enterprise Institute.

☆ Hitler's nephew fought in the US Navy in WWII, but he had to get special permission from the president and FBI to do it
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Chris Panella | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Hitler's nephew fought in the US Navy in WWII but had to receive permission from the president and FBI. In a letter to FDR, William Hitler asked for the chance to fight "against tyranny and oppression." After the war, William changed his last name to Stuart-Houston and lived a quiet life in New York. In the letter, William identified himself as "the nephew and only descendant of the ill-faced Chancellor and Leader of Germany," according to Warfare History Network. After the war, William remained in service until 1947.

☆ A 100 year-old stock market indicator is flashing bearish signals that point to more pain ahead for investors
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Matthew Fox | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

There is a bearish divergence developing between the Dow Jones Transportation Average and the Dow Jones Industrial Average. While the transports index made a higher high in January, the transportation average did not. Dow Theory is a more than 100-year old technical indicator that suggests if transportation companies are doing well, so should the broader economy. Dow theory suggests that the relationship between the two indexes could send a broader signal to investors about the future direction of the stock market. "These bearish divergences into late 2022 and early 2023 show a disconnected equity market, keeping the bearish signal for Dow Theory from early 2022 intact," Suttmeier said.

☆ U.S. weapons sales to get stricter human rights review under Biden
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Patricia Zengerle | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

"We are looking at a policy of prevention when there is a risk of violation of human rights," one official said. Biden's administration was criticized last year for approving the potential sale of radars and aircraft to Egypt despite what Human Rights Watch called Egypt's "atrocious human rights record." Reuters reported in 2021 that the Biden administration was considering a CAT policy shift to emphasize human rights. For example, Senator Bob Menendez, Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, opposes the sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 aircraft to Turkey for reasons including disregard for human rights. He rolled out a CAT policy in 2018 that gave commercial concerns as much weight as human rights in deciding whether to approve weapons sales.

☆ Analysis: How North Korea could use a Pacific 'firing range' to perfect its missiles
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Josh Smith | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) on Monday, after firing a massive Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on Saturday. So far North Korea has fired three variants of the Hwasong-12 intermediate range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) over Japan and into the Pacific Ocean. "As soon as it is out of range, or if it crosses below the horizon, North Korea will be blind." Schiller said he is not aware of any tracking vessels that North Korea positions along the flight path, and for now it doesn't have data relay satellites. If those two conditions are met, then North Korea will have fully demonstrated its deterrence capability against the United States, he said.

☆ A senior ISIS leader is dead, but the raid went sideways when an explosion injured several US troops and a dog
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Jake Epstein | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

US troops and the Syrian Democratic Forces carried out a joint helicopter raid in Syria on Thursday. The target, a senior Islamic State leader named Hamza al-Homsi, was killed during the operation. Although the target, Hamza al-Homsi, was killed, the operation went sideways when an explosion wounded the four Americans and their working dog. Meanwhile, the US military and its partner forces continue to hunt down ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria. Local Syrian forces killed the Islamic State's leader, Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, during an October raid.

☆ With record Super Bowl wagers expected, here are Wall Street's top sports-betting stocks
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Michelle Fox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

The names were a member of Roundhill Sports Betting & iGaming ETF , VanEck Gaming ETF , and/or iBet Sports Betting & Gaming ETF . Of the gaming companies on the list, Caesars Entertainment has the most upside to the average analyst price target, 26.2%. Caesars gaming empire includes Caesars Sportsbook, which came out of the company's 2021 $4 billion acquisition of William Hill . MGM Resorts follows with 23% upside to the average analyst price target. The stock, which has gained nearly 6% so far this year, has 11% upside to the average analyst price target.

☆ Entain's shares tumble as MGM scraps buyout plan
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Feb 9 (Reuters) - Shares of Entain plc (ENT.L) tumbled up to 13% on Thursday after the U.S-based MGM Resorts International (MGM.N) said it had "moved on" from pursuing an offer for the British gambling firm. MGM Chief Executive William Hornbuckle said in a post-earnings call on Wednesday that although it remained focused on online sportsbook BetMGM - a joint venture with Entain - it saw great potential in the expansion of Swedish online gaming company LeoVegas, which it bought last year. Entain's shares fell as much as 13% to an over one-month low of 1365.5 pence in morning trade. Reporting by Radhika Anilkumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'SouzaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Bookmaker 888 tumbles as CEO quits, Middle East VIP service suspended
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SummarySummary Companies CEO Itai Pazner to step down immediatelyVIP activities suspended in Middle EastShares tumble as much as 14.4%Jan 30 (Reuters) - 888 Holdings (888.L) Chief Executive Officer Itai Pazner will step down immediately, the British bookmaker said on Monday, adding that it will suspend VIP activities in the Middle East pending an internal investigation. The company's shares tumbled as much as 14.4% on the news, before recovering a little to stand about 11% lower by 0815 GMT. The company's shares have fallen almost 40% during Pazner's tenure. The bookmaker also said that some anti-money laundering and Know Your Client processes were not followed for its VIP customers in the Middle East region. Reporting by Radhika Anilkumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Uttaresh.V and Sherry Jacob-Phillips, Kirsten DonovanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Tech's ultimate nepo babies: Meet the Drapers, the first family of Silicon Valley
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

The billionaire Tim Draper is part of a lineage often lauded as Silicon Valley's premier VC family. As far as powerful professional networks go, it's hard to top the Draper family tree. Draper's venture-capital career began in the 1950s at his father's own trailblazing firm, Draper, Gaither, and Anderson, an early entrant in a new field. Meet the Draper family, the ultimate tech nepo babies and Silicon Valley royalty. Jesse DraperJesse Draper founded Halogen Ventures, which counts her father as an advisor.

“Around the country, MAGA extremists are lining up to take on those bedrock freedoms,” Mr. Biden said, using Mr. Trump’s Make America Great Again slogan to describe the former president’s allies. While he had repeatedly and consistently said he intended to run, Mr. Biden stoked renewed speculation by delaying his kickoff for months. Mr. Biden tapped Julie Chávez Rodríguez, a senior White House adviser and granddaughter of the iconic labor leader Cesar Chávez, as his campaign manager. But the operation is expected to be overseen from the White House by top presidential aides. While polls show that most Democrats have favorable opinions about Mr. Biden, a majority of them would still rather he not run again.

☆ Who is Robert Hur? Special Counsel looking into Biden’s classified documents
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Rebecca-Shabad-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Rebecca Shabad | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON — Robert Hur, named Thursday by Attorney General Merrick Garland to oversee the investigation into President Joe Biden's handling of classified documents, is a former federal prosecutor who has worked with many Republicans throughout his law enforcement career. Garland appointed Hur as special counsel on Thursday after the White House acknowledged that Obama administration documents with classified markings were found in one of Biden’s Delaware homes. On Monday, the White House said that similar documents had been found in a Washington office. Hur has served as a partner at the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher since April 2021 where he has focused on enforcement, investigations and litigation. In between his jobs at the Justice Department, Hur worked at another private law firm, King & Spalding.

☆ Prince Harry's William resentment makes 'Spare' a royal tragedy
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Vicky Ward | Vicky Ward Is The Author Of | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

“I was twenty the first time I heard the story of what Pa allegedly said to Mummy the day of my birth,” Harry writes. So, too, despite all Harry’s resentment, seems to be his brother. William stays by Harry’s side the night before Harry’s wedding, only leaving to stay the night with Kate and his kids. But on this topic, Harry’ resentment gets the better of him. They’ll read “Spare” and see that, personalities aside, the chief culprit for Harry’s lifelong resentment is the unfortunate law of primogeniture.

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