As expected, the end of federal protections in September coincided with a significant increase in foreclosures, as notices of default, scheduled auctions or bank foreclosures rose 34% in the third quarter of this year according to a new report from ATTOM Data Solutions®, potentially foreshadowing a difficult winter for homeowners still struggling with the pandemic.

The extent of any looming crisis remains uncertain, as industry experts hope lenders will work with distressed homeowners to avoid the most drastic consequences of financial hardship.

But without government protections, it looks like many banks are ready to at least start the process. New foreclosure filings in September 2021 more than doubled from September 2020, according to the report, as lenders rushed to start the process as soon as protections ended.

“So far the government and the mortgage industry have worked together to do an extraordinary job of preventing millions of unnecessary foreclosures by using the foreclosure moratorium and mortgage forbearance program,” said Rick Sharga, vice-president. executive chairman of ATTOM subsidiary RealtyTrac, in a press release. “But there are hundreds of thousands of borrowers who are expected to come out of forbearance over the next two months, and we may see a higher percentage of those borrowers defaulting on their loans.”

In numbers

In news that could be interpreted as positive, foreclosures overall are well below levels seen in recent years and are highly unlikely to exceed those criteria by the end of the year, even with significant increases according to the report.

“Despite the increased level of foreclosure activity in September, we are still well below historically normal numbers,” Sharga said. “September’s lockdown actions were almost 70% lower than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic in September 2019, and third-quarter lockdown activity was 60% lower than in the same quarter this year- the.”

This is almost certainly because of forbearance and the federal moratorium on foreclosures, rather than a reflection on the broader economic outlook for borrowers. And the situation for many could still be dire.

Bank foreclosures also jumped 22% in the third quarter, according to the report; and last month saw an 8% increase in foreclosures from the previous month, indicating that many borrowers are unable to defer payments or get out of foreclosure in any other way.

Overall, a total of 45,517 properties were subject to foreclosure in the third quarter of 2021.

Geography

The foreclosure rate in the third quarter of 2021 does not appear to correlate geographically with a particularly strong trend. In order, Nevada, Illinois, Delaware, New Jersey and Florida were the top states, all seeing more than one in 2,000 properties being foreclosed. As for the subways, Atlantic City, New Jersey (one in 709 housing units with a foreclosure filing); Peoria, Illinois (one in 754); Bakersfield, Calif. (One in 923); Cleveland, Ohio (one in 936); and Las Vegas, Nevada (one in 1,167) were the hardest hit.

The least affected states were decidedly more rural and included South Dakota, West Virginia, Oregon, Montana, and North Dakota. All had foreclosure rates lower than one in 15,000 properties.

In terms of foreclosures, Illinois and Florida (with 965 and 564 properties, respectively) were joined by Pennsylvania (480 properties); Michigan (401) and New York (370). Overall, 2,682 homes nationwide were foreclosed in September, up 33% from a year ago.

Jesse Williams is the Associate Online Editor of RISMedia. Send him your ideas for real estate news by email at [email protected].

PORTLAND, OREGON, USA – Although its supply chain is understood, Columbia Grain International (CGI) is working diligently with its extensive network of producers to get grains and pulses as quickly as possible, a process made more difficult due to transportation bottlenecks, said Jeff Van Pevenage, president and CEO of CGI.

“Our supply chain is compromised and this affects both sides of the equation,” said Van Pevenage. “The repair, maintenance and expansion of our facilities were faced with the slow delivery of the supply chain of steel, conveyors, legs, motors, etc. CGI is constantly trying to grow its business, but in times like today the challenges are accelerating. Several projects are delayed due to the lack of equipment available in a timely manner and this results in fewer options for the movement, storage and segregation of grain in our system.

Founded in 1978, CGI has grown to become a leader in the origin, processing, logistics and distribution of bulk grains, pulses, edible beans, oilseeds, and organics for U.S. export markets. and global. But over the past 12 to 18 months, the coronavirus pandemic has posed challenges for the Portland-based company. Transportation has become the biggest obstacle, Van Pevenage said.

“When the transportation supply chain is compromised, it drastically reduces the ability of our industry to transport grains and pulses,” he said. “When transportation is slowed down, it reduces and delays the ability of our producers to market their products and earn income to repay their operating loans, suppliers and owners. This is a huge blow to our system because the volume is reduced, and whether people like it or not, we are surviving on the volume margin. We want to move as much as possible. “

He said CGI has benefited from his determination to negotiate with transportation companies for alternatives and lower rates, which support producers, industry and transportation companies. The company’s grain travels primarily through the ports of Seattle, Washington, United States, and Portland, Oregon, United States, by truck, barge and BNSF rail from the United States of Washington, Idaho, Montana and of North Dakota. Once in port, the grain goes through bulk carriers or containers. As transportation bottlenecks developed, CGI turned to infrastructure investments. The strategy has paid off, allowing CGI to diversify its transportation options and even increase its volume, the company said.

Specific actions have included the construction of a container terminal in Plentywood, Montana, United States. The new terminal allowed CGI to load containers directly from the factory to reduce the time it takes to transport the product to the end user. Containers can then pass through Canadian ports, increasing their options and opening up more competitive tariff structures, CGI said. Additionally, CGI stated that its facilities in Ross, North Dakota, United States; Walhalla, Washington, United States; and Merrifield, North Dakota, United States, now load containers directly, by volume.

“Our product travels north and south, east and west, but the biggest advantage is that it travels faster and at lower rates to our destinations,” said Van Pevenage. “Our investments and our innovative merchandisers have opened up these shipping lanes and this creates more markets for our producers.

He added, “Our end goal is to nurture the lives of our local farmers around the world, and we are working with our transport companies to make sure that happens in these times of supply chain disruption.”

Unlike the last governor of Montana, Gov. Greg Gianforte (R-MT) isn’t afraid to take unscripted phone calls from Montanais statewide. He has covered a range of topics, from northern and southern borders to supply chain challenges across the country, and of course COVID-19.

At the borders:

Gov Gianforte: We made progress on the northern border this week. The Biden administration – long, long time ago – is starting to reopen the border. But they still have all these crazy rules. I will continue to urge the Biden administration to fully reopen this northern border. And what is tragically ironic is that our northern border continues to be restricted while our southern border is wide open.

A caller asked if the Federal Bureau of Land Management is seeking to grant year-round grazing to the foreign-funded U.S. Prairie Reservation, which is working to drive ranchers out of central and eastern lands. from Montana. The appellant also referred to the sage grouse:

Governor Gianforte: I don’t think the BLM is following the law. I don’t think they have the power to make the decision. They certainly don’t have the power to proceed without the state of Montana having completed the environmental assessment. It’s still going on. And on top of that, to add insult to injury, BLM refused to have any public listening sessions. I asked them to do this in each of the counties affected by this change in grazing. They made a remote zoom call while everyone was putting in hay and getting out in the tractor …. So we’ll keep pushing that. You also mentioned the sage grouse. That’s a real concern, the Biden administration has presented its 30 by 30 plan, which basically tries to put 30% of the land area of ​​the United States under, I quote, “conservation” by 2030. They are militarizing the Endangered Species Act. They use expansion in CRP regulations. I think we’re going to see a recovery of US waters. This is all an attempt to confiscate property rights and I will continue to defend our rights as producers to their land.

Full audio is on top.

Today, Eagle Bancorp Montana Inc (NASDAQ: EBMT) stock was up $ 0.1, an increase of 0.45%. Eagle Montana opened at $ 22.44 before trading between $ 22.55 and $ 22.40 throughout Friday’s session. The activity saw Eagle Montana’s market cap rise to $ 152,475,818 on 19,320 stocks, above their 30-day average of 7,123.

About Eagle Bancorp Montana Inc

Eagle Bancorp Montana, Inc. is a bank holding company headquartered in Helena, MT, and the holding company of Opportunity Bank of Montana, a community bank established in 1922 that serves consumers and small businesses across the Montana through 23 bank offices.

Visit the Eagle Bancorp Montana Inc profile for more information.

The daily solution

BlackRock beats third quarter earnings estimates, but asset growth flattens

BlackRock Inc topped third quarter earnings estimates, helped by high performance fees and strong demand for its actively managed and sustainable funds, even as market volatility kept the world’s largest fund manager from increase its assets under management.

Asset managers have benefited from the surge in global financial markets in recent quarters as investors put money to work, making the most of the post-pandemic economic reopening, driven by advances in vaccinations and a strong fiscal and monetary assistance.

[More]

Emerson Electric to Merge Industrial Software Companies with Aspen Technology

Industrial software maker Emerson Electric Co (NYSE: EMR) will merge two of its businesses with smaller rival, Aspen Technology Inc (Nasdaq: AZPN), in an $ 11 billion deal.

The cash and stock transaction announced on Monday values ​​AspenTech at around $ 160 per share, a 27% premium from its October 6 close, before Bloomberg News first reported on the talks between the two. companies.

[More]

JPMorgan misses third quarter revenue, beats profit estimates with one-off items

JPMorgan Chase posted a 24% rise in third-quarter profits on Wednesday, largely thanks to one-off items that boosted results as the bank struggled to increase revenue with interest rates close zero.

The nation’s largest bank by assets said it made a profit of $ 11.69 billion, or $ 3.74 per share, compared to profit of $ 9.44 billion, or $ 2.92 per share. share, during the same period a year earlier. The bank had two one-off items that helped boost its profits this quarter: a $ 566 million tax break and the release of $ 2.1 billion from its troubled loan books, which JPMorgan does every three months. since the US economy began to recover from the pandemic.

[More]

About the Nasdaq Stock Market

The Nasdaq Stock Market is a global leader in trading data and services, as well as the listing of stocks and options. The Nasdaq is the world’s largest stock exchange for options volume and is home to the five largest US companies – Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook.

To get more information about Eagle Bancorp Montana Inc and keep up with the latest company updates, you can visit the Company Profile page here: Eagle Bancorp Montana Inc. Profile For more information about financial markets, be sure to visit Equities News. Also, don’t forget to sign up for the Daily Fix to get the best stories delivered to your inbox 5 days a week.

Sources: The chart is provided by TradingView on the basis of prices delayed by 15 minutes. All other data is provided by IEX Cloud as of 8:05 p.m. ET on the day of publication.

DISCLOSURE:
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not represent the views of equities.com. Readers should not take the author’s statements as formal recommendations and should consult their financial advisor before making any investment decisions. To read our full disclosure, please visit: http://www.equities.com/disclaimer

McDonald’s to bring new plant-based burger to U.S. restaurants by Beyond Meat

Walgreens invests an additional $ 5.2 billion in primary care provider VillageMD

JPMorgan misses third quarter revenue, beats profit estimates with one-off items

BlackRock beats third quarter earnings estimates, but asset growth flattens

Emerson Electric to Merge Industrial Software Companies with Aspen Technology

Facebook willing to accept more oversight and regulation

Amazon offers greater flexibility for employees to work remotely

California to ban sale of gasoline lawn equipment

This “new” Aldi on Rt. 70 in Toms River has an official opening date.

This ALDI is located on Rt. 70 and Massachusetts Avenue in Toms River and on the Lakewood border. The BIG OPENING DATE is THURSDAY – 11/11/21, According to them website. ALDI grows and grows and builds and builds in Monmouth and Ocean counties.

ALDI prides itself on being “A Faster, Easier, and Smarter Way to Save Money on High Quality Groceries and More”, according to their website. I believe it was in 2019 when we found out we were getting another ALDI in Toms River. There are several locations for ALDI in Ocean County: Forked River, Toms River (Route 37), Manahawkin and The Brick.

This will be the second ALDI site in Toms River. The new ALDI is located in new construction on Rt. 70 and Massachusetts. Not long ago it was just a wooded area along Rt. 70.

There are seven ALDIs in Ocean and Monmouth counties. And, more to come. When I go to ALDI, I love their bakery section. The bread is so fresh and delicious. I have several friends who just eat meat there for lunch and love it. I hear it all the time when I say “ALDI” – it’s so cool. One more thing, their pumpkin roll is delicious, just in time for fall.

Several of our listeners called and said they were really excited about the opening of this ALDI. I totally agree with you. Toms River needs another ALDI. It is also an excellent location.

Keep reading …

KEEP READING: Discover The Richest Person In Each State

The money will help fund major improvements, extensions

GARRARD COUNTY, Ky. (WTVQ) – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced that the United States Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has invested more than $ 9 million in improving the Garrard and Grayson counties water supply.

“As people in many parts of the country battle drought and fires caused by climate change, there has never been a more urgent need for this help,” said Vilsack. “When we invest in rural infrastructure, we create opportunity and prosperity for people in rural communities. These investments support the local economy by making rural communities attractive, economically viable and safe places to live and work, thereby helping to create and safeguard jobs by attracting and retaining employers and workers. Investing in rural water infrastructure is one of the many things the Biden-Harris administration is doing to help the nation rebuild better during the ongoing recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. “

Garrard County Water Association Incorporated will use a $ 2.5 million loan to install 12 miles of water pipes and a 50,000 gallon water storage tank.

Grayson County Water District will use a loan of $ 5.6 million and a grant of $ 911,000 to build approximately 10 miles of water pipes and upgrade the water treatment plant. This will allow the network to serve customers in eastern Grayson County.

The department is also announcing investments today in Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina North, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Wyoming and Puerto Rico.

The Loans and Grants Program for Water and Waste Disposal provides funds for clean and reliable drinking water systems, sanitary wastewater disposal, sanitary solid waste disposal and stormwater drainage. The program serves people and businesses in eligible rural areas of 10,000 or less.

Under the Biden-Harris administration, USDA Rural Development provides loans and grants to help expand economic opportunities, create jobs, and improve the quality of life for millions of Americans in rural areas. This aid supports the improvement of infrastructure; Business development; lodging; community facilities such as schools, public safety and health care; and high-speed Internet access in rural, tribal and very poor areas. For more information visit www.rd.usda.gov.

The Department of Agriculture touches the lives of all Americans every day in so many positive ways. In the Biden-Harris administration, the USDA is transforming the American food system with a greater focus on more resilient local and regional food production, ensuring access to safe and nutritious food in all communities, creating new markets and sources of income for farmers and producers using climate-smart food and forestry practices, making historic investments in clean energy infrastructure and capacity in rural America, and committing promoting fairness across the department by removing systemic barriers and creating a workforce that is more representative of America. To learn more, visit www.usda.gov.

This is my all time favorite and I had the privilege of tasting each of these pumpkin pies from each of these fabulous places in Ocean County.

Every year around this time, I like to check out where the “best” pumpkin pie in Ocean County is. Fall is here and everything is pumpkin spice and everything is nice, especially my pumpkin pie.

5 BEST pumpkin pies in Ocean County, your choice 🎃

Pumpkin pie is so special to me. It’s not just a delicious dessert, it means so much, at least in my family. It was my father’s all-time favorite. It was a tradition that he always had the first slice and put whipped cream on everyone’s pie for the holidays. Since dad passed away three years ago, we have carried on the tradition with my mum. She never liked pumpkin, but now she enjoys it and squirts that whipped cream all over everyone’s pumpkin pie. We always say, “For you, dad”.

WOW, over 50 million pumpkin pies are baked every year, I had no idea. The largest pumpkin was five feet in diameter and used 80 pounds of pumpkin and had to be cooked for six hours before it was ready to eat. Who knew, it’s funny – one in five Americans ate a pumpkin pie on their own.

The world’s largest pumpkin pie weighed well over 350 pounds with 80 pounds of pumpkin and 36 pounds of sugar. Pumpkin pie is extremely popular in America and Canada.

I like my warm pumpkin pie with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. If I really want a delicious taste, I’ll take out the chocolate sauce.

Keep reading …

KEEP READING: Discover The Richest Person In Each State

DOVER, Del. (AP) – A mention of “tax havens” usually conjures up images of Caribbean escapes bathed in sunshine like the Cayman Islands or the buttoned shores of Switzerland. Not South Dakota.

But a report detailing how world leaders and some of the richest people on the planet are hiding their wealth has drawn new scrutiny of the growth of tax havens in the United States.

The liberation of the “Pandora Papers” report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists shed light on the financial transactions of the elite and the corrupt and how they have used offshore accounts and tax havens to protect billions of dollars in assets.

In addition to familiar offshore havens, the report also revealed secret accounts in trusts scattered across the United States, including 81 in South Dakota, 37 in Florida and 35 in Delaware.

According to the report, among those who have used South Dakota’s trusts as tax havens are Guillermo Lasso, President of Ecuador, and family members of Carlos Morales Troncoso, a sugar industry mogul and former vice -President of the Dominican Republic.

David Tassillo, co-owner of Pornhub, one of the world’s largest online porn sites, was linked in the Pandora Papers to two shell companies registered in Delaware.

Here’s a look at some of the ways some US states have established themselves as attractive places for the wealthy to park billions of dollars:

———

HOW DID IT BEGIN?

South Dakota launched its financial industry in 1980, an era of double-digit interest rates where banks paid higher rates to borrow money than the interest rates they were allowed under usury laws to charge on credit cards and consumer loans. In an effort to help South Dakota’s banks and boost the state’s dying economy, authorities removed the state’s usury limit on banks. She then invited the financially troubled New York-based Citibank to set up a credit card transaction, which she did the following year. Other banks and a burgeoning trust industry soon followed.

In 2019, the state had more than 100 trust companies with combined assets of approximately $ 370 billion. Only one company, South Dakota Trust Company LLC, boasts on its website that it has more than $ 100 billion in assets under administration, with more than 100 billionaires and 300 “centimillionaire” clients. International families from 54 countries represent 15% of its clientele, according to the website.

Delaware launched its credit card and financial services industry in 1981. The state now oversees 47 state and state trust companies with approximately $ 3.8 billion in assets. It is also the headquarters of over 1.6 million business entities, including limited liability companies whose members and operations are generally not subject to public scrutiny. Franchise taxes on business entities are the state’s second-largest source of revenue after personal income tax, bringing in nearly $ 1.3 billion last year.

———

WHAT MAKES MONEY IN THESE STATES?

One of the main reasons that many wealthy people turn to certain states as tax havens is that their legislators have abolished the “rule against perpetuities”. The elimination of the rule allowed for the creation of so-called dynasty trusts, in which wealth can be passed from generation to generation while avoiding federal estate taxes.

The laws of South Dakota and Delaware also allow “asset protection trusts,” which protect wealth from claims against creditors. Such trusts can be attractive to high net worth lawyers and physicians as a way to protect their assets against malpractice claims. They can also be used to protect the assets of ex-spouses, future spouses, disgruntled business partners, or angry customers. Both states have a host of other laws that give the wealthy considerable flexibility to establish, control, and modify trusts as they see fit.

Tax evasion is another big draw. While most states levy a tax on trust income, trusts established in Delaware are not subject to state income tax if the beneficiaries are not residents of Delaware. South Dakota does not tax personal income, corporate income, or capital gains.

———

WHAT ABOUT PRIVACY PROTECTION?

The Pandora Papers have revealed how hundreds of politicians, celebrities, religious leaders and drug dealers have used shell companies and trusts to hide their wealth and investments.

“The Pandora Papers are only about individuals using secret jurisdictions, which we would call tax havens, when the goal is to evade tax,” said Steve Wamhoff, director of federal tax policy at the Institute of left on taxation and economic policy in Washington. .

South Dakota offers extensive privacy protections for assets held in trusts, including the sealing of court documents and legal proceedings related to the trust. Delaware is a popular place to register limited liability companies, which can include shell companies created specifically to hide assets or financial transactions. Delaware law does not require public disclosure of the names of the owners or members of the LLC.

———

HOW DO STATES BENEFIT FROM IT?

The trust industry can be lucrative, not only for the wealthy and the businesses that help them protect their assets, but also for government coffers.

In South Dakota, the state bank franchise tax fund balance, which included franchise taxes paid by trust companies, stood at more than $ 44.6 million during the l fiscal year 2020, up from $ 34.7 million the previous year and more than double the balance in 2015.

Delaware collected nearly $ 81 million in franchise taxes from banks and trust companies in fiscal 2020. Bank franchise taxpayers are exempt from Delaware corporation tax. But the overall impact of the fiduciary industry is much greater. A 2011 report commissioned by a coalition of Delaware law firms and banking institutions estimated that non-state trusts contributed between $ 600 and $ 1.1 billion annually to Delaware’s economy.

———

ARE WE DOING SOMETHING?

While some members of Congress are calling for a stricter scrutiny of trust companies working with foreign clients, the response to the Delaware Pandora Papers has so far been muted.

Delaware State Department spokesperson Rony Baltazar said the agency was not aware of any calls from lawmakers or tax fairness groups to change the way the state handles registration corporations or trusts.

Federal officials, meanwhile, targeted some privacy protections with the enactment of the Business Transparency Act earlier this year. The law requires many companies to identify their “beneficial owners” who exercise substantial control over an entity, or who own or control at least 25% of the stakes, with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the Ministry of the Treasury, or FinCEN.

The law aims to ban anonymous shell companies that criminals and foreign officials have used to hide financial transactions and launder money, but it includes exemptions and exceptions. Among other things, the term “beneficial owner” does not apply to a person whose only interest in the entity is an inheritance right.

Dakota Business Lending is pleased to welcome Ann Peterson to its team. Based in the Fargo office, Peterson will assist the organization in all areas of SBA loans and will work to support many roles within the organization including business development, processing, loan structuring, compliance and service. . Originally from Southern Minnesota, Peterson brings with her over 35 years of business development and SBA 504 and 7 (a) lending experience, including 22 at a 504 certified development company like Dakota Business Lending. She joined the Dakota Business Lending team to help manage their portfolio, offer her expertise and improve their growing markets in Minnesota and Montana. She was drawn to the organization because of its mission to help small businesses and looks forward to working with their tight-knit team to provide these funding opportunities to everyone they serve. In his spare time, Peterson enjoys spending time with his family.

Founded in 1982, Dakota Business Lending is the oldest, largest and most experienced 504 CDC in North Dakota. With staff throughout North Dakota and Montana, Dakota Business Lending serves North Dakota, Montana and five counties in western Minnesota. The mission of this private, non-profit entity is to provide financing solutions to small businesses through collaborative partnerships in a supportive and creative environment that grows the economy and creates or preserves quality jobs. Since its inception, Dakota Business Lending has provided over $ 550 million in loans with a total project impact exceeding $ 1.2 billion to small businesses and local economies.

TAKE it with Rick klein

It’s a 2021 theme: Democrats are frustrated with fellow Democrats – and even see their own party members as obstacles to progress.

Right now, the Biden agenda is stalled due to political math problems that fall into two main categories: There are things Democrats cannot do even if they have 50 votes in the Senate. , and things they can’t do because they can’t get to 50.

The first category is why the wrangling continues over the debt ceiling and why any deal now will only delay the tough decisions ahead. This is also why voting rights reform has stalled, to cite just one example that is fueling progressive and even moderate calls to limit or eliminate filibuster.

The latter category is why progress is slow and frustrating on infrastructure and social spending bills. Senator Bernie Sanders can again complain about two senators with veto power out of 48 – and we can even see nuances of that argument creeping into what President Joe Biden is saying – but as long as those votes are needed to get to 50 is reality.

There is also another problem reflected in the numbers for Democrats. With three weeks to go before the final deadlines for the infrastructure bill and the social spending bill, Biden’s poll is not helping democratic unity.

A Quinnipiac University poll on Wednesday found that 55% of the public thinks Biden has not been qualified to run government – a government that, yes, is controlled by Democrats in Washington. This pushes Biden’s approval rating to new lows in the FiveThirtyEight Poll Tracking.

The past few months have been dominated by crises – in Afghanistan, at the border, over COVID-19, and in spending battles – that undermine the image of calm competence that characterizes Biden.

Partisan divisions have arisen in all of these areas and more. But Democrats continue to stand in the way of their disagreements over how to proceed.

The RUNDOWN with Averi Harper

The Department of Education has announced changes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program that will affect approximately 22,000 borrowers.

The overhaul will give thousands of previously ineligible borrowers a student loan discount. The changes include an expansion of the types of payments included in the program and an appeal process to review past denials. With the new changes, the program is expected to cancel $ 1.7 billion in loans.

The changes come as the Biden administration works through intra-party bickering to adopt the Build Back Better plan, which includes a multibillion-dollar investment in higher education – in its current form at least.

The plan includes a free community college, increased Pell grants, and investments in HBCUs and other institutions serving minorities.

The initial price of the $ 3.5 trillion spending plan is expected to drop in hopes of attracting figures like the Senses. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. It is a reality that even President Joe Biden has recognized.

But it is not clear whether the aforementioned investments in higher education will do the trick or if the ideas will be achievable in a lean plan.

The tip with Alisa wiersema

Gov. Greg Abbott expressed his condolences to the victims of the Timberview High School shooting from the border, where he and nine other Republican governors held a press conference on Wednesday to berate the Biden administration over immigration policy.

Abbott was joined by governors from Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma and Wyoming, some of whom took the mike to blame the president for the crime problems in their states which they believe stem from undocumented immigration. . Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey – who was among 25 other state leaders to sign a letter last month asking to meet with the president by this week – said President Joe Biden was turning away from Republican governors .

“We tried to meet the president and be part of the solution, but he refuses. No, worse, he ignores us, just as he ignores the border and the welfare of the American people,” Ducey told reporters. .

It remains to be seen whether Republican governors and the White House can open a working dialogue on one of the country’s thorniest issues, but immigration continues to loom over the president’s legacy. According to Quinnipiac, 67% of American adults disapprove of his handling of immigration and the situation on the Mexican border.

THE PLAYLIST

ABC News’ Start Here Podcast. The Thursday morning episode features ABC News legal analyst Kate Shaw on a temporary injunction from a federal judge to ban the application of Texas’ controversial new abortion law. Next, ABC News’s Anne Flaherty talks about the future of COVID-19 testing in the coming year. And, ABC News’s Kayna Whitworth reports on the Colorado River’s water scarcity and its impact on Arizona farmers. http://apple.co/2HPocUL

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

Download the ABC News app and select “The Note” as the item of interest to receive the most in-depth political analysis of the day.

The Note is an ABC News daily article that highlights the top political stories of the day. Please come back tomorrow for the last one.

Taking the witness stand on Wednesday in Ramsey County District Court, a nonprofit executive was brought to tears as she described how a major donor was trying to get her hands on day-to-day operations.

When Sara Dziuk, General Manager of Junior Achievement of the Upper Midwest, called Brian Lipschultz on the phone last month, she remembered he was openly pissed off – even though he didn’t ask for a refund of $ 1, $ 2 million in grants.

The Otto Bremer Trust was a long-time major funder of the St. Paul-based nonprofit association and its work with students and aspiring entrepreneurs. Lipschultz, a director of Otto Bremer, made it clear that he was unhappy that Junior Achievement failed to contact the governor’s office to advocate for philanthropy, which has been the subject of state scrutiny since ‘he was sued by Bremer Bank officials at the end of 2019.

Dziuk said Lipschultz was “very angry and very frustrated” that Junior Achievement was planning to honor Bremer Financial Corp. Chairman of the Board, Ron James, at his virtual “Hall of Fame” event on September 30. .

The allotment was planned despite the fact that the board of directors of Bremer Financial took legal action against the trust, the bank’s parent company, after the trustees attempted to sell controlling bank shares to 11 banks east coast and 19 hedge funds.

Honoring James sounded like betrayal, and the impact was “catastrophic,” said Dziuk, Lipschultz recalls. She paused to wipe away tears before recounting how she had never been intimidated to such a degree by a donor. “He spoke of my ignorance in the process.”

“LOSE OUR SUPPORT FOR THE FOUNDATION”

The meeting, Dziuk said, mirrored a similar phone call with Lipschultz in November 2020, in which he reminded her that “directors would be in power for a very long time” and that Junior Achievement would have to use his Hall of Fame event to be ” raising them as a partner.

The phone calls sparked discussions between Dziuk and the Junior Achievement Executive Committee, as well as with Bremer Bank President Jeanne Crain.

“I shared the risk of losing our foundation’s support,” said Dziuk, who arrived in court Wednesday, represented by former Minnesota attorney general Mike Hatch, as personal counsel.

The association has decided to turn the tide.

On September 21, following a 30: 1 board vote, Junior Achievement officials sent Otto Bremer Trust a letter stating that they had decided to return a 1 student entrepreneurship grant. , $ 2 million to philanthropy, because “we don’t think an ongoing relationship aligns with the expectations of either organization.

YOUR HARD BUT NO THREATS?

Dziuk’s testimony represents the latest entry in a catalog of evidence presented by the office of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison as evidence that the three directors of the Otto Bremer Trust are guilty of “self-dealing” and should be dismissed as head of one of the oldest charitable foundations in the state.

During his cross-examination of Dziuk, however, trust attorney Mike Ciresi noted that his conversations with Lipschultz – and his refusal to contact the governor’s office on behalf of the trust in 2020 – had never cost the association’s grant of $ 1.2 million, nor any previous grant. or loans. Lipschultz also did not explicitly ask the nonprofit to revoke its Hall of Fame honor of James, the chairman of the board of Bremer Financial.

“You would agree that in that call of August 25, Mr. Lipschultz never threatened you or Junior Achievement, did he?” said Ciresi. “He didn’t ask for the refund. He didn’t say anything about funding on August 25, did he? Zippo. Nothing. … That’s all he said, “Correct the situation. “

The 77-year-old trust was founded by philanthropist Otto Bremer after the Great Depression, with the intention of distributing dividends from its main asset – the Bremer Bank – to charities in Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota and Montana. The St. Paul-based foundation distributes over $ 50 million in charitable grants and loans each year.

TRUSTEES DEFEND BANQUE BREMER’S SALES EFFORTS

The three directors – all descendants of Bremer’s closest advisers and their handpicked successors – have defended their attempts to sell Bremer Bank, which they say would allow philanthropy to increase its charitable giving.

They argue that a non-binding takeover bid increased the bank’s market value from $ 1 billion to $ 1.8 billion, forcing philanthropy to distribute more of its assets to beneficiaries according to the rules. of the Internal Revenue Service. This could, in theory, eat away at Bremer Bank’s liquidity.

They also accused the bank’s board of acting in their own interests to save their own jobs. A possible bank sale sparked interest in 2019 from Huntington Bank, BMO Harris Bank and Old National Bank.

Even some of the directors’ critics acknowledged that a bank sale would align the foundation with other philanthropic organizations across the country, such as Ford and Kellogg, which have long had to part ways with the private companies that made them famous.

Wednesday marked the eighth day of probate testimony before Ramsey County District Judge Robert Awsumb, after some eight months of investigation and depositions from the attorney general’s office and a year of court applications. The hearing of evidence, which has yet to start calling defense witnesses, will resume on Monday.

Lipschultz spoke for about an hour at the end of the day, answering questions from Carol Washington, director of the Attorney General’s charities division, about the work he did for his side business, the company of Eagle Street Partners private equity, during hours of trust. and using trusted resources.

Lipschultz has reimbursed the trust $ 1,800 for the use of office space and the time of his administrative assistant since 2017, but he admitted on the witness stand that he had been involved with Eagle Street since he started at the trust in 2012. He did not pay the trust for his own working hours because he did not keep track of the number of hours per day spent on trust activities.

“I am a 24/7 administrator,” he said. “I don’t think there ever comes a time when I’m not a director. “

When I applied to college, I looked at the top 25 business programs and went through the list, one by one. At the time, I thought rankings were a good guide, especially since I had no idea where I wanted to go. Fast forward to my last year in college, when I realized what a mistake I had made. My university was really not for someone like me. As a creative type, it is intimidating to succeed in a quantitative curriculum that emphasizes science, programming, and math. I later learned that most peer institutions were the opposite – people-oriented and emphasizing qualitative lessons that leave room for creative interpretation.

Unfortunately, rankings omit crucial information that can be critical to a student’s college experience. They are a simplification and a springboard for more substantial personal research, not a substitute. While I felt like I was ready for a top 25 school, I was not ready for this one.

—Shriya Boppana, Carnegie Mellon University, Business Administration

Prestige Plus Debt

College rankings are little more than an attempt to quantify prestige. As a result, they often lead students to overestimate prestigious names. For students trying to find out about realistic options for their situation – where they can enter and what they can afford – rankings are less useful than visiting campuses, meeting professors, speaking at desks. financial aid and assess the results of debt versus income for future majors.

In high school, my eyes were on the rankings and mainly applied to prestigious universities. The choice I faced in 2018 (after the rejections) was between Cornell and Montana State. The question was not whether there was a difference between the two in the quality of education, life on campus, and relationships with alumni – questions that college rankings attempt to answer – but if this difference were worth $ 300,000. Maybe I’ll regret my decision later, but for now I’m relieved that I chose Montana. MSU provides useful education, I am happy, I have work experience, and perhaps most importantly, I will graduate debt free. I’m grateful that I turned down 20 years of student loans to pay off a more prestigious name on a piece of paper.

—Sarah Montalbano, Montana State University, Computer Science

Strength in small numbers

At my high school, we all wanted letters of acceptance from the University of Michigan, recently ranked 23rd among national universities by US News & World Report. My letter arrived, but I declined the offer. Instead, I chose to go to Hillsdale College, ranked 46th among national liberal arts colleges and with a smaller student body than my high school.

According to the rankings, Michigan is expected to offer better education and employment prospects than tiny Hillsdale ever could. But Hillsdale’s small size is its hidden strength. Everyone knows each other and strong personal ties extend to a community of alumni. Meeting a Hillsdale alumnus at a dinner party allowed him to manage his successful campaign for the state representative position. Through my academic advisor, I met another alumnus, who put me in touch with an internship at the White House Office of Management and Budget. You wouldn’t have guessed this from Hillsdale’s ranking, and it would have been much less likely in a large school, even the one preferred by US News & World Report.

—Jacob Hooper, Hillsdale College, history

The things that cannot be measured

It can be hard to narrow down your college list, but rankings make it easier. They focus on what can be measured: class size, demographics, endowment size, research publications, etc.

Student-teacher ratios are useful, but what about the classroom environment? Lists cannot tell you whether teachers will value your well-being more than your grades, or recognize that students have many responsibilities outside of school. How could this be demonstrated by rank? Yet these relationships are priceless. Without the support of my school during the pandemic, I would have fallen even further behind.

—Sofia Hernandez, Wheaton College, Media Studies

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When Brian Lipschultz, a director of one of Minnesota’s oldest and most visible philanthropic organizations, spoke to the “extremely sympathetic” CEO of Huntington Bank to woo the possible sale of Bremer Bank, he noted that Stephen Steinour had spoken of his institution’s emphasis on community and giving back. Lipschultz left disappointed.

“He’s spent far too much time serenading us with all the good Huntington does for the communities,” Lipschultz wrote, in an Aug. 26, 2019 text message to Otto Bremer administrator Daniel Reardon and advisor. Joe Gulash Sales Manager of KBW Investments. “For me, it’s a little distracting.”

Lipschultz went on to outline his priorities – finding a bank buyer ‘the hard way’ who would ignore calls from Bremer Bank officials and engage in an acquisition of the St. Paul-based agricultural lender, even a takeover. hostile, in the interest of making a big profit.

The trust, which owns Bremer Bank, would continue to distribute community grants on its own, he said, according to legal documents presented to Ramsey County District Court on Monday.

“We are here to talk shop, as for money. We will take care of doing good. And a lot, ”Lipschultz wrote. “We want a demanding partner who is focused on money. Not a tree hug. … Then (Steinour) said ‘We are not making a hostile deal.’ … It was quite uncomfortable. I don’t blame him for being honest if that’s his clear line, but it certainly left Dan and I feeling like if we told them what’s really going on, they’d come out so fast that there was no would have no other convo (conversation). “

SALE OF BANQUE BREMER

What “was really going on”, apparently, was an attempt to overthrow the bank’s board of directors by selling bank stocks to 11 banks and 19 hedge funds on the east coast, in an attempt to get the banks to convert their shares into voting rights. This would likely overthrow the bank’s board and pave the way for Bremer Bank to be sold to an interested buyer.

The Minnesota attorney general’s office has sought to overthrow and replace the three trustees of the St. Paul-based Otto Bremer Trust on the basis of alleged “fraudulent acts”, with allegations unfolding in a room. Ramsey County District hearing. Monday marked the sixth day of testimony in a case that laid bare the little-known cogs of philanthropy for 77 years.

The allegations include the breach of basic financial guarantees and the hasty sale of bank shares in late 2019, with limited insurance in place. This sale, frozen by litigation, sparked at least five lawsuits by the bank against the trustees, the trustees against the bank as well as bank employees against the trustees and hedge funds against the bank.

Assistant Attorney General Carol Washington, director of the office’s charitable regulation division, on Monday exposed some $ 16 million in legal fees incurred by the trust and the trustees since the start of 2020. To date, about 2 million millions of dollars have been clawed back from travelers’ insurance.

SALE COULD REACH $ 1.8 BILLION

Reardon, who took a stand on Friday and Monday, said directors have altruism at heart because a bank sale that could total $ 1.8 billion would inject the trust with unprecedented amounts of money, allowing the philanthropy to fund even more charitable causes throughout Minnesota. , Wisconsin, North Dakota and Montana.

The trust already distributes more than $ 50 million per year in nonprofit grants and charitable investments.

Reardon also defended the grants he and other trustees have given in recent years with limited staff oversight, noting that a large grant listed in court documents as benefiting the Smithsonian in Washington, DC – well outside the traditional coverage area of ​​philanthropy – actually supported a Smithsonian exhibit at the Minnesota Science Museum devoted to understanding race and racism.

Instead of acquiring Bremer Bank in 2019, Columbus, Ohio-based Huntington Bank quickly entered into talks with TCF Bank, a long-time Twin Cities financial institution, and announced a friendly merger in December 2020. .

The TCF branch website and logos are set to be renamed to Huntington logos on October 12.

OTTO BREMER TRUST

Based in Saint-Paul. 46 employees.

Founded in 1944 by the philanthropist Otto Bremer.

Issuing over $ 50 million annually in grants and charitable loans in Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota and Montana.

Owns 92 percent of Bremer Bank.

Aggregate assets of $ 1 billion to $ 2 billion.

Led by Trustees S. Brian Lipschultz, Charlotte Johnson and Daniel Reardon.

BREMER BANK

Based in Saint-Paul. 83 branches. 2000 employees.

Minnesota’s third-largest bank in terms of assets, with $ 15.7 billion.

Earned a net income of $ 155 million in 2020 and distributed $ 73.4 million to the Otto Bremer Trust that year.

General Manager Jeanne Crain.

Making organic and regenerative practices more viable and sustainable is important for everyone. During the Priorities for the future of organic session held at Natural Products Expo East 2021 in Philadelphia, industry experts discussed the issues and suggested solutions for a more equitable food system.

Christa Barfield, founder of Viva Leaf Tea Co, said there is a lot that can be done to help marginalized communities.

After a decade in health, Barfield turned to farming and became an urban farmer after taking a vacation to the Caribbean island of Martinique. She returned to Philadelphia with the desire to reinvent what she saw abroad.

Educating people about the importance of organic food is essential, she said, so they can advocate for access to organic food.

“Blacks and Browns have less access to organic food in our neighborhoods,” Barfield said. “It was important for me to create brands that provide access, understanding and education to people like me. “

Finding land and showing proof of concept to justify having a profitable and sustainable business model was a big hurdle, especially when it came to accessing finance, she said.

“This is why I first started my value-added product, my tea business,” said Barfield, who founded FarmerJawn Agriculture and also works as a CSA farmer with 60 families.

Barfield said leasing his land as a sharecropper was his only option to grow his business. To be successful, Barfield said she was aligning with the land-owning companies as she went from a four-foot-by-six greenhouse to two acres of land.

More needs to be done to help diversify the farming community, especially in urban markets. “Black and brown farmers exist at less than 2% nationwide, and many are rural,” she said. “The percentage of urban farmers is considerably lower.

Barfield and Nate Powell-Palm, owner of Cold Springs Organics in Belgrade, Montana, said farmers need to focus on biodiversity to fight climate change. Organic practices prohibit monoculture, Powell-Palm said, but giving farmers a market to plant less water-intensive crops would help further diversify the industry.

Powell-Palm began cultivation in 2004 with a Junior Agricultural Loan from the Montana Department of Agriculture. He was 12 years old. After buying three calves, he realized he needed more income.

In 2008, his farm became certified organic. He joined the Montana Organic Producers Co-op, which collectively markets its beef to Whole Foods. He has since expanded his operation to approximately 1,000 acres for grain and cattle as a sharecropper. In 2019, the co-op added grain, which now has 100,000 acres under management.

It helped collectively meet the need for a brand or buyer who might want 50,000 acres of organic peas, Powell-Palm said. Farmers can then charge a similar crop price because they are not competing with each other.

“It creates a lot of stability for us [as farmers] because we don’t have to be price constrained, but it also gives access to a fairly large supply for the CPG or the buyer, ”said Powell-Palm.

Longer-term rental contracts

Powell-Palm said he was able to get into the organic grain business because he was offered “good multi-year contracts” to lease farmland at a price that made the transition to organic profitable.

Because the transition from land to organic takes several years, Powell-Palm said giving future organic farmers longer-term leases instead of the typical one-year lease makes a big difference.

“It’s a great leap of faith for farmers to go organic,” he said.

Making the transition requires a lot of investment in the soil, the use of different types of machinery and the elimination of all crop protection sets, as well as the inability to spray using conventional methods.

“It’s pretty scary,” he said.

On the flip side, the market usually offers good contracts which generally avoid the mindset of “squeezing the farmer for as much money as possible,” he said.

Much depends on having a strong supply chain that is ready to fund buyers who can give organic farmers good contracts that allow them to grow with intention and stewardship.

Reinforced protections for farmers

Powell-Palm said finding enough space in the bins to store next year’s crop has been problematic.

“We’re trying to figure out what infrastructure we should have on each farm and whether each farmer should have more bins so that we can hold more grain for longer if there is a downturn in purchases,” said Powell-Palm.

To help farmers, Powell-Palm said there needs to be a “level of intent throughout the supply chain” to keep it moving and absorb potential problems without passing them on.

For example, when Pipeline Foods LLC suddenly filed for bankruptcy in July it had a dramatic impact on organic farmers.

Powell-Palm said many Montana farmers have bins full of grain held in bankruptcy proceedings who cannot sell it and also have the next harvest coming up.

“Why are these farmers not at least free in the bankruptcy process to sell their grain to whomever they need, to get cash,” said Powell-Palm. “Right now, these grain farmers are being held hostage even though Pipeline has canceled all of their sales contracts. “

To protect the future of organic produce, the industry must consider how it can operate so that farmers can trust deals that are executed in good faith, Powell-Palm said, otherwise more farmers will be reluctant to enter the organic industry.

One solution would be for Rabobank, the first creditor in the bankruptcy proceedings, to sell enough assets to pay the farmers as quickly as possible.

“I know bankruptcy gets complicated, but the choice not to pay farmers is very important,” Powell-Palm said.

Obstacles to growth, solving systemic problems

Trevor Sieck, Assistant Vice President, Head of Relations, Startups, Food and Agriculture Innovation at Rabobank said, “The way funding is done has to change.”

This includes financing projects such as indoor farms or greenhouses that may have been considered emerging technologies in the past, or the use of sustainability-linked loans and green bonds to raise funds for projects focused on the environment and climate.

Much of the focus is on analyzing consumption trends and reconnecting with entrepreneurs, including small and medium-sized farms, this helps finance.

“There is a trajectory towards supporting less traditional paths for food and access to food,” Sieck said. “It’s just making those connections that’s a necessary step. “

Watch the replay

The Natural Products Expo East 2021 session Priorities for the future of organic is available in replay on the virtual community platform Natural Products Expo.

Despite these objections, Democrats in the Northwest House remained silent on the BPA’s provision ahead of the vote on the infrastructure bill. The spokesperson asked every lawmaker in Washington and Idaho, as well as three representatives from Oregon whose districts border the Columbia River, if they supported the provision increasing BPA’s borrowing power.

Among Democrats, only Rep. Rick Larsen of Everett has confirmed through a spokesperson that he supports the measure, along with a general statement explaining his support for the infrastructure bill as a whole. “because it puts Washingtonians back to work, ensures essential local projects stay on track, and builds a greener national transportation system.”

Despite the fact that BPA’s territory covers all of Washington, Idaho, and Oregon – as well as parts of five other states – most House lawmakers did not respond to questions about the increased borrowing power, including Washington Reps Suzan DelBene, D-Medina, Dan Newhouse, R-Sunnyside, Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, Pramila Jayapal, D-Seattle, Kim Schrier, D-Sammamish, Adam Smith, D-Bellevue and Marilyn Strickland, D-Tacoma; Simpson and his colleague Idaho GOP Rep. Russ Fulcher; Oregon Democratic Representatives Suzanne Bonamici and Earl Blumenauer, and Oregon GOP Representative Cliff Bentz.

Two Republicans, Reps Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Spokane and Jaime Herrera Beutler of Battle Ground, have said they support increasing BPA’s credit limit while opposing the infrastructure bill as a whole.

“One thing is clear, taxpayers in the Pacific Northwest are paying too much,” McMorris Rodgers spokesman Kyle VonEnde said in a statement. “While Cathy supports measures that will correct the long-standing imbalance, such as increasing BPA’s borrowing power, she believes the approach must be holistic and advance the goal of achieving a fair deal. “

When the board of the Bremer Financial Corporation decided not to sell Bremer Bank, the trustees of its philanthropic parent company – Otto Bremer Trust – decided to go ahead anyway.

The Minnesota Attorney General’s Office maintains that in August 2019, Trustees Brian Lipschultz and Daniel Reardon ignored key legal and financial guarantees and quickly set in motion the sale of 725,000 Bremer Financial shares to 19 hedge funds controlled by 11 banks. Until the state stepped in, the directors took the first step towards a hostile board takeover and bank sale, with the goal of becoming millionaires.

Legal representatives for the St. Paul-based charity argued otherwise. They argue that the sale of shares was not only legal, but anything but necessary to meet Internal Revenue Service standards. Trust receives 92% of dividends generated by Bremer Financial – one of the Midwest’s largest agricultural lenders – and the charity is required by IRS rules to pay at least 5% of its assets to beneficiaries each year.

A hearing to consider Attorney General Keith Ellison’s request to replace the foundation’s trustees began this week with opening statements delivered Monday before Judge Robert Awsumb. The hearing for trial-like evidence is expected to continue for at least a week.

ESTIMATED BANK SALE VALUE AT NEAR $ 1.9 BILLION

A non-binding letter of intent from a potential bank buyer estimated Bremer Bank’s sale value at nearly $ 1.9 billion, roughly double its book value of $ 1 billion.

Based on the higher number, according to lawyers for the trust, Bremer Bank’s $ 50 million in annual dividend payments to the trust are expected to double. It would quickly eat away at their cash flow.

“It could put them into a death spiral,” said William Berens, an attorney for Dorsey and Whitney for the trust, during day five of probate testimony in Ramsey County District Court.

Bremer Bank officials have questioned how these payments should be calculated, and Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office accused the trustees of quickly seizing a convenient excuse to force a bank sale and get rich. Based on self-operation allegations, the attorney general’s charities division sought to install three new stewards as heads of one of the state’s oldest philanthropic organizations.

COMPLIANCE WITH THE TAX LAW OF 1969

The Ford Foundation, the Blandin Foundation and other foundations across the country were forced by federal tax law to sell their corporate subsidiaries decades ago, and the Otto Bremer trust is a major exception. On the other hand, the founding documents of philanthropy of 1944 indicate that it was Otto Bremer’s wish that the bank not be sold except in cases of “unforeseen circumstances”.

The directors have openly acknowledged that the purpose of selling company shares to foreign investors was to overthrow the board of directors of the Bremer Financial Corporation and force a bank sale, but they maintain that this would increase the coffers of the company. philanthropy and reap major benefits for good causes across the Midwest.

The Otto Bremer Trust last year disbursed a record $ 71.2 million in grants and low-interest loans, mostly in Minnesota. Grants and charitable investments have also been made in Wisconsin, North Dakota and Montana.

LACK OF SUPERVISION

In 2014, the three directors dismissed executive director Randi Roth and appointed themselves co-CEOs. Former program officers and other staff testified this week that without an executive director, director of human resources, or a board to report to, directors have repeatedly crossed ethical lines. The trustees said they are regulated by the courts and the attorney general’s office.

INVESTMENT FEES

Reardon and Lipschultz appointed themselves investment advisers in 2010 and 2012, respectively, earning a percentage return on the trust’s investments, although other internal and external advisors played similar roles. Among them, until recently, was the Tealwood Investment Fund, staffed by the husband of trustee Charlotte Johnson.

Over the years, the remuneration of the trustees has increased to exceed $ 300,000 for Johnson and $ 500,000 for each of the two men. With the investment costs, those numbers could exceed $ 1 million in the event of a bank sale. Trust officials said their compensation remained within limits set by the trust’s founding documents.

PRIVATE COMPANIES

An executive assistant said earlier this week that Lipschultz had his faxes, filed and shipped packages for his side company, Eagle Street Partners, during staff time using his personal credit card, then requested a refund from the trust itself. After raising her concerns to the trust’s financial controller, she said Lipschultz continued to shop for her private business, this time using her own credit card.

Reardon said Friday that Lipschultz paid the trust $ 1,875 after being called. “It was an honest mistake.… We are human,” Reardon said Friday.

SUBSIDIES

Former program officers testified this week that they were careful to check grant applications and make sure they adhere to Otto Bremer’s vision – “the donor’s intention” – to fund the grant. ‘youth enrichment, economic development, disaster response and other specific causes.

They were surprised when they learned that the trustees had awarded their own grants, without staff approval, including $ 1 million for the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, $ 1 million for the exhibition on seals and sea lions from the Como Zoo; and additional funding for Blake School, St. Paul’s College, and faith-based nonprofits.

Arts, animals, education, and religious causes were not among Otto Bremer’s priorities in the Trust’s founding documents, but at least some of these recipients may still be eligible as they provide enrichment resources to youth, emergency housing and poverty reduction.

OTTO BREMER TRUST

Based in Saint-Paul. 46 employees.

Founded in 1944 by the philanthropist Otto Bremer.

Issuing over $ 50 million annually in grants and charitable loans in Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota and Montana.

Owns 92 percent of Bremer Bank.

Aggregate assets of $ 1 billion to $ 2 billion.

Led by Trustees S. Brian Lipschultz, Charlotte Johnson and Daniel Reardon.

BREMER BANK

Based in Saint-Paul. 83 branches. 2000 employees.

Minnesota’s third-largest bank in terms of assets, with $ 15.7 billion.

Earned a net income of $ 155 million in 2020 and distributed $ 73.4 million to the Otto Bremer Trust that year.

General Manager Jeanne Crain.

North Coast lawmakers are working to block a proposal to restore the old North Coast Railroad with the goal of exporting coal from Montana, Utah and Wyoming overseas via the port of Humboldt Bay.

Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) and Rep. Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena) sent a letter to Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Wednesday, urging immediate action against the project.

“We are writing to express our concern that a coal interest consortium has reportedly been seeking a federal loan from your agency to fund their controversial project to restore freight rail service to a dilapidated and functionally dilapidated railway right-of-way. abandoned from the north coast to in order to export their coal from the Powder River Basin to Asia, “the letter read.” We cannot imagine that your Department of Transportation, with your firm commitment to protect the climate and a bold transition to clean energy, would provide financial support for a coal export project that directly undermines the Biden administration’s climate and clean energy agenda. ”

The North Coast Railroad Company, LLC filed a complaint with the Surface Transportation Board on August 16 opposing the North Coast Railroad Authority’s request to railbank the dilapidated railroad line that runs for approximately 320 miles between counties de Marin and Humboldt, to build the Great Redwood Trail project.

The 14-page brief claims that the rail authority “failed to meet the strict standards for (an exemption motion)” to set up the track. According to federal law, a proposal to submit a financial aid offer “should take precedence over a proposal for the use of trails because of the strong intention of Congress to preserve rail service to the extent possible.”

Huffman and Thompson called on Buttigieg to “personally ensure that (the project) does not receive any federal support, including loans from the ministry’s railway rehabilitation and improvement funding program.”

The letter credits a recent article in the Salt Lake City Tribune which provided “a much clearer picture of (the) regime” and revealed a plan to pursue a $ 1 billion federal loan to fund the proposal.

Referring to a note from Christopher Mitton, a staff member of the Utah Inland Port Authority, the Salt Lake Tribune report claimed that Mitton participated in a conference call with two representatives from the coal industry, a project consultant and Wiyot Tribal Administrator Michelle Vassel in March to discuss the Humboldt Coal Shipment. The Bay.

The memo said the Wiyot Nation was “fully committed to the project,” but Vassel maintained that there had never been any discussion of what supplies would be transported by rail.

“From what I remember from that call, it was a presentation on Humboldt Bay and the potential development of the port,” Vassel said in an email to The Times-Standard. “The tribe goes to meetings like this every day. We review permits, we review concepts, we review economic development projects. We carefully review each project and conduct due diligence efforts to ensure that any potential project aligns with the tribe’s commitment to the health and well-being of the Wiyot people and their ancestral lands.

When the tribe considered the $ 1 billion price tag to restore the railway line, Vassel said the tribe decided to pull out of the project.

“I don’t believe the Wiyot Tribal Council would ever support a charcoal-related project and I don’t believe our local community would allow a charcoal-based project to thrive,” she said. “… The Tribal Council considered a potential project related to the restoration of the railway line. We are evaluating a lot of potential projects, this one, like many before it, was not pursued by the tribe.

Vassel said the highest priority for the Wiyot Tribe is the removal of the two dams on the Eel River and the restoration of the river.

“When we envisioned the railway project, we wondered if we could use the revenue from the railway project to restore the Eel River,” she said. “To better understand the feasibility of this idea, I reached out to our Eel River Friends of the Eel River allies to discuss their thoughts on this matter. Friends of the Eel put us in touch with Mike McGuire’s office regarding the Great Redwood Trail and this was the first time that coal was mentioned.

Tribal Secretary Marnie Atkins added that the tribe “has and will explore all economic development options to support its tribal citizens, government and a myriad of tribal initiatives.”

“(The Wiyot tribe has) been approached by people who wish to rehabilitate the railroad tracks, but there has never been a specific discussion about what would be carried on the railroad tracks,” she said. “… Instead, there was excitement about opening our ‘redwood curtain’ to the rest of the state to bring more economic opportunities to the region and to deliver at an affordable price. goods and supplies to residents of Humboldt, Del Norte, Mendocino and Trinity counties. … These types of economic explorations are neither nefarious nor obscure.

Atkins said the Wiyot Tribe has always and will continue to stand up for the environment.

“It’s hard to imagine having a conversation with a group of people seeking to rehabilitate a railroad track would demolish the goodwill and ongoing stewardship efforts that we have demonstrated over the past 40+ years,” a- she declared. “… Sometimes people prefer to believe the sensational rather than the factual and I guess that’s something the tribe will have to overcome and work to mend relationships with our current and future partners.”

In a follow-up interview with The Times-Standard, Huffman said, “I trust the Wiyot Tribe a lot more than this Utah Inland Port Authority huckster who wrote the memo.”

“He was clearly doing the hype and promoting this project in every way he could,” Huffman said. “… The Wiyot Tribe has been very clear in saying that they have not made any real commitment, so when they say that they are fully committed, I have every reason to believe that is it. simply wrong. “

State Senator Mike McGuire recently introduced new legislation to block a proposal. Senate Bill 307 would “prohibit spending state money on any new bulk coal terminal project, as defined, in Humboldt County,” according to the text of the bill.

“The evidence is overwhelming – this secret company is trying to be smart by hiding behind an anonymous LLC,” he said in a prepared statement. “Obviously they’re tied to Big Coal, and it’s obvious they’re trying to pull a quick one up on the north coast. … If their proposal is that good, introduce yourself and speak directly to the community. Stop hiding in the shadows. Show us your plan. Confront the people with whom you propose to do business.

“We are going to fight this at all levels and make this ridiculous idea go away,” he added.

North Coast Railroad Authority executive director Mitch Stogner also criticized the proposal.

“It is an absurd notion that a shadow company representing undisclosed interests is going to try to run hundreds of railcars of coal every day along the north coast and ship them overseas,” he said. he declares. “This limited company claims to have detailed plans, but to date has not contacted the NCRA, which owns the grip, or anyone with any knowledge of the dilapidated state of the line.”

Stogner said the NCRA has every intention of moving forward with the rail banking process and is speeding up the Great Redwood Trail.

SB 69, the Great Redwood Trail Act, was signed Thursday by Gov. Gavin Newsom in what McGuire called “a huge step forward.”

“With Big Coal trying to make a race finish on the North Coast, the state of California is solid for the Great Redwood Trail,” he said in a prepared statement. “… I am grateful to the Governor for signing this historic law that will shut down the defunct and bankrupt North Coast Railroad Authority once and for all and transform the organization into a world class trail agency.” “

Passing SB 69 means the NCRA will transition to the Great Redwood Trail Agency on March 1, 2022, and the State Coastal Conservancy will take over the oversight and management of the organization by July 1, 2022, according to McGuire. .

Isabella Vanderheiden can be reached at 707-441-0504.

“Maid” on Netflix is ​​a drama mini-series that explores a young woman’s struggle with homelessness and poverty as she tries to do her best for her young daughter. Alternating between living in shelters, her car, and wherever she can find shelter, Alex’s grueling journey is meticulously detailed. We also see the young single mom trying to grapple with a maze of bureaucratic procedures to get the financial help she desperately needs.

Created by Molly Smith Metzler and inspired by Stephanie Land’s 2019 memoir “Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive,” the series is a heart-wrenching story. While Alex is still on the brink of poverty, the miniseries offers a silver lining at the end. So where do they end up with her daughter? Does Alex finally have a house to take Maddy to? Let’s take a look at the end of “Maid”. SPOILERS TO COME.

Maid recap

The series opens with Alex lying awake next to her boyfriend, Sean. The trailer they live in shows signs of violence and pieces of broken glass litter the ground. After a few minutes, she picks up her young daughter Maddy, puts her things in her car and leaves. Having nowhere to go, Alex leaves Maddy with her mother Paula and begins working as a housekeeper. However, later that day her car is destroyed in an accident and the young single mother and daughter are forced to stay overnight at the ferry terminal.

As Alex tries to enroll in various government assistance programs, she finds it increasingly difficult to find a balance between caring for her daughter, keeping her job and continuing to meet all the necessary formal requirements. to qualify. She checks into a domestic violence shelter, where she and Maddy are looked after by kind counselor Denise. Alex also receives help from an old acquaintance called Nate, who has had feelings for her for a long time.

As she continues to clean the luxurious homes of wealthy people, Alex begins to gain a deeper insight into their lives. She notices how unhappy people who seem to have it all are and starts writing about it. After a tumultuous start, she eventually becomes close to one of her clients, Regina, a high-profile lawyer trying to have her first child. When Alex gets a scholarship to study writing at a university in Montana, Regina helps him with the legal aspects and tries to get Maddy’s full custody from Alex so she can be allowed to leave the state to pursue her studies. studies.

Maid Ending Explained: Where do Alex and Maddy end up? Do they find a home?

After initially insisting on retaining custody of Maddy, Sean eventually realizes that he is unfit to care for his daughter due to her alcoholism and signs her custody rights. Alex, who is forced to move into the shelter again, works feverishly to prepare things for her move to Montana. She is also starting to save money by taking care of other housekeeping clients, but she is still on the brink of poverty. She also realizes with dismay that her mother is now homeless as her young boyfriend-turned-husband fled with all his possessions.

Paula finally agrees to go to Montana with her daughter, and Alex prepares to leave her hometown. She says goodbye to Regina and goes to pick up her mother but learns that Paula has taken on a new lover and doesn’t want to move out. Alex and Maddy then head to Montana, and the series ends with Alex thinking about the future with renewed optimism.

So Alex finally arrives at college and leaves the city she grew up in. With her scholarship to a university in Missoula, Montana – combined with various financial aid programs she meticulously qualifies for – the young single mom can pretty much afford college. However, since she also took out student loans to cover her expenses, Alex mentions that she will likely continue to work as a housekeeper until college.

Despite her lingering financial troubles, Alex has taken a big step forward and is seen for the last time optimistic about the future. She mentions that she knows there are hard days ahead, but also hopes for happy days. After qualifying for university family accommodation, Alex and Maddy will finally have a home of their own. Alex also mentions a daycare center that can take care of Maddy while she works and studies. Considering that finding someone to take care of her daughter while she worked was one of Alex’s biggest hurdles, this is a significant improvement for both mother and daughter.

What happens to Paula?

Paula, who apparently suffers from bipolar disorder, decides not to go with Alex to Montana at the last minute. The free-spirited artist is last seen with a new lover named Micah, who owns the craft stand where Paula works. As seen with her previous relationship with Basil, Paula seems completely in love with a man who hardly seems to care about her and prefers to stay with him rather than accompany his daughter.

However, Paula’s actions are not entirely motivated by selfishness, as she also explained that she does not want to “accompany” her daughter. She recognizes the new start her daughter is having by going to college, and while she doesn’t say it, she probably doesn’t want to be an additional burden on Alex.

However, Paula is also driven by a need to be free, which causes her to live in precariousness. She is now essentially homeless, having lost her home, the only possession she had from her own mother. In an uncertain relationship with Micah and without Alex to watch her, Paula might end up having to live in her car again.

What happens to Sean?

Sean first insists on having custody rights over Maddy and even takes Alex to court over the matter. However, after relapsing into alcoholism and attempting to quit smoking again, Sean realizes that he needs to work on himself before caring for his daughter. When he finally gives Alex full custody of Maddy, he mentions that he couldn’t help but think about having a drink even while spending time with their daughter. He compares it to his own mother’s behavior and says he doesn’t want this for Maddy.

Alex offers Sean to visit his daughter in Montana whenever he wants, which seems to give him hope. At the end, we see Sean deciding to clean up his act and then promise to visit Maddy as often as he can. He no longer tries to convince Alex to come home with him and finally seems to have stopped trying to control her. Though his future is uncertain, by handing over full custody of Maddy to Alex, Sean seems to have recognized his flaws. By giving up more of his job as a bartender and focusing on carpentry, it seems he’s trying to make some big changes in his life.

Read more: Where was Maid filmed?

LEHI, UTAH, USA, September 30, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ – The story of one of the country’s major solar platforms begins ironically in a small mining town of Colstrip, Montana.

Brothers and co-founders, Will (CEO) and Dave Anderson (CMO) were brought up in the face of the reality of the energy crisis. “My brother and I grew up in the shade of the smokestacks of the coal plant and the clouds of smog left by them. It’s amazing how propaganda works. At school, they always told us that the smoke coming out of the factory was ninety percent water. Can you believe it: ninety percent water? Now that I’m older it’s like, well, what’s the remaining ten percent? Dave recounted.

Dave and Will come from humble beginnings, but from an early age they appreciated the power of education and persistence. Their mother, a teacher in a special school, was a role model and a guide to encourage her sons to continue their studies and strive for excellence. Will Anderson went to Stanford for his MBA and to MIT for his undergraduate degree where he studied chemistry and finance. He felt inspired to do so as he struggled to answer the question he asked as a child in Colstrip, MT, “What happens when the coal runs out?” From an early age, his life’s work has centered on how to tackle the problem of energy and the associated environmental crises.

Dave graduated in economics from the University of Utah, then continued his career in the security industry, where he embarked on learning, building and ultimately selling a security company. very prosperous home.

The education and experiences of the early 2000s laid the foundation for Dave and Will’s first joint venture in 2007 – this joint venture was a business that served as an intermediary for loans between small regional banks or credit unions and car dealerships. This company was called Risk Allocation Systems, it was a unique system that would allow the credit institution and the concessionaire to share the risk of the loan.

In 2009, the solar industry was an emerging market in key regions of the United States. The Anderson brothers were excited about the future of solar and wanted to get involved early on. Due to the relationship established with Risk Allocation Systems, Dave and Will’s first solar business helped a local credit union begin offering solar loans.

Since 2010, with this new partnership, Complete Solar has not deviated from its mission to “propel the solar energy industry”. Complete Solar’s software, partnerships and processes enable companies at every stage to grow their business by working through Complete Solar’s proven platform. As one of the top rated solar companies in the industry, Complete Solar prides itself on the environmental impact of its platform and how it unifies the solar industry. According to Dave Anderson, “the only way to reduce the harmful effects of traditional energy production is through partnership. It is the fastest and most efficient way to further develop the industry. “

About Complete Solar

Complete Solar is a leading residential solar company with platform technology to manage all aspects of the customer experience. Thanks to this platform and this technology, Complete Solar partners with the best companies specializing in each link of the solar value chain. The platform is designed to become an industry standard that enables further specialization and improves every aspect of the value chain, reducing costs and improving the customer experience. The company currently serves 14 states and is headquartered in San Ramon, California.
Visit www.completesolar.com to learn more.

Sarah Neeley
Complete solar
+1 909-569-5244
write us here

Tim Ranzetta’s financial education started when he was in elementary school, but it didn’t happen in any classroom. Instead, he learned about money on snowy days. While other children slept or logged in The price is right, Ranzetta would wrap herself in her warmest winter clothes and pull out a shovel from her garage. Then he went door to door, selling his snow removal services to neighbors.

“For me, a snowstorm was not a holiday,” he says. “It was a business opportunity. “

In the decades that followed, Ranzetta’s businesses grew more ambitious, from driving a shredder truck to consulting to building startups. He felt that early exposure to even informal financial education helped him navigate his way into adulthood. So in 2010, he volunteered to teach a personal finance class at a high school near his home in Palo Alto, California. But when he searched for lesson plans online, the information seemed not to have been updated since he cleaned up his neighbors’ driveways in the 1970s. “What kid is going to care,” he said. Does he remember thinking, “About the balance of a checkbook? “

In fact, financial education had stagnated for much of Ranzetta’s life. If you are a little skeptical of TikTok, if you had to google the definition of “cheugy” or if you still use the cry and laugh emoji (😂) on a daily basis, in other words, if you’re in your 30s, you probably did. don’t take financial education classes in high school. Before 2000, only four states required students to take one to graduate. Which means you probably didn’t learn budgeting, taxes, or credit in a high school class.

“I was very lucky,” said Ranzetta, who founded and helps run Next Generation Personal Finance, a non-profit organization that provides free financial education for students and teachers. “My father was a banker. He taught me money. My parents were from the middle class. But for too many kids today, financial literacy is a real issue. Our mission is to make sure that every student across the country is guaranteed a one-semester personal finance course in their public school.

Stocks rose slightly on Wall Street on Wednesday as the market recovered from a steep drop a day earlier.

The S&P 500 was up 0.4% at 11:57 a.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 183 points, or 0.5%, to 34,481 and the Nasdaq rose 0.1%.

Healthcare companies and a range of companies focused on consumer products and services led the gains.

Tech stocks made strong gains in a reversal from the previous day when they led the market down. Much of this pressure came from rising bond yields which scared investors. The higher yields have forced investors to re-evaluate if the prices of stocks, especially tech companies, have been too high, as it makes their prices appear expensive.

Apple rose 1.1% and chipmaker Nvidia rose 0.8%.

Bond yields eased and took some pressure off investors who had seen them rise sharply over the past week. The 10-year Treasury yield, which is used to set interest rates on many types of loans, fell to 1.52% from 1.53% on Tuesday night.

Asian markets mostly fell while European markets rose.

The broader market is still on track for a disappointing September. The benchmark S&P 500 is heading for a loss of 3.3% and its first month losing since January. Investors spent much of the month examining a mixed batch of economic data that showed the impact of COVID-19 and the highly contagious delta variant on consumer spending and the labor market recovery.

Investors are still watching the Federal Reserve closely to assess the impact of slowing economic growth on the speed of its plan to eventually ease its exceptional support to the economy. The central bank has said it plans to eventually cut back on bond purchases that have helped keep interest rates low.

Wall Street is also gearing up for the next round of corporate earnings in the coming weeks. Investors will get a more detailed look at the impact of supply chain issues and higher costs on business finances.

A wide range of companies have warned investors about the impact of inflation on costs and profits. Nike, Costco, and FedEx were among those who cited material costs, shipping delays, and labor issues.

Sherwin-Williams has become the latest company to warn that higher raw material costs will hurt profits. The stock gained 1.5% as investors took the announcement on the heels, but it is still down about 8% from its all-time high of $ 308.70 on September 2.

Investors are still trying to gauge how far the persistent rise in inflation will be as the economy goes through and eventually recovers from the pandemic. The Fed has said higher inflation will likely be temporary and tied to the economic recovery, but more companies have signaled that they expect the higher costs to persist.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Americans, including hundreds of thousands of federal employees, may soon feel the impact of a U.S. government shutdown. If lawmakers can’t come to a deal by the end of Thursday – the last day of the fiscal year – the federal government will officially shut down at 12:01 a.m. Friday.

Congress is one more step towards a stop after Senate Republicans blocked a bill Monday night finance the government at current levels and suspend the debt ceiling.

Most Americans would notice the disturbance one way or another. Many national parks would likely close, while mortgage and other applications could be delayed as the IRS could stop checking income and social security numbers, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), a group nonprofit that focuses on tax matters. .

Government services deemed essential – usually tasks important to national safety and security, such as border protection and air traffic control – would continue despite a shutdown. But the disruption would come at a sensitive time, with many Americans struggling to regain their foothold amid the ongoing pandemic and the economy grappling with the effects of the COVID-19 Delta variant.

“Every closure is different – agencies have a lot of latitude as to what they can continue to do,” said Marc Goldwein, senior policy director at CRFB. “Everything that is not essential has to stop, but there are different definitions of essential work.”

For example, one wonders whether work on COVID-19 vaccines at the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Protection would be considered essential. Pfizer Tuesday noted he had sent data to the FDA on his clinical trials of the vaccine in children aged 5 to 12.

The biggest impact can be felt by the hundreds of thousands of federal workers who are likely to be put on leave if a shutdown occurs, experts say.

“You have 2 million hard-working civilian employees across the country,” Max Stier, chairman of the non-partisan think tank Partnership for Public Service, told CBSN. “You told them all that there might be a shutdown – that means they really have to stop working on things like the [Montana] train crash or face the economic calamity caused by the pandemic. “

The showdown in Congress comes as lawmakers also debate an increase in the country’s borrowing limit, or “debt ceiling,” adding to potential political twists and turns. Here’s what you need to know if the government closes its doors this week.

Are we considering a full or partial shutdown?

It would be a complete shutdown since Congress has yet to pass any fundraising bills. The last closure, from December 22, 2018 to January 25, 2019, was a partial closure since Congress had already enacted five of the 12 appropriation laws.

This means that more federal agencies would likely be affected by a new closure. The partial shutdown in 2018-19 was a record 35 days, slashing economic growth in the last three months of 2018 by $ 3 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. valued.

What essential services would continue?

Each federal agency would have its own closure plan, which is coordinated by the Office of Management and Budget. These efforts would determine what government activities would stop until the political standoff between Democrats and Republicans is resolved and funding is renewed.

But all essential services would continue. Here are some of the services that have been maintained during previous closings, according to the CRFB.

• Border protection
• Medical care in hospital
• Air traffic control
• Law enforcement
• Maintenance of the electrical network

How many federal employees would be put on leave?

A full government shutdown would likely impact more federal workers than the previous partial shutdown in 2018, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said.

This could be on a similar scale to the closures of 2013 and early 2018, when about 850,000 of the 2.1 million federal non-postal workers were put on leave, the group estimated. During the 2018 episode, about 380,000 federal workers were put on leave, according to the Public Service Partnership.

Federal workers on leave are not allowed to work during a stoppage and are not paid while on leave, but would end up receiving back wages once the blockage is resolved. But this disruption could have a wider economic impact, according to Jacqueline Simon, director of public policy for the American Federation of Government Employees.

“It’s not just the federal employee who suffers when there is no paycheck on payday – its owner is not paid,” she said. “The credit card company doesn’t get paid, the utilities don’t get paid. They don’t go to the grocery store or buy a lot of groceries.”

Would benefits such as social security and health insurance be affected?

No, say the experts. This is because Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are mandatory spending programs, which means they are not subject to annual appropriations.

But as the government continues to make payments for Social Security beneficiaries and people covered by Medicare and Medicaid, other services could be disrupted.

For example, the verification of benefits as well as the issuance of cards would be interrupted during a shutdown, the group said. This could create problems for some, as benefit verification is sometimes required when people apply for loans, mortgages, or other services that require proof of income.

Would the post office continue to deliver the mail?

Yes, because the US Postal Service does not depend on federal taxpayer dollars for its operating budget.

In an unrelated change, however, the delivery standards of the Postal Service would slow down for some customers as of Friday, the USPS said Monday. This is due to an ongoing operational overhaul that postmaster Louis DeJoy says will stem billions of dollars in losses and put the agency on the path to profitability.

“Mail traveling the longest distances will be the most affected, with a day or two of transit time added for some first-class mail and periodicals,” the agency said. noted.

Would national parks be closed?

It’s possible. The National Park Service closed all of its parks to visitors during the 2013 shutdown. But during the 2018 shutdown, many parks remained open while park services like garbage removal were halted. Without staff to maintain the parks, some of the country’s iconic parks suffered from overflowing garbage and harmful behavior such as illegal off-road driving.

Would the IRS continue to operate?

In the event of a closure, the tax administration may not be able to provide its normal service of verifying income and social security numbers. This would put a damper on mortgage applications and other loan approvals and potentially delay loan processing, the CRFB said.

During the 2018 shutdown, the White House promised that tax refunds would not be affected, reversing an IRS plan to halt checks during the gap. Despite this commitment, refunds did not go exactly as planned: “At least 26,000 IRS employees on leave were called back to work during the 2018-19 shutdown for tax season, but 14,000 did not show up work without pay, ”the CRFB said.

Would food stamps be delayed?

Funding for the food stamp program – called the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program – is mandatory, but the government’s ability to distribute the benefits to its 42 million beneficiaries could be affected, the CRFB said.

This is because an interim funding bill would be required to authorize the Department of Agriculture to send benefits for 30 days after the start of a shutdown. During the 2018 shutdown, the USDA avoided this problem by providing food stamp allowances in early January 2019. If it hadn’t done so before the 30-day window expired, the agency would not have been able to pay the allowances in March. , according to the CRFB.

What else could be impacted?

Many other government agencies and programs would be shut down, although Americans are unlikely to be aware of many of the disruptions. During the 2018 shutdown, agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the US Geological Survey, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and NOAA had to suspend their work.

Yet while Americans might not notice the shutdown of agency programs when shutdowns, such shutdowns could have very real effects. For example, “In 2013, the Environmental Protection Agency halted site inspections for 1,200 different sites that included hazardous waste, drinking water and chemical facilities,” said CRFB.

Stocks ended with a mixed record on Wall Street on Monday as losses at several large tech companies controlled gains elsewhere in the market. The S&P 500 fell 0.3%, while the tech-rich Nasdaq fell 0.5%. Microsoft fell 1.7% and Apple lost 1.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.2% and a measure of small business stocks jumped 1.5%. Yields on treasury bills continued to climb. The yield on the 10-year Treasury bill rose to 1.49%, its highest level since the end of June. This helped push up bank stocks for the most part. Energy companies were also up, as the price of US crude oil climbed 2%.

THIS IS A CURRENT UPDATE. AP’s previous story follows below.

Major Wall Street stock indexes were mixed on Monday afternoon, with losses at tech and healthcare companies outweighing gains elsewhere in the market.

The S&P 500 was essentially stable for much of the day. It was down 0.1% as of 3:28 pm EST. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 104 points, or 0.3%, to 34,902 and the tech-rich Nasdaq fell 0.4%.

The benchmark S&P 500 had more winners than losers. Banks made solid gains as bond yields continued to climb, allowing them to charge higher interest rates on loans. Bank of America gained 2.7%.

The benchmark US crude oil price rose 2% and supported gains in energy stocks. Exxon Mobil is up 3.3%.

The technology sector, which holds a disproportionate weight in the S&P 500, overall fell by 0.9%. Microsoft fell 1.7%.

A measure of small company stocks outperformed the major indexes, a sign that investors were still confident about future economic growth. The Russell 2000 Index rose 1.8%.

Markets have had a turbulent month so far and the S&P 500 is set to lose 1.6% in September, which would mark the first monthly loss since January. Investors have tried to gauge how much room for growth the economy has amid waves of COVID-19 that are dragging down consumer spending and job growth, while inflation remains a concern.

The economic recovery started strong in 2021, but analysts and economists have tempered their forecasts for the rest of the year. In a survey released Monday, the National Association for Business Economics found that its panel expects economic growth of 5.6% for a full year, down from a 6.7% growth forecast in the previous NABE survey in May. However, economists raised their economic growth forecast for 2022 to 3.5% from a previous forecast of 2.8%.

Consumer spending has been the main driver of the economic recovery and it has been partly held back by the increase in COVID-19 cases due to the highly contagious delta variant. Investors will get a glimpse of how this may continue to play out on Tuesday when the Conference Board releases its Consumer Confidence Index for September.

Wall Street has faced an otherwise quiet period for corporate reporting as companies prepare to release their latest quarterly results in the coming weeks. The next round of corporate statements could give investors a better idea of ​​the real impact of the supply chain and labor disruption on sales and profits.

Bond yields were generally higher. The 10-year Treasury yield rose to 1.48% from 1.46% on Friday night. It was at 1.31% a week ago, as market nervousness prompted investors to move money into bonds, reducing their yield, but rising since Tuesday.

Bank stocks reacted to the sudden surge in bond yields. The KBW Bank index rose more than 9% in four days.

The exception on Monday was Wells Fargo, which fell 0.7%. The bank has solved its latest legal headache by agreeing to pay $ 37 million for allegations of overbilling customers using its foreign exchange services.

The bank has been embroiled in numerous scandals over the past few years and still operates under an order from the Federal Reserve that prevents Wells from expanding. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts published a letter this month calling for the dissolution of Wells Fargo, citing the bank’s inability to resolve its problems.

European markets edged up while Asian markets were mixed.

———

AP Business Writer Ken Sweet contributed.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Editor’s Note • This story is only available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers. Thank you for supporting local journalism.

The Utah Inland Port Authority worked behind the scenes to explore a secret proposal to rehabilitate an unused California railroad that would be used to ship coal mined from the West overseas via a remote port on the northern California coast, documents show internals obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune.

In March, six months before the rail project came to public attention, a Utah Port Authority employee named Christopher Mitton participated in a conference call with two representatives from the coal industry, an administrator from a tribe in northern California and a man named Justin Wight, identified as the “project advisor”. The purpose of the call was to discuss the management of North Coast Railway and develop an export terminal at Humboldt Bay. The project would have full, or at least majority, tribal ownership.

According to a note Mitton wrote summarizing the March 16 appeal, Wight was seeking up to $ 1 billion in loans from the U.S. Department of Transportation to rehabilitate the railroad line, which winds through Eel River Canyon, in northern California.

“This program is not a grant program but a program of loans that should be repaid,” the memo reads. “The loan is probably conditional on entering into long-term contracts as a source of repayment. “

The memo does not specify which federal loan program, but a likely option is the Financing of the rehabilitation and improvement of railways program, overseen by the Department of Transportation’s Build America office. However, the North Coast Railroad does not appear on the list of active projects in the program.

Industry representatives on the call were Conrad “CJ” Stewart, Energy Director for the Crow Nation; and Utah Mining Association President Brian Somers. The Crow of southeastern Montana has significant coal reserves in the Powder River Basin. Michelle Vassel, tribal administrator of the Wiyot, a tribe recognized by the federal government who is native to Humboldt Bay.

The Wiyot Nation is “fully committed to this project” and the Crow Nation is “looking for a new export channel or a new use for their mineral resources,” according to the memo Mitton sent to Jill Flygare , director of operations for the port authority.

Vassel did not respond to a request for comment left at the Wiyot tribal offices in California. Stewart did not respond to a voicemail message left on his cell phone. Somers could not be reached and Wight’s contact details were not available.

A co-founder of the National Tribal Energy Association and a former member of the Legislative Assembly of his tribe, Stewart is a leading proponent of coal exports and has spoken out against the efforts of the Pacific coast states to block plans for coal loading ports, such as blocking Millennium Bulk Terminals in Longview, Washington, and the Oakland Bulk and Oversize Terminal in the San Francisco Bay Area.

“Imagine having a trillion dollars of mineral wealth under your feet and yet your people are starving and destitute before you,” he told a Senate committee in 2018. “It’s a cruel nightmare that could be avoided if it was not the weaponization of the Clean Water Act. against the resource economy of the Crow tribe and the Crow people and culture.

The railway proposal came to light three weeks ago after a shadow company informed the Federal Surface Transport Council of its intention to take over the defunct 100-year-old North Coast railway line and ramshackle that travels 320 miles through the Northern California Coast Mountains from the Bay Area. to the Humboldt Bay Harbor. The company’s filing indicates that it has a “fully developed” plan to rehabilitate the line for “high volume traffic” and has secured $ 1.2 billion in funding for a project that aims to export fuel. bulk minerals not specified.

Who exactly is behind the new North Coast Railroad Co. remains a mystery, but the available evidence clearly points to the Western coal industry, which has long hoped to increase its maritime export capacity. Hammered by the country’s waning appetite for a fossil fuel closely associated with climate change, Utah coal producers hope to increase their exports to Japan and economically growing Asian countries that burn coal for electricity. . These ambitions have been repeatedly thwarted by local and state political leaders on the West Coast aiming to block coal shipments through their communities and discourage the use of coal elsewhere.

The mystery company’s recent filing, known as the “Financial Aid Offer,” was ostensibly made to block a popular plan to convert the rail right-of-way to the Great Redwood Trail, which has shocked many Californians across the country. north, little more than Sen State. Mike McGuire, a champion of the rails-to-trails project.

This month, he introduced a bill in the California legislature to block rail rehabilitation.

“This toxic coal train would pass through the heart of so many thriving communities and along the Russian and Eel rivers, which are the primary source of drinking water for nearly a million people,” McGuire said in a released statement. Tuesday. “This dangerous proposition must be stopped.”

But the involvement of the coal industry has been a matter of guesswork thanks to the North Coast Railroad Co.’s complete lack of transparency in its public documents. The Inland Port documents help clarify the roles of Utah, the tribes, and the coal industry, although many questions remain unanswered about the company: Who does Justin Wight work for? What is the source of the $ 1.2 billion funding claimed by the company? Do the Crow and Wiyot tribes control the business? Does it have contracts in place with the charcoal producers?

Another memo Mitton provided to his boss in March contained contact details for various officials in the Humboldt Bay Harbor District, to whom Mitton apparently reached out at this time.

Deputy district manager Adam Wagschal told The Tribune that Mitton had contacted him to ask if the port was suitable for shipping bulk minerals. In an interview this week, Wagschal said he couldn’t recall whether Mitton mentioned charcoal or a specific product.

The port authority refused to make a manager available for an interview.

Speaking through a spokesperson, Flygare said that the involvement of Mitton, who only worked for a few months at the port authority as a “strategic project manager”, was limited. to ask a few questions about the Humboldt Bay project.

The port authority was invited to the March meeting to hear about the proposal, according to Flygare. After performing due diligence, the agency determined that this was not a viable port project and it has not been involved since.

“In response to a Tribune reporter who writes a story that falsely implies that the Utah Inland Port Authority is pushing or has already supported a plan to ship coal from Utah to Asia – the UIPA has no current or future plan to export coal from Humboldt Bay, “Executive Director Jack Hedge said in an emailed statement. “We looked into the matter and did not find that this was a project in which the port authority could participate. “

Few believe that the North Coast Railroad has a chance of being restored and put back into service, given the need for a complete rebuild and the difficulty of maintaining the stretch through the slipping-prone Eel River Canyon.

In addition, the port of Humboldt Bay would require costly improvements before it could handle the level of freight traffic described by the promoters of the railway project. The entrance to the port itself is subject to regular closures due to river sediments forming sandbanks which complicate navigation.

The Army Corps of Engineers dredges the canals each spring to remove the sediment that carries the Eel River in winter, according to Jennifer Kalt, a local environmentalist who heads the Guardian of Humboldt’s Bay.

“It would take a massive increase in dredging to create the types of depths in the navigation channels and then also to open the entrance year round,” Kalt said. Meanwhile, the on-site facilities, all associated with Humboldt’s discolored lumber industry, are unable to handle massive volumes of coal or other bulk mineral products.

“There’s not really something that someone necessarily calls a port here. There are a lot of old dilapidated mill sites that have docks. Two of them were pulp mills. Some of them were sawmills, and they’re just completely run down and falling apart.

But one remains in fairly good condition and occupies the deepest waters of the port, she said. It is a private establishment called the Fairhaven Terminal, where the water is 38 feet deep and there are five acres of paved storage. A message left with the owner of this terminal, Eureka businessman Rob Arkley, was not returned.

The inner harbor memo says the bay has existing federal shipping canals that would function for the export of minerals. Wight has identified terminals on the north side of Humboldt Bay that could be used for loading ships and that are not located near environmentally sensitive areas.

“Both Justin [Wight] and Michèle [Vassel] said there is strong local support for port revitalization and port operations, ”the memo reads. “Michelle mentioned that she would expect some opposition to the project, but not overwhelming.”

Vassel could hardly have been more wrong in this assessment.

“No way, no, how are we going to let this happen,” said Senator McGuire, revealing key additions to his SB307 Tuesday.

The legislation would prohibit any state funding from being used to improve the northern half of the track for north coal shipments and from being used to build a coal handling terminal at Humboldt Bay.

Wall Street closed a choppy trading week on Friday with a mixed finish for major stock indexes, although the S&P 500 made its first weekly gain in three weeks.

The benchmark index rose 0.1% after spending much of the day swinging between small gains and losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also posted a gain of 0.1%, while the Nasdaq composite and the Russell 2000 index of small-company stocks fell.

Slightly more S&P 500 stocks rose than they fell, with communications companies and banks accounting for much of the rise. Health care and real estate stocks posted some of the biggest losses. The index finished with a gain of 0.5% for the week.

This modest performance follows a two-day rally that erased a slump earlier in the week. Investors faced similar turbulence throughout September as they tried to assess how the economy will continue to recover.

“Today the market was sort of catching its breath after the sharp decline in the first two days of the week and strong gains in the second two days of the week,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA.

The S&P 500 rose 6.50 points to 4,455.48 and is now less than 1.9% of the all-time high it hit on September 2. The Dow added 33.18 points to 34,798. The Nasdaq lost 4.54 points, or less than 0.1%, to 15,047.70, while the Russell 2000 lost 10.97 points, or 0, 5%, at 2,248.07.

Markets had a tough September and investors could be more restless as they face a mix of concerns, including COVID-19 and its lingering impact on the economy, as well as a slow market recovery employment.

Traders received clarification from the Federal Reserve this week. After its two-day policy meeting closed on Wednesday, the central bank said it would likely start slashing the pace of its monthly bond purchases soon, but not until November, if the economy continues to improve. The Fed and other central banks bought bonds throughout the pandemic to help keep long-term interest rates low.

Bond yields have risen in recent days after the Fed’s announcement. The 10-year Treasury yield rose to 1.46% on Friday against 1.41% the day before. The yield, which influences interest rates on mortgages and other consumer loans, was 1.31% Monday night.

“It could just be that we had lower yields on Monday and Tuesday in a flight to safety that is now being unwound,” Stovall said. “At the same time, bond investors have been told, if you will, by the Fed that the cut is imminent.”

Energy prices rose further on Friday. The benchmark US crude oil price rose 0.9% and ended up 2.9% for the week. The trend has helped push energy stocks up. Cabot Oil & Gas increased 2.8%.

Nike was the last company to warn investors about supply chain issues that hurt revenue. Its stock fell 6.3% for the biggest decline in the S&P 500. A wide range of industries are facing supply chain issues and investors are worried about rising costs for businesses and consumers. consumers. Analysts have warned that the next round of corporate earnings could be in jeopardy due to the issues.

Concerns over struggling Chinese real estate developer Evergrande are also weighing on sentiment. Some Chinese banks unveiled on Friday owed to them by Evergrande, seeking to allay fears of financial turmoil as he grapples with debt of less than $ 310 billion. Evergrande said it negotiated details of an interest payment due Thursday to banks and other bondholders in China, but gave no details. The company has yet to say whether it will make an $ 83.5 million payment due Thursday on an overseas bond.

European markets fell and Asian markets were mostly down, although the Japanese Nikkei 225 rose 2.1%.

Cryptocurrencies fell after China’s central bank said all transactions involving virtual currencies are illegal because it has stepped up a campaign to block the use of unofficial digital money. Bitcoin fell 4.8% to $ 42,525.48, according to Coindesk. Chipmaker Nvidia, which makes the processors needed for crypto-mining, fell 1.8%.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Stockman Bank will open a bank branch at 1 Main Street in Kalispell later this year.

The Montana-based bank is also adding a Whitefish location which should be ready for use by the end of next year.

Joe Kola, president of Flathead Market, said in a press release that Stockman is excited to bring his unique brand of community banking from Montana to the Flathead Valley. “Stockman is a private, family-owned community bank focused on meeting the financial needs of all Montanais,” said Kola. “We look forward to opening this new office in Kalispell where we can serve our existing Flathead clients and welcome new clients. “

The new bank office is being renovated and is expected to open by the end of the year.

“Once we are open, we will be able to assist clients with personal and business accounts and loans, as well as home loans,” Kola said. In the meantime, checking accounts and personal savings accounts can be opened online at www.stockmanbank.com.

Kola said hiring is her next priority for the new office.

“I’m looking for bankers who are dedicated to putting their clients at the center of everything they do,” he said. “At Stockman, we are well known for our commitment to providing exceptional customer service as well as our strong community involvement and a well-trained and knowledgeable workforce.”

To view and apply for open positions, visit Career Opportunities on the Stockman website at www.stockmanbank.com.

As plans to open the Kalispell office progress, Stockman continues to identify other locations in Flathead to build new bank offices. The bank plans to open its new banking facility in Whitefish in October, which will be located at 6588 US 93 South.

Founded in 1953, Stockman Bank operates 36 branches in Montana.

Stocks rose broadly on Wall Street on Thursday and wiped out weekly losses on most major indexes.

The gains follow Wednesday’s hike after the Federal Reserve signaled it could start easing its extraordinary support measures for the economy later this year.

The S&P 500 Index rose 1.4% at 12:45 p.m. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 557 points, or 1.6%, to 34,815 and the Nasdaq rose 1%.

Almost all stocks in the benchmark S&P 500 rose. It is now up 0.5% for the week and has recovered from a massive selloff on Monday. The turnaround is more pronounced in the Dow Jones, which is now up 0.7% on the week after falling 1.9% on the week on Tuesday.

The change in investor sentiment has also put oil prices in the green. Benchmark US crude is now up 1% for the week due to a 1.6% gain on Thursday. Bond yields have risen sharply. The 10-year Treasury yield rose to 1.40% from 1.32% on Wednesday night.

Tech companies and banks have led the way. Cloud-based software company Salesforce.com stood out with a gain of 6.3% after raising its sales forecast for the year. Citigroup advanced 4.3%.

Small company stocks, which are generally a good measure of investor confidence in economic growth, also moved into the winning column. The Russell 2000 is up 1.5% for the day and 0.7% for the week.

Other highlights include Olive Garden owner Darden Restaurants. Its title jumped 6.3% after delivering strong quarterly results.

Investors have received reassuring news from China, where Evergrande, one of the country’s largest private real estate developers, said it make payment due Thursday on a domestic bond. Concerns about the potential of a default rocked global markets earlier in the week.

The European and Asian markets have increased.

The Federal Reserve Wednesday indicated that it could start raising its benchmark interest rate next year, earlier than expected three months ago. He also said he would likely start slowing the pace of his monthly bond purchases “soon” if the economy continues to improve. The Fed and other central banks bought bonds throughout the pandemic to help keep long-term interest rates low.

“The reality is that the Fed is going to be wrong in not tightening anything on inflation until it absolutely has to,” said Brent Schutte, chief investment strategist, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company. “They are going to stay as long as they can.”

The central bank is closely monitoring job growth to better assess the economic recovery. The job market has seen a choppy recovery amid a resurgence of COVID-19 with the highly contagious delta variant. The latest update from the Department of Labor shows that the number of Americans seeking unemployment assistance rose last week for a second week in a row to 351,000.

Markets have had a tough September and investors could be more restless as they face a mix of concerns, Schutte said. This includes COVID-19 and its lingering impact on the economy, as well as a slow recovery in the job market and the Fed’s stance on support.

“People have gotten so used to a one-way market,” he said. “It will be more of a two-way market and investors need to get used to it, but I still think the trend is up.”

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Wall Street shares closed broadly higher on Wednesday after the The Federal Reserve reported it could start easing its extraordinary measures to support the economy later this year.

The central bank has indicated that it may start raising its benchmark interest rate next year, earlier than it expected three months ago. He also said he would likely start slowing the pace of his monthly bond purchases “soon” if the economy continues to improve. The Fed bought bonds throughout the pandemic to help keep long-term interest rates low.

The S&P 500 rose 1%, breaking a four-day losing streak. The benchmark initially climbed 1.4% after the Fed released its statement at 2 p.m. EST.

The other major indexes also rose, but lost some of their gains late in the afternoon. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 338.48 points, or 1%, to 34,258.32. The blue chip index briefly rose 520 points. The Nasdaq composite gained 150.45 points, or 1%, to 14,896.85.

Bond yields mostly increased. The yield on the 10-year Treasury bill fluctuated after the Fed’s announcement, but was little changed at 1.31% from 1.32% on Tuesday night. The yield influences the interest rates on mortgages and other consumer loans.

Wall Street analysts said the Fed’s policy update was in line with market expectations. The VIX, which measures the volatility investors expect for the S&P 500, fell about 14% after the Fed’s statement.

“It was telegraphed so well that it didn’t take anyone by surprise,” said Brian Jacobsen, senior investment strategist at Wells Fargo Asset Management.

In a press conference, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the Fed plans to announce as early as November that it will start cutting its monthly bond purchases, if the labor market continues to improve. constant.

The Fed’s shift has revealed that inflation is starting to be a concern, said Gene Goldman, chief investment officer at Cetera Financial Group.

“Our concern is that the Fed continues to stick to its view that this is a transitional phase, but we see no evidence that this is transitional,” he said.

Goldman added that the broader market could see a correction as economic growth slows and inflation persists. “Our concerns about the economy and the market in general are number one, we are at the peak of everything,” he said.

Even with Wednesday’s rally, September was a tough month for stocks. The S&P 500 is down 2.8%. The declines threaten to end a streak of monthly gains that began in February.

Wall Street has tried to gauge how the slowing economic recovery will affect the Fed’s decision-making process. The market as a whole has been agitated as this issue persists amid growing cases of COVID-19 due to the highly contagious delta variant and the impact of rising inflation on businesses and consumers.

History does not offer a great guide to how the markets will react to the Fed’s easing of support for the economy, mainly because it has been such a rare event. But market movements around them can seem counterintuitive.

Consider the summer of 2013, when Treasury yields rose sharply after the then Fed chairman hinted that it might start slowing down its bond buying program. Investors were taken by surprise and the supposed rate hikes would follow quickly as well. That pushed the 10-year Treasury yield up to 3%, from less than 2.20% in three months.

But after the Fed’s official announcement that it would cut back on buying finally came in December, the 10-year rate quickly turned around and started falling again. That’s even if the Fed cut back its support for a program designed to keep rates low. Analysts say this shows the power of the Fed through signaling: A decrease may mean less aid is on its way to the economy, which may mean slowing growth and inflation.

Despite all the turmoil in the bond market in 2013, stock prices have remained relatively stable.

What makes this situation different from 2013 is that the bond market did not experience tapping tantrum. The 10-year rate has remained relatively stable between 1.20% and 1.30% since July, after declining 1.70% in March. Powell has repeatedly emphasized how the Fed will gradually shift from cutting its bond purchases to raising interest rates.

More than 80% of stocks in the S&P 500 index rose on Wednesday. Tech stocks, banks and companies that rely on direct consumer spending accounted for a large chunk of the gains. Energy stocks posted strong gains as the price of US crude oil rose 2.4%. The values ​​of communication and public services have fallen.

Small stocks outperformed the market at large. The Russell 2000 Index rose 32.38 points, or 1.5%, to 2,218.56.

Netflix climbed 3.1% after streaming entertainment service acquired the works of Roald Dahl, the late British author of famous children’s books such as “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”.

Facebook fell 4% and tempered gains in communications stocks after the social network told advertisers in a blog post that it underestimated web conversions by users of Apple mobile devices by about 15% as a result of changes to Apple’s operating system.

FedEx fell 9.1%, the biggest drop among S&P 500 stocks, after reports significantly higher costs even as the demand for shipping increased. A wide range of industrial and other businesses have faced higher costs due to a mix of labor and supply chain issues.

Meanwhile, Wall Street may have reason to be less worried about heavily indebted Chinese real estate developers and the damage they could cause if they default and spill over into the markets. Evergrande, one of China’s largest private sector conglomerates, said it would make a payment due on Thursday, which may allay some of those concerns.

“I don’t want to say it’s over, but it looks like it’s being handled in a way that shouldn’t raise the fear of contagion too much,” said Jacobsen of Wells Fargo.

European markets closed mostly higher and Asian markets were mixed. The markets in South Korea and Hong Kong were closed for holidays.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Prior to the pandemic, with each new announcement apparently not starting a bidding war, Evergreen Home Loans was set to launch a cash bid program in Washington state.

An independent regional mortgage bank licensed in 10 western states, Bellevue-based Evergreen, prides itself on the level of service it provides to realtors – 70% of the company’s fixtures are purchase loans.

Founder and Chairman Don Burton is a former real estate agent who started Evergreen in 1987, with the goal of eliminating long delays and last-minute surprises in loans that can derail closures.

The CashUp by Evergreen program – in which Evergreen pays cash for homes on behalf of homebuyers and then provides ongoing financing when it transfers ownership to them – was Burton’s idea, said Tamra Rieger, chief operating officer of Evergreen.

Burton “is actively involved in the business every day, and it was his idea,” said Rieger. “He was a real estate agent before starting the mortgage company, and Evergreen’s goal has always been, ‘How can we help agents and add value to agents?’ “

Rieger oversaw a special product team at Evergreen which developed the CashUp program over six months. The team was preparing to launch the cash offers program in March 2020 when the pandemic struck.

“There was so much risk in the regular lending environment that we had to opt out of the CashUp program,” Rieger recalled. But, “Fast forward a year, and we’re getting through COVID and managing the risk pretty well.” So we started with a pilot launch in February.

A handful of Evergreen’s top loan officers – about 10 out of a total of 260 – have dedicated themselves to deploying the CashUp program in Washington state, she said.

Once homebuyers have been pre-approved, the CashUp program allows them to submit a cash offer without funding or unscheduled appraisals. If the offer is accepted, Evergreen purchases the home and transfers it to the buyer once its permanent financing is finalized.

“What’s exciting for the agent is that this is a guaranteed cash close,” says Rieger. “There is nothing that will derail the closure. I have respected the closing date each time.

Because Evergreen is a mortgage bank, it has the funds to not only buy homes for cash, but also to provide permanent financing directly to the buyer. That means it can close faster than cash offer programs that outsource funding, Rieger said.

“We have our own funds and we control the mortgage process,” Rieger said. We fully approve the buyer in advance for the cash offer and can close in as little as 10 days. “

The buyer’s mortgage is finalized after Evergreen purchases a home on their behalf. Because they have already been pre-approved, permanent funding ends quickly.

“About a week after closing with cash, I close the client’s financing” to buy the house at Evergreen, said Rieger.

Some large real estate brokerage firms cannot meet this deadline because they are relying on another lender to pay off their purchase in cash, Rieger said.

“I spoke to a real estate company that is setting up a cash offer program that asked for our help,” Rieger said. “Because they don’t have control over the mortgage process, it takes them 30 days from the time they close with their money for their client’s loan to close. It is too long.”

Develop in new markets

Evergreen, which partners with real estate agents to make the CashUp program accessible to more homebuyers, says the program was successful, leading him to expand the program beyond Washington State to Arizona and Idaho . A pilot program is operational in Nevada and Rieger hopes to launch it in California in October.

As Evergreen rolled out the program, “The good thing is that I was able to talk to everyone involved, including the buyer’s agent and the listing agent. Especially at the beginning, they wanted to talk to me to make sure it was real, ”said Rieger.

“I have received great feedback from agents that this is a real cash offer. The only contingency I have is on inspection, and I will accept seller’s inspection if Evergreen can verify that it was not produced by a related party.

Not all customers start with the CashUp program, Rieger said. But once a buyer has made several traditional offers on different houses, “you get a little discouraged when you don’t win the house.”

To help the CashUp program gain traction, Evergreen has tried to cut costs, she said. Evergreen charges a 1% origination fee at the close of the buyer’s loan, and other costs such as escrow, title and registration fees typically add up to around $ 1,400, Rieger said.

The CashUp program requires home buyers to use Evergreen for financing their permanent home. Evergreen’s goal is to help buyers get their offer approved, then provide them with ongoing financing, not make money on fees.

“A lot of the programs charge higher fees – I saw 2.3 percent,” Rieger said. “We are doing this to help our buyers win the home. We have really tried to keep CashUp attractive to the customer, so that the cost does not prevent them from using it.

When deciding in which market to deploy the CashUp program, it is necessary to take into account the property transfer taxes.

“When I close in cash, I own this house and the seller pays the property transfer tax. In the second step, I am the seller and I technically transfer ownership of Evergreen to the borrower, ”generating another transfer of ownership or excise tax, Rieger said.

So the easiest states to run a cash offering program are those that don’t have an excise tax, Rieger said. Then, she searches for states with lower transaction fees, such as Arizona, Idaho, and Montana.

Although closing costs in Washington state may be higher than in other states, Evergreen started CashUp there because that’s where the company is headquartered and “because probably 50 or 60 % of our transactions are done in Washington, ”said Rieger.

The long term goal is to make CashUp available in all states where Evergreen is licensed. So far, that’s 10 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, Washington and Wyoming

But Colorado, Texas and Montana are recent additions to Evergreen, which also plans to expand into other western states, Rieger said.

“We have a bit of a philosophy of knowing your market and going into states that are close to where you already do business, rather than going across the country across the country to somewhere like Florida,” said Rieger. “We’re out west and we’re moving east,” while continuing to add branches into Evergreen’s existing footprint.

Will each lender have a cash offering product?

If a licensed regional mortgage lender in 10 states can offer a cash offer product, does that mean each lender will eventually launch their own offer?

“I don’t know if this will be the mainstream, or if all the lenders will be able to do it,” Rieger said. “It might sound easy, but there is a lot of work to be done. I have a good training process and disclosures. But for a lender to create a product like this, I think it takes 6 months to build it, 3 months to pilot it, and you need a lot of resources to do it.

Rieger said any lenders who aren’t already working on launching a cash offering product could miss the boat.

“There is a time for this product. Right now it’s very popular and I’m happy we’re positioned where we are, ”said Rieger. “I think there is a window, and as more homes come on the market and more inventories are online, it’s likely that there will be less demand for a program like this.”

At the moment, stocks are still scarce in many markets, she said.

“We’re still seeing cash offers above the list price, multiple offers, and escalation,” Rieger said. “I think Evergreen was in a good position because we launched in February. If you are a mortgage company trying to launch this product now, you might miss your window.

Email Matt Carter

Combine an A-plus cast with clever writing about a taboo subject – the financial disparity between adult siblings – and you’ve got a sitcom worth its weight in comedy gold.

In season 1 of Domestical economy, the Hayworths – struggling author Tom (Topher thanks), woke up younger sister Sarah (Caitlin McGee) and baby brother Connor (Jimmy tatro), the weak but wealthy venture capitalist – got us cracked while clashing over personal loans, expensive vacations, and wage inequality.

Executive producer Michael Colton based the show, and his surplus heart, on his own parents. “It’s a family comedy about a loving family too much a lot, ”he laughs. “They get really angry because they think they know best and just want to help.”

The fun continues in Season 2 as Tom draws closer to publishing his Hayworth-inspired novel, therapist Sarah finds work at the private school attended by Connor’s daughter Gretchen (Shiloh Bearman), and Connor is dating. one of Sarah’s friends.

But first, he sparks an argument when he scores luxury passes in a San Francisco 49ers game, but not enough for everyone. With Tom’s wife, Marina (Karla Souza) and Sarah’s wife, Denise (Sasheer Zamata), “They find a way to play the game on themselves,” promises co-creator John Aboud. Invaluable.

Domestical economy, Season 2 premiere, Wednesday September 22, 9:30 am / 8:30 am, ABC

This is an excerpt from the 2021 Returning Favorites issue of TV Guide Magazine. For more information on the new fall TV season, check out the newsstand issue now.

Wall Street shares closed sharply lower on Monday, reflecting losses abroad and giving the S&P 500 Index its biggest drop in four months.

Concerns about over-indebtedness Chinese real estate developers – and the damage they could do to investors around the world if they default – has spilled over into the markets. Investors are also concerned that the United States The Federal Reserve could report this week that it consider withdrawing some of the support measures it gives to the markets and the economy.

The S&P 500 lost 75.26 points, or 1.7%, to 4,357.73, its biggest drop since May. At one point, the benchmark was down 2.9%, the biggest drop since last October. The S&P 500 was coming off two weeks of losses and is on track for its first monthly decline since January. The S&P 500 has lasted unusually long with no pullbacks of 5% or more.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 614.41 points, or 1.8%, to 33,970.47. The blue chip index briefly lost 971 points. The Nasdaq lost 330.06 points, or 2.2%, to 14,713.90. The Hang Seng, Hong Kong’s main index, fell 3.3% for its biggest loss since July. European markets fell around 2%.

“What has happened here is that the list of risks has finally become too long to ignore,” said Michael Arone, chief investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors. “There is just a lot of uncertainty at a difficult seasonal time for the markets.”

Concerns about Chinese real estate developers and debt have recently focused on Evergrande, one of China’s largest real estate developers, which appears to be unable to repay its debts.

The fear is that a potential collapse there could set off a chain reaction in China’s real estate development industry and spill over into the wider financial system, in the same way that the Lehman Brothers failure ignited the 2008 financial crisis and the Great Recession. These real estate companies have been major engines of China’s economy, which is the second largest in the world.

If they fail to repay their debts, the heavy losses suffered by investors who hold their bonds would raise concerns about their financial strength. These bondholders could also be forced to sell other independent investments to raise funds, which could hurt prices in seemingly independent markets. It’s a product of how global markets have become tightly connected, and it’s a concept the financial world calls “contagion.”

Many analysts say they expect the Chinese government to prevent such a scenario, and that it doesn’t sound like a Lehman-type moment. Still, any hint of uncertainty may be enough to shock Wall Street after the S&P 500 has climbed almost uninterruptedly since October.

Besides Evergrande, there are several other concerns lurking beneath the generally calm surface of the stock market. In addition to the possible announcement by the Fed of a relaxation of the accelerator on its support for the economy, Congress might opt ​​for a destructive chicken game before allowing the US Treasury to borrow more money and the COVID-19 pandemic continues to weigh on the global economy.

Whatever the main cause of Monday’s market collapse, some analysts said such a drop was due. The S&P 500 hasn’t even seen a 5% drop from a high since October, and the almost unstoppable rise has left stocks more expensive and with less margin for error.

All the worries have prompted some on Wall Street to predict future stock declines. Morgan Stanley strategists said on Monday that conditions could ripen to cause the S&P 500 to fall 20% or more. They pointed to weakening buyer confidence, the potential for higher taxes and lower prices. ‘inflation to undermine corporate profits and other signs that the economy’s growth may slow sharply.

Even if the economy can avoid this worse-than-expected slowdown, Morgan Stanley’s Michael Wilson said stocks could still fall around 10% as the Fed cuts support for markets. The Fed is due to release its latest update on economic policy and interest rates on Wednesday.

Earlier this month, Stifel strategist Barry Bannister said he expected the S&P 500 to decline 10% to 15% in the last three months of the year. He cited the reduction in support by the Fed, among other factors. Bank of America strategist Savita Subramanian also set a target of 4,250 for the S&P 500 by the end of the year. That would be a 4.1% drop from Friday’s close.

Tech companies have led the market as a whole to the downside. Apple fell 2.1% and chipmaker Nvidia fell 3.6%.

Banks suffered heavy losses as bond yields fell. This impairs their ability to charge more lucrative interest rates on loans. The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 1.31% from 1.37% on Friday night. Bank of America fell 3.4%.

Oil prices fell 2.3% and weighed on energy stocks. Exxon Mobil fell 2.7%.

Small business stocks were among the biggest losers. The Russell 2000 lost 54.67 points, or 2.4%, to 2,182.20.

Airlines were among the few bright spots. American Airlines rose 3% to dominate all S&P 500 winners. Delta Air Lines rose 1.7% and United Airlines added 1.6%.

Cryptocurrency traders also had a rough day. The price of Bitcoin has fallen nearly 8% to $ 43,717, according to Coindesk.

Investors will have the opportunity to take a closer look at how the downturn has affected a wide range of businesses when the next round of corporate results begins in October. Strong earnings have been a key driver for stocks, but supply chain disruptions, higher costs and other factors could make it harder for companies to meet high expectations.

“The biggest strength in the market this year could become its biggest risk,” Arone said.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

First-time buyers can become homeowners without a down payment by living outside of major cities.

This is possible thanks to the USDA Rural Home Loan Program, which offers support to those who generally cannot get a mortgage due to their low income.

The loans are guaranteed by the rural development program of the Ministry of Agriculture and do not require a down payment.

There are income limits for securing a home loan guarantee, which vary depending on where you live and the size of the household.

To find the limit of the county where you live, consult the USDA website.

There is no loan limit, but keep in mind that the amount you can borrow is limited by your income and your household debt ratio.

To apply for a USDA secured loan, you must speak to a participating lender.

Below, we’ve rounded up homes listed on Zillow below $ 100,000 that are located in eligible rural areas, according to the USDA Eligibility Tool.

Just be aware that some will need a little love before moving in and the cost of renovations will increase your spending.

If you prefer to get a larger mortgage, you can provide the address of the home you want to buy to see if you qualify for home loans.

Aberdeen, CA – $ 29,000

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The cheapest house costs $ 29,000 and it is located in California – perfect if you are looking for pleasant temperatures all year round.

The house is a one bedroom, one bathroom house and has an additional room which is used as a bedroom converted into an enclosed patio.

A leather sofa and two leather rocking armchairs, a dining table and chairs, a washer and a dryer are included in the sale of the mobile home.

Glendive, Montana – $ 49,900

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For almost $ 20,000 more at $ 49,900, you can get a bedroom, a bathroom lodge located in Glendive, Montana.

The main level of the house also has the living room, and another can be used as a pantry or dining room.

Additionally, there is a basement which is said to be “unfinished”, but it houses utilities and provides a storage area.

The house was built in 1910 and the land measures 2,613 square feet.

Tollesboro, Kentucky – $ 49,900

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For the same price you can get a single family Home in Tollesboro, Kentucky.

It is located just off the AA freeway in downtown Tollesboro and would also have easy access to US 68.

Distributed over two floors, the property comprises three bedrooms and two bathrooms.

It is also said that there is a walk-in closet.

Saint Johns, Arizona – $ 69,000

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For $ 69,000, you can get a arizona home which comes with a huge back yard.

The property has two bedrooms and two bathrooms – perfect for small families.

It does, however, need a little love and updating to make it the perfect starting home.

The property is listed as a foreclosure on Zillow which means it has been repossessed and put up for sale.

Wilmington, Vermont – $ 89,000

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If you really want to get away from the hustle and bustle, you can buy your own $ 89,000 cabin near the Green Mountain National Forest in Vermont.

The property has an open layout with a log burner to keep things cozy.

Integrated stairs lead to a mezzanine with window. Outside there is a spacious wraparound deck.

Better yet, a solar generator and solar panels provide lighting for the house.

Welches, Oregon – $ 99,500

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Finally, you can become the owner of a mobile home for $ 99,500 in Oregon.

It includes a laundry room, a dressing room, three bedrooms and two bathrooms.

It is also said to be located a short walk from Dollar General, Subway, and Zig Zag Inn.

You might also be happy to hear that the existing washer and dryer are included in the sale.

We also rounded up six family size homes under $ 50,000 where first-time buyers only need a down payment of $ 1,750.

Earlier this year, a super saver revealed how she bought her first home at age 23 with low income and an average credit score.

Dive brief:

• Billings, MT-based First Interstate Bank acquires Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based Great Western Bancorp in $ 2 billion deal expected to close in first quarter of 2022, announced the banks in a press release Thursday.
• Adding Great Western’s 174 locations would more than double First Interstate’s number of branches to 321, according to American banker. The deal would also expand First Interstate’s footprint to 14 states, eight of which are new.
• Global Investor Rights Law Firm Halper Sadeh launched an investigation Thursday to see if the deal is fair to Great Western shareholders.

Dive overview:

Thursday’s deal marks First Interstate’s first acquisition since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The typically serial acquirer had completed seven bank transactions between 2014 and 2019, American Banker reported. But the Great Western transaction would be the most important.

In his statement Thursday, First Interstate CEO Kevin Riley called the acquisition a “moment of transformation.” Indeed, the combined bank – which would be headquartered in Billings and go by the name First Interstate – would have more than $ 32 billion in assets, $ 18.4 billion in loans and $ 27.1 billion in deposits, making First Interstate roughly the 63rd largest bank in the United States. , aaccording to June Federal Reserve data.

“We are both proud to be community banks with a strong focus on relationship building, customer service and community outreach,” said Riley, who would become the general manager of the combined entity. “We look forward to expanding our community banking model to eight new states and look forward to building relationships with the employees and customers who inhabit these beautiful regions. “

Great Western CEO Mark Borrecco is expected to become the combined entity’s banking director. Five Great Western directors will become members of the First Interstate board of directors following the agreement.

“We will be able to provide clients with access to additional branches and new products and services, provide new growth and professional development opportunities for our employees, deliver additional returns to our shareholders and have an even greater impact on our communities, ”Borrecco mentioned.

Under the deal, Great Western shareholders will receive 0.8425 First Interstate shares for each Great Western share they own, a 24.7% premium over Wednesday’s closing price, according to MarketWatch.

Halper Sadeh, however, has launched an investigation into whether Great Western and its board of directors have violated securities laws or their fiduciary duties to shareholders. The law firm questioned whether First Interstate was underpaying for Great Western and whether all important information had been disclosed before the acquisition was announced..

CHICAGO – Chicago woman accused of obtaining death certificates from young homicide victims by pretending she was a relative, then using their stolen identities to collect thousands of dollars in COVID-19 stimulus payments and tax refunds, authorities said.

>> Read more trending news

Katrina Pierce, 50, was indicted in United States district court with wire fraud and identity theft, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The lawyer appointed by Pierce could not be reached immediately for comment, according to the newspaper.

The 34-page complaint alleges Pierce asked Amari Brown’s aunt, a 7-year-old boy who was shot and killed on July 4, 2015, to request his death certificate, on Tribune reported. The complaint alleges that Pierce then used the stolen information to file a fraudulent tax return that resulted in a refund check for $ 4,400 from the IRS.

An IRS special agent reported that the Cook County Bureau of Vital Records became suspicious of Pierce in late 2019 when a staff member uploaded electronic death certificate requests in one day, WBBM-TV reported. The staff member said Pierce submitted four requests for death certificates in one day, claiming to be the sister of each of the deceased, the Tribune reported.

According to the newspaper, a check of the office’s database revealed that Pierce requested 37 death certificates in 2019 and was able to obtain 26. All of the certificates were for homicide victims aged 2 to 22, according to the newspaper. Tribune.

Requests for death certificates had also come in from a “Tracy Scott” and a “Tammy Jones” using the same address that Pierce owned, WBBM reported. The requests indicated that Scott worked for “Pierce Auto” and Jones was employed by “Pierce Inc.”, according to the television station.

In another example alleged in the complaint, Pierce is accused of applying for a loan on behalf of a manufacturing company called “Katrina D. Pierce LLC” at her Chicago address, WBBM reported. The company claimed to have 106 employees and $ 670,000 in gross revenue, according to the federal complaint.

Pierce is also accused of applying for loans using the name of a farming business in southern Illinois, a small business owner from Idaho, a farmer from Montana and two farmers from Iowa, according to WBBM.

Brown’s family were irritated by identity theft, which opened up old wounds.

“Why would anyone want to do this?” Brown’s aunt Andrina Hailey said WLS-TV. “It’s very sensitive to us, and we just think it’s disgusting.

“It is wrong. It is morally wrong. It is simply wrong.

Pierce was arrested on Tuesday, Tribune reported. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for next Tuesday, according to the newspaper.

According to prosecutors, Pierce was sentenced in 2012 to 11 years in federal prison for using stolen identities and other fraudulent documents to steal more than $ 200,000 in federal tax refunds and child care allowances. Tribune reported. She was still on probation when she was arrested this week, according to the newspaper.

“Identity theft can be very tricky, very difficult for authorities to detect because the systems are just not in place, at least not across the federal bureaucracy or the state bureaucracy to proactively seek out cases of identity theft, ”said Gil Soffer, a legal analyst for WLS.

More coverage in the event of a coronavirus pandemic:

>> Coronavirus: How long between exposure to the virus and the onset of symptoms?

>> What are your chances of coming into contact with someone with COVID-19? This tool will tell you

>> How not to let the fatigue linked to the coronavirus pandemic set in, fight back if this is the case

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Asian stocks were mixed on Friday after a mishmash of economic data led Wall Street to close largely lower.

Benchmarks rose in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Seoul but fell in Shanghai and Sydney.

Across the region, concerns over the protracted coronavirus outbreak weighed on sentiment.

“Overall, the mood remains a bit gloomy in the markets, with investors torn between the ‘buy down’ approach that has worked so well in the past and the growing list of economic and market risks that have worked so well in the past. are increasingly evident, ”Oanda’s Craig Erlam said in a comment.

In Japan, stocks are trading near three-decade highs in anticipation of a leadership change after Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga withdrew from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party leadership race.

Suga’s supportive notes had languished amid widespread public discontent with his administration’s response to the pandemic.

PLD lawmakers and grassroots members will vote on September 29, with a parliamentary election slated for next month.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index rose 0.6% to 30,489.12. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong rebounded from losses earlier in the week to gain 0.5% to 24,789.77. The Kospi in Seoul advanced 0.2% to 3,135.38.

The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.6% to 3,585.71, while the S & P / ASX 200 in Sydney lost 0.6% to 7,415.50.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average each lost around 0.2%, while the highly technological Nasdaq managed to achieve a gain of 0.1%.

The market rose slightly early after surprisingly good retail sales report for August, but then fell back.

Markets were choppy as investors moved money between various sectors while analyzing the data for clues about the direction the economy is heading and the Federal Reserve’s reaction.

The central bank will meet next week, and investors will listen intently to any commentary on the timing and extent of the decline in support for low interest rates that have helped fuel equity gains throughout the year.

The S&P 500 lost 6.95 points to 4,473.75. It stands at 1.4% of the all-time high established on September 2. The Dow Jones lost 63.07 points to 34,751.32, while the Nasdaq added 20.39 points to 15,181.92.

Small business stocks also lost ground. The Russell 2000 Index slipped 0.1% to 2,232.91.

The Commerce Department said retail sales rose 0.7% last month. Economists had expected a 0.85% contraction, believing that spending would have declined as the highly contagious delta variant of COVID-19 prompts consumers to withdraw from their purchases.

Wall Street also weighed in on a disappointing report showing that weekly jobless claims rose more than expected.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury bill rose to 1.33% from 1.30% on Wednesday night.

In other exchanges, US benchmark crude oil fell 14 cents to $ 72.47 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It remained unchanged overnight at $ 72.61 per barrel.

Brent crude, the standard for international prices, fell 18 cents to $ 75.49 a barrel.

The dollar rose to 109.87 Japanese yen from 109.81 yen on Thursday night. The euro climbed to $ 1.1768 from $ 1.1761.

———

AP Business Writers Damian J. Troise and Alex Veiga contributed.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

If you are an intense football fan or even a novice fan, you know who Aaron Rodgers is. Rodgers played the Green Bay Packers quarterback for years. He won a Super Bowl and entered the Professional Football Hall of Fame. But, he’s also had a lot of controversy this past offseason.

I’ve written a few articles about his issues with the Packers leadership. It was very polarizing to say the least. I really thought they were going to trade him in the offseason, but they didn’t.

This is his last season at Green Bay before joining another team. The Packers believe their future is with Jordan Love backing it up for now. It was a very complicated situation. But, for now, Rodgers is the starting quarterback.

So, last weekend, the Pack opened with the Saints and got beaten up. Aaron Rodgers also played poorly. Now everyone is on his case. But not for a second did he finish.

The Pack welcomes the Lions this Monday evening in Green Bay. The Lions’ defense is mediocre at best right now. So Aaron Rodgers could have a field day. The Lions didn’t have the best of luck in Green Bay either.

Never count Aaron Rodgers. A bad game doesn’t mean he’s finished. He hasn’t played the entire preseason, so get ready for him to have a brilliant game!

KEEP READING: Discover The Richest Person In Each State

MIAMI (AP) – A South Florida man claiming to be a movie financier was sentenced to 13 years in prison on Tuesday for carrying out a scheme to steal more than $ 60 million from investors and producers looking for fundraising for Broadway movies and shows.

Benjamin Forrest McConley, 39, has been sentenced in Miami federal court, court records show. In addition to serving a prison sentence, he must also pay restitution. He pleaded guilty in 2019 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

According to an indictment, McConley and his co-defendant Jason Van Eman, operating as Weathervane Productions, offered to provide funding to investors and producers seeking funds to produce films, theatrical performances and other projects. McConley and Van Eman promised victims that they would match their cash contributions and use the combined funds to secure funding from financial institutions in South Florida and elsewhere, investigators said.

Benjamin Rafael, a former Wells Fargo bank employee recruited by McConley and Van Eman, bolstered the scheme by lying to victims about the safety of their funds, prosecutors said. Victims have lost millions of dollars and their contributions have never been matched. Instead of funding projects, the money was transferred to personal and corporate bank accounts and spent on luxury cars, personal watercraft, real estate, stocks, jewelry, home furnishings, designer clothes, hotel rooms and air travel.

Rafael had previously pleaded guilty for his part in the scheme, as well as in another case involving fraudulent applications for COVID-19 relief loans. He was sentenced to three and a half years in prison.

Van Eman is due to stand trial in March 2022. His lawyer, Sidney Fleischman, said Van Eman maintained his innocence and looked forward to being fully exonerated after the trial.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

The Covid-19 pandemic has created a nursing crisis that is forcing many US hospitals to pay a high price to get the help they need to manage the patient crash this summer.

The problem, according to health officials, is twofold: nurses are resigning or retiring, exhausted or demoralized by the crisis. And many leave for lucrative temporary jobs with itinerant nursing agencies that can pay $ 5,000 or more per week.

Comprehensive coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic

It got to the point where the doctors say, “Maybe I should stop being a doctor and become a nurse,” said Dr. Phillip Coule, chief medical officer at Augusta University Medical Center in Georgia, who has occasionally seen 20 to 30 resignations. within a week of nurses taking itinerant jobs.

“And then we have to pay bonuses for staff from another state to come to our state,” Coule said.

The average salary of a traveling nurse has gone from around $ 1,000 to $ 2,000 per week before the pandemic to $ 3,000 to $ 5,000 now, said Sophia Morris, vice president of the care recruitment company Aya Healthcare Healthcare, based in San Diego. She said Aya had 48,000 itinerant nurse positions to fill.

At competitor SimpliFi, chairman James Quick said the hospitals his company works with were seeing unprecedented levels of vacancies.

“Small and medium-sized hospitals typically have dozens of full-time openings, and large healthcare systems have hundreds of full-time openings,” he said.

The salary explosion has made it difficult for hospitals without deep enough pockets.

Kansas Governor Laura Kelly recently lamented that state hospitals risk being outbid for nurses by other states that pay a “fortune.” She said on Wednesday that several hospitals, including one in Topeka, had beds open but no nurses to staff them.

In Kansas City, Missouri, Truman Medical Centers has lost about 10 nurses to travel jobs in recent days and is looking for travelers to replace them, CEO Charlie Shields said.

He said it’s hard to compete with travel agencies, which charge hospitals $ 165 to $ 170 an hour per nurse. He said the agencies were taking a big chunk of it, but he estimated nurses still make $ 70 to $ 90 an hour, two to three times what the hospital pays its nurses.

“I clearly think people are taking advantage of the demand that is there,” Shields said. “I hate to use ‘gouged’ as a description, but we are clearly paying a premium and allowing people to have pretty high profit margins.”

In Texas, more than 6,000 travel nurses have flooded the state to help soar through a state-supported program. But on the same day that 19 of them went to work at an upstate hospital, another 20 nurses at the same location announced they were leaving on a travel contract, said Carrie Kroll, vice president of the Texas Hospital Association.

Download the NBC News app for full coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic

“The nurses who have not left, who have stayed in their establishments, they see these other people coming in now who are making more money. It creates a tense work environment, ”Kroll said.

The pandemic was in its early stages when Kim Davis, 36, decided to quit her job at an Arkansas hospital and become a travel nurse. She said she roughly doubled her income in the 14 months she treated patients in intensive care units in Phoenix; San Bernardino, California; and Tampa, Florida.

“Since traveling, I have paid off all my debts. I paid off about $ 50,000 in student loans, ”she said.

Davis said many of his colleagues are following the same path.

“They go traveling because why would you do the same job for half the salary?” ” she said. “If they risk their lives, they should be compensated.

Health officials say nurses are exhausted and frustrated at being asked to work overtime, being yelled at and questioned by community members and dealing with people who have chosen not to. to be vaccinated or not to wear a mask.

“Imagine going to work everyday and working the hardest you’ve ever worked and coming out of work and what you see everyday is being denied to the public,” said Julie Hoff, chief nurse at OU Health in Oklahoma. “The death you see everyday is neither honored nor recognized.”

Meanwhile, hospitals are pressed by the revolving door of departures and new hires from travel agencies.

Coule cited a recent example in which her hospital in Georgia hired a respiratory therapist through an agency to replace a staff member who had decided to take on itinerant work. The replacement came from the same hospital where his respiratory therapist had just worked.

“Basically we have swapped staff, but at double the cost,” he said.

Patricia Pittman, director of the Fitzhugh Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity at George Washington University, said many nurses still harbor resentment towards their employers since the early stages of the pandemic, in part because they were forced to work without adequate protective equipment.

“Nurses say, ‘Hey, if I’m not treated with respect, I might as well become a travel nurse,’” she said. “That way I can go to work in hell for 13 weeks, but then I can take a few months or three months and go do whatever it takes. “

Follow NBC HEALTH on Twitter & Facebook.

Originally published at ILSR.org

For this episode of our 100% voices series of the Podcast on local energy rules, host John Farrell speaks with Helena’s sustainability coordinator Patrick Judge and Citizens Conservation Commission member Mark Juedeman. Judge and Juedeman have supported Helena as the city commits to 100% renewable energy. In making her engagement, Helena joined Missoula and Bozeman, building a coalition of command in western Montana.

Listen to the full episode and explore more resources below, including a transcript and conversation summary.

Episode transcript

Leads to sustainability through identity

Patrick Judge and Mark Juedeman were both drawn to work on sustainability and climate change because of their backgrounds.

Judge, Helena Sustainability Coordinator, was born and raised in Helena. His love for natural settings and his professional interest in the physical sciences lead him to make Helena a cleaner and more sustainable place. Additionally, Judge’s experience on climate change issues has enabled him to identify environmental threats to tourism and agriculture.

Clearly… global climate change is the most pressing issue we face today on the environmental front, and beyond, with serious threats to the quality of life in Montana: along with wildfires and their consequences. implications for public health; and drought threatening our largest agricultural industries. and tourism. – Patrick Judge

Likewise, Mark Juedeman’s identity as a native of Montana and his training in geology led him to work on sustainable development and play his role in the Citizens Conservation Commission. From being one of the first to adopt solar power in Louisiana to his experience installing wind power at his ranch in Montana, Jeudeman’s commitment to Helena’s 100% renewable energy transition is evident. in his lived experiences.

Create lasting change despite resistance

Together, Juedeman and Judge have helped Helena progress towards her sustainability goals. 30% of the city’s electricity supply already comes from hydro, wind and solar energy. By 2030, the town of Helena plans to run 100% clean electricity throughout the community.

that of Hélène clean electricity resolution was born from a Climate Change Action Plan 2009, which was inspired by over 40 community recommendations on how to switch Helena to clean energy. More importantly, the goal of 100% clean electricity was revitalized by a 2017 Citizen Conservation Council led by Juedeman.

These sustainability efforts, however, have met with major backlash from local and state authorities. Over the past five years, Helena has struggled within the limits of:

• Reduction of tax credits for conservation and renewable energy
• Additional charges on electric vehicles
• Attacks against net metering and the 50 kilowatt cap on distributed solar power
• Pre-emption bills to limit the imposition of carbon taxes by local governments

Faced with resistance from above, members of the Helena community responded with grassroots organization to broaden community support. The city is also working on its own energy efficiency and has also opted for a clean energy property rated loan program, which offers zero interest loans for energy efficiency improvements or the installation of solar energy.

We are facing enormous headwinds from the legislature and the executive. And that’s kind of our motivation to do whatever we can at the city level. – Mark Juedeman

Community solar legislation would help make the transition a fairer one, Juedeman says, as there is an affordability crisis in Montana and many cannot afford to own their own homes. Since there is no state legislation allowing it, Helena has piloted some solar installation projects on affordable housing complexes.

Prudent partnership with Northwestern Energy

Another challenge in meeting Helena’s renewable energy targets? The regional monopoly power company: Northwestern Energy. Northwestern Energy has a 220-megawatt coal-fired power plant that the company plans to operate until 2042, Judge says, as well as plans to build a new 175-megawatt gas plant in the future. It will be difficult for Helena to meet her targets if the utility provides them with electricity from these generation sources.

On the bright side, Northwestern Energy hosted a stakeholder meeting in 2019 with leaders from cities like Helena, Missoula and Bozeman to discuss how the utility can serve their communities, Judge said.

We’ve had a lot of conversations with the utility and, you know, we’re optimistic that we can make some progress. – Patrick Judge

The group was interested in replicating Utah’s 2019 Community Renewable Energy Act. However, Northwestern Energy did not believe that a withdrawal model was feasible in Montana. After stakeholder input, Northwestern Energy is moving forward with an opt-in green tariff program.

These communities already represent about a quarter of Northwestern, MT’s customer base, and these communities are also some of the most vibrant in the state… We believe this is a powerful and strong collective voice that the utility needs to pay attention to. – Mark Juedeman

Episode Notes

Check out these resources to learn more about the story:

For real-life examples of how cities can take action to better control their clean energy future, explore the Community power toolkit.

Explore local and state policies and programs that help advance clean energy goals across the country, using ILSR’s interactive tools Community Power Map.

This is the 31st episode of our special voice of series, and episode 137 of Local energy rules, an ILSR podcast with Energy Democracy Director John Farrell, which shares landmark stories of successful local renewables and exposes political and practical obstacles to its expansion.

Local Energy Rules is produced by John Farrell and Maria McCoy of the ILSR. Audio engineering by Drew Birschbach.

This article originally published on Ilsr.org. For timely updates, follow John Farrell on Twitter, our energy work on Facebook, or register to get the Energy Democracy weekly update.

Featured Photo Credit: Florida Fish and Wildlife via flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

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“I was probably the first member of my class at Harvard Business School to collect unemployment,” Thornburg, 75, said in an interview.

His luck quickly turned. He became CFO of New York State Urban Development Corp., and in 1979 he joined investment bank Bear, Stearns & Co., where he was a limited partner and founding member of its public finance department.

Yet it was not on Wall Street that Thornburg made his fortune. In 1982, he decamped to the high-altitude town of Santa Fe, New Mexico, to start what would become Thornburg Investment Management. Today, the company has 250 employees and approximately $ 49 billion in assets. He oversees nearly two dozen funds, according to his website.

Thornburg said he regularly receives unsolicited resumes from people wanting to work in the company’s adobe-colored offices just north of Santa Fe in the shadow of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

“Instead of places like New York, you can do your work from a place like New Mexico, where life is a lot cheaper, a lot slower, and you don’t have the commute. , so you save an hour or more every day, ”he said.

Unusual place

New Mexico was then, and remains today, an unusual location for a large financial services company. Thornburg may well be the only broker with primary offices in the state, according to data compiled by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

Thornburg admits the decision to move to a remote town 7,200 feet (2,195 meters) above sea level was “not rational.” Growing up in a small town in Minnesota, he couldn’t imagine raising his 2 year old son in New York City. He and his then wife, an artist, moved to the New Mexico capital because they had fallen in love with the area on previous trips. But before the widespread use of the Internet and fax machines, it was not the most convenient location.

The story continues

“It was so isolated that after a business trip, I brought a printer from Dallas because we didn’t have an office supply store in Santa Fe,” he recalls.

And there is still the necessary trip to New York to attract new large investors. That’s what brought Thornburg and his team back at the end of last month, when they launched an initial public offering of $ 580 million from the new Thornburg Income Builder Opportunities Trust.

More attractive

Still, Thornburg believes the pandemic has changed the equation, making New Mexico more attractive to people living in big cities. Another plus: Santa Fe, with a population of 84,000, paired with nearby Albuquerque as a low-cost back-office hub, is a tantalizing “punch,” he said.

Some financial firms have recently moved from New York to less traditional locations, but attention has focused on tax-advantaged Florida rather than more remote locations.

Read more: Hedge funds ready to leave New York and move to Florida

“I have a few clients who have moved to states like Colorado, Montana, Utah, or Las Vegas, and their firm has opened an office for them to work in,” said Timothy Noonan, partner at the Hodgson law firm. Russ, specializing in taxation. -residency problems. “But I haven’t seen an entire business move to a state outside of Florida.”

Although Thornburg remains chairman and personally owns around 20% of the company, he now focuses much of his attention on his foundation, with an endowment of $ 157 million.

Launched in 1999, the Thornburg Foundation helped push through an amendment to the state’s constitution to establish an ethics commission, supported the creation of an autonomous early childhood department in New Mexico, and assisted non-profit organizations to obtain government PPP loans to fight Covid.

One of his most important recent efforts has been to secure more funding for New Mexico after the release of the new federal census. Among the poorest states in the United States, New Mexico is also one of the most difficult to obtain an accurate census, as a large portion of its population is rural and a large percentage of Native Americans, he said. he declares.

“A lot of Native Americans don’t have a mailing address – but they do,” Thornburg said.

(Add the number of funds to the fourth paragraph.)

More stories like this are available at bloomberg.com

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© 2021 Bloomberg LP

Home equity increased in the United States in the second quarter of 2021, with 34.4% of mortgaged residential properties considered to be ‘high in equity’, meaning that the combined estimated amount of loans secured by these properties did not. not more than 50% of their estimated market value. . That’s according to the latest US home equity and seabed report released this month by ATTOM Data Solutions.

The report also shows that only 4.1% of mortgaged homes, or one in 24, were considered seriously underwater in the second quarter of 2021, with a combined estimated balance of loans secured by the property at least 25% higher than the estimated market for the property. value, ”indicates the summary of the report’s findings. “That was down from 5.2% of all US properties with a mortgage in the previous quarter and down to 6.2%, or 16 properties, a year ago.”

48 out of 50 states saw levels of equity-rich properties increase from Q1 2021 to Q2, while the percentage of “seriously underwater” properties declined over the same period. Each state has observed this trend by comparing numbers between Q2 2020 and Q2 2021, the report says.

“The improvements at both ends of the equity ladder were the most significant in two years and provided another sign that the US real estate market has weathered the damage to the economy at large from the coronavirus pandemic which hit early last year, “the report says. based on the summary. “As the economy gradually recovered in 2021, the housing market boom continued for a 10th consecutive year, with gains in most measures.”

When it comes to the U.S. regions that have seen the largest net worth gains, states to the west and northeast of the country have seen the share of high net worth dwellings rise. In fact, nine of the top ten states that experienced these increases were located in those two regions, according to the report. The largest declines in underwater properties were seen in the western and southern states.

“The states where the share of equity-rich homes declined or increased the least from the first to second quarters of this year were Maryland (down 23.5% to 23.2%), West Virginia (remaining at 19.8%), Nebraska (up slightly from 27% to 27.1%), Alaska (up slightly from 22.5% to 22.9%) and Montana (up from 40%) , 4% to 40.8%).

The smallest shares of capital-rich homes as well as the highest shares of seriously underwater homes were located in the Midwestern and Southern regions of the country, while the most equity-rich counties were again limited to the San Francisco Bay Area.

Read the report results at ATTOM Data Solutions.

What if your employer forced you to wear masks? What if your employer tries to force you to get the vaccine? These are the questions I hear from many Montanais.

I reached out to Rep. Jennifer Carlson (R-Manhattan) for answers as she drafted a key bill in the recent Montana legislative session, House Bill 702, which was enacted by Gov. Greg Gianforte (R-MT).

What if my employer forces me to be vaccinated against COVID-19?

Representative Carlson had very simple answers. First, she says to just talk to your employer. Let them know that requiring the vaccine from their employees is against state law. What if it doesn’t work? Do you call a lawyer and take legal action? Before going so far as to file a complaint, she says the Montanans can simply file a complaint with the Montana Human Rights Office.

Carlson: The flagship bill that could be signed was House Bill 702, which has a very simple title: it prohibits discrimination based on a person’s immunization status or possession of an immunity passport. And so, what this bill does specifically is that it protects your right to privacy and your medical decisions, and it prohibits your government entities, employers, and public premises from forcing you to have a. vaccine to access their services. That’s pretty, it’s a pretty strong law compared to what other states have managed to pass this session and the people of Montana can be happy that their rights to this medical choice are now protected in Montana.

What about employers requiring masks? It gets more complicated. Click below for the full audio with Representative Carlson on our podcast.

We also spoke with Governor Greg Gianforte in another segment of our podcast.

On Friday, the US Department of Education announced that federal student loan payments would remain on hiatus until the end of January.

Loan payments, accrued interest, and past due federal student loan collections have all been on hold since the start of the pandemic – first thanks to the CARES Act, then Due to extensions former President Trump, former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and President Biden.

Before Friday’s announcement, payments were expected to resume in October.

The Ministry of Education called this latest extension the last.

“The payment break has been a lifeline that has allowed millions of Americans to focus on their families, health and finances instead of student loans during the national emergency,” the US secretary told Education Miguel Cardona in the press release. “As our country’s economy continues to recover from a deep hole, this latest extension will give students and borrowers the time they need to plan for the restart and ensure a smooth return to repayment.”

In one Pew Charitable Trusts survey conducted this spring, While the moratorium was yet to expire on September 30, two-thirds of respondents said they would struggle to pay the payments once the freeze was lifted.

Democratic lawmakers – including Elizabeth Warren, Ayanna Pressley and Chuck Schumer – had previously urged the Biden administration to extend the moratorium until at least March 2022.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To learn more, visit https://www.npr.org.

BILLING – Two Montana men were recently arraigned on charges in a scheme to defraud a bank of about $ 1 million in Paycheck Protection Program (P3) loans and use those funds for their personal benefit, including the purchase of goods and vehicles, Acting US Attorney Leif M. Johnson said today.

Trevor Gene Lanius-McLeod, also known as Trevor Gene McLeod, 48, of Laurel, and Kasey Jones Wilson, 29, of Helena, each pleaded not guilty to an indictment accusing them of bank fraud and having engaged in monetary transactions in goods derived from specified illegal activity. If convicted of the most serious crime, defendants face a maximum of 30 years in prison, a fine of $ 250,000 and three years of supervised release.

Lanius-McLeod was arraigned on July 27 before US magistrate judge John T. Johnston in Great Falls. Wilson was arraigned on July 27 before US trial judge Timothy J. Cavan in Billings. The two defendants were released pending further proceedings.

The government alleged in court documents that from around April 2020 to around December 2020, the defendants applied for and received four PPP loans totaling $ 1,043,000 through Valley Bank of Helena, a division of Glacier Bank, on behalf of of four business entities. Lanius-McLeod applied for funds as an authorized representative of T. McLeod Holdings LLC, Hilltop Estates LLC and Renovated Montana Properties LLP. Lanius-McLeod and Wilson applied for funds as authorized representatives of Step Above Management LLC. In the claims, the defendants made numerous false claims about paying payroll taxes and having employees. In promissory notes, the defendants agreed to use the loan funds for salary costs, costs related to health care benefits and group insurance premiums, rent, utilities, interest on debt payments and refinancing a Small Business Administration economic disaster loan. Instead, the defendants spent the funds on personal expenses for their private benefit. If found guilty, the defendants risk confiscation of property related to the crimes, including property in East Helena, four vehicles and a trailer.

The PPP program, which is part of the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) law, provided emergency assistance to small businesses for job retention and some other expenses .

An indictment is only an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in court.

U.S. Assistant Attorney Colin M. Rubich is pursuing the case, which has been investigated by the IRS-Criminal Investigation and the FBI, with assistance from the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Administration tax and the US secret service.

On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General created the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Working Group to mobilize the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with government agencies to strengthen efforts to combat and prevent the pandemic fraud. The Working Group strengthens efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable national and international criminal actors and assists agencies responsible for administering relief programs to prevent fraud, among other methods, by scaling up and integrating mechanisms coordination, identifying resources and techniques for uncovering fraudulent actors and their programs, and sharing and leveraging information and knowledge gained from previous enforcement efforts. For more information on the Department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus.

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) hotline at 866-720-5721 or via the NCDF online complaint form at: https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form.

Reference of the PACER case. 07-21.

XXX

State Representative Chuck Gray’s father is the sole funder of a secret political action committee that spurs Gray’s attempt to oust U.S. Representative Liz Cheney in the Republican primary of the year next.

According to campaign finance disclosures Filed with the Federal Elections Commission on Saturday, Jan Charles Gray is the sole contributor to Protect Wyoming Values ​​PAC. The operation orchestrated a vast social network and SMS gray promotion campaign as the best candidate to replace Cheney.

According to campaign funding reports, Elder Gray contributed $ 100,000 to the PAC on May 5th. To date, the PAC has spent over $ 80,000 of that amount to boost Gray ahead of next year’s primaries. As of June 30, the PAC had less than $ 20,000 in cash, with no additional donors reported, according to campaign funding reports.

The PAC, which was anonymously registered with the Wyoming Secretary of State’s office earlier this year, served as a link between Gray’s father and Florida-based consultant Microtargeted Media, a one-stop-shop for political campaigns. run by a Florida Republican Party official with close ties to former Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.

Gray in June declined to comment on any possible connection between PAC spending and the Trump camp. Gray attended a series of meetings at Trump’s Bedminster Golf Club last week, according to reports and the Gray campaign.

However, shortly after WyoFile reported on the PAC, it posted a rebuttal on Facebook.

“Looks like a reporter is trying to connect our organization to CHUCK GRAY”, the PAC wrote. “Let’s help him with his homework. “

Federal campaign finance laws that dictate how political action committees can coordinate with political candidates require organizations affiliated with a candidate record their contributions as “in-kind” donations to the candidate’s campaign.

Coordinated spending is subject to different regulations, including contribution ceilings, than independent CCP activities not directly linked to a campaign.

Neither Gray’s campaign nor Jan Charles Gray immediately responded to repeated requests for comment.

Because Protect Wyoming Values ​​PAC was created through a registered agent, it is impossible to prove whether Elder Gray founded PAC, or whether it was incorporated by another organization and funded by Gray. .

To prove that a PAC was poorly coordinated with a candidate, complaints must withstand scrutiny in a three-pronged test, FEC spokesman Myles Martin said. The components of the test examine the source of the payment, the nature of the communications, and the interaction between the person paying for the communication and the candidate or political party committee, he said.

“This is a really unusual situation where you have a family member of a candidate who directly and fully funds the super PAC supporting the candidate,” said Pete Quist, research director at the National Institute on Money. in Politics, based in Montana. “But it doesn’t pass the smell test. Are people really not talking to each other here? It seems to be a very close association.

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Gray’s campaign, which had the highest total cash available of any of Cheney’s challengers in July, was largely self-funded, with relatively anemic donor support compared to candidates like Cheyenne attorney Darin Smith and Wyoming State Senator Anthony Bouchard.

According to Gray’s July FEC report, almost $ 300,000 of the $ 394,000 the candidate raised in this election came in the form of loans from the candidate himself, while an additional $ 5,600 in direct contributions came from his father.

It is not clear if the candidate spent a significant amount of their own money. Of the $ 71,000 spent by the campaign so far, Gray as an individual has spent just over $ 1,400 on purchases, including rental of mailboxes, plane tickets and billboards. campaign.

HELENA, Mont. (AP) – Montana’s economy has largely recovered from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, but faces a labor shortage fueled in part by a lack of affordable housing, economists said Wednesday.

A commission tasked with distributing part of the $ 900 million in federal coronavirus relief Montana has received has named affordable housing one of four categories it will consider for funding proposals. The others are business innovation, value-added agriculture and workforce development. The commission will meet again in three weeks to discuss the public’s proposals.

With home values ​​having risen by more than 20% in the past year in parts of the state, some workers say they cannot take low-paying jobs even with recent pay increases, said Mike Foster, director of the state’s coronavirus distribution program. relief fund.

While the office of Republican Governor Greg Gianforte is open to funding affordable housing, Foster said it was “a delicate challenge because we want to be respectful of the free market.”

Judy Stinchcombe, owner of a vacation property company in Paradise Valley, told the commission she was struggling to find workers in the popular destination near Yellowstone National Park. She said she would like to build 14 two-bedroom cabins to house her employees and asked the commissioners to consider providing funds for employee housing.

Several people have spoken out in favor of allocating money to developers of affordable for-profit housing, saying such projects are difficult to finance.

Ted Barkey, an economist at the University of Montana, told the commission the economy is improving but two problems remain: Businesses are struggling to fill vacancies and it is difficult for workers to find affordable housing. .

He said wages in the first quarter of this year were 20% higher than in the first quarter of 2020.

Barbara Wagner, chief economist for the Montana Department of Labor, said it was difficult to fill positions as the workforce is still down by more than 5,000 workers from pre-pandemic levels . This is despite a relatively strong economy urging workers to return to work with higher wages and readily available COVID-19 vaccines, she said.

Montana’s labor force participation fell sharply at the start of the pandemic, but quickly recovered to eclipse pre-pandemic levels in May 2020. Since then, it has declined steadily but has seen small increases in May and June.

Wagner says the drop can also be attributed in part to a lack of affordable child care – an issue Gianforte is looking to address by sending more than $ 30 million in relief funds to daycares to hire more staff.

More than 50,000 parents in Montana have reduced their working hours since the start of the pandemic, according to data collected by the Department of Labor.

The committee also approved a homeowners assistance fund on Wednesday that would provide loans to homeowners in financial difficulty to meet mortgage payments, despite the denial of Democratic lawmakers on the committee who called for financial assistance to be provided in the form grants rather than loans.

The program will provide loans of up to $ 25,000 to homeowners at risk of mortgage default for up to 10 years without interest.

“I don’t understand why we are asking people to take out another loan when it looks like we can just fix them and let them have a fresh start,” Democratic Minority Leader Kim Abbott said.

In another step to address the labor shortage, Montana ended its participation in expanded federal unemployment benefits last month. He launched a back-to-work incentive program that could give workers $ 1,200 if they find and keep a job for at least a month.

The state released figures for the program for the first time this week, revealing that $ 76,000 has gone to 65 beneficiaries so far. Of these, 27 were hired for jobs paying $ 15 or less per hour. The state is processing over 3,000 other requests.

President Biden’s The candidate for the head of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) appears to have broken Senate ethics rules and federal law during her tenure as a member of Congress.

Tracy Stone-Manning has come under scrutiny for her connection to Earth First! eco-terrorist tree-planting plot, but she also took out a $ 100,000 business loan from a friend while employed by Senator Jon Tester, D-Mont.

According to her written responses to the committee’s questions following her hearing last month, Stone-Manning received the loan for her business DB Sound LLC, which her husband “managed,” from Stuart Goldberg, a wealthy Montana developer and donor. de Tester, in 2008 to help his company in difficulty after the stock market crash.

BIDEN CANDIDATE UNDER FIRE OVER POSSIBLE FINANCIAL BENEFITS WHILE WORKING AT CONGRESS

The loan was accepted at an interest rate of “6%” – well below the market interest rate of about 11% at the time, according to Federal Reserve Economic Data – with a term of “12 years”.

After his business closed and his family downsized in 2009, Stone-Manning converted the remaining $ 60,000 from Goldberg’s business loan into a personal loan, “paying it back in full in 2020.”

However, Stone-Manning also admitted in her responses that she did not consult the Senate Ethics Committee about the loan – a Senate ethics rule and a requirement of federal law.

According to Rules of ethics of the Senate and federal law, Senate employees can receive gifts from friends up to a value of $ 250. Anything over the amount must be disclosed to the Senate Ethics Committee and receive a written exemption from the staff member accepting the gift rule.

Stone-Manning wrote in her responses that she did not consult the Senate Ethics Committee about the loan and that she did not disclose the loan to the committee in the first place, saying she “did not consider not the loan to the company as a gift. “

Senate rules and federal law consider a loan to be a “gift,” with the exception of commercially available loans.

Federal law provides that loans are exempted when they are “made in a commercially reasonable manner (including the requirement that the loan be repaid and a reasonable rate of interest paid)”.

BIDEN’S CANDIDATE FOR LAND AGENCY SAID HUSBAND’S SUGGESTION TO LEAVE THE HOUSES TAKEN IN THE “BRBURLER” FOREST FIRES

The exception to Senate rules states that loans are exempt if they originate “from banks and other financial institutions on terms generally available to the public.”

This means Stone-Manning appears to have broken both federal law and 2008 Senate ethics rules until she left Tester’s staff in 2012.

In addition to the $ 100,000 loan, as DB Sound closed and engaged in a “move sale,” according to newspaper ads and files obtained by Fox News, Goldberg bought “thousands of dollars” from equipment to DB Sound at wholesale price after loan. .

Goldberg’s purchases could also have been a “giveaway” requiring committee disclosure, as the purchases could have given Stone-Manning a monetary value greater than $ 250.

Senator Roger Marshall, R-Kan., Who called Stone-Manning for the loan during his nomination hearing, torched the BLM candidate for the payment and his ties to Earth First !.

“Tracy Stone-Manning lied to the committee about her involvement with eco-terrorists. She also appears to have violated Senate ethics rules and possibly broken federal law by accepting a questionable loan of $ 100,000,” he said. Marshall told Fox News in an email Tuesday.

“President Biden should immediately withdraw her nomination and nominate a candidate without a history of financial disputes and eco-terrorism allegations,” he added.

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Stone-Manning has yet to produce written documentation on the loan, its terms, payment schedule, and other relevant documents.

The White House did not respond to Fox News’ request for comment on the loan and whether ethical issues surrounding the loan could impact her transparency as director of BLM.

In the latest ranking of the index released Tuesday, small towns dominate. Metropolitan area # 2 is Coeur d’Alene, the lakeside town in Idaho that held # 1 when the index was created in April. Fort Wayne, Indiana, Rapid City, SD, and Raleigh, NC round out the top 5.

The index identifies major metropolitan areas for home buyers looking for an appreciating housing market and attractive lifestyle amenities. This quarter’s version added the new property tax criteria, which caused some areas in the Northeast, Midwest and Texas with higher property taxes to drop in rankings.

The strengthening of the US economy also played a role, rewarding cities where jobs and wages have increased the most. Rapid City and Raleigh each jumped about 100 spots from the previous quarter.

Billings, Montana’s largest city, fell from fourth to first due to its low unemployment rate, affordability, and booming housing market. With a metro area population of around 184,000, Billings had an unemployment rate of 3% in May, about half the national rate.

Much of the strength of the Billings housing market is due to out-of-state buyers, from coastal states like California and Washington to Kentucky and Texas, said Deb Parker, broker-owner of Parker & Co. Real Estate Services in Billings. Many are moving to the area because they have the option to work remotely, she said.

“I believe Montana has really been discovered,” Ms. Parker said. “I have never seen so much money in our market.”

About 65% of pageviews on Billings’ property listings were from outside the metro area in the second quarter, up from about 57% a year earlier, according to Realtor.com.

Corp News,

parent company of the Wall Street Journal, operates Realtor.com.

Billings, surrounded by several mountain ranges, was founded as a 19th century railway town. Today, new residents are drawn to the area’s hiking trails and other outdoor activities. Yet unlike some small American towns, where second home buyers have played a notable role in setting up and increasing home prices, about 3% of Billings homes are vacation properties, according to Realtor.com. .

Like much of the West, Billings is currently experiencing extreme heat. The National Weather Service has issued a red flag warning in the area, which indicates weather conditions that could accelerate the spread of wildfires.

Emily and Travis Elwood decided during the pandemic that they wanted to move out of Portland, Oregon, where they were renting a two-bedroom apartment. They visited Billings last summer and were drawn to its size and affordability. “Frankly, [we] were never going to be able to buy a house in the Portland area, ”Ms. Elwood said. “We just wanted something a little smaller, a little tighter.”

Ms. Elwood continued to work in Oregon from Montana, and Mr. Elwood found new employment with Billings in a dental company. They moved in October and bought a three bedroom house in June for $ 316,000. Their monthly mortgage payment is lower than their monthly rent in Portland, Ms. Elwood said.

Small Montana markets, including Bozeman, also saw an influx of buyers during the pandemic. Some of the top reasons out-of-state shoppers chose Montana were safety and security, concerns about Covid-19 and the state’s smaller population, according to a survey of Montana Realtors by Montana State University Billings last summer.

The average selling price of a single-family home in Billings and surrounding areas was $ 376,248 in June, up 32% from the previous year, according to the Billings Association of Realtors.

As in many markets across the country, the number of homes for sale is very low. There were 392 single-family dwellings in the Billings area in June, up from 433 a year earlier, the association said.

“There wasn’t much there,” said Claire Alden, who started shopping in Billings with her husband, Deaver Alden, this spring. “There was only one or two on the market at a time that we would consider at all.”

After the Aldens made their first offer for a house, they discovered that the seller had already accepted a cash offer on the same day the house was put on the market. They ended up buying a four bedroom house in June with a shed in the back which they plan to convert into a rental property.

The Wall Street Journal / Realtor.com Emerging Housing Markets Index ranks the 300 largest metropolitan areas in the United States. In addition to housing market indicators, the index incorporates economic and lifestyle data, including unemployment rate, wages, commuting time, and small business loans.

Home prices in the index’s top 20 markets rose 13.7% on average over the past year, surpassing an 8% increase for the 300 zones, but the top 20 zones still had a d ‘Median listing lower than that of the market as a whole, Danielle said. Hale, Chief Economist at Realtor.com.

Write to Nicole Friedman at [email protected]

Just before 9:40 a.m. on Saturday, a Missoula police officer responded to 500 Taylor Street to meet with Montana Rail Link employees regarding an intrusion into MRL property and tampering with MRL control boxes.

An employee reported seeing Tracy Ronning, a 58-year-old man, walking along the tracks near the Taylor Street crossing. He watched Ronning tamper with the lock on the control box. He saw Ronning open the door and start playing with the internal equipment. Police Information Officer Lydia Arnold explains.

“Officers were told that Ronning had entered Montana Rail Link property and was causing damage,” said Arnold. “When officers arrived at the scene, MRL employees were able to explain to officers that Ronning had entered a control signal box and was able to disable the train signals.”

MRL employees immediately saw that Ronning had shut off all power switches to the crossing warning devices. When an employee examined each of the boxes, he took photographs to document the condition they were in, then repaired them or the internal equipment or mechanisms to return them to the working condition they were in. were before being falsified.

“This is an extreme danger to public safety as the signaling of an upcoming train would not have worked if MRL employees could not see that the box was damaged,” Arnold said. “Pedestrians and drivers in the area would not have been informed that a train was crossing the level crossing. Fortunately, there was no incident. “

MRL employees said there could easily have been a collision between a vehicle or pedestrian and a train. An employee explained that in a collision the train always wins and is an inherently fatal situation for anyone struck by a train. He said controlled level crossings exist for public safety, as train collisions almost exclusively end in death or serious injury.

The employee said the Taylor Street crossing exists primarily to notify tankers filled with petroleum fuels when it is safe to cross the tracks. He said these trucks often pull double trailers full of fuel from the north side of the tracks to the south side of the tracks. Immediately south of this junction is a busy petrol station and the Eastgate Shopping Center. He said if a train collided with a tanker, the damage would be catastrophic.

By altering and cutting off power to MRL’s essential safety equipment, Ronning created a substantial risk of death or serious injury to the general public using the crossing. He is currently charged with criminal endangerment, criminal trespassing and criminal interference with property.

BOZEMAN, Mont. – Montana farmers and ranchers who experience livestock deaths and food losses due to drought may be eligible for the Livestock, Bee and Fish Emergency Assistance Program (ELAP).

This program also provides compensation to eligible producers for expenses associated with transporting water to livestock physically located in a county designated as “D3 Drought – Extreme” according to the US Drought Monitor.

For ELAP, producers must file a notice of livestock loss within 30 days and honey bee losses within 15 days of onset of loss.

Pastoralists may also be eligible for the Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP) for 2021 pasture losses due to drought, as noted in a press release.

LFP benefits may be available for loss of acres of pasture due to forest fires on federally managed land on which a producer is prohibited, by a federal agency, from grazing normally licensed livestock.

Additionally, emergency haymaking and grazing of CRP acres may be permitted (outside of the primary nesting season) to provide relief to cattle ranchers in areas affected by severe drought.

Emergency haymaking and grazing status is reviewed and cleared every Thursday using the U.S. Drought Monitor.

Eligible orchards and nurserymen may be eligible for cost-shared assistance through the Tree Assistance Program (TAP) to replant or rehabilitate eligible trees, shrubs or vines lost during drought.

This complements the Uninsured Agricultural Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) or crop insurance coverage, which covers the crop but not the plants or trees in all cases. To apply to TAP, a program application must be submitted within 90 days.

“As soon as you can assess the impact of drought on your farm, be sure to contact your local FSA office to timely report all damage and loss to crops, livestock and agricultural infrastructure.” Rispens, acting executive director of the Farm Service Agency (FSA) in Montana, said. “To expedite FSA disaster assistance, you will likely need to provide documentation, such as farm records, a herd inventory, receipts, and photos of damage or loss.”

FSA also offers a variety of direct and guaranteed loans, including operational and emergency loans, to producers unable to obtain commercial financing.

Producers in counties with a primary or contiguous disaster designation may be eligible for low-interest emergency loans to help them recover from production and physical losses.

A Columbia Falls official and Whitefish business owner said last week that a federal infrastructure bill was needed for local governments and business operations during a shutdown by Democratic Montana Senator Jon Tester in Kalispell.

Columbia Falls City Councilor Mike Shepard explained how federal funding would help the city potentially improve its sewage treatment plant and improve some of its streets.

JoJé Bars Founder and CEO Jess Cerra of Whitefish explained how reliable broadband and reliable internet access is vitally important to her energy bar business.

Residents and Flathead Valley Community College president Jane Karas said they supported a bipartisan infrastructure package recently brokered by Tester, a Democrat, and nine other Senate colleagues, divided between Democrats and Republicans.

The Senate is expected to begin debate on the $ 579 billion bill in the coming weeks.

“We’ve been living off our parents’ infrastructure for too long,” Tester as he puzzled for the package at FVCC last week. He said the bill would also make the United States more competitive with China.

He said the Senate package would strengthen the country’s ailing infrastructure and create a system through which anyone who wants high-speed internet access can get it.

Karas said the internet was a huge concern locally, noting that during the pandemic some students simply did not have adequate access.

“A lot of students didn’t have any type of access,” she said.

Shepard said the city’s growth is making infrastructure problems worse. The city has done good planning over the years, looking 15-20 years into the future as it adds wells and upgrades its sewage treatment plant.

But in years gone by, the city could count on federal grants or loans to help fund these projects. But today and for a long time, not so much.

He said simple things like sewage treatment plants are good for the environment, reducing the chances of algae blooms in places like Flathead Lake.

For Cerra, she said a reliable internet is very important. She has said on more than one occasion that she attended a Zoom meeting or other important connection just to make the internet fail.

In addition to the energy bar business, she also created The Last Best Ride mountain bike race scheduled for late August on the gravel roads around Whitefish.

The tester clarified some aspects of the package, which includes $ 200 billion in revolving loan funds for projects.

He said he is not repealing any of the corporate tax cuts that were passed in 2017. Instead, he is using funds that were not spent in previous federal government bills. coronavirus relief. It also tightens the application of federal income tax to pay for the measure.

He said Senate Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, hopes to publicize him by July 19.

If it is adopted, it must also be reconciled and adopted in the House.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, also expressed doubts, according to a Washington Post report on Monday.

“The era of bipartisanship over this stuff is over… It will not be done on a bipartite basis. It’s going to be a hell of a fight over what this country should look like in the future and it’s going to unfold here in the next few weeks. I don’t think we had a greater difference of opinion between the two parties, ”McConnell said of Democrats’ plans to run infrastructure along party lines, the Post reported.

Officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that Lincoln County, along with 14 other counties in Montana, was eligible for drought relief on July 6.

The designations brought the number of counties qualified for federal drought funds to 31 out of the state’s 56. Lincoln County became eligible for the aid because it is contiguous with counties in Idaho that the USDA has considered the top natural disaster counties, according to a government statement. Greg Gianforte.

Brooke Stroyke, press secretary for Gianfote, said state officials were happy to see Lincoln County receive the designation, especially given the high temperatures the area experienced over the past week.

USDA drought relief includes emergency loans for equipment and farm operations, according to the department’s website.

Local drought designations followed Gianforte’s July 1 declaration of a statewide drought emergency. That day, the governor also wrote a letter to US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack asking for federal assistance.

“As we continue to see record temperatures from Libby to Glendive, it is imperative that the [USDA] help Montana communities access essential resources, ”Gianforte wrote.

The governor noted that about 91% of the state was facing unusually dry to extreme drought conditions as of June 22. About 52% of the state faced similar conditions around the same time last year.

Along with the high temperatures, Gianforte said drought conditions would be made worse by a lack of rain. Montana’s drought forecast report had forecast below-normal precipitation across the state, according to the governor’s letter.

Gianforte’s decree declaring a state of drought emergency suspends regulation of road hauliers and commercial vehicle operators while providing direct drought-related support.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture declared a drought disaster in 15 more Montana counties, bringing the number of counties in a declared disaster to 31 of 56 counties in Montana.

The declaration makes farms in the affected area eligible for emergency loans and other federal aid. It comes after Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte declared a statewide drought emergency last week and called on Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to declare a federal emergency across the country. State.

“I appreciate that Secretary Vilsack has responded to my request and designated other counties in Montana as natural disaster areas, but the USDA must do more now to help our agricultural producers,” Gianforte said in a statement. “With every region of the state facing severe to extreme drought conditions, I continue to call on the USDA to declare the entire state a drought area. “

More than 92% of Montana experiences unusually dry conditions according to data released last week.

Hill and Wheatland counties have been identified as major disaster areas. Farms are also eligible for Farm Service Agency assistance in 13 additional counties: Blaine, Chouteau, Fergus, Golden Valley, Judith Basin, Liberty, Meagher, Sweet Grass, Lincoln, Missoula, Sanders, Mineral and Ravalli counties.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

SECOND AMENDMENT TO THE SECOND FINANCING AND INVENTORY SECURITY AGREEMENT AMENDED AND RETIRED

[***]

I. Parties

[***]

This Second Amendment to the Amended and Restated Second Stock Financing and Guarantee Agreement (“Amendment”) is effective July 1, 2021 and is entered into by and between the following parties:

[***]

A.Ally Bank (Ally Capital in Hawaii, Mississippi, Montana and New Jersey), a state chartered bank of Utah (“Bank”), with a sales office located at 5851 Legacy Circle, Suite 200, Plano, TX 75024; and

[***]

B. Ally Financial Inc., a Delaware entity (“Ally”) with a commercial office located at 5851 Legacy Circle, Suite 200, Plano, TX 75024 (with the Bank, the “Allied Parties”, and the Bank and Ally being each a “Party of Allies”); and

[***]

C.Carvana, LLC, an Arizona limited liability company with its principal registered office at 1930 West Rio Salado Parkway, Tempe, AZ 85281 (the “Dealership”).

[***]

II. Considerations

[***]

The essential facts on which the Bank, Ally and the Concessionaire rely as true and complete, and giving rise to this Agreement, are as follows:

[***]

A. The Allied Parties and the Concessionaire are parties to a Second Amended and Restated Inventory Security and Finance Agreement, effective as of October 1, 2020 (as may have been amended or amended, the ” IFSA ‘), which has been amended by the following:

[***]

1. First Amendment to Amended and Updated Second Stock Financing and Guarantee Agreement, effective March 1, 2021.

[***]

B. The parties wish to modify the IFSA as indicated in this amendment.

[***]

III.Agreement

[***]

In consideration of the premises and mutual promises contained in this Addendum, which are deemed sufficient, the Allied Parties and the Concessionaire agree as follows:

[***]

A. Capitalized terms used but not defined in this amendment have the meanings given to them in IFSA.

[***]

B. In force from 1 July 2021, sub-section III.A.3 of IFSA is deleted and replaced by the following:

[***]

3. Amount of the credit line. The total amount of credit available under this Agreement (the “Line of Credit”) is $ 1,750,000,000.00.

[***]

Certain information has been excluded because it (i) is not material and (ii) would be prejudicial to competition if disclosed publicly.

[***]

C. Effective from July 1, 2021, sub-section III.B.1 of IFSA is deleted and replaced by the following:

[***]

1. Interest accrued, rate and method of calculation. Wholesale outstanding amounts owed to allied parties will bear interest from the day after each advance or loan until the date of full repayment. Interest will be calculated at an annual rate and will be determined using a simple 365/360 interest calculation method, unless expressly prohibited by law (“Interest”). The interest rate is the prime rate minus 50 basis points (bps) (the “interest rate increment”).

[***]

The “prime rate” is defined as the annual interest rate advertised by the Bank from time to time as its “prime rate” (with the understanding that this advertised rate is used as a benchmark for pricing certain loans, which may be at, above or below this advertised rate and which may be based on various factors specific to the borrower, including the borrower’s loan amount and the borrower’s creditworthiness). The Prime Rate and its effective date will be announced on Ally Dash’s website or a designated alternative source in written communication from the Bank to the Borrower.

[***]

The prime rate from the signing by the Allied Parties of this Amendment is 3.25% per annum.

[***]

Notwithstanding the foregoing, to the extent that the prime rate differs by more than 10bp from the US prime rate published by The Wall Street Journal, for a period of at least 7 calendar days, the concessionaire and the allied parties agree to negotiate good faith as to whether the increase in the interest rate should be adjusted.

[***]

D. Second modification commitment fees. Simultaneously with the signing of this amendment, the concessionaire will pay the allied parties a “second amendment commitment fee” in the amount of $[***].

[***]

E. All other provisions of IFSA remain unchanged and in full force as written. In the event of a conflict between the terms of IFSA and this amendment, the terms of this amendment shall prevail.

[***]

F. With the exception of the above provisions, the IFSA and all other agreements between each of the Allied Parties and the Concessionaire remain in full force as written.

[***]

G. If any provision of this amendment is held to be invalid or unenforceable by a court of competent jurisdiction, all other provisions remain valid and enforceable.

[***]

H. This amendment:

[***]

1. May only be amended in writing signed by all parties.

[***]

2. May be signed in copies each of which is deemed to be an original and which, taken together, constitute one and the same agreement. Any signature electronically placed or delivered (for example, by fax or e-mail) of the parties constitutes and is considered to be an original signature for all purposes.

[***]

***[Redacted for confidentiality purposes]

[***]

3. binds and applies for the benefit of the parties and their respective successors and assigns.

[***]

4.Constitutes the entire agreement of the parties with regard to its subject matter.

[***]
[Remainder of Page is Blank]

[***]

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, each of the parties has caused this Addendum to be executed by its duly authorized representative from the date indicated above.

In 2020, when many people were looking for jobs, scammers were working hard to try to cheat Americans with their money. Throughout the year, law enforcement reported 4.7 million cases of fraud, identity theft and other scams. This shattered the previous 2019 record of nearly 1.5 million reports. In total, Americans lost $ 3.3 billion to fraud last year.

While every state had hundreds, if not thousands, of fraud reports, some state populations were much more prone to identity theft than others. A few states reported less than 100 incidents per 100,000 population, while three states reported more than 1,000 incidents per 100,000 population.

24/7 Wall St. examined data from the Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book to identify the states with the most and the least identity theft.

By 2020, by far the most common type of identity theft involved people fraudulently claiming government benefits. As the federal government offered business loans and additional unemployment benefits due to the pandemic, there have been almost 400,000 reports of people fraudulently claiming or receiving benefits – an increase of almost 3,000% from to the previous year.

In most cases, the person who reported the fraud has not lost any money. Yet nearly three-quarters of a million Americans, just over a third of cases, have been swindled with money. The median loss in these cases was $ 311, but nearly 40,000 Americans reported losing more than $ 10,000 in some sort of criminal scam.

There does not appear to be a common dividing line between the states with the highest per capita identity theft. The states at the top of the list cover the gamut of populations large and small, high and low income, and they are located across the country. Some of the states with the most identity theft generally have low violent crime rates, while others rank among the most dangerous states in America.

Click here to see the states with the most identity theft.

# 63
Rush reimer, OL: A player never knows when his opportunity will present itself. A string of offensive line injuries and defections over the past few months has seen Reimer become a left tackle substitute, meaning he’s poised to play a pivotal role in Bobcat’s offense. Reimer brings a good size to the position, and moves well for his size. He enters the preseason as Montana State’s third offensive tackle.

Spotlight on Herb Roberts: As life returned to a new normal in the years after WWII, the dynamics of college campus life changed dramatically, where the integration of veterans into mainstream life became a focal point. Beginning with what was officially called the Military Readjustment Act of 1944, the GI Bill addressed a wide range of issues relating to the reintegration of the men and women who had helped the world persevere against the evils of the Nazi Germany and the Axis Powers. Part of this program, signed by Franklin Roosevelt, was an education provision that remained in place for more than a decade (first by providing free education to veterans, then by providing loans until the years 1960). Montana’s state football program resumed in 1946 with a backlash from the returning military, as the Cats reached their very first bowl game, and a year later ended a long losing streak. against the Grizzlies. Success waned temporarily, but throughout the 1950s, the state of Montana offered veterans the opportunity to play football while graduating. One of those players was Herb Roberts. The Beaver Dam, Wis., Product was part of Coach Tony Storti’s pipeline to the upper Midwest, and after 40 months as the U.S. Navy – which included time playing on duty football teams – Roberts won the left tackle honors based on work done in fall practices. Noted for his “stocky frame” and maturity in MSC publicity material, Roberts won third-team All-Rocky Mountain Conference honors as a true freshman, but “likes custody better and asked for s’ he could not return to that “post” for the 1954 season. The change has caught and the Cats finished 8-1 this season for the most wins in program history, the only controversial fashion flaw in Missoula. Roberts’ starting four-year career culminated with the Bobcats National Championship in 1956, but there was a time when his career was in jeopardy. Roberts suffered injuries in a car crash during the winter ahead of his junior season that left him in a cast body all winter. But his presence stabilized the Bobcats in 1955 and during the championship race he was part of a senior class that helped integrate an incredibly talented group of freshmen that included future Hall of Fame members from MSU Sonny Holland, Charlie Jackson and Dave Alt.

Chronology: Herb Roberts (1956), Bob Grine (1957), Phil Schneider (1959), Phil Schneider (1960-61), Larry Jones (1963-64), Stan Szczepanczyk (1965), Mike Volmer (1966-69), Phil Rubert (1970), Larry Stevenson (1971), Paul Klaboe (1972-73), Tim Nixon (1974-76), Tim McVicker (1977-79), Tim McVicker (1980), Eric Smith (1982), Dave Kuchar (1983 ) -84), Pete Fusang (1985), Pat Harmon (1986), Corey Widmer (1987-90), Jeff Corbett (1991), Duff Wall (1992), Clay Allard (1993), Ty O’Connor (1994- 98), Phil Espinoza (2000), Ben Smith (2001), Rory Canfield (2003), Sean Neil (2004-07), Neil Boyce (2008), Kyle Godecke (2011-15), Mitch brott (2016-19), Rush reimer (2020-).

Other # 63 Remarks: After Corey Widmer and Ty O’Conner made No.63 famous as a defensive lineman of the 1990s, that shirt number has resided on the other line of scrimmage for most of the last decade at Montana State. Since reserve defensive lineman Sean Neil, a veteran of the US Air Force and an excellent student, left this number in 2008, he has been occupied by a key cog in the offensive line every season but one. Kyle Godecke and Mitch brott have maintained this number with distinction since 2011.

Montana State’s recent line of attacking tackles is impressive. Of Mitch brott, the most recent anchor for the team’s offensive line on the left tackle, the line is not direct but goes way back to include luminaries such as John Weidenaar, Mike Person, Peder Jensen, Brent Swaggert and Josh Hausmann. There are plenty more, of course, but the point is not to include all of the excellent O linemen in recent MSU history. This is to signal that Mitch brott seems ready to take on this role. Brott started all 50 games of his Bobcat career to set an academic record, winning All-Big Sky and All-America honors as a senior in 2019.

For book lovers, being in a book city is a beautiful thing. Perhaps you are hoping to visit a nice bookstore, take a book road trip, engage in literary tourism, or maybe even look for a new city to call home. Either way, I dove deep into the data to determine which are the most bookish cities in the world.

So what defines a “book city” anyway? Is it the number of publishing houses in a city? (If so, New York and London win hands down.) Is that an inspiration? Literary culture? Libraries? Bookstores? Turns out the answer depends. On what? Why, on who asks, of course!

Take a moment to browse through this list of bookish towns. Some of the places on this list will be expected, but others may surprise you.

The city with the most libraries

The World Cities Culture Forum lists Warsaw, Poland, as the city with the most public libraries per capita. With 11.5 libraries per 100,000 inhabitants, it is ahead of Nanjing, China (11.2) and Seoul, South Korea (11.0). Interestingly, the public library system in Tokyo, Japan is the most active, digitally speaking. With 111.9 million pounds lending per year, it is ahead of Shanghai, China, second by more than 30 million loans.

The city with the most small free libraries

With a population of just over 38,000 and over 120 free small libraries, Lake Worth Beach, Florida (formerly Lake Worth) has approximately 1 free small library for every 300 people. This impressive number makes Lake Worth Beach the city with the most free small libraries per capita. The community initiative to increase these book outposts is indicative of a book culture that recognizes the importance of access to books.

The city with the most bookstores

With 41.9 bookstores per 100,000 inhabitants, Lisbon wins the title of city with the most bookstores per inhabitant. According to the World Cities Culture Forum, the capital of Portugal has many more bookstores per capita than the second. Melbourne, Australia comes in second with 33.9 bookstores per 100,000 population (which is still very impressive).

The city with the oldest bookstore in the world

Lisbon also wins this category. Lisbon’s Livraria Bertrand has been in business since 1732. There are now over 50 branches of the original Livraria Bertrand, but you can visit the flagship bookstore in the Chiado district. If you’re in the area, you’ll also want to check out the Livraria Lello. It is often presented as the most beautiful bookstore in the world. Architecturally, its exterior is characterized by a mix of Art Nouveau and Gothic Revival styles. The deep-toned woods, stained-glass windows and paintings that adorn the interior make it a bookstore worth visiting.

The most inspiring literary city in the world

Unsurprisingly, Paris, France, most often appears on the lists of the world’s most inspiring bookish cities. Despite being in good company with cities like Buenos Aires in Argentina, Mumbai in India, Cairo in Egypt and St. Petersburg in Russia, the famous City of Light appears on just about every list. Paris, the most inspiring literary city in the world. And even…

The most written city in the world

Despite the qualities of the muse of Paris, this is not the city that the authors write about. It turns out that New York is more than the city that never sleeps. Apparently it’s also the city that inspires the most – in a different way. With over 8,500 books set in New York, it beats the second most written city in the world (London, England) by nearly 4,000 titles.

The city with the most authors

I sifted through many different documents to determine which city in the world was home to the most writers. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a solid answer. In the United States, there are compelling claims that Livingston, Montana is “the country’s most unexpected literary epicenter.”

Beyond the United States, I would risk guessing in Reykjavík, Iceland. Several years ago, Iceland had the highest number of authors per capita, with around 10% of the population publishing a book at some point in their lives. Considering the distribution of the population in the country (around 1/3 living in the capital), this would suggest that Reykjavík is home to most of the Icelandic authors.

The best city for writers

Book towns are fantastic, and they wouldn’t exist without the people who write the books. With that in mind, this list names Edinburgh, Scotland as the best international city for writers and New York as the best American city for writers. In fact, these two cities repeatedly feature in the lists of the best cities for writers. Why? Criteria range from culture and inspiration to the publishing industry and beyond. While neither city is particularly affordable, they win out due to the myriad of other factors they offer writers. It’s worth taking a look at the full list – some cities may surprise you.

The city with the biggest literary festival in the world

Jaipur, India, hosts the world’s largest literary event. The Jaipur Literature Festival is a free (!) Event. It started in 2006 with 18 speakers, and less than two decades later it has around 300 speakers. (This year’s festival is already past, but put it on your calendar for next year!)

Most read city (in the United States)

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find adequate data to help me determine the most widely read city in the world. However, the most widely read city in the United States is Ithaca, New York. (If you’ve heard it’s Seattle, you’re probably reading reports Amazon publishes that show which cities order the most books. of them. Needless to say, this is a very different kind of statistic.) Taking into account everything from literacy, public libraries per capita, and education and income levels (both of which influence reading), Ithaca appears to be a clear winner.

UNESCO Cities of Literature

Although I couldn’t find any statistics that guessed the most widely read city in the world, literature culture seems crucial for such a designation. To this end, UNESCO has a “Creative Cities” designation which, in the case of literature, recognizes book cities.

A UNESCO City of Literature is a city in which publishing, education, libraries and bookstores, as well as literary events and festivals flourish. In addition, such a city actively promotes literature and literary culture. Not only that, but the City of Literature designation indicates a cultural emphasis on literature, theater and / or poetry that permeates the city. There are 40 UNESCO Cities of Literature in the world (Edinburgh was the very first), and you can find them by searching on this map. The United States has two UNESCO Cities of Literature: Seattle and Iowa City.

In addition, UNESCO also appoints a World Book Capital every year. The 2021 Book Capital of the World is Tbilisi, Georgia.

A note on the cities of the book

You may also be interested in knowing that there is a “city of the book” designation. According to the International Organization of Book Cities, a “book city is a small town or rural village with a concentration of second-hand bookstores and old books.” Often these cities are also steeped in literary history. Although these bookish towns are impossible to classify (they are all amazing), you can learn more about some of the book’s most notable cities here.

Post-Script

It is not always possible to restrict things to a specific city. The country that has produced the most Nobel Prize for Literature is France. The United States sells the most commercial and educational books. On a related note, the United States and China collectively publish half of the world’s books each year. And, interestingly, rumor has it that Iceland is a nation with a phenomenal readership.

My point? Bookish towns are everywhere. Despite continued claims of the novel’s death and disturbing statistics tracking steep declines in bookstores and the publishing industry, there are book towns dotted around the world where any bookworm can find a comfortable place to stay. holed up with a good book.

As the Overland Trail Museum prepares to open a new agricultural-focused children’s exhibit, it pays tribute to the family who made it possible. The Propst family was at the center of a History Café program on Wednesday.

Michael Valentine Propst and Jane White Propst were both born in North Carolina, married in 1844, and in 1845 moved to Pickens County, Alabama, where their 10 children were born.

Michael and Jane’s eldest son, Sidney, joined the Confederate Army at the age of 15 and his father later joined. At the Battle of Petersburg, Michael was wounded, Sidney was captured, and two of Jane’s brothers were killed.

After the Civil War Sidney decided to head west and in 1873 he traveled up the South Platte River into Colorado Territory in a chariot and arrived at what was then called Buffalo, now known as the name of Merino. It is said that by contemplating the open prairie with its thousands of buffaloes and antelopes, he knew that this Colorado territory would be his home.

Sidney returned to Alabama to ask Missouri Powell to marry him, then Missouri and Sid as well as Sid Belle’s sister and her husband, Sterling David Clanton, returned to Buffalo, Colorado, now known as Merino, and settled there in 1874.

In 1876, Michael and Jane and their eight children joined Sid and Missouri in Colorado. The family came by train to Julesburg, where it was covered in snow for several days. They went to Buffalo by cart.

Sidney was very active and involved in the community.

“Reading the history of the Propst family, it was quite normal for the course. They were very involved in their church, in the formation of their church, in the schools, they owned the bank in Merino, they were just very active in a lot of things, ”said museum curator Kay Rich.

In addition to breeding, Sidney operated a stage line from 1876 to 1881. The trip was 54 miles; it took three days from Greeley to Sidney, Neb., and it cost $ 9.25.

Thomas Koger “TK” Propst, one of Sidney’s younger brothers, came to Colorado with his family at the age of 18 and got his first job as a “cowpuncher” near Crook. After working for Mr. Van Tassel for a few years, TK began working for John Wesley Iliff Ranch, one of the largest cattle owners in the United States at the time.

In 1876 he established the Bar 3 ranch, which was named Colorado Centennial Farm in 1976. The Centennial Farm program recognizes farms and ranches that have been in the same family for 100 years or more.

In addition to working with cattle, TK tried his hand at several other professions, including working as a freighter for Sidney, shearing sheep, cooking and working as a mess wagon chef, capturing and breaking horses. wild and eventually owning his own ranch.

TK married Emma Landrum. According to the story, Emma’s father was a Methodist circuit racer and when she told her father that she wanted to marry TK, he said no and even forbade her from seeing him. Somehow the two managed to communicate and they made plans to meet at a local July 4th picnic.

On September 24, Emma stayed in her room saying she was not feeling well. Later, while her mother occupied her father, Emma slipped out of her bedroom window with her brother and TK. in Sidney, where a relative had a preacher waiting and a wedding breakfast ready.

The six children of TK and Emma, ​​Lewis, Tom, Ora, Leon, Laurine and Allen, were truly the westerners of the first generation. According to the Colorado-born Propst Ranch Centennial Book, they saw the last of Indians, the last of buffaloes, and the last of great outdoor gatherings. They participated in fencing from the west, and all of them settled down except for the two youngest, to save the family ranch from the flood of settlers from the east.

As a young man, Lewis attended the last two outdoor gatherings before the era of barbed wire fencing. Lewis left the ranch and served in World War I, where he experienced trench warfare in France, as a gunner. He returned in 1918 and married a young Merino schoolteacher, Grace Benson, in 1919. They moved to the ranch with TK, who was then widowed.

Lewis and Grace struggled and prevailed during the Great Depression.

“Another interesting story I read about the Propst family is that they owned the bank in Merino and I read that during the Great Depression not a single family applied for a loan from this bank and I thought it was pretty amazing. They didn’t call for any loans, so these farmers were able to continue, ”Rich said.

Ora Propst and her husband, Charles Robertson, lived 10 miles southeast of Merino and had four children. In 1939, they sold their Colorado ranch and moved to a cattle ranch in Montana.

Thomas A. Propst was born in 1886 and raised on the Merino ranch. He married Ruth Robinson in 1907 and they had a daughter. After Ruth’s death in 1919, he married Emma Nell Peterson and they had twin sons. A dedicated and hardworking breeder throughout his life, he has also found time to participate in rodeos.

Léon was born in 1890 in the family bog of Merino. In 1916 he married Olive Walker and they had four children. Leon worked for the family bank in Merino, then later moved to Long Beach, California.

Allen Propst was the youngest son of TK and Emma, ​​born in 1894. After studying at the Chicago Art Institute, he served in World War I, in France, and in 1922 he married Lulu Belle Rand, a teacher. They had two children.

Laurine Propst married John Berrick in 1923. They celebrated a Thanksgiving wedding at the old ranch in the presence of 100 of Propst’s parents.

Lewis’s brother, Thomas A. Propst, owned Propst’s land and cattle with Lewis. In the 1930s, the company split from TA to form a new ranch in Atwood, while Lewis retained Bar 3 Ranch in Merino.

Keith Propst is the son of Lewis and Grace. He raised his family with his beloved wife, Nell, at Bar 3 Ranch.

“When Keith and Nell Propst’s family made a financial donation in their honor, it was very important for us to use these funds for meaningful projects, things that would truly reflect who Nell was, as well as who the Propst family is. in our county and region, ”said Rich.

It was decided to use these funds, along with generous donations from the Logan County Historical Society, for two things: a Talking Trail project and the establishment of the Propst Agriculture Center for Kids.

The Talking Trail project, which concludes this fall, is an audio tour comprising 17 stories accessible via a free app or by logging in.

“Stories you don’t hear just by reading a label on an artifact at the museum,” Rich said. “We really tried to find interesting and funny stories. Some of them are just great information about farming and ranching, others are more personal stories; we discovered some really funny stories while we researched this. I think it will be a great addition to the museum.

She pointed out that much of the information for the tour comes from Nell’s books.

The Propst Agriculture Center, “Down on the Farm”, is located on the site of the old printing house. Designed for children aged three to seven, it offers a number of hands-on activities, including an “Amazing Milking Cow”.

“One of my main goals is that I wanted it to be fully practical and I wanted it to be non-technological, the cow is the only technical piece in the exhibit, everything else is for you to handle and explore,” Rich said, noting that this is an exhibition that they will likely continue to add in the future.

Guests of Wednesday’s program were offered a preview of the new center, which will be ready to open in a few weeks. A big opening party is planned for Saturday, July 31, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and all ages are invited.

Federal prosecutors said six residents of Tioga County were among nine defendants arrested in a major drug seizure.

Authorities say David Wemmer, 51, Jennifer Patton, 40, Brandon Vanorman, 45, David Cobb, 34, and Eini Raupers, 44, all from Spencer and 34. Elder Philip Acciarito from Owego is also charged, along with three Michigan residents, with money laundering and federal firearms offenses.

The arrests from June 17 to 26 ended a gang that trafficked in heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine.

Officials from the Northern District Attorney’s Office said Wemmer and Patton and the three Michigan suspects could face ten years in life in prison and a $ 10 million fine if convicted of possession with intent to distribute the drugs. drugs. Vanorman faces five to forty years and five million dollars in fines, Acciarito up to ten years in prison and up to $ 250,000 in fines, Cobb up to ten years in prison and up to $ 250,000 fine and Raupers up to 20 years in prison and up to $ 1 million in fines if convicted of distributing drugs, conspiracy, weapons and other charges.

Several of the defendants appeared in Federal Court in Binghamton while others appeared before magistrates in the District of Nevada and the Western District of Michigan.

The Michigan defendants are identified as Tushaun Merritt, 44, Demarrio Shell, 47, and Michael Hawkins, 38.

All nine are currently being held pending further proceedings.

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The Montana Banking and Financial Institutions Division (the Division) recently changed its rules that implement the Montana Mortgage Act (MMA). These changes came into effect on June 12, 2021.

Here are some of the major changes made by the Division:

• Adopt a new rule stipulating that a lender, broker or mortgage agent must pay the Division the actual cost of an examination or investigation, including necessary travel expenses;
• Addition of a provision stating that the Division may suspend or revoke a license for violation of the MMA, or other federal or state law relating to residential mortgages;
• Amend the existing rule on complaints to clarify that the complaints process applies to all complaints against licensees, not just consumers, and to formally adopt the existing complaint form which is available on the website of the Division in the rule;
• Remove the NMLS fee and clarify the form to be used for a member or MLO reservist who was on active duty at the time of license renewal to reinstate their license within 30 days of the date of release from active duty status;
• Adopting, by reference, the Mortgage Origin Disclosure Form and Non-Profit Good Faith Certification which are available on the division’s website; and
• Clarify the process when an initial application is received during the license renewal period and the applicant requests expedited processing.

The Division also made various technical changes to the rules, such as updating authority citations and website references.

North Dakota student loan borrowers owe an average of $ 29,246 in federal and private debt, 20% less than the U.S. average of $ 36,689. About 100,000 North Dakota residents have student loan debt and their monthly payment is $ 212 on average.

Even though North Dakota offers its state grant program for undergraduates, as well as several scholarship programs and tuition waivers, some students will still need to borrow to cover college funding shortfalls. Here’s what you need to know about North Dakota student loans.

North Dakota student loans: borrowers owe an average of $ 29,246 in private federal debt

North Dakota student loan borrowers owe an average of $ 29,246, including private and federal student loans. It is the second lowest among the 50 states.

On average, students in North Dakota owe less than their peers in every other state except Nebraska ($ 28,684). In comparison, students in neighboring states (Minnesota, Montana, and South Dakota) owe an average of $ 30,811 upon completion of their undergraduate education.

Here is the average student loan debt across the 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, to better understand how North Dakota stacks up:

5 things to know about going to college in North Dakota

• All high school students in North Dakota are eligible for the state grant program: The North Dakota State Grants Program offers up to $ 1,100 per semester or $ 733 per term, depending on the school and the student’s enrollment status. Recipients must meet high school and residential graduation requirements.
• North Dakota offers a variety of scholarships: In addition to the state grant program, North Dakota offers scholarships to students pursuing a university education, as well as those attending vocational and technical schools. There is also the ND Scholars Program, which pays full tuition fees for top performing students, as well as the ND Indian Scholarship, which helps students with Native American heritage.
• Tuition and fee waivers are available for certain groups: North Dakota offers tuition and fee exemptions to specific groups, including law enforcement officers, members of the National Guard, the elderly, and children whose parents were prisoners of war. or met other military service requirements.
• The Free Federal Student Aid Application (FAFSA) is required for the state grants program: To gain access to the state grant program, students will be required to complete the FAFSA annually. Applying early is important as public funds may be limited and are offered on a first come, first served basis.
• Other programs may require additional applications: You may need an additional application to be eligible for scholarships and waivers. You will need to contact your campus to determine your eligibility and apply.

Loan Repayment Programs for North Dakota Residents

When repaying North Dakota student loans, federal programs offer repayment options. In 2019, some state student loan exemption programs, including the state teacher loan exemption program, were abandoned by the state legislature. However, in the same year, the legislature allocated funds to expand the ND Career Builders Scholarship and Loan Repayment Program for people in “emerging and high need professions.”

National health service body

The Federal Administration of Resources and Health Services offers loan repayment through National Health Service Corps jobs. If you are a qualified health professional and work for at least two years in an area of ​​health care shortage, you could receive up to $ 50,000 in loan repayment assistance depending on your profession and the duration of your work.

ND Career Builders Scholarship and Reimbursement Program

Graduates who complete a diploma or certificate program in a high demand career field can apply for a loan repayment under the ND Career Builders Scholarship and Repayment Program. Graduates can receive up to $ 5,667 per year (to a maximum of $ 17,000) for student loans, including federal and private loans. However, applications must be submitted jointly by the graduate and his or her employer, and private matching funds must be available.

Public Service Loan Discount (PSLF)

PSLF is available to those who work for an eligible nonprofit or government organization. After you have made 120 qualifying payments while working for your employer, you can apply for the repayment of your federal direct student loan balance. This program works in conjunction with the income-based repayment.

Teacher loan waiver

The federal government offers the Teacher Loan Forgiveness program, which can forgive up to $ 5,000 or $ 17,500 in federal student loan debt if you teach in a low-income community for at least five years (amount will depend on subject taught). The Ministry of Education publishes a list of eligible fields every year.

North Dakota federal student loan borrowers under 25 owe less than national average – plus a snapshot of payment status

How To Refinance North Dakota Student Loans

In North Dakota, 4.3% of borrowers owe $ 100,000 or more in federal student loans. For those who owe such large amounts, refinancing a student loan can be beneficial, especially if they do not qualify for a loan forgiveness program.

Refinancing your student loans is one way to deal with high student debt. With refinancing, you take out a new loan that is large enough to pay off all of your student loans. When you complete the process, you will have an interest rate and a payment. You can use a student loan repayment calculator to assess your potential savings.

Understand, however, that refinancing federal student loans makes them private, meaning you will lose access to federal programs, including the PSLF and income-based repayment. Although some private lenders offer hardship programs, they are likely to have different requirements than federal programs and may not be as robust.

If you have both federal and private loans, you can choose to refinance your private student loans and consolidate federal loans. This allows you to simplify your situation while retaining the benefits on your federal student loans.

Carefully consider your options and your financial situation to determine the best way to manage your student loans in North Dakota.

Sources

• US Department of Education data as of June 30, 2020
• Anonymized credit reports My LendingTree June 2020
• Federal Reserve Bank of New York / Equifax Consumer Credit Panel as of June 2020
• mappingstudentdebt.org

Since this latest data is from 2015, the researchers estimated the increase in student debt per borrower in the state using state-wide data from anonymized credit reports.

Interested in refinancing student loans?

Here are the 9 best lenders of 2021!

Thirty years ago, a high school graduate who wanted to attend college or university envisioned an average tuition fee of $ 15,160 for a private non-profit school and only $ 3,190 for public universities. In 2020, that number is closer to $ 35,087 for private colleges and $ 9,687 for public schools. Once the cost of books, accommodation and food and other fees are added, paying for college with a part-time or summer job increasingly becomes a thing of the past.

Students today are turning to loans instead, resulting in a widespread debt crisis. Americans currently owe a collective $ 1.56 trillion in student loans, changing the shape and course of the US economy. Instead of buying a car or a house, millennials focus on finding a job that will allow them to make loan payments without defaulting.

Some States Are Taking Steps to Help: States adopt a Student Borrower Bill of Rights and offer a variety of loan repayment programs for qualified graduates. In New York City in 2017, for example, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a program that would offer free public college tuition to residents whose families earn less than $ 125,000 a year. A more recent change across the country in 2020: Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the first student loan payments for recent graduates are postponed from November 2020 to January 2021.

But not all states need the same assistance, so Stacker looked at WalletHub data from 2020 to determine where student debt is hitting the country hardest. WalletHub used 11 metrics to rank each state’s student debt and scholarship and student work options. They separated these two main dimensions, but used them to establish an overall state ranking, where a higher ranking indicates higher student debt.

Read on to see where your condition falls on the list.

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Those in Sheridan, Campbell, Johnson, and southern Montana counties who wish to attend college, trade school, or university have the option of obtaining an interest-free loan to help pay for their education.

Annette Rinaldo is the director of the Dodd & Dorothy Bryan Foundation, and she was a guest on Sheridan Media’s Public Pulse Tuesday talk show to spread the word to residents of Sheridan and Johnson counties about the foundation and the loans that ‘they offer.

Rinaldo said people enrolled full-time in an undergraduate, graduate, vocational school or even beauty school are eligible to apply and use at any college, school or university anywhere, not only in Wyoming.

The funds can be used for tuition, accommodation and board, books, rent, computers, or any related educational expense.

The only caveat is that applicants must have resided in Sheridan, Johnson, or Campbell counties in Wyoming or Rosebud, Bighorn, or Powder River counties in Montana for at least one year.

Rinaldo encouraged those seeking higher education to apply for the loans through the Bryan Foundation.

Applications can be completed online and information or questions can be directed to Rinaldo.

We have provided links here:

Website:

www.bryan-foundation.com

Rinaldo:

[email protected]

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism on health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three main operational programs of KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization that provides information on health issues to the nation.

Millions of people will flock to Montana’s Glacier National Park this summer after the tourism slippage caused by last year’s pandemic, and they will once again be able to visit and camp nearby on the recently reopened Blackfeet Indian Reservation.

The return of tourists is a relief for owners of restaurants, campgrounds and hotels forced to close last summer when Blackfoot tribal chiefs closed the roads to the eastern part of the popular park.

These closures have fueled fears that a major economic engine for residents of the reserve could be crippled. But the tribe’s priority was to protect their elders and stem the spread of the coronavirus. It worked: Closures and strictly enforced stay-at-home orders and the tribe’s mask mandate led to a low rate of daily cases cited as an example by federal health officials. Now, with one of the highest vaccination rates in the country, the reservation is once again open for business.

Recently, at the Two Sisters Café, a stone’s throw from the eastern edge of Glacier National Park, workers stacked stocked dishes and freezers in anticipation of a busy season as demand for the great outdoors national parks can. offer during the persistent pandemic.

Susan Higgins, co-owner of the cafe, said she has seen more traffic pass her front door than she has seen at this time of year in nearly three decades. Some passers-by stopped and stuck their heads through the front door of the restaurant known for its fresh blueberry pies, only to leave disappointed because the restaurant only opened for the season in mid-June.

The situation is nothing like last year, when Higgins and his sister Beth feared going into massive debt just to survive. With the help of government loans and other grants, they were able to cover their bills and keep their savings to grow their business.

“When it all happened, we were initially, of course, just concerned about arriving this year,” said Susan Higgins.

Despite the uncertainty over the past year, Higgins has said she supports the strict measures taken by the Blackfeet tribal chiefs. The pandemic has disproportionately affected Native Americans, which Higgins is keenly aware of.

“With such a vulnerable population, I would have hated to see what would have happened last year if we had been open, especially with the issue of having people masked,” Higgins said.

Last year the number of visitors to the glacier plunged to 1.7 million after a record 3 million people visited in 2019. Those who came stayed and spent their money in non-Blackfeet communities on the west side of the Continental Divide.

Actions taken by the tribe slowed but did not stop the spread of the covid. Daily cases increased in September, following the Northwest Montana Fair and Rodeo in August and Labor Day weekend, leading to a strictly enforced stay-at-home order, the third in the tribe, issued September 28.

Daily cases then fell from a peak of 6.4 per 1,000 per day on October 5 to 0.19 on November 7, a 33-fold drop that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cited as an example of how such restrictions.

Of an estimated 10,000 residents of the reservation, less than 50 members of the Blackfeet tribe have died of covid to date. Kimberly Boy, director of revenue for Blackfeet’s revenue department and a member of the incident command team leading the tribe’s response to the pandemic, said she was certain their actions had saved lives.

“It was the hardest job I’ve had so far in my life,” Boy said. “We acted aggressively and extremely restrictively[ly] only because our main goal was to save as many lives as possible. “

The efforts saved time until covid vaccines became available. Then the tribe mounted a serious campaign that resulted in around 85% of the total population – over 90% of adults – to be fully immunized, according to tribe officials. The national average is around 44%, according to the CDC.

The Blackfoot vaccination campaign then spread to Canada when tribal officials set up a border clinic for their counterparts in the Blackfoot Confederacy. The Blackfoot Confederacy, of which the Blackfoot Nation of Montana is a part, includes affiliated First Nations tribes who live on the Canadian side of the border.

The idea for the makeshift clinic was conceived after authorities in the United States and Canada rejected requests to ship vaccines across the border, said Blackfoot Confederacy Health director Bonnie Healy.

“We were kidding, and I said we’ll just have the Confederation Canadians standing on one side of the border and you will vaccinate us over the fence and we will,” Healy said.

Healy said that was exactly what had happened in a sense, and that the clinic was aptly called the “drug line vaccination clinic,” referring to what the Blackfoot and the Blackfoot call the Canada-US border that separates the different bands of the tribe.

Mark Pollock, a member of the Blackfeet Tribal Business Council, and others said the high vaccination rate on the Montana reservation gives the tribe the confidence to open up to tourists this summer.

Pollock is hopeful that the season goes smoothly and that the covid can be eliminated among the tribe members or that the cases remain very low. However, if cases increase, he said, the tribe could reduce the current 75% capacity limit for restaurants and bars, as well as reintroduce restrictive measures such as curfews and limits on gatherings.

“Whatever it takes to bring that number down, get it under control,” Pollock said.

Jackie Conway owns the Heart of Glacier Campground near the Glacier East Gate with her tribal member husband Steve. Conway said that even with her 40 RV and camping spots booked for the season, she still couldn’t make up for last year’s 100% loss. Government assistance has helped the company survive for the past year.

She is happy that there is a tourist season this summer, but knows deep down that the tribal chiefs could shut things down at any time.

“The tribe gets scared quite easily. So you just don’t know, ”she said.

Angelika Harden-Norman owns the Lodgepole Gallery & Tipi Village just outside Browning, the largest town on the reserve. Standing in the gallery filled with artwork from her late husband, Darrell Norman, and other members of the Blackfeet tribe, she said it’s up to business owners to protect guests and make sure may this pandemic tourist season run smoothly.

She used the grant money to move her art gallery from the center of her home to another room with better ventilation. She also renovated the bathrooms in both cabins for overnight guests so that they are no longer shared.

“I’ll do my best to take responsibility… by asking people to wear a mask when they come inside to check in, to have hand sanitizers,” she explained.

At the Two Sisters Café, Susan Higgins stood inside an unfinished drive-thru coffee stand just outside the restaurant. Higgins said she and her sister have considered building a coffee stand in the past, but it was the uncertainty of how this season would unfold that prompted them to do so.

Higgins added that she is demanding that her workers be vaccinated and hopes this will allow her to avoid shutting down her business this summer. So for now, the coffee stand will serve as an addition to his business, but it’s also a Plan B if there were to be another stop.

“It’s mainly about ensuring that we have a continuous cash flow if we close again,” she explained.

BLDG has its sky sights in Long Island City.

Lloyd Goldman’s real estate investment company has applied for a permit to construct an 800,000 square foot 818-unit mixed-use building at 42-02 Orchard Street along Jackson Avenue.

The tower will feature several commercial spaces on the ground floor and over 60 floors of residential units, according to plans. Perkins Eastman will design the 780-foot-tall building, which will also include a pool, gym and lounges, according to PincusCo.

The BLDG tower will have company. Tishman Speyer’s Jackson Park Towers span two blocks on nearby Jackson Avenue, and Rockrose recently filed permits to erect a 301-unit, 193,534-square-foot mixed-use building across the street.

Goldman’s family has controlled the plot since at least 1975, according to public records. It was previously owned by his father and uncle, Irving and Sol Goldman. BLDG has several other residential developments scattered across the city, including the 41-story Summit Tower at 222 East 44th Street and The Montana on the Upper West Side.

Developers are on a roll in Long Island City, with SB Development, Ascent, and Solomon Feder all securing major new loans for towers in the region.

“This day not only celebrates the past, it calls for action today,” Biden said, adding that the legacy of slavery continues through everyday inequalities, including the limits of access to ballot, homeownership, bank loans and other qualities of life in America.

In Texas, Juneteenth has been a holiday for over 40 years, and it is now observed by most other states as well. Congress has been slow to follow and Thursday’s signing comes amid renewed divisions over recognizing and confronting the country’s legacy of discrimination.

JUNE: The descendants of the emancipated reflect in Juneteenth

But the effort, led by two Texans – United States Democratic Representative Sheila Jackson Lee and United States Republican Senator John Cornyn – brought a rare moment of unity in both houses of Congress. It passed through the Senate and was passed with all but 14 opposition Republicans in the House.

It is the first new federal holiday since the establishment of Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983. One of the federal holidays, Inauguration Day, occurs every four years.

The United States Office of Personnel Management, which is the federal government’s human resources office, tweeted on Thursday that most federal employees would observe the new holiday – National Independence Day on June 17 – on Friday. since June 19 falls on a Saturday this year.

Texan pride

Biden’s audience included dozens of members of Congress and Opal Lee, a 94-year-old Texan woman who campaigned for the holidays.

Texas was the first state to make Juneteenth a statutory holiday.

“I’m happy as pink,” said Doug Matthew, 70, and former Galveston city manager who has helped coordinate the Juneteenth community celebrations since 1979.

He credited the work of state and local leaders with paving the way for this week’s step through Congress.

“I’m also proud that it all started in Galveston,” said Matthew.

Pete Henley, 71, was setting tables Thursday for a June 17 celebration at the Old Central Cultural Center, a building in Galveston that was once a separate black school. He said the June vacation would help promote understanding and unity.

“All holidays matter, no matter what the occasion or the subject, but as a federal holiday it says a lot about how the country thinks about that specific day,” said Henley, who studied at school before integration. and is president of the cultural center.

He said his family dates back to enslaved men and women in the city of Texas who were among the last to receive word of the Emancipation Proclamation.

“As a country we really have to strive to be together more than anything,” said Henley. “If we learned to love each other, that would be so good.”

Two Texans vote no

Some of the Republicans who voted against the measure complained that the official name of the holiday – “Juneteenth National Independence Day” – could “conflict” with Independence Day on July 4 and said the draft law should have been considered by committees before speaking for a vote.

Others have described it as an effort to celebrate “identity politics”.

“Since I believe in treating everyone equally, regardless of race, and we need to focus on what unites us rather than our differences, I will vote no,” said the representing Matt Rosendale of Montana in a statement.

Two Texas Republicans voted no: US Representatives Chip Roy of San Antonio and Ronny Jackson of Amarillo.

Supporters were celebrating the imbalanced vote in favor of the measure.

“For those skeptics who think Congress can’t do anything on a bipartisan basis, making Juneteenth a federal holiday should put that into context. We moved incredibly quickly and did this, ”said Cornyn as he walked to the White House for the signing ceremony.

Biden also highlighted the overwhelming support of lawmakers from both parties for the bill, calling the law one of his proudest moments as president.

“I have only been president for several months, but I think it will remain, for me, one of the highest honors I have had as president,” he said, addressing lawmakers and supporters. “Not because I did it. You did it, Democrats and Republicans.

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story misstated the number of federal holidays. There are 12. We missed Inauguration Day, which is celebrated every four years.

This report contains material from The Associated Press.

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PORTLAND, Ore., June 16, 2021 / PRNewswire / – Cherry Creek Mortgage, a nationwide full-service mortgage lender, today announced that Jessica frits joined the company as a Sales Manager and Senior Licensed Loan Officer in Oregon, Washington, and California. Based on the Lake Oswego office near Portland, Fritts will help people Oregon, Washington, and California find their ideal home loan solutions.

Fritts began her mortgage career in 2002 while studying finance and economics at the University of Portland. Prior to joining Cherry Creek Mortgage, she worked as a Senior Loan Officer at Guild Mortgage. She brings to the company a proven track record in the mortgage industry and a wealth of knowledge.

“I am delighted to be part of a growing organization where I have the opportunity to contribute,” said Fritts. “Today, I am optimistic about the local housing market and my mission is to help as many people as possible on the West Coast become homeowners and achieve their short and long term financial goals. “

Founded in 1987, Cherry Creek Mortgage offers a strong offering of FHA, conventional and jumbo buy and refinance mortgages using a proprietary, highly advanced technology platform. The company provides loans through more than 70 retail branches, a very efficient direct channel to consumers, wholesale and a number of very successful joint ventures.

About Cherry Creek Mortgage, LLC
Cherry Creek Mortgage, LLC, NMLS # 3001, has a 33 year tradition of serving the needs of home buyers across the country. With a reputation built on a passion for responsible lending and a dedication to personal relationships, Cherry Creek Mortgage has helped thousands of clients achieve their homeownership goal. Cherry Creek Mortgage’s specialized internal processes and proprietary technology deliver a digital mortgage experience with a personal touch. The company is headquartered in Colorado and is licensed in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Caroline from the south, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Learn more at cherrycreekmortgage.com.

Contact:
Kimberly holliday
303-331-4468
[email protected]

SOURCE Cherry Creek Mortgage

Related links

http://cherrycreekmortgage.com

Biofuel producers, dairy farmers and meat processors will receive a significant share of up to $ 4 billion in coronavirus assistance programs that will be implemented over the next 60 days, the secretary said on Tuesday. Agriculture Tom Vilsack. He also said the USDA will take “a pretty unique approach,” which could include a revolving loan program, to help small meat packers get started or grow.

Almost $ 25 billion has been paid to farmers and ranchers since May 2020, mainly for major crops such as corn and soybeans, cattle and pigs, to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on the Agriculture. Iowa, California, Nebraska and Minnesota received $ 3 out of $ 10 in payments. The Biden administration said in late March that its new pandemic producer assistance program would allocate $ 6 billion to “a broader set of producers” who have been neglected or under-served so far.

“Today, we are announcing between $ 3 billion and $ 4 billion in additional aid,” with recipients that include biofuel manufacturers, the dairy industry, contract producers, organic farmers and small meat processors, Vilsack said during a Senate supply subcommittee hearing. “The reason it has taken so long is that there are literally 41 different groups of people that we are trying to help who have not been helped adequately or completely in the early stages of COVID relief. ”

Biofuel producers would receive $ 700 million and dairy farmers a total of $ 980 million, the agriculture ministry said. Some $ 700 million would be spent on grants for personal protective equipment for growers of specialty crops and food processors. Small family logging and timber transport businesses would benefit from aid of up to $ 200 million. Up to $ 20 million in cost-shared assistance was available to organic producers, including those making the three-year transition to organic farming from conventional farming.

Aid would also go to farmers who raise contract poultry and to livestock and poultry producers who slaughtered animals in 2020 due to the pandemic. COVID-19 outbreaks at processing plants have forced some of America’s largest factories to slow production or shut down temporarily, disrupting livestock markets and lowering selling prices. The USDA has not put a price tag on this part of the package or potential additional dairy aid. Last December, a farm group said contract producers could receive $ 1 billion.

“Some of the funding details in today’s announcement are yet to be determined. The secretary is talking about a potential range, ”a USDA spokeswoman said.

Ethanol producers “are still struggling to recover from market losses related to COVID,” said Geoff Cooper, chief executive of the Renewable Fuels Association. “We are pleased to hear that the USDA intends to administer aid within the next 60 days.” The USDA did not specify how the aid would be distributed.

“As more and more Americans get vaccinated, things are slowly returning to normal – but many businesses, including farmers and ranchers are still feeling the lingering effects of the pandemic,” said Rob Larew, president. of the National Farmers Union. The new pandemic cash round as well as $ 4 billion USDA announced last week to strengthen the food system “will help offset any remaining losses and begin to lay the foundation for a more secure, competitive food system. and resilient “.

Vilsack hailed it as a “good proposal” for legislation to create a “special investigator for competition matters” within the USDA agency that oversees the marketing of livestock. “I also think, frankly, that we need more processing capacity. We’re going to find a very creative way to dramatically increase the processing capacity in this country.

He answered “yes” when Montana Senator Jon Tester asked if the USDA was considering using pandemic relief funds to create a revolving fund that could provide low-interest loans for help start small meat processing businesses. Vilsack pointed out that $ 60 million was earmarked last December in grants to small meat and poultry processors to expand their facilities, qualify for federal inspection and sell their products across states. The money should be available this month, he said.

Earlier, Vilsack told North Dakota Senator John Hoeven “you will see over the summer that we have a pretty unique approach” to expanding meat packaging capacity. “I think there are opportunities for us to leverage federal resources with state economic development resources” as well as local, private sector and even nonprofit participation. “I think you will see a lot of activity in this space over the next few months.”

To watch a video of the hearing or read Vilsack’s written testimony, click here.

Wyoming Senator John Barrasso said on Friday he would oppose President Biden’s candidate for the Bureau of Land Management over his early ties to “eco-terrorists,” referring to his stint with the group radical environmental Earth First!

Tracy Stone-Manning, Mr Biden’s choice for the post of director of BLM, was affiliated with the eco-sabotage group three decades ago while studying at the University of Montana, as a Editor-in-chief of the group’s “radical environmental journal” and testifying during a tree pricking test.

“Tracy Stone-Manning has collaborated with eco-terrorists,” Barrasso, the leading Republican on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement to the Washington Times.

“She worked with extreme environmental activists who planted trees, threatening the lives and livelihoods of loggers,” he said. “While she was granted immunity from prosecution to testify against her companions in court, her actions were outrageous. This clearly disqualifies her from the position of the next director of the Bureau of Land Management.”

Her opposition comes from Republicans who are concerned about her background as an activist as well as a loan of $ 50,000 to $ 100,000 she received in 2008 while working for Senator Jon Tester, Democrat of Montana. , and which she finished repaying in 2020.

Kansas Republican Senator Roger Marshall identified the lender as Democratic donor and Montana developer Stuart Goldberg and asked if she was getting “special treatment” with the 6% interest rate, significantly lower than the 11% charged on average at the time for personal consumer loans.

The Times has contacted Ms Stone-Manning for comment.

Ms Stone-Manning, 55, has a top-notch resume in the Montana public service – she served as chief of staff to Montana Governor Steve Bullock and headed the State Department for Environmental Quality – But she got her start in environmental activism with Earth First !, a radical collective associated with civil disobedience, direct action and industrial sabotage.

The group was co-founded in 1980 by Dave Foreman, an activist the FBI arrested in 1990 on charges relating to a conspiracy to target a power line tower in Arizona. He said he was not involved but pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge and did not serve any jail time, according to the Aspen Daily News.

Ms Stone-Manning’s involvement appeared to last about three years: she said in court testimony that she joined the group in 1988 and in the June 1991 edition of Earth First! journal, which features a wrench and hammer on the masthead, listed her as an editor.

During the 1993 Idaho conspiracy trial, she said she met several men who were later accused of driving metal spikes into trees, known as tree stings, to disrupt a timber sale in the city. Clearwater National Forest near Powell, Idaho.

One of the men, John Blount, asked him in April 1989 to send an anonymous letter to the Forest Service warning them that 500 pounds of bridge points had been driven into the trees.

In her testimony in court, she said that she took the letter and re-typed it on a typewriter she rented from the university, changing some spelling mistakes and removing some profanity, and then typing it out. posted a few days after receiving it.

Why post it?

“Because I wanted people to know that these trees were spiky. I didn’t want anyone to get hurt from the hanging trees, ”she said in the court transcript.

When asked why she had retyped it, Ms. Stone-Manning replied that she had done it because “I didn’t want it on my personal computer.”

According to the 1993 Associated Press report, two of the men, Arvid E. Hartley and Neil K. McLain, pleaded guilty to tying trees and agreed to testify against three others, including Mr. Blount.

In a 2013 interview with the Missoulian, Ms Stone-Manning gave more details, claiming that after Mr Blount handed her the letter, she realized that “now my fingerprints were all over the place.”

“The easy thing to do would have been to burn that letter and go away and not be associated with it, but it was not the right thing to do because the trees were spiky and someone could be injured when the loggers were sent, ”she said. . “So I posted the letter.”

The retyped letter from “George Hayduke” stated that 11 people were involved in tree planting and that the “sales were marked so that no worker was injured”, adding that he would pay them $ 1 for the tree planting. sale, but “you would like to have to find me first and this could be your WORST nightmare.”

During the trial, Ms Stone-Manning said she was not aware of other incidents related to tree planting, although Earth First! did not hide his sympathies for eco-sabotage.

In his book, “Ecodefense: A Field Guide to Monkeywrenching”, Mr. Foreman described “the correct way to plant a tree and explains why, when taking a bulldozer out of service, pouring sand into its tank. gasoline is much more effective than pouring sugar “. the Los Angeles Times reported in 1990.

Mr Foreman later pointed out that the technique was aimed at stopping logging, not harming people, after California lumberjack George Alexander was seriously injured in 1987 when a bandsaw struck a sharp point embedded in it. a log. The shattered blade flew away, hitting him on the head and cutting his face.

Earth first of June 1991! The newspaper Ms. Stone-Manning is listed on includes a cartoon about planting trees and an advertisement for t-shirts featuring the slogan “Not a tree more” with a spike running through it.

The post, published on the Environment and Society portal, also includes a disclaimer: “Although we do not accept the authority of the hierarchical state, nothing here is intended to challenge us. his police power. “

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held a hearing Tuesday on the appointment of Ms. Stone-Manning as head of the agency, which oversees 245 million acres of federal land primarily in the West.

She was introduced by Mr. Tester, who called her a “proven leader with experience working across the aisle to get things done”.

United States: LMA Publish the Recommended Reference Rate Selection Agreement Form

On June 4, 2021, the Loan Market Association (LMA) has published a recommended version of its benchmark rate selection agreement (the Selection agreement), which has been updated based on market feedback. The Selection Agreement has been updated to reflect the suite of documents based on the LMA’s RFRs and Rate Change Agreements, as well as the conventions found in those documents.

The Selection Agreement is designed to assist market participants in the transition from existing loan agreements and aims to streamline the process of transitioning to RFRs through the use of the same form of agreement on different transactions. The Selection Agreement allows the parties to agree on the applicable Alternative Compound RFR to be used and other relevant terms relating to the use of that Compound RFR with respect to their former Syndicated Loan transactions.

Market participants should note that the selection agreement only defines the parties’ agreement on key business terms on the selection of the RFR. Another rider agreement will be required to incorporate the necessary detailed drafting into the installation agreement. The Selection Agreement further authorizes the Agent and Borrowers / Debtors to determine the necessary drafting that will be required for the Facility Agreement and the Agent and Borrowers / Debtors will enter into this Amendment Agreement to implement the drafting. necessary.

Use of the Selection Agreement is only a suggestion. The parties can also use a single rider agreement where all riders to the installation agreement are agreed and implemented by the parties.

The selection agreement is made up of three parts.

• The first part presents a brief summary of the agreement, as well as the signature pages.
• The second part is the selection sheet. This is a check-off section that shows all of the compound RFRs and the options parties can select. In addition, the parts can include tailor-made conditions. Users should select options according to their trade agreements.
• The third part sets out the terms and conditions applicable to the rate selection contained in the selection sheet. Although these terms can be changed by the parties, the posting of standard terms and conditions is designed to minimize the number of terms to be negotiated.

Parties should carefully consider their preferred approach – whether they prefer to use (i) the two-step process and enter into a selection agreement, after which the agent and borrowers / debtors would enter into the relevant rider agreement to implement the RFR or (ii) a one-step process and agree and implement the relevant changes in accordance with a change agreement between all parties.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide on the subject. Specialist advice should be sought regarding your particular situation.

POPULAR ARTICLES ON: United States Finance and Banking

Two universities are looking to build medical schools in Montana. One is a non-profit university that is waiting for approval to start the accreditation process. A for-profit university has been given the green light to initiate this procedure.

MTPR’s Freddy Monares spoke to Victoria Knight, a reporter for Kaiser Health News, who recently published an article with NPR about the race to open a medical school in Big Sky State.

Freddy monares The two school models have raised questions about physician training, how it will be paid for, and whether a state like Montana can support either model for medical schools. Victoria is here to explain her story. Thanks for joining us today, Victoria.

Knight victoria Thank you very much for having me, Freddy.

Freddy monares Yes. Can you tell us a bit about the history of for-profit medical schools across the country?

Knight victoria So about a hundred years ago there was only a ton of medical schools in the United States. Basically, anyone who wanted to open medical school could do so at the time. After that happened for a little while, the Carnegie Foundation kind of did a report on how many doctors were providing poor quality medical care, and it got a bunch of states to decide, “We’re going to. implement accreditation standards, we ‘will standardize medical education. He basically banned these for-profit medical schools. It happened about 100 years ago. And then we didn’t see for-profit medical schools again until 2008. And that’s Rocky Vista University in Colorado.

Freddy monares Yes. From private, for-profit medical school that wants to establish itself here. Do we know who owns it?

Knight victoria So Rocky Vista is the name of the for-profit association that wants to open a satellite campus in Montana. Originally, when the campus opened in 2008, it was just an individual, essentially a wealthy investor who originally owned the school. But it was then sold a few years ago to a private equity firm. They refused to be part of the story. So beyond knowing that this is a private equity firm, we really don’t know much else.

Freddy monares OKAY. Well, what’s at stake if the students don’t know who owns the school they’re going to?

Knight victoria Yes, you just don’t know who is behind it all, and on top of that there is just a real lack of transparency with finances. Most schools, private, if they are, even if they are private, if they are non-profit, most of them – or all really – will share financial reports on their websites showing how much money they earn from tuition, how much money they get from grants, how much money they get from their operating income, and then how much it costs to run the school. So with this for-profit model there is no financial reporting on the website like that. So that means that students may be paying a lot of tuition fees, and it’s not clear where exactly that money is going. And so that’s it, that’s the problem, is that the students who go to these schools really won’t know what the investors are, how much they’re making from their going to these schools.

Freddy monares Yes. I was also wondering what ingredients does Montana have that make it appealing to these schools?

Knight victoria Yes, that’s a great question. I asked the schools, yes, why they chose Montana. I think part of the reason is because you don’t really have a medical school. I know there is a program with the University of Washington, a relationship where Montana students can attend medical school with the University of Washington. So there is this program that exists. But apart from that, there is no medical school in Montana. And also, at least what the schools have told me is that there is a real need for more doctors in the state of Montana and in this region of the west. There is this idea that if you go to school in a certain area, you might end up residing in the same area and then staying. And so I think these are the things. But I think it’s mostly that they see an opportunity to open a school when there really isn’t one.

Freddy monares Yeah, that’s interesting. I’m also wondering if any regional hospitals or medical providers have looked into what it might mean to have these new students trained in their backyards?

Knight victoria Yes, this is definitely something that some communities have weighed in. Are there concerns that the state of Montana could manage the opening of two medical schools? Part of that, opening a medical school, you have to be able, you know, the first two years you take courses, but then the next two years you take clinical training. So you go to doctors and, you know, do more practical things. So I think there’s a concern that if two new medical schools opened, both with, I think they both offered to have classes of about a hundred. If these are 200 new students each year, are there enough doctors in the community for them to take and complete the clinical training that they are required to take as part of their studies? And if not, does that mean they’re going to have to move out of state of Montana to do it instead, which defeats the goal of opening a school in Montana?

Freddy monares What Are Experts Saying About The Return of For-Profit Medical Schools?

Knight victoria Some say that any kind of for-profit institution is a really bad idea, and that’s because there really isn’t a lot of transparency with a for-profit model on where the funds go. There are others who say, “Well, these for-profit organizations have to go through the same accreditation process as the non-profit institutions. And so they can get through this process and their standards should be good enough to keep their doors open. It’s really a mixed bag, but come in. But yeah, that, yeah, that’s something to debate.

Freddy monares Does a for-profit model affect the loans students can get to help pay for their education?

Knight victoria Yes. When a new for-profit medical school opens, it begins the accreditation process, but it cannot be fully accredited until the first class of students graduate. So those students entering these new for-profit medical schools are not eligible – because the school is not fully accredited – they are not eligible for federal loans. This therefore means that they then have to take out private loans, which often have higher interest rates.

Freddy monares Yes, and obviously there are for-profit medical schools elsewhere in the country. I wonder if we know how graduates from these schools compare to graduates from nonprofit universities, and what do they think of their education afterwards?

Knight victoria So a lot of them are really new schools. So a lot of data is just not yet available on how these students might stack up against students in nonprofits. I spoke to a Rocky Vista alumnus. He graduated in 2015. He told me he really had no problem with it being a for-profit school. He appreciated that they seemed to take more non-traditional students. So he was an older student. And so he felt like the school was accepting, you know, more non-traditional people. But his only problem was that he had to take a lot of loans and he had to take one year of those private loans that I mentioned because the school was not fully accredited when he started attending it. So that was definitely a big concern for him.

Freddy monares Thanks for sharing your report with us, Victoria.

Knight victoria Thank you very much for inviting me, Freddy.

It was Kaiser Health News reporter Victoria Knight speaking to MTPR’s Freddy Monares about his report on a for-profit medical school coming to Montana. You can find his full report on our website.

Sunwest Bank, a $ 2 billion asset bank based in Irvine, Calif., On Wednesday launched a new account opening portal, a feature it says will help it expand its portfolio of customers and compete with fintechs by offering online account opening to its business customers.

Dwight Flenniken, the bank’s chief marketing officer, said its Sunwest New Account Portal (SNAP) is extending the same technology to its business customers that is already available to its retail customers, allowing them to open accounts entirely remotely.

The new portal also allows Sunwest Bank, which derives the majority of its deposits and loans from its commercial banking unit, to expand its services to commercial clients outside of the four states where it has a physical presence, Flenniken said. .

The bank operates approximately 12 branches and loan production offices in California, Arizona, Utah and Idaho.

“We have a good company and we are a commercial bank that people trust,” said Flenniken. “So we’re looking at states like New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Washington, Oregon, and Nevada. We thought that, to expand our portfolio, this digital effort would be a good way to let people know. to the people that we ‘you are here. “

The portal was built entirely in-house, Flenniken said, and allows business owners to create multiple accounts and account types at once, add authorized account signers, as well as order checks and scanners. checks.

“We noticed that other banks weren’t doing it, and that we saw all the fintechs come and go into space, and we thought it would be beneficial to have a brick and mortar bank in which people trust to enter space, ”said Flenniken.

Challenger banks such as Lance, BlueVine and Lili are targeting the entrepreneurial and small business market by offering accounts that can be opened entirely online, which Sunwest Bank Chairman Carson Lappetito has said is lagging behind in the market. traditional banking sector.

“This technology is readily available for consumer accounts, but only a handful of banks nationally offer it for commercial accounts,” he said in a statement. “Our top priority at Sunwest Bank is giving entrepreneurs the resources to succeed, and our clients can now open accounts from the comfort of their office, home or on the go. “

Flenniken said the bank’s decision to launch the new portal was in part inspired by its involvement in the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) over the past year and a half. The bank made 3,699 PPP loans totaling more than $ 927 million.

“We have far outstripped ourselves, in terms of size, in the number of PPP loans we have given to consumers. And we have noticed that they come from all over the place, all over the country, and in particular the western states. -United, ”he said. “So we wanted to launch this product to give these people the ability to do banking with us.”

As the bank seeks to grow its commercial accounts through digital expansion, Flenniken said Sunwest still believes a physical presence is important.

“We think fintech is great, and we think the wave of the future is being able to be on someone’s computer or phone, giving them the ability to create their accounts and manage their portfolios online,” did he declare. “We also believe there is a huge space for relationships.”

The bank’s goal, said Flenniken, is to offer its customers digital functionality in combination with in-person services through its branches.

“We’re going to have to have both, I think everyone has to have both. Fintechs are great, but I don’t think fintechs will ever have both. There is a little disconnect between what we do and what we do. what fintechs do, ”he said.

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) – Presidential candidate Joe Biden to oversee large swathes of public land in the western United States was criticized Tuesday by Republicans for her past involvement in partisan politics as a Democratic aide and environmentalist in long time.

Tracy Stone-Manning, who worked as chief of staff to former Montana governor Steve Bullock, has been appointed as director of the United States Bureau of Land Management. The agency has jurisdiction over 245 million acres (100 million hectares) of federally owned land in the western states, managing it for uses ranging from fossil fuel extraction and grazing to recreation.

Senate confirmation of Stone-Manning would mark a sea change for an agency that handled oil and gas interests under former President Donald Trump.

She would take the helm after the office suffered turmoil in recent years when it lost nearly 300 employees to retire or resign after its headquarters moved from Washington, DC to Grand Junction, Colo., Under Trump.

In a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing Tuesday, Republicans lambasted Stone-Manning for her role as treasurer and board member of the Montana Conservation Voters group, which ran announcements against Republican Senator from Montana Steve Daines in the last election cycle. Republicans have also voiced concerns that it will hamper energy development.

“You’ve been incredibly partisan in your past,” said Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. “It seems like in your heart you really don’t care about Republicans.”

Stone-Manning, from Missoula, said his now deceased Republican parents “would be in their graves” because of the allegation of partisanship. She indicated that she wanted to pass a 2020 election in which Daines fought off a challenge from Bullock, and added that working collaboratively was the only way to move forward in the controversial debates on public lands in the West.

“Elections can be difficult. I supported my old boss, Governor Bullock. But the election is over, and I will honor the outcome of this election, ”she said.

Democratic Senator John Hickenlooper asked Stone-Manning about the head office move, which he said was “done in a hurry” and left land office workers and Grand Junction residents who had hoped the change would boost the city’s economy.

Stone-Manning said the Home Office was looking into the matter but gave no further details.

After leaving Bullock’s staff in 2017, Stone-Manning led the efforts of the National Wildlife Federation to preserve public lands in the West for wildlife, hiking, hunting, and other non-industrial uses.

She previously worked as an assistant to Democratic Montana Senator Jon Tester and for a nonprofit group that worked to clean up one of the largest contaminated Superfund sites in the country, Clark Fork River in Montana. Tester, who introduced Stone-Manning at Tuesday’s hearing, dismissed the GOP’s description of her as an ideologue.

“He’s a good person with a good heart who understands the value of our public lands,” Tester said.

Kansas Republican Senator Roger Marshall asked Stone-Manning if she had a conflict of interest in receiving a personal loan of $ 50,000 to $ 100,000 in 2008 while working for the staff at Tester. Financial disclosure documents showed she received the 12-year loan from Missoula developer Stuart Goldberg at an interest rate of 6%, which Marshall said was lower than the going rate of 11% for loans. for consumption at the time.

Stone-Manning replied that she had been “hit by the recession and a friend lent us money to make sure we could get out of it.”

“We have honored the loan,” she added.

The post of director of the land management office went unfilled for four years under Trump, who instead relied on a series of interim directors to execute an easing of restrictions on the industry. Chief among them was Conservative lawyer William Perry Pendley, who, before taking office, advocated the sale of federal lands.

Pendley was removed from his post by a federal judge after leading the office for over a year without the required Senate confirmation and being sued by Bullock.

Stone-Manning supported the effort to oust Pendley and said he was an illegally named person.

She would serve under Home Secretary Deb Haaland, a former Democratic congresswoman from New Mexico who was confirmed by opposition Republicans citing her criticism of the oil and gas industry.

Webster, Florida

The white hieroglyphics that descend from the mustang’s big brown neck and the necks of all horses like it tell part of the story – if you can crack the code.

The big “U” with the particular crossbars is easy. It’s for the US government. The small equal sign with a flattened “V” below translates to 0-7, the year of birth of the 14-year-old horse.

The next two symbols are where it gets good. The flattened “V” and the “L” towards the back indicate 7-6, revealing that this horse was rounded up somewhere in Oregon.

Maybe it was Beatys Butte, or Murderer’s Creek or Riddle Mountain, or a dozen other herd management areas in the state, all types of rugged western land where we imagine mustangs roaming free with swept manes. by the wind.

What you probably don’t imagine when you think of wild horses are the flat, green, mossy oaks of Webster in Florida, where the Wild Horse Rescue Center spans over 30 shaded acres.

This is where Pinto the Oregon Mustang arrived recently, skinny and scared, after being rescued from an “auction” in Louisiana.

The founder and president of the Wild Horse Rescue Center, Diane Delano, has dedicated her life for several decades to working with the mustangs, the free range horses managed and protected by the Bureau of Land Management as “living symbols of the historical spirit. and pioneer of the West ”.

She began by adopting wild mustangs directly from the government, but eventually focused on rescuing mustangs that were abused or destined for slaughter. She likes to say that horses come to her center “to heal themselves” more than any training.

Each horse is given a new name, said Delano, “because that old name is your past.” This is how Amigo became Pinto.

Last week, Delano, whose calm gray eyes are offset by turquoise earrings to match the turquoise chain from which his glasses dangle, entered a corral where Pinto was standing in a corner. She put her hand on the nervous horse’s neck, and when she stepped back, Pinto followed her.

“I did energetic work on him yesterday, and I think he remembers it,” she said. “We do craniosacral massage therapy, acupuncture, energy work, Reiki. My horses are getting all of these holistic things.

Horses that come to the wild also receive many months of traditional training. Some will learn to tolerate a saddle and become perfect for riding. Thor, who was rescued from the same auction as Pinto (and got the name because of his blonde mane), could soon become an MP if an upcoming visit to a South Florida sheriff’s office goes well. .

Others, like Pinto, will end up being gentle enough to make nice pets, but maybe not for riding.

There are over 50 horses at the center in various stages of preparation for adoption. Over the years, said Delano, she has trained and found homes for more than 1,000 of them. Horses that cannot be trained or adopted stay indefinitely.

But there are always more mustangs to take, even though the money to do so has been a little harder to come by since the pandemic struck.

Mustangs are the descendants of various breeds of horses that have escaped or been abandoned for hundreds of years, starting with the horses brought to America by the Spanish conquistadors in the 1400s.

After coming under federal protection in the 1970s, a once declining wild horse population rapidly multiplied. So quickly that the herds, which grow by around 20% a year if left unchecked, have left the Bureau of Land Management to scramble.

Today, it is estimated that there are approximately 70,000 wild mustangs in the West, spread across Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming. That’s far more than the 27,000 horsepower the office estimates the environment can support.

To manage the population, the office assembles thousands of wild mustangs each year using helicopters, then makes these horses available for adoption.

But the value of a wild mustang as a symbol of freedom and beauty in the popular imagination – so iconic that an iconic American automobile of all time took its name – is at odds with the tangible value of a wild and wild horse without pedigree.

“Mustangs are basically mutts,” Delano said.

Training them in the type of horse people want to own takes a lot of time and effort. First, mustangs were cheap to adopt, and then the office started paying people $ 1,000 to adopt them.

A New York Times article published earlier this month described how horses adopted under this office program then ended up abandoned in auctions frequented by slaughterhouse buyers.

Each rounded mustang is marked on its neck with a series of symbols, marking it as a mustang, which should protect it.

“But that’s not the case,” Delano said.

Another rescue organization paid over $ 800 to buy Pinto at auction before sending it to Florida.

Delano is considering how the government could better manage the horse population, but remains primarily focused on saving as many Mustangs as possible in a broken system.

“We are focused on the future of these horses,” she said. “And do it with a touch of healing.”

The center was quiet. Once wild mustangs Max, an 8-year-old gray boy from Muddy Gap, Wyoming, and Cortez, an 8-year-old dark bay gathered in Nevada, huddled lovingly in a corral. Both are ready for adoption.

Hope, Faith and Promise, three once emaciated mustangs whose rescue was reported in the Tampa Bay Times 13 years ago, were chewing hay, appearing healthy.

The pandemic has derailed the international program of the Wild Horse Rescue Center. Normally, Delano has a dozen European paying customers at any given time, mostly young people who want to travel and work with horses for a few weeks to a few months.

Delano made up for the loss of income with loans, over $ 100,000 of them, and made up for the lack of people to help around the center with enthusiastic retired volunteers from the villages.

Debra Wyland brushed Ford, a 10-year-old resident at the center, in a barn. Ed Martin filled waterers. Jorge Pousa rode Pegasus around a ring. All three showed up after seeing a brief article about the center in the Villages Daily Sun and kept coming back for months.

Wyland had never been around horses in her life, except for the little horse statues which had briefly obsessed her as a child.

“When I was in kindergarten, I had a pair of red cowboy boots that I wanted to wear every day,” Wyland said. Today, at 56, she is finally learning to ride a horse.

Pousa, 60, had spent some time with horses as a teenager at a stable near her hometown of Miami. Then came a long career in the Navy, where he worked in logistics.

“Now I’m retired and can get my horse fix,” Pousa said. “I clear the stalls, then I can play. It’s like therapy. Horses can read you as well as you can read them.

Martin, 77, was from Boston. He was another “city dweller” who had never been around horses. He was just bored at home.

“There is always a lot to do here,” said Delano. A horse snorted.

I never really knew I wanted to go to South America until I got there.

The day begins

My biggest expense was food, trying to eat 4000-6000 calories per day.

The journey continues

The journey ends

I am looking at a map now and I have the impression that my neighbors are in Colombia or Mexico.

Char-Koosta News

RONAN – Sariel Sandoval, a member of the CSKT tribe who graduated from Ronan High School, has been admitted to the University of California-Berkeley Engineering School, but the school does not provide scholarships / grants to overseas students. which affects their ability to attend. On May 21, the determined student launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds so she could enroll in college this fall.

Sandoval is the daughter of Cristen Morigeau-TwoTeeth and Antoine Sandoval. She was born and raised on the Flathead Indian Reservation and is Bitterroot Salish and Dine ‘. She graduated from Ronan High School on May 30 and was recently admitted to the University of California-Berkeley to study Engineering: Mathematics / Statistics and is considering a double major or minor in Native American Studies.

She spoke on important issues such as cultural appropriation, missing and murdered indigenous women, Indian education for all and the privilege of dismantling for speeches and debates where she placed second in State, third national qualifications. She is a Tribal Health Community Leader, HOOPA Mountain Indigenous scholar from Promins, and participates in We Are the Youth Of Montana vs. MT State where she provides the Indigenous perspective on how Montana affects climate change.

Berkeley is the perfect college for Sandoval’s future goals and she intends to return to help her people, tribe and community.

Unfortunately, the University of California school system does not provide funding for out-of-state, only in-state students, and the amount of loans it could take out is not even the quarter of the cost price. . After finding out this information, most told Sandoval to go to a public school for less money because she couldn’t afford Berkeley. She and her mom talked about it and she came to the conclusion that she could at least try to fundraise through scholarships and things she said. She always sends out scholarship applications, but feels like not everything she gets will cover the cost.

Sandoval said it would cost her $ 69,022 for a year in school and the scholarships she got would not cover the full cost. So far, she has received scholarships from the CSKT Higher Ed, the Elouise Cobell Scholarship and the Ronan Women’s Club. Some scholarship deadlines were at the end of May, but many deadlines passed before she knew she had been accepted at Berkely. She said many scholarships she had applied for were for specific schools and public schools.

The GoFundMe campaign came about because she said she saw someone else who was also going to Berkeley to raise $ 60,000 and her mother suggested she think about it.

Although the school does not provide scholarships / grants for out of state students, Sandoval is determined to achieve her goals and her gaze is on Berkley. As of this week, the campaign has reached $ 16,500 of its goal of $ 50,000.

Sandoval plans to live on campus and has applied to Berkeley Native American Theme House. The House is an on-campus residential program that seeks to nurture the future of Indigenous leaders.

The GoFundMe campaign can be accessed here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-send-sariel-to-berkeley-engineering

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If you want to meet an expert who understands where the world is heading, may I introduce a bushy-bearded Australian coal miner who appears anonymously in a video shared by the Sydney Morning messenger Last week. He is sitting behind the wheel of a borrowed Tesla when a man in the backseat asks him to ‘crash’ it. As hard as it gets. The man throws his fist on the accelerator, is immediately pushed back into his seat and laughs. “Damn, I want it, eh?” said the man. “It’s just instant. Like, damn, ”the driver replies, beaming. (Watch it, you will feel happier afterwards).

Many of the changes needed to get us on the right climate path are going to meet resistance, but it starts to look like getting people to accept EVs may not be one of them. Elon Musk did a pioneering job, but the Tesla was mostly a niche product, with the niche being the first to embrace cool things that live along the coastlines. (Life in Muskworld is getting a little silly: Last month it started touting a model with ten rocket boosters that will go from zero to sixty in 1.1 seconds, which seems like a really bad idea.) became very real, however, with the announcement last month of an electric version of the Ford F-150 pickup, the best-selling vehicle in the United States every year since the Reagan administration and the motor vehicle most popular of all time. In seven days, the company had reported seventy thousand preorders and inventory had jumped eight percent.

Having spent most of my life in rural America, where the F-150 is ubiquitous, I can tell you why this is going to be successful. It is not the acceleration; it’s the caps. The electric version will essentially be a battery on wheels. The “electric frunk” (where the motor was located) has several outlets, useful for any power tools you might need if you’re not near another power source – if you’re building a house, say – and replace the noise, smelly and dangerous gas generators that no one likes. You say most pickup drivers aren’t, in fact, home builders? That’s right, most Americans don’t need a pickup at all. But look at any truck ad and see who it features. Once blue collar America approves the electric approach, the suburbs will follow suit. We need more than just electric cars, of course: buses and bikes, not to mention the tracks for these bikes, are crucial. But since, today, public transit accounts for about one percent of passenger kilometers traveled, the new pickup paradigm seems essential.

And, in any event, the automakers seem very much in the game. Ford last week announced it was cutting $ 30 billion in new spending on electric vehicles; General Motors has already said it will be nothing but electric by 2035. In contrast, the banking industry seems determined to have it both ways, trying to make money from fossil fuels and of a renewable future. Late last month, President Biden issued an executive order on financial climate risk that begins by noting that “the failure of financial institutions to appropriately and adequately consider and measure these physical and transitional risks threatens the competitiveness of US businesses and markets, lifelong economies. and the pensions of American workers and families, and the ability of American financial institutions to serve communities. This failure has been visible on many fronts in recent days. Deutsche Bank has presented a detailed plan to reduce its carbon emissions, for example by reducing “the fuel consumption of its company car fleet in Germany (around 5,400 cars) by 30% by 2025”.

That sounds good, but, as activists from the German environmental and human rights organization Urgewald have pointed out, such proposals “are also embarrassing testimony to the fact that the bank’s design in terms of sustainability is stuck in the 90s. The measures are easy to integrate and do not harm anyone. However, neither will they have a significant impact “- not, say, like the bank’s plan to coordinate the IPO of oil and gas group Wintershall, which plans to increase its production by 30%. fossil fuels. by 2023. Closer to home, the world’s largest fossil fuel financier, JPMorgan Chase, announced plans reduce not the amount of carbon that its loans release from the ground but rather the “carbon intensity” of its portfolio. This would allow it to continue to lend to companies that wish to continue producing the same amount of oil and would also allow it to significantly increase the amount of natural gas they pump; gas is a little less carbon intensive than oil, so this increase would go through this loophole. At a House Financial Services Committee hearing last week, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did his best to eliminate this blatant greenwashing, and Jamie Dimon, the CEO of Chase, appeared to say that the bank is also working to reduce absolute emissions from its portfolio, but at the moment the plans are under wraps. If you’re wondering how much that matters: A new report shows that the carbon produced by UK bankers’ loans alone would make it, if they were a country, the ninth emitter on the planet.

This is good news of a kind that is suddenly in abeyance: the fallout from the various court rulings and shareholder votes at the end of May is less a plan for the future than a mere recognition that something needs to change. Sticks are stuck in hornet nests, and there are screams from the industry and its friends. (Check out the fifteen GOP state treasurers threatening to withdraw state funds from banks that do not lend to the oil industry.) But, at least for now, the delighted laughter of a miner driving an EV muffles the noise.

Pass the microphone

Ana Teresa Fernández, artist born in Mexico and now based in San Francisco, specializes in what she calls “social sculpture”. I was struck by his recent project “On the Horizon”: transparent tubes, erected on the beach and filled with salt water, which attempt to show passers-by what the six-foot elevation of the level of the sea would actually look like. sea ​​that scientists are projecting. But all of her work is fascinating, and I was grateful that she agreed to answer a few questions. (Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.)

Explain those remarkable tubes that you installed on the beach. Where did this thought come from and what was the reaction?

In 2017, I was invited to speak at the Art + Environment conference at the Nevada Museum of Art, where I first discovered this information: “Sea level will rise 6 feet into the 50’s. coming years. This news struck my guts first, then continued to resonate with me. I know we hear numbers, but often we don’t feel what it means. This is where I got the idea of ​​trying to hang six feet of water in an attempt to create a visceral experience. First of all, how can we suspend so much water? Second, how do you get it to rise from the shore? And how do you create it in a way that makes people want to know more? This is how “À l’Horizon” was born. After I made the first design of the ten-inch-wide, six-foot-tall Plexi tube, I partnered with Doniece Sandoval, the founder of LavaMae, to fundraise to create an interactive experience by making sixteen of these tubes. “On the horizon” would be mobile and transported to different shores and threatened coasts.

While refining the design, we tested a single tube at different ranges. Each time, people were immediately drawn to her. When we tested it out at Ocean Beach, San Francisco, a group of five little girls whirled, danced and played around for an hour, inundating us with questions. When we explained that it was the height of our future coastline, their mouths were gaping. When their parents approached us, it was the girls who answered their questions about the play. It was then that we knew that this play was intergenerational.

In April, a new FCC filing hinted at the development of an intriguing new addition to the IKEA-Sonos Symfonisk line: a hidden speaker that can serve as a work of art. Now, The edge spotted a listing for an unannounced Symfonisk “photo frame with WiFi speaker” on the IKEA website. While the page is no longer available, it showed a product in black or white priced at $ 199 and designed to blend in with your home decor like other products in the line.

Depending on its description, you can hang it on its own, put it on the floor, or lean it against a wall. Although it’s called a “photo frame,” it doesn’t look like you can use it to display physical or digital images. It does, however, have “interchangeable fronts” that fit the frame, so you can probably find one that matches your style. The speaker comes with support for Airplay 2, which lets you play media directly from iPhone, iPad, and Mac. It is also compatible with Spotify Connect, can be bundled with two or more Symfonisk speakers and can be controlled by the Sonos app.

The companies have yet to announce when the WiFi-connected photo frame speaker will be available, but the fact that the list has been released means it could be released soon. If you’re impatient to get one, you might want to clear a space on your wall that would be suitable for something 22 inches high, 16 inches wide, and 2 inches deep.

Bloomberg

Malaysian assets plummet after government imposes full lockdown

(Bloomberg) – Malaysian stocks fell and the ringgit weakened after the government imposed a two-week nationwide lockdown to curb a relentless spike in Covid-19 infections. The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI index fell by 1.6% Monday, before stabilizing. losses at 0.7% at the close in Kuala Lumpur. The ringgit slipped 0.4% to 4.1480 per dollar, while 10-year bond yields rose three basis points to 3.25%. The government said on Friday that most businesses would be closed from June 1, except for key sectors of the economy and services. “The government is finally biting the bullet,” said Alexander Chia, analyst at RHB Investment Bank Bhd. risk to earnings growth of FY21, although this is essentially a postponement of growth to FY22. Malaysia’s return to a hard lockdown comes on the heels of record daily infections that saw the number of cases surpass 9,000 on Saturday. A resurgence of virus outbreaks in Asia has prompted some countries, including Vietnam and Singapore, to tighten restrictions. A similar lockdown in Malaysia last year cost the country around 63 billion ringgit ($ 15 billion). Vietnam has tightened social distancing measures in Ho Chi Minh City for 15 days starting May 31, while Singapore this month reissued some lockdown conditions it has put in place. The DimsMalaysia lockdown “will slow the country’s recovery, with a good chance that second-quarter GDP growth will contract sequentially,” said Khoon Goh, Asia research manager at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. “We will likely see the ringgit continue to underperform in the region, but its weakness is offset by a weak US dollar.” READ: ‘Covid Zero’ Havens finds reopening more difficult than taming virus Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin must announce a According to his Facebook post, Monday at 9 p.m. local time Monday’s market decline is pale compared to last year, when the KLCI fell 5% per day after announcing a nationwide lockdown. Ivy Ng Lee Fang, analyst at CGS-CIMB Securities, Ivy Ng Lee Fang, analyst at CGS-CIMB Securities, said in a report that the forecast of a “mild” reaction is due to the availability of vaccines and a government plan to increase daily vaccination rates in the second half of 2021. Strong export sales, strong market liquidity and low interest rates have also helped to limit the market decline, she said. declared. GDP Outlook Malaysia’s gross domestic product fell 0.5% in the first quarter from a year earlier, the central bank said earlier in May, adding that it expects growth to stay within. the forecast range of 6% to 7.5% for the whole year. Banks, including Public Bank Bhd. and CIMB Group Holdings Bhd., fell, while Maxis Bhd. and Supermax Corp. were among the biggest drops in the benchmark gauge. , down more than 2%. Top Glove Corp. was the top winner in the key stocks measure, up 1.8%. The benchmark Malaysian equities index is down 6% from a December high as investor concerns over the impact of tighter restrictions on movement weigh on riskier assets. in cyclical sectors, it will take a longer term investment perspective with a focus on securing a favorable entry price, ”said Chia of RHB Investment. “Trading angle will remain a lasting theme in the coming quarters that will continue to focus on small and mid caps with resilient growth attributes.” (Updates with PM release in seventh paragraph) More articles like this are available on bloomberg.com ahead of time with the most trusted source of business news. © 2021 Bloomberg LP