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The lingering Celtic pain driving Callum McGregor towards Rangers redemption as serial winner is out for blood
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When Andrew Westphal's Costa Rica honeymoon was over last May, you could say the honeymoon was really over. "Traveler's trots. Let's just say again, gastrointestinal distress," Westphal said. He and his new bride were experiencing the same stomach symptoms and decided to go to an urgent care near them. "And it ended up being a $4 antibiotic that solved the issue completely in a day," Westphal recalled. But then, Westphal said, the real pain began when he received his first bill: $1,888. What really stood out, though, was the difference between what his insurance covered compared to his wife's insurance for the medical testing. "So mine ended up being just about $1,700 to $1,800, and she paid $21 for those labs," Westphal said. "I'm trying to just wrap my head around how I could get such a large bill for such a simple service." His insurance carrier is Anthem while hers is Cigna. They both have high-deductible plans, and neither has met their deductibles. RELATED STORY | Murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO ignites online fury over health insurance industry "I, unfortunately, am not surprised," said Adam Fox, the deputy director of the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative. Fox said Westphal's story underscores the idea that insurance plans are not negotiating better costs for the people they are serving, putting consumers at risk of unpredictably high bills. Additionally, Fox said, there is a larger issue with the rates being charged at so-called "Hospital Outpatient Departments." In a letter to Westphal regarding his urgent care bill, UC Health stated that he had "received these services within a Hospital Outpatient Department." Fox said Medicare charges about $440 for the same tests Westphal was billed $1,840. "They're basically charging four times what Medicare does," said Fox. "I think those services can be provided at a much lower cost. And I think what we are seeing is as hospitals acquire more facilities and doctors offices, they are charging higher costs for the same level of service to patients. And that puts Coloradans at financial risk." A UCHealth spokesperson clarified that its urgent care centers are not Hospital Outpatient Departments, but the labs in certain cases are at the hospital. UCHealth and Anthem declined our requests for interviews, but in an email, a UCHealth spokesman pointed to high-deductible health insurance plans, stating, "This shifts more of the burden of paying medical bills onto patients." UCHealth said it offers billing estimates for anyone who wants to know individual responsibility for a service. An Anthem statement also references high-deductible plans, stating that Westphal's "claim was therefore processed correctly." Anthem said, "We are transparent with Anthem members about the price of health care services." Westphal said he had no idea that what he thought was a simple doctor's visit for antibiotics could cost so much. After his appeals were denied, he said he is learning a frustrating lesson. "You need to find out how much your services are going to cost, even if you think it's something that should be very simple, cost so little," Westphal said. "And yet this insurance company or this provider can really do whatever they want." Full statement from Anthem: This story was originally published by Jaclyn Allen at Scripps News Denver .
Kingsview Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in SPDR EURO STOXX 50 ETF ( NYSEARCA:FEZ – Free Report ) by 9.7% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 4,504 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in SPDR EURO STOXX 50 ETF were worth $240,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its position in SPDR EURO STOXX 50 ETF by 1,811.7% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 914,183 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $46,879,000 after buying an additional 866,363 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its holdings in SPDR EURO STOXX 50 ETF by 680.5% in the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 159,649 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock valued at $7,987,000 after purchasing an additional 187,149 shares during the period. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in SPDR EURO STOXX 50 ETF during the 2nd quarter worth about $84,000. GFS Advisors LLC increased its holdings in SPDR EURO STOXX 50 ETF by 4,235.1% during the 3rd quarter. GFS Advisors LLC now owns 145,658 shares of the exchange traded fund’s stock worth $7,755,000 after purchasing an additional 142,298 shares during the period. Finally, Bricktown Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of SPDR EURO STOXX 50 ETF in the 2nd quarter valued at about $6,488,000. SPDR EURO STOXX 50 ETF Stock Performance Shares of SPDR EURO STOXX 50 ETF stock opened at $48.57 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $50.47 and a 200-day simple moving average of $51.04. The company has a market cap of $3.44 billion, a PE ratio of 15.75 and a beta of 0.97. SPDR EURO STOXX 50 ETF has a one year low of $45.44 and a one year high of $54.16. SPDR EURO STOXX 50 ETF Company Profile SPDR EURO STOXX 50 ETF (the Fund) seeks to replicate as closely as possible the price and yield of the EURO STOXX 50 Index (the Index). The Index is designed to represent the performance of some of the companies across components of the 20 EURO STOXX Supersector Indexes. The EURO STOXX Supersector Indexes are subsets of the EURO STOXX Index. See Also Want to see what other hedge funds are holding FEZ? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for SPDR EURO STOXX 50 ETF ( NYSEARCA:FEZ – Free Report ). Receive News & Ratings for SPDR EURO STOXX 50 ETF Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for SPDR EURO STOXX 50 ETF and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .This year’s Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, is open for all students and families to apply. Filling out the form is essential to determining eligibility for and receiving federal financial aid for college. Last year’s online application was riddled with glitches , and led to significant declines in numbers of applicants completing the form and delays in college financial aid offers for those who qualified. The Report’s Shomial Ahmad spoke with Christina Galanis, the Fort Worth ISD director of secondary student engagement, for her advice on how to complete and submit this year’s financial aid form. The interview has been edited for clarity and space. Shomial Ahmad: Why is it important for people considering going to college to fill out the FAFSA? Christina Galanis: Essentially, the FAFSA determines how much the government is going to subsidize a student’s education through things like federal Pell grants or federal subsidized or unsubsidized loans. With subsidized loans, the federal government subsidizes the interest on those loans while you are in college, and so you’re not accruing interest during those years. With unsubsidized loans, you do accrue interest while you are in college. Get essential daily news for the Fort Worth area. Sign up for insightful, in-depth stories — completely free. Many families don’t apply because they think that they won’t be eligible, especially if they’re more affluent families. However, many scholarships, and that includes institutional scholarships from a college, require the FAFSA before even considering a student for a scholarship. Even if a family is more affluent and they are thinking about not applying, they may be precluding their student from eligibility from institutional scholarship funds by not having that FAFSA application on file. We highly encourage that every student fills out the FAFSA, or if they don’t have a Social Security number and they’re not eligible for FAFSA, they should fill out the TASFA — Texas Application for State Financial Aid — which is only for Texas public colleges. Ahmad: What kind of information should a student gather and have in front of them when they’re filling out the FAFSA? Galanis: They need their Social Security number. They need their parents’ full legal names, marital status and dates of birth. They also need to create their FSA ID . The FSA ID is essentially their login for the FAFSA, and they can create that at studentaid.gov even before the online FAFSA application opens. Their parent — and potentially both parents depending on their parental situation — need a FSA ID. Those IDs should be made ahead of time, so if there’s any verification process or any issues that come up in the creation of those IDs, that’s all taken care of before they sit down and apply. Students and parents should double-check the information they enter for their FSA ID. If they have a typo in their birthday or something like that, it can cause problems down the road. Also, it’s a good idea to have 2023 tax forms handy. The online application can import tax data, but in case something goes wrong with the linking, you can enter the information manually. Ahmad: What’s the FAFSA application process like? Galanis: Students can go to the FAFSA website and enter their FSA ID. In the past, it was one form. Now, the student and the parent will log in separately and complete their own part separately. The student has to identify who’s going to be the contributor to their FAFSA. It asks basic demographic information and questions regarding financial status. There’s an option to directly link to the IRS website to grab federal income tax return data. It’s 99.99% recommended to do that because that speeds the processing greatly. Ultimately it’ll spit out a student aid report, and that will get sent to the student. It will let the student know their potential earnings, their potential award from the federal government in the form of a federal Pell grant. It will also list all the colleges that the student can send the FAFSA to. Ahmad: When do you recommend students apply? Galanis: As soon as possible. They’re processed by the U.S. Department of Education in the order they’re received, as far as I’m aware. So if there are issues, the sooner you apply, the sooner those issues will be resolved. They did extend the priority deadline for the FAFSA until Jan. 31, but it’s definitely recommended that you don’t wait until that last day of the priority deadline to apply. That would assume that everything’s going to be issue-free and go through seamlessly, and that may not be the case. That being said, there’s no true deadline for the FAFSA. Ahmad: What were some of the issues with the FAFSA form last year? Galanis: One of the issues that we ran into last year was with students who are citizens but have undocumented parents. There were a lot of issues with verification of status, as far as citizenship status. As a result, those students’ forms weren’t being processed because all of the people’s forms that had to contribute weren’t done. They couldn’t finish their process. Those students’ FAFSA results were severely delayed. Now, the Department of Education has said that they will troubleshoot those issues. We should see a much improved experience this year, but it remains to be seen how that’s going to go. Ahmad: What kind of help is being offered by Fort Worth ISD and others in Tarrant County? Galanis: FWISD has a partnership with the Tarrant To & Through Partnership and the TCU College Advising Corps. They staff our GO Centers, which help students in real time at the campuses during the school day. Students are able to fill out their forms during lunch, or when they’ve finished their work in a class. Our campuses host FAFSA events, where students and parents can come up to the school and get assistance on the form. Students can access some online resources, through the FWISD website , and the educational nonprofit uAspire . I would encourage anyone who is having difficulty in filling out the form to seek help, whether it’s at a help center, talking to their counselor or going to a GO Center. Shomial Ahmad is a higher education reporter for the Fort Worth Report, in partnership with Open Campus . Contact her at shomial.ahmad@fortworthreport.org . At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here . The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage. Your support makes TWICE the impact today. As November draws to a close , time is running out to double your impact. Thanks to the generosity of the Nicholas Martin Jr. Family Foundation, every dollar you give will be matched—up to $15,000. Will you give today to help trusted, local reporting thrive in Fort Worth and Tarrant County? Related Fort Worth Report is certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative for adhering to standards for ethical journalism . Republish This Story Republishing is free for noncommercial entities. Commercial entities are prohibited without a licensing agreement. Contact us for details. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License . Look for the "Republish This Story" button underneath each story. To republish online, simply click the button, copy the html code and paste into your Content Management System (CMS). Do not copy stories straight from the front-end of our web-site. You are required to follow the guidelines and use the republication tool when you share our content. The republication tool generates the appropriate html code. You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style. You can’t sell or syndicate our stories. Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization. If you use our stories in any other medium — for example, newsletters or other email campaigns — you must make it clear that the stories are from the Fort Worth Report. In all emails, link directly to the story at fortworthreport.org and not to your website. If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @FortWorthReport on Facebook and @FortWorthReport on Twitter. You have to credit Fort Worth Report. Please use “Author Name, Fort Worth Report” in the byline. If you’re not able to add the byline, please include a line at the top of the story that reads: “This story was originally published by Fort Worth Report” and include our website, fortworthreport.org . You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style. Our stories may appear on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories. You can’t sell or syndicate our stories. You can only publish select stories individually — not as a collection. Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization. If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @FortWorthReport on Facebook and @FortWorthReport on Twitter. by Shomial Ahmad, Fort Worth Report November 30, 2024
Fox News Flash top sports headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. Carson Beck left the SEC title game Saturday after what coach Kirby Smart said was a hand injury. With one second left in the first half, Beck was looking to throw deep to try to get Georgia its first lead of the game. He got hit as he threw, and his arm appeared to be injured. CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM Carson Beck of the Georgia Bulldogs on the field after an injury against the Texas Longhorns during the second quarter of the 2024 SEC championship at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta Dec. 7, 2024. (Todd Kirkland/Getty Images) Beck was quickly tended to by trainers and coaches, and he was slow to get up. He jogged off the field on his own, but it was clear something wasn't right. Speaking with ESPN just as the half ended, Smart said the injury would likely not keep Beck out of the game. But Georgia backup Gunner Stockton entered the game, and Smart then told ESPN at the start of the half that Beck would not return. Trey Moore (8) of the Texas Longhorns tackles Carson Beck (15) of the Georgia Bulldogs for a fumble during the second quarter of the 2024 SEC championship at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta Dec. 7, 2024. (Butch Dill/Getty Images) NICK SABAN GIVES STERN OPINION ON FLAG-PLANTING AFTER RIVALRY WEEK MELEES: ‘UP TO EARS IN ELEPHANT S---’ With Beck under center, it was not a pretty sight for the Bulldogs, who managed just a field goal in the first half. On the bright side, Texas' offense, led by Quinn Ewers , didn't fare much better. The Longhorns converted two field goals for a 6-3 lead at half. With a loss, it would be the first time Georgia will have lost three games in a season since 2018. This year marked the first time the Bulldogs had lost to any team other than Alabama since 2020, when they lost to Ole Miss in Oxford. Georgia quarterback Carson Beck (15) takes the field to warm up before the start of the SEC championship game against Texas in Atlanta Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (Joshua l. Jones Athens Banner-Herald/USA Today Network) CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Beck is expected to be an early selection in the NFL Draft in April. Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X , and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter .
Australia’s world-first social media ban has passed the parliament, but it will do little to protect Australian children, writes Melissa Marsden . The Albanese Government's new social media laws masquerade as making the internet safer for children despite statistics showing the outside world has a reputation for being more dangerous. Whilst in most states in Australia the minimum age of criminal responsibility is 10 years old — yet there is a distinct lack of anti-bullying legislation. On an average night in the June quarter of 2023, 812 young Australians aged 10 and over were in detention because of their involvement – or alleged involvement – in criminal activity. There are no details as to whether these convictions resulted from online or offline crimes. However, the sudden push by the government to ram new social media laws into effect suggests it is not the children who perpetrate crimes that are under scrutiny. Statistics show that young people are most likely to be in detention if they are male, aged between 14 and 17, and are of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) descent. Whilst it is questionable as to whether these crimes were committed online or offline, the rate of youth detention for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 10-17 years was higher than the rate for other Australian young people in all Australian states and territories. Alternatives to a social media age ban The Government's proposed age limit for social media use is an excessive measure and not the only solution to regulating online usage. In September, twelve-year-old Sydney girl Charlotte ended her life after experiencing rampant bullying despite her parents raising the issue with her school. In a statement, the girl's family said: “When the most recent case of bullying was raised, the school simply said that they had investigated, and the girls denied it.” Were tougher anti-bullying laws legislated rather than removing access to online communities that children often use as an escape from bullying, could instances like these have been avoided? According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare ( AIHW ), in 2023 , 298 Australian young people (aged 18–24 years) took their own lives. Ninety-four of those deaths by suicide occurred among children and adolescents – aged 17 and below– with the majority occurring in those aged 15–17 (71.3%). In the years before social media, bullying was often physical and verbal. According to Edith Cowan University : “In decades past, bullying was mainly associated with schools and playgrounds — a problem that ended when children returned to the safety of their homes." Draconian social media ban doomed to fail The proposed legislation to restrict the age limit for social media use is destined to fail and may harbour another insidious purpose. In 1999, Bullying in Australian schools was rampant, with over 20% of males and 15% of females aged 8 to 18 years reporting being bullied at least once a week. In 2022, Melbourne-based freelance journalist, Mel Buttigieg , wrote that in the 1990s, kids’ physical bullying – whilst not always direct – was constantly perpetuated in full view of teachers and students. As a child who grew up in the early 2000s – having been born in 1996 – I too can confirm that this lack of response to bullying was widespread. Around the same time I joined social media, I experienced severe bullying at my private primary school. I was chased from one end of the school to the other, blockaded in between the lockers and the library toilets by my bullies, pushed on the school bus, and taunted daily. My ability to block my bullies from social media provided a welcome reprieve from the daily taunts and abuse. At this point, I had already been isolated from my friends after having a traumatic brain injury and acquiring a disability — which meant my school thought segregating me from my peers was the best solution. While in-person bullying is still an issue in many schools, cyberbullying has taken over as the major concern for the health and wellbeing of school-age children”. In a study published in Nature Communications , UK data shows girls experience a negative link between social media use and life satisfaction when they are 11-13 years old and boys when they are 14-15 years old. And, whilst the concerns surrounding these statistics are warranted, the blanket approach to the Australian legislation fails to account for vulnerable groups who have benefited from the escape that social media brings. Government bans social media fearing rise of 'Generation Left' The recent announcement of age restrictions for social media use raises questions regarding the Government's true motives. A reporter for Channel 6 News , Maggie Perry said, “The government’s plan to prevent under 16s using social media will not protect them – instead, it will cut off many vulnerable and isolated children from vital online support communities”. These voices have been conveniently left out of the political discourse on Australia’s world-first social media bans, they have been the voices most marginalised from mainstream public and political debate for decades. The laws do not come into effect until next year, begging the questions: if they are really about saving the lives of children, why wait? And, why exclude those the legislation proposes to protect from the conversation? Melissa Marsden is a freelance journalist and PhD candidate at Curtin University. You can follow Melissa on Twitter @MelMarsden96 , on Bluesky @melissamarsdenphd or via Melissa's website, Framing the Narrative . This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License Support independent journalism Subscribe to IA. Related Articles CARTOONS: Mark David is banning things, by golly! POLITICS AUSTRALIA TECHNOLOGY CHILDREN SOCIAL MEDIA BAN bullying Charlotte Maggie Perry Channel 6 News Mel Buttigieg Auspol Melissa Marsden Australia children Share ArticleNoneFor years, patients in the U.S. health care system have grown frustrated with a bureaucracy they don’t understand. Doctors are included in an insurer’s network one year but not the next. Getting someone on the phone to help can be next to impossible. Coverage of care and prescriptions is often unceremoniously denied. This week’s fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has unleashed a wave of public feeling — exasperation, anger, resentment, helplessness — from Americans sharing personal stories of interactions with insurance companies, often seen as faceless corporate giants. In particular, the words written on ammunition found at the shooting scene — “delay,” “deny” and “depose,” echoing a phrase used to describe how insurers dodge claim payouts — amplified voices that have long been critical of the industry. “All of a sudden, I am fired up again,” said Tim Anderson, describing how his wife, Mary, had to deal with UnitedHealthcare coverage denials before she died from Lou Gehrig’s disease, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, in 2022. Anderson said they couldn’t get coverage for machines to help his wife breathe or talk — toward the end, she communicated by blinking when he showed her pictures. The family had to rely on donations from a local ALS group, he said. “The business model for insurance is don’t pay,” said Anderson, 67, of Centerville, Ohio. “When Mary could still talk, she said to me to keep fighting this,” he added. “It needs to be exposed.” For Anderson and others, Thompson’s death and the message left at the scene have created an opportunity to vent their frustrations. Conversations at dinner tables, office water coolers, social gatherings and on social media have pivoted to the topic, as police efforts to find the gunman keep the case in the news. Hans Maristela said he understands why the chatter is bubbling up. The 54-year-old caregiver in California was moved to comment on Facebook about UnitedHealthcare’s reputation of denying coverage. As a Catholic, he said, he grieves Thompson’s death and feels for his family, especially with the holidays around the corner. But he sees frustration with insurers even among his clients, most of them wealthy older people who’ve not been shielded from high out-of-pocket costs. “And then you know the CEO of this company you pay a lot of money to gets $10 million dollars a year, you won’t have a lot of sympathy for the guy,” Maristela said, citing Thompson’s compensation package that included base pay and stock options. “Health care is a business, I understand, but the obsession with share price, with profit, has to be reevaluated.” University of Pennsylvania researcher Michael Anne Kyle said she’s not surprised by the growth of conversation around insurers. “People are often struggling with this by themselves, and when you see someone else talk about it, that may prompt you to join the conversation,” she said. Kyle studies how patients access care and said she’s seen frustration with the system build for years. Costs are rising, and insurers are using more controls such as prior authorizations and doctor networks to manage them. Patients are often stuck in the middle of disputes between doctors and insurers. “Patients are already spending a lot of money on health care, and then they’re still facing problems with the service,” she said. Insurers often note that most of the money they bring in goes back out the door to pay claims, and that they try to corral soaring costs and the overuse of some care. In Ohio, Anderson said his initial reaction to the CEO shooting was to question whether it was connected to a coverage denial, like the ones he’d experienced with his wife. “I definitely do not condone killing people,” he said. “But I read it and said, ‘I wonder if somebody had a spouse whose coverage was denied.’” It’s something Will Flanary, a Portland-based ophthalmologist and comedian with a large social media following, saw online a lot in the shooting’s immediate aftermath and found very telling. “It’s zero sympathy,” he said. “And the lesson to take away from that is not, ‘Let’s shame people for celebrating a murder.’ No, it’s: ‘Look at the amount of anger that people have toward this system that’s taken advantage of people and do something to try to fix that.’” Flanary’s content, published under the name Dr. Glaucomflecken, started out as niche eye doctor jokes and a way to cope with his own experiences with two cancer diagnoses and a sudden cardiac arrest. But it has evolved, featuring character skits that call attention to and satirize the decisions of large health insurers, including UnitedHealthcare. He said he’s never seen conversations around health insurance policy take off the way they did this week — and he hopes these new voices can help bring about change. “I’m always talking about how powerful social media can be with advocacy,” he said, “because it really is the only way to put a significant amount of pressure on these corporations who are doing bad things for patients.”Meo, Battle net 13 to help Coastal Carolina down South Carolina Upstate 73-51
Mark Vancil has been called “Michael Jordan’s Boswell.” For more than 30 years that has been the case and it all began when Vancil, a native of far west suburban and charming Sycamore, was a young sportswriter covering the Bulls and their rookie named Jordan for the Chicago Sun-Times. Vancil had come to the paper after getting a journalism degree at Northern Illinois University and working at such newspapers as Florida’s Clearwater Sun and St. Petersburg Times, DeKalb’s Chronicle and the Aurora Beacon-News. “When I came to the Sun-Times in 1984, the Bulls weren’t good, so they took a chance on this young guy,” he told me last week, “I think Michael and I became friends, in part, because I never asked him for anything.” Vancil would soon leave the Sun-Times to cover the NBA for the short-lived sports daily The National. But he never lost touch with Jordan. “I had been thinking about writing books since I was young and finally in Jordan I came upon the perfect subject,” he told me. “I pitched the idea in the late ‘80s and nothing happened. Then in 1992, I was ready.” He was in Southern California, where Michael was practicing with the so-called U.S. “Dream Team” for the Olympics. “We were a stairwell, and he tells me he is going to quit and play baseball,” Vancil says. “I realized that the next season could be his last in the NBA, the timing was perfect for a book.” Vancil explained his idea, telling Jordan, “I can guarantee you a million dollars.” Jordan smiled and said, “You’ve got a million dollars?” “Not yet,” said Vancil. They made a deal, orchestrated an innovative publishing venture and in 1993 the world had “Rare Air: Michael on Michael,” with dozens of striking photos by acclaimed Walter Iooss Jr. and words from Jordan. “This was Michael’s book, his words. I interviewed him all over (on tape) and put it together,” Vancil says. The book was a sensation. It is estimated to have sold more than 2.5 million copies. (You can now find autographed copies online for, oh my, many thousands of dollars.) This success spawned a publishing company called Rare Air Media. Vancil also wrote books about Ken Griffey Jr., Mario Andretti, Dan Marino and musician Johnny Cash. His latest, just published, is unlike the rest but certainly benefits from Vancil’s experiences and opinions. It is a thought-provoking marvel titled “The Last Excellent Man: The Meaning of Our Jordan Year,” which is a bit about Jordan but also a lot else. In it, there is Vancil’s near dust-up with Oprah, the quiet visits Jordan would make to local children’s hospitals, “acts of kindness personal and executed quietly”; and thoughts on politics, technology, sports gambling. Though Vancil, in his self-effacing manner, writes “readers (will) notice that parts of my life string through these pages ... the attention to my own life in these pages is uncomfortable.” Sorry he feels that way but having him pepper the book is what gives it its special kick, its authoritativeness, its philosophical potency as in “The connection between people and their inner lives is largely misunderstood, if acknowledged at all. Yet, it appears to be the source of Jordan’s on-court theatrics, (Taylor) Swift’s three-and-a-half-hour performances, and the soulful countenance with which both travel.” There is no specific “man” referred to in the title, and many men and women are discussed, including Caitlin Clark, Muhammad Ali and Steve Jobs. One of the most moving portions deals with the murder of James Jordan, Michael’s father, whose body was discovered on Aug. 13, 1993, by a fisherman in a South Carolina swamp. I learned things, such as that race car driver Mario Andretti “could pick out his wife in the infield while maneuvering a Ferrari around the track’s 17 turns, sometimes at 180 miles an hour.” I was especially grabbed when Vancil addresses “America’s peculiar desire to attack what it previously cheered.” He writes of the theories surrounding Jordan’s first “retirement,” and how any involved would have had to craft “one of the greatest conspiracies in the history of conspiracies, and then maintained a Black Ops level silence for more than 30 years.” I had not seen Vancil in some time before we sat down last week and our conversation was filled with memories of the newspaper business and the names of mutual friends, such as his high school friend and former Sun-Times and New York Times writer Dirk Johnson. Another of those ink-stained pals, Ron Rapoport, told me, “I remember when Mark was one of us at the Sun-Times, scuffling to get athletes’ quotes and trying to make deadlines, and then all of a sudden he became this journalistic colossus explaining the phenomenon of Michael Jordan to the world. Did James Boswell know as much about Samuel Johnson as Mark does about Jordan? I wonder.” I was happy to hear that Vancil and his wife Laura, who runs a granola company, have been married for more than three decades and have four grown children, often dropping into the family home in the suburbs. And, born storyteller that he is, he told me, “Laura and I went on our first date in mid-January 1993. After dinner, she suggested extending the night at the Old Town Ale House. I was hooked. So, for symmetry, a while later we stopped into the Ale House on our way to a family event, put Patsy Cline on the jukebox, got down on a knee at the bar, and that was that. We were married on Sept. 4.” He still talks to Jordan. They are friends. “Yes,” Vancil says. “Of course our lives have diverged.” He smiles and then says, “For one thing, Michael’s a multi-billionaire and I’m not.” And that’s OK. Money isn’t everything. rkogan@chicagotribune.com
Trump claimed Kim Jong Un missed him. The North Korea leader has a different messageMeo, Battle net 13 to help Coastal Carolina down South Carolina Upstate 73-51
Massive change to pension rules planned in savings boost for millions – but experts warn about risk to savers
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street got back to climbing after the latest update on inflation appeared to clear the way for more help for the economy from the Federal Reserve. The S&P 500 gained 0.8% Wednesday to break a two-day losing streak and finished just short of its all-time high. Big Tech stocks led the way, which drove the Nasdaq composite up 1.8% to top the 20,000 level for the first time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged with a dip of 0.2%. Stocks got a boost as expectations built that the Fed will deliver another cut to interest rates at its meeting next week. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below. NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes are rising Wednesday after the latest update on inflation appeared to clear the way for more help for the economy from the Federal Reserve . The S&P 500 gained 0.9% and is on track to break its first two-day losing streak in nearly a month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 7 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 2:45 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 1.8% and was heading for a record. Treasury yields edged higher in the bond market as expectations built that Wednesday’s inflation data will allow the Fed to deliver another cut to interest rates at its meeting next week. Traders are betting on a 95% probability of that, according to data from CME Group, up from 89% a day before. If they’re correct, it would be a third straight cut by the Fed after it began lowering rates in September from a two-decade high. It’s hoping to support a slowing job market after getting inflation nearly all the way down to its 2% target. Lower rates would give a boost to the economy, but they could also provide more fuel for inflation. Wednesday’s report said U.S. consumers paid prices in November that were 2.7% higher than a year earlier. That’s a slight acceleration from October’s inflation rate of 2.6%, but it was exactly what economists were expecting. Another report on inflation at the wholesale level will arrive on Thursday. “The data have given the Fed the ‘all clear’ for next week, and today’s inflation data keep a January cut in active discussion,” according to Ellen Zentner, chief economic strategist for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. Expectations for a series of cuts to rates by the Fed have been one of the main reasons the S&P 500 has set an all-time high 57 times this year , with the latest coming last week. On Wall Street, Stitch Fix jumped 47.8% after the company that sends clothes to your door reported a smaller loss for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It also gave financial forecasts for the current quarter that were better than expected, including for revenue. Albertsons edged down by 0.6% after filing a lawsuit against Kroger, saying it didn’t do enough for their proposed $24.6 billion merger agreement to win regulatory clearance. Albertsons said it’s seeking billions of dollars in damages from Kroger, whose stock rose 0.6%. A day earlier, judges in separate cases in Oregon and Washington nixed the supermarket giants’ merger. The grocers contended a combination could have helped them compete with big retailers like Walmart, Costco and Amazon, but critics said it would hurt competition. After terminating the merger agreement Albertsons said it plans to boost its dividend 25% and increased the size of its program to buy back its own stock. Mondelez, the company behind Oreo and other food brands, climbed 2.2% after announcing a plan to send cash to shareholders by buying back up to $9 billion of its own stock. The program replaces a prior $6 billion plan, which had about $2.8 billion of capacity remaining and would have otherwise expired at the end of next year. On the losing end of Wall Street, Macy’s fell 2.3% after cutting some of its financial forecasts for the full year of 2024, including for how much profit it expects to make off each $1 of revenue. Dave & Buster’s Entertainment sank 18.7% after reporting a worse loss for the latest quarter than expected. It also said CEO Chris Morris has resigned, and the board has been working with an executive-search firm for the last few months to find its next permanent leader. In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.27% from 4.23% late Tuesday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed, rose to 4.16% from 4.14%. In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was an outlier and slipped 0.8% as Chinese leaders convened an annual planning meeting in Beijing that is expected to set economic policies and growth targets for the coming year. South Korea’s Kospi rose 1%, up for a second straight day as it climbs back following last week’s political turmoil where its president briefly declared martial law. ___ AP Writers Matt Ott and Zimo Zhong contributed. Stan Choe, The Associated PressKingsview Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Roper Technologies, Inc. ( NYSE:ROP – Free Report ) by 10.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 513 shares of the industrial products company’s stock after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Roper Technologies were worth $285,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fairscale Capital LLC purchased a new position in Roper Technologies during the second quarter valued at $28,000. Fortitude Family Office LLC purchased a new position in shares of Roper Technologies in the 3rd quarter worth about $28,000. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in Roper Technologies by 58.8% in the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 54 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. purchased a new stake in Roper Technologies during the 2nd quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Global Wealth Strategies & Associates bought a new stake in Roper Technologies during the 3rd quarter valued at about $37,000. 93.31% of the stock is owned by institutional investors. Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on ROP shares. Mizuho increased their price target on shares of Roper Technologies from $530.00 to $565.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Roper Technologies from $625.00 to $635.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Roper Technologies from $635.00 to $652.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $665.00 price objective (up from $660.00) on shares of Roper Technologies in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada decreased their target price on Roper Technologies from $675.00 to $666.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Roper Technologies has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $620.80. Insider Transactions at Roper Technologies In related news, Director Richard F. Wallman sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $550.00, for a total value of $550,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 32,955 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,125,250. This represents a 2.95 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link . Corporate insiders own 0.87% of the company’s stock. Roper Technologies Price Performance Shares of NYSE:ROP opened at $566.44 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $553.18 and its 200-day moving average price is $550.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 0.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $60.74 billion, a PE ratio of 41.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 1.03. Roper Technologies, Inc. has a twelve month low of $508.22 and a twelve month high of $579.10. Roper Technologies ( NYSE:ROP – Get Free Report ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The industrial products company reported $4.62 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.53 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $1.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.72 billion. Roper Technologies had a net margin of 21.78% and a return on equity of 10.73%. The company’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $4.32 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Roper Technologies, Inc. will post 18.24 EPS for the current year. Roper Technologies Increases Dividend The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.825 dividend. This is a boost from Roper Technologies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.75. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $3.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.58%. Roper Technologies’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.14%. Roper Technologies Company Profile ( Free Report ) Roper Technologies, Inc designs and develops software, and technology enabled products and solutions. It operates through three segments: Application Software, Network Software, and Technology Enabled Products. The Application Software segment offers management, campus solutions, diagnostic and laboratory information management, enterprise software and information solutions, transportation management, financial and compliance management, and cloud-based financial analytics and performance management software; cloud-based software to the property and casualty insurance industry; and software, services, and technologies for foodservice operations. Featured Stories Want to see what other hedge funds are holding ROP? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Roper Technologies, Inc. ( NYSE:ROP – Free Report ). Receive News & Ratings for Roper Technologies Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Roper Technologies and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .
Tulane QB Mensah transfers to Duke
Who are the favorites to win Golden Globes? | Streamed & Screened podcastChandigarh, Nov 30 (IANS): Punjab unit Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Sunil Jakhar on Saturday called upon the farmers to raise their voice against the Bhagwant Mann-led state government for not disbursing them minimum support price (MSP) on paddy. In a post on X, Jakhar stated that once again, the state's farmers are at a crossroads due to the inefficient administration of the Aam Aadmi Party-led Punjab government. He drubbed the government for its failure in awarding MSP on paddy despite the Central government having timely given Rs 44,000 crore for it. He added the farmers suffered a cut in the cost of crop from Rs 200 to Rs 350 per quintal. Calling upon the Congress to raise its voice for the underprivileged sections of society, Jakhar said despite such mayhem of non-procurement and non-lifting in the markets across the state, the Congress distanced itself from the issue. "Instead of acting like a responsible Opposition, the Congress chose to remain in stoic silence over the issue. We need someone to raise voice for the underprivileged sections of society and now is the time for farmers to raise their pitch," he said. Accusing the government of wreaking havoc in the paddy procurement season, Jakhar said that first the party usurped funds of Delhi in the form of a liquor scam, and now it was siphoning off funds of Punjab for its own purposes. Asking farmers to safeguard their own rights, he said that the ‘anndata’ should ask Punjab government to make public the tally of amount of Rs 44,000 crore that was sent by the Centre for procurement. The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha have announced to march on foot towards Delhi on December 6. The announcement to start the march towards the national capital came after two attempts to reach Delhi by farmer groups on February 13 and February 21 were stopped by police. Farmers have been sitting at the borders of Shambhu and Khanauri since February 13. The last meeting with the government took place on February 18 and remained inconclusive. In the February 21 protest, a young farmer Shubkaran Singh lost his life at the Khanauri border, besides many others were injured during clashes between farmers and the police.The fall of Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s government led to the second collapse of a French government in 62 years – exactly 62 years after the first, in October 1962. It’s historic because the second prime minister came from a right-wing coalition, marking the first time since the creation of the Fifth Republic in 1958 that such a situation occurred. The Fifth Republic was established to end political instability and the anarchic parliamentary system. Barnier did resign and the president accepted his resignation according to Article 50 of the constitution. He will serve as caretaker government chief until the president appoints a new prime minister in the coming days. In the aftermath of this political drama, France has been grappling with instability since June when President Emmanuel Macron decided to dissolve the French lower chamber (L'Assemblée Nationale). Ever since, the political situation has worsened and the specter of political instability and economic anxiety has haunted both the president and the country. This president sought to change France’s century-old political culture, which has been defined by the aggressive role of political elites, the media and political parties toward political leaders – or, as they call it, the monarch, despite the end of the monarchy in France in 1792. Yet, Macron, who entered the political arena in late 2016, sought power and led a country where politics has been marked by violence, treason and cruelty. He positioned himself in 2017 as a new young president and a voice of change. In fact, he managed to dismantle the two main conventional political parties, the Socialists and the Gaullists, in both 2017 and 2022 – a revolutionary paradigm in French politics. He even published a book called La Revolution. President Macron ’s governing style and economic program quickly clashed with public opinion and the political opposition, both left and right. This began early on with the progressive media during the Benalla scandal in the summer of 2018 and worsened later with the long-running Yellow Vest protests. The conflict continued through last winter with a large anti-pension and retirement reform bill, which ex-Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne used Article 49.3 of the Constitution to pass without a vote in the National Assembly. The no-confidence vote was related to Barnier’s government’s failure to convince Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Rally Party (RN), to back a budget that left-wing and far-right groups in the lower chamber judged too austere, with more taxes and spending cuts to address France’s spiraling deficit. This occurred despite concessions made to address Le Pen's concerns. This helps explain the main reason for the no-confidence vote that toppled Barnier’s minority government: 331 lawmakers from the left-wing coalition of New Popular Front (NFP) and the far-right coalition of the RN, joined by lawmaker Eric Cioti’s group in the National Assembly. This unlikely alliance of the NFP and the far-right seeks to end President Macron’s political career and force him into early retirement . Le Pen is positioning herself as the likely candidate for the 2027 French presidential election. Since the outcome of the July 2024 parliamentary elections, she has positioned herself as the “kingmaker” in French politics, given the incoherent axis in the newly elected lower chamber. Barnier, however, tried to bring Le Pen and her allies to the negotiating table in recent weeks. He made several concessions to the far-right alliance but Le Pen’s tactics seemed more focused on shifting the balance of power than on negotiations. This shift drew criticism from the so-called centrist or presidential alliance in the lower chamber, as well as from pro-president media and the president himself, who in his 10-minute speech to the nation, blamed Le Pen and the NFP coalition – particularly the France Unbowed Party (LFI) and its leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon – for causing chaos. The melancholy that dominates France’s general mood these days persists, despite the country being on a national celebration: the extravagant preparation for the restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral, five years after the fire on April 15, 2019. Notre Dame did open its wooden high door with an official speech by Macron, attended by world leaders, such as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. This was followed by a liturgical ceremony to mark the cathedral's official reopening, in a secular republic where laicite has become, under Macron’s presidency, the de facto “religion of state.” Despite this, France’s domestic political crisis is weighing heavily, both locally and internationally. Paris is losing its prestige and influence on the world stage, with its diplomacy in sharp decline in both Europe and the MENA region. The latest diplomatic setback occurred in the African Sahel, where N'Djamena and Dakar decided to end military cooperation with Paris and demanded the removal of French military bases. This has exposed France to one of the most multi-dimensional crises it has faced since May 1968. If Macron steps down, it would be a historic moment for France, as no president in the modern republic has resigned apart from Charles de Gaulle in 1969 following the result of a constitutional reform referendum, months after the violent 1968 societal riots that dramatically changed France’s political and social trajectory. This partisan judgment extends beyond the RN. Left-wing lawmakers, after their victory in last July’s elections, have been calling for the president’s resignation. The French executive branch works at two levels: the prime minister controls day-to-day domestic affairs, while the president has significant powers, including foreign policy and defense. Constitutionally, Macron is right; there is no article stipulating that a president must resign after their government is ousted by the National Assembly. Macron has made it clear that he will not step down as requested by the LFI Party and the RN Party. However, there is a risk that if the political drama he calls “political fiction” is not resolved by next summer, he may be forced to dissolve the National Assembly again next June. This remains a possibility, as the French lower chamber is divided into three almost equal, but very heterogeneous, factions: the left-wing, right-of-center and far-right, which have been clashing for the past two and a half years. Macron has explicitly rejected calls for new legislative elections. The French Constitution stipulates that new elections cannot be held within 12 months of the previous ones. His supporters, including media and lawmakers, are defending the president but according to ELAB, 63% of public opinion favors his resignation. In a post-Barnier government fall context, Macron met on Tuesday afternoon with the so-called Republican arc that goes from the right to the left political parties to not censure the next government if the latter does not use the controversial Article 49-3 of the constitution – in other words an act of non-aggression pact from the Republican arc. This time Macron excluded the two main political parties of the opposition in the lower chamber: the LFI and RN Party on Tuesday afternoon. Macron’s strategy, however, is to take away the leisure from Le Pen for being France’s kingmaker, as on his left, Macron is in the process of imploding the NFP coalition, hence he removes the threat of his resignation and early presidential elections requested by the RN and the LFI. Macron is likely to appoint a new prime minister today — he may appoint a new premier, François Bayrou, leader of the center-right Democratic Movement Party, in the coming days. Bayrou, however, belongs to the old political establishment that Macron sought to dismantle when he came to power in 2017. In summary, politics is full of irony. A president who sought to usher in a “modern” style of governance now finds himself relying on help from a politician who has been in the arena for five decades, an ardent defender of parliamentarism – a system that would mark the end of Macron’s political vision.
