First Phosphate’s CEO, John Passalacqua joined Steve Darling from Proactive to announce two major milestones for the company. First, the signing of two…
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The Federal Reserves third interest rate cut of the year will likely have consequences for debt, savings, auto loans, mortgages and other forms of borrowing by consumers and businesses
The Senate passed a defense bill Wednesday that authorizes significant pay raises for junior enlisted service members and boost overall military spending to $895 billion while stripping coverage of transgender medical treatments for children of military members.The annual defense authorization bill usually gains strong bipartisan support and has not failed to pass Congress in nearly six decades, but the Pentagon policy measure in recent years has become a battleground for cultural issues. Republicans this year sought to tack on priorities for social conservatives to the legislation, contributing to a months-long negotiation over the bill and a falloff in support from Democrats.Still, all but a handful of Senate Democrats as well as nearly all Republicans voted for the bill’s final passage, sending the legislation to President Joe Biden.The bill “isn’t perfect, but it still includes some very good things that Democrats fought for, said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., in a floor speech. It has strong provisions to stand up against the Chinese Communist Party here on a national security basis.In the House, a majority of Democrats voted against the bill last week after House Speaker Mike Johnson insisted on adding the provision to ban the military health system from providing transgender medical care for children. The legislation easily passed by a vote of 281-140.Senate Republican leaders argued that its 1% increase for defense spending was not enough, especially at a time of global unrest and challenges to American dominance. Senate Republicans had argued for a generational boost to defense spending this year, but are planning another push for more defense funding once they control the White House and Congress next year.The annual defense authorization bill directs key Pentagon policy, but it would still need to be backed up with an appropriations package.Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said in a floor speech this week that without the topline increase major bill provisions like a pay raise for enlisted servicemembers will come at the expense of investments in the critical weapons systems and munitions that deter conflict and keep them safe.The legislation provides for a 14.5% pay raise for junior enlisted service members and a 4.5% increase for others. Lawmakers said those were key to improving the quality of life of service members at a time when many military families rely on food banks and other government assistance programs to make ends meet.It includes major quality of life improvements, enhancing things like childcare, housing, medical services, employment support for military spouses and much more, said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee.The legislation also directs resources towards a more confrontational approach to China, including establishing a fund that could be used to send military resources to Taiwan in much the same way that the U.S. has backed Ukraine. It also invests in new military technologies, including artificial intelligence, and bolsters the U.S. production of ammunition.The U.S. has also moved in recent years to ban the military from purchasing Chinese products, and the defense bill extended that with prohibitions on Chinese goods from garlic in military commissaries to drone technology.The Chinese foreign ministry responded to that move last week by calling the bans laughable.I dont think it could ever occur to garlic that it would pose a major threat to the U.S., said Mao Ning, a ministry spokeswoman. From drones to cranes, from refrigerators to garlic, more and more Chinese-made products have been accused by the US of posing national security risks. But has the US shown any reliable evidence or rationale to back up those accusations?But in Congress, Republican and Democratic lawmakers have been mostly united in their stance that China is a rising threat. Instead, it was culture war issues that divided lawmakers on the bill, which took months to negotiate.The Republican-controlled House had passed a version of the bill in June that would have banned the Defense Department’s policy of reimbursing costs for service members who travel to another state for an abortion, ended gender affirming care for transgender troops and weeded out diversity initiatives in the military.Most of those provisions did not make it into the final package, though Republicans are expecting Donald Trump to make sweeping changes to Pentagon policy when he enters office in January.The bill also still prohibits funding for teaching critical race theory in the military and prohibits TRICARE health plans from covering gender dysphoria treatment for children under 18 if that treatment could result in sterilization.For some Democrats, the ban on treatments for transgender children care they said could be life-saving was a red line.In a floor speech, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., said she has always voted for the NDAA, but would not do so this year. She said that the policy change for transgender children would affect between 6,000 and 7,000 families, according to estimates her office has received.The NDAA has embodied the idea that there is more that brings us together than separates us, that our service members and national defense are not to be politicized. That we put our country over a party when the chips are on the table,” she said. Unfortunately, this year that was ignored all to gut the rights of our service members to get the health care they need for their children.
I have been running 1Mby1M since 2010. Each year is a new beginning. Let’s start 2025 right! A startup always aims for Acceleration. Especially a startup that aims to be funded. VCs want to invest in startups that can go from zero to $100 million in revenue in 5 to 7 years. Startups that do not have what it takes to achieve that velocity should not be venture funded. Experienced VCs, over time, have developed heuristics to gauge what constitutes a high growth venture investment thesis. However, 9 out of 10 venture-funded startups do not attain the kind of velocity that yields Unicorn valuation. The vast majority of these funded ventures are not accelerating. As of December 2023, 54,000 venture-funded startups exist in the United States alone. Globally, the number is closer to 75,000. In addition, there are 7000 incubators and 3000 accelerators in the world that have offered some funding to startups. Across all these categories, the number of funded startups is
Maui could receive $1.6 billion in disaster relief funding as part of a new bipartisan government spending deal. The funds will support housing, economic development, small business loans, water infrastructure,
The American Friends Service Committee Grant Assistant Intern is an opportunity to develop and refine grant seeking skills while working to create social justice and peace.
In one of its last major actions on climate, the Biden administration on Wednesday finalized a key waiver allowing California to set its own vehicle pollution controls effectively allowing the nation’s most populous state to implement its 2035 ban on selling new gasoline cars.File video from 2022 above: Gov. Newsom signs climate laws to dramatically cut California’s use of oil and gasThe Biden EPA also granted a separate waiver allowing California air regulators to significantly cut emissions of polluting nitrogen oxides from heavy trucks and off-road vehicles.”California has longstanding authority to request waivers from EPA to protect its residents from dangerous air pollution coming from mobile sources like cars and trucks,” said EPA administrator Michael Regan in a statement. “Today’s actions follow through on EPA’s commitment to partner with states to reduce emissions and act on the threat of climate change.”For decades, federal law has granted California the authority to set its own vehicle emissions standards. President-elect Donald Trump revoked that authority during his first administration in 2019, but President Joe Biden reinstated it in 2022.Later that year, California air regulators voted to phase out sales of new gas vehicles by 2035, the first regulation of its kind in the U.S.The California regulations have interim standards as well: Starting with 2026 models, 35% of new cars, SUVs and small pickups sold in California will be required to be zero-emission vehicles. That quota will increase each year and is expected to reach 51% of all new car sales in 2028, 68% in 2030 and 100% in 2035. The quotas will also allow 20% of zero-emission cars sold to be plug-in hybrids.California’s vehicle regulations matter a great deal to the auto industry because close to 20 other states and the District of Columbia have adopted them.Yet electric vehicle advocates widely expect Trump to revoke California’s authority once he takes office in January as part of a broader rollback of Biden’s climate and pollution policies. Trump has repeatedly promised to overturn regulations to expand EVs and fuel-efficient hybrids when he takes office.Some climate advocates remain hopeful California’s rules will still set an important example.”Even with the first Trump administration revoking that waiver, California was able to continue driving progress in the transport sector, coming to agreements with companies that saw the writing on the wall,” said Lena Moffitt, executive director for clean energy advocacy group Evergreen Action.The EPA is reviewing several other waivers California has in front of the agency, and is expected to make a decision on them before Biden’s term ends.The Supreme Court declined earlier this week to take up an appeal from conservative states challenging California’s ability to establish its strict vehicle emission rules.The move, which effectively leaves in place a lower court ruling upholding those regulations, comes days after the court agreed to hear a narrow slice of the fight: whether fuel companies have standing to sue over the regulations.”We hope SCOTUS upholds decades of sound legal precedent, but even if they don’t, the momentum is on the side of electrification,” Moffitt said. “There will be years of litigation that once again will provide backdrop for California trying to push for progress in every way they can.”A busy week for climate actions from BidenThe Biden administration is also out with a detailed report warning that “unfettered” development of terminals to ship liquified natural gas (LNG) overseas could raise energy prices for American consumers and add billions of tons of pollution to the atmosphere in the coming decades.If the U.S. increases LNG exports beyond what’s currently authorized, the resulting emissions would amount to an additional roughly 1.5 gigatons of planet-warming pollution per year by 2050, or a quarter of annual U.S. greenhouse gas pollution, according to the report published Tuesday.The Biden administration used the months of work on the study to justify a pause on new federal approvals for LNG terminals in January.There will be a 60-day comment period on the report, which will bleed into the incoming Trump administration.”The final decision is in the hands of the next administration,” Energy Sec. Jennifer Granholm told reporters. “We hope they’ll take these facts into account to determine whether additional LNG exports are truly in the best interest of the American people and the economy.”Granholm said the study found the U.S. government has already approved enough LNG export terminals that could ship enough natural gas “to meet global demand for decades to come.””The main takeaway is that a business-as-usual approach is neither sustainable nor advisable,” Granholm said. “With additional unfettered exports, wholesale domestic natural gas prices would increase by over 30% and the average American household will pay more than an extra $100 annually on their gas bills and their electric bills will likely go up as well.”Energy Department officials said the Biden administration study can’t be altered, but the Trump administration could release their own version in the months ahead.The LNG industry is advocating for this and also urging the Trump administration to take its time with a new study, rather than rushing to approve new export terminals on day one.A rush to approve could hurt export terminals’ chances in the courts, where environmental groups will challenge them.”We would obviously like to see our permits upheld in court challenges,” said Charlie Riedl, executive director for the Center for LNG, a trade group.
May 22, 2023May 22, 2023
Nearly 90 years after starting as a small roadside pecan stand in 1937, Stuckey’s still sweetens road trips and represents the taste of the holidays for countless Georgians.
The fire started in a house near 40th and Izard at just before 6:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Many startups have a large number of decisions to make and each one has the chance to affect their trajectory significantly. As a result, some will often rush what might initially be seen as the simplest decision: who to bank with. Yet Rob Burnett, Director of Startup Banking, Grasshopper Bank told FinextraTV in this interview that it might be worth spending longer considering a banking partner. T…
The officials are set to reduce their benchmark rate, which affects many consumer and business loans, by a quarter-point when their meeting ends Wednesday.