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US universities losing hundreds of billions as top Chinese scientists and researchers go home [Video]

Inside China Business | September 29, 2024 Research and Development (R&D) is a major profit center for the top universities in the United States. Besides the nearly $100 billion they earn in grants from the US government and private sources, university-based researchers create patents and inventions that generate many more billions annually. China is the

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Home Based Business

New Orleans mayor, CAO ethics concerns amid bribery implications [Video]

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell and Chief Administrative Officer Gilbert Montano are implicated in an indictment alleging they accepted valuable tickets, potentially violating state ethics laws, sources say. Neither are accused of a crime in the indictment. “If all of that is true, then yeah, it looks to be a violation of the state ethics code,” said Steven Procopio, president of the government watchdog agency PAR.Prosecutors allege former city inspector Randy Farrell accepted bribes to allow unlicensed electricians to work on hundreds of homes in New Orleans.Prosecutors also allege Farrell wanted a high ranking city employee suspicious of him , terminated.Sources tell WDSU that Farrell collaborated with his business partner, Fouad Zeton.According to the indictment, prosecutors allege in 2019, Farrell bought Mayor Cantrell Saints tickets, lunch at a steakhouse, and a new iPhone.”There’s certainly enough there to look at this and if I’ll say if someone receives tickets from a prohibited source, then that would be a violation of the state ethics law,” Procopio said.According to the indictment, Farrell met with Cantrell at the steakhouse shortly after purchasing the tickets.It’s alleged Farrell then sent Zeton a text saying, “The (expletive) is gone!!!!!” The indictment also alleges Montano asked Zeton for tickets to the 2020 College Football National Championship game at the Superdome.Farrell paid $3,600 for those tickets, according to the indictment. “I think from a citizen standpoint, I think that goes an extra mile in terms of violating at least the spirit of ethical behavior,” said political expert Ed Chervenak. “He is a major player in the Cantrell administration. He’s fit the pattern of taking tickets, something of value. We don’t know if he offered anything in return or not, but it gives the perception something is going on behind closed doors.” Chervenak said if the allegations against them are true, what is alleged is not appropriate, and said public officials should not take anything of value if they want to have public trust. Montano said he’s disappointed his name has been implicated. He says there is no accusation of wrongdoing in the indictment and wants people to think about his integrity and the work he has done to improve the city. Farrell’s attorney issued the following statement regarding the indictment:”Last year Mr. Farrell took responsibility for IRS problems occurring nearly 10 years ago by means of a plea bargain with the Government, unrelated to the present charges. As a part of the plea bargain with the Government, Mr. Farrell met with Federal authorities to answer questions about the City of New Orleans’ Department of Public Safety.Mr. Farrell provided documentation of his payment for a birthday luncheon for the cooperating witness (Businessman #1) and his two nephews at which Public Official #1 was an invited guest of the businessman. The prosecutor now is improperly utilizing this information against Mr. Farewell, alleging it was a bribe. Mr. Farrell did nothing more than complain to city leaders about the dysfunction of the department of Safety and permits, a right he and all citizens have under the First Amendment.Allegations of bribery of Public Officials #1, for a luncheon mean and utilization of Saints tickets are too close to the political system.The Indictment sensationalizes statements, taken out of context, primarily made by the cooperating witness (Businessman #1) who was a fundraiser and supporter of Public Official #1 and, unfortunately, who had access to Mr. Farrell’s credit card.Contrary to allegation in the Indictment, Mr. Farrell is not a public official of the State or the City.Mr. Farrell and IECI deny the allegations in the government’s indictment and look forward to defending themselves in Court.”The City of New Orleans issued the following statement:”Out of respect for the courts and the legal process, the City of New Orleans will reserve comment on this matter until its full conclusion.”New Orleans City Council members also reacted for the first time since the indictment was handed down.New Orleans Council Vice President JP Morrell voiced his concerns over the allegations. “The idea of any city official grabbing anything of value for anyone who does things for the city is illegal,” said Council member JP Morrell.Councilmember Eugene Green said he wasn’t aware of Montano’s claim about tickets always circulating City Hall. Moreno echoed Green’s response. “Saints tickets? No one has ever given me Saints tickets. Also, we have ethics laws in Louisiana, so no, I have not,” said Council President Helena Moreno.WDSU Investigates asked the council if they were aware of other public officials implicated in the scheme, but are not officially named by the federal government in the indictment. No one commented on the identities outlined in the indictment. Sources tell WDSU that there are possibly other city employees who may have benefited from the free tickets.Farrell plans on entering a plea of not guilty.

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Home Based Business

Cleanup efforts begin in Watauga County [Video]

Cleanup efforts continue in Watauga County. Residents there have a long road to recovery ahead.Volunteers are coming together to help those in need of water, food and other necessities.There is a supply shop set up at Watauga High School for residents to come pick up what they need.”There are a lot of roads around us washed out, and bridges to homes are missing,” said one local resident. “People are stranded. It’s the worst I’ve ever seen.””I went down to the Walmart area on Saturday and it was pretty distressing,” said volunteer Jack Wordy. “They lost a lot down there in that area.”The community is coming together in the wake of the devastation.”It’s catastrophic,” said Meat Camp resident Will Bryan. “But we’re still blessed to be among the living.”Cleanup efforts are just beginning in the Meat Camp community of Watauga County.”We are a pretty tight-knit community up here,” said Bryan.Flood waters have mostly cleared, but the devastation remains.”It’s heartbreaking,” he said. “I mean, it really is. I’ve been on the edge of just wanting to curl around and cry a little bit. There’s a lot going on. A lot of people are impacted by this.”Bryan has an excavator and was helping clean up roads in his own neighborhood, as well as his neighbor’s yards.”Get as many people helped as we can,” he said.Rising waters from Helene washed away bridges and parts of Meat Camp Road.”We’re just trying to get at least get one lane open,” said Bryan. “So emergency or utility companies can get through.”It’s been a tough few days for residents, but they’re weathering the storm together.”Just keep us in your prayers,” Bryan said. “There’s still a lot to do and a lot that’s unaccounted for but just keep praying. We’ll all get through it.”It could be several months before residents return to a sense of normalcy.”It’s kind of surreal,” said ASU student Joshua Bodenheimer, whose car and home are flooded. “I don’t know. It’s kind of weird. We’re in the mountains and have this much of an impact from a hurricane that’s the most intense thing.”Watauga High School’s gym is open for people needing supplies from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. this week.

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Small Business Lifestyle

Jimmy Carter turns 100 [Video]

Already the longest-lived of the 45 men to serve as U.S. president, Jimmy Carter has reached the century mark.The 39th president, who remains under home hospice care, turned 100 on Tuesday, celebrating in the same south Georgia town where he was born in 1924.Here are some notable markers for Carter, the nation and the world over his long life.Booms most everywhere but not PlainsCarter has seen the U.S. population nearly triple. The U.S. has about 330 million residents; there were about 114 million in 1924 and 220 million when Carter was inaugurated in 1977. The global population has more than quadrupled, from 1.9 billion to more than 8.1 billion. It already had more than doubled to 4.36 billion by the time he became president.That boom has not reached Plains, where Carter has lived more than 80 of his 100 years. His wife Rosalynn, who died in 2023 at age 96, also was born in Plains.Their town comprised fewer than 500 people in the 1920s and has about 700 today; much of the local economy revolves around its most famous residents.When James Earl Carter Jr. was born, life expectancy for American males was 58. It’s now 75.TV, radio and presidential mapsNBC first debuted a red-and-blue electoral map in the 1976 election between then-President Gerald Ford, a Republican, and Carter, the Democratic challenger. But NBC’s John Chancellor made Carter’s states red and Ford’s blue. Some other early versions of color electoral maps used yellow and blue because red was associated with Soviet and Chinese communism.It wasn’t until the 1990s that networks settled on blue for Democratic-won states and red for GOP-won states. “Red state and blue state did not become a permanent part of the American political lexicon until after the disputed 2000 election between Al Gore and George W. Bush.Carter was 14 when Franklin D. Roosevelt made the first presidential television appearance. Warren Harding became the first radio president two years before Carter’s birth.Attention shoppersThere was no Amazon Prime in 1924, but you could order a build-it-yourself house from a catalog. Sears Roebuck Gladstones three-bedroom model went for $2,025, which was slightly less than the average workers annual income.Walmart didnt exist, but local general stores served the same purpose. Ballpark prices: loaf of bread, 9 cents; gallon of milk, 54 cents; gallon of gas, 11 cents.Inflation helped drive Carter from office, as it has dogged President Joe Biden. The average gallon in 1980, Carters last full year in office, was about $3.25 when adjusted for inflation. That’s just 3 cents more than AAA’s current national average.From suffragettes to Kamala HarrisThe 19th Amendment that extended voting rights to women almost exclusively white women at the time was ratified in 1920, four years before Carter’s birth. The Voting Rights Act that widened the franchise to Black Americans passed in 1965 as Carter was preparing his first bid for Georgia governor.Now, Carter is poised to cast a mail ballot for Vice President Kamala Harris. She would become the first woman, first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to reach the Oval Office. Grandson Jason Carter said the former president is holding on in part because he is excited about the chance to see Harris make history.Immigration, isolationism and America FirstFor all the shifts in U.S. politics, some things stay the same. Or at least come back around.Carter was born in an era of isolationism, protectionism and white Christian nationalism all elements of the right in the ongoing Donald Trump era. In 2024, Trump is promising the largest deportation effort in U.S. history, while tightening legal immigration. He has said immigrants are poisoning the blood of our country.Five months before Carter was born, President Calvin Coolidge signed the Immigration Act of 1924. The law created the U.S. Border Patrol and sharply curtailed immigration, limiting admission mostly to migrants from western Europe. Asians were banned entirely. Congress described its purpose plainly: preserve the ideal of U.S. homogeneity. The Ku Klux Klan followed in 1925 and 1926 with marches on Washington promoting white supremacy.Trump also has called for sweeping tariffs on foreign imports, part of his America First agenda. In 1922, Congress enacted tariffs intended to help U.S. manufacturers. After stock market losses in 1929, lawmakers added the 1930 Smoot-Hawley tariffs, ostensibly to help American farmers. The Great Depression followed anyway. In the 1930s, as Carter became politically aware, the political right that countered FDR was driven in part by a movement that opposed international engagement. Those conservatives’ slogan: America First.America’s and Carter’s pastimeCarter is the Atlanta Braves’ most famous fan. Jason Carter says the former president still enjoys watching his favorite baseball team.In the 1990s, when the Braves were annual features in the October playoffs, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter were often spotted in the owner’s box with media mogul Ted Turner and Jane Fonda, then Turner’s wife. The Braves moved to Atlanta from Milwaukee between Carter’s failed run for governor in 1966 and his victory four years later. Then-Gov. Carter was sitting in the first row of Atlanta Fulton-County Stadium on April 9, 1974, when Henry Aaron hit his 715th home run to break Babe Ruth’s career record.When Carter was born, the Braves were still in Boston, their original city. Ruth had just completed his fifth season for the New York Yankees. He had hit 284 home runs to that point (still 430 short of his career total) and the original Yankee Stadium The House that Ruth Built” had been open less than 18 months.Booze, Billy and Billy BeerProhibition had been in effect for four years when Carter was born and wouldnt be lifted until he was 9. The Carters were never prodigious drinkers. They served only wine at state dinners and other White House functions, though it’s a common misconception that they did so because of their Baptist mores. It was more because Carter has always been frugal: He didn’t want taxpayers or the residence account (his and Rosalynn’s personal money) to cover more expensive hard liquor.Carters younger brother Billy, who owned a Plains gas station and died in 1988, had different tastes. He marketed his own brand, Billy Beer, once Carter became president. News sources reported that Billy Carter snagged a $50,000 annual licensing fee from one brewer. That’s about $215,000 today. The presidents annual salary at the time was $200,000 it’s now $400,000.The debt: More Carter frugalityThe Times Square debt clock didnt debut until Carter was in his early 60s and out of the White House. But for anyone counting the $35 trillion debt, Carter doesnt merit much mention. The man who would wash Ziploc bags to reuse them added less than $300 billion to the national debt, which stood below $1 trillion when he left office.Other presidentsCarter has lived through 40% of U.S. history since the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and more than a third of all U.S. administrations since George Washington took office in 1789 nine before Carter was president, his own and seven since.When Carter took office, just two presidents, John Adams and Herbert Hoover, had lived to be 90. Since then, Ford, Ronald Reagan, Carter and George H.W. Bush all reached at least 93.

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Small Business Lifestyle

Road closures expected during Trump’s MIlwaukee visit [Video]

Former President Donald Trump is expected to be in Milwaukee Tuesday for a 5 p.m. campaign event at Discovery World just 36 days before Election Day. His visit comes at the peak of rush hour traffic and just 30 minutes after the Brewers’ first pitch of the playoffs at American Family Field. “They always tend to come in right at 5 p.m. or rush hour,” Roxanne Monc, an employee at Artisan Partners in downtown Milwaukee, said Monday. Monc said her company informed employees Monday morning of the potential road closures that could impact their commutes home Tuesday. “We found out this morning that he was going to be at Discovery World, so that’s when I decided tomorrow’s a good day to work from home,” she said. Other downtown workers like Ethan Heinrich found out about Trump’s visit from 12 News. While he wasn’t scheduled to work in-person Tuesday, he said the temporary closures will add even more congestion to downtown streets already impacted by local construction. “There’s been so much construction going on,” he said. “It’s kind of a pain to just go even to, you know, coffee or lunch or anything like that, let alone get to work.” WISN 12 News contacted the United States Secret Service for specifics on expected road closures. In a statement, a spokesperson said: “The U.S. Secret Service works closely with our local law enforcement partners to maintain a robust security posture, while minimizing disruptions to the public. Residents and visitors in or around Milwaukee should expect intermittent road closures and parking restrictions on Tuesday. To maintain operational security, the U.S. Secret Service does not discuss specifics regarding the means and methods used for our protective operations.”