80 jili

80 jili By ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump promised on Tuesday to “vigorously pursue” capital punishment after President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of most people on federal death row partly to stop Trump from pushing forward their executions. Related Articles National Politics | Elon Musk’s preschool is the next step in his anti-woke education dreams National Politics | Trump’s picks for top health jobs not just team of rivals but ‘team of opponents’ National Politics | Biden will decide on US Steel acquisition after influential panel fails to reach consensus National Politics | Biden vetoes once-bipartisan effort to add 66 federal judgeships, citing ‘hurried’ House action National Politics | A history of the Panama Canal — and why Trump can’t take it back on his own Trump criticized Biden’s decision on Monday to change the sentences of 37 of the 40 condemned people to life in prison without parole, arguing that it was senseless and insulted the families of their victims. Biden said converting their punishments to life imprisonment was consistent with the moratorium imposed on federal executions in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder. “Joe Biden just commuted the Death Sentence on 37 of the worst killers in our Country,” he wrote on his social media site. “When you hear the acts of each, you won’t believe that he did this. Makes no sense. Relatives and friends are further devastated. They can’t believe this is happening!” Presidents historically have no involvement in dictating or recommending the punishments that federal prosecutors seek for defendants in criminal cases, though Trump has long sought more direct control over the Justice Department’s operations. The president-elect wrote that he would direct the department to pursue the death penalty “as soon as I am inaugurated,” but was vague on what specific actions he may take and said they would be in cases of “violent rapists, murderers, and monsters.” He highlighted the cases of two men who were on federal death row for slaying a woman and a girl, had admitted to killing more and had their sentences commuted by Biden. On the campaign trail, Trump often called for expanding the federal death penalty — including for those who kill police officers, those convicted of drug and human trafficking, and migrants who kill U.S. citizens. “Trump has been fairly consistent in wanting to sort of say that he thinks the death penalty is an important tool and he wants to use it,” said Douglas Berman, an expert on sentencing at Ohio State University’s law school. “But whether practically any of that can happen, either under existing law or other laws, is a heavy lift.” Berman said Trump’s statement at this point seems to be just a response to Biden’s commutation. “I’m inclined to think it’s still in sort of more the rhetoric phase. Just, ‘don’t worry. The new sheriff is coming. I like the death penalty,’” he said. Most Americans have historically supported the death penalty for people convicted of murder, according to decades of annual polling by Gallup, but support has declined over the past few decades. About half of Americans were in favor in an October poll, while roughly 7 in 10 Americans backed capital punishment for murderers in 2007. Before Biden’s commutation, there were 40 federal death row inmates compared with more than 2,000 who have been sentenced to death by states. “The reality is all of these crimes are typically handled by the states,” Berman said. A question is whether the Trump administration would try to take over some state murder cases, such as those related to drug trafficking or smuggling. He could also attempt to take cases from states that have abolished the death penalty. Berman said Trump’s statement, along with some recent actions by states, may present an effort to get the Supreme Court to reconsider a precedent that considers the death penalty disproportionate punishment for rape. “That would literally take decades to unfold. It’s not something that is going to happen overnight,” Berman said. Before one of Trump’s rallies on Aug. 20, his prepared remarks released to the media said he would announce he would ask for the death penalty for child rapists and child traffickers. But Trump never delivered the line. One of the men Trump highlighted on Tuesday was ex-Marine Jorge Avila Torrez, who was sentenced to death for killing a sailor in Virginia and later pleaded guilty to the fatal stabbing of an 8-year-old and a 9-year-old girl in a suburban Chicago park several years before. The other man, Thomas Steven Sanders, was sentenced to death for the kidnapping and slaying of a 12-year-old girl in Louisiana, days after shooting the girl’s mother in a wildlife park in Arizona. Court records show he admitted to both killings. Some families of victims expressed anger with Biden’s decision, but the president had faced pressure from advocacy groups urging him to make it more difficult for Trump to increase the use of capital punishment for federal inmates. The ACLU and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops were some of the groups that applauded the decision. Biden left three federal inmates to face execution. They are Dylann Roof, who carried out the 2015 racist slayings of nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina; 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev ; and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018 , the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S history. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin, Michelle L. Price and Eric Tucker contributed to this report.

Julianne Hough Congratulates Ex-Husband Brooks Laich on Engagement

AP Sports SummaryBrief at 5:51 p.m. EST

Mel Woods Today The Tyee Mel Woods is an award-winning Vancouver-based writer, editor and content creator. They are a senior editor at Xtra Magazine. URL copied to clipboard! SHARE: 68 SHARES It was exhausting being online over the past few years. Announcements, Events & more from Tyee and select partners As Billionaire Overlords Cheer Journalism’s Death, Fight Back Support the reporting you want to see in the world. Join our Tyee Builder drive and sign up by Dec. 31. And over the past year, it feels like things have hit a boiling point . I work as a senior editor at an online LGBTQ2S+ magazine. As someone with a very online job that demands I keep up with the news cycle , the onslaught of heaviness in 2024 has massively increased my desire — or, frankly, need — for counter-programming wherever possible. Nearly every night for the past year, I’ve done what my partner calls my “onlines.” While she nobly reads a book — her brain strong and more ridged than mine — I plug my headphones into my smooth brain for one to two hours of nightly TikTok content. My hand cramps from propping my phone up on my chest, swiping and swiping and swiping until I finally turn it off and spend another hour of blue-light-fuelled sleep avoidance thinking about all the cat videos and recipes and memes I just absorbed in a dissociative state. Sound familiar? I’m certainly not alone in my thirst for mind-numbing dissociation amidst a strenuous news cycle. And it turns out there’s a word for all of that. Earlier this month, the Oxford English Dictionary declared “brain rot” as its word of the year, an annual accolade that doesn’t mean all that much beyond capturing the mood of a populace at a certain time in history. And this year, right now? That mood is tired . ‘The argot of a generation’ The Oxford English Dictionary specifically defines brain rot as “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging. Also: something characterized as likely to lead to such deterioration.” The New Yorker’s Jessica Winter called it “a strikingly capacious term, enfolding the psychological and cognitive decay wrought by screen addiction, the bacteria-like content that feeds the addiction, and the argot of a generation for whom much of this content is made.” And there’s science to back it all up: a group of psychologists at Stanford University concluded back in 2018 that people who frequently multi-task with multiple online platforms — say, scrolling TikTok on my phone while checking emails on my laptop while watching Below Deck on the TV — have reduced our memory and attention spans. Brain rot is both the symptom and the solution to a need to escape from the darkness of the real world. During an appearance on CBC’s Commotion podcast earlier this month, I partook in a game of “brain rot or not?” where host Elamin Abdelmahmoud presented me and other panellists with a variety of sounds, ranging from the “Subway Surfers” music to the scrumptiously satisfying crunch of one of those big hydraulic presses crushing something. To add to those examples: that elderly Persian cat named Gizmo I follow on TikTok? He both gives me, and is in and of himself, brain rot. Same goes for the dozen seasons of Top Chef I’ve watched since the U.S. presidential election. Even my partner, pious in her nightly library reading, indulges in her own flavour of brain rot through her obsession with “panning” content — a genre of Instagram influencer girlie who posts obsessively over “hitting pan” (also known as the act of finishing a skin care, makeup or personal product — you know, when you hit that bottom of your eyeshadow palette). I once asked why she cares so much about it. “I just like it” was her answer. RELATED STORIES Young People Turn to TikTok for News. What Do They Get? And while I can’t blame it entirely on my nightly content dump, I do feel... slower than I did a year ago. And my nightly habits might even be shortening my lifespan, as one 2023 study suggests . Aspirationally, I’d love to spend my time reading important works, learning new things, crafting or creating stuff. And yet, like clockwork, there I am every night with my screen and my scrolling. Internet garbage is hardly a new phenomenon. But there’s something behind the Oxford English Dictionary choosing this word now, to capture the place we are at now. Has being online become more isolating? As 2024 comes to a close, we’re in the midst of a great social media shift. The re-election of Donald Trump has quickly degraded the social media platform X, long a networking and news gathering space for millions of people, into a much darker place (a process already started by Elon Musk’s acquisition of the platform last year). Meta, meanwhile, has banned Canadian news from Facebook and Instagram. Even TikTok has seen a partial ban in the United States, further fracturing our online gathering spaces. In many ways, being online has become more isolated, even as we seek out alternatives. My thriving community on X hasn’t all made its way over to Bluesky like I have, and I’ve lost people who’ve been my mutuals for years. At 29, I am of a cohort that came of age along with the internet. I was on the Neopets text-based role-playing forums in middle school. I wrote Twilight fan fiction in high school. I had a very successful fan Tumblr blog devoted to the Canadian sci-fi TV series Orphan Black when I was in university. And I’ve relied on networking platforms like the website formerly known as Twitter to advance my career since graduating. I’ve seen many people over 30 balk at the idea that something like “skibidi toilet” would go viral in 2024, but it doesn’t feel all that different from “ Charlie the Unicorn ,” a staple of 2005 middle-school internet. The idea that internet garbage as brain rot is a new phenomenon in 2024 is small-minded at best. But the platforms where we consume it, and the world around us, make it a decidedly different beast this year of all years — even compared with some obviously challenging recent periods. Take 2020, a year where, by health protocol necessity, our existences became moved even further online. Much of that year was experienced through a screen for many of us, and we took solace in much of the content that falls under the “brain rot” designation. I played a lot of Animal Crossing: New Horizons and watched a lot of bad reality TV in those dark pandemic months. But the difference back then was that we were all in it together. In 2020, I actually found myself connecting even more with friends in other cities, as we visited each other’s Animal Crossing islands. My now-fiancée, who was a friend at the time, and I connected over Zoom, before gradually meeting six feet apart in New Brighton Park for pandemic-era dates. Collective games like Among Us and Jackbox surged in popularity, as friends worked to stay in better connection. Maybe I look back with a degree of rose-coloured hindsight, but being online in 2020 didn’t feel rotted in the way 2024 has felt rotted. It felt nourishing and growing and life-sustaining during a really hard time. But this year, I both dread and long for every moment I open my phone — a feeling I attribute to both the news I know I’ll see, and the content sludge I’ll consume to get through it. In all honesty, my favourite online space in 2024 wasn’t in my nightly content dump from these big social media networks, but the small Discord server my partner and I made with some friends last year to share memes and recipes and make movie night plans together. Just two dozen of my real-life connections, coming together in a shared online space. No strangers. No Nazis. No egotistical billionaires. Young People Turn to TikTok for News. What Do They Get? read more It reminds me of that collective deep pandemic feeling, where the internet is an avenue to build and strengthen connections, rather than create rifts and rot. Call it 2024’s version of an Animal Crossing island. I think that in order to fight the continued rot, we need to find more of those spaces where we can. Places where we can talk amongst ourselves and really reconnect with the “network” side of social networking again. The endless scroll of brain rot might feel good in the short term, and I’m not suggesting we all quit cold turkey. But find those spaces with real humans to talk about the rot you love, rather than rotting alone. Take those memes to the group chat; make a channel to talk about the latest episode of Doctor Odyssey . Let’s find ways to rot together, because that’s so much better than rotting alone. Happy holidays, readers. Our comment threads will be closed until Jan. 2 to give our moderators a much-deserved break. See you in 2025! Read more: MediaIf you've hunted for apartments recently and felt like all the rents were equally high, you're not alone: Many landlords now use a single company's software—which uses an algorithm based on proprietary lease information—to help set rent prices, The Markup reports. Federal prosecutors say the practice amounts to "an unlawful information-sharing scheme," and some lawmakers throughout California are moving to curb it. San Diego's city council president is the latest to do so, proposing a ban that would prevent local apartment owners from using the pricing service, which he maintains is driving up housing costs. San Diego's proposed ordinance, which is currently being drafted, comes after San Francisco enacted a first-in-the-nation ban on "the sale or use of algorithmic devices to set rents or manage occupancy levels" for residences in July. San Jose is considering a similar approach. Similar bans have passed or are being considered across the country. In September, The Philadelphia City Council passed a ban on algorithmic rental price-fixing with a veto-proof vote. New Jersey has been considering its own ban. In August, The Department of Justice and the attorney generals of eight states—California, North Carolina, Colorado, Connecticut, Minnesota, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington— filed an antitrust lawsuit against RealPage, the leading rental pricing platform based in Texas. The complaint alleges that "RealPage is an algorithmic intermediary that collects, combines, and exploits landlords' competitively sensitive information. And in so doing, it enriches itself and compliant landlords at the expense of renters who pay inflated prices..." RealPage has been a major impetus for all of the actions. Some officials accused the company of thwarting competition that would otherwise drive rents down, exacerbating the state's housing shortage and driving up rents in the process. "We are disappointed that, after multiple years of education and cooperation on the antitrust matters concerning RealPage, the (Justice Department) has chosen this moment to pursue a lawsuit that seeks to scapegoat pro-competitive technology that has been used responsibly for years," the company's statement read in part. "RealPage's revenue management software is purposely built to be legally compliant, and we have a long history of working constructively with the (department) to show that." "Every day, millions of Californians worry about keeping a roof over their head and RealPage has directly made it more difficult to do so," said California Attorney General Rob Bonta in a written statement. A RealPage spokesperson, Jennifer Bowcock, told CalMatters that a lack of housing supply, not the company's technology, is the real problem—and that its technology benefits residents, property managers, and others associated with the rental market. The spokesperson later wrote that a " misplaced focus on nonpublic information is a distraction... that will only make San Francisco and San Diego's historical problems worse." As for the federal lawsuit, the company called the claims "devoid of merit" and said it plans to "vigorously defend ourselves against these accusations." In 2020, a Markup and New York Times investigation found that RealPage, alongside other companies, used faulty computer algorithms to do automated background checks on tenants. As a result, tenants were associated with criminal charges they never faced and denied homes. According to federal prosecutors, RealPage controls 80% of the market for commercial revenue management software. Its product is called YieldStar, and its successor is AI Revenue Management, which uses much of the same codebase as YieldStar, but has more precise forecasting. RealPage told CalMatters it serves only 10% of the rental markets in both San Francisco and San Diego, across its three revenue management software products. Here's how it works: In order to use YieldStar and AIRM, landlords have historically provided RealPage with their own private data from their rental applications, rent prices, executed new leases, renewal offers and acceptances, and estimates of future occupancy, although a recent change allows landlords to choose to share only public data. This information from all participating landlords in an area is then pooled and run through mathematical forecasting to generate pricing recommendations for the landlords and their competitors. The San Diego council president, Sean Elo-Rivera, explained it like this: "In the simplest terms, what this platform is doing is providing what we think of as that dark, smoky room for big companies to get together and set prices," he said. "The technology is being used as a way of keeping an arm's length from one big company to the other. But that's an illusion." In the company's own words, from company documents included in the lawsuit, RealPage "ensures that (landlords) are driving every possible opportunity to increase price even in the most downward trending or unexpected conditions." The company also said in the documents that it "helps curb (landlords') instincts to respond to down-market conditions by either dramatically lowering price or by holding price." Thirty-one-year-old Navy veteran Alan Pickens and his wife move nearly every year "because the rent goes up, it gets unaffordable, so we look for a new place to stay," he said. The northeastern San Diego apartment complex where they just relocated has two-bedroom apartments advertised for between $2,995 and $3,215. They live in an area of San Diego where the Justice Department says information-sharing agreements between landlords and RealPage have harmed or are likely to harm renters. The department in August filed its antitrust lawsuit against RealPage, alleging the company, through its legacy YieldStar software, engaged in an " unlawful scheme to decrease competition among landlords in apartment pricing ". The complaint names specific areas where rents are artificially high. Beyond the part of San Diego where Pickens lives, those areas include South Orange County, Rancho Cucamonga, Temecula, Murrieta, and northeastern San Diego. In the second quarter of 2020, the average rent in San Diego County was $1,926, reflecting a 26% increase over three years, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune . Rents have since risen even more in the city of San Diego, to $2,336 per month as of November 2024—up 21% from 2020, according to RentCafe and the Tribune. That's 50% higher than the national average rent. The attorneys general of eight states, including California, joined the Justice Department's antitrust suit, filed in District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. The California Justice Department contends RealPage artificially inflated prices to keep them above a certain minimum level, said department spokesperson Elissa Perez. This was particularly harmful given the high cost of housing in the state, she added. "The illegally maintained profits that result from these price alignment schemes come out of the pockets of the people that can least afford it." Renters make up a larger share of households in California than in the rest of the country — 44% here compared to 35% nationwide. The Golden State also has a higher percentage of renters than any state other than New York, according to the latest Census data . San Diego has the fourth-highest percentage of renters of any major city in the nation . The recent ranks of California legislators, however, have included few renters: As of 2019, CalMatters could find only one state lawmaker who did not own a home —and found that more than a quarter of legislators at the time were landlords. Studies show that low-income residents are more heavily impacted by rising rents. Nationally, between 2000 and 2017, the percentage of income that Americans without a college degree spent on rent ballooned from 30% to 42%. For college graduates, that percentage increased from 26% to 34%. "In my estimation, the only winners in this situation are the richest companies who are either using this technology or creating this technology," said Elo-Rivera. "There couldn't be a more clear example of the rich getting richer while the rest of us are struggling to get by." Private equity giant Thoma Bravo acquired RealPage in January 2021 through two funds that have hundreds of millions of dollars in investments from California public pension funds, including the California Public Employees' Retirement System, the California State Teachers' Retirement System, the Regents of the University of California and the Los Angeles police and fire pension funds, according to Private Equity Stakeholder Project. "They're invested in things that are directly hurting their pensioners," said K Agbebiyi, a senior housing campaign coordinator with the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, a nonprofit private equity watchdog that produced a report about corporate landlords ' impact on rental hikes in San Diego. RealPage argues that landlords are free to reject the price recommendations generated by its software. But the Justice Department alleges that trying to do so requires a series of steps, including a conversation with a RealPage pricing adviser. The advisers try to "stop property managers from acting on emotions," according to the department's lawsuit. If a property manager disagrees with the price the algorithm suggests and wants to decrease rent rather than increase it, a pricing advisor will "escalate the dispute to the manager's superior," prosecutors allege in the suit. In San Diego, the Pickenses, who are expecting their first child, have given up their gym memberships and downsized their cars to remain in the area. They've considered moving to Denver. "All the extras pretty much have to go," said Pickens. "I mean, we love San Diego, but it's getting hard to live here." "My wife is an attorney and I served in the Navy for 10 years, and now work at Qualcomm," he said. "Why are we struggling? Why are we struggling?" This story was produced by The Markup and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.Closing out 2024, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued a proposed rule entitled “Contract Year 2026 Policy and Technical Changes to the Medicare Advantage Program, Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Program, Medicare Cost Plan Program, and Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly” (“2026 Proposed Rule”). The 240-page rule, published on December 10, would revise the named programs with respect to Star Ratings, marketing and communications, health equity, drug coverage, dual eligible special needs plans (D-SNPs), utilization management, network adequacy, and other programmatic areas, including the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program. It also proposes to codify existing subregulatory guidance in the Part C and Part D programs. In this Insight , we will focus on some of the key provisions of the 2026 Proposed Rule, including: potential guardrails for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to protect access to health services, coverage of anti-obesity medications (AOMs) under the Medicare Part D and Medicaid programs, broadened marketing definitions to expand CMS oversight of Medicare Advantage (MA) and Part D communications materials and activities, limits on the marketing of supplemental benefit amounts and the use and marketing of debit cards, efforts to ensure equitable access to behavioral health services, changes regarding MA provider directory data, and improvements relating to Star Ratings. CMS invites comments on the 2026 Proposed Rule by 5 p.m. EST on January 27, 2025. Of note, the 2026 Proposed Rule was developed and issued by the Biden administration, but the Trump administration will be responsible for reviewing the comments submitted and determining how to move forward. In fact, as the Trump administration will have wide latitude, it could choose not to finalize some or all aspects of the 2026 Proposed Rule. However, it is more likely than not that the Trump administration will move forward with many of the areas at issue in the 2026 Proposed Rule based upon public comment and the new administration’s policy priorities. Artificial Intelligence AI keeps on garnering national attention, and CMS continues to monitor developments. In the 2026 Proposed Rule, CMS highlights the 2023 Biden-Harris “Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Deployment and Use of Artificial Intelligence” and its directive to agencies to ensure that the use of AI within the health care ecosystem does not “deny equal opportunity and justice for the American people” as a backdrop for its proposal on AI. The 2026 Proposed Rule cites an increase by MA organizations in the use of AI tools (including AI-based patient care decision support tools as well as AI and machine learning-based decision support systems in behavioral health settings) and the need to demonstrate that the use of these tools does not result in inequities in treatment or bias in health care. CMS highlights examples—such as the problem of incomplete medical records and the resulting negative impacts to machine learning, as well as instances of using data for scheduling and double-booking slots for patients with a history of missed appointments—as support for its concerns of discrimination in AI. With those issues in mind, CMS proposes to amend the requirements for “Ensuring equitable access to Medicare Advantage (MA) services” at 42 CFR § 422.112(a)(8) to make clear that regardless of whether delivered by human or AI systems, a system must ensure the equitable delivery of services. CMS also clarifies that the use of AI or automated systems must be done in a manner that does not discriminate on any factor related to an enrollee’s health status. CMS reminds MA organizations that they are responsible in the event they license AI tools, as well as if a First-Tier, Downstream, and Related Entity uses AI to fulfill the MA organizations’ responsibilities. CMS also offers examples of how MA organizations could maintain compliance, such as creating processes to regularly review AI systems for discrimination. CMS further proposes to define the phrase “automated system” in § 422.2 to mean those that have the potential for bias or impact access and to define the phrase “patient care decision support tool” to mean a non-automated or automated resource that supports clinical decision-making, consistent with the definition found at 45 CFR 92.4. CMS invites comment on the proposals and may consider revisions based on those comments. Medicare Part D and Medicaid Coverage of Anti-Obesity Medications The 2026 Proposed Rule would, for the first time, require Part D plan sponsors and Medicaid programs to provide coverage of AOMs for beneficiaries with obesity . This change, effective contract year (CY) 2025, is estimated to expand coverage of AOMs to an additional 3.4 million Part D enrollees and four million Medicaid beneficiaries, which is estimated to increase Medicare and Medicaid expenditures by $24.8 and $14.8 billion over 10 years, respectively. Because of changes in the prevailing medical consensus towards recognizing obesity as a disease, CMS proposes to reinterpret the statutory exclusion included in the 2003 Part D statute of “agents when used for weight loss,” such that this exclusion would not apply to drugs used to treat obesity. Interestingly, this interpretation is consistent with CMS’s position when the Part D benefit was first implemented: in the preamble of a 2005 Final Rule on the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit, CMS specified that “weight loss agents may be covered for the treatment of morbid obesity” because obesity is “not specifically excluded by Section 1927(d)(2) of the [Social Security] Act.” Despite this language, CMS has consistently taken the position that AOMs are always excluded from coverage under Part D when used to treat or manage obesity. In fact, in March 2024 , with the introduction of new and popular AOMs (e.g., Ozempic, Wegovy, and Zepbound), CMS issued guidance confirming that “all drugs used for weight loss have been excluded from basic coverage” under Medicare and Medicaid. However, in the same guidance, CMS confirmed that these same drugs, when prescribed for another medically accepted indication (MAI) (e.g., type 2 diabetes and certain cardiovascular conditions), do not fall within the statutory exclusion and must be covered, subject to utilization management practices. Now, less than a year from the March 2024 guidance, CMS is proposing to expand coverage of AOMs even in situations in which there is no other condition for which the prescribed use is an MAI. Emphasizing the distinction between coverage for those with obesity (a recognized disease state) versus general weight loss, the 2026 Proposed Rule is clear that Medicare and Medicaid enrollees who are “overweight” but not “obese” would still not be eligible for coverage. CMS is soliciting stakeholder feedback on how to mitigate the perverse incentive this could create for beneficiaries to gain weight to obtain coverage. The following table summarizes proposed changes relative to current law.[1] CMS Expanded Oversight of MA and Part D Communications The provisions of the 2026 Proposed Rule addressing Medicare marketing continue the efforts by the Biden administration to address ongoing concerns with respect to misleading marketing. The preamble to the 2026 Proposed Rule notes that, even with all of the changes and restrictions it has enacted over the past several years, “CMS continues to see . . . marketing misrepresentation complaints from beneficiaries and outreach from stakeholders that we consider to be related to advertisements on television, mail, and the Internet.”[2] CMS states that these stem from the narrowing of the definition of marketing that had been implemented under the previous (and incoming) Trump administration, which CMS believes created a loophole for plans and their downstream vendors to avoid CMS review. As such, CMS proposes to amend the current definition of marketing such that it would apply to, and thereby require submission to CMS of, “communications materials and activities that are intended to draw a beneficiary’s attention to an MA plan or plans, influence a beneficiary’s decision-making process when making an MA plan or selection, or influence a beneficiary’s decision to stay enrolled in a plan”[3]—with specified exceptions. CMS would no longer require that, to constitute marketing, a piece also include content relating to the substantive aspects of the plan, such as benefits, benefits structure, premiums, cost sharing, measuring or ranking standards (for example, Star Ratings or plan comparisons), or available rewards and incentives. CMS acknowledges that the majority of the materials captured by this broader definition will likely be submitted under its “File and Use” authority, whereby a plan or third-party submitter may, upon certifying compliance with the Medicare marketing rules, submit material that can then be used five days after its submission. Collection of this broader scope of materials would allow the agency to provide “stronger oversight” and would expedite its “ability to more quickly act on non-compliant ads associated with beneficiary complaints.”[4] Limits on Marketing of Supplemental Benefit Amounts and Use and Marketing of Debit Cards New proposed regulations on the administration of supplemental benefits through debit cards represent the latest step in the Biden administration’s effort to better understand and control the provision and use of supplemental benefits under the MA program. CMS states that, in response to stakeholder and beneficiary concerns, it proposes to codify as regulatory requirements, and/or expand upon standards, for the administration of supplemental benefits that previously existed only in program guidance and instructions. The overarching purpose of the proposed regulatory requirements is to (i) increase transparency around the use of supplemental benefits, (ii) ensure enrollees understand how to access their supplemental benefits, and (iii) ensure that plans provide, furnish, or pay for only items and services that are permitted as MA benefits. Under the 2026 Proposed Rule, debit cards must be electronically linked to plan-covered benefits through a real-time identification mechanism that confirms, at the point of sale, that the items or services are eligible as covered benefits. CMS also clarifies that a debit card must be used only for cost-sharing reductions for specific items and services used and that a debit card may not consist of simply an unrestricted cash benefit that offsets the out-of-pocket expense to the enrollee of cost sharing. Allowed values on plan debit cards may only be used in a specific plan year and may not carry forward to the next year. Plans must provide enrollees with instructions and customer support on how to access supplemental benefits through the debit card at different providers, vendors, and stores. Further, plans must develop an alternative mechanism that allows for reimbursement of supplemental benefit expenses should the real-time identification function of a debit card fail, malfunction, or otherwise be unavailable. In the 2026 Proposed Rule, CMS also provides a new, non-exhaustive list of primarily health-related over-the-counter (OTC) items that are permissible as supplemental benefits to be accessed through a debit card and also lists some non-allowable OTC items. Finally, CMS expresses concerns regarding plan promotion of debit cards, also called “flex cards,” in marketing efforts. CMS believes such advertisements can mislead beneficiaries by “giving the false impression that the card itself is the benefit, that it can be used to purchase anything and can be used anywhere, and that an individual can receive it automatically by enrolling in the advertised MA plan.”[5] To address these concerns, CMS proposes to prohibit MA organizations from marketing the method by which a supplemental benefit is administered, such as the use of a debit card, and from marketing the dollar value of a supplemental benefit. Such limits would allow the MA plan to provide the beneficiary with enough information to inquire further into the nature of the referenced supplemental benefit without providing “an overly simplified advertisement that does not include the level of information required for an informed enrollment decision.”[6] Equitable Access to Behavioral Health Services The 2026 Proposed Rule addresses the nation’s behavioral health crisis by focusing on improving access to mental health and substance use disorder services for MA and Section 1876 Cost Plan enrollees. CMS indicates that this proposal stems from significant care disruptions experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among disadvantaged populations, including historically underserved racial and ethnic groups and low-income communities. CMS explains that its motivation to make the proposed changes is based on data indicating substantial cost barriers to behavioral health services. Specifically, CMS found that approximately 25 percent of Medicare beneficiaries live with mental illness, and roughly 50 percent of that population is enrolled in MA plans. CMS further found that between 23 and 25 percent of MA plans impose higher cost-sharing rates for mental health specialty services, psychiatric services, and partial hospitalization than those services would be subject to under traditional Medicare. For outpatient substance use disorder services, CMS found that between 42 and 71 percent of plans exceed traditional Medicare cost sharing. This translates to enrollees potentially paying $7 to $21 more per visit for mental health services and $30 to $47 more for specialty services. In response to these findings, CMS proposes to require MA and Cost Plans to set their in-network cost-sharing for behavioral health services at no more than the cost sharing under traditional Medicare, beginning January 1, 2026. This approach aims to balance two key objectives: improving service affordability for enrollees and minimizing disruption to existing care and coverage options. The 2026 Proposed Rule includes several key implementation considerations. CMS is soliciting comments on the potential start date (2026 or 2027), the possibility of a transition period for existing cost-sharing standards, and the potential impact on plans’ ability to maintain actuarial equivalence with traditional Medicare coverage. The proposed changes could have significant operational implications as plans will need to carefully review and potentially restructure their cost-sharing models for behavioral health services, ensuring compliance with the new requirements while maintaining financial sustainability. This may require sophisticated actuarial analysis and potential adjustments to plan design, premium structures, and provider network arrangements. Stakeholders preparing comments may want to explore several critical areas. Health plans might raise concerns about the financial implications and actuarial challenges of implementing cost sharing tied to levels set under traditional Medicare. Health plans may also want to raise the lack of clear precedent of restricting plan discretion in benefit design. Mental health professionals and providers could offer insights into how these changes might improve service delivery and patient access. Additionally, comments might address potential unintended consequences, such as potential shifts in plan design or provider network composition that could indirectly affect health plan availability for patients with behavioral health conditions or behavioral health service accessibility. Submission of Provider Directory Data and Requirements on Inclusion of Information Regarding In-Home Services Providers CMS proposes to require MA plans to submit their provider directory data to make such information viewable on Medicare Plan Finder (MPF). Such plans would further be required to attest both to the accuracy of the data and that it is consistent with the data the plan submitted under CMS’s MA network adequacy review process. Provider network information is not currently available on MPF; instead, information must be obtained from each plan’s own website. This proposal would take effect on July 1, 2025, in order to enable CMS to obtain provider directory data and conduct testing in advance of the October 1, 2025, marketing start date for CY 2026. The 2026 Proposed Rule aims to further enhance transparency and increase safety for enrollees by introducing new requirements for provider directories related to providers of in-home services. CMS has become aware that some entities providing covered benefits, particularly those offering in-home or supplemental services, may not be fully represented in current provider directories. To address these concerns, CMS proposes to codify new registry requirements and related definitions for “community-based organizations” (CBOs), “direct furnishing entities,” and “in-home or at-home supplemental benefit providers.” The provisions would require MA plans to make several important changes to their provider directories. First, plans would be required to identify and clearly mark which providers and entities are CBOs through easily identifiable notations or filters. Second, plans would be required to create a distinct subset or separate list of in-home or at-home supplemental benefit providers, including those that offer both in-home and in-office services. This requirement is designed to help enrollees easily identify which providers might have access to their home. The definition of an “in-home or at-home supplemental benefit provider” is specifically crafted to include “any direct furnishing entity in which the direct furnishing entity or an employee of the direct furnishing entity is given an enrollee's physical address in order to provide supplemental benefits or special supplemental benefits for the chronically ill (SSBCI) items or services to that enrollee.”[7] This definition includes entities that may offer both in-home and in-office services. The 2026 Proposed Rule also proposes to explicitly require that all direct furnishing entities be included in the provider directory, clarifying existing expectations and ensuring more comprehensive information for enrollees. CMS sets forth that the proposed changes are motivated by safety concerns and a desire to increase transparency, particularly in light of reported incidents involving in-home service providers. CMS aims to give enrollees more information about who may enter their home and provide services, including details about the provider's community roots and service capabilities. While acknowledging the potential administrative burden, CMS evidently believes the changes will be minimal for plans and will significantly benefit enrollees by providing more comprehensive and easily navigable information about their service providers. The proposed requirements will likely create significant operational challenges for plans and in-home service providers. Plans will need to invest in comprehensive data collection and directory management systems to accurately categorize and tag providers across multiple dimensions, including community-based status, service delivery modes (in-home, in-office, or hybrid), and cultural/linguistic capabilities. In-home service providers may face increased administrative burdens in ensuring their information is accurately represented, potentially requiring additional staffing or technological investments to meet the new reporting requirements. Smaller providers and CBOs might find these requirements particularly challenging, potentially creating barriers to entry or participation in MA networks that could inadvertently reduce the diversity of available service providers. In preparing comments, stakeholders could explore several key opportunities and potential arguments. Providers and plans might argue that the proposed definitions are too broad or lack precision, potentially creating compliance ambiguities. Advocates for in-home services could support the transparency goals while suggesting refinements to the definition of CBOs to ensure more comprehensive representation of local service providers. Additionally, commenters might request phased implementation to allow plans and providers sufficient time to develop compliant directory systems or seek clarification on the specific technological and administrative mechanisms for meeting the new requirements. Star Ratings The Part C and Part D Star Ratings system is used to reflect MA/MA-Part D plan quality and to determine quality bonus payment ratings for such plans and the amount of MA beneficiary rebates. CMS uses multiple data sources based on the collection of different types of quality data to measure the quality and performance of contracts, such as CMS administrative data, surveys of enrollees, and information provided directly from health and drug plans. Plans must report on quality improvement and quality assurance performance and provide data that help beneficiaries compare plans. The methodology for the Star Ratings system for the MA/Part C and Part D programs is codified in the Medicare regulations, and the measures used in setting Star Ratings are specified through rulemaking. To support the CMS National Quality Strategy, CMS is considering moving towards the use of the Universal Foundation of quality measures, which is a core set of measures that are aligned across CMS programs. Further, CMS is continuing to consider ways to streamline the measurement set for the Part C and D Star Ratings program. CMS currently plans to solicit comments through the 2026 Advance Notice and Rate Announcement process on ways to focus the measurement set to improve the impact of the Star Ratings program. In the 2026 Proposed Rule, CMS is proposing to add or update the following measures for performance periods beginning on or after January 1, 2026: Initiation and Engagement of Substance Use Disorder Treatment (IET) (Part C): The IET measure is a composite measure that averages two separate rates: Initiation of Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Engagement of Substance Use Disorder Treatment. CMS proposes to add the Part C IET measure to the Star Ratings for the 2028 Star Ratings (2026 measurement year). Initial Opioid Prescribing for Long Duration (IOP-LD) (Part D): The IOP-LD measure is a preventative-focused quality measure that addresses initial prescription opioid exposure to reduce the likelihood of long-term opioid use and reduce the risk of opioid overdose. CMS proposes to add the Part D IOP-LD measure to the Star Ratings for the 2028 Star Ratings (2026 measurement year). Breast Cancer Screening (Part C): CMS is proposing a substantive update to the existing Breast Cancer Screening measure by expanding the age range to women aged 40 to 49, for an updated age range of 40 to 74, for the 2027 and subsequent measurement years. The legacy measure with the narrower age range of 50 to 74 years will remain available and used in Star Ratings until the updated measure has been on the display page for two years (i.e., for the 2027 and 2028 Star Ratings) and will be included in the 2029 Star Ratings if finalized through rulemaking. Plan Makes Timely Decisions about Appeals (Part C) and Reviewing Appeals Decisions (Part C): CMS is proposing to adopt substantive measure updates for the 2026 measurement year related to the timeframes for electronic submission of cases to the Independent Review Entity. The legacy appeals measures will remain in the Star Ratings until the updated measures have been on the display page for at least two years. CMS anticipates that the respecified appeals measures would move into the Star Ratings beginning with the 2029 Star Ratings. The health equity index (HEI) reward, which is replacing the current reward factor in the Star Ratings program, will be implemented beginning with the 2027 Star Ratings (using data from measurement years 2024 and 2025). The HEI reward will be paid to plans that obtain high measure-level scores for enrollees with specified social risk factors (SRFs), as compared to enrollees without those SRFs. The current SRFs used to determine eligibility for the HEI reward include receipt of the low-income subsidy or being dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid, or having a disability as defined by the original reason for Medicare entitlement. Additional SRFs may be added over time through rulemaking. In the 2026 Proposed Rule, CMS is proposing technical clarifications related to calculating the HEI reward, including when there is a contract consolidation, when there are data discrepancies for the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (or “HEDIS”) measures included in the HEI, in special circumstances where a state Medicaid agency has required plans to move one or more D-SNP plan benefit packages from an existing MA contract to an MA contract that only includes one or more D-SNPs with a service area limited to that state, and for Institutional Special Needs Plan-only contracts, as well as to applying the improvement measure scores before addition of the HEI reward. The HEI reward represents a significant shift for MA plans, and therefore, they should pay attention to technical changes that could impact how their eligibility for the HEI reward will be evaluated by CMS. Furthermore, in an earlier December 2022 proposed rule for CY 2024 policy and technical changes to the MA and Part D programs, CMS proposed to remove the guardrail policy that applies when determining measure-specific thresholds (called “cut points”) for non-Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems measures. Guardrails are bi-directional caps that restrict the upward and downward movement of a measure’s cut points for the current year compared to the prior year. CMS is considering finalizing this proposal (as proposed in December 2022, without any updates to the proposal in this rulemaking) to apply beginning with the 2026 measurement year and 2028 Star Ratings. CMS states that the implementation of the Tukey outer fence outlier deletion policy for the 2024 Star Ratings—a process by which extreme outliers are removed before a clustering algorithm is applied to group plans with similar performance levels within each Star Rating—has minimized the need for the application of guardrails that had previously been applied to achieve predictability and stability of the cut points used to determine where a plan falls within each Star Rating. CMS intends to address comments received in response to the December 2022 proposed rule, but plans should submit additional comments in response to this latest rulemaking to address any concerns about the removal of the guardrail policy now that multiple changes to the statistical methods used to determine the Star Ratings have been implemented. As stated above, CMS invites comments on the 2026 Proposed Rule to be submitted by 5 p.m. EST on January 27, 2025. Comments may be submitted electronically at http://www.regulations.gov or by mail as specified in the 2026 Proposed Rule. [1] 89 Fed. Reg. 99380. [2] 89 Fed. Reg. 99434. [3] 89 Fed. Reg. 99563. [4] 89 Fed. Reg. 99435-6. [5] 89 Fed. Reg. 99390. [6] Id. [7] 89 Fed. Reg. 99556-7. Ann W. Parks contributed to this article

Kendrick Lamar surprises with new album 'GNX' LOS ANGELES (AP) — Kendrick Lamar gave music listeners an early holiday present with a new album. The Grammy winner released his sixth studio album “GNX” on Friday. The 12-track project is the rapper’s first release since 2022’s “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers.” Lamar’s new album comes just months after his rap battle with Drake. The rap megastar will headline February's Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show in New Orleans. The 37-year-old has experienced massive success since his debut album “good kid, m.A.A.d city” in 2012. Since then, he’s accumulated 17 Grammy wins and became the first non-classical, non-jazz musician to win a Pulitzer Prize. NBA memo to players urges increased vigilance regarding home security following break-ins MIAMI (AP) — The NBA is urging its players to take additional precautions to secure their homes following reports of recent high-profile burglaries of dwellings owned by Milwaukee Bucks forward Bobby Portis and Kansas City Chiefs teammates Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce. In a memo sent to team officials, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, the NBA revealed that the FBI has connected some burglaries to “transnational South American Theft Groups” that are “reportedly well-organized, sophisticated rings that incorporate advanced techniques and technologies, including pre-surveillance, drones, and signal jamming devices.” Ancient meets modern as a new subway in Greece showcases archaeological treasures THESSALONIKI, Greece (AP) — Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city, is opening a new subway system, blending ancient archaeological treasures with modern transit technology like driverless trains and platform screen doors. The project, which began in 2003, uncovered over 300,000 artifacts, including a Roman-era thoroughfare and Byzantine relics, many of which are now displayed in its 13 stations. Despite delays caused by preserving these findings, the inaugural line has been completed, with a second line set to open next year. Conor McGregor must pay $250K to woman who says he raped her, civil jury rules LONDON (AP) — A civil jury in Ireland has awarded more than $250,000 to a woman who says she was raped by mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor in a Dublin hotel penthouse after a night of heavy partying. The jury on Friday awarded Nikita Hand in her lawsuit that claimed McGregor “brutally raped and battered” her in 2018. The lawsuit says the assault left her heavily bruised and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. McGregor testified that he never forced her to do anything and that Hand fabricated her allegations after the two had consensual sex. McGregor says he will appeal the verdict. At least 19 people are sick in Minnesota from ground beef tied to E. coli recall U.S. health officials say at least 19 people in Minnesota have been sickened by E. coli poisoning tied to a national recall of more than 167,000 pounds of potentially tainted ground beef. Detroit-based Wolverine Packing Co. recalled the meat sent to restaurants nationwide. Minnesota state agriculture officials reported multiple illnesses and found that a sample of the product tested positive for E. coli, which can cause life-threatening infections. No illnesses have been reported outside of Minnesota. Symptoms of E. coli poisoning include fever, vomiting, diarrhea and signs of dehydration. Actor Jonathan Majors’ ex-girlfriend drops assault and defamation lawsuit against once-rising star NEW YORK (AP) — Jonathan Majors’ ex-girlfriend has dropped her assault and defamation lawsuit against the once-rising Hollywood star after reaching a settlement. Lawyers for Majors and Grace Jabbari agreed to dismiss the case with prejudice Thursday. Jabbari is a British dancer who had accused Majors of subjecting her to escalating incidents of physical and verbal abuse during their relationship. Representatives for Majors didn’t respond to emails seeking comment Friday. Jabbari’s lawyer said the suit was “favorably settled” and her client is moving on with “her head held high.” Majors was convicted of misdemeanor assault and harassment last December and sentenced to a yearlong counseling program. Hyundai, Kia recall over 208,000 electric vehicles to fix problem that can cause loss of power DETROIT (AP) — Hyundai and Kia are recalling over 208,000 electric vehicles to fix a pesky problem that can cause loss of drive power, increasing the risk of a crash. The recalls cover more than 145,000 Hyundai and Genesis vehicles including the 2022 through 2024 Ioniq 5, the 2023 through 2025 Ioniq 6, GV60 and GV70, and the 2023 and 2024 G80. Also included are nearly 63,000 Kia EV 6 vehicles from 2022 through 2024. The affiliated Korean automakers say in government documents that a transistor in a charging control unit can be damaged and stop charging the 12-volt battery. Dealers will inspect and replace the control unit and a fuse if needed. They also will update software. Christmas TV movies are in their Taylor Swift era, with two Swift-inspired films airing this year Two of the new holiday movies coming to TV this season have a Taylor Swift connection that her fans would have no problem decoding. “Christmas in the Spotlight” debuts Saturday on Lifetime. It stars Jessica Lord as the world’s biggest pop star and Laith Wallschleger, playing a pro football player, who meet and fall in love, not unlike Swift and her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. On Nov. 30, Hallmark will air “Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story.” Instead of a nod to Swift, it’s an ode to family traditions and bonding, like rooting for a sports team. Hallmark’s headquarters is also in Kansas City. Top football recruit Bryce Underwood changes commitment to Michigan instead of LSU, AP source says ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Top football recruit Bryce Underwood has flipped to Michigan after pledging to play at LSU. That's according to a person familiar with the situation who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share the recruit’s plans to join the Wolverines. Underwood pinned a post on his Instagram account, showing a post in which reported that he has committed to Michigan. The 6-foot-3 quarterback played at Belleville High School about 15 miles east of Michigan's campus, and told LSU nearly a year ago he intended to enroll there. Emperor penguin released at sea 20 days after waddling onto Australian beach MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The only emperor penguin known to have swum from Antarctica to Australia has been released at sea 20 days after he waddled ashore on a popular tourist beach. The adult male was found on Nov. 1 on sand dunes in temperate southwest Australia about 2,200 miles north of the Antarctic coast. He was released Wednesday from a boat that traveled several hours from Western Australia state's most southerly city of Albany. His caregiver Carol Biddulph wasn't sure at first if the penguin would live. She said a mirror was important to his rehabilitation because they provide a sense of company. Biddulph said: “They’re social birds and he stands next to the mirror most of the time.”1 Magnificent AI Stock Down 32% to Buy and Hold ForeverNFL on Netflix: Christmas Day games are a 1st for streaming giant

Painchek eyes lucrative US marketWow: It turns out the National Archives and Records Administration has been holding onto photographic proof of then-Veep Joe Biden promoting Hunter Biden’s business dealings in China for all these years that Joe has been insisting he did no such thing . Yes: NARA had pics of Hunter and Joe meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping and with multiple execs of BHR Partners, a Chinese state-backed company aligned with Xi’s global Belt and Road Initiative — a company then in the process of being co-launched by Hunter. That is: The sitting vice president was using his office to promote his son’s ambitions to earn tens of millions promoting the agenda of the Chinese Communist Party. And the only thing Hunter ever had to sell was access to Joe, meaning his dad was advertising that he was indirectly for sale, you just needed to pay his son. This was the fundamental takeaway of The Post’s reporting off of Hunter’s laptop back in October 2020. But that news was significantly suppressed by media and social-media companies that chose to believe “the laptop is Russian disinformation” — which was itself a disinformation op by the Biden campaign (abetted by months of setup by federal “disinformation experts”). And so the American people elected a president who’d effectively sold out years before to China, now our top global rival. A man whose entire approach to politics and government is utterly transactional — a fact long- and well-known in Washington, but ignored and concealed by power players who found Joe useful, including former President Barack Obama. All of whom, along with most of the media, were desperate to unseat then-President Donald Trump. Even now, with Trump headed back to the White House and Biden’s political career ended months ago, NARA only coughed up the photos in response to litigation by the Trump-allied America First Legal Foundation, which filed for the info back in September 2022. “Lawyers and representatives for President Biden and President Obama delayed NARA’s release of these photos — as they did with other critical records — until after Election Day,” write AFL’s Stephen Miller. America won’t have to worry about Joe Biden’s corruption after Jan. 20, but the nation still needs to face the corruption of all those who covered for him.

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CIBC Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in Virtu Financial, Inc. ( NASDAQ:VIRT – Free Report ) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 7,935 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $242,000. Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. USA Financial Formulas acquired a new position in Virtu Financial during the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in Virtu Financial in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Virtu Financial by 55.3% in the 1st quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,193 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $45,000 after buying an additional 781 shares during the last quarter. Innealta Capital LLC bought a new position in Virtu Financial during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $46,000. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its stake in Virtu Financial by 21.0% during the second quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 2,143 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $48,000 after buying an additional 372 shares during the last quarter. 45.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds. Analyst Ratings Changes Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Virtu Financial from $32.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Bank of America cut their target price on Virtu Financial from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 3rd. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Virtu Financial from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $35.00 price objective on shares of Virtu Financial in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Virtu Financial from $26.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $29.50. Virtu Financial Trading Down 3.0 % NASDAQ:VIRT opened at $36.69 on Friday. Virtu Financial, Inc. has a 1 year low of $16.02 and a 1 year high of $38.09. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $32.62 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $28.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 0.47 and a quick ratio of 0.47. The company has a market cap of $5.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.44, a P/E/G ratio of 0.58 and a beta of 0.38. Virtu Financial ( NASDAQ:VIRT – Get Free Report ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The financial services provider reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.03. Virtu Financial had a net margin of 7.29% and a return on equity of 23.22%. The firm had revenue of $388.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $379.18 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.40 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 30.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Virtu Financial, Inc. will post 2.71 EPS for the current year. Virtu Financial Announces Dividend The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Sunday, December 15th. Investors of record on Sunday, December 1st will be paid a $0.24 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. This represents a $0.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.62%. Virtu Financial’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.24%. Virtu Financial Profile ( Free Report ) Virtu Financial, Inc operates as a financial services company in the United States, Asia Pacific, Canada, EMEA, Ireland, and internationally. The company operates through two segments, Market Making and Execution Services. Its product includes offerings in execution, liquidity sourcing, analytics and broker-neutral, capital markets, and multi-dealer platforms in workflow technology. Featured Articles Want to see what other hedge funds are holding VIRT? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Virtu Financial, Inc. ( NASDAQ:VIRT – Free Report ). Receive News & Ratings for Virtu Financial Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Virtu Financial and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .

Iran cyberspace council votes to lift ban on WhatsApp

Byfield scores in 200th career game as Kings hold off Kraken for 2-1 win

CU Buffs, BYU taking serious, competitive approach to Alamo BowlWilliam R. Mcdermott Sells 12,271 Shares of ServiceNow, Inc. (NYSE:NOW) StockWhile there was high drama in Alexandra Palace on the first day back after the Christmas break, where Damon Heta threw a nine-dart finish, Humphries enjoyed a serene evening. He beat Nick Kenny 4-0 to set up a mouth-watering fourth-round meeting with two-time champion Peter Wright. THE WORLD NUMBER ONE KICKS ON! Luke Humphries comfortably books his spot in the Last 16 with a 4-0 whitewash victory over Nick Kenny, averaging 98.59! 📺 https://t.co/pIQvhqYxEj #WCDarts pic.twitter.com/XAADalXD4Q — PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) December 27, 2024 Kenny was unable to produce the form that saw him beat Raymond van Barneveld in the previous round and Humphries did not need to be anywhere near his best. “It was one of those games I didn’t want to take for granted,” he said. “I expected a tough game and I wasn’t firing, I felt there is so much more to give, I felt there was more to come out of me. “I didn’t want to give anyone an inch because they can take a mile. “I’m not going to give up this world title without a fight, I wasn’t at my best but when someone pushes me I know I can come up with the goods.” Earlier in the day Heta set the tournament alight on its resumption with a stunning nine-dart finish before bowing out. The Australian, seeded ninth, achieved darting perfection in the second set of his match with Luke Woodhouse to earn a cool £60,000 payday. However, his joy was short-lived as Woodhouse won a thrilling battle 4-3, having trailed 3-1. HEROIC HETA HITS THE NINE! 🔥 UNBELIEVABLE SCENES! 🤯 Damon Heta lands the second nine-darter of the tournament to raise the roof at Alexandra Palace! #WCDarts pic.twitter.com/DW6rhvFqez — PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) December 27, 2024 Heta was millimetres away from throwing a nine-darter in the previous round when he missed the double 12, but he made no mistake this time in the first match after the Christmas break. Heta’s feat was the second time a nine-darter has been thrown in the 2025 tournament and the 16th of all time at the World Championship, following Christian Kist’s effort before Christmas. As well as landing the Australian a hefty payday, it also saw a lucky fan in Ally Pally win a £60,000, with £60,000 also being donated to Prostate Cancer UK. There were several other titanic battles, none better than Gerwyn Price’s sudden-death leg victory over Joe Cullen. Price looked like he was going to have an easy night when he coasted into a 3-0 lead, but Cullen hit back to send it to a decider, which went all the way. Cullen landed a ‘Big Fish’ 170 checkout to send the tie to a sudden-death leg on his throw but Price hit some big numbers to steal victory. “That was tough, I just wanted to get over the winning line,” he said during his on-stage interview. PRICE WINS A THRILLER! That might just be the game of the tournament so far! 💥 Gerwyn Price manages to break the Rockstars throw in the final leg of the game, and beats Joe Cullen 4-3 and books his place in the Last 16! 📺 https://t.co/pIQvhqYxEj #WCDarts pic.twitter.com/VnjnJxP0T0 — PDC Darts (@OfficialPDC) December 27, 2024 “He kept coming back, the crowd were way behind him. “I thought I was going to lose, but I kept in there right to the end and got the win. “He played some good darts at the right times. I put myself in that position, I got myself out of it and I’m still in.” Seventh seed Jonny Clayton also battled to victory after squandering a 3-0 lead against Daryl Gurney. Gurney then had six darts to send the decider to a tiebreaker but lost his nerve and Clayton stole a 4-3 win. Stephen Bunting and Peter Wright, who was suffering from a chest infection, enjoyed much more safe passages with routine wins over Madars Razma and Jermaine Wattimena respectively.

Methane pyrolysis – the case for cleaner hydrogen with existing infrastructure Hydrogen has the potential to significantly decarbonize multiple sectors. Conventional wisdom says that we must build dedicated new hydrogen pipelines and processing infrastructure over the next decades to realize this potential. What if we already had an effective and efficient way to transport (and store) hydrogen across nearly all the United States? What if this system were able to help us reliably eliminate carbon emissions from existing hydrogen production, begin to displace diesel, jet fuel and shipping fuel, and help kick start demand for other new uses almost right away? And, at the same time, what if this system sustainably produced materials for cleaner products for the energy transition and reduced our dependence (at least somewhat) on mining? We do have such a system. Simply put, we can utilize existing infrastructure to transport (and store) natural gas across the country, as we currently do. At the point of use (e.g., an ammonia production facility or truck stop) in the system, we can convert the natural gas into hydrogen using thousands of deployable, easily maintained and operated methane pyrolysis units — an underdiscussed and relatively-mature production method that produces only hydrogen and solid carbon (e.g., carbon black, graphite, or carbon nanotubes) with no carbon dioxide emissions. Over the past 100 years, the United States has constructed around of natural gas transmission and distribution pipelines to supply a wide swath of homes, businesses, factories and power plants. We have also invested in massive underground capacity, capable of balancing energy needs across seasons. We can continue to improve (i.e., replace aging pipes, repair leaks) and leverage this massive infrastructure investment to eliminate emissions from hydrogen production and begin to offset emissions in a host of other sectors. Importantly, the United States is endowed with a vast natural gas resource and a great deal of expertise in locating, accessing, and extracting it. A recent estimate put total at 692 trillion cubic feet (Tcf). For reference, we consume around annually. So, that’s more than 21 years’ worth. With a few exceptions over the past decade, this abundance of domestic natural gas has led to very . Yet, there’s a problem with current natural gas consumption; combusting it produces carbon dioxide, which is accumulating in our atmosphere, warming the planet, and creating dangerous climate change. Moreover, fugitive emissions from the production and distribution of natural gas are also a powerful, contributing source of greenhouse gas emissions. We must continue to mitigate fugitive emission, and we must combust less (unless we are capturing and sequestering or utilizing the carbon dioxide molecules). Methane pyrolysis (also known as “turquoise” hydrogen) has existed for decades, but due to high energy inputs and other technical challenges it is not as mature as steam methane reforming (SMR). SMR, which also converts natural gas into hydrogen, is an emissions intensive process that is responsible for 95 percent of today’s U.S. hydrogen production. While pyrolysis requires less than one-third of the consumed by electrolysis, it uses more natural gas than SMR per quantity of hydrogen produced. Additionally, scaling the technology to commercial levels has proved challenging. Generally, the International Energy Agency (IEA) grades existing methane pyrolysis technology designs from three to eight on its technological readiness level (TRL) scale – with a score of nine implying commercial readiness. A wide range of current analyses indicate that methane pyrolysis has a similar or slightly lower cost per unit of hydrogen produced than “blue” hydrogen (i.e., SMR with carbon capture), but it has nearly zero carbon dioxide emissions, does not need to sequester or transport captured carbon dioxide, and can be lower cost depending on the value of the solid carbon produced. The solid carbon in its several forms produced in pyrolysis offers additional revenue potential (above the hydrogen value), which can further incentivize companies pursuing this production pathway. Carbon black, a fine black powder, is already used in tire manufacturing, printing, plastics, asphalt, and coatings. Graphite, a more structured form of carbon, is mined in many countries for battery anodes, among other things. If it were produced as part of pyrolysis, it would reduce pressure on graphite mining – an environmental win. Carbon nanotubes are perhaps the most valuable form of solid carbon. They are exceedingly lightweight, yet orders of magnitude stronger than steel. As a substitute, they would offset highly emissions intensive steel production and iron mining (to an extent). Furthermore, utilizing nanotubes in structures increases strength and reduces weight (e.g., aerospace vehicles, planes, cars and trucks), making them more energy efficient. Finally, carbon nanotubes conduct electricity, potentially helping to make electric vehicle batteries lighter and reducing demand for other mined critical minerals. Companies are at various stages of development with pyrolysis. In 2021, Monolith, a Nebraska-based chemical and energy company, received a from the U.S. Department of Energy to expand its proprietary technology using natural gas and clean electricity; it plans to use the capital to expand clean hydrogen and carbon black production. Its produced hydrogen is used to make clean ammonia and fertilizer, which is used on nearby farms. Additionally, Monolith has partnered with a major , helping them reduce their emissions by with a source of low emission carbon black. A Washington-based company, Modern Hydrogen, has developed a , drop-in, “shipping-container” approach to scale hydrogen production volumes needed by end users. In Germany, the chemical company BASF has developed a proprietary process and constructed a in Ludwigshafen; currently, it is researching how to scale its production and is exploring economic uses for the solid carbon it creates. Additionally, U.S. chemical company is commercializing its exclusive pyrolysis technique that creates a more valuable solid carbon product in addition to hydrogen. Molten Industries, C-Zero, Aurora hydrogen, and Transform Materials are at earlier stages of development. Startup Molten Industries is focusing on producing (i.e., another form of solid carbon) for lithium-ion batteries and hydrogen for the chemical and steel industries. California-based is initially focusing on Asian markets. In Canada, Aurora Hydrogen recently received support for its scalable, modular microwave (i.e., electricity) pyrolysis technology, which produces hydrogen at the point-of-use, eliminating the need for hydrogen-specific transportation infrastructure. Similarly, Transform Materials produces hydrogen, and other valuable products using microwave energy and pyrolysis. Since hydrogen is an indirect greenhouse gas, producing it close to where it will be consumed can help minimize leaks and its impact on climate change. What should we be using the hydrogen for? There is wide agreement here. First, we should be replacing the current dirty hydrogen production (i.e., SMR) with cleaner methods as quickly as possible. Next, we should be focusing on hard to abate sectors like industry (e.g., ammonia production), heavy-duty long-haul transportation (e.g., trucks), and creating cheaper, scalable pathways to low carbon drop in fuels (e.g., sustainable aviation fuel). With a safe, efficient transportation and storage network already in place, we can start plugging in the additional elements of the methane pyrolysis production pathway almost right away. We don’t need to wait years or decades (and spend billions of additional dollars) to build out a 100 percent dedicated hydrogen transportation system in order to start realizing significant emission reductions. Our current infrastructure provides us with an extraordinary head start. The co-production of solid carbon (e.g., carbon black, graphite, and carbon nanotubes) provides an additional range of very compelling environmental and economic benefits. Methane pyrolysis is one of many clean hydrogen production pathways that we should strongly pursue. With respect to the continued use of fossil fuels, gains made with pyrolysis (or carbon capture) can be cancelled out or made worse without concerted stewardship. The natural gas industry must do better at removing emissions from all segments of product development (i.e., exploration, production, gathering, transmission, storage, and distribution). Additionally, negative impacts on nearby communities must be considered and improved. A group of innovative companies, leveraging existing infrastructure, and cheap, abundant natural gas, can reduce global emissions considerably in the next decade. Though some technical challenges remain, this pathway of least resistance should be supported and enabled to the fullest extent. the latest news shaping the hydrogen market at Methane pyrolysis – the case for cleaner hydrogen with existing infrastructure, First Hydrogen (TM) Explores Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) for Green Hydrogen Production Vancouver, British Columbia–(Newsfile Corp. – December 16, 2024) – First Hydrogen Corp. (TSXV: FHYD) (OTC Pink:... Gasunie – Seven questions about offshore hydrogen New offshore wind farms are going to generate a lot of sustainable electricity in the future. Some of that electricity will be converted to hydrogen and brought... DNV pioneers certification for safer, scalable hydrogen production The recently released standard sets requirements and establishes an industry benchmark for the safe design, construction, and operation of electrolyser...PISCATAWAY, N.J. (AP) — Luke Altmyer found Pat Bryant for a catch-and-run, 40-yard touchdown pass with 4 seconds left, sending No. 24 Illinois to a wild 38-31 victory over Rutgers on Saturday. Illinois (8-3, 5-3 Big Ten) was down 31-30 when it sent long kicker Ethan Moczulski out for a desperation 58-yard field goal with 14 seconds to go. Rutgers coach Greg Schiano then called for a timeout right before Moczulski’s attempt was wide left and about 15 yards short. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.Everlaw Ranked #1 in Customer Satisfaction in Ediscovery by Legal TeamsComino servers with 8 x NVIDIA RTX 5090s are on pre-order - a sign the flagship GPU is close?

Hyd traffic cops’ X account compromised, case filedBy ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump promised on Tuesday to “vigorously pursue” capital punishment after President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of most people on federal death row partly to stop Trump from pushing forward their executions. Related Articles National Politics | Elon Musk’s preschool is the next step in his anti-woke education dreams National Politics | Trump’s picks for top health jobs not just team of rivals but ‘team of opponents’ National Politics | Biden will decide on US Steel acquisition after influential panel fails to reach consensus National Politics | Biden vetoes once-bipartisan effort to add 66 federal judgeships, citing ‘hurried’ House action National Politics | A history of the Panama Canal — and why Trump can’t take it back on his own Trump criticized Biden’s decision on Monday to change the sentences of 37 of the 40 condemned people to life in prison without parole, arguing that it was senseless and insulted the families of their victims. Biden said converting their punishments to life imprisonment was consistent with the moratorium imposed on federal executions in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder. “Joe Biden just commuted the Death Sentence on 37 of the worst killers in our Country,” he wrote on his social media site. “When you hear the acts of each, you won’t believe that he did this. Makes no sense. Relatives and friends are further devastated. They can’t believe this is happening!” Presidents historically have no involvement in dictating or recommending the punishments that federal prosecutors seek for defendants in criminal cases, though Trump has long sought more direct control over the Justice Department’s operations. The president-elect wrote that he would direct the department to pursue the death penalty “as soon as I am inaugurated,” but was vague on what specific actions he may take and said they would be in cases of “violent rapists, murderers, and monsters.” He highlighted the cases of two men who were on federal death row for slaying a woman and a girl, had admitted to killing more and had their sentences commuted by Biden. Is it a plan in motion or more rhetoric? On the campaign trail, Trump often called for expanding the federal death penalty — including for those who kill police officers, those convicted of drug and human trafficking, and migrants who kill U.S. citizens. “Trump has been fairly consistent in wanting to sort of say that he thinks the death penalty is an important tool and he wants to use it,” said Douglas Berman, an expert on sentencing at Ohio State University’s law school. “But whether practically any of that can happen, either under existing law or other laws, is a heavy lift.” Berman said Trump’s statement at this point seems to be just a response to Biden’s commutation. “I’m inclined to think it’s still in sort of more the rhetoric phase. Just, ‘don’t worry. The new sheriff is coming. I like the death penalty,’” he said. Most Americans have historically supported the death penalty for people convicted of murder, according to decades of annual polling by Gallup, but support has declined over the past few decades. About half of Americans were in favor in an October poll, while roughly 7 in 10 Americans backed capital punishment for murderers in 2007. Death row inmates are mostly sentenced by states Before Biden’s commutation, there were 40 federal death row inmates compared with more than 2,000 who have been sentenced to death by states. “The reality is all of these crimes are typically handled by the states,” Berman said. A question is whether the Trump administration would try to take over some state murder cases, such as those related to drug trafficking or smuggling. He could also attempt to take cases from states that have abolished the death penalty. Could rape now be punishable by death? Berman said Trump’s statement, along with some recent actions by states, may present an effort to get the Supreme Court to reconsider a precedent that considers the death penalty disproportionate punishment for rape. “That would literally take decades to unfold. It’s not something that is going to happen overnight,” Berman said. Before one of Trump’s rallies on Aug. 20, his prepared remarks released to the media said he would announce he would ask for the death penalty for child rapists and child traffickers. But Trump never delivered the line. What were the cases highlighted by Trump? One of the men Trump highlighted on Tuesday was ex-Marine Jorge Avila Torrez, who was sentenced to death for killing a sailor in Virginia and later pleaded guilty to the fatal stabbing of an 8-year-old and a 9-year-old girl in a suburban Chicago park several years before. The other man, Thomas Steven Sanders, was sentenced to death for the kidnapping and slaying of a 12-year-old girl in Louisiana, days after shooting the girl’s mother in a wildlife park in Arizona. Court records show he admitted to both killings. Some families of victims expressed anger with Biden’s decision, but the president had faced pressure from advocacy groups urging him to make it more difficult for Trump to increase the use of capital punishment for federal inmates. The ACLU and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops were some of the groups that applauded the decision. Biden left three federal inmates to face execution. They are Dylann Roof, who carried out the 2015 racist slayings of nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina; 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev ; and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018 , the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S history. Associated Press writers Jill Colvin, Michelle L. Price and Eric Tucker contributed to this report.