IRVING, Texas (AP) — The NFL will consider expanding replay assist to include facemask penalties and other plays. Officials have missed several obvious facemask penalties this season, including two in a three-week span during Thursday night games.
No. 16 Iowa State falls short in Big 12 title game again, this time with CFP at stake
State Of Emergency Declared In Russia's Krasnodar Region As Massive Oil Spill SpreadsWarning not to share ADHD medicine, as shortage bites
NEW YORK, Dec. 12, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WHY: Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, continues to investigate potential securities claims on behalf of shareholders of Light & Wonder, Inc. (NASDAQ: LNW) resulting from allegations that Light & Wonder may have issued materially misleading business information to the investing public. SO WHAT: If you purchased Light & Wonder securities you may be entitled to compensation without payment of any out of pocket fees or costs through a contingency fee arrangement. The Rosen Law Firm is preparing a class action seeking recovery of investor losses. WHAT TO DO NEXT: To join the prospective class action, go to https://rosenlegal.com/submit-form/?case_id=29678 or call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or email case@rosenlegal.com for information on the class action. WHAT IS THIS ABOUT: On September 24, 2024, the Las Vegas Review-Journal published an article entitled “Slot manufacturer scores major win against Las Vegas-based rival.” It stated that “Aristocrat Technologies Inc.’s request for a preliminary injunction in its trade-secret and copyright infringement lawsuit against Light & Wonder” had been granted, and that the “order prohibits [Light & Wonder] from the ‘continued or planned sale, leasing, or other commercialization of Dragon Train,’ which Aristocrat claims uses intellectual property developed for its Dragon Link and Lightning Link games.” On this news, the price of Light & Wonder common stock fell 19.49% on September 24, 2024. WHY ROSEN LAW: We encourage investors to select qualified counsel with a track record of success in leadership roles. Often, firms issuing notices do not have comparable experience, resources, or any meaningful peer recognition. Many of these firms do not actually litigate securities class actions. Be wise in selecting counsel. The Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm achieved the largest ever securities class action settlement against a Chinese Company at the time. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 4 each year since 2013 and has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. In 2019 alone the firm secured over $438 million for investors. In 2020, founding partner Laurence Rosen was named by law360 as a Titan of Plaintiffs’ Bar. Many of the firm’s attorneys have been recognized by Lawdragon and Super Lawyers. Follow us for updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm , on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rosen_firm or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/ . Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. ------------------------------- Contact Information: Laurence Rosen, Esq. Phillip Kim, Esq. The Rosen Law Firm, P.A. 275 Madison Avenue, 40th Floor New York, NY 10016 Tel: (212) 686-1060 Toll Free: (866) 767-3653 Fax: (212) 202-3827 case@rosenlegal.com www.rosenlegal.comLA Galaxy wins record 6th MLS Cup
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By Kanishka Singh WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said on Thursday his office launched investigations into over a dozen technology platforms over their privacy and safety practices for minors. Those being probed included artificial Intelligence chatbot startup Character.AI and fourteen other platforms like Reddit, Instagram and Discord, the Texas attorney general added. WHY IT'S IMPORTANT Tech platforms have come under increasing scrutiny over their impact on children. Top U.S. social media platforms made an estimated $11 billion in advertising revenue from users younger than 18 in 2022, according to a Harvard study published last year. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy last year warned that young people using social media risked suffering body image issues, disordered eating, poor sleep quality and low self-esteem, especially among adolescent girls. KEY QUOTE "Technology companies are on notice that my office is vigorously enforcing Texas' strong data privacy laws," Paxton said. CONTEXT Social media companies have said they will work with officials to protect young users, and say they have introduced new tools designed to protect teens online, including parental control features. The firms had no immediate comment on Thursday. Paxton's statement said the probes would focus on the platforms' compliance with two Texas laws - the Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment (SCOPE) Act and the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act (TDPSA). The SCOPE Act bans digital service providers from sharing, disclosing, or selling a minor's personal identifying information without permission from the child's parent or legal guardian. The legislation requires firms to provide parents with tools to manage and control the privacy settings on their child's account. The TDPSA imposes notice and consent requirements on companies that collect and use minors' personal data, Paxton's office said. (Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Alistair Bell)
Every day at dawn, tens of thousands of people begin lining up at Acadia Healthcare's addiction clinics to get a cup of methadone. The daily dose staves off opioid withdrawal and keeps many from turning to dangerous street drugs such as fentanyl. The for-profit chain of 165 methadone clinics -- the country's largest -- has generated more than $1.3 billion in revenue since 2022. It is "a business that we continue to feel great about," Acadia's CEO told investors this year. That business has been built in part on deception, a New York Times investigation found. Methadone is a narcotic, and the clinics are heavily regulated by federal and state governments. In addition to handing out methadone, the clinics are required to provide counseling and other services, such as drug testing. But Acadia often fails to provide that counseling, according to five dozen current and former employees in 22 of the 33 states where the company has clinics. Instead, employees at times falsify the medical records that Acadia uses to bill insurers, according to the employees and internal emails. Sometimes a counseling session recorded in a patient's medical chart is simply a chance encounter. For example, medical records for a patient in Iowa show she had a 40-minute counseling session in December 2023, but the patient said in an interview that it was actually a hallway chat that lasted less than five minutes. Acadia's business is built on volume. Its counselors carry caseloads that are sometimes more than double the limit set by state regulators, according to employees and inspection records. With so many patients, the clinics can become assembly lines, offering little more than a cup of methadone. Clinic directors can get bonuses when their patient enrollment goes up, an incentive that has led Acadia to treat people who do not have opioid addictions but are dependent on other drugs, according to current and former executives and employees. People who are not addicted to opioids can get high from methadone. "I'm not proud of it, but our clinic has admitted patients who shouldn't have qualified for treatment because we were under pressure," said Jeannie Taylor, who was a counselor at an Acadia clinic in Oregon until she retired last year. Employees at clinics in at least 13 states warned their supervisors about Acadia's practices, according to the employees and complaints reviewed by the Times. Tim Blair, a spokesperson for Acadia, said the company did not falsify medical records, overbill insurers or pressure employees to treat patients who weren't addicted to opioids. He said that Acadia had rigorous internal controls and trained its employees on proper billing practices, and that regulators and auditors regularly reviewed its records. "We take our responsibility to our patients and the communities we serve extremely seriously and patently reject claims that Acadia places profits over patients," he said. Acadia's methadone clinics have come under investigation for other issues. In 2019, federal prosecutors in West Virginia accused Acadia of overbilling Medicaid for blood and urine tests. The company paid $17 million to resolve the allegations. Three years later, Acadia reached another settlement with federal prosecutors who accused the company of hiring counselors without proper credentials at a clinic in Virginia. The company did not admit wrongdoing in either settlement. In addition to methadone clinics, the company runs psychiatric hospitals around the country. In September, a Times investigation found that those hospitals, which account for more than half the company's revenue, often held patients against their will to maximize payments from insurers. The Times article prompted several federal agencies, including the Justice Department and the Department of Veterans Affairs, to investigate the company's practices. News of those investigations, coupled with lower than expected patient volumes, has caused Acadia's stock price to fall by 50%, knocking nearly $4 billion off its market value. Amid that gloom, its fast-growing network of methadone clinics remains a bright spot for investors. But the Times found that business is dogged by its own problems. Doctors began treating opioid addiction with methadone in the 1960s, and its use accelerated as veterans returned from the Vietnam War dependent on heroin. Research since then has found that methadone, itself an opioid, eases cravings for more dangerous opioids and lowers the risk of overdoses. Acadia got into the methadone business a decade ago when it bought a large chain of clinics from Bain Capital, a private equity firm. Acadia's investment was prescient. In 2020, the federal government started requiring that Medicaid and Medicare cover treatment at the country's roughly 2,100 methadone clinics, most of which are run by for-profit companies. Over the next couple of years, revenue from Acadia's clinics increased 30%, according to financial filings. Clinics bring in an average of roughly $3 million each in annual revenue. Those figures could soon rise. States and counties nationwide have started to get money from settlements with companies accused of fueling the opioid crisis. Acadia is angling for a slice of the settlements, which are worth at least $50 billion. This year, for example, the company successfully lobbied the Kansas Legislature to allow for-profit companies to receive grants from the settlement. Christopher Hunter, Acadia's CEO, has told investors that the settlement funds will be "a really nice tail wind" for the company. At the same time, Acadia has been trying to fend off a serious threat to its business. A bipartisan bill in Congress would allow patients to avoid clinics such as Acadia's and pick up methadone at pharmacies instead. Proponents say that although counseling may help methadone users, widening access to the drug is more important. Acadia and other companies have sought to derail the legislation by arguing that providing methadone without counseling could lead to more overdose deaths. In a letter this year to the bill's sponsors, Acadia wrote its suite of services was the "gold standard" and provided "individualized care." Yet, Acadia's counseling services are sometimes a pretense, the Times found. Brian Pagano, a counselor at an Acadia clinic in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, said he quit in August after his supervisors chided him for spending too much time with patients, including one who was hallucinating. "I was told this is not a mental health clinic, this is a methadone clinic," he said. Dozens of counselors told the Times they were overwhelmed by caseloads that were far higher than what their states allowed, with some responsible for as many as 120 patients. In September, Acadia cut the schedules of its full-time counselors and other clinic workers nationwide by up to four hours a week, further taxing their capacity, employees said. Blair, the company spokesperson, said, "Your characterization that counselors often have patient caseloads exceeding regulatory limits is false." Under pressure to meet the company's productivity goals, employees have falsified records so that it appears patients received counseling when they did not, according to employees, internal emails and complaints to regulators. Those records serve multiple purposes. They are used to bill insurers and to show regulators and outside credentialing groups that Acadia is complying with state rules dictating how much therapy clinics must provide. California, for example, generally requires that patients receive at least 50 minutes of counseling each month. Regulators check patients' files to ensure clinics are following the rules. Blair said Acadia provided tens of thousands of patients with high-quality treatment, including counseling. "We prioritize our counselors' and clinicians' spending meaningful time with patients," he said. But at many clinics, Acadia chastised or congratulated counselors depending on whether they saw enough patients, employees said. Some counselors said they were dinged in performance reviews for not hitting their productivity goals. The result was a saleslike culture that rewarded those who took shortcuts. At a clinic in Indiana, managers handed out a stuffed goat -- a play on the acronym for "greatest of all time" -- to counselors who hit their weekly targets. Two employees said a counselor who had won the prize bragged about how she simply said hello to patients who were waiting in line and then recorded a therapy session in their charts. Blair said Acadia's counselors were not compensated based on the number of patients they see. Employees in 17 states said supervisors and peers had taught them to cut corners by recycling old language from therapy notes or treatment plans without meeting with patients. In Asheville, N.C., notes from two therapy sessions in 2021 were identical, even though they happened three months apart, according to screenshots included in a court filing. Both notes said a patient "states he goes for walks and leaves his phone at home just 'to get away from the noise.'" Blair said that "Acadia's policies strictly prohibit falsifying records." He said the company carried out regular reviews of medical charts and billing records to ferret out inaccuracies. Megan Rife, who has been in treatment at Acadia's clinic in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, for nine years, wanted counseling as she struggled to overcome an addiction to painkillers. But, she said, her meetings with counselors were infrequent and often lasted less than 10 minutes. One session noted in her medical records, which the Times reviewed, supposedly took place at 1:15 p.m., when the clinic was closed. (Methadone clinics often close around noon.) Iowa's Medicaid program paid Acadia $199 a week for her care, according to billing records that Rife shared with the Times . During a recent session, she said, her counselor spent the time answering emails. "Her computer is just dinging right and left," Rife said. "I don't think she heard a single thing I said to her." Acadia's practices sometimes jeopardized patients' safety. Clinic employees were discouraged from turning anyone away, even if the person did not meet the criteria for methadone treatment, according to current and former employees, including doctors, in 12 states. To be eligible for treatment at a methadone clinic, people need to meet medical criteria for being addicted to opioids. Acadia sometimes accepted patients who did not meet that standard. A former clinic director in Indiana said her manager had pressured her to boost the clinic's patient count by enrolling people who were addicted to cocaine and methamphetamine but not opioids. And a former clinic director in Georgia said she, too, had been pressured to add patients who were not addicted to opioids. Methadone cannot treat addictions to cocaine or methamphetamine. But it can produce a high -- and possibly a dependence -- for someone who is not already using opioids. Some clinic directors said they received bonuses based on the number of patients enrolled. Others said the bonuses were tied to their clinics' financial performance, which improved when their patient volumes increased. Blair said Acadia's compensation practices were consistent with those of other companies. He said medical staff, not clinic directors or counselors, decided which patients to treat, after a thorough screening process. Acadia was also trying to keep a tight lid on staffing costs -- sometimes with negative consequences. Reports filed by health inspectors in at least six states have criticized Acadia's methadone clinics for inadequate staffing. Part of the problem is that clinic employees rarely last long because they don't make much money and deal with stressful work environments. Blair denied that clinics were understaffed. He said turnover among clinic employees had declined in recent years. In the spring of 2021, inspectors who visited Acadia's clinic in Cedar Rapids learned that none of the nurses had shown up that week, leaving unlicensed workers to hand out methadone, according to an inspection report. States require methadone to be dispensed by trained medical staff. A state-appointed monitor later identified other problems. A worker's young child had briefly grabbed a cup of methadone inside a room that was supposed to be locked. Two patients were given double doses of buprenorphine, a different opioid addiction treatment, and no one checked on them to make sure they were all right. In 2020, a clinic director in Goldsboro, N.C., complained to an Acadia executive that the company refused to stop accepting new patients even though there were not enough workers, according to an email reviewed by the Times. "I have continued to request admission holds as the staff here are overly stressed," the director wrote. "Those emails are simply ignored because they would decrease revenue."Sinter Plant Market to Grow by USD 1.3 Billion from 2023-2028, Report on AI's Impact on Market Trends - Technavio
Marijuana plants at a 605 Cannabis grow operation. Courtesy photo. The nascent Office of Cannabis Management unlawfully denied two women from participating in the lottery for social equity licenses to operate cannabis businesses in Minnesota, a new lawsuit alleges. Plaintiffs Cristina Aranguiz and Jodi Connolly in a lawsuit filed Thursday allege that the state, in an “arbitrary and capricious decision,” denied their applications to participate in the lottery for social equity licenses without explanation and granted other applicants “secret reconsideration” and the opportunity to fix their applications. They are asking the court to halt social equity lottery proceedings, expected to take place on Tuesday, and reverse the OCM’s decision denying Aranguiz and Connolly a chance to participate in the lottery. Social equity licenses are intended to prioritize business applications from people who have been harmed by marijuana prohibition in the past, as well as veterans and people living in high-poverty areas. The OCM earlier this week announced that it sent rejection notices to 1,169 of the 1,817 social equity applicants, according to the Star Tribune . Of the 648 remaining, 182 pre-approvals will be awarded on Tuesday. A lottery for additional pre-approvals will be held in the future, but the OCM hasn’t set a date yet. The OCM in a statement told the Reformer that it cannot comment on pending litigation, but as of Friday afternoon it has not changed its plans to hold the lottery on Tuesday. People who win pre-approval in the lottery will be able to line up investors to start their businesses earlier than those who receive traditional cannabis licenses. In their lawsuit, Aranguiz and Connolly state that they both complied with all of OCM’s social equity application requirements, but they were denied earlier this week. OCM didn’t tell the two why they were denied, according to the lawsuit, and Connolly didn’t receive notification that she was denied at all — she had to access the application submission portal. State law doesn’t allow applicants to appeal the OCM’s denials of access to the preapproval lottery, but Aranguiz and Connolly allege in their lawsuit that OCM has “offered a right to appeal to some applicants.” The plaintiffs say they know of at least one person who reached out directly to OCM Interim Director Charlene Briner. Briner forwarded that applicant to OCM Chief Regulatory Officer Max Zappia, who then called the applicant and told them their denial would be reversed, the lawsuit alleges. “Therefore, contrary to the email sent to all applicants, an appeals process does exist for erroneous denials — the process just exists only for applicants willing to ignore OCM’s statement in the emails, locate the contact information for the Interim Director, and pursue their request,” the lawsuit states. The OCM told MinnPost earlier this week that it denied about two-thirds of applications because some applicants made multiple applications, i.e., “flooding the zone,” in an attempt to up their chances in the lottery, or were disguising their true investors. Aranguiz’s social equity application was denied because of failed “disclosure of ownership and control,” the lawsuit states. Aranguiz, who has seven cannabis retail dispensaries across three states, says in the lawsuit that she and Connolly have a “purchase option agreement” that she didn’t initially disclose to OCM, but that’s because it was contingent on state approval, a disclosure that’s not required under state cannabis law, she argues. Other cannabis lawyers told the Star Tribune that they are also considering filing lawsuits on behalf of clients whose applications the OCM rejected.Senate Leader, Bamidele, greets Nigerians at Christmas
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WASHINGTON (AP) — American Airlines briefly grounded flights nationwide Tuesday because of a technical problem just as the Christmas travel season kicked into overdrive and winter weather threatened more potential problems for those planning to fly or drive. Government regulators cleared American flights to get airborne about an hour after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered a national ground stop for the airline. The order, which prevented planes from taking off, was issued at the airline's request. The airline said in an email that the problem was caused by trouble with vendor technology that maintains its flight operating system. Dennis Tajer, a spokesperson for the Allied Pilots Association, a union representing American Airlines pilots, said the airline told pilots at 7 a.m. Eastern that there was an outage affecting the system known as FOS. It handles different types of airline operations, including dispatch, flight planning, passenger boarding, as well as an airplane's weight and balance data, he said. Some components of FOS have gone down in the past, but a systemwide outage is rare, Tajer said. Hours after the ground stop was lifted, Tajer said the union had not heard about any “chaos out there beyond just the normal heavy travel day.” He said officials were watching for any cascading effects, such as staffing problems. Flights were delayed across American's major hubs, with only 37% leaving on time, according to Cirium, an aviation analytics company. Out of the 3,901 domestic and international American Airlines flights scheduled for Tuesday, 19 were canceled. Cirium noted that the vast majority of flights were departing within two hours of their scheduled departure time. A similar percentage — 36% — were arriving at their destinations as scheduled. Meanwhile, the flight-tracking site FlightAware reported that 3,712 flights entering or leaving the U.S., or serving domestic destinations, were delayed Tuesday, with 55 flights canceled. It did not show any flights from American Airlines. Cirium said Dallas-Fort Worth, New York’s Kennedy Airport and Charlotte, North Carolina, saw the greatest number of delays. Washington, Chicago and Miami experienced considerably fewer delays. Amid the travel problems, significant rain and snow were expected in the Pacific Northwest at least into Christmas Day. Showers and thunderstorms were developing in the South. Freezing rain was reported in the Mid-Atlantic region near Baltimore and Washington, and snow fell in New York. Because the holiday travel period lasts weeks, airports and airlines typically have smaller peak days than they do during the rush around Thanksgiving, but the grind of one hectic day followed by another takes a toll on flight crews. And any hiccups — a winter storm or a computer outage — can snowball into massive disruptions. That is how Southwest Airlines stranded 2 million travelers in December 2022, and Delta Air Lines suffered a smaller but significant meltdown after a worldwide technology outage in July caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike. Many flights during the holidays are sold out, which makes cancellations even more disruptive than during slower periods. That is especially true for smaller budget airlines that have fewer flights and fewer options for rebooking passengers. Only the largest airlines, including American, Delta and United, have “interline agreements” that let them put stranded customers on another carrier’s flights. This will be the first holiday season since a Transportation Department rule took effect that requires airlines to give customers an automatic cash refund for a canceled or significantly delayed flight. Most air travelers were already eligible for refunds, but they often had to request them. Passengers still can ask to get rebooked, which is often a better option than a refund during peak travel periods. That’s because finding a last-minute flight on another airline tends to be expensive. An American spokesperson said Tuesday was not a peak travel day for the airline — with about 2,000 fewer flights than the busiest days — so the airline had somewhat of a buffer to manage the delays. The groundings happened as millions of travelers were expected to fly over the next 10 days. The Transportation Security Administration expects to screen 40 million passengers through Jan. 2. Airlines expect to have their busiest days on Thursday, Friday and Sunday. Many flights during the holidays are sold out, which makes cancellations more disruptive than during slower periods. Even with just a brief outage, the cancellations have a cascading effect that can take days to clear up. About 90% of Americans traveling far from home over the holidays will be in cars, according to AAA. “Airline travel is just really high right now, but most people do drive to their destinations, and that is true for every holiday,” AAA spokesperson Aixa Diaz said. Gasoline prices are similar to last year. The nationwide average Thursday was $3.04 a gallon, down from $3.13 a year ago, according to AAA. Charging an electric vehicle averages just under 35 cents per per kilowatt hour, but varies by state. Transportation-data firm INRIX says travel times on the nation’s highways could be up to 30% longer than normal over the holidays, with Sunday expected to see the heaviest traffic. Boston, New York City, Seattle and Washington are the metropolitan areas primed for the greatest delays, according to the company. —— Associated Press writers David Koenig, Mae Anderson and Mike Pesoli contributed to this report.CES 2025: Samsung to unveil AI-powered refrigerators
Column: Biochar may be a solution to waste management needsManchester United fans have slammed Ruben Amorim 's decision to take captain Bruno Fernandes off while the team were chasing a goal in their 3-2 home loss to Nottingham Forest . Amorim suffered the second defeat of his reign as Nuno Espirito Santo's men claimed their first win at Old Trafford in almost 30 years thanks to goals from Nicola Milenkovic, Morgan Gibbs-White and Chris Wood. Rasmus Hojlund had initially got United level after Milenkovic's strike in the opening minute before Bruno pulled one back later in the game to make it 3-2 with a fantastic strike into the corner. However, fans were left baffled when Amorim withdrew Fernandes for Mount in the 76th minute despite United seeking an equaliser. One fan wrote: "Taking off Bruno and Ugarte has been a mistake. Mount and Zirkzee have done absolutely nothing," while another said: "You simply cannot take Bruno Fernandes off when you need to create two goals." Other supporters were in agreement as one posted: "We needed a goal and we took off Bruno Fernandes," as another tweet read: "Don't think taking Bruno off was the move." Amorim later clarified he subbed off his captain due to tiredness and thought the introduction of Mount in the same position would give the team more freshness. "Bruno [Fernandes] was too tired and I wanted [Mason] Mount to play that position of second midfielder who opens a bit on the left," he told Sky Sports after the game. BBC 5Live pundit Izzy Christensen hailed Fernandes after his performance and claimed Amorim was trying to protect him by withdrawing him early. "Bruno Fernandes has put in an absolute shift, he's been everywhere," she said. "Ruben Amorim has seen in his first few games how big Bruno Fernandes is to this system and has to protect him. Amorim needs to give other players the chance to be the hero, it can't always be Fernandes." United will have the chance to bounce back from their defeat when they travel to Viktoria Plzen in the Europa League on Thursday before a huge Manchester Derby clash against fellow underperforming rivals Manchester City . Join our new MAN UTD WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Manchester United content from Mirror Football . We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
Qatar PM sees 'momentum' on Gaza talks after US electionJamiya Neal's 19 points help Creighton beat UNLV 83-65