Article content It doesn’t matter how they rework the numbers, the Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre expects it will operate at a deficit in 2025. City council failed to provide the Innovation Centre with any more funding, as it warned a year ago. Even attempts to scale back funding over a four-year period were turned down by city council, as well as a proposal to provide one-time funding amount of $138,945 to help the Innovation Centre bridge the gap. The Innovation Centre’s mission is to drive business growth, facilitate research and commercialize innovation in science and technology. It offers expertise in software solutions, digital analytics and GIS support services, among other things. “I’m disappointed,” said SSMIC executive director Peter Bruijns. “The plan we proposed would have steadily removed ourselves from the tax burden of the community and allowed us to grow our operations outside the area. “Cutting us in one lump sum is a jolt,” he said. Even more so, Bruijns said SSMIC would likely not have come to the rescue of Harvest Algoma a month before it was given notice that funding would be eliminated after 2024. “If we had received that notice first, then our approach to Harvest Algoma would likely have been much different,” he said. “We wouldn’t have taken it on.” Having said that, Bruijns said SSMIC will make sure the food security program continues to grow and succeed and a stable plan is in place until the end of 2026 while it looks at new revenue sources to build itself. “So far, it has been incredibly successful helping the community and it is the joy of my day,” Bruijs said. “Because it helps the community so much, I am thrilled we took it on.” Currently Harvest Algoma owns the Harvest Algoma building, and the District Social Services Administration Board is the mortgage holder. SSMIC carries all the costs of running the building, which is considered an Innovation Centre asset. And while that programming has its own plan, the SSMIC is in the midst of its 2025 budget planning now and several scenarios have been considered, including one without city funding. “But this leaves us with a gap and a deficit next year and what we need to look at is how to close that gap,” Bruijns told The Sault Star. There are options to do that, he said. The SSMIC could take on less gratuitous work. It could also opt to charge more for the work it does for important community organizations and agencies. It could also downsize. A combination of all is the most likely scenario as it grows its operations outside the region, Bruijns said. Over the past year, staff numbers have already been downsized, many by not renewing contract offers, he said. That was precipitated by the past 15 years of flatlined provincial funding that has now caught up with the organization, especially given the past year of inflation and higher costs for cyber insurance, liability insurance and other costs. “We are seeing both the federal and provincial governments also tightening their funding programs, and we are feeling the squeeze,” he said. For now, it’s business as usual, Bruijns said, but it is anticipated that charge out rates will have a slow and steady rise to close the projected 2025 deficit incrementally. “We need to grow our reputation outside Algoma and build business in other small communities but to do that you also need money to attend trade shows, hire a relationship builder and develop sales material. We have never had a surplus. We’re always on the line and it has been hard to free up that budget over the years,” he said. Contracts SSMIC has with the city for 2025 have already been set and they would be difficult to increase costs at this point. “We really don’t want to penalize our existing customers and contracts. What we want to do is grow. We understand that life is hard everywhere and we need to rise to the challenge,” he said. Share this Story : Cuts to Innovation Centre funding means deficit expected for 2025 Copy Link Email X Reddit Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr
Title: "National Securities Chao Gu APP Crashes: System Malfunction Leads to User Dissatisfaction"Shares of Atmos Energy Co. ( NYSE:ATO – Get Free Report ) have earned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the eight research firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $144.31. Several equities research analysts have recently commented on ATO shares. LADENBURG THALM/SH SH boosted their price target on Atmos Energy from $144.00 to $150.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Atmos Energy from $145.00 to $156.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com raised Atmos Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Atmos Energy in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. They issued a “hold” rating and a $155.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Atmos Energy from $134.00 to $144.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. View Our Latest Stock Analysis on ATO Atmos Energy Stock Down 0.1 % Atmos Energy Increases Dividend The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 9th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 25th will be paid a $0.87 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, November 25th. This is an increase from Atmos Energy’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.81. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.32%. Atmos Energy’s dividend payout ratio is 46.87%. Insider Activity In related news, Director Edward Geiser acquired 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $144.89 per share, for a total transaction of $362,225.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 2,602 shares in the company, valued at $377,003.78. This represents a 2,450.98 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link . Insiders own 0.50% of the company’s stock. Institutional Inflows and Outflows Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Toronto Dominion Bank grew its position in Atmos Energy by 18.6% in the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 100,595 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $13,954,000 after buying an additional 15,777 shares in the last quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Atmos Energy by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,716 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $516,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares during the period. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in shares of Atmos Energy by 15.0% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 560,790 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $77,788,000 after acquiring an additional 73,007 shares in the last quarter. LRI Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Atmos Energy by 8.5% during the third quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 1,871 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $270,000 after acquiring an additional 146 shares during the period. Finally, MML Investors Services LLC raised its holdings in Atmos Energy by 40.2% during the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 10,852 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,505,000 after purchasing an additional 3,113 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.17% of the company’s stock. About Atmos Energy ( Get Free Report Atmos Energy Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the regulated natural gas distribution, and pipeline and storage businesses in the United States. It operates through two segments, Distribution, and Pipeline and Storage. The Distribution segment is involved in the regulated natural gas distribution and related sales operations in eight states. Read More Receive News & Ratings for Atmos Energy Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Atmos Energy and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .
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Moreover, this type of paternal surveillance can have long-term consequences on a teenager's development and self-esteem. Adolescence is a critical period for establishing independence, forming peer relationships, and exploring one's identity. When a father imposes strict rules and restrictions on their daughter's social interactions, it can impede her ability to navigate these important milestones and hinder her emotional growth.Italian Media: Napoli Can Buy Inter Milan Forward Esposito for 5 Million Euros to Steal Him Away This Summer Transfer Window
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As the real estate market in China continues to experience fluctuations and uncertainties, the recent meeting held by the Central Political Bureau on December 9th has underscored the importance of stabilizing the real estate sector. The meeting, which focused on addressing various challenges facing the property market, highlighted the need for implementing effective measures to ensure stability and sustainable growth.NEW YORK (AP) — The man accused of gunning down United Healthcare’s CEO outside a Manhattan hotel is now jailed in New York, awaiting arraignment Monday on a state murder indictment after he was returned to the city in dramatic fashion to face charges in multiple courts. Shackled and wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, 26-year-old Luigi Mangione was escorted Thursday by heavily armed police officers and whisked by air from Pennsylvania to Manhattan, where he appeared in a packed courtroom on federal charges that could bring the death penalty. The Ivy League graduate, who prosecutors say inveighed against the health insurance industry and wealthy executives in his writings, was not required to enter a plea to federal charges of murder, stalking and firearms charges in the Dec. 4 killing of Brian Thompson . The state indictment charges Mangione with murder as a terrorist act. Here’s what’s next in the cases: Mangione is being held without bail at Metropolitan Detention Center, the same federal jail where hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs and cryptocurrency fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried are currently detained. The notorious Brooklyn facility, the only federal lockup in the city, has been variously described as “hell on earth” and an “ongoing tragedy” because of deplorable conditions, rampant violence, dysfunction and multiple deaths. The federal Bureau of Prisons has said it is increasing staffing to make up for staggering shortfalls , but conditions have been so stark at the jail, which houses about 1,100 inmates, that some judges have refused to send people there. Besides the federal charges filed Thursday, Mangione must still answer to a state murder indictment . Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office charged Mangione with murder as an act of terrorism , which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole. He is also charged with state weapons offenses and possession of a fake ID. Prosecutors have said the two cases will proceed on parallel tracks, with the state charges expected to go to trial first. Mangione’s lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, argued in court Thursday that the terrorism allegations in the state case and stalking charges in the federal complaint appear to be at odds. “Those are two completely different theories,” she said. “These seem like different cases.” The U.S. Supreme Court in 2019 upheld a longstanding constitutional rule allowing state and federal governments to prosecute someone for the same crime. Mangione is set to be arraigned Monday in Manhattan on the state indictment, according to Bragg's office. The University of Pennsylvania alum, who hailed from a prominent Maryland family and had also lived in Hawaii, had been expected to be arraigned Thursday on the state charges before the federal charges preempted that appearance. In the federal case, Mangione could next return to court for a bail hearing or for a preliminary hearing if prosecutors don’t obtain a grand jury indictment by mid-January. New York effectively effectively abolished its death penalty by 2007 and the last execution in the state was in 1963. But the federal death penalty remains in effect. The federal complaint filed against Mangione includes a count of murder by firearm, which carries the possibility of the death penalty if he is convicted. Federal prosecutors have not said if they will seek the death penalty. That decision will be made in coming months by Justice Department officials in Washington, likely after President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20. President Joe Biden's administration put a moratorium on federal executions soon after he took office in 2021, but that hasn't stopped federal prosecutors from seeking the death penalty . In contrast, Trump's administration carried out 13 executions in the last six months of his first term. Mangione also faces forgery and firearms charges in Pennsylvania stemming from his arrest last week, but those will likely not be addressed until the New York charges are resolved. He initially fought attempts to be returned to New York, but ultimately waived extradition and a preliminary hearing on the Pennsylvania charges on Thursday. “He is now in their custody,” Blair County District Attorney Peter Weeks said after Mangione was extradited to New York. “We intend to keep our case active and we intend to essentially revisit the case when the defendant is available for prosecution in Blair County.” Associated Press reporter Larry Neumeister in New York contributed to this story. Follow Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo .Evergreen Stock Soars to All-Time High of $11.82 Amidst Steady Growth
Autonomous Underwater Gliders Market Growth: From US$ 1.7 Billion in 2023 to US$ 4.7 Billion by 2034 | TMRU.S. stocks climbed after market superstar Nvidia and another round of companies said they’re making even fatter profits than expected. The S&P 500 pulled 0.5% higher Thursday after flipping between modest gains and losses several times in the morning. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1.1%, and the Nasdaq composite edged up less than 0.1%. Banks, smaller companies and other areas of the stock market that tend to do best when the economy is strong helped lead the way, while bitcoin briefly broke above $99,000. Crude oil, meanwhile, continued to rise. Treasury yields edged higher in the bond market. On Thursday: The S&P 500 rose 31.60 points, or 0.5%, to 5,948.71. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 461.88 points, or 1.1%, to 43,870.35. The Nasdaq composite rose 6.28 points, or less than 0.1%, to 18,972.42. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 38.48 points, or 1.7%, to 2,364.02. For the week: The S&P 500 is up 78.09 points, or 1.3%. The Dow is up 425.36 points, or 1%. The Nasdaq is up 292.30 points, or 1.6%. The Russell 2000 is up 60.18 points, or 2.6%. For the year: The S&P 500 is up 1,178.88 points, or 24.7%. The Dow is up 6,180.81 points, or 16.4%. The Nasdaq is up 3,961.07 points, or 26.4%. The Russell 2000 is up 336.94 points, or 16.6%.
Three ob-gyns and a lawyer on why Amendment 4 needs to pass | VoxPopuli
Consumer Electronic Biometrics Market Driven by Demand for Immersive Technologies Across Industries
2. Prevention Strategies:How you can protect your text messages following FBI warning of massive Chinese hackThis article was originally published on The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. Disclosure information is available on the original site. Read this article for free: Already have an account? To continue reading, please subscribe: * This article was originally published on The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. Disclosure information is available on the original site. Read unlimited articles for free today: Already have an account? This article was originally published on The Conversation, an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts. Disclosure information is available on the original site. ___ Author: Petra Molnar, Associate Director, Refugee Law Lab, York University, Canada At a press conference on Dec. 17, the Canadian federal government announced proposed new measures to expand its management of Canada’s border with the United States. These measures were intended to appease the incoming Trump administration and to avoid a threatened 25 per cent import tariff. The proposal includes expansions of border technologies, including RCMP counterintelligence, 24/7 surveillance between ports of entry, helicopters, drones and mobile towers. But what will this mean for people seeking asylum? If the U.S.-Mexico border is any indication, it will mean more death. Criminalizing migration At the press conference, Dominic LeBlanc, the minister of finance and intergovernmental affairs, reaffirmed Canada’s relationship with the incoming Trump administration. Framed around politics of difference, and relying on the fearmongering trope of migration as a “crisis,” Canada’s new border plan will also cost taxpayers $1.3 billion. During the press conference, LeBlanc’s remarks conflated migration with trafficking and crime, relying on “crimmigration,” or the use of criminalization to discipline, exclude, or expel migrants or others seen as not entitled to be in a country. LeBlanc also made direct reference to preventing fraud in the asylum system, with the driving forces behind this new border plan being “minimizing border volumes” and “removing irritants” to the U.S. However, these framings weaken the global right to asylum, which is an internationally protected right guaranteed by the 1951 Refugee Convention and sections 96 and 97 of Canada’s own Immigration and Refugee Protection Protection Act. Canada’s own courts have also found that the U.S. is not a safe country for some refugees. Deadly borders Since 2018, I have been researching technology and migration. I have worked at and studied various borders around the world, starting in Canada, moving south to the U.S.-Mexico border and including various countries in Europe and East Africa, as well as the Palestinian territories. Over the years, I have worked with hundreds of people seeking safety and witnessed the horrific conditions they have to survive. The Sonoran Desert containing the U.S.-Mexico border has become what anthropologist Jason de Leon calls “the land of open graves.” Researchers have shown that deaths have increased every year as a result of growing surveillance and deterrence mechanisms. I have witnessed these spaces of death in the Sonoran Desert and European borders, with people on the move succumbing to these sharpening borders. Canadian borders are not devoid of death. Families have frozen and drowned attempting to enter Canada. Others, like Seidu Mohammed and Razak Iyal, nearly froze to death and lost limbs as a result of frostbite; they later received refugee status and became Canadian citizens in 2023. ‘Extreme vulnerability’ Throughout the press conference, a clear theme emerged again and again: Canada’s border plan will “expand and deepen the relationship” between Canada and U.S. through border management, including both data sharing and operational support. The border management plan will include an aerial intelligence task force to provide non-stop surveillance. The mandate of the Canada Border Services Agency will also expand, and include a joint operational strike force. In November, president-elect Donald Trump named former Immigration and Customs Enforcement director Tom Homan as his administration’s “border czar.” Homan explicitly called out Canada after his appointment, calling the Canadian border “an extreme vulnerability.” Trump has also made pointed comments directed at Justin Trudeau, referring to him as “governor” and to Canada as the 51st state. And with Trump’s aggressive “America First” policies and the 25 per cent tariff threat, appeasing the incoming administration by strengthening border surveillance at the Canada-U.S. border is the lowest hanging fruit for the Trudeau administration to strengthen its hand. Creeping surveillance Border surveillance technologies do not remain at the border. In 2021, communities in Vermont and New York have already raised concerns about possible privacy infringements with the installation of surveillance towers. There are also fears of growing surveillance and repression of journalists and the migrant justice sector as a whole. And surveillance technologies used at the border have also been repurposed: for example, robo-dogs first employed at the U.S.-Mexico border have appeared in New York City and facial recognition technologies ubiquitous at airports are also being used on sports fans in stadiums. The big business of borders Taxpayers will foot the bill of this new border strategy to the hefty tune of $1.3 billion. This amount is part of a growing and lucrative border industrial complex that is now worth a staggering US$68 billion dollars and projected to grow exponentially to nearly a trillion dollars by 2031. But taxpayers do not benefit. Instead, the private sector makes up the market place of technical solutions to the so-called “problem” of migration. In this lucrative ecosystem built on fear of “the migrant other,” it is the private sector actors and not taxpayers who benefit. Instead of succumbing to the exclusionary politics of the incoming U.S. administration, we should call for transparency and accountability in the development and deployment of new technologies. There is also a need for more governance and laws to curtail these high-risk tech experiments before more people die at Canada’s borders. Instead of spending $1.3 billion dollars on surveillance technologies that infringe upon people’s rights, Canada should strengthen its asylum system and civil society support. Canada should also remember its international human rights obligations, and resist the U.S. political rhetoric of dehumanizing people who are seeking safety and protection. ___ Petra Molnar receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. ___ This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Disclosure information is available on the original site. Read the original article: https://theconversation.com/increased-surveillance-at-the-canada-u-s-border-means-more-asylum-seekers-could-die-246243 Advertisement Advertisement