Politics Scott Turner: From NFL Star to HUD Secretary Nominee By mayukh - November 23, 2024 President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Scott Turner, a former NFL player and Texas congressman, to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Turner’s extensive background in community revitalization and his deep commitment to improving underserved areas highlight his readiness for this pivotal role. Scott Turner: A Champion for Opportunity Turner’s path from the football field to public service exemplifies dedication and resilience. Serving as a U.S. Representative for Texas from 2013 to 2017, he brought a hands-on approach to addressing community needs. During Trump’s first term, Turner spearheaded the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council, focusing on uplifting distressed communities across the nation. His leadership fostered programs aimed at mentorship, economic growth, and equitable opportunities. Currently, Turner is the chair of the Center for Education Opportunity at the America First Policy Institute, further cementing his role as an advocate for accessible housing and education. In addition, he leads the Community Engagement & Opportunity Council, an initiative blending sports, mentorship, and economic development to empower struggling neighborhoods. A Vision for HUD As HUD Secretary, Turner is expected to bring a fresh perspective to housing policies, aligning with Trump’s vision of “Making America Great Again for every American.” Trump’s announcement praised Turner’s commitment to service and extended congratulations to his family. Turner’s nomination underscores the administration’s focus on combining policy expertise with grassroots-level impact. His history of advocating for economic revitalization and bridging gaps in underserved areas will likely shape his approach to tackling the housing crisis. If confirmed, Scott Turner’s unique blend of professional sports discipline, legislative experience, and community engagement may provide HUD with innovative solutions to persistent housing challenges, bringing hope to millions of Americans in need. TAGS Scott Turner Facebook Twitter Pinterest WhatsApp Linkedin ReddIt Email Telegram Previous article Janette Nesheiwat: Trump’s Choice for Surgeon General Brings Fresh Focus to Public Health Next article Pam Bondi Nominated as Attorney General: A Tough Fighter for Trump’s Vision mayukh http://digitalmarketnews.comThrivent Financial for Lutherans cut its holdings in BlackRock, Inc. ( NYSE:BLK – Free Report ) by 63.1% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,808 shares of the asset manager’s stock after selling 11,643 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ holdings in BlackRock were worth $6,463,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fairscale Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of BlackRock during the second quarter worth $31,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of BlackRock during the 3rd quarter valued at about $37,000. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of BlackRock by 100.0% in the third quarter. MFA Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 40 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Addison Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of BlackRock by 81.5% in the third quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 49 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $47,000 after buying an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Olistico Wealth LLC bought a new position in BlackRock during the second quarter valued at approximately $53,000. 80.69% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors. Insider Buying and Selling In other BlackRock news, Director Mark Wiedman sold 12,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $900.00, for a total value of $10,800,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 6,480 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,832,000. This represents a 64.94 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink . 0.90% of the stock is owned by insiders. Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on BlackRock BlackRock Stock Performance Shares of BlackRock stock opened at $1,036.46 on Friday. BlackRock, Inc. has a 52 week low of $724.54 and a 52 week high of $1,068.34. The company has a market capitalization of $160.53 billion, a PE ratio of 25.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 1.30. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $984.28 and its two-hundred day moving average is $879.49. The company has a quick ratio of 5.06, a current ratio of 5.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. BlackRock ( NYSE:BLK – Get Free Report ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 11th. The asset manager reported $11.46 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $10.42 by $1.04. The company had revenue of $5.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.03 billion. BlackRock had a net margin of 31.37% and a return on equity of 15.52%. The firm’s revenue was up 14.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $10.91 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that BlackRock, Inc. will post 43.17 earnings per share for the current year. BlackRock Announces Dividend The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, December 5th will be issued a $5.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 5th. This represents a $20.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.97%. BlackRock’s payout ratio is 50.35%. BlackRock Profile ( Free Report ) BlackRock, Inc is a publicly owned investment manager. The firm primarily provides its services to institutional, intermediary, and individual investors including corporate, public, union, and industry pension plans, insurance companies, third-party mutual funds, endowments, public institutions, governments, foundations, charities, sovereign wealth funds, corporations, official institutions, and banks. See Also Want to see what other hedge funds are holding BLK? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for BlackRock, Inc. ( NYSE:BLK – Free Report ). Receive News & Ratings for BlackRock Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for BlackRock and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .Often the home of great gaming laptop deals , Lenovo has a particularly great one for anyone keen to game in style this holiday season. Today, you can buy the Lenovo Legion 5i with a 16-inch screen for just $1,121, meaning you’re saving 37% or $669 off the regular price. It’s a hefty price cut, but it’s worth remembering that Lenovo’s estimated value system means that sometimes the original price is optimistically high. But the discounted price is still great either way. One of the better laptop deals around, the Lenovo Legion 5i looks great and packs plenty of punch for the price. Here’s why you’ll want it. Why you should buy the Lenovo Legion 5i Lenovo is one of the best gaming laptop brands around and my personal favorite of the bunch. Having owned an older Lenovo Legion laptop for a number of years, I’d happily recommend the range for anyone seeking a reliable gaming laptop. With the Lenovo Legion 5i, you get a great upgrade to my four-year-old Lenovo Legion. It has a 14th-generation Intel Core i7-14650HX CPU and it’s teamed up with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD storage. The highlight here is its Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card with 8GB of dedicated VRAM. It’s the best graphics card in this price range dodging the downfall of the weaker 4050 GPU. Paired with that GPU is a 16-inch WQXGA screen. It has a 2560 x 1600 resolution, 100% sRGB, 350 nits of brightness, and 165Hz refresh rate, so it looks great. It’s the perfect combo for gaming on the move while enjoying good looking games at a reasonable quality level. Continuing the trend that makes Lenovo one of the big names in the best gaming laptops world, the Lenovo Legion 5i also has a 1080p full HD webcam with dual microphones and a privacy shutter. It also has a 4-zone RGB backlit keyboard so it looks super stylish. The laptop also utilizes Legion ColdFront Hyper technology — its two fans spin in opposite directions, offering a dedicated hyper chamber that guides cool air to the right places. It all comes together to form a great laptop for the price. Usually $1,790, the Lenovo Legion 5i is down to $1,121 for a limited time only at Lenovo. This is a pretty great price if you’re looking for a new gaming laptop or you’re keen to treat someone to something great this holiday season. Tap the button below to get straight to it. The deal is likely to end soon.
In a major inspection drive, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s (KSA) authorities conducted a massive crack-down across the country between Thursday, December 5 to Wednesday, December 11 to ensure border security laws and arrested several illegal immigrants people. During the inspection, at least 19,831 violations were recorded across the Kingdom including 11,358 of residency, 4,994 of border security, and 3,479 of labour laws, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported. In addition, at least 1,303 foreign nationals were arrested for attempting to cross the border into the kingdom illegally; 38 per cent were Yemenis, 60 per cent Ethiopians, and 2 per cent of other nationalities. At least 25 people were arrested for transporting, sheltering, and employing illegal immigrants. Similarly, 19,000 were detained for violating laws. The authorities instructed them to contact their country’s embassies to obtain proper travel documentation. Additionally, 3,475 were ordered to make booking arrangements for their departure. The Ministry of Interior has warned any person who facilitates the illegal entry of individuals into the Kingdom, transports them on its territory and provides them with shelter or any other assistance or service may be penalized with up to 15 years in prison and a fine of up to million Saudi Riyal.The nearly party-line votes came after Democrats had been pressing for the findings to be published even though the Florida Republican left Congress and withdrew as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general. Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., was the sole Republican to support the effort. Most Republicans have argued that any congressional probe into Gaetz ended when he resigned from the House. Speaker Mike Johnson also requested that the committee not publish its report, saying it would be a terrible precedent to set. While ethics reports have previously been released after a member’s resignation, it is extremely rare. Shortly before the votes took place, Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., who introduced one of the bills to force the release, said that if Republicans reject the release, they will have “succeeded in sweeping credible allegations of sexual misconduct under the rug.” Gaetz has repeatedly denied the claims. Earlier Thursday, the Ethics panel met to discuss the Gaetz report but made no decision, saying in a short statement that the matter is still being discussed. It's unclear now whether the document will ever see the light of day as lawmakers have only a few weeks left before a new session of Congress begins. It's the culmination of weeks of pressure on the Ethics committee's five Republicans and five Democrats who mostly work in secret as they investigate allegations of misconduct against lawmakers. The status of the Gaetz investigation became an open question last month when he abruptly resigned from Congress after Trump's announcement that he wanted his ally in the Cabinet. It is standard practice for the committee to end investigations when members of Congress depart, but the circumstances surrounding Gaetz were unusual, given his potential role in the new administration. Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., the committee chairman, said Wednesday that there is no longer the same urgency to release the report given that Gaetz has left Congress and stepped aside as Trump's choice to head the Justice Department. “I’ve been steadfast about that. He’s no longer a member. He is no longer going to be confirmed by the Senate because he withdrew his nomination to be the attorney general,” Guest said. The Gaetz report has also caused tensions between lawmakers on the bipartisan committee. Pennsylvania Rep. Susan Wild, the top Democrat on the panel, publicly admonished Guest last month for mischaracterizing a previous meeting to the press. Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing and said last year that the Justice Department’s separate investigation against him into sex trafficking allegations involving underage girls ended without federal charges. His onetime political ally Joel Greenberg, a fellow Republican who served as the tax collector in Florida’s Seminole County, admitted as part of a plea deal with prosecutors in 2021 that he paid women and an underage girl to have sex with him and other men. The men were not identified in court documents when he pleaded guilty. Greenberg was sentenced in late 2022 to 11 years in prison.
Reniya Kelly scores 18 and No. 16 North Carolina women beat 14th-ranked Kentucky 72-53
Box Office Gets Glicked: ‘Wicked’ Eyes $117M Opening, ‘Gladiator II’ Heads for $60MTrump raced to pick many Cabinet posts. He took more time to settle on a treasury secretary WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump launched a blitz of picks for his Cabinet, but he took his time settling on billionaire investor Scott Bessent as his choice for treasury secretary. The Republican not only wanted someone who jibes with him, but an official who can execute his economic vision and look straight out of central casting while doing so. With his Yale University education and pedigree trading for Soros Fund Management before establishing his own funds, Bessent will be tasked with a delicate balancing act. Trump expects him to help reset the global trade order, enable trillions of dollars in tax cuts, ensure inflation stays in check, manage a ballooning national debt and still keep the financial markets confident. Trump chooses Bessent to be treasury secretary, Vought as budget chief, Chavez-DeRemer for Labor WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump has chosen hedge fund manager Scott Bessent, an advocate for deficit reduction, to serve as his next treasury secretary. Bessent, 62, is founder of hedge fund Key Square Capital Management. He previously had worked on and off for Soros Fund Management since 1991. Trump also said he would nominate Russell Vought, 48, to lead the Office of Management and Budget, a position he held during Trump's first term. And Trump chose Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, an Oregon Republican, as his labor secretary, and Scott Turner, a former football player who worked in Trump’s first administration, as his housing secretary. Afraid of losing the US-Canada trade pact, Mexico alters its laws and removes Chinese parts MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico has been taking a bashing for allegedly serving as a conduit for Chinese parts and products into North America. Officials here are terrified that a re-elected Donald Trump or politically struggling Justin Trudeau could simply expel their country from the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement. Mexico's ruling Morena party is so afraid its has gone on a campaign to get companies to replace Chinese parts with locally made ones. And its legislators are consciously tweaking the wording of major laws to try to make them compatible with the trade pact's language. Mexico hopes the rules of the trade pact would prevent the U.S. or Canada from simply walking away. US budget airlines are struggling. Will pursuing premium passengers solve their problems? DALLAS (AP) — Delta and United Airlines have become the most profitable U.S. airlines by targeting premium customers while also winning a significant share of budget travelers. That is squeezing smaller low-fare carriers like Spirit Airlines, which filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday. Some travel industry experts think Spirit’s troubles indicate less-wealthy passengers will have fewer choices and higher prices. Other discount airlines are on better financial footing but also are lagging far behind the full-service airlines when it comes to recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. Most industry experts think Frontier and other so-called ultra-low-cost carriers will fill the vacuum if Spirit shrinks, and that there's still plenty of competition to prevent prices from spiking. What to know about Scott Bessent, Trump's pick for treasury secretary WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump has chosen money manager Scott Bessent, an advocate for deficit reduction and deregulation, to serve as his next treasury secretary. Bessent is a past supporter of Democrats who has become an enthusiastic supporter of Trump. He’s an advocate of cutting spending while extending the tax cuts approved by Congress in Trump’s first term. He has said tariffs imposed during a second Trump administration would be directed primarily at China. What to know about Lori Chavez-DeRemer, Trump's pick for labor secretary WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump has named Oregon Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer to lead the Department of Labor, elevating a Republican congresswoman who has strong support from unions in her district but lost reelection in November. Chavez-DeRemer has a legislative record that has drawn plaudits from unions, but organized labor leaders remain skeptical about Trump's agenda for workers. Trump, in general, has not supported policies that make it easier for workers to organize. Chavez-DeRemer is a one-term congresswoman, having lost reelection in her competitive Oregon district earlier this month. She joins Secretary of State-designate Marco Rubio, the Florida senator, as the second Latino pick for Trump’s second Cabinet. Trump taps a Fox News personality, a surgeon and a former Congressman to lead public health agencies WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump has nominated a critic of COVID-19 health measures to lead the Food and Drug Administration. Dr. Marty Makary came to national attention for opposing mask mandates and other steps during the pandemic. He is a surgeon, author and professor at Johns Hopkins University. Makary is the latest of a string of Trump nominees who are deeply critical of government health regulators and experts. If confirmed, Makary would be expected to report to anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s pick to oversee the nation’s health agencies. Bitcoin ticks closer to $100,000 in extended surge following US elections NEW YORK (AP) — Bitcoin is jumping again, setting another new high above $99,000. The cryptocurrency has been shattering records almost daily since the U.S. presidential election, and has rocketed more than 40% higher in just two weeks. It's now at the doorstep of $100,000. Cryptocurrencies and related investments like crypto exchange-traded funds have rallied because the incoming Trump administration is expected to be more “crypto-friendly.” Still, as with everything in the volatile cryptoverse, the future is hard to predict. And while some are bullish, other experts continue to warn of investment risks. Supreme Court steps into fight over FCC's $8 billion subsidies for internet and phone services WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has stepped into a major legal fight over the $8 billion a year the federal government spends to subsidize phone and internet services in schools, libraries and rural areas, in a new test of federal regulatory power. The justices on Friday agreed to review an appellate ruling that struck down as unconstitutional the Universal Service Fund. The Federal Communications Commission collects money from telecommunications providers, who then pass the cost on to their customers. The Biden administration appealed the lower court ruling, but the case probably won’t be argued until late March. At that point, the Trump administration will be in place and it is not clear whether it will take a different view of the issue. Charlotte airport workers voting on whether to strike during busy Thanksgiving travel week CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Service workers at Charlotte Douglas International Airport are voting on whether to go on a 24-hour strike around Thanksgiving amid complaints about low wages and poor working conditions. The vote is being taken by employees of two airport contractors who provide cabin cleaning services, trash removal and other services. The airport expects over 1 million passengers to depart from it the weekend before the holiday. The date of the proposed strike has not been announced.