Capstone Infrastructure Corporation Releases Inaugural ESG Report Since Transition to Dedicated Independent Power Producer
By DAVID A. LIEB Artificial intelligence. Abortion. Guns. Marijuana. Minimum wages. Name a hot topic, and chances are good there’s a new law about it taking effect in 2025 in one state or another. Many of the laws launching in January are a result of legislation passed this year. Others stem from ballot measures approved by voters. Some face legal challenges. Here’s a look at some of the most notable state laws taking effect: California, home to Hollywood and some of the largest technology companies, is seeking to rein in the artificial intelligence industry and put some parameters around social media stars. New laws seek to prevent the use of digital replicas of Hollywood actors and performers without permission and allow the estates of dead performers to sue over unauthorized AI use. Parents who profit from social media posts featuring their children will be required to set aside some earnings for their young influencers. A new law also allows children to sue their parents for failing to do so. New social media restrictions in several states face court challenges. Related Articles National Politics | Trump has pressed for voting changes. GOP majorities in Congress will try to make that happen National Politics | Exhausted by political news? TV ratings and new poll say you’re not alone National Politics | Trump vows to pursue executions after Biden commutes most of federal death row 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’ A Florida law bans children under 14 from having social media accounts and requires parental consent for ages 14 and 15. But enforcement is being delayed because of a lawsuit filed by two associations for online companies, with a hearing scheduled for late February. A new Tennessee law also requires parental consent for minors to open accounts on social media. NetChoice, an industry group for online businesses, is challenging the law. Another new state law requires porn websites to verify that visitors are at least 18 years old. But the Free Speech Coalition, a trade association for the adult entertainment industry, has filed a challenge. Several new California measures aimed at combating political deepfakes are also being challenged, including one requiring large social media platforms to remove deceptive content related to elections and another allowing any individual to sue for damages over the use of AI to create fabricated images or videos in political ads . In a first nationally, California will start enforcing a law prohibiting school districts from adopting policies that require staff to notify parents if their children change their gender identification . The law was a priority for Democratic lawmakers who wanted to halt such policies passed by several districts. Many states have passed laws limiting or protecting abortion rights since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a nationwide right to the procedure in 2022. One of the latest is the Democratic-led state of Delaware. A law there will require the state employee health plan and Medicaid plans for lower-income residents to cover abortions with no deductible , copayments or other cost-sharing requirements. A new Minnesota law prohibits guns with “binary triggers” that allow for more rapid fire, causing a weapon to fire one round when the trigger is pulled and another when it is released. In Delaware, a law adds colleges and universities to a list of school zones where guns are prohibited, with exceptions for those working in their official capacity such as law officers and commissioned security guards. Kentucky is becoming the latest state to let people use marijuana for medical purposes . To apply for a state medical cannabis card, people must get written certification from a medical provider of a qualifying condition, such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, chronic pain, epilepsy, chronic nausea or post-traumatic stress disorder. Nearly four-fifths of U.S. states have now legalized medical marijuana. Minimum wage workers in more than 20 states are due to receive raises in January. The highest minimum wages will be in Washington, California and Connecticut, all of which will top $16 an hour after modest increases. The largest increases are scheduled in Delaware, where the minimum wage will rise by $1.75 to $15 an hour, and in Nebraska, where a ballot measure approved by voters in 2022 will add $1.50 to the current minimum of $12 an hour. Twenty other states still follow the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. In Oregon, using drugs on public transit will be considered a misdemeanor crime of interfering with public transportation. While the measure worked its way through the legislature, multiple transportation officials said drug use on buses and trains, and at transit stops and stations, was making passengers and drivers feel less safe. In Missouri, law enforcement officers have spent the past 16 months issuing warnings to motorists that handheld cellphone use is illegal. Starting with the new year, penalties will kick in: a $150 fine for the first violation, progressing to $500 for third and subsequent offenses and up to 15 years imprisonment if a driver using a cellphone cause an injury or death. But police must notice a primary violation, such as speeding or weaving across lanes, to cite motorists for violating the cellphone law. Montana is the only state that hasn’t banned texting while driving , according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Tenants in Arizona will no longer have to pay tax on their monthly rent , thanks to the repeal of a law that had allowed cities and towns to impose such taxes. While a victory for renters, the new law is a financial loss for governments. An analysis by Arizona’s nonpartisan Joint Legislative Budget Committee estimated that $230 million would be lost in municipal tax revenue during the first full fiscal year of implementation. Meanwhile Alabama will offer tax credits to businesses that help employees with child care costs. Kansas is eliminating its 2% sales tax on groceries. It also is cutting individual income taxes by dropping the top tax rate, increasing a credit for child care expenses and exempting all Social Security income from taxes, among other things. Taxpayers are expected to save about $320 million a year going forward. An Oklahoma law expands voting privileges to people who have been convicted of felonies but had their sentences discharged or commuted, including commutations for crimes that have been reclassified from felonies to misdemeanors. Former state Sen. George Young, an Oklahoma City Democrat, carried the bill in the Senate. “I think it’s very important that people who have gone through trials and tribulations in their life, that we have a system that brings them back and allows them to participate as contributing citizens,” Young said. Associated Press writers Trân Nguyễn in Sacramento, California; Kate Payne in Tallahassee, Florida; Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee; Randall Chase in Dover, Delaware; Steve Karnowski in Minneapolis; Bruce Schreiner in Frankfort, Kentucky; Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon; Summer Ballentine in Jefferson City, Missouri; Gabriel Sandoval in Phoenix; Kim Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama; John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas; and Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City contributed.
American and European stock markets mostly rose on Wednesday after inflation data cemented expectations that the US Federal Reserve will trim interest rates next month. While the Dow fell slightly, the other two major US indices advanced, led by the tech-rich Nasdaq, which piled on almost two percent to close above 20,000 points for the first time. The consumer price index (CPI) rose to 2.7 percent last month from a year ago, up slightly from 2.6 percent in October. "With the CPI numbers broadly in line, it is likely that the Fed will not be derailed and will cut rates again next week," Jochen Stanzl, chief market analyst at CMC Markets. "The data is not a showstopper for the current bull run on Wall Street," he added. Ahead of the data, investors priced in an 86 percent chance the Fed will cut interest rates next week by a quarter percentage point. That rose to more than 98 percent after the CPI data was published. Stocks in Paris and Frankfurt rose ahead of the European Central Bank's own interest rate announcement on Thursday, with analysts expecting another cut as it seeks to boost eurozone growth. Investors are also eyeing political developments in France, where officials said President Emmanuel Macron aims to name a new prime minister "within 48 hours" as he seeks to end political deadlock following the ouster of Michel Barnier. In company news, shares in German retail giant Zalando shed more than four percent on Frankfurt's DAX index, after it acquired domestic rival About You in a deal worth around 1.1 billion euros ($1.2 billion). Shares in Zara owner Inditex slid more than six percent after a record quarterly profit for the group fell short of market estimates. Among US companies, Google parent Alphabet earned 5.5 percent as it announced the launch of Gemini 2.0, its most advanced artificial intelligence model to date. That added to gains after Google also announced Tuesday details of a breakthrough quantum chip. Shares in Shanghai rose but Hong Kong gave up an early rally to end in the red. Traders were keeping tabs on China to see if it will announce further measures to support its struggling economy as leaders were to gather Wednesday for a conference to hammer out next year's agenda. President Xi Jinping and other top leaders on Monday announced their first major shift in policy for more than a decade, saying they would "implement a more active fiscal policy and an appropriately relaxed" strategy. Those remarks sparked hopes for more interest rate cuts and the freeing up of more cash for lending. New York - Dow: DOWN 0.2 percent at 44,148.56 (close) New York - S&P 500: UP 0.8 percent at 6,084.19 (close) New York - Nasdaq Composite: UP 1.8 percent at 20,034.89 (close) London - FTSE 100: UP 0.3 percent at 8,301.62 (close) Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.4 percent at 7,423.40 (close) Frankfurt - DAX: UP 0.3 percent at 20,399.16 (close) Tokyo - Nikkei 225: FLAT at 39,372.23 (close) Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.8 percent at 20,155.05 (close) Shanghai - Composite: UP 0.3 percent at 3,432.49 (close) Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.0498 from $1.0527 on Tuesday Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.2752 from $1.2771 Dollar/yen: UP at 152.40 yen from 151.95 yen Euro/pound: DOWN at 82.31 from 82.42 pence Brent North Sea Crude: UP 1.8 percent at $73.52 per barrel West Texas Intermediate: UP 2.4 percent at $70.29 per barrel burs-jmb/mlmAnxiety about money, gun violence and hate crimes ranked high on list of American's concerns Limiting your news consumption may help ease stress and anxiety More than before, Americans surveyed say they'll make mental health resolutions for 2025 FRIDAY, Dec. 27, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- Should you cut back on doom scrolling in 2025? Worries about money, gun violence and hate crimes ranked high among many people's lists of worries at the end of 2024, according to a poll that is part of American Psychiatric Association (APA) Healthy Minds Monthly opinion poll series. The survey included 2200 U.S. adults. Reducing news consumption may be beneficial for your mental health , experts say. "If current events seem overwhelming it may be time to limit your news consumption,” Dr. Marketa Wills , medical director of the APA, said. “While we like to stay informed, the news can also impact our mental health, and being mindful of that impact is important," Wells said in a news release. According to the APA's research, American adults have remained most anxious about the economy and gun violence throughout 2024. Looking ahead to 2025, more than 1/3 of Americans surveyed (33%) say they will make mental health-related New Year’s resolutions, which is a 5% increase from last year. In fact, the increase is the highest result the APA has collected since it began asking the question in 2021. As usual, many people report that they will pledge to be more physically active in 2025; other resolutions focus on participating in mentally healthy activities. Spend more time in nature (46%) Meditation (44%) Focus on spirituality (37%) Take a social media break (30%) Journaling (29%) “A new year brings with it new opportunities but also renewed concerns about the very important issues that impact our lives,” Wills said, adding that “any time of the year, mental health matters. Staying mindful of how we’re doing while taking active steps to care for ourselves is a terrific resolution.” More information The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has more on stress and anxiety management. SOURCE: American Psychiatric Association (APA), news release, Dec. 13, 2024; APA, press release, Dec. 18, 2024 If you make resolutions, consider starting or re-starting a practice that will nurture your mental health, such as meditating or taking a break from social media.Chiefs are no longer relishing close wins as the stress of the postseason push begins to mount
Saints QB situation remains cloudy as matchup with Washington nearsIn Eritrea, one of the world’s most repressive countries, a tiny independent radio station broadcasting from a Paris apartment has become a beacon of hope. Transmitting trusted news for the past 15 years from a studio tucked away in the French capital’s 13th district, Radio Erena - Eritrea’s only independent media - is now under threat and risks going off the air due to lack of funding. In the span of a year, the Radio Erena team has shrunk from six to three people, including two experienced journalists who fled to France. “In 2001, the Eritrean government decided to close down all private media,” said Amanuel Ghimai Bhata, editor-in-chief of Radio Erena. “Since then, only the voice of the state has been heard, mainly propaganda.” A handful of media outlets are trying to resist by broadcasting from abroad, the vast majority of them linked to Eritrean political forces. Radio Erena is the only “independent and apolitical” outlet, according to its team. Radio Erena broadcasts less than two hours of programming a day in Tigrinya and Arabic, Eritrea’s two main languages. Relying on a network of correspondents based outside the country, Radio Erena, which means “Our Eritrea” in Tigrinya, has become a lifeline for audiences back home. It is difficult to estimate the number of listeners, given the limited access to the country. Germany’s Deutsche Welle Akademie said in 2017 that 520,000 people in Eritrea listened to Radio Erena at least once a week, out of a population of around 3.5 million. Its waves are often jammed, according to Reporters Without Borders which helped found the independent media outlet in 2009. After three decades of war, Eritrea declared independence from Ethiopia in 1993. The impoverished Horn of Africa nation has only ever been ruled by one man, Isaias Afwerki, 78, who has cracked down on all political opposition. Sometimes described as Africa’s North Korea, it is a “one-man dictatorship” with no legislature, no independent civil society organizations and no independent judiciary, according to Human Rights Watch. ‘Totalitarian system’ Eritreans want to know “what’s happening on the other side of the world”, as well as “outside their borders”, particularly in northern Ethiopia where their army has fought alongside Ethiopian federal forces against Tigrayan rebels, said Bhata. Eritrean troops supporting the Ethiopian government continue to occupy parts of the Tigray region. Hundreds of thousands of people have died and a million others were displaced during the conflict in 2020-2022. “The Eritrean government is not saying a word about it,” said Bhata. State media outlets provide “a completely illusory image of Eritrea, giving the impression that everything is still fine”, said Marc Lavergne of France’s CNRS scientific research center. “Press freedom is non-existent in Eritrea. Only North Korea is at the same level,” the Horn of Africa expert said. According to this year’s Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), North Korea ranks 177th out of 180 countries. Eritrea is ranked last. According to RSF, the country is “notorious for detaining journalists longer than any other country in the world”. Lavergne described Eritrea as an “extremely tightly controlled totalitarian system”. “Only a handful of loyalists to Isaias Afwerki’s regime have access to the outside world, the Internet and the international press,” he said. Funding crisis Over the past years, authorities in Eritrea have sought to disrupt the work of Radio Erena. In 2012, officials accused the radio station of inciting its listeners to commit “acts of violence against Eritrean government representatives”, according to Reporters Without Borders. “We were unable to broadcast for nearly eight months,” said Bhata. The journalist fled Eritrea in 2009 after working for several years at the ministry of information, where he says he was forced to comply with the “propaganda machine”. Even in France he does not feel completely safe, saying he frequently receives online threats. Maxence Peniguet, director of operations at Radio Erena, pointed to numerous cyber attacks seeking to cripple its operations. Worst of all, the outlet’s funds are drying up. The financial resources from private donors and US and European NGOs are no longer sufficient to cover the costs, while finding new donors proves “very complicated”, given multiplying crises around the world, said Peniguet. — AFPOrmat Announces Public Offering of Common Stock on Behalf of Stockholder ORIX Corporation
NEW ORLEANS, La. (AP) — A Louisiana civil court judge on Monday halted state agencies' plans to forcibly clear homeless encampments in New Orleans. Orleans Parish Civil District Court Judge Ethel Julien issued a temporary restraining order blocking state police and two other agencies from evicting homeless people from their encampments in New Orleans or seizing their property without following city laws and due process. Republican Gov. Jeff Landry had called earlier this month for the City of New Orleans to remove a large encampment before Thanksgiving and warned he would intervene if the city did not comply. “If a judge believes that people have a right to be on whatever public space they choose, maybe that judge should have them move into her chambers and courtroom," Landry said after the judge issued the restraining order Monday. Louisiana State Police spokesperson Sgt. Katharine Stegall said the agency’s legal team and the state Attorney General’s Office are reviewing the order. State police have “promptly halted activities” and are “complying with the restrictions” of the order, Stegall said. Landry and New Orleans officials have repeatedly clashed over how to address the issue of homelessness in the city. New Orleans City Councilmember Lesli Harris said Monday that directing more resources towards moving homeless people into stable housing was “infinitely more effective than punitive sweeps” of encampments. “Coordination between the government and service providers on the housing of people is imperative, and continuously moving people only makes it that much harder to house them,” Harris said. But the governor has pushed to clear homeless encampments. In late October, Louisiana State Police, the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and the Department of Transportation and Development converged on a homeless encampment under a highway to remove and relocate dozens of people prior to pop star Taylor Swift’s concerts in the nearby Superdome. Some people who had been away at the time of the clearances returned to the area to find they had lost their personal property including family heirlooms, identification documents and medication, according to testimony in court documents. City officials and advocates for homeless people decried the evictions and said they disrupted ongoing efforts to secure long-term housing for these individuals because they became harder to locate. A judge later granted a temporary restraining order preventing more clearances but declined to extend it beyond early November after lawyers representing the state police indicated in court that removals tied to the Taylor Swift concerts had ceased. But on Friday, homeless people began receiving flyers from state police officers ordering them to leave their encampments within 24 hours, according to a motion for relief filed on behalf of two homeless plaintiffs by the Southern Poverty Law Center and two other legal groups. The planned sweeps preceded the Bayou Classic football game on Saturday between Southern University and Grambling State University at the Superdome. “Your presence is considered a violation,” the flyers stated, according to the motion for relief. However, they were halted by the new temporary restraining order. On Dec. 3, the judge is scheduled to deliberate on whether to issue a preliminary injunction against the three state agencies. “The vulnerable people with disabilities who make up the vast majority of people living in the street deserve to be treated with sensitivity and compassion,” said Joe Heeren-Mueller, director of community engagement for Unity of Greater New Orleans, a homeless outreach organization. There are about 1,450 homeless people in New Orleans and neighboring Jefferson Parish, according to a January survey by the nonprofit Unity of Greater New Orleans. The city has committed to securing housing for these individuals by the end of 2025. Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Brook on the social platform X: @jack_brook96
Penn St. 85, Fordham 66
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LiveDeal stock plunges to 52-week low, touches $9.77
At least one judge has seen the transphobic hysteria for what it is. In denying a request to upend this week’s Mountain West volleyball tournament and/or force San Jose State to leave one of its players home, a federal judge called out the disingenuousness of the lawsuit. And in doing so, behind this sudden groundswell of opposition to transgender women athletes. “The Court finds their delay in filing this action and seeking emergency relief related to the MWC Tournament weakens their arguments," U.S. District Judge S. Kato Crews wrote in his ruling issued Monday. “The movants could have sought injunctive relief much earlier if the exigencies of the circumstances required mandatory court intervention.” For three years now, San Jose State’s volleyball team has included a transgender woman. (Neither the young woman nor San Jose State has confirmed it but, as Crews pointed out, no one has denied it, either.) The Mountain West Conference created a participation policy for transgender athletes back in 2022, which included forfeit as punishment for refusing to play a team with a transgender athlete, and athletic directors at every school in the conference agreed to it. Yet not until this season, after the player had been outed by a right-wing website and then thrown under the bus by one of her own teammates, did the howling and forfeits begin. This is an important point, so I’m going to repeat it: For two years, the San Jose State player was on the volleyball team and the world continued to spin. No one was injured, no one was assaulted in a locker room, no legion of transgender women showed up in formation behind her to take over women’s sports. The San Jose State player practiced and played and no one, not her teammates and not her opponents, took issue with it. Whether that’s because no one realized she’s transgender or are two sides of the same coin. So what changed? Other than teammate Brooke Slusser and the other grifters deciding that demonizing a young woman would get them a spot on Fox News? . Not a damn thing. If the San Jose State player was such a threat, if the Mountain West’s transgender participation policy was so onerous, surely the athletes and the schools who filed the lawsuit would have done so immediately. Unless, of course, this was all for show. In which case, waiting until the 11 hour would add fuel to their faux outrage. “At the earliest, Moving Plaintiffs or their institutions began to learn that one of SJSU’s teammates was an alleged trans woman with an article published in the spring of 2024. And they certainly had knowledge of this alleged player when the string of member institutions started forfeiting matches against SJSU in September 2024,” Crews wrote. Predictably, Slusser and three other athletes filed a notice of appeal. But the likelihood of it succeeding would seem to be slim, as well, given Crews’ painstaking detailing of precedent. The anti-trans ilk likes to claim that allowing transgender women to play sports is a violation of Title IX. But Crews says it’s actually the opposite, taking five pages of his 28-page ruling to cite previous Supreme Court and Tenth Circuit cases that found discriminating against someone for being transgender is sex discrimination. Which is prohibited by Title IX. “The (plaintiffs') Title IX theory raised in this case directly conflicts with Title IX’s prohibition on discrimination against trans individuals,” Crews wrote. San Jose State is the No. 2 seed in the Mountain West Conference tournament, which begins Wednesday. The Spartans have a bye in the first round and will play either Boise State or Utah State on Friday. Those are two of the schools that forfeited games during the regular season, which means we’re about to find out how committed to the bigotry those teams are. For all the shrieking there is about transgender women athletes, it’s the cisgender women pushing the forfeits who cost their fellow athletes opportunities to play and saddled their teams with losses. It’s those women, not the San Jose State player, who are .
Substitute Sveindís Jonsdottir has scored four second-half goals to put Wolfsburg into the quarter-finals of Women's Champions League with 6-1 thrashing of Roma. Jonsdottir came on in the 66th minute of Wednesday's home match with Wolfsburg leading 2-1 and needing to win by at least a two-goal margin to secure a spot in the knockout stage with one group game to spare. The Iceland forward quickly made sure of that, netting her first just two minutes later and completing a hat-trick by the 89th. She added one more in stoppage time. Alexandra Popp had given the hosts an early lead but Roma equalised in the 56th minute through Valentina Giacinti. Lineth Beerensteyn restored a one-goal advantage nine minutes later. Wolfsburg are second in Group A with nine points from five games, while already qualified eight-time champions Lyon clinched the top spot in the group by routing Galatasaray 6-0 away in Istanbul. Roma are third on six points with newcomer Galatasaray last on zero points. In Group B, Chelsea maintained a perfect record by thrashing Twente 6-1 while Real Madrid won 3-0 away at Celtic. Signe Bruun scored twice for Madrid, netting with a long-distance strike in the first half and adding her second with a close-range header in the second. Chelsea and Madrid had both already clinched quarter-final spots. Chelsea lead the group with 15 points, with Madrid three points behind. The two meet in Madrid next week to decide the group winner. Twente have three points and Celtic none.
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