
The University of Colorado Boulder has created a free resource to help people recover their loved ones' digital accounts or make plans for their own after death.The first guest invited to ring the bell to open trading at the New York Stock Exchange in 1956 wasn’t a company executive, a politician or a celebrity. It was a 10-year-old boy, Leonard Ross, who received the honor by winning a television quiz show. Since then, business titans, political giants and global film stars have all been among those ringing the opening bell at the NYSE. Ronald Reagan rang the bell as president in 1985. Billionaire businessman and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Hollywood star Robert Downey Jr. have also rung the bell. The list even includes famous Muppets: Miss Piggy was once a bell ringer. President-elect Donald Trump joined that list Thursday when he opened trading at the famous stock exchange on Wall Street. He was accompanied by his wife, Melania, who interestingly enough received the honor before her husband. As first lady, she rang the bell in 2019 as part of her “Be Best” program. Bell-ringers are more commonly founders and executives chosen primarily from the exchange's more than 2,300 listed companies. Over the last few months, the guests have included executives from Alaska Air Group, Bath & Body Works, and Ally Financial. Stock trading around the location of the NYSE's current home has deep roots that trace back to the Dutch founding of New Amsterdam and when Wall Street had an actual wall. The NYSE traces its direct roots to the “Buttonwood Agreement” signed in 1792, which set rules for stock trading and commissions. The NYSE moved into its first permanent home in 1865. The first bell in use was actually a gong. The exchange moved into its current iconic building in 1903 and started using an electronically operated brass bell. That has evolved into synchronized bells in each of the NYSE’s four trading areas.For the third year in a row, Elon Musk’s charitable foundation did not give away enough of its money. And it did not miss the mark by a small amount. New tax filings show that the Musk Foundation fell $421 million short of the amount it was required to give away in 2023. Now, Musk has until the end of the year to distribute that money, or he will be required to pay a sizable penalty to the IRS. Musk, in his new role as a leader of what President-elect Donald Trump is calling the Department of Government Efficiency, is promising to downsize and rearrange the entire federal government — including the IRS. But the tax records show he has struggled to meet a basic IRS rule that is required of all charity leaders, no matter how small or big their foundations. Musk’s is one of the biggest. His foundation has more than $9 billion in assets, including millions of shares in Tesla, his electric vehicle company. By law, all private foundations must give away 5% of those assets every year. The aim is to ensure that wealthy donors like Musk use these organizations to help the public instead of simply benefiting from the tax deductions they are afforded. Musk’s group has fallen further and further behind. In 2021, his foundation was $41 million short, then $234 million the following year. Now, the hole is deeper still. Private foundations do have a way to solve the problem if they do not give away enough money. They can distribute more the following year as a make-good. Musk could choose to do so in 2024. Musk did not respond to requests for comment. His foundation, which is required to make its tax filings public, provided the 2023 document to The New York Times. The IRS appears to be among Musk’s early targets as a leader of Trump’s government efficiency initiative. The tax agency serves as the federal government’s charity regulator and thus oversees Musk’s foundation. Last month, Musk used X, his social media platform, to ask users if the IRS’ budget should be increased, kept the same, decreased or “deleted.” His followers chose “deleted.” Musk, who on Wednesday became the first person with a net worth of over $400 billion, has been an unusual philanthropist. He has been critical of the effectiveness of large charitable gifts, and his foundation maintains a minimal, plain-text website that offers very little about its overarching philosophy. That is different from some other large foundations that seek to have national or even worldwide impact by making large gifts to causes like public health, education or the arts. The Musk Foundation’s largesse primarily stays closer to home. The tax filings show that last year the group gave at least $7 million combined to charities near a launch site in South Texas used by Musk’s company SpaceX. Other large charitable foundations have also failed to distribute the IRS’ minimum required amount in recent years, sometimes by more than $100 million, according to tax filings compiled by the company CauseIQ, which analyzes charity data. But Musk’s foundation is unusual even among those, both for the amount of its shortfall and the speed at which it is increasing. In 2022, the last year for which full data is available, the Musk Foundation had the fourth-largest gap of any private foundation in the country, according to CauseIQ data. Musk’s charity, which he founded in 2002, has never hired paid employees, according to tax filings. Its three directors — Musk and two people who work for his family office — all work for free. The filings show they did not spend very much time on the foundation: just two hours and six minutes per week for the past three years. But the board’s task grew enormously in 2021 and 2022, when Musk tripled the foundation’s assets by giving it billions of dollars’ worth of Tesla stock. Tax experts said if he claimed those donations on his personal taxes in the year given, those gifts would have been very beneficial to him. Because of the deductions allowed for charitable gifts, they potentially saved Musk as much as $2 billion on his tax bills. Because of the skyrocketing growth in assets, the three-person board had to give away hundreds of millions of dollars per year just to meet the minimum. That group entered 2023 needing to pay off the previous year’s $234 million shortfall, or it would have to pay a penalty tax of 30% on whatever was left at the end of the year. The foundation met that, giving away a total of $236 million and avoiding the penalty. But it also had to give away an additional $424 million to meet its obligation for 2023. The filings show it did not come close, leaving an even bigger deficit to make up this year. “The distributions made by the foundation are meeting the bare minimum to avoid penalties,” said Brian Mittendorf, an accounting professor at the Ohio State University who studies nonprofits. “It is clear that the organization is not in a hurry to spend its money.” In 2023, as in other years, many of the foundation’s gifts went to organizations that were closely tied to Musk or his businesses. In 2023, for instance, he gave $25 million to a donor-advised fund, a separate charitable account over which Musk retains effective control. Musk began donating to schools in the Brownsville, Texas, area just after his company’s reputation took a major hit: One of its rockets exploded, showering the area with twisted metal. The foundation’s largest gift for the year — $137 million in cash and stock — went to a nonprofit called The Foundation. That charity, run by Musk’s close associates, has set up a private elementary school in Bastrop, Texas. The school is a short distance from large campuses operated by Musk’s businesses and a 110-home subdivision planned for his employees. Related Articles Business | Australian Senate debates social media ban for under-16s Business | California commission that approves rocket launches is anti-Elon Musk, claims SpaceX lawsuit Business | SpaceX blasts past 100 launches in 2024 with 101st from California Business | Tesla Optimus bots were remotely operated at Cybercab event in Burbank Business | In engineering feat, SpaceX ‘arms’ catch Starship rocket booster back at launch pad Mittendorf noted that Musk gave that school $102 million on Dec. 28 — days before the deadline to give away the unspent millions from the year before. The Musk Foundation’s gifts for 2023 gave little hint of the political transformation that would follow this year, as he spent hundreds of millions of dollars to support Trump’s presidential campaign. Throughout 2023, Musk became increasingly right-wing in his public statements, especially on issues like crime and immigration. But his foundation’s only gift with an apparent political tilt was a small one: The Musk Foundation gave $100,000 to a libertarian think tank in Utah. This article originally appeared in The New York Times .
From a 10-year-old to a Muppet to a president-elect, NYSE bell-ringers range from famous to obscureCLEVELAND (AP) — Alyssa Nakken, the first woman to coach in a Major League Baseball game, is leaving the San Francisco Giants to join the Cleveland Guardians. Nakken made history in 2022 when she took over as first-base coach following an ejection. A former college softball star at Sacramento State, Nakken joined the Giants in 2014 and was promoted to a spot on manager Gabe Kapler's staff in 2020, becoming the majors' first full-time female coach. Nakken has been hired as an assistant director within player development for the Guardians, who won the AL Central last season under first-year manager Stephen Vogt — the AL Manager of the Year. With Cleveland, the 34-year-old Nakken will work with former Giants coaches Craig Albernaz and Kai Correa. Her exact duties are still being determined. "We thank Alyssa Nakken for her incredible contributions to the San Francisco Giants and for trailblazing a path for women in sports,” the Giants said in a statement on Friday. "Her leadership, dedication, and passion for the game have inspired countless individuals, and her impact has been truly transformative for the Giants organization and the baseball community. “As she embarks on this exciting new chapter in her career, we have no doubt that she’ll continue to inspire and achieve great things. We wish her and her family nothing but the best.” Nakken is the second on-field female coach hired by the Guardians. In 2023, the club brought in Amanda Kamekona as their hitting development coach for their year-round training academy in Goodyear, Arizona. Last season, she was an assistant hitting coach at Double-A Akron. Kamekona was twice a third-team All-American at UCLA after transferring from Cal State Fullerton. AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
The Union news-dumped their offseason roster moves late Tuesday, announcing a formal parting of ways with Leon Flach. The club retains 24 players under contract for 2025, to be coached by a person still to be determined after the firing of Jim Curtin. That group includes Mikael Uhre, whose option automatically vested earlier in the season, and Isaiah LeFlore. It does not include Flach, out of contract at the end of the season and whom the Union are letting walk. The Union declined options on Homegrowns Brandon Craig and Matthew Real, defender Jack Elliott and forward Joaquin Torres. They also declined the purchase option for on-loan left back Jamir Berdecio. The Union described “ongoing negotiations” with Elliott, Craig and Alejandro Bedoya, who is out of contract. Also out of contract is Sam Adeniran, though the Union don’t plan to bring the forward acquired midseason from St. Louis back. Flach, still just 23, played 116 games (107 starts) with two goals and 10 assists in four seasons since coming over from St. Pauli in the German 2.Bundesliga. A dual U.S.-German citizen, he was more of a defense-first presence, one rated more highly by Curtin than Sporting Director Ernst Tanner. Flach said in October that he had not had any discussions with the club on a new contract by his choice. Berdecio, 22, was acquired on loan from Oriente Petrolero. He made 28 appearances for MLS Next Pro runner-up Union II but never made the squad for the first team. He made his international debut with Bolivia over the summer. Craig, 19, is a Homegrown product who has made one appearance with the Union for three minutes in 2022. He was loaned to Austin FC but did not play in 2023, then spent 2024 on loan with El Paso Locomotive in the USL Championship, with one goal in 19 appearances. Real, now 25, made 52 appearances for the Union since 2018. He spent the season with the Colorado Springs Switchbacks, leading them to the USL title. LeFlore was signed by the Union last offseason from Houston but tore his ACL in the preseason and missed the entire year. Torres was loaned out to Chilean club Universidad Catolica in the spring. He was acquired from Montreal in 2023 but made just 14 appearances for the Union with one goal.CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Known across the globe as the stuck astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams hit the six-month mark in space Thursday with two more to go. The pair rocketed into orbit on June 5, the first to ride Boeing’s new Starliner crew capsule on what was supposed to be a weeklong test flight. They arrived at the International Space Station the next day, only after overcoming a cascade of thruster failures and helium leaks . NASA deemed the capsule too risky for a return flight, so it will be February before their long and trying mission comes to a close. While NASA managers bristle at calling them stuck or stranded, the two retired Navy captains shrug off the description of their plight. They insist they’re fine and accepting of their fate. Wilmore views it as a detour of sorts: “We’re just on a different path.” “I like everything about being up here,” Williams told students Wednesday from an elementary school named for her in Needham, Massachusetts, her hometown. "Just living in space is super fun.” Both astronauts have lived up there before so they quickly became full-fledged members of the crew, helping with science experiments and chores like fixing a broken toilet, vacuuming the air vents and watering the plants. Williams took over as station commander in September. “Mindset does go a long way,” Wilmore said in response to a question from Nashville first-graders in October. He’s from Mount Juliet, Tennessee. “I don’t look at these situations in life as being downers.” Boeing flew its Starliner capsule home empty in September, and NASA moved Wilmore and Williams to a SpaceX flight not due back until late February. Two other astronauts were bumped to make room and to keep to a six-month schedule for crew rotations. Like other station crews, Wilmore and Williams trained for spacewalks and any unexpected situations that might arise. “When the crews go up, they know they could be there for up to a year,” said NASA Associate Administrator Jim Free. NASA astronaut Frank Rubio found that out the hard way when the Russian Space Agency had to rush up a replacement capsule for him and two cosmonauts in 2023, pushing their six-month mission to just past a year. Boeing said this week that input from Wilmore and Williams has been “invaluable" in the ongoing inquiry of what went wrong. The company said in a statement that it is preparing for Starliner's next flight but declined comment on when it might launch again. NASA also has high praise for the pair. “Whether it was luck or whether it was selection, they were great folks to have for this mission,” NASA's chief health and medical officer, Dr. JD Polk, said during an interview with The Associated Press. On top of everything else, Williams, 59, has had to deal with “rumors,” as she calls them, of serious weight loss. She insists her weight is the same as it was on launch day, which Polk confirms. During Wednesday's student chat, Williams said she didn't have much of an appetite when she first arrived in space. But now she's “super hungry” and eating three meals a day plus snacks, while logging the required two hours of daily exercise. Williams, a distance runner, uses the space station treadmill to support races in her home state. She competed in Cape Cod’s 7-mile Falmouth Road Race in August. She ran the 2007 Boston Marathon up there as well. She has a New England Patriots shirt with her for game days, as well as a Red Sox spring training shirt. “Hopefully I’ll be home before that happens -- but you never know,” she said in November. Husband Michael Williams, a retired federal marshal and former Navy aviator, is caring for their dogs back home in Houston. As for Wilmore, 61, he's missing his younger daughter's senior year in high school and his older daughter's theater productions in college. “We can’t deny that being unexpectedly separated, especially during the holidays when the entire family gets together, brings increased yearnings to share the time and events together,” his wife, Deanna Wilmore, told the AP in a text this week. Her husband “has it worse than us” since he's confined to the space station and can only connect via video for short periods. “We are certainly looking forward to February!!” she wrote. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Union announce offseason roster moves, part with Leon Flach
Reports: Bill Belichick interviews for North Carolina job
( MENAFN - Newsfile Corp) Frankfurt, Germany--(Newsfile Corp. - December 26, 2024) - SMBC bank EU AG is proud to announce the launch of Zinsify , a cutting-edge fixed- term deposit platform offering German consumers a secure and rewarding way to grow their savings. With annual interest rates of 3% and deposits up to €100,000 backed by the statutory deposit guarantee scheme, Zinsify is set to redefine trust and innovation in the banking sector. Zinsify: trusted partner for secure savings in a fast-paced digital world. A Bold Step into Consumer Banking As a trusted player in the financial industry, SMBC Bank EU AG is expanding its reach beyond institutional banking by introducing Zinsify. This new offering aims to empower consumers by providing reliable and straightforward banking products. "Zinsify represents our commitment to addressing the growing demand for secure, high-yield savings options in a rapidly evolving digital world," said Niklas Dieterich,board member at SMBC Bank EU AG. "We're leveraging technology and trust to create a safe haven for savers." AI-Powered Creativity for a Safer Digital World In a groundbreaking approach to marketing, Zinsify's launch campaign harnesses the power of artificial intelligence to craft visually striking and emotionally resonant advertisements. These AI-designed visuals emphasize Zinsify's commitment to security and trust in an increasingly deceptive digital environment. The campaign's messaging centers around Zinsify's role as a steadfast financial partner, standing out in a world rife with scams and cyber threats. "We recognize how easy it is to fall victim to scams today," explained Benjamin Krüger, Head of Marketing at Zinsify. "Our campaign not only highlights the importance of financial security but also positions Zinsify as a beacon of trust. By using AI, we've been able to create designs that capture the attention of digital-savvy audiences while reinforcing the core values of reliability and safety." Navigating a Dangerous Digital Landscape The proliferation of online fraud has created a climate of uncertainty for consumers. Fake banking websites, phishing scams, and fraudulent investment schemes are on the rise, making it imperative for individuals to partner with reputable institutions. Zinsify's campaign directly addresses these concerns, offering consumers the reassurance that their savings are in secure hands. "In a time where scams are alarmingly sophisticated, we want our customers to feel confident in their decision to bank with Zinsify," added Niklas Dieterich. "Our robust security measures, combined with the trusted legacy of SMBC Bank EU AG, ensure that our customers can focus on growing their savings without fear." About Zinsify Zinsify is a consumer-focused platform by SMBC Bank EU AG, providing secure, high-yield fixed-term deposits. With a 3% annual interest rate and deposits guaranteed up to €100,000, Zinsify delivers financial peace of mind in a simple, user-friendly package. Backed by SMBC Bank EU AG's decades-long reputation for excellence, Zinsify combines trust and innovation to redefine consumer banking. Media Contact: Nora Kuhnert Media Relations Specialist Zinsify | SMBC Bank EU AG ... Press Inquiries Zinsify Nora Kuhnert ... To view the source version of this press release, please visit SOURCE: Zinsify MENAFN26122024004218003983ID1109033525 Legal Disclaimer: MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.HØST PtX Esbjerg secures environmental approvals – development of installing up to 1 GW of electrolyser capacity The Danish Environmental Agency has granted the Project HØST PtX Esbjerg the primary environmental approvals (EIA approval of the project and Environmental approval of the facility). This represents a key milestone for the project and further affirms the regulator’s support for the development of Power-to-X projects in Denmark, hence contributing to the green transition in both Denmark and EU. Project Director of HØST PtX Esbjerg, said : “The approvals not only validate our commitment to the decarbonization of hard-to-electrify sectors, but they also strengthen our belief in the long-term potential of large-scale Power-to-X projects in Denmark. With this important milestone now achieved, we will continue to mature the project towards the next stage of development,” HØST is now entering the next level in the development phase. One of the major milestones for the development of PtX-projects in Denmark is the development of domestic hydrogen infrastructure to enable the export of green hydrogen to the European offtake market, predominantly Germany. HØST will follow this development closely and work toward making a final investment decision (FID) to begin the construction of the plant. – Once operational, we anticipate that the HØST plant in itself will directly generate approximately 100-150 permanent local jobs in Esbjerg, which will have a positive impact on the local economy and support sustainable community growth. HØST will also create jobs in existing industry providing service and maintenance to the plant. To make this happen, we are counting on the continued support from national agencies and TSO’s, adds David Dupont-Mouritzen Obtaining the approvals is just one of many important milestones for Project HØST, that has already secured large areas of land for the future plant, secured access to green power by signing a grid connection agreement with Energinet and secured water supply via the nearby wastewater treatment plant operated by DIN Forsyning. the latest news shaping the hydrogen market at HØST PtX Esbjerg secures environmental approvals – development of installing up to 1 GW of electrolyser capacity, IMI to supply groundbreaking German hydrogen research project with PEM electrolyser The project, which will be delivered by the Fraunhofer-Institution for Energy Infrastructures and Geothermal Systems in Zittau... Hygreen Energy Delivers 25MW Electrolyzer System to Largest Hydrogen Project in Shandong Beijing, China – December 10, 2024 – Hygreen Energy, a global electrolyzer manufacturer and hydrogen technology developer... EVOLOH Signs Supply Agreement for 0,5 Gigawatts of Revolutionary Electrolyzers for Low-Carbon Hydrogen The company’s patented and high-performing electrolyzers leverage an efficient, affordable manufacturing platform...