Jaleel White, a.k.a. TV's Urkel, looks back fondly on the character that changed his career
‘Wheel of Fortune’ Contestant Devastated by Botched $75k Bonus Round Despite Big BoostBy Chidiebere Onyemaizu Almost two years after an impressive electoral outing , Labour party appears to have relapsed into what political analysts have described as its traditional default mode- providing platforms and sanctuary for politicians to contest elections after which such politicians ditch it for parties with more following. This could be evidenced from the waves of defections that have hit the party recently and in the past. Aside recent defections and resignations from the party, prominent politicians who had in the past used the Labour party as a stop – gap measure or a transit camp to contest elections before moving on to a stronger political platforms include former Ondo State governor, Olusegun Mimiko who came to office in 2007 on the party’s platform only to ditch it for the Peoples Democratic party, PDP in 2014, late Senator Ifeanyi Ubah who contested the 2014 Anambra governorship election on the party’s platform but left after he was defeated, Senator Andy Uba(not related to Ifeanyi Uba) who also contested the state’s 2010 governorship election on the LP platform and lost and then left the party, former Ekiti State governor, Ayo Fayose who contested a Senatorial seat on the LP platform in 2011 and lost and then returned to the PDP in 2011, former Deputy Speaker of the House of Reps, Yusuf Lasun who contested the Osun 2022 governorship election and lost, and then defected to the PDP. Analysts posit that as it is presently, the LP is asphyxiating and haemorrhaging and whether it will survive before the next elections is debatable. Keen watchers of the unfolding evisceration of the party have however told Daily Sun that the recent defections the party suffered are fatal enough to cripple any party, especially a party that lacks taproots as the LP. “The wave of defections the Labour Party has suffered are enough to bring any party without a firm taproot to its knees and LP has no taproot, it has no structure. “Its 2023 presidential candidate and former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi and his Obidients Movement is what can pass as LP’s structure, its tap root and its oxygen but right now, it appears Obi is no longer enthusiastic about the party, so, LP is in a mess; it appears to be on the throes of death”, Godwin Tenebe, a lawyer and social affairs commentator told Daily Sun. However, Iheanyi Nwachukwu, a political analyst who admitted he is a Labour party sympathiser believes the defections and the crisis buffetting opposition parties are engineered by the APC because of 2027. “It is self- evident: The crisis and defections rocking opposition parties are engineered and masterminded by the APC. “The APC is aware that given its dismal performance, if the 2027 election is credibly conducted and contested by a united, virile opposition, it will be voted out of power by Nigerians but the APC wants to cling on to power by all means, whether Nigerians want it or not. So, what you are seeing currently in the opposition parties are antics of the APC to weaken them, destabilise them, compromise them, pocket them and buy them over ahead 2027; the APC wants to win the 2027 elections unchallenged and to achieve this, it is engaging in state capture- APC has captured state institutions critical to free fair elections and has also captured democratic institutions; that is exactly what it has done to the PDP and LP. “In the run up to the 2027 elections, you will likely see a factionalised opposition parties- PDP and LP- with INEC gleefully recognizing the factions sympathic to the APC; these factions will then proceed to adopt the APC, announce a merger with it or field weak presidential candidates to challenge the ruling party”, Nwachukwu told Daily Sun. In July, one of LP Senators, Onyebuchi Francis Ezenwa representing Imo East Senatorial District ditched the party for the APC, offering no cogent reason for doing so. Last week, tsunami visited the party in the House of Representatives when five of its members announced their defections to the APC. The defectors include Tochukwu Okere (Imo), Donatus Mathew (Kaduna), Bassey Akiba (Cross River), Iyawe Esosa (Edo) and Daulyop Fom (Plateau). Two days after the defections, another LP Reps member, Ajang Iliya, representing Jos South/Jos East Federal Constituency, Plateau State also announced he has left the party for the APC. The defections were confirmed during a plenary session when Speaker Tajudeen Abbas read their official letters of defection on the floor of the Green Chamber. Of all the defectors, Mathew’s exit probably rankled the LP the most. Reacting to his defection, the party rued that it was betrayed by Mathew whom it described as an Okada rider. Essentially, Mathew, a commercial motorcyclist popular as Okada, made headlines in 2023 for his remarkable journey from riding Okada and coming from lowly background to winning a parliamentary seat to represent Kaura Federal Constituency in Kaduna State. Apparently hurt and bewildered by the depletion of its House of Reps membership, the LP has barked a threat to the defecting members but ironically, the threat, impeccable sources familiar with the alleged extinction facing the party, told Daily Sun, will not stop many more members of the party across the country, especially those holding elective positions, from leaving. Since its National Chairman, Julius Abure regained the control of the party through the instrumentality of the court, speculations have been rife that he has turned the party over to the ruling APC as its appendage so as to spite Obi and LP’s only Governor, Alex Otti of Abia State who had a few months ago set up an interim caretaker Committee to manage affairs of the party following INEC’s initial derecognition of Abure as National Chairman. The APC, through its lackeys in the LP are allegedly plotting to undermine Obi and put road blocks on his path should he attempt to use the party’s platform to contest the 2027 presidential election. Its protestations notwithstanding, the Abure led LP national leadership is allegedly in bed with the APC as regards the defections. The defection of LP House members to the APC, Daily Sun gathered, are allegedly part of an orchestrated move to have the party subsumed under the APC and then get the defected members rewarded with automatic APC return tickets for the 2027 election. Etanabene Benedict, a member of the Labour Party caucus in the House of Representatives, during a recent Channels TV appearance confirmed many more members of the party are on their way to the APC. Benedict, who represents the Okpe/Sapele/Uvwie federal constituency of Delta, also confirmed the defecting LP House members did so as a strategy ahead of the 2027 general election. Apart from APC’s alleged pocketing of opposition parties including the LP to pave the way for easy victory in 2027, Daily Sun has been informed that some of the LP defectors and many more that will later defect are concerned that the party may have lost its charm and winning appeal following Obi and Obidients movement’s somewhat disenchantment with it. The defected LP House members, it was learnt, feared that the former Anambra Governor may seek alternative platform in 2027 thus leaving them politically stranded. “What some of them have done by defecting is to start chasing or searching for a missing black goat before darkness descends and gets blended with the black goat thus making it difficult to find without light. “Some of these guys are concerned that LP may have lost itself electoral appeal and may therefore not record the kind of magic it recorded in 2023. They also feel that its presidential candidate, Peter Obi is no longer enthusiastic about the party following Abure’s return and is likely to seek an alternative platform in 2027, so what I think they have done by defecting to the APC is to start in earnest to chart a political future outside the LP else they get stranded as 2027 approaches”, Dr Alex Ujah, a university don told Daily Sun. Hon. Benedict somewhat shares this sentiment too. According to him, the defected lawmakers were not confident of winning re-election in 2027 under the LP platform His words: “It is about 2027. The trend of Edo and Ondo is frightening to them, and they do not believe that they are strategically positioned to seek re-election under the umbrella of the Labour Party. That is the main reason. “There are still many others in the Labour Party that are thinking along that line too. So, if it happens tomorrow, I won’t be surprised.” Since its formation in 2002, the 2023 elections represented the Labour party’s best election year ever. Riding on the crest of the country-wide charm, popularity and acceptance of its presidential candidate, Obi, the party proved bookmakers who had earlier, before the election, dismissed it as a fringe party that would make no noticeable impact, wrong with its stunning performance. Not only did Obi almost win the Presidency (in fact his supporters still insist he indeed won the 2023 election but was rigged out by the INEC and the APC), Labour party also recorded an unprecedented electoral feat, winning one Governorship seat(Abia), eight Senate seats, 35 House of Reps seats and 39 House of Assembly seats. However, almost two years after the impressive outing, the party is now a shadow of itself, reverting to the inelegant status of a transit camp for weary politicians who have been schemed out or outsmarted by their parties. Apart from its members in the National and State Houses of Assembly who have switched parties since its 2023 landmark electoral performance, the Labour party has also been losing critical members to the ruling party. For example, Chief Edward Nkwegu, 2023 governorship candidate of the party in Ebonyi State and his deputy, Mr. Nwabueze Aja in July defected to APC. Similarly, its governorship aspirant in Edo State, Kenneth Imasuagbon has since resigned from the party. And last week, the governorship candidate of the party in the 2023 Bayelsa governorship election, Udengs Eradiri, and his running mate, Commodore Benjamin Nathus (retd.) announced their resignations from the party. Ward chairmen of the party in the state, Daily Sun gathered, are also warming up to dump it too. In his resignation letter, Eradiri stated that he made the decision to enable him to pursue his political career on a platform better equipped to provide leadership to Bayelsa State. Meanwhile, the party has threatened to approach the court to declare the seats of its defected members vacant. In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Obinna Ifoh, the LP which had earlier denied being in a liaison with the APC said it was undaunted by the defections but vowed to recover the seats. “The defection, to us, is quite unfortunate and we condemn the action which is irrational, untenable, inconsistent and alien to all known norms for which democracy stands for. Section 68(g) of the 1999 constitution is emphatic on when to defect and what happens when a lawmaker sponsored by a political party decides to jump ship. The Constitution states (g) being a person whose election to the House was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected; Provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member or of a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored; “Though, the Labour Party leadership is undaunted by the defection, it has however, elected not to allow it slide and has therefore instructed its legal team to commence the legal actions against the defectors and to also commence the process of regaining our mandates in line with the 1999 constitution and 2022 Electoral Act as amended. “The party has also decided to open a ‘Hall of Shame’ register for these lawmakers or any lawmaker or elected officer of the party who engages in fraudulent act of defection without first dropping the mandate gotten under the ticket of the party”, Ifoh said.Taiwan Semiconductor Soars; Chip Stocks Hot Again? 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How to answer questions about your body this holiday season, according to a psychologistGordon Brown has declared he does not support the legalisation of assisted dying , arguing that the state of the NHS means it is not the right time for the momentous change. The former prime minister wrote movingly of the death of his newborn daughter in January 2002, which he said showed him the “ value and imperative of good end-of-life care ”. The Labour grandee, who remains a very influential figure within the party, said the days spent with his wife Sarah beside their dying baby Jennifer’s bed were “among the most precious days of our lives”. And, in an intervention which threatens to derail Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill , Mr Brown called instead for the establishment of a commission to devise a “fully funded, 10-year strategy for improved and comprehensive palliative care”. Writing in The Guardian , he said: “In my view, assisted dying is not the only option available, nor even a good option when set against the palliative support that could be available in ensuring a good death.” Despite safeguards in Ms Leadbeater’s bill, which would ensure patients require the approval of two doctors and a High Court judge before proceeding with assisted suicide, Mr Brown said there are “downsides left unresolved”. “An assisted dying law, however well intended, would alter society’s attitude towards elderly, seriously ill and disabled people, even if only subliminally,” he said. “I also fear the caring professions would lose something irreplaceable – their position as exclusively caregivers,” Mr Brown added. The major intervention comes just a week before Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s bill to allow assisted dying is to be debated in parliament. Ms Leadbeater has insisted that the bill has “the strongest safeguards in the world” against abuse and will be strictly limited to terminally ill people with six months or less to live. But Sir Keir Starmer’s government is split on the move, with Sir Keir Starmer staying quiet on how he will vote while health secretary Wes Streeting plans to oppose it. Home secretary Yvette Cooper on Friday became the latest senior figure to indicate she would back the change. Others, including 11-time Paralympic gold medalist now member of the Lords Tanni Grey-Thompson, have raised serious questions about loopholes in the bill which allows for family members to sign on behalf of people and for “doctor shopping” to find medics who will sign off the request. In his article, Mr Brown said he and Sarah knew the extent of Jennifer’s brain haemorrhage four days after her birth in December 2001, when he was the chancellor. She was just 11 days old when she died. He said: “We were fully aware that all hope was gone and that she had no chance of survival. We could only sit with her, hold her tiny hand and be there for her as life ebbed away. She died in our arms. “But those days we spent with her remain among the most precious days of my and Sarah’s lives. The experience of sitting with a fatally ill baby girl did not convince me of the case for assisted dying; it convinced me of the value and imperative of good end-of-life care. We were reassured that she was not in pain.” Mr Brown cited a Focal Data poll showing more than half of voters do not believe the government will be able to pay for their end of life care, while 51 per cent believe assisted dying will lead to discrimination against those who cannot afford end-of-life care. As a result, 70 per cent want to prioritise improvements to palliative care before legalising assisted dying, Mr Brown said. The ex-PM added: “To create change, you have to bring people with you. Britain usually moves too slowly on those matters where it should move fast. “But sometimes, as now, it can move too fast on an issue where it should go slower, listen and learn. And with the NHS still at its lowest ebb, this is not the right time to make such a profound decision. Instead, we need to show we can do better at assisted living before deciding whether to legislate on ways to die.”AP News Summary at 5:51 p.m. ESTNEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks tiptoed to more records amid a mixed Tuesday of trading, tacking a touch more onto what’s already been a stellar year so far. The S&P 500 edged up by 2 points, or less than 0.1%, to set an all-time high for the 55th time this year. It’s climbed in 10 of the last 11 days and is on track for one of its best years since the turn of the millennium. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 76 points, or 0.2%, while the Nasdaq composite added 0.4% to its own record set a day earlier. AT&T rose 4.6% after it boosted its profit forecast for the year. It also announced a $10 billion plan to send cash to its investors by buying back its own stock, while saying it expects to authorize another $10 billion of repurchases in 2027. On the losing end of Wall Street was U.S. Steel, which fell 8%. President-elect Donald Trump reiterated on social media that he would not let Japan’s Nippon Steel take over the iconic Pennsylvania steelmaker. Nippon Steel announced plans last December to buy the Pittsburgh-based steel producer for $14.1 billion in cash, raising concerns about what the transaction could mean for unionized workers, supply chains and U.S. national security. Earlier this year, President Joe Biden also came out against the acquisition. Tesla sank 1.6% after a judge in Delaware reaffirmed a previous ruling that the electric car maker must revoke Elon Musk’s multibillion-dollar pay package. The judge denied a request by attorneys for Musk and Tesla’s corporate directors to vacate her ruling earlier this year requiring the company to rescind the unprecedented pay package. All told, the S&P 500 rose 2.73 points to 6,049.88. The Dow fell 76.47 to 44,705.53, and the Nasdaq composite gained 76.96 to 19,480.91. In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady after a report showed U.S. employers were advertising slightly more job openings at the end of October than a month earlier. Continued strength there would raise optimism that the economy could remain out of a recession that many investors had earlier worried was inevitable. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.23% from 4.20% from late Monday. Yields have seesawed since Election Day amid worries that Trump’s preferences for lower tax rates and bigger tariffs could spur higher inflation along with economic growth. But traders are still confident the Federal Reserve will cut its main interest rate again at its next meeting in two weeks. They’re betting on a nearly three-in-four chance of that, according to data from CME Group. Story continues below video Lower rates can give the economy more juice, but they can also give inflation more fuel. The key report this week that could guide the Fed’s next move will arrive on Friday. It’s the monthly jobs report , which will show how many workers U.S. employers hired and fired during November. It could be difficult to parse given how much storms and strikes distorted figures in October. Based on trading in the options market, Friday’s jobs report appears to be the biggest potential market mover until the Fed announces its next decision on interest rates Dec. 18, according to strategists at Barclays Capital. In financial markets abroad, the value of South Korea’s currency fell 1.1% against the U.S. dollar following a frenetic night where President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law and then later said he’d lift it after lawmakers voted to reject military rule. Stocks of Korean companies that trade in the United States also fell, including a 1.6% drop for SK Telecom. Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 1.9% to help lead global markets. Some analysts think Japanese stocks could end up benefiting from Trump’s threats to raise tariffs , including for goods coming from China . Trade relations between the U.S. and China took another step backward after China said it is banning exports to the U.S. of gallium, germanium, antimony and other key high-tech materials with potential military applications. The counterpunch came swiftly after the U.S. Commerce Department expanded the list of Chinese technology companies subject to export controls to include many that make equipment used to make computer chips, chipmaking tools and software. The 140 companies newly included in the so-called “entity list” are nearly all based in China. In China, stock indexes rose 1% in Hong Kong and 0.4% in Shanghai amid unconfirmed reports that Chinese leaders would meet next week to discuss planning for the coming year. Investors are hoping it may bring fresh stimulus to help spur growth in the world’s second-largest economy. In France, the CAC 40 rose 0.3% amid continued worries about politics in Paris , where the government is battling over the budget. AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.
Rex Ridgeway said he’s volunteered at his granddaughter Joselyn’s schools since she attended kindergarten at El Dorado Elementary in the San Francisco Unified School District. When Joselyn graduates from Lincoln High School in the spring, Ridgeway will wrap up his terms as Lincoln’s parent-teacher association president, debate-team coach and chess coach, marking the end of an era in which Ridgeway has been a fixture within SFUSD as a volunteer, community organizer and education advocate. He chaired SFUSD’s Citizen Bond Oversight Committee and currently serves as executive vice president of the the California State PTA’s second district, its San Francisco chapter. Ridgeway has also served on the Student Success Fund advisory council, Lincoln High School site council and SFUSD’s recent math-policy focus group, which is charged with helping the district reimplement eighth-grade algebra. Ridgeway was one of a group of advocates who sued the school district to reintroduce the subject in middle school and then went on to lead a citywide campaign to place the matter on the March 2024 ballot, which passed. Needless to say, it has been a busy 13 years for the retired stockbroker. “When I started [volunteering at El Dorado], it was fun,” Ridgeway told The Examiner. “I had a lot of fun with the kids.” He said the PTA group then was “mostly moms,” and he was “one of the few if not only grandparents and certainly [only] African American.” Ridgeway said he felt compelled when his granddaughter entered kindergarten because he “had the time,” having just retired, but he was quickly discouraged by the lack of participation from other families. He said he recognizes it isn’t easy to devote time to volunteering, then or now, but that the consequences of not doing so can put students at a disadvantage. “Immediately, I saw that parents did not know what goes on in their kids’ classrooms, school sites and at the school district,” he said. “And then I found that the biggest challenge was keeping the Board of Education informed and, at the same time, held accountable to the decisions they were making.” Ridgeway pointed to SFUSD’s decision to stop offering eighth-grade algebra , which he said outraged many parents since it was implemented in 2014. His granddaughter was affected by the now-reversed policy and had to double up on algebra and geometry courses in ninth grade to qualify for more advanced courses later. “She’s always been good at math, so why should I let the school district mess over her academic career?” Ridgeway said. SFUSD officials said the policy set out to level the playing field and increase state-administered math-aptitude test scores among its Black and Latino students. Instead, Ridgeway said, underrepresented student populations were victims of the policy. He called getting the course back into middle schools one of his proudest moments. Ridgeway and his fellow organizers had the support of the majority of The City’s Board of Supervisors. Prop. G was placed on the March 2024 ballot , giving voters the chance to weigh in on whether algebra should be offered in eighth grade. It was approved by more than 80% of voters. “I take great satisfaction in that we’re righting a wrong for parents who maybe don’t even know that [the policy] ever existed, or that if you don’t take algebra I in the eighth grade, you can’t get into calculus later on,” he said. But much of Ridgeway’s work as a volunteer over the years has been focused on increasing both transparency from the district and participation from students’ families. As previous chair of the district’s Citizen Bond Oversight Committee, a state-mandated volunteer oversight group, Ridgeway helped put SFUSD’s bond spending under a microscope. He was recognized as CBOC Member of the Year in 2022 by the California Association of Bond Oversight Committees. The San Francisco Democratic Party named him The City’s 2024 “education hero.” Ridgeway was nominated for the award, which recognizes a resident education advocate or volunteer, by local party Chair Nancy Tung. “In years past, the party has honored retiring legislators, political figures, and elected officials,” Tung told The Examiner. “This year, I felt like we should be shining a light on the everyday people who have been working to make San Francisco a better place, [including in] education.” The gala committee selected Ridgeway “because of his steadfast commitment to public education and the betterment of it,” Tung said. But even as his granddaughter is set to graduate from high school, Ridgeway said there’s still work to do. The Student Success Fund Advisory Council is where his biggest challenge currently lies, Ridgeway said. With the recent passage of Proposition J, The City will now create an Our Children, Our Families initiative to track spending from the Student Success Fund, which provides grants to schools to implement academic excellence or social- and emotional-wellness programs. Nearly $20 million in Student Success Fund grants was available for schools to apply to earlier this year, but “approximately one-half of the schools [that qualify] did not apply,” leaving $11 million available, Ridgeway said. Those funds could support tutoring services, mental-wellness hubs and various other initiatives to benefit students, but many schools are missing the window of opportunity before applications close in 2026. The conduit between the Department of Children, Youth and their Families — The City department that administers Student Success Fund grants — and individual schools is the school site councils, state-mandated group s tasked with identifying student needs and areas of improvement at individual schools. “Every single [SFUSD] school has one, they are required by law,” Ridgeway said. He said Lincoln High School, where he serves on the school site council, is a “picture-perfect” example of what one should look like. “We have 12 members on the council, and four of them are kids,” he said. “I wish all of them could be like that. A lot of these schools in the Bayview and the Mission, they don’t have robust school site councils like Lincoln. But those [councils] are calling the shots.” The district’s new superintendent, Maria Su — who previously led DCYF — has been an engaging partner in his mission to publicize the Student Success Fund grant-application process, Ridgeway said. “There’s a tight tie there,” he said. “That’s going to help us make sure that other schools going forward get their money.” Ridgeway’s years of experience volunteering with SFUSD undoubtedly rubbed off on Joselyn, who was appointed by Mayor London Breed to The City’s Youth Commission. She has said she plans on studying business and finance in college. Ridgeway said he doesn’t plan to fully stop volunteering once Joselyn graduates. He said he hopes Su and the Board of Education are able to fix the district’s operating budget and focus on special education, “with the end goal of making SFUSD a place where parents believe that their kids will get a great education.” “Let’s do it,” he said. “The clock only ticks in one direction. There’s no going back.”
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