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Judge Tanya Chutkan grants dismissal of Donald Trump's election subversion casePerson accused of accosting Rep. Nancy Mace at Capitol pleads not guilty to assault charge
Travis Hunter and Ashton Jeanty give this year's Heisman Trophy ceremony a different vibeA new partnership between the Child Advocacy Center of Frederick County and ThorpeWood, a nature center near Thurmont, will provide free therapeutic programs for children and caregivers healing from trauma. The Child Advocacy Center, an arm of the Frederick County Division of Family Services, works with the Department of Social Services, law enforcement agencies and the State's Attorney's Office to support children who have experienced abuse and their non-offending family members. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Investor Warren Buffett renewed his Thanksgiving tradition of giving by handing out more than $1.1 billion of Berkshire Hathaway stock to four of his family's foundations Monday, and he offered new details about who will be handing out the rest of his fortune after his death. Buffett has said previously that his three kids will distribute his remaining $147.4 billion fortune in the 10 years after his death, but now he has also designated successors for them because it's possible that Buffett's children could die before giving it all away. He didn't identify the successors, but said his kids all know them and agree they would be good choices. “Father time always wins. But he can be fickle – indeed unfair and even cruel – sometimes ending life at birth or soon thereafter while, at other times, waiting a century or so before paying a visit,” the 94-year-old Buffett said in a letter to his fellow shareholders Monday. “To date, I’ve been very lucky, but, before long, he will get around to me. There is, however, a downside to my good fortune in avoiding his notice. The expected life span of my children has materially diminished since the 2006 pledge. They are now 71, 69 and 66.” Buffett said he still has no interest in creating dynastic wealth in his family — a view shared by his first and current wives. He acknowledged giving Howard, Peter and Susie millions over the years, but he has long said he believes “hugely wealthy parents should leave their children enough so they can do anything but not enough that they can do nothing.” The secret to building up such massive wealth over time has been the power of compounding interest and the steady growth of the Berkshire conglomerate Buffett leads through acquisitions and smart investments like buying billions of dollars of Apple shares as iPhone sales continued to drive growth in that company. Buffett never sold any of his Berkshire stock over the years and also resisted the trappings of wealth and never indulged in much — preferring instead to continue living in the same Omaha home he'd bought decades earlier and drive sensible luxury sedans about 20 blocks to work each day. “As a family, we have had everything we needed or simply liked, but we have not sought enjoyment from the fact that others craved what we had,” he said. If Buffett and his first wife had never given away any of their Berkshire shares, the family's fortune would be worth nearly $364 billion — easily making him the world's richest man — but Buffett said he had no regrets about his giving over the years. The family's giving began in earnest with the distribution of Susan Buffett's $3 billion estate after her death in 2004, but really took off when Warren Buffett announced plans in 2006 to make annual gifts to the foundations run by his kids along with the one he and his wife started, as well as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Warren Buffett's giving to date has favored the Gates Foundation with $55 billion in stock because his friend Bill Gates already had his foundation set up and could handle huge gifts when Buffett started giving away his fortune. But Buffett has said his kids now have enough experience in philanthropy to handle the task and he plans to cut off his Gates Foundation donations after his death. Buffett always makes his main annual gifts to all five foundations every summer, but for several years now he has been giving additional Berkshire shares to his family's foundations at Thanksgiving. Buffett reiterated Monday his advice to every parent to allow their families to read their will while they are still alive — like he has done — to make sure they have a chance to explain their decisions about how to distribute their belongings and answer their children's questions. Buffett said he and his longtime investing partner Charlie Munger, who died a year ago, “saw many families driven apart after the posthumous dictates of the will left beneficiaries confused and sometimes angry.” Today, Buffett continues to lead Berkshire Hathaway as chairman and CEO and has no plans to retire although he has handed over most of the day-to-day managing duties for the conglomerates dozens of companies to others. That allows him to focus on his favorite activity of deciding where to invest Berkshire's billions . One of Buffett's deputies who oversees all the noninsurance companies now, Greg Abel, is set to take over as CEO after Buffett's death. Even after converting 1,600 Class A shares into 2.4 million Class B Berkshire shares and giving them away, Buffett still owns 206,363 Class A shares and controls more than 30% of the vote.
Vaccine expert Paul Offit is ‘shocked’ by RFK Jr.’s nomination to oversee US healthChandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana high court has made it clear that ‘krewa’ marriage, where a widow is married to her husband’s brother, is a recognised form of remarriage and has a wide social acceptability but has no value in the law. The HC passed the orders while upholding the decision of the Haryana govt to stop the widow pension of a woman who had performed krewa marriage with the elder brother of her late husband. “Krewa marriage is a recognised form of remarriage practiced primarily in parts of north India, especially amongst the Jat community in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, which allows a widow to remarry within the family of her deceased husband and more often to his brother or his near male relative ... Even though the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, does not exclusively recognise or regulate such practice as a separate form of marriage, however, a conjoint reading of sections 5 and 7 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, establishes that a marriage, which has a customary practice and social acceptability and is performed in a socially acceptable norm, would have the sanctity and callings of a valid marriage,” the HC clarified. The HC has also held that the financial assistance under the social security scheme is not a right which vests in a person. It has further held that for the grant of financial assistance under the social security scheme, a widow claiming the benefit, is required to establish that she fulfilled the eligibility conditions for the entire duration for which the financial assistance has been availed by her. “As soon as the disqualification or ineligibility is acquired, the financial assistance under the scheme is liable to be stopped,” the HC has said. Justice Vinod S Bhardwaj has passed the orders while dismissing a plea filed by Shanti Devi of Kaithal district. She had challenged the order dated Jan 16, 2019, through which she was issued a notice by the Haryana govt to deposit the amount received by her towards widow pension, of Rs 1,06,500, along with interest after solemnising a second marriage (krewa). Directions were also sought to refund Rs 2,73,291 that has already been recovered from the petitioner. Petitioner’s husband had died in 1981 and she had performed krewa with her brother-in-law. She was getting a widow pension from the Haryana govt since 1999. In her plea, her counsel had submitted that krewa marriage is only a social obligation and does not have the callings of a valid marriage. It was also argued that the petitioner is poor and being subjected to unnecessary harassment by the authority and that she has been forced to deposit the pension amount under the threat of registration of a criminal case against her. It was contended the krewa marriage performed in the family does not debar a widow from the benefits of her deceased husband and that the benefit of the social security scheme cannot be denied to her as it would be contrary to the objective of the scheme. Dismissing her plea, the HC has held that where a benefit has been obtained by suppression of true facts, recovery rights have been granted to the state govt.
Cardinals' feel-good month comes to a screeching halt after a head-scratching loss to Seahawks