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card game joker OAKLAND — The first domino fell in the when Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas said Wednesday she would resign early from office to become an Alameda County supervisor next year. Bas will officially announce her resignation Dec. 17, soon enough so that both she and Mayor Sheng Thao — who was last month — can be replaced on the same ballot in a special election likely to take place on April 15. In the meantime, the that takes office in January is expected to appoint someone to replace Bas, who strongly indicated at a news conference Wednesday that she will endorse someone to take her place. Before leaving office, Bas will serve as the city’s interim mayor for about 19 days. After new members are sworn in Jan. 6, the council is expected to appoint one of its own to serve as both council president and interim mayor until the April election. City officials said Wednesday that the temporary appointment to the District 2 council seat most likely will not be a job that members of the public can apply to fill. Instead, council members will track down a prospect for the job behind the scenes before considering the appointment at a public meeting. The candidate Bas endorses may end up being the only person considered. Whoever fills the role will not be able to run in the April election to finish Bas’ four-year term, which will expire at the end of 2026. Bas, a labor-backed politician and former progressive organizer, will end a six-year run as the City Council member in Oakland’s District 2, which covers Chinatown, Jack London Square and areas south of Lake Merritt, including the San Antonio neighborhood. “It’s one of the most diverse districts in the entire city,” Bas said Wednesday in a prepared speech announcing her early resignation, which she noted will help consolidate the two upcoming special elections and “save hundreds of thousands of dollars for the city of Oakland.” A staunch ally of unions and skeptic of hardline policing, Bas emerged victorious in final election results Tuesday against John Bauters, an Emeryville councilmember who had pushed a vision of boosting public transit and making neighborhoods more walkable. Candidates are already lining up to become Bas’ permanent successor next April. One is Charlene Wang, a policy analyst with no previous political experience in the Bay Area who campaigned her way into third place in a crowded race last month for the council’s at-large seat. Kanitha Matoury, a downtown business owner who finished fifth in the same race, will also run for the District 2, and most likely will Harold Lowe, a former challenger to Bas in 2022. But the winner next April may turn right back to campaign mode not too long afterward, with the seat up for re-election in November 2026.HAMZA IGAMANE is certainly taking his chance to make his mark at Rangers. And Light Blues fans reckon he could be the second coming of a former Ibrox favourite. Advertisement 3 Hamza Igamane blasted Rangers' third goal against Kilmarnock Credit: Willie Vass 3 The 22-year old is quickly becoming a firm fans' favourite Credit: Getty 3 Rangers fans reckon Igamane could be the 'new' Morelos Credit: The Sun Igamane was handed a surprise start in last Thursday's Europa League clash with Nice. The 22-year old Moroccan put in some shift, scoring twice as the Gers secured a memorable 4-1 win in France . While he couldn't score again against St Johnstone on Sunday , he retained his place in Philippe Clement 's starting XI for the visit of Kilmarnock. Once again, he hugely impressed. Advertisement READ MORE RANGERS STORIES WORLD WIDE WEB My dad played for Rangers and now I plan to follow in his footsteps at Ibrox FREE BETS Deposit & Bet £10 to Get £60 in free bets for Scottish football at William Hill Igamane grabbed his third goal in as many games early in the second half, firing Rangers' third of the game in what would end up a thumping 6-0 win . He showed great composure to take possession of a loose ball before firing an unstoppable strike from range into the bottom corner. It's safe to say Rangers fans have a new hero - and he's beginning to remind the Ibrox faithful of one of their former stars! Alfredo Morelos was one of Gers supporters' favourites during his six-year spell at Ibrox between 2017 and 2023. Advertisement Most read in Football CUMMING AND GOING Celtic could lose red-hot young striker who has lit up Europe to England RAISE THE BAR Rangers target 'wanted by Barcelona' in stunning transfer twist 'TRUE GREAT' Ex-Man Utd star Young, 71, dies as tributes paid to 'proper Manchester lad' GER HIT Rangers star sent off in B team game for off the ball clash He played a key role in the club's 2021 title triumph. Regularly a match winner, the Colombian striker imposed himself especially in Europe where he's the club's record scorer. James Tavernier on his chances of earning a Rangers testimonial BR And although it's early days in Igamane's Rangers career, many fans are already seeing signs the young striker could be about to make a similar impact. One fan said: "Brilliant from Igamane. There's the new Morelos." Advertisement Another posted: "Morelos has the opportunity to be as popular as Morelos." A third added: "Igamane giving serious Morelos vibes." A fourth commented: "Igamane is a Morelos regen." Another post read: "Igamane has a bit of the Morelos about him." Advertisement Away from the Morelos comparisons, plenty of other fans were happy to max lyrical about Igamane's showing. Another Rangers fan said: "What a performance. Igamane is the man." Another posted: "Igamane is the real deal!" A third added: "Hagi and Igamane are a breath of fresh air to see the first team." Advertisement Another said: "Igamane going to be a big player for us. Showing good signs." Read more on the Scottish Sun DECEMBER MISERY Scots face blizzards and travel chaos as weather map reveals 75mph storm CHOC OFF Mums fume at Poundland’s ‘rotten’ advent calendar they thought was ‘for dogs’ Igamane struck the third after James Tavernier and Danilo had scored. Vaclav Cerny scored the fourth before Cyriel Dessers came off the bench to score the fifth and sixth. Keep up to date with ALL t h e latest news and transfers at the Scottish Sun football page Advertisement

Trump picks former adviser Brooke Rollins for Agriculture SecretaryWASHINGTON — The nomination of Pete Hegseth , President-elect Donald Trump's choice to lead the Pentagon , is under pressure as senators who would need to confirm him weigh a series of allegations that have surfaced against him. Hegseth's mother appeared on Fox News on Wednesday to defend her son, who faces multiple allegations that have emerged in the media about alcohol intoxication at work events, sexual misconduct and potential financial mismanagement. The Trump transition team was growing concerned about Hegseth's path to confirmation and was actively looking at potential replacements, a person familiar with the matter said. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis , who competed against Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, is being discussed as a possible replacement if Hegseth’s nomination does not move forward, according to three other people familiar with the matter. They were not authorized to publicly discuss internal deliberations and spoke on condition of anonymity. Trump and DeSantis appeared together on Tuesday at a ceremony in West Palm Beach to honor three fallen sheriff’s deputies. The Trump transition team didn’t immediately comment. Hegseth’s mother, Penelope Hegseth joined the “Fox & Friends” to discuss her son and a 2018 email she wrote him that was obtained by The New York Times, in which she confronted him about mistreating women after he impregnated his current wife while he was married to his second wife. That letter followed multiple allegations, reported by the New Yorker this week, of questionable conduct around female staffers. Hegseth also was accused of sexual assault in 2017, which Hegseth told California police at the time was consensual encounter and has denied any wrongdoing. Hegseth is a former Fox News host and a former Army National Guard major and combat veteran who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. If confirmed by the Senate, he would lead a 2 million member strong military — more than 17% of whom are female. The revelations have concerned some members of Congress. “I would do anything for my son,” Penelope Hegseth said in the TV interview. She spoke directly to Trump in the segment, saying her son "is not that man he was seven years ago.” She said she wrote the email because Hegseth and his then-wife were going through a very difficult divorce and “it was a very emotional time.” She said she retracted the email and apologized to her son about two hours after sending the emai.

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CHARLESTON – The West Virginia Water Development Authority approved giving $5 million to an Ohio-based Catholic-affiliated career and vocational college to expand into the state and to create a conservative think tank without a required recommendation from one of three state officials. In October, the Water Development Authority unanimously approved providing $5 million from the Economic Enhancement Grant Fund to the College of St. Joseph the Worker, a Steubenville-based college affiliated with the Catholic Church. The funds will need to be spent by Dec. 31, 2026. All students at the College of St. Joseph the Worker will earn a bachelor’s of arts in Catholic Studies while also receiving training in several trades including carpentry, HVAC, plumbing and electrical. According to information provided from several state agencies through a Freedom of Information Act request, the college’s grant proposal for the $5 million would allow the school to expand across the river into West Virginia for several training programs, a satellite campus, scholarships, and the creation of a think tank focused on social conservative public policy. In an Dec. 19 press release, the college said its expansion projects into West Virginia would greatly benefit Weirton and the Ohio Valley. The college will provide an additional $5 million, bringing the estimated cost of the project to $10 million. “The college is extremely grateful to the state of West Virginia for the recent award of an economic development grant,” according to the college’s statement. “Over the course of the next five years we expect to spend more than $10 million directly on these projects. However, the economic impact to the Weirton area will be far, far greater.” “I’m thrilled about this project for our people in the Northern Panhandle, especially for our young men and women,” said Delegate Pat McGeehan, R-Hancock, in an email on Dec. 23. Of the $5 million, more than $2.1 million would be used to create a construction and real estate company headquartered in Weirton. Funds would be used to acquire a warehouse and construction yard, purchase equipment and materials, and employ up to 200 apprentices and between 50 and 100 construction workers. The project, estimated to take five years to complete, would focus on revitalization of historic and culturally valuable projects and developing new building projects. “As a mission-driven educational organization, we will be able to take on construction and revitalization projects that other, exclusively for-profit organizations would not, such as work of historical and cultural significance in communities that might otherwise be unattractive to investors,” according to the college’s grant proposal. More than $1.6 million of the $5 million Economic Enhancement Grant dollars would go towards scholarships for the recruitment of West Virginia students, develop partnerships with tradesmen and contractors in the state for placement of apprentices, the purchase of training facilities in Weirton, and purchasing and/or renovating housing for students. Another $200,000 would be used to seed the creation of a possible branch campus for the College of St. Joseph the Worker. According to the grant proposal, the College is considering a possible branch in the Kanawha County area. “With the success of this initial development in West Virginia, the board of trustees of the College of St Joseph the Worker can establish exploring a second campus in West Virginia,” according to the grant proposal. “Particularly, we hope to evaluate Teays Valley, W.Va., which seems to be an emerging market for the type of intellectual and trades revitalization that the College intends to achieve.” “The primary purpose of this specific grant is to develop additional vocational training that will quickly prepare workers, strengthen our workforce, and benefit communities across West Virginia,” said C.J. Harvey, communications director for Gov. Jim Justice, in an emailed statement on Dec. 20. “This initiative is squarely focused on economic development and creating jobs.” According to a spokesperson for the West Virginia Community and Technical College System and the Higher Education Policy Commission, the college has yet to reach out to state higher education officials. The college will need to apply for a series 20 initial authorization/commission to grant degrees in West Virginia. Unrelated to construction trades, the college wants to use $1 million of the grant for what it categorizes as “advocacy.” It would use the funds to create a bioethics certificate program for continuing education for the medical and psychotherapy fields, as well as create the “Center for the Common Good” to support “life-affirming policy in West Virginia.” In a separate document, the college explained the Center for the Common Good would focus on conservative public policy, specifically citing abortion and immigration and border policy as examples, using research, op-eds, speeches, educational tools, presentations, and proposals for the West Virginia Legislature. “...The college faculty has also been involved in supporting the developing conservative political vision for West Virginia (ie the abortion restriction; solidarity with Texas' border, to name but a few),” the college wrote in an earlier grant proposal. The college is listed as a 501(c)(3) on its 2022 IRS 990 form. According to the IRS, a 501(c)(3) organization can engage in some lobbying activities, but it could risk loss of tax-exempt status if it engages in too much lobbying. “Organizations may, however, involve themselves in issues of public policy without the activity being considered as lobbying,” according to the IRS website. “For example, organizations may conduct educational meetings, prepare and distribute educational materials, or otherwise consider public policy issues in an educational manner without jeopardizing their tax-exempt status.” The governor’s office avoided answering the question of whether it was appropriate for Economic Enhancement Grant dollars to be used to create a conservative public policy think tank. “Any additional educational or ethical components mentioned in the application are secondary and fall outside the scope of the administration’s main focus: to get newly-trained workers in the workforce as quickly as possible,” Harvey said. In the Oct. 19 press release sent after multiple requests for interviews with officials, the college announced all of the proposed projects for the Economic Enhancement Grant dollars. However, the press release includes no mention of using the funds for a conservative think tank. WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE The Water Development Authority was created in 1977 by the Legislature to provide grants and loans to local governments and public services districts for construction of water and wastewater infrastructure. But in recent years, the authority has been used as a funding conduit for economic development projects across the state. The Economic Enhancement Grant Fund was created by the Legislature in 2022 by House Bill 4566. The fund was seeded with $250 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars. HB 4566 empowers the authority to create an Economic Enhancement Grant subaccount to provide grants to governmental agencies and not-for-profits to cover all or portions of costs for infrastructure projects. According to State Code, funds in this Economic Enhancement Grant subaccount can be used “to cover all or a portion of the infrastructure projects to enhance economic development and/or tourism when recommended by the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Economic Development and/or the Secretary of Tourism.” However, to date there has been no letter of recommendation from one of the three cabinet-level departments as required by State Code. The Economic Enhancement Grant application from the College of St. Joseph the Worker was approved on Oct. 10 with authority members and three cabinet secretaries at the time, former Department of Economic Development Secretary Mitch Carmichael, former Department of Commerce Secretary James Bailey and current Department of Tourism Secretary Chelsea Ruby, only being provided with the college’s Economic Enhancement Grant application and grant proposal the day before the scheduled meeting. While one version of the college’s application included a check mark indicating that the Department of Economic Development had provided a recommendation, Water Development Authority Executive Director Marie Prezioso confirmed in an email that no letter recommendation for the college’s Economic Enhancement Grant application has been provided. “It was my understanding that we would be provided with a letter from the secretary, however we do not have one on file,” Prezioso said. “It was this office’s understanding the project was verbally recommended with a formal letter forthcoming,” Harvey said. Both Justice Chief of Staff Brian Abraham and Deputy Chief of Staff Ann Urling, who also chairs the Water Development Authority, were involved with recommending the college’s proposal. At least one former cabinet secretary at the time, James Bailey, expressed concern about the college’s grant proposal in an email to an authority staffer the day before the Oct. 10 authority meeting. Bailey left the Department of Commerce to return to the private legal sector on Oct. 18. “I need a letter of recommendation for this project. Our board meeting is tomorrow. Sorry for the short notice. We just started working on it,” Prezioso wrote to Bailey in an email the morning of Oct. 9. “Is there a more detailed application like we normally have? The document doesn't really detail what the project in WV is other than potentially locating a campus in the state in a few years,” Bailey wrote. “There are some other issues that we should maybe talk over if you'd like to give me a call.” In an email the morning of the Oct. 10 authority meeting, Prezioso asked Andrew Jones, the academic dean and professor of history and political theory at the College of St. Joseph the Worker, to revise the proposed budget for the College’s Economic Enhancement Grant request. “The grant must be used for a project that consists of the acquisition, construction and equipping of multiple education facilities for the in-class and on-site training of the five major construction trades of HVAC, carpentry, masonry, electrical and plumbing, including areas for tools and equipment storage, materials for training and all necessary appurtenances,” Prezioso wrote. BUILDING A FRAMEWORK The first email about the project came on Oct. 2, nine days before the Oct. 10 authority meeting, from McGeehan to Abraham with House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, carbon copied. In that email, McGeehan thanked Abraham for his assistance with the college’s Economic Enhancement Grant application. McGeehan confirmed last week that his first conversations with Abraham about the project began as early as September. McGeehan, the dean of students at Weirton Madonna High School, explained that Weirton Madonna has no affiliation with the College of St. Joseph the Worker. McGeehan said he became aware of the college after completing a master’s degree in philosophy at Franciscan University of Steubenville. “A mutual friend who had went through the graduate program with me at Franciscan made introductions with some of the staff over at the College of St. Joseph the Worker, who at the time, had plans to expand into other areas of Ohio,” McGeehan said. “I touched base with them about expanding into West Virginia instead. I toured their workshops and facilities a few times and I was deeply impressed.” After an email from the authority was sent to officials with the college on Oct. 4 with the Economic Enhancement Grant application, McGeehan emailed the authority back the same day with the completed application. West Virginia already offers several construction trades programs, including in the Northern Panhandle. West Virginia Northern Community College in Wheeling offers several short-term training programs and multi-year certificates for trades, such as HVAC, electrical, and industrial/construction/trades. Project BEST, also headquartered in Wheeling and affiliated with the Upper Ohio Valley Building and Construction Trades Council, offers apprenticeship training, including carpentry, electrical, plumbing and pipefitting. But McGeehan said what the College of St. Joseph the Worker is offering to West Virginia students is unique and holistic, focused on not just providing rote training. “The College of Saint Joseph the Worker is unique, insofar as it offers a holistic approach to shaping young men and women, one reason why I’m excited about it,” McGeehan said. “Nowhere in in the United States is there an institution that simultaneously trains the mind in the humanities while also in the manual trades.” “This is done by teaching young men and women the skilled trades, such as carpentry, HVAC, and construction, while also providing their students with a classical education along the way, both of which are greatly needed in our state,” McGeehan continued. “Upon graduation, their students earn their Journeyman’s card in the skilled trade of their choice, along with earning a bachelor’s degree, and because of the college’s ability to raise funds, offer scholarships, and provide paid on-the-job training for their students, their students graduate with zero debt.” McGeehan was a co-sponsor of HB 4566 in 2022. Earlier this month, the authority approved 24 projects for Economic Enhancement Grant dollars, awarding more than $67 million. During the October special session, lawmakers appropriated an additional $125 million to the Economic Enhancement Grant Fund. According to the governor’s office, the authority has approved Economic Enhancement Grant projects worth $594 million since 2022. McGeehan said the $5 million for the College of St. Joseph the Worker is an appropriate grant award. “I conceived and wrote the bill which passed into law to establish the EEG fund in the first place, so that grants like this one could come about, and be awarded to non-profit institutions and municipalities to help beautify our local communities and strengthen their infrastructure for our people,” McGeehan said. “Many of the problems our state suffers from are downstream of faltering local communities, weakened family bonds, and a younger generation without practical skills, who are quite often steeped in university debt,” McGeehan continued. “I’ll continue to do what I can to help reverse this trend.” In 2023, McGeehan was the co-sponsor of an originating bill from the House Government Organization Committee, where McGeehan is vice chairman, to create a Joint Legislative Committee on Civic Life. House Bill 3561 would have created a state agency to provide grant funds to nonprofits that support “traditional cultural values” “family growth, maintenance and self-sufficiency” and the creation of new fraternal organizations. McGeehan said HB 3561, which failed in a 42-51 vote, has no connection to the college’s Economic Enhancement Grant award. “While I’d certainly defend a decision to capitalize such an initiative, the grant did not include funding for what you wrote,” McGeehan said. “...The state is merely matching an investment that the college has agreed to put into our state. Beyond that, the grant has nothing to do with the specific bill you referenced.” Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com .By Wendy Fry | CalMatters If you’ve hunted for apartments recently and felt like all the rents were equally high, you’re not crazy: Many landlords now use a single company’s software — which uses an algorithm based on proprietary lease information — to help set rent prices. Federal prosecutors say the practice amounts to “an unlawful information-sharing scheme” and some legislators throughout California are moving to curb it. San Diego’s city council president is the latest to do so, proposing to prevent local apartment owners from using the pricing software, which he maintains is driving up housing costs. Also see: California rent hikes: Where are the biggest increases in November? San Diego’s proposed ordinance, now being drafted by the city attorney, comes after San Francisco supervisors in July enacted a similar, first-in-the-nation ban on “the sale or use of algorithmic devices to set rents or manage occupancy levels” for residences. San Jose is considering a similar approach. And California and seven other states have also joined the federal prosecutors’ antitrust suit , which targets the leading rental pricing platform, Texas-based RealPage. The complaint alleges that “RealPage is an algorithmic intermediary that collects, combines, and exploits landlords’ competitively sensitive information. And in so doing, it enriches itself and compliant landlords at the expense of renters who pay inflated prices...” But state legislators this year failed to advance legislation by Bakersfield Democratic Sen. Melissa Hurtado that would have banned the use of any pricing algorithms based on nonpublic data provided by competing companies. She said she plans to bring the bill back during the next legislative session because of what she described as ongoing harms from such algorithms. “We’ve got to make sure the economy is fair and ... that every individual who wants a shot at creating a business has a shot without being destroyed along the way, and that we’re also protecting consumers because it is hurting the pocketbooks of everybody in one way or another,” said Hurtado. RealPage has been a greater impetus for all of the actions. The company counts as its customer landlords with thousands of apartment units across California. Some officials accuse the company of thwarting competition that would otherwise drive rents down, exacerbating the state’s housing shortage and driving up rents in the process. “Every day, millions of Californians worry about keeping a roof over their heads and RealPage has directly made it more difficult to do so,” said California Attorney General Rob Bonta in a written statement. A RealPage spokesperson, Jennifer Bowcock, told CalMatters that a lack of housing supply, not the company’s technology, is the real problem — and that its technology benefits residents, property managers, and others associated with the rental market. The spokesperson later wrote that a “misplaced focus on nonpublic information is a distraction... that will only make San Francisco and San Diego’s historical problems worse.” As for the federal lawsuit, the company called the claims in it “devoid of merit” and said it plans to “vigorously defend ourselves against these accusations.” “We are disappointed that, after multiple years of education and cooperation on the antitrust matters concerning RealPage, the (Justice Department) has chosen this moment to pursue a lawsuit that seeks to scapegoat pro-competitive technology that has been used responsibly for years,” the company’s statement read in part. “RealPage’s revenue management software is purposely built to be legally compliant, and we have a long history of working constructively with the (department) to show that.” The company’s challenges will only grow if pricing software becomes another instance in which California lawmakers lead the nation. Following San Francisco’s ban, the Philadelphia City Council passed a ban on algorithmic rental price-fixing with a veto-proof vote last month. New Jersey has been considering its own ban. According to federal prosecutors, RealPage controls 80% of the market for commercial revenue management software. Its product is called YieldStar, and its successor is AI Revenue Management, which uses much of the same codebase as YieldStar, but has more precise forecasting. RealPage told CalMatters it serves only 10% of the rental markets in both San Francisco and San Diego, across its three revenue management software products. Here’s how it works: In order to use YieldStar and AIRM, landlords have historically provided RealPage with their own private data from their rental applications, rent prices, executed new leases, renewal offers and acceptances, and estimates of future occupancy, although a recent change allows landlords to choose to share only public data. This information from all participating landlords in an area is then pooled and run through mathematical forecasting to generate pricing recommendations for the landlords and for their competitors. The San Diego council president, Sean Elo-Rivera, explained it like this: “In the simplest terms, what this platform is doing is providing what we think of as that dark, smoky room for big companies to get together and set prices,” he said. “The technology is being used as a way of keeping an arm’s length from one big company to the other. But that’s an illusion.” In the company’s own words, from company documents included in the lawsuit, RealPage “ensures that (landlords) are driving every possible opportunity to increase price even in the most downward trending or unexpected conditions.” The company also said in the documents that it “helps curb (landlords’) instincts to respond to down-market conditions by either dramatically lowering price or by holding price.” Providing rent guidance isn’t the only service RealPage has offered landlords. In 2020, a Markup and New York Times investigation found that RealPage, alongside other companies, used faulty computer algorithms to do automated background checks on tenants. As a result, tenants were associated with criminal charges they never faced, and denied homes. Thirty-one-year-old Navy veteran Alan Pickens and his wife move nearly every year “because the rent goes up, it gets unaffordable, so we look for a new place to stay,” he said. The northeastern San Diego apartment complex where they just relocated has two-bedroom apartments advertised for between $2,995 and $3,215. They live in an area of San Diego where the U.S. Justice Department says information-sharing agreements between landlords and RealPage have harmed or are likely to harm renters. The department in August filed its antitrust lawsuit against RealPage, alleging the company, through its legacy YieldStar software, engaged in an “ unlawful scheme to decrease competition among landlords in apartment pricing ”. The complaint names specific areas where rents are artificially high. Beyond the part of San Diego where Pickens lives, those areas include South Orange County, Rancho Cucamonga, Temecula, and Murrieta and northeastern San Diego. In the second quarter of 2020, the average rent in San Diego County was $1,926, reflecting a 26% increase over three years, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune . Rents have since risen even more in the city of San Diego, to $2,336 per month as of November 2024 – up 21% from 2020, according to RentCafe and the Tribune. That’s 50% higher than the national average rent. The attorneys general of eight states, including California, joined the Justice Department’s antitrust suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. The California Justice Department contends RealPage artificially inflated prices to keep them above a certain minimum level, said department spokesperson Elissa Perez. This was particularly harmful given the high cost of housing in the state, she added. “The illegally maintained profits that result from these price alignment schemes come out of the pockets of the people that can least afford it.” Renters make up a larger share of households in California than in the rest of the country — 44% here compared to 35% nationwide. The Golden State also has a higher percentage of renters than any state other than New York, according to the latest U.S. Census data . San Diego has the fourth-highest percentage of renters of any major city in the nation . The recent ranks of California legislators, however, have included few renters: As of 2019, CalMatters could find only one state lawmaker who did not own a home — and found that more than a quarter of legislators at the time were landlords. Studies show that low-income residents are more heavily impacted by rising rents. Nationally between 2000 and 2017, Americans without a college degree spent a higher percentage of their income on rent. That percentage ballooned from 30% to 42%. For college graduates, that percentage increased from 26% to 34%. “In my estimation, the only winners in this situation are the richest companies who are either using this technology or creating this technology,” said Elo-Rivera. “There couldn’t be a more clear example of the rich getting richer while the rest of us are struggling to get by.” Private equity giant Thoma Bravo acquired RealPage in January 2021 through two funds that have hundreds of millions of dollars in investments from California public pension funds, including the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, the Regents of the University of California and the Los Angeles police and fire pension funds, according to Private Equity Stakeholder Project. “They’re invested in things that are directly hurting their pensioners,” said K Agbebiyi, a senior housing campaign coordinator with the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, a nonprofit private equity watchdog that produced a report about corporate landlords ‘ impact on rental hikes in San Diego. RealPage argues that landlords are free to reject the price recommendations generated by its software. But the US Justice Department alleges that trying to do so requires a series of steps, including a conversation with a RealPage pricing adviser. The advisers try to “stop property managers from acting on emotions,” according to the department’s lawsuit. Related Articles Housing | California rent hikes: Where are the biggest increases in November? Housing | 20%-plus of US spends entire paychecks on rent, poll says Housing | Why US sued to stop landlords colluding on rents Housing | Rent inflation won’t cool until 2026, Cleveland Fed says Housing | California has 18 of 20 costliest US cities to rent a house Read this story in Spanish If a property manager disagrees with the price the algorithm suggests and wants to decrease rent rather than increase it, a pricing advisor will “escalate the dispute to the manager’s superior,” prosecutors allege in the suit. In San Diego, the Pickenses, who are expecting their first child, have given up their gym memberships and downsized their cars to remain in the area. They’ve considered moving to Denver. “All the extras pretty much have to go,” said Pickens. “I mean, we love San Diego, but it’s getting hard to live here.” “My wife is an attorney and I served in the Navy for 10 years and now work at Qualcomm,” he said. “Why are we struggling? Why are we struggling?”BIRMINGHAM, England (Reuters) -Aston Villa survived a jittery second half to end an eight-match winless streak with a 3-1 home Premier League win over Brentford on Wednesday. Villa sped into a 3-0 halftime lead but after Mikkel Damsgaard pulled one back early in the second half for Brentford, looked nervy and under pressure and will be relieved their visitors did not add any more goals. Villa had raced into a comprehensive lead with three goals in a 13-minute burst after Morgan Rogers got their opener in the 21st minute. An Ollie Watkins penalty and a volleyed effort from fullback Matty Cash added to the tally at Villa Park and saw the hosts enjoy a comfortable lead at the interval. After finishing fourth last season, Villa had slipped into the bottom half of the table after their weekend loss at Chelsea but Wednesday’s success moved them up to seventh in the standings, ahead of Brentford who slipped to ninth. Rogers hit a lofted effort into the net at the end of a surging run and a one-two with Watkins to open the scoring. The home side were awarded a penalty four minutes later when Ethan Pinnock clipped Watkins from behind and the England international got up off the turf to convert the spotkick. His low shot just evaded Mark Flekken in the Brentford goal as the keeper went the right way and got a touch on the ball but it was not strong enough to keep it out. THUNDER Rogers’ cross in the 34th minute was missed by Watkins, who was offside and might have disturbed the goalkeeper’s line of sight, allowing Cash to thunder in the third with a rasping finish from the right. VAR chose not to intervene and the goal was allowed to stand. Brentford got their goal in the 54th minute as Damsgaard cut inside from the back post to belt the ball in from close range after Yoane Wissa flicked on Bryan Mbeumo’s cross. Substitute Igor Thiago, working his way back from the knee injury that kept him out of the early part of the season, had a good chance for a second for Brentford in the 72nd minute but got underneath his shot and put it over the bar. The result continued Brentford’s poor away form, with Thomas Frank's side having earned one point from seven matches on the road, but the Bees remain high on entertainment value with a total of 52 goals in their 14 league games this season – 27 for and 26 against. (Writing by Mark Gleeson in Cape Town; Editing by Pritha Sarkar and Toby Davis)

Jet crash disaster in South Korea marks another setback for BoeingJohn Nacion/Getty is opening up about his painful past, as well as his hopes and fears for the future, in a wide-ranging sit-down interview in New York City. On Dec. 4, the Duke of Sussex, 40, stepped out in N.Y.C. to attend the 2024 DealBook Summit organized by . Prince Harry joined Andrew Ross Sorkin, a columnist and founder of the outlet's DealBook business and policy column, for a conversation on the main stage about disinformation in the media. "I've seen stories written about myself not exactly based in reality." Prince Harry said at the event. "When you grow up with that environment, you find yourself questioning the validity of the information, but also what other people are thinking as well, and how dangerous it can be over the course of time." "I think again, when you are kind of trapped within this bubble, it kind of feels like there's no way out," he added. "What happened to my mom and the fact that I was a kid and felt helpless, there comes the inner turmoil. I felt helpless. One of my biggest weaknesses is feeling helpless." Harry said, "What worried me most was worrying that would happen to me, or to my wife, or to my kids." Eugene Gologursky/Getty Of reading about himself in the press, he told Sorkin, "Throughout my life there would be moments in my life when I read a lot and moments when I read nothing. I highly recommend the latter," he added to laughter from the audience. "Once you stop reading the stuff about yourself, you automatically remove the power from their hands. With that element of fear comes an element of control. and one of the reasons I probably didn't, I guess, remove myself from that situation sooner was that very fear: 'Well, they control the narrative,' whatever I do or say, they can effectively control me and keep me in that space.'" Of his complicated relationship with the press since the death of his mother in 1997 when he was just 12 years old, he said: "I was always convinced I needed to be angry or frustrated towards the press because of what they did to my mom," adding that going to therapy a "blessing," like "cleaning the windshield." He also divulged that to protect his peace, he doesn't have Google alerts on himself and he doesn't have social media. Related: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Of his forthcoming phone hacking case in the U.K., he said, "This claim, the hacking stuff, is almost 15 years old. The coverup of the hacking is relatively new. I think that will be the piece that shocks the world. I scratch my head thinking, 'You know, has this passed?' And certainly that's what they would like to think. In these five years, the retaliation and the intimidation for me as a witness has been extraordinary, especially towards my wife and children." Of the dangers of social media, an issue that has become increasingly important to his work through his and Meghan's Archewell Foundation, he said: "I try to think at these things through the lens as a dad." Eugene Gologursky/Getty "That's one of the reasons we're so focused on The Parents Network," he said, referring to a piece of the work he and Meghan do with their non-profit Archewell for parents whose children's lives have been lost to social media. "It's not a coincidence that the world has become more volatile and more divided since social media has been around for 20 years," Harry added. Harry expressed his desire to collaborate with shareholders of social media companies to discuss better protections for children. “I would welcome the chance to sit down with the shareholders, because their shareholders are the ones that really are in control.” He added, “I’m sure they are parents, and I’m sure hopefully they would agree that kids need to be kept safe.” When asked what he thought of the First Amendment, he said to laughter, "There's no way I'm going to talk about that." Closing out his panel discussion, Sorkin asked Harry what he wants to be known for in 30 years' time, to which Harry replied: "The main goal for me at the moment is being the best husband and the best dad that I can be." "The thing that means the most to me and the things I want to be known for is that no matter what was happening around [is] that he stuck to his values and he always stayed true to that principle," he added. Michael M. Santiago/Getty The 2024 DealBook Summit has a starry lineup, and other mainstage interviews include , , , (a friend of Harry and Meghan's), Open AI co-founder Sam Altman, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Prince Harry's appearance at the DealBook Summit may be his debut appearance at the event, but he's actually following in his wife's footsteps! Meghan, 43, was by Sorkin as part of DealBook Online Summit in November 2021. The Duchess of Sussex participated in a discussion titled "Minding the Gap" about how women can reach economic and professional parity, where spoke about her view of paid leave as a "humanitarian issue." While Prince Harry is out on the East Coast, Meghan has a glamorous night ahead on the West Coast. The Duchess of Sussex is expected to attend the 2024 Paley Honors Fall Gala tonight in Beverly Hills, where she’ll help honor Perry with The Paley Honors Award, the highest honor from The Paley Center for Media. Kevin Mazur/Getty; Monica Schipper/Getty The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were both on the hosting committee for their friend Perry, who is a godfather to their daughter, , 3, and appeared in their 2022 Netflix docuseries, . (Prince Harry and Meghan also share son , 5.) As for Harry's calendar, described the DealBook Summit as a live journalism event which "will feature wide-ranging discussions on the most important stories across business, politics and culture." A previous about Prince Harry's participation listed his roles as the co-founder of the Archewell Foundation and Chief Impact Officer of BetterUp. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex launched the Archewell charity as a vehicle for their philanthropic work after stepping back from their royal roles and relocating to her home state of California in 2020. He took on the CIO role with BetterUp, a coaching and mental health platform, in 2021. Prince Harry's solo trip to N.Y.C. is his second in two months. In September, the Duke of Sussex spent a few days in New York City for a that a spokesperson said would "advance a number of his patronages and philanthropic initiatives." Riccardo Savi/Getty Harry's busy itinerary included a dinner with the World Health Organization, Concordia Summit panel for The Diana Award (the only charity established in memory of his mother, the late ) and engagements with The HALO Trust (the landmine-clearing charity that Princess Diana famously backed), African Parks and Travalyst. He also spoke at the Clinton Global Initiative about the Archwell Foundation's and the United Nations for an event hosted by Lesotho, where his charity Sentebale works. Christina Williams is a Diana Award recipient who spoke onstage with Prince Harry, and told PEOPLE that his empathy left an impression. "I think my impression of him was that here is someone who is in a high-level role, who really cares about young people — cares about our voices and our actions," Williams, 27, told PEOPLE. "He really cares about the causes that he represents." Read the original article on

Zion Williamson still isn’t ready to return to the court. The New Orleans Pelicans star will miss at least two more weeks recovering from a hamstring injury, the team said Wednesday. Williamson has played in just six games for the Pelicans this season, and he’s been sidelined since Nov. 6 with the injury. Williamson first went down in a loss to the Cavaliers last month, and he checked himself out of the game with the injury. The team first expected him to miss just four to six weeks, but initial treatments reportedly did not work as well as it had hoped. ESPN’s Shams Charania reported just before Thanksgiving that , if not longer, which tracks with what the Pelicans said Wednesday. Williamson, whom the Pelicans selected with the No. 1 overall pick in 2019, has missed 210 out of a possible 400 regular-season games with the team. He’s averaged 22.7 points, eight rebounds and 5.3 assists this season. last month for unclear reasons. Though Williamson has been injured frequently throughout his career, the team felt he was in the best shape of his career this fall. He leading up to the season. The injury is the latest setback the Pelicans have faced already this season, which isn’t even two months old. Dejounte Murray, Trey Murphy III, C.J. McCollum, Jordan Hawkins and Herb Jones have all missed time due to various injuries along with Williamson, and it’s cost the Pelicans significantly. They’ve lost 15 of their last 16 games and sit at just 4-18 on the season. Jones and Brandon Ingram, who was out with right plantaris tendonitis, were full participants at practice Wednesday. Jose Alvarado is also dealing with a hamstring strain and will be out for at least two more weeks. The Pelicans will take on the Phoenix Suns on Thursday in New Orleans.Sabres get power-play goals from Zucker and Thompson in 4-2 win over the Blues

Shrimpers see off Dartford to make it four league wins in a row

The Taliban's supreme leader has reportedly ordered a ban on women attending nursing and midwivery institutes, closing a rare avenue they had to pursue an education beyond the sixth grade. Human Rights Watch says the ban was ordered by Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and conveyed to the Ministry of Public Health on Monday, then communicated to private medical training institutes soon after. Although the ban has yet to be formally announced, two government officials who spoke to NPR on condition of anonymity, because of the matter's sensitivity, confirmed it. In addition, several nursing and midwivery students told NPR that this week, they were not allowed to attend classes. The European Union has condemned the ban, while the United Nations chief mission in Afghanistan said it was "extremely concerned about a reported directive" that was preventing women and girls from attending private medical institutions. The state of education for girls under Taliban rule The ban reflects an ongoing Taliban effort to curtail education for girls beyond grade six. Despite the Taliban's policies, girls and women still have some options. In certain parts of the country, Taliban officials have quietly ignored the ban, allowing a small number of girls to take classes offered by private educational institutes and charities. And in February 2024, an important loophole opened for women. Officials in the Ministry of Public Health successfully lobbied the hardline Taliban leaders to allow women to take nursing and midwifery courses in a handful of mostly private training institutes and learning centers, according to Ashley Jackson , who closely tracks developments in Afghanistan as co-director of the Center on Armed Groups, a think-tank based in Switzerland. One motivation for this February decision was that in some provinces, the Taliban does not allow women to seek treatment from male medical professionals. "This new decree [banning women from nursing and midwifery training] will result in unnecessary pain, misery, sickness and death for the women forced to go without health care," said Sahar Fetrat of Human Rights Watch, in a statement. Students turned away from classes Human Rights Watch says the ban was ordered by Taliban leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada and conveyed to the Ministry of Public Health on Monday, then communicated to private medical training institutes soon after. Five Afghan women who were studying nursing and midwifery told NPR that they were turned away from their respective private institutions this week. They spoke to NPR on condition of anonymity to avoid being identified by authorities. One 22-year-old nursing student said she learned about the ban when her friends began calling to express their condolences. "Are you telling the truth?" she said she asked them. The young woman went to her institute in case her friends were misinformed. One of her teachers "told us to go home. The institute is closed until further notice," she said. One 22-year-old, who was studying economics before all women were banned from university study in 2022, told NPR she signed up for nursing classes, desperate to continue studying. She, too, rushed to her classes on Tuesday after word of the ban spread on social media, hoping it was a false rumor. She said the teachers were apologetic, "but unfortunately, we were not allowed to enter," she said. "Unfortunately, we could not do anything." "This is bad news for all Afghan people," she said angrily. "Because men cannot become midwives in Afghanistan." Men are not allowed to be midwives because of strict gender segregation customs. Challenges for medical education institutions Even before this week's news, medical education institutions have found it challenging to include women. "Medical schools have not been functioning as they should in the last three years," said Pashtana Durrani, founder of Learn Afghanistan, an organization operating secret schools in Afghanistan as well as a maternal health clinic where they trained midwives. "All they are doing now is closing any loopholes" of the ban on higher education for females, she said. "Many of us have faced increasing harassment from the authorities," she said. "In just the last two weeks, our staffs were detained and they [the Taliban] asked us for money to be allowed to stay open," she told NPR, adding that the constant harassment forced her organization's schools to transition to online lessons. "We don't have any in-person classes at all because they forced us into shutting down the last of our training program." "When we trained the younger women, I had hoped that maybe all these girls would graduate and establish their own institutions someday. But now that seems unlikely," Durrani said. "People often say that under the Taliban women are just left to reproduce. Well, now with this new ban, women are left to reproduce and then die on that same table because there will be nobody to help them. That's what it has come to," Durrani said. Indeed, Afghanistan is one of the most dangerous places in the world for a woman to give birth. According to a December 2023 statement from Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the U.N. Secretary-General, a woman dies every two hours across Afghanistan in birth-related complications. And the United Nations Population Fund, which tracks women's healthcare globally, reports that the country needs at least 18,000 more trained midwives to ensure basic maternal care to Afghan women. The ban on women studying basic nursing skills "makes absolutely no sense. Even according to the Taliban's own logic," says Jackson of the Center on Armed Groups. She said that even during the Taliban's rule in the 1990s, considered more extreme than the present government, they allowed women to take some medical courses. Jackson also notes that previous exceptions — allowing women to study nursing and midwivery — shows that "there are people inside the system fighting for more sensible policies who realize that Afghanistan needs midwives, it needs female doctors, it needs female nurses." But ultimately, the commands of Akhundzada, their spiritual leader, take precedence. "We know that his beliefs are radical to the extreme," Jackson says. "There's a real paranoia and a fear of losing control, and I think one of the ways that he, as well as the Taliban in the past, have expressed that, is through the control of women's bodies." Even as officials were turning away young Afghan women from health-care education this week, other Afghan women were hoping that soon, there would be some accountability for the Taliban's denial of their human rights. This week, the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor, Karim Khan , said he could announce that " very considerable progress has already been made in the investigation of allegations of gender persecution" in Afghanistan. "I am confident that I will soon be in a position to announce concrete results," said Khan. One researcher at Human Rights Watch, Fereshta Abbasi , believes that Khan's statement indicates that he would "soon request applications for arrest warrants" for Taliban officials. Abbasi is from Afghanistan and currently lives in the United Kingdom. "Justice will prevail," she wrote on X. With additional reporting by Fariba Akbari in Paris With additional reporting by Fariba Akbari in ParisATLANTA (AP) — the peanut farmer who tried to restore virtue to the White House after the Watergate scandal and Vietnam War, then rebounded from a landslide defeat to become a global advocate of human rights and democracy, has died. . The Carter Center said the 39th president died Sunday afternoon, , at his home in Plains, Georgia, where he and his wife, who died in November 2023, lived most of their lives. The center said he died peacefully, surrounded by his family. As reaction poured in from around the world, President Joe Biden mourned Carter’s death, saying the world lost an “extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian” and he lost a dear friend. Biden cited Carter’s compassion and moral clarity, his work to eradicate disease, forge peace, advance civil and human rights, promote free and fair elections, house the homeless and advocacy for the disadvantaged as an example for others. “To all of the young people in this nation and for anyone in search of what it means to live a life of purpose and meaning – the good life – study Jimmy Carter, a man of principle, faith, and humility,” Biden said in a statement. “He showed that we are a great nation because we are a good people – decent and honorable, courageous and compassionate, humble and strong.” Biden said he is ordering a state funeral for Carter in Washington. A moderate Democrat, as a little-known Georgia governor with a broad grin, effusive Baptist faith and technocratic plans for efficient government. His promise to never deceive the American people resonated after Richard Nixon’s disgrace and U.S. defeat in southeast Asia. “If I ever lie to you, if I ever make a misleading statement, don’t vote for me. I would not deserve to be your president,” Carter said. Carter’s victory over Republican Gerald Ford, whose fortunes fell after pardoning Nixon, came amid Cold War pressures, turbulent oil markets and social upheaval over race, women’s rights and America’s role in the world. His achievements included brokering Mideast peace by keeping Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at Camp David for 13 days in 1978. But his coalition splintered under double-digit inflation and the 444-day hostage crisis in Iran. His negotiations ultimately brought all the hostages home alive, but in a final insult, Iran didn’t release them until the inauguration of Ronald Reagan, who had trounced him in the 1980 election. Humbled and back home in Georgia, Carter said his faith demanded that he keep doing whatever he could, for as long as he could, to try to make a difference. He and Rosalynn co-founded in 1982 and spent the next 40 years traveling the world as peacemakers, human rights advocates and champions of democracy and public health. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, Carter helped ease nuclear tensions in North and South Korea, avert a U.S. invasion of Haiti and and Sudan. By 2022, the center had monitored at least 113 elections around the world. Carter was determined to as one of many health initiatives. the Carters built homes with Habitat for Humanity. The common observation that he was better as an ex-president rankled Carter. His allies were pleased that he lived long enough to see biographers and historians and declare it more impactful than many understood at the time. Propelled in 1976 by voters in Iowa and then across the South, Carter ran a no-frills campaign. Americans were captivated by the earnest engineer, and while an election-year Playboy interview drew snickers when he said he “had looked on many women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times,” voters tired of political cynicism found it endearing. The first family set an informal tone in the White House, carrying their own luggage, trying to silence the Marine Band’s traditional “Hail to the Chief" and enrolling daughter, Amy, in public schools. Carter was lampooned for wearing a cardigan and urging Americans to turn down their thermostats. But Carter set the stage for an economic revival and sharply reduced America's dependence on foreign oil by deregulating the energy industry along with airlines, trains and trucking. He established the departments of Energy and Education, appointed record numbers of women and nonwhites to federal posts, preserved millions of acres of Alaskan wilderness and pardoned most Vietnam draft evaders. , he ended most support for military dictators and took on bribery by multinational corporations by signing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He persuaded the Senate to ratify the Panama Canal treaties and normalized relations with China, an outgrowth of Nixon’s outreach to Beijing. But crippling turns in foreign affairs took their toll. When OPEC hiked crude prices, making drivers line up for gasoline as inflation spiked to 11%, Carter tried to encourage Americans to overcome “a crisis of confidence.” Many voters lost confidence in Carter instead after the infamous address that media dubbed his “malaise" speech, even though he never used that word. After Carter reluctantly agreed to admit the exiled Shah of Iran to the U.S. for medical treatment, the American Embassy in Tehran was overrun in 1979. Negotiations to quickly free the hostages broke down, and then eight Americans died when a top-secret military rescue attempt failed. Carter also had to reverse course on the SALT II nuclear arms treaty after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979. Though historians would later credit Carter's diplomatic efforts for hastening the end of the Cold war, Republicans labeled his soft power weak. Reagan’s “make America great again” appeals resonated, and he beat Carter in all but six states. Born Oct. 1, 1924, James Earl Carter Jr. in 1946, the year he graduated from the Naval Academy. He brought his young family back to Plains after his father died, abandoning his Navy career, and . Carter reached the state Senate in 1962. After rural white and Black voters elected him governor in 1970, he drew national attention by declaring that “the time for racial discrimination is over.” Carter published more than 30 books and remained influential as his center turned its democracy advocacy onto U.S. politics, monitoring an audit of Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results. After Carter said he felt “perfectly at ease with whatever comes.” “I’ve had a wonderful life,” “I’ve had thousands of friends, I’ve had an exciting, adventurous and gratifying existence.” Sanz is a former Associated Press reporter.2024 was already a dispiriting year for Boeing, the American aviation giant. But when one of the company's jets crash-landed in South Korea on Sunday, killing all but two of the 181 people on board, it brought to a close an especially unfortunate year for Boeing. The cause of the crash remains under investigation, and aviation experts were quick to distinguish Sunday's incident from the company’s earlier safety problems. Alan Price, a former chief pilot at Delta Air Lines who is now a consultant, said it would be inappropriate to link the incident Sunday to two fatal crashes involving Boeing’s troubled 737 Max jetliner in 2018 and 2019. In January this year, a door plug blew off a 737 Max while it was in flight, raising more questions about the plane. The Boeing 737-800 that crash-landed in Korea, Price noted, is “a very proven airplane. "It’s different from the Max ...It’s a very safe airplane.’’ For decades, Boeing has maintained a role as one of the giants of American manufacturing. But the the past year's repeated troubles have been damaging. The company's stock price is down more than 30% in 2024. The company's reputation for safety was especially tarnished by the 737 Max crashes, which occurred off the coast of Indonesia and in Ethiopia less than five months apart in 2018 and 2019 and left a combined 346 people dead. In the five years since then, Boeing has lost more than $23 billion. And it has fallen behind its European rival, Airbus, in selling and delivering new planes. Last fall, 33,000 Boeing machinists went on strike, crippling the production of the 737 Max, the company's bestseller, the 777 airliner and 767 cargo plane. The walkout lasted seven weeks, until members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers agreed to an offer that included 38% pay raises over four years. In January, a door plug blew off a 737 Max during an Alaska Airlines flight. Federal regulators responded by imposing limits on Boeing aircraft production that they said would remain in place until they felt confident about manufacturing safety at the company. In July, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud for deceiving the Federal Aviation Administration regulators who approved the 737 Max. Acting on Boeing’s incomplete disclosures, the FAA approved minimal, computer-based training instead of more intensive training in flight simulators. Simulator training would have increased the cost for airlines to operate the Max and might have pushed some to buy planes from Airbus instead. (Prosecutors said they lacked evidence to argue that Boeing’s deception had played a role in the crashes.) But the plea deal was rejected this month by a federal judge in Texas, Reed O’Connor , who decided that diversity, inclusion and equity or DEI policies in the government and at Boeing could result in race being a factor in choosing an official to oversee Boeing’s compliance with the agreement. Boeing has sought to change its culture. Under intense pressure over safety issues, David Calhoun departed as CEO in August. Since January, 70,000 Boeing employees have participated in meetings to discuss ways to improve safety.Significant milestones in life and career of Jimmy Carter

CLEVELAND (AP) — Shortly after doing a face-down snow angel, firing a few celebratory snowballs and singing “Jingle Bells” on his way to the media room, Jameis Winston ended his postgame news conference with a simple question. “Am I a Brown yet?” he asked. He is now. And who knows? Maybe for a lot longer than expected. Winston entered Cleveland football folklore on Thursday night by leading the Browns to a 24-19 win over the division rival Pittsburgh Steelers, who had their five-game winning streak stopped. Winston's performance at Huntington Bank Field, which transformed into the world's largest snow globe, not only made him an instantaneous hero in the eyes of Browns fans but added another wrinkle to the team's ever-changing, never-ending quarterback conundrum. In his fourth start since Deshaun Watson's season-ending Achilles tendon injury, Winston made enough big plays to help the Browns (3-8) get a victory that should quiet conjecture about coach Kevin Stefanski's job. Some wins mean more than others. In Cleveland, beating the Steelers is as big as it gets. But beyond any instant gratification, Winston has given the Browns more to consider as they move forward. Watson's future with Cleveland is highly uncertain since it will still be months before the team has a grip on whether he's even an option in 2025, his fourth year since signing a $230 million, fully guaranteed contract that has proven calamitous. It's also possible the Browns will cut ties with Watson. They signed Winston to a one-year contract to be Watson's backup. But the unexpected events of 2024 have changed plans and led to the possibility that the 30-year-old Winston could become Cleveland's full-time QB or a bridge to their next young one. So much is unclear. What's not is that Winston, who leaped into the end zone on fourth-and-2 for a TD to put the Browns ahead 18-6 in the fourth quarter, is a difference maker. With his larger-than-life personality and the joy he shows whether practicing or throwing three touchdown passes, he has lifted the Browns. A man of faith, he's made his teammates believe. Winston has done what Watson couldn't: made the Browns better. “A very, very authentic person,” Stefanski said Friday on a Zoom call. “He’s the same guy every single day. He's the same guy at 5 a.m. as he at 5 p.m. He brings great energy to everything he does, and I think his teammates appreciate that about him.” Winston, who is 2-2 as a starter with wins over the Steelers and Baltimore Ravens, has a knack for inspiring through fiery, preacher-like pregame speeches. But what has impressed the Browns is his ability to stay calm in the storm. “He doesn’t get rattled,” said Myles Garrett, who had three sacks against the Steelers . “He’s just tuned in and focused as anyone I’ve seen at that position. Turn the page. There was a turnover, came back to the sideline, ‘Love you. I’m sorry. We’re going to get it back.’ He was already on to the next one, ‘How can we complete the mission?’ “I have a lot of respect for him. First was from afar and now seeing it on the field in front of me, it’s a blessing to have someone who plays a game with such a passion and want-to. You can’t ask for a better teammate when they take those things to heart and they want to play for you like we’re actually brothers and that’s what we have to attain. That brotherhood.” Winston has done something else Watson couldn't: move the offense. The Browns scored more than 20 points for just the second time this season, and like Joe Flacco a year ago, Winston has shown that Stefanski's system works with a quarterback patient enough to let plays develop and unafraid to take shots downfield. The conditions certainly were a factor, but the Browns were a miserable 1 of 10 on third down, a season-long trend. However, Cleveland converted all four fourth-down tries, including a fourth-and-3 pass from Winston to Jerry Jeudy with 2:36 left that helped set up Nick Chubb's go-ahead TD run. RT Jack Conklin. Garrett outplayed Steelers star T.J. Watt in their rivalry within the rivalry partly because Conklin did a nice job containing Pittsburgh's edge rusher, who was held without a sack and had one tackle for loss. Conklin has made a remarkable comeback since undergoing reconstructive knee surgery last year. Owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam. Their desire to build a dome is well intended, but an indoor game could never come close to matching the surreal setting of Thursday night, when snow swirled throughout the stadium and covered nearly all the yard lines and hash marks. “It was beautiful,” Winston said. WR Cedric Tillman is in the concussion protocol. He had two catches before taking a big hit on the final play of the third quarter. 9 — Consecutive home wins for the Browns in Thursday night games. Three of those have come against Pittsburgh. An extended break before visiting the Denver Broncos on Dec. 2. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

RaMell Ross considers himself more of a visual artist than a movie director. His second film, , attempts a visual artist’s feat: a feature shot entirely from the first-person point of view. Every decade, it seems, first-person camerawork reemerges in film. Kathryn Bigelow’s dystopian thriller (1995) cut to it when its characters deployed a sci-fi technology to experience other people’s memories; the much-maligned (2005) had a section that paid homage to the POV of its video game origins; (2015) proved doing that at feature-length was exhausting. But if there’s a through line between the works that have deployed the first-person perspective, it’s that they’ve used them for visceral means, often to heighten the intensity of violence. Nearly 10 years later, presents the first person to achieve the opposite: quiet intimacy. Adapted from Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, the film alternates between the perspectives of its leads, Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson), two Black teenagers who meet at a brutal reformatory school in the Jim Crow South. Despite the institution’s punishing environment, Elwood continues to maintain an optimistic worldview reflective of the ongoing Civil Rights Movement, while Turner grounds himself through pragmatic survivalism. The audience sees what they see — and believe. The first-person vantage point does something clever: when we’re seeing things through Elwood’s eyes, we’re mostly looking at Turner, and vice versa. The effect is startling and, in its best moments, sublime. And the film is so confident that it almost never relents. commits to the first person for nearly its entire two-hour, 20-minute runtime, except for a few splashes of archival footage and a handful of scenes that flash forward. But the brilliance of is that the camerawork isn’t just a visual gimmick; it’s tied so deeply to the film’s themes that it allows the film to pull off a final act reveal that, before I saw this adaptation, I believed could only be achieved in a novel. The movie arrives in theaters this Friday, but thanks to a strong run at festivals, it’s already being talked about as an Academy Award contender. (As of this writing, column at predicts the film as a Best Picture and Best Director finalist.) A critic , and director Ross just took home honors at the New York Film Critics Circle, an award that tends to be a bellwether for the industry’s biggest prizes. The year’s most celebrated movie might just be its most ambitious. Asking audiences to watch a film from the first-person POV is a big risk, and the technical challenges to pull it off convincingly were no easy ask of the crew or actors. In some ways, feels like an unlikely gambit. Here’s how it got made. A photographer and author, RaMell Ross comes from the art world, a place that, in his experience, embraces and elevates abstraction over explanation. Working in film, he says he finds that people — the regular ones that watch movies and the powerful ones that allow them to be made — tend to ask more questions about intention and meaning. As a director, Ross is best known for his 2018 documentary , which follows the life of two Black high school students in Alabama, where Ross spent five years capturing footage. eschewed the traditional building blocks of narrative — plot through an order of scenes — for a fragmentary, patchwork approach. The result is stunning and resembles less a conventional documentary and more the kind of impressionistic video art you might find at a contemporary art museum. But even with all its formal invention, still earned an Academy Award nomination in the documentary feature category. It lost to , but still: not a bad showing for a movie never expected to be in the running. After, Ross was compelled to return to his work in visual arts, completing a performance piece for the Ogden Museum of Southern Art titled “Return to Origin,” wherein he shipped himself from Rhode Island to Alabama in a large wooden crate — an allusion and reversal of the Great Migration, made a touch funnier when you learn Ross is six-feet, six-inches tall. During that time, he’d also returned to his full-time job, teaching visual arts at Brown University. It’s unsurprising to learn that Ross is a professor — even from our brief encounter, it’s clear he possesses an academic’s curiosity and the enthusiastic engagement of a lecturer. More importantly, teaching gives him the space to be patient. “I get to make art at my own pace. I get to think big and move slow. There’s nothing better than that.” But having come within spitting distance of Hollywood’s highest recognition, the Oscar, surely producers and studios were reaching out to Ross with projects, right? It turns out that no one was calling. Sundance recognition and an Academy Award nod would have to suffice. “I never took a meeting,” he says, appearing content with that outcome. Then, in 2019, a producer reached out about an adaptation of a not-yet-published novel called . Ross had heard of the production company Plan B before. But it wasn’t until they reached out that he looked them up: they’d made and . It was Brad Pitt’s production outfit. High-profile producers Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner were also involved, but honestly, Ross wasn’t familiar with the kind of names that circulate among Hollywood regulars. He’d made little effort to penetrate that world because, well, he liked his life, teaching and making art at his own speed. But after reading an advanced copy of , the idea of POV came immediately. Whitehead’s book fictionalizes the very real horrors of the Dozier School for Boys, where, only recently, forensic anthropologists have uncovered nearly 50 unmarked graves of students who were secretly buried. In imagining those harrowing details, Ross was at a loss for words, but he could conjure the images. What if he could give those boys a literal point of view? He had no idea if Plan B would be up for such a formal gambit, but he had no interest in being a for-hire director. What did he have to lose? When Ross pitched the idea to Plan B, he was surprised when they immediately signed off on it. “They genuinely did not flinch. They stress-tested it, as all the producers did over the course of making the film and really whittled down the script, but generally never questioned [the first-person approach],” Ross says, then adds: “Kind of crazy.” He’d connected with cinematographer Jomo Fray, a fan of . But even Fray, who came with his own awards and bona fides, found that the POV of required him to rethink the language of film “on a quantum level.” The two of them were suddenly reconceiving the basic elements of the medium: The prospect was daunting — and thrilling. But first, there was a of testing — a month’s worth, just to get the feel right. Ross recalls specifically homing in on how they wanted time to move with the camera. What they learned is that the most convincing images had to be slightly behind their marks. Traditionally, a movie is tightly blocked and choreographed with the camera; but in their trials, Ross and Fray found the results unrealistic. Messiness, they found, was more convincing. “If you are late to something and then you find it... then it just fundamentally feels more like human vision.” The way a person sees the world is not as tidy as it is in cinema. To avoid making the POV feel like a contrivance, the image had to be deeply immersive, one “that allowed you to live life concurrently with Elwood and Turner... navigating and moving through space with them, not merely watching them do it,” Fray says. It also required some special gear. Fray chose the Sony Venice, a full-frame digital camera, because it could shoot in IMAX quality. In “Rialto mode,” which separates the body from the 6K sensor, the footprint of what the camera operator is holding was barely larger than an average DSLR. (Fray knew from what Ross had imagined they would often be filming in tight spaces.) There were a lot of setups, too: chest mounts, helmet cams, SnorriCams (the exoskeletal selfie stick rig that produces shots most associated with Darren Aronofsky’s work); there were handhelds in various orientations; a scene where Elwood gets clocked required its own custom rig. But what does shooting an entire movie in first person actually look like? Well, it involves the camera crew and the actors getting unusually close. There were times when they were actually on top of each other. Most of the shots were filmed by Ross, Fray, and camera operator Sam Ellison. If the scene was from Elwood’s POV, Herisse would stand close behind the camera operator and say his lines; if a Turner scene needed a hand in it, Wilson would reach his arm around the camera operator to get himself into shot. “We’re making a frame and we’re like, ‘Hey, E, put your hand up here a little bit more,’” Ross says. There were many scenes — Ross estimates about a quarter of the shots — where the limitations of space meant the actors needed to don the camera rigs themselves. “You don’t really get that opportunity really as an actor, to work behind the camera and then step into the shoes of an operator for certain moments,” Herisse says. Suddenly, he had the opportunity to wield an object he didn’t normally interact with, which he was always told he was supposed to ignore the presence of. Was it stressful? “Obviously it’s scary in the sense that I didn’t want to break anything. I definitely know that this is a very important and expensive piece of equipment that’s hanging off my chest,” he says. “But otherwise, it was so cool.” For him and his co-star Wilson, shooting scenes from the other side of the POV meant violating the most basic rule of acting: never look at the camera. Now, they were instructed to speak directly into it. When I speak to Herisse and Wilson, I ask if it was hard to shift their focus. “We definitely couldn’t ignore [the camera]. But we were able to get into a rhythm with it and learn that new thing of staring down the barrel of the lens in place of having each other’s eyes or each other’s physical presence,” Wilson says. “Eventually the camera just fades away and you get this feeling that you’re no longer speaking to this machine,” Herisse adds. “Brandon was there physically — right next to Jomo or Sam or RaMell during the scenes — and I could hear his voice. And I knew that he was there with me.” They were still listening to each other, even if a 6K camera rig and its operator stood between them. Toward the end of our conversation, I tell Ross that shooting sounded extremely difficult — reinventing the language of film, coming up with the technical way to do that, then executing on that ambitious vision. But Ross just laughs it off. “The hardest part is time in general because you don’t have infinite time, like in documentary where you can just come back. So we have two hours to shoot the scene and we’re starting from scratch. [The actor] doesn’t have the rig on. Bluetooth isn’t connecting. Those types of things make it challenging, but the images themselves, yeah, we had that.” After rushing through eight or so weeks of preproduction, shooting was compressed to a month after losing a week to covid — an intense experience for a guy who spent the better part of a decade on his last film. Preparation helped, though. Ross estimates that 90 percent of what he storyboarded and scripted shows up exactly that way in the final thing, with only a little bit of improvisation along the way. I’m surprised to hear the shot list was a whopping 35 pages, single-spaced — every single moment, gaze, and beat accounted for, in a film that still feels naturalistic. It’s easy to see how Ross’ newest film is a clear extension of his body of work. If was, in his words, the story of how Black people have come to be known through the camera, offers a story where the perspective of Black characters the camera. is structured along more conventional plot lines (it even has a big twist), but the film also offers many reprieves and distractions, emulating the way the eye wanders and how memory can often be nonlinear. Some of those images are the most resonant: the first shot opens with an outstretched arm, gripping an orange; sensory fascinations, like the sound of loafers clopping through a puddle or a knife scraping cake off a dish, take center stage. One of the movie’s most moving moments is a humble one: actor Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor embracing Turner for a hug, the camera suddenly looking past her shoulder. Recalling that day on set, Fray describes it as a new experience for him as a cinematographer. No longer the voyeur, he was suddenly in a position where he had to meet his scene partner in the eye. “That changes how you compose an image,” Fray says. “That changes how you shoot an image. And I think that changes the dynamic between actor and camera, and cinematographer and performer.”