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ABILENE, Texas (AP) — Sam Hicks scored on a 53-yard run in the fourth quarter and finished with 171 yards on the ground to lead Abilene Christian to a 24-0 victory over Northern Arizona on Saturday in the first round of the FCS playoffs. The Wildcats (9-4), ranked No. 15 in the FCS coaches poll and seeded 15th, qualified for the playoffs for the first time and will travel to play No. 2 seed and nine-time champion North Dakota State (10-2) on Saturday at the Fargo Dome. The Bison had a first-round bye. Abilene Christian grabbed a 7-0 lead on its second possession when Carson Haggard connected with Trey Cleveland for a 37-yard touchdown that capped a 10-play 97-yard drive. Northern Arizona (8-5), ranked 17th but unseeded for the playoffs after winning five straight to get in, picked off Haggard on the Wildcats' next two possessions but could not turn them into points. NAU went for it on fourth-and-goal at the 1-yard line with 9:30 left before halftime, but Jordan Mukes tackled Ty Pennington for a 4-yard loss. That led to a 46-yard field goal by Ritse Vaes and a 10-0 lead at halftime. The score remained the same until Hicks' big run with 10:16 left to play. Haggard passed 6 yards to Blayne Taylor for the final score with 2:16 to go. Haggard completed 23 of 29 passes for 244 yards with three interceptions. Abilene Christian's defense allowed at least 20 points in every game during the regular season and yielded at least 30 six times. The Wildcats lost their season opener to FBS member Texas Tech 52-51 in overtime. Abilene Christian's last shutout came in a 56-0 victory over Lamar on Sept. 25, 2021. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
Businesses face stiff competition for price-sensitive holiday shoppers In a survey of 2,500 Canadian consumers, 71 per cent said they are changing their shopping habits to keep a tighter grip on their budgets, including by waiting to make purchases only when they find the best sale Susan Krashinsky Robertson, The Globe and Mail Nov 26, 2024 1:30 PM Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message While 'early Black Friday' sales are nothing new, stores are attempting to send the message that customers do not have to wait until the real Black Friday on Nov. 29 to find the best promotions. Rob Kruyt, BIV Listen to this article 00:06:38 In any year, the holiday season is a pivotal, make-or-break time for many businesses. But this year, while retailers are working even harder to entice consumers to get in the spending spirit, a number of factors are conspiring to keep Canadian shoppers at bay. First, there is the general consumer malaise: Many people have already been struggling with the high cost of living after unusually high inflation and interest-rate hikes in recent years. In addition, the continuing Canada Post strike may be discouraging those who like to check off their “nice” lists online, for fear that gifts may not arrive in time. Others may be waiting for better deals: this week’s Black Friday discount bonanza falls later in the calendar than usual this year. And for certain items affected by the federal government’s recent announcement of a moratorium on sales taxes – which does not begin until Dec. 14 – shoppers have even more incentive to delay their purchases. In short, price-sensitive shoppers are looking for deals, putting pressure on businesses to compete. “Retailers in Canada are nervous about this holiday season,” said Marty Weintraub, national retail consulting leader at Deloitte Canada. He added: “I do think it’s going to be a pretty hot post-Black Friday shopping season, and retailers are going to have to fight extra hard to get their share.” In its annual Holiday Retail Outlook study, Deloitte predicted that Canadians will on average spend $1,478 this festive season. That represents a 10-per-cent increase compared with last year, but it is still well below prepandemic spending. And people are picking and choosing where their money goes: while Deloitte expects spending on travel and charitable giving to grow significantly, the report predicts gift spending to rise just 4 per cent – only modestly outpacing inflation. “Things cost more. So it’s not necessarily buying more stuff, they just have to spend more money to get said stuff,” Mr. Weintraub said. Retailers have been responding by advertising their discounts – and starting early. While “early Black Friday” sales are nothing new, stores are attempting to send the message that customers do not have to wait until the real Black Friday on Nov. 29 to find the best promotions. Montreal-based outdoor e-commerce retailer Altitude Sports, for example, is advertising Black Friday pricing on more than 3,600 products on its website, with a price-matching guarantee that applies if a customer finds a better price – whether on a competitor’s site or Altitude’s own site – through a later deal. This is important because Altitude’s customer service line has been fielding questions about whether deeper discounts are still to come. “People are calling to know, what will the deals be on Black Friday? Should I wait?” Altitude’s co-chief executive officer, Maxime Dubois, said in an interview. He added that “for retailers, it adds pressure, because people have been trained to know that Black Friday is the time of year when they should act.” Retailers do not want shoppers to wait, for a couple of reasons. First, healthy sales volumes earlier in the season give companies more certainty, knowing that the holidays are going to go well, Mr. Dubois said. And having a “smoother sales curve” is more cost-efficient than having to process a massive surge of orders during the few days between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, he added. The draw of discounts is significant. Altitude also operates a website for clearance sales, called the Last Hunt: While it is a much smaller business, its sales growth has outpaced the larger website in recent years, giving a signal as to just how price-sensitive Canadian consumers have become. It’s not the only online discounter that is gaining traction: Deloitte’s research showed roughly one-third of Canadians are considering doing some of their holiday shopping on global marketplaces such as Temu and Shein, a higher number than in previous years. “That’s not a coincidence,” Deloitte’s Mr. Weintraub said. “It’s because a lot of these marketplaces offer value.” In a survey of 2,500 Canadian shoppers, conducted by research firm Leger for the Retail Council of Canada, 71 per cent said they are changing their shopping habits to keep a tighter grip on their budgets, including by waiting to make purchases only when they find the best sales. Toys “R” Us Canada has added to its usual promotional plans this year, making the sale pricing available in its annual “toy book” valid for three weeks instead of the usual two. Every weekend from October through December, the retailer is also offering additional “weekend deals” on selected products, a program that is new this year. It is intended to help Toys “R” Us “to remain top of mind, to get on to the consideration list of the shopper and to make sure that they are looking at what we have to offer,” said Allyson Banks, the retailer’s marketing director. Indigo Books & Music Inc. IDG-T has also been hosting events to try to prompt visits to its stores, including a 10,000 book giveaway in September. Last Saturday, Indigo advertised copies of Wicked – the novel inspired by L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and the basis for the hit musical and new movie – for $10 with any book purchase. But chief marketing officer Andrew Sutherland acknowledged in a statement that there is only so much early shopping that customers are willing to do. “Roughly 80 per cent of holiday shopping dollars are spent between Black Friday and Christmas, so a lost week puts a lot of pressure on all areas of the business,” he said in a statement. “Most critically, you’re pushing significant increases in customer traffic through a much tighter window, so the demands on our retail operations teams are intense.” Retailers usually start to see customers pull back on purchases as early as October, knowing that better promotions are coming soon, Leon’s Furniture LNF-T president Lewis Leon said in an interview. Last year, the company was caught out waiting to launch its Black Friday sales in mid-November, and had to change marketing plans on the fly when other retailers moved much earlier. This year, the stores began sales at the beginning of the month, and will continue offering those same discounts through the first week of December. For retailers competing for price-conscious shoppers, the idea of discounts pegged to a certain day or a single weekend is a thing of the past. “It really stretches for maybe four or five weeks, now, the Black Friday promotion,” Mr. Leon said. See a typo/mistake? Have a story/tip? This has been shared 0 times 0 Shares Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message Get your daily Victoria news briefing Email Sign Up More Retail & Manufacturing Vancouver Island retailers take stock of federal government's GST holiday Nov 25, 2024 5:45 AM Shorter holiday shopping season ups pressure on retailers and consumers Nov 25, 2024 1:00 AM West Coast retailers place stock in potential of AI Nov 22, 2024 4:00 PMThe team that President-elect Donald Trump has selected to lead federal health agencies in his second administration includes a retired congressman, a surgeon and a former talk-show host. All could play pivotal roles in fulfilling a political agenda that could change how the government goes about safeguarding Americans' health — from health care and medicines to food safety and science research. In line to lead the Department of Health and Human Services secretary is environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine organizer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Trump's choices don't have experience running large bureaucratic agencies, but they know how to talk about health on TV . Centers for Medicare and Medicaid pick Dr. Mehmet Oz hosted a talk show for 13 years and is a well-known wellness and lifestyle influencer. The pick for the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Marty Makary, and for surgeon general, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, are frequent Fox News contributors. Many on the list were critical of COVID-19 measures like masking and booster vaccinations for young people. Some of them have ties to Florida like many of Trump's other Cabinet nominees: Dave Weldon , the pick for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, represented the state in Congress for 14 years and is affiliated with a medical group on the state's Atlantic coast. Nesheiwat's brother-in-law is Rep. Mike Waltz , R-Fla., tapped by Trump as national security adviser. Here's a look at the nominees' potential role in carrying out what Kennedy says is the task to “reorganize” agencies, which have an overall $1.7 billion budget, employ 80,000 scientists, researchers, doctors and other officials, and effect Americans' daily lives: The Atlanta-based CDC, with a $9.2 billion core budget, is charged with protecting Americans from disease outbreaks and other public health threats. Kennedy has long attacked vaccines and criticized the CDC, repeatedly alleging corruption at the agency. He said on a 2023 podcast that there is "no vaccine that is safe and effective,” and urged people to resist the CDC's guidelines on if and when kids should get vaccinated . Decades ago, Kennedy found common ground with Weldon , 71, who served in the Army and worked as an internal medicine doctor before he represented a central Florida congressional district from 1995 to 2009. Starting in the early 2000s, Weldon had a prominent part in a debate about whether there was a relationship between a vaccine preservative called thimerosal and autism. He was a founding member of the Congressional Autism Caucus and tried to ban thimerosal from all vaccines. Kennedy, then a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, believed there was a tie between thimerosal and autism and also charged that the government hid documents showing the danger. Since 2001, all vaccines manufactured for the U.S. market and routinely recommended for children 6 years or younger have contained no thimerosal or only trace amounts, with the exception of inactivated influenza vaccine. Meanwhile, study after study after study found no evidence that thimerosal caused autism. Weldon's congressional voting record suggests he may go along with Republican efforts to downsize the CDC, including to eliminate the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, which works on topics like drownings, drug overdoses and shooting deaths. Weldon also voted to ban federal funding for needle-exchange programs as an approach to reduce overdoses, and the National Rifle Association gave him an “A” rating for his pro-gun rights voting record. Kennedy is extremely critical of the FDA, which has 18,000 employees and is responsible for the safety and effectiveness of prescription drugs, vaccines and other medical products, as well as overseeing cosmetics, electronic cigarettes and most foods. Makary, Trump’s pick to run the FDA, is closely aligned with Kennedy on several topics . The professor at Johns Hopkins University who is a trained surgeon and cancer specialist has decried the overprescribing of drugs, the use of pesticides on foods and the undue influence of pharmaceutical and insurance companies over doctors and government regulators. Kennedy has suggested he'll clear our “entire” FDA departments and also recently threatened to fire FDA employees for “aggressive suppression” of a host of unsubstantiated products and therapies, including stem cells, raw milk , psychedelics and discredited COVID-era treatments like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. Makary's contrarian views during the COVID-19 pandemic included questioning the need for masking and giving young kids COVID-19 vaccine boosters. But anything Makary and Kennedy might want to do when it comes to unwinding FDA regulations or revoking long-standing vaccine and drug approvals would be challenging. The agency has lengthy requirements for removing medicines from the market, which are based on federal laws passed by Congress. The agency provides health care coverage for more than 160 million people through Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act, and also sets Medicare payment rates for hospitals, doctors and other providers. With a $1.1 trillion budget and more than 6,000 employees, Oz has a massive agency to run if confirmed — and an agency that Kennedy hasn't talked about much when it comes to his plans. While Trump tried to scrap the Affordable Care Act in his first term, Kennedy has not taken aim at it yet. But he has been critical of Medicaid and Medicare for covering expensive weight-loss drugs — though they're not widely covered by either . Trump said during his campaign that he would protect Medicare, which provides insurance for older Americans. Oz has endorsed expanding Medicare Advantage — a privately run version of Medicare that is popular but also a source of widespread fraud — in an AARP questionnaire during his failed 2022 bid for a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania and in a 2020 Forbes op-ed with a former Kaiser Permanente CEO. Oz also said in a Washington Examiner op-ed with three co-writers that aging healthier and living longer could help fix the U.S. budget deficit because people would work longer and add more to the gross domestic product. Neither Trump nor Kennedy have said much about Medicaid, the insurance program for low-income Americans. Trump's first administration reshaped the program by allowing states to introduce work requirements for recipients. Kennedy doesn't appear to have said much publicly about what he'd like to see from surgeon general position, which is the nation's top doctor and oversees 6,000 U.S. Public Health Service Corps members. The surgeon general has little administrative power, but can be an influential government spokesperson on what counts as a public health danger and what to do about it — suggesting things like warning labels for products and issuing advisories. The current surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, declared gun violence as a public health crisis in June. Trump's pick, Nesheiwat, is employed as a New York City medical director with CityMD, a group of urgent care facilities in the New York and New Jersey area, and has been at City MD for 12 years. She also has appeared on Fox News and other TV shows, authored a book on the “transformative power of prayer” in her medical career and endorses a brand of vitamin supplements. She encouraged COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic, calling them “a gift from God” in a February 2021 Fox News op-ed, as well as anti-viral pills like Paxlovid. In a 2019 Q&A with the Women in Medicine Legacy Foundation , Nesheiwat said she is a “firm believer in preventive medicine” and “can give a dissertation on hand-washing alone.” As of Saturday, Trump had not yet named his choice to lead the National Institutes of Health, which funds medical research through grants to researchers across the nation and conducts its own research. It has a $48 billion budget. Kennedy has said he'd pause drug development and infectious disease research to shift the focus to chronic diseases. He'd like to keep NIH funding from researchers with conflicts of interest, and criticized the agency in 2017 for what he said was not doing enough research into the role of vaccines in autism — an idea that has long been debunked . Associated Press writers Amanda Seitz and Matt Perrone and AP editor Erica Hunzinger contributed to this report. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Get local news delivered to your inbox!
ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 3, 2024-- Angel Oak Financial Strategies Income Term Trust (the “Fund”), a closed-end fund traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol FINS, today declared a distribution of $0.109 per share for the month of December 2024. The record date for the distribution is December 17, 2024, and the payable date is December 31, 2024. The Fund will trade ex-distribution on December 17, 2024. The Fund seeks to pay a distribution at a rate that reflects net investment income actually earned. A portion of each distribution may be treated as paid from sources other than net investment income, including but not limited to short-term capital gain, long-term capital gain, or return of capital. As required by Section 19(a) of the Investment Company Act of 1940, a notice will be distributed to shareholders in the event that a portion of a monthly distribution is derived from sources other than undistributed net investment income. The final determination of the source and tax characteristics of these distributions will depend upon the Fund’s investment experience during its fiscal year and will be made after the Fund’s year end. The Fund will send to investors a Form 1099-DIV for the calendar year that will define how to report these distributions for federal income tax purposes. Angel Oak does not provide tax advice; shareholders should consult their tax advisor. A return of capital distribution does not necessarily reflect a fund’s investment performance and should not be confused with “yield” or “income.” ABOUT FINS Led by Angel Oak’s experienced financial services team, FINS invests predominantly in U.S. financial sector debt as well as selective opportunities across financial sector preferred and common equity. Under normal circumstances, at least 50% of FINS’ portfolio is publicly rated investment grade or, if unrated, judged to be of investment grade quality by Angel Oak. ABOUT ANGEL OAK CAPITAL ADVISORS, LLC Angel Oak Capital Advisors is an investment management firm focused on providing compelling fixed-income investment solutions to its clients. Backed by a value-driven approach, Angel Oak Capital Advisors seeks to deliver attractive, risk-adjusted returns through a combination of stable current income and price appreciation. Its experienced investment team seeks the best opportunities in fixed income, with a specialization in mortgage-backed securities and other areas of structured credit. Information regarding the Fund and Angel Oak Capital Advisors can be found at www.angeloakcapital.com . Past performance is neither indicative nor a guarantee of future results. Investors should consider the investment objective and policies, risk considerations, charges and ongoing expenses of an investment carefully before investing. For more information please contact your investment representative or Destra Capital Advisors LLC at 877.855.3434. © 2024 Angel Oak Capital Advisors, which is the investment adviser to the Angel Oak Financial Strategies Income Term Trust. View source version on businesswire.com : https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241203558524/en/ CONTACT: Media: Trevor Davis, Gregory FCA for Angel Oak Capital Advisors 443-248-0359 trevor@gregoryfca.comCompany : Randy Chrisman, Chief Marketing & Corporate IR Officer, Angel Oak Capital Advisors 404-953-4969 randy.chrisman@angeloakcapital.com KEYWORD: GEORGIA UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: ASSET MANAGEMENT PROFESSIONAL SERVICES FINANCE SOURCE: Angel Oak Financial Strategies Income Term Trust Copyright Business Wire 2024. PUB: 12/03/2024 04:30 PM/DISC: 12/03/2024 04:30 PM http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241203558524/en