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okebeth Trump team signs agreement to allow Justice to conduct background checks on nominees, staffLenovo Foldable Display Laptop Showcased At MWC 2023 Might Launch At CES 2025: ReportWhile a City Council committee vote on the mayor’s proposed “City of Yes” housing plan has been delayed, negotiations between the mayor’s office and the city’s legislative body are moving forward. Though there is still no official announcement as of this writing, Adams is reportedly allocating $5 billion of city funds to sewers, open spaces, and streets, as well as affordable housing construction and preservation. $1 billion of the proposed funding will be coming from the state, as Adams has reportedly gotten governor Kathy Hochul on board with the deal. These items obtained in the $5 billion deal were part of the “City for All” package, an alternative to the mayor’s plan proposed by Council speaker Adrienne Adams (no relation to the mayor). The funding comes in exchange for the Council’s support for “City of Yes,” according to officials familiar with the matter. “City of Yes” is a collection of zoning rules and incentives meant to boost the city’s housing stock, which would brin down home prices for purchasers and renters. The plan includes measures tailored for high- and low-density areas around the city. In the latter, this means provisions allowing for additional dwelling units, like structures built in backyards, garages, at the basement level, or in attics. According to people familiar with the ongoing negotiations, these are still part of the plan but have been taken off the table for certain outer-borough areas. Another point of contention is parking, as the mayor’s original plan took away any requirement for builders to provide parking, although it appears they will be preserved in some areas, In higher density neighborhoods, measures include obligating builders to include affordable housing in buildings should they choose to go above a certain height. It is estimated that the changes to the plan through these negotiations will reduce the total amount of housing projected over the next decade from 100,000 new units to 80,000. Even with the carve-outs, the plan is considered to be the most ambitious overhaul to the city’s zoning code since its adoption in 1961. The City Council is expected to take a full vote on “City of Yes” next month.

Trump transition signs agreement with Justice Department, paving the way for FBI background checks on Trump picks - CNNSingh won't support Conservative non-confidence motion that uses his own words

PORTLAND, Maine -- A pair of conservative groups on Friday challenged a Maine law that limits donations to political action committees that spend independently in candidate elections, arguing that money spent to support political expression is "a vital feature of our democracy.” Supporters of the referendum overwhelmingly approved on Election Day fully expected a legal showdown over caps on individual contributions to so-called super PACs. They hoped the referendum would trigger a case and ultimately prompt the U.S. Supreme Court to clarify the matter of donor limits after the court opened the floodgates to independent spending in its 2010 Citizens United decision. The lawsuit brought by Dinner Table Action and For Our Future, and supported by the Institute for Free Speech, contends the state law limiting individual super PAC donations to $5,000 and requiring disclosure of donor names runs afoul of that Citizens United legal precedent. “All Americans, not just those running for office, have a fundamental First Amendment right to talk about political campaigns,” lawyers wrote in the lawsuit in federal court. “Their ‘independent expenditures,’ payments that fund political expression by those who are not running for office but nonetheless have something to say about a campaign, are a vital feature of our democracy.” Cara McCormick, leader of the Maine Citizens to End Super PACs, which pressed for the referendum, said the lawsuit attempts to undermine the will of the people after an overwhelming majority — 74% of voters — approved the referendum last month. “Super PACs are killing the country and in Maine we decided to do something about it. We want to restore public trust in the political process,” she said. “We want to say that in Maine we are not resigned to the tide of big money. We are the tide.” But Alex Titcomb, executive director of Dinner Table Action, argued Friday that the government “cannot restrict independent political speech simply because some voters wish to limit the voices of their fellow citizens.” Named in the lawsuit are Maine’s attorney general and the state’s campaign spending watchdog, the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices. The ethics commission is reviewing the complaint, said Jonathan Wayne, executive director. The Maine referendum didn’t attempt to limit spending on behalf of candidates. Instead, it focused on limits on individual donations to super PACS, an area the Supreme Court has not ruled on, observers say. Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig, a longtime advocate for campaign finance reform, contends the U.S. Supreme Court has not ruled on the issue of individual contributions to PACs, and long-established case law supports the notion that states can limit individual contributions to PACs despite a decision to the contrary by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Lessig, whose Equal Citizens nonprofit backed the Maine referendum, previously said the cap on donations imposed by the referendum "is not asking the Supreme Court to change its jurisprudence, not asking them to overturn Citizens United.”

French officials raise Mayotte death toll to 39 after Storm ChidoFootball: Coach Prime’s CU Buffs set to add young talent as signing period beginsQuarterback Drew Lock will start for the New York Giants on Sunday against the visiting Indianapolis Colts, coach Brian Daboll confirmed Tuesday. Lock's availability was uncertain after he injured his right shoulder during last weekend's 34-7 setback against the Atlanta Falcons. Lock, 28, underwent an MRI on Monday and the tests showed no damage, Daboll said. In six games (three starts) this season, Lock has an 0-3 record and has completed 52.7 percent of his passes for 624 yards with one touchdown and four interceptions. The Giants (2-13) take a 10-game losing streak -- the longest in franchise history -- into the meeting with the Colts (7-8). --Field Level Media

Americans have been appalled by thousands of illegal immigrants — those granted temporary legal status or who crossed the border undetected — exacerbating homelessness and straining shelters, schools and social services budgets. President-elect Donald Trump promised aggressive deportations during his campaign, but he hardly has a mandate. He won the popular vote by 1.5 percentage points, and Republicans enjoy a House majority of only three seats. President Biden muffed the immigration issue by reversing most of Mr. Trump’s tough border policies — including requiring many migrants to wait in Mexico while their asylum claims could be heard. The Biden policy coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic and economic disorder in much of Latin America, and the number of immigrants in the U.S. illegally surpassed 13 million. Hardly all deadbeats, many found work and proved vital to sustaining the robust 2.5% pace of economic growth we enjoyed in the Trump and Biden years, compared with the 1.9% accomplished during the Bush-Obama era. After the pandemic shutdowns, the economy rapidly recovered and was at full employment in the summer of 2023. Over the next year, it added 195,000 jobs a month, when indigenous population growth and legal immigration could support only about 80,000 a month. Illegal immigrants made up the difference, account for half of agricultural workers and are prominently represented in the building trades, hospitality and day care for children and older adults. Vice President-elect J.D. Vance argues that these workers could be replaced by offering Americans higher wages, but that’s silly. In an economy with just 7 million job-seekers, it’s highly problematic to visualize how more than 1 million Americans could be motivated to take backbreaking jobs picking avocados and lettuce in the Central Valley of California, packing meat in Iowa or milking cows in Wisconsin. The combination of workers deported, fleeing to Canada or going into hiding would create significant food shortages and the kind of grocery price inflation suffered during and after the COVID shutdowns. It would force many women to quit the workforce for lack of child care. Familiar faces would disappear at supermarkets, restaurants and dry cleaners, while the pace of inflation, which appears to be settling at about 2.5%, would jump to 4.5%. Economic growth would slow dramatically and retirement security impaired by an anemic stock market. Workers in immigrant-dominated occupations would get pay raises that exceed the rate of inflation. But for Americans employed in other industries, moribund or nonexistent growth would spell more joblessness and wages lagging inflation like the years following the COVID shutdowns. The cost of mass deportation could reach $900 billion — enough to build nearly 3 million homes or 43,450 elementary schools. The incoming Trump administration is misreading its mandate. Americans may want the border and immigration laws tightly enforced, but according to a recent Pew Trust poll, 64% of Americans favor letting illegal immigrants who are already here stay if they meet conditions such as passing a background check. Seeing real incomes fall, shortages of basic services such as child care, elder care, home and office cleaners and counter help at fast-food places — and draconian images of the National Guard and sheriff’s deputies dragging immigrants from their workplaces and homes — would surely make the latter statistic rocket and permit Mr. Trump’s critics to paint him as a fascist. With only a slim Republican majority in the House, prospects for a good deal of his other economic and foreign policy priorities would be impaired. In the propaganda competition with China and Russia for influence in emerging nations, the American brand of champion of human rights would be severely damaged. Our current system permits too few legal immigrants, creating worker shortages, including in the tech sector. It is too biased toward family reunification, which can be abused through chain immigration and a diversity lottery. Instead, we should increase quotas enough to ensure 1 million to 1.5 million more workers a year. Like Canada, we should screen applicants primarily on the basis of their prospective contribution to the economy — prioritize those applicants filling needed employment categories. Let employers sponsor workers but pay a significant fee to be set by auction — the proceeds could be used to assist local governments with resettlement costs. Employers should be required to guarantee work for a minimum period of perhaps a year or two, subject to safeguards to prevent churning. It’s not just blue-collar and low-wage occupations that suffer shortages, and bigger quotas for engineers and other technology workers would likely accelerate growth in ways we have not calculated. Raising the cost to employers of immigrant workers through auctioned licenses would greatly reduce their incentive to turn to immigrants to avoid paying native-born Americans and green card holders higher wages. Stronger growth would raise real incomes for most everyone and help create more secure retirements through a higher worker-to-reitree ratio and a stronger stock market. . Copyright © 2024 The Washington Times, LLC. .

French President Emmanuel Macron has named François Bayrou his fourth prime minister of 2024, tasking the veteran centrist with steering the country out of its second major political crisis in the last six months. The 73-year-old was appointed nine days after parliament ousted former prime minister Michel Barnier's government in a historic no-confidence vote following a standoff over his attempts to pass a cost-cutting 2025 budget. "The president of the Republic has appointed Mr. François Bayrou as prime minister and tasked him with forming a government," the presidency said. Bayrou is the sixth prime minister of Macron's mandate, with his predecessor Barnier, France's shortest-serving premier, having lasted only three months. Three times a presidential candidate himself, in 2002, 2007 and 2012 — and long cited as an obvious choice for Macron as head of government — he finally has his chance . What is Bayrou's background? Bayrou, 73, heads the liberal Democratic Movement (MoDem) party which is allied to, but not part of, Macron's centrist force and has supported the president ever since his victorious 2017 election campaign. He was named justice minister by Macron when he took the presidency in 2017. He resigned the same year when a legal case was opened against him over the alleged fraudulent employment of parliamentary assistants by his party, but remained a key behind-the-scenes ally. Bayrou was acquitted in February after the seven-year-long case, with the judge ruling that he was owed the "benefit of the doubt". His acquittal opened up a potential return to government. Bayrou has had a long and varied political career, during which he has worked with former right-wing presidents Valery Giscard d'Estaing and Jacques Chirac before backing Socialist Francois Hollande in 2012. Mayor of the southwestern city of Pau, Bayrou is a practising Catholic but also a staunch supporter of France's secular system. Source: AAP, EPA / Teresa Suarez He gained notoriety during his 2002 presidential campaign when he slapped the face of a child who tried to pick his pocket. He won less than 7 per cent of the vote and was eliminated in the first round. The father of six children, Bayrou is also the author of a biography of the 16th- and 17th-century French king Henry IV. What challenges does Bayrou face? Bayrou will have to navigate a tricky course as the sixth prime minister of Macron's presidency. Each successive premier has served for a shorter period than their predecessor and, given the composition of the National Assembly lower house, there is no guarantee that Barnier's successor will last any longer than the three months that the right-winger was in office. His immediate priority will be passing a special law to roll over the 2024 budget, with a nastier battle over the 2025 legislation looming early next year. Parliamentary pushback over Barnier's 2025 bill led to his downfall, and progressive leaders announced on Friday that they might try to topple Bayrou as well should he use special constitutional powers to ram through the budget. Source: AAP, EPA / Teresa Suarez Barnier's budget bill, which aimed for 60 billion euros ($99 billion) in savings to assuage investors increasingly concerned by France's 6 per cent deficit, was deemed too miserly by the parties on the right and left extremes. In a speech alongside Barnier on Friday, Bayrou acknowledged the challenge. "Nobody knows the difficulty of the situation better than I do ... I am not unaware of the Himalaya that stands before us," he said. "I believe that this issue, the deficit and debt, is an issue that poses a moral problem, not just a financial one." He will be tasked with holding dialogue with all political forces except the far-right National Rally (RN) and hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) parties "in order to find conditions for stability and action", a member of Macron's team said on Friday. Bayrou's proximity to the deeply unpopular Macron may prove to be a vulnerability. Source: Getty / Julien de Rosa The Socialist Party, which Macron courted during his prime ministerial search, accused the president of ignoring their demands for a leftist leader in favour of a "risky" Macronista. "We will thus not enter the government and remain in the opposition," said Boris Vallaud, the leader of the Socialists' parliamentary bloc. Reaction to Bayrou's appointment on the left will be a concern for Macron, with the prime minister likely living day to day at the mercy of the president's opponents for the foreseeable future. Leaders of France Unbowed said they would be seeking to remove Bayrou immediately, while leaders from other progressive parties took a more nuanced approach. Greens boss Marine Tondelier also said she would support a no-confidence motion if the prime minister ignored their tax and pensions concerns. Communist leader Fabien Roussel said his party would hold fire against Bayrou and decide on a case-by-case basis if he promises not to ram through legislation. Jordan Bardella, president of the National Rally party, said it would not be calling for an immediate no-confidence motion, while fellow RN leader Marine Le Pen said Bayrou should listen to the opposition's budgetary wishes. Macron will hope Bayrou can stave off no-confidence votes until at least July, when France will be able to hold a new parliamentary election.Vance takes on a more visible transition role, working to boost Trump’s most contentious picks5 Reasons Why ADHD Diagnoses Are On The Rise These Days

Suspected political thugs on Tuesday took over the Oredo Local Government Council Secretariat, thereby preventing the Council Chairman, Dr. Tom Obaseki, from gaining access to his office. Armed with dangerous weapons, the thugs took strategic positions at the secretariat, chanting war songs. The development forced the embattled council boss who had resumed work for the day to retreat. Obaseki who spoke with journalists outside the council premises said: “I came here to continue my work as elected chairman of Oredo local government, I met a whole lot of thugs who have already overtaken the council. “This is a very disturbing trend. We are calling on the security agencies to arrest the situation. “What is important is that we have a restraining order.” Obaseki resumed for the day, following the Edo State High Court ruling on Friday which nullified his suspension alongside 17 other councils chairmen. The 18 council chairmen and their deputies were suspended by the Edo State House of Assembly following a petition by Governor Monday Okpebholo during which the latter alleged insubordination and gross misconduct. Meanwhile, In Orhionmwon Local Government, the council chairman, Mr. Newton Ugiagbe, resumed and performed his official duties unhindered. The Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the council Boss, Mr. Roy Oseriemen said: “although the All Progressives Congress (APC) thugs tried to disrupt the smooth running of the council, but they were resisted by the good people of Orhionmwon. “Apart from those skirmishes, the council chairman and the legislative arm worked on Monday unhindered. “This is because they are on the same page in the delivery of good governance to the people.”Lufthansa Group Enhances Passenger Comfort with New Airbus A350-1000 Aircraft11 states sue three largest institutional investors for anticompetitive trade practices

NoneStreaming giant Netflix Inc NFLX recently streamed a live boxing event featuring a match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson which led to difficulties for consumers trying to watch the fight. The company's co-CEO Ted Sarandos highlighted the success of the fight and what's ahead for live sports events in a recent interview. What Happened: Netflix saw unprecedented demand for the Nov. 15 boxing match between Paul and Tyson with 109 million people watching the fight globally, according to Sarandos. "We were pushing the (internet service provider), every ISP in the world, right to the limits of their own capacity. We were stressing the limits of the internet itself that night," Sarandos said at a UBS conference earlier this week, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. Sarandos said the company had a control room in Silicon Valley that worked on fixing internet issues due to the "unprecedented demand that was happening." The Netflix co-CEO highlighted the combined efforts of the content team, marketing, publicity and social media teams to help make the fight as big as it was. "It's really phenomenal. It's a Super Bowl-like audience that we were able to draw for this fight." Read Also: Netflix Q3 Earnings: Revenue Beats, EPS Tops, Q4 Guidance Projects Subscriber Boost From ‘Squid Game,’ NFL, And Boxing What's Next : Netflix has a quick turnaround to prepare for huge demand for its next live sporting event. The company hosts two National Football League games on Christmas Day. While the NFL games might not have as big of an audience as the boxing match, the fact the Kansas City Chiefs play in one game and Beyoncé is performing at halftime in the other could increase the audience compared to normal NFL games. "It is Christmas Day. So you will be aware that it is Christmas Day, the show and the broadcast itself, and all the entertainment that's wrapped around it will all be very special and very unique, and I think, bigger than the game itself," Sarandos said. The Netflix executive said the company is preparing to offer more "big-scale live events" and do them more frequently. This means the company will likely need to make sure the NFL games see fewer issues than the boxing event to keep customers happy as at least one class-action lawsuit hit the company over the buffering issues during the boxing match. For Netflix, live sports events offer a way to gain subscribers and diversify its content. The events also allow the company to grow its advertising revenue with the ad-supported plans a growing focus. Sarandos said the NFL games and upcoming WWE events have brought "a lot of demand" from advertisers. The Netflix executive said the company may have left money on the table with advertising revenue for the Paul-Tyson match. "If we knew the audience would be that big, we probably would have done a lot more selling on that fight." Netflix begins broadcasting WWE events in January as part of an agreement with the company's owner TKO Group Holdings TKO . Sarandos said WWE fits into the mold of a younger audience and treats sporting contests like big events. "We also liked it because for a sport, it also has a 40-person writer room, so it's much closer to our current wheelhouse of creating and storytelling." While Netflix has bid on media rights for sports leagues in the past, comments from Sarandos suggest the company would prefer to push for unique events instead of a full season. NFLX Price Action: Netflix stock is down 1% to $918.07 on Friday versus a 52-week trading range of $461.86 to $941.75. Netflix stock is up 96% year-to-date in 2024. Read Next: ‘Squid Game’ Season 2 Includes New Games, Contestant With A Crypto Background, Revenge Factor, Political Overtones Courtesy: Netflix © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

A judge has once again rejected Musk’s multi-billion-dollar Tesla pay package. Now what?