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Occidental offers to buy Anadarko in $57 billion deal, topping Chevron

The Occidental Petroleum Corp headquarters in Los Angeles
FILE PHOTO: The Occidental Petroleum Corp headquarters is pictured in Los Angeles, California September 16, 2013. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

April 24, 2019

(Reuters) – Oil and gas producer Occidental Petroleum Corp on Wednesday offered to buy rival Anadarko Petroleum Corp in a $57 billion deal, topping Chevron Corp’s agreement to buy Anadarko for $50 billion.

Both cash-and-stock deals include Anadarko’s debt.

Occidental’s $76 per share offer comprises $38 in cash and 0.6094 shares of Occidental for each share of Anadarko, representing a premium of 19 percent to Anadarko’s closing price on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Debroop Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

Source: OANN

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Facebook Restores Warren's Ads Aimed at Breaking Up Tech Giants

Sen. Elizabeth Warren's ads calling for the breakup of Facebook and other tech giants were restored on the social media site Monday after being removed from the platform over the weekend for violating the company's policy against use of its corporate logo, The Hill reports.

"In the interest of allowing robust debate, we are restoring the ads," the company told The Hill.

The ads touted Warren's plan to unwind "anti-competitive" tech mergers, including Facebook's acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp.

"Three companies have vast power over our economy and our democracy. Facebook, Amazon, and Google," the ads read. "We all use them. But in their rise to power, they've bulldozed competition, used our private information for profit, and tilted the playing field in their favor."

Warren's proposal to break up big tech companies is the most specific plan put forth in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary to limit Silicon Valley.

"We need to stop this generation of big tech companies from throwing around their political power to shape the rules in their favor and throwing around their economic power to snuff out or buy up every potential competitor," Warren said Friday.

"That's why my administration will make big, structural changes to the tech sector to promote more competition — including breaking up Amazon, Facebook, and Google."

Source: NewsMax America

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French consumer confidence jumps to pre-‘yellow vest’ level

FILE PHOTO: A protester wearing a yellow vest attends a demonstration of the
FILE PHOTO: A protester wearing a yellow vest attends a demonstration of the "yellow vests" movement in Nantes, France, December 22, 2018. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe

February 26, 2019

PARIS (Reuters) – French consumer confidence jumped in February to its highest level since “yellow vest” protesters started their weekly demonstrations, as households took heart in an improvement in their finances and unemployment fears receded.

The reading of 95 points marked the highest level for the consumer confidence index since October, which was the month before “yellow vests” protesters started weekend marches against high living costs and President Emmanuel Macron’s policies.

The increase in the index by the national INSEE statistics office, which beat the average forecasts of economists, came as Macron’s costly measures to boost workers’ income and quell the protests kicked in this month.

In December, the French leader decided to speed up an increase in benefits received by the poorest workers, halt a planned rise in fuel taxes, and reduce taxes on overtime, for a total cost of 10 billion euros ($11.35 billion).

“The French consumer is recovering quickly,” Pictet economist Frederik Ducrozet said. “Confidence is rising post-‘gilets jaunes’ as Macron’s stimulus measures kick in and unemployment fears recede.”

The national statistics office, INSEE, said the number of consumers who had observed an improvement in their finances in the past year had increased, while more of them also expected the increase to continue in the future.

Households fears of unemployment also dropped markedly this month, INSEE said.

France’s unemployment rate fell unexpectedly at the end of last year to its lowest level since the start of 2009, official data showed earlier this month.

The brighter outlook is good news for Macron, whose popularity has started to recover from its worst level at the peak of the “yellow vest” crisis in December.

The 41-year-old leader has launched a series of debates across the country aimed at reconnecting with voters, particularly in rural areas.

Weekly “yellow vest” marches continue every Saturday, but turnout has fallen and support for the movement among the broader public as waned, polls show.

Named after the fluorescent jackets motorists must keep in their cars, the grassroot “yellow vest” protests started in mid-November as a revolt against high prices at the pump, before morphing into a broader challenge to Macron’s pro-business policies.

(Reporting by Michel Rose; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Alison Williams)

Source: OANN

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China’s January home price growth slips to nine-month low

FILE PHOTO - Apartment blocks are pictured during sunset on the outskirts of Tianjin
FILE PHOTO - Apartment blocks are pictured during sunset on the outskirts of Tianjin, China February 2, 2018. REUTERS/Jason Lee/File Photo

February 22, 2019

By Yawen Chen and Philip Wen

ZHENGZHOU, China (Reuters) – Growth in China’s new home prices eased slightly in January from December, in initial signs the property market is cooling as the economy slows, but price gains in annual terms accelerated.

Weaker economic momentum and the government’s drive to dampen speculation have hurt buyer sentiment but price growth has stayed relatively resilient as policymakers avoid triggering financial risks with a sharp slowdown in the key sector.

Average new home prices in China’s 70 major cities rose 0.6 percent in January, the weakest pace since April 2018, according to Reuters calculations based on data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Friday.

That was slower than December’s 0.8 percent monthly growth but marked 45 straight months of price increases, Reuters calculations showed.

Still, on an annual basis, home prices increased 10 percent in January, accelerating from a 9.7 percent pace in December. Fifty-eight of the total 70 cities surveyed by the NBS reported higher prices in January, down from 59 in December.

China’s economy grew at its weakest pace in 28 years last year due to trade frictions and Beijing’s multi-year campaign to crack down on debt risks, weighing on consumer sentiment and the outlook for the country’s residential property market.

Some smaller cities have quietly loosened property policies to stabilize market sentiment. In December, Heze, a city in eastern China, reversed a rule designed to curb real estate flipping.

Price growth in China’s tier-1 cities – Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou – rose 0.4 percent from a month earlier, compared with an increase of 1.3 percent in December, the statistics bureau said in a statement accompanying the data.

For tier-2 provincial capitals and smaller tier-3 cities, the official survey showed monthly price gains of 0.7 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.

China’s biggest developer by sales, Country Garden, China Vanke and China Evergrande all posted lower contract sales in January compared with a year earlier.

New household loans, mostly mortgages, increased by 989.8 billion yuan in January, accounting for 30.6 percent of total new loans in January, central bank data showed last week.

Cooling China’s property market: https://tmsnrt.rs/2rL5vat

(Reporting by Yawen Chen and Philip Wen in ZHENGZHOU; Min Zhang in BEIJING; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

Source: OANN

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Tennessee woman, 90, points gun, threatens to kill neighbor over leaves in yard, police say

A Tennessee woman was arrested Thursday after a neighbor said the 90-year-old pointed a gun at her and threatened to kill her over leaves in the nonagenarian's yard, police said.

Bessie Bowen was charged with aggravated assault and violation of an order of protection following the incident at her home in the Bethel Grove neighborhood in Memphis, FOX13 reported. A woman called police claiming Bowen had pointed a gun at her and threatened to shoot her dead because of the leaves in her yard. She told police she took pictures and a video of Bowen’s alleged attack.

The neighbor also had an order of protection against Bowen due to a past assault, FOX13 reported.

MS-13 MEMBERS ACCUSED OF STABBING 16-YEAR-OLD 100 TIMES, SETTING BODY ON FIRE

Police searched Bowen for the gun, but only found the holster.

The 90-year-old woman was arrested Thursday, but later released on her own recognizance.

Another neighbor who knew Bowen told WREG he was shocked by the incident, but noted the 90-year-old has “always been serious about her yard.”

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"She's always been serious about her yard. I never had a problem with her. I never seen or heard her do anything like that,” he said. "I hope they don't send her to jail.”

“She's an old lady. Just serious about her yard,” he added.

Source: Fox News National

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Compliance officers wary of switch to ‘Wild West’ crypto sector

FILE PHOTO: Logos of Monex Group Inc and Coincheck are seen before their joint news conference in Tokyo
FILE PHOTO: Logos of Monex Group Inc and Coincheck are seen before their joint news conference in Tokyo, Japan April 6, 2018. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo

March 28, 2019

By Anna Irrera and Tom Wilson

NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) – After almost three decades in senior compliance roles at large financial firms including Bank of New York Mellon’s Pershing and Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Jeff Horowitz made an unconventional career move.

In July he became chief compliance officer at cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, taking a leap into the more lightly regulated world of digital assets.

“It’s not for the faint of heart,” Horowitz said of the move from compliance on Wall Street to a cryptocurrency startup. “You need to have a flexible risk needle. The old school attitude of compliance being Doctor No really doesn’t translate well to this industry.”

Horowitz is one of several senior compliance officers hired by cryptocurrency firms over the past year in a recruitment spree aimed at helping them cope with increased regulatory scrutiny and becoming more palatable to mainstream investors.

The companies are especially keen to poach executives like Horowitz who have spent years in the legal and compliance divisions of large banks and law firms. But convincing them is not easy, say headhunters and recent hires.

They tend to be risk averse and could be put off by the industry’s libertarian founding ethos which can mean hostility toward government regulators.

Digital currency trading has also faced a year-long slump in volumes, making it harder for firms to attract candidates with promises of crypto riches.

Annual salaries for senior positions in London are around 120,000 pounds ($158,000) or more and in the United States around $300,000 or higher for larger companies, recruiters said.

As these salaries are in line with the mainstream financial industry, recruiters pitch the chance to work in a fast-moving and emerging industry.

“The best chief compliance officers have successfully mitigated risk for a living, and they tend to be relatively risk-averse when thinking about their careers,” said Scott Fletcher, a founder at fintech C-suite recruitment firm Intersection Growth Partners.

“To find a person who has the skill set and is also willing to take the risk to join a cryptocurrency firm, it’s tough.”

Carrying out checks on new clients, fielding requests for information from law enforcement, and figuring out what laws may apply to new financial assets – often across jurisdictions – are among the jobs that can be more challenging in a crypto firm.

“On-boarding a new client you need to undertake careful due diligence,” said Charles Beach of Lendingblock, a London-based securities lending platform for cryptocurrencies. “But you might not obtain the same level of assurance from a firm in the still very new crypto industry as you would from a mainstream financial firm.”

He previously worked in senior risk positions at trading firm IG Group, UBS and PwC.

HACKING SCANDALS

The crypto industry has been peppered by scandals including hacks, technology failings and alleged use of virtual coins for money laundering and on illegal online marketplaces.

In September the New York Attorney General’s Office said several cryptocurrency exchanges faced conflicts of interest, were vulnerable to market manipulation and put customer funds at risk.

The same month, British lawmakers said the cryptocurrency market resembled “the Wild West” and should take steps to protect consumers and make it less vulnerable to hacking.

Some cryptocurrency industry bodies, such as Britain’s CryptoUK, have welcomed calls for regulation, urging a balance between rules to shield consumers and nurturing innovation. Others, like Global Digital Finance, have looked to establish industry-wide international standards.

Still, major lapses continue to happen.

In January about $135 million in cryptocurrencies were frozen in the user accounts of Canadian exchange Quadriga after its founder, the only person with the password, died suddenly.

In an affidavit filed on Quadriga’s behalf, the founder’s widow said she did not have the password to a “cold wallet” that held the cryptocurrencies on the founder’s computer.

A year earlier hackers stole cryptocurrency worth $530 million from Tokyo-based exchange Coincheck, prompting an industry-wide crackdown by Japan’s financial watchdog.

Coincheck eventually repaid affected investors some 46 billion yen ($413 million) with its own funds, and was bought by online brokerage Monex Group Inc last April.

“MAJOR LEAGUE TO LITTLE LEAGUE”

As regulators consider stricter new rules for exchanges or ramp up enforcement of existing ones, demand for experienced compliance professionals has grown.

“In the last 12 months we have seen somewhere near a 230 percent increase in volumes of compliance-related jobs,” said Zeth Couceiro, the founder of Plexus, a London-based recruitment firm whose specialties include cryptocurrencies.

Exchanges are also looking for employees who can help them adopt standards to appeal to more mainstream investors such as pension funds and asset managers. They have largely stayed clear of crypto, in part because of concerns about security breaches and a perception of lax internal controls.

“The people that can do that are the ones that have dealt with regulation for highly regulated institutions,” said Josh Goodbody, who was hired as general counsel for global sales and institutional business at Singapore-based exchange Huobi in June. Goodbody’s experience includes roles at State Street Corp and JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Some executives who have made the switch say the industry’s reputation still gives them pause.

A chief compliance officer at a major Japanese exchange said founders of cryptocurrency companies often lack the experience and rigor needed to run a financial company.

“Every day I experience the difference,” the person said. “It’s huge – it’s like going from major league baseball to little league.”

(Editing by Anna Willard)

Source: OANN

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Ex-GOP Chairman Warns: America Moving Towards Socialism

Former California GOP Chairman Tom Del Beccaro listed nine ways in which America is moving towards socialism during an appearance on “Fox & Friends” Monday.

Del Beccaro said increased government spending and inflated tax codes are just the beginning and claimed they’ll have a domino effect on the rest of the country.

“We do have massive [spending],” he said. “We are going to spend $7.6 trillion as a society in this upcoming year which is roughly four times what Reagan’s era spent when he said government was the problem.”

“We have massive tax systems,” Del Beccaro continued. “And hallmarks of socialist societies are poor incentives where there is weak economic growth. And that comes from tax systems. Trump did a good job beginning with the business tax code. He’s got to do better with personal so we have better growth.”

He then moved to reduced economic growth through government interference and cited the EU as a prime example.

“[The EU] had zero economic growth over the last 20 years and government is about 60, 70 percent of their economies,” Del Beccaro said. “In the United States we’re about 36 [percent]. With regulations closer to 50. Our growth has slipped from four to two over the last sixty years.”


The popularity of socialism has spread like wild fire especially since the Obama administration.

He also highlighted deficit spending and said it eventually leads to the printing of money, before massive inflation kicks in.

“No government can keep up with the spending, taxes can’t do enough,” he said. “So they start printing money. This is the danger zone when that sort of thing happens. We had it once in the ’70s. Venezuela has it now. They have about a million percent inflation this year. A million.”

Printing money leads to wage and price controls, which could limit commerce and availability, giving rise to underground economies.

“This all comes out of weak economic growth. That’s the key here. If you have zero or less growth, you’re going to have stagnation. And then you start having shortages,” he said.

“In the United States, we had a lot of this during the Carter era. Once the engine got going under Reagan then it changed.”

Del Beccaro said the final two stages of socialism are class warfare and societal discord.

“That all relates to economic growth. If people can get jobs, then they start to worry about what’s on their own plate and advancing,” he said. “But if they can’t get jobs, they look to the others and say well, they’re doing too well. And if you have too much income gap or wealth gap, then it gets played up. That’s where the real danger zone starts.”

(Photo by Andrew Czap, Flickr)

Del Beccaro said America has become more socialist over the last 20 years and accused Democrats of normalizing ideas like the Green New Deal and Medicare for All.

“Spending is so much more. And if they went forward with something like Medicare for All and drove spending above 50 percent, then socialism starts to sound normal and comes into view,” he said. “If we kill off economic growth with AOC’s Green New Deal, then you’re going to have this class warfare. This can be avoided.”


Alex Jones breaks down the latest from New Zealand.

Source: InfoWars

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FILE PHOTO - A worker sits on a ship carrying containers at Mundra Port in the western Indian state of Gujarat
FILE PHOTO: A worker sits on a ship carrying containers at Mundra Port in the western Indian state of Gujarat April 1, 2014. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File Photo

April 26, 2019

(Reuters) – India has once again delayed the implementation of higher tariffs on some goods imported from the United States to May 15, a government official said on Friday.

The new tariff structure was to come into force from May 2, the spokeswoman said without citing reasons for the delay.

Angered by Washington’s refusal to exempt it from new steel and aluminum tariffs, New Delhi decided in June last year to raise the import tax from Aug. 4 on some U.S. products including almonds, walnuts and apples.

But since then, New Delhi has repeatedly delayed the implementation of the new tariff.

Trade friction between India and the U.S. has escalated after U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans earlier this year to end preferential trade treatment for India that allows duty-free entry for up to $5.6 billion worth of its exports to the United States.

In a further blow, U.S. on Monday demanded buyers of Iranian oil stop purchases by May or face sanctions, ending six months of waivers which allowed Iran’s eight biggest buyers including India to continue importing limited volumes.

(Reporting by Manoj Kumar in New Delhi and Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva and Raissa Kasolowsky)

Source: OANN

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One of Joe Biden’s newly-hired senior advisers has seemingly had a very recent change of heart.

Symone Sanders, a prominent Democratic strategist and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., staffer in 2016, was announced as one of the big-name members of Team Biden on Thursday.

But Sanders, who has also served as a CNN contributor, is seen in resurfaced footage from November 2016 expressing her opposition to a white person leading her party after Donald Trump’s election.

“In my opinion, we don’t need white people leading the Democratic party right now,” Sanders told host Brianna Keilar during a discussion on Howard Dean potentially becoming DNC chairman.

BIDEN HIRES FORMER BERNIE SANDERS’ SPOKESPERSON AS SENIOR ADVISER

“The Democratic party is diverse, and it should be reflected as so in leadership and throughout the staff, at the highest levels. From the vice chairs to the secretaries all the way down to the people working in the offices at the DNC,” she said.

Sanders wrapped up her remarks by saying: “I want to hear more from everybody. I want to hear from the millennials and the brown folks.”

Footage of the interview was resurfaced by RealClearPolitics.

After news of her hiring broke on Thursday, Sanders backed her new boss on Twitter.

TRUMP ASSESSES 2020 DEMS; TAKES SWIPES AT BIDEN, SANDERS; DISMISSES HARRIS, O’ROURKE; SAYS HE’S ROOTING FOR BUTTIGIEG

“@JoeBiden & @DrBiden are a class act. Over the course of this campaign, Vice President Biden is going to make his case to the American ppl. He won’t always be perfect, but I believe he will get it right,” she wrote.

The hiring of Sanders has been viewed as another indication of the expected tough fight that Biden and Sanders are in for as the two frontrunners battle a deep Democratic field.

While Sanders himself didn’t torch Biden as he jumped into the race, it’s clear that many of his progressive supporters view the former vice president as a threat.

Biden’s entry into the race – at least in the early going – sets up a battle between himself and Sanders, who thanks to his fierce fight with eventual nominee Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic nomination, enjoys name ID on the level of the former vice president.

BIDEN VOWS THAT ‘AMERICA IS COMING BACK,’ SPARKING ‘MAGA’ COMPARISONS

Justice Democrats — who also called Biden “out-of-touch” – is an increasingly influential group among the left of the party. They’ve championed progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York as well as Sanders. The group was founded by members of Sanders 2016 presidential campaign.

Biden has pushed back against the perception that he’s a moderate in a party that’s increasingly moving to the left. Earlier this month he described himself as an “Obama-Biden Democrat.”

And Biden said he’d stack his record against “anybody who has run or who is running now or who will run.”

Former Democratic National Committee chair Donna Brazile – a Fox News contributor – highlighted that “Joe Biden can occupy his own lane in large part because he’s earned it. He’s earned the right to call himself whatever.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

But she emphasized that “elections are not about the past, they’re about the future…I do believe he has the right ingredients. The question is can he find enough people to help him stir the pot.”

Fox News Andrew O’Reilly contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News Politics

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Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, who is facing increased calls for her immediate resignation, remains in poor health and is not “lucid” enough to decide whether to step down, her attorney told reporters late Thursday.

Steve Silverman, speaking outside one of Pugh’s residences which was raided by the FBI and IRS earlier in the day, said the embattled city leader could make a decision as early as next week.

“She is leaning toward making the best decision in the best interest in the citizens of Baltimore City,” he said, adding that Pugh has “several options” to consider.

“She just needs to be physically and mentally sound and lucid enough to make appropriate decisions.”

BALTIMORE MAYOR CATHERINE PUGH, ON LEAVE AMID BOOK PROBE, HAS HOMES AND CITY HALL OFFICE RAIDED BY FEDS

Silverman said Pugh met with a doctor at home Thursday and plans to do so again Friday, the Baltimore Sun reported.

In the latest image-tarnishing scandal for struggling Baltimore, the first-term Democratic mayor faces accusations that she used children’s book deals to cover up kickbacks for favorable treatment as a state lawmaker and city leader that earned her roughly $800,000 over several years.

BALTIMORE’S ACTING MAYOR SAYS HE ‘WOULD HATE TO SEE’ EMBATTLED MAYOR RETURN AFTER BOOK SCANDALS

As a state senator, 69-year-old Pugh sold $500,000 worth of her self-published “Healthy Holly” illustrated paperbacks to the University of Maryland Medical System, a major state employer whose board she sat on for nearly 20 years.

Baltimore police officers stand outside the house of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Pugh and also in City Hall. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Baltimore police officers stand outside the house of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Pugh and also in City Hall. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

UMMS reportedly paid Pugh for 100,000 copies of her books between 2011 and 2018 with the stated intention of distributing the books to schools and day care centers. But some 50,000 copies remain unaccounted for and officials are probing if they were even printed.

Pugh also made $300,000 in bulk sales to other customers including health carriers that did business with the city of Baltimore.

BALTIMORE CITY COUNCIL CALLS ON EMBATTLED MAYOR CATHERINE PUGH TO RESIGN IMMEDIATELY

The politically isolated Pugh slipped out of sight on April 1 after a hastily organized press conference where she called her no-contract book deals a “regrettable mistake.” That same day, Maryland’s governor called on the state prosecutor to investigate allegations of “self-dealing.”

Pugh took an indefinite leave of absence, citing her health deteriorating intensely after a bout with pneumonia.

Federal agents arrive at the Maryland Center for Adult Training in Baltimore. MD, Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall, as well as the office of her lawyer and the home of a top aide.

Federal agents arrive at the Maryland Center for Adult Training in Baltimore. MD, Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall, as well as the office of her lawyer and the home of a top aide. (Loyd Fox/Baltimore Sun via AP)

On Thursday morning, agents with the FBI and IRS searched her two Baltimore homes, her City Hall offices, and a nonprofit organization she once led. The home of at least one of Pugh’s aides was also scoured.

Silverman said federal agents also served a subpoena at his law firm, retrieving Pugh’s original financial records. They did not seek any attorney-client privileged communications, he said.

Pugh’s attorney said she was “emotionally extremely distraught” following the searches by FBI and IRS agents.

“There was nothing incriminating that came out of her home,” Silverman said.

UMMS spokesman Michael Schwartzberg told reporters that the medical system received a grand jury witness subpoena seeking documents and information related to Pugh.

Other probes against Pugh include a review by the city ethics board and the Maryland Insurance Administration.

BALTIMORE MAYOR’S $500G DEAL FOR ‘HEALTHY HOLLY’ CHILDREN’S BOOKS DRAWS SCRUTINY

In recent weeks, the calls for Pugh’s resignation have intensified with the strongest voice coming from Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, who did not mince words after Thursday’s early morning raids.

“Now more than ever, Baltimore City needs strong and responsible leadership. Mayor Pugh has lost the public trust,” he said. “She is clearly not fit to lead. For the good of the city, Mayor Pugh must resign.”

Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Internal Revenue Service agents search the home of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall.

Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Internal Revenue Service agents search the home of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh in Baltimore, MD., Thursday, April 25, 2019. Agents with the FBI and IRS are gathering evidence inside the two homes of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh and in City Hall. (Jerry Jackson/Baltimore Sun via AP)

Many of her fellow Democrats, including those on Baltimore’s demoralized City Council and state lawmakers, are also insisting that Pugh put the citizens’ interests above any attempt to preserve her political career.

City Council member Brandon Scott called the Thursday raids “an embarrassment to the city.”

However, only a conviction can trigger a mayor’s removal from office, according to the city solicitor. Baltimore’s mayor-friendly City Charter currently provides no options for ousting its executive.

Six of Pugh’s staffers joined her on paid leave earlier this month; three of them were fired this week by the acting mayor.

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Pugh came to office in late 2016 after edging out ex-Mayor Sheila Dixon, who had spent much of her tenure fighting corruption charges before being forced to depart office in 2010 as part of a plea deal connected to the misappropriation of about $500 in gift cards meant for needy families.

She would certainly face a bruising 2020 Democratic primary if she were to return and run for reelection. Veteran City Council leader Bernard “Jack” Young, who is serving as acting mayor, said as she went on leave that he would merely be a placeholder. But this week, before the raids, he said “it could be devastating for her” if she tried to return.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: Fox News National

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FILE PHOTO: Cases of Pepsi are shown for sale at a store in Carlsbad
FILE PHOTO: Cases of Pepsi are shown for sale at a store in Carlsbad, California, U.S., April 22, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By Amit Dave and Mayank Bhardwaj

AHMEDABAD/NEW DELHI (Reuters) – PepsiCo Inc has sued four Indian farmers for cultivating a potato variety that the snack food and drinks maker claims infringes its patent, the company and the growers said on Friday.

Pepsi has sued the farmers for cultivating the FC5 potato variety, exclusively grown for its popular Lay’s potato chips. The FC5 variety has a lower moisture content required to make snacks such as potato chips.

PepsiCo is seeking more than 10 million rupees ($142,840.82) each for alleged patent infringement.

The farmers grow potatoes in the western state of Gujarat, a leading producer of India’s most consumed vegetable.

“We have been growing potatoes for a long time and we didn’t face this problem ever, as we’ve mostly been using the seeds saved from one harvest to plant the next year’s crop,” said Bipin Patel, one of the four farmers sued by Pepsi.

Patel did not say how he came by the PepsiCo variety.

A court in Ahmedabad, the business hub of Gujarat, on Friday agreed to hear the case on June 12, said Anand Yagnik, the lawyer for the farmers.

“In this instance, we took judicial recourse against people who were illegally dealing in our registered variety,” A PepsiCo India spokesman said. “This was done to protect our rights and safeguard the larger interest of farmers that are engaged with us and who are using and benefiting from seeds of our registered variety.”

PepsiCo, which set up its first potato chips plant in India in 1989, supplies the FC5 potato variety to a group of farmers who in turn sell their produce to the company at a fixed price.

The All India Kisan Sabha, or All India Farmers’ Forum, has asked the Indian government to protect the farmers.

The farmers’ forum has also called for a boycott of PepsiCo’s Lay’s chips and the company’s other products.

The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

PepsiCo is the second major U.S. company in India to face issues over patent infringement.

Stung by a long-standing intellectual property dispute, seed maker Monsanto, which is now owned by German drugmaker Bayer AG, withdrew from some businesses in India over a cotton-seed dispute with farmers, Reuters reported in 2017. (reut.rs/2ncBknn)

(Reporting by Amit Dave in AHMEDABAD and Mayank Bhardwaj in NEW DELHI; Editing by Martin Howell and Louise Heavens)

Source: OANN

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FILE PHOTO: The Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADM) logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the NYSE in New York
FILE PHOTO: The Archer Daniels Midland Co (ADM) logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York, U.S., May 3, 2018. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo

April 26, 2019

By P.J. Huffstutter and Shradha Singh

CHICAGO/BENGALURU (Reuters) – Archer Daniels Midland Co said on Friday it was considering spinning off its ethanol business after slim biofuel margins and Midwestern floods slammed the U.S. grains merchant’s profit, which tumbled 41 percent in the first quarter.

ADM said it was creating an ethanol subsidiary, which will include dry mills in Columbus, Nebraska; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and Peoria, Illinois.

The ethanol subsidiary will report as an independent segment, the company said, allowing options “which may include, but are not limited to, a potential spin-off of the business to existing ADM shareholders.”

Results were hit by the “bomb cyclone” blizzards that devastated the Midwest and Great Plains this year, causing massive flooding across Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri, washing out rail lines and wreaking havoc in the moving and processing of corn, soybeans and wheat. One-sixth of U.S. ethanol production was halted.

In March, ADM warned Wall Street that flooding and severe winter weather in the U.S. Midwest would reduce its first-quarter operating profit by $50 million to $60 million.

“The first quarter proved more challenging than initially expected,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Juan Luciano, with earnings down in its starches, sweeteners and bioproducts unit. Luciano said impacts of the severe weather ultimately “were on the high side of our initial estimates”.

Ongoing problems in the ethanol industry added to the problems and “limited margins and opportunities” for ADM, Luciano said.

The ethanol industry has been in the midst of a historic downswing due to the U.S.-China trade war, excess domestic supply and weak margins.

ADM, which had been an ethanol pioneer, signaled to Wall Street in 2016 that it was hunting for options and considering sales of its U.S. dry ethanol mills. Luciano told Reuters this year that offers ADM had received for the mills were too low.

In addition, ADM said it planned to repurpose its corn wet mill in Marshall, Minnesota, to produce higher volumes of food and industrial-grade starches.

Other major traders are alsy trying to distance themselves from struggling ethanol businesses. Louis Dreyfus Company BV spun off its Brazilian sugar and ethanol business Biosev in 2013. Rival Bunge sold its sugar book and has sought a buyer for its Brazilian mills since 2013.

ADM, which makes money trading, processing and transporting crops, such as corn, soybeans and wheat, has been looking to strengthen its core business. Last month it said it would seek voluntary early retirements of some North American employees and cut jobs as part of a restructuring effort.

The company expects to lower 2019 capital spending by 10 percent to between $800 million and $900 million.

Net earnings attributable to the company fell to $233 million, or 41 cents per share, in the three months ended March 31, from $393 million, or 70 cents per share, a year earlier.

Revenue fell to $15.30 billion from $15.53 billion. On an adjusted basis, the company earned 46 cents per share, while analysts on average had estimated 60 cents, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

(Reporting by Shradha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta, Chizu Nomiyama and David Gregorio)

Source: OANN

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