[Fox News] Trump says NY Judge Merchan ‘thinks he is above the Supreme Court’ after barring him from immunity arguments
EXCLUSIVE: Former President Trump said New York Judge Juan Merchan "thinks he is above the Supreme Court," after "prohibiting" him from attending arguments Thursday on presidential...
[Fox News] Is the East Coast on the brink of a major earthquake — and are we prepared?
The earthquake that struck the East Coast earlier this month was felt by an estimated 42 million people and luckily caused little damage, but what are the chances of a bigger, more powerful quake striking the area? And if it does, what could it look like — and are we prepared?
The April 5 phenomenon was a 4.8 magnitude earthquake centered near Whitehouse Station in New Jersey, which is about 40 miles west of New York City.
Shaking was felt from Washington D.C. to Maine, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and it followed a much smaller, 1.7 magnitude earthquake in New York City on Jan. 2.
Earthquakes are rare along the East Coast, with the most powerful one in the last 100 years hitting in August 2011, clocking 5.8 on the Richter scale. It was centered in Virginia and felt from Washington, D.C. to Boston.
4.8 MAGNITUDE EARTHQUAKE STRIKES NEW JERSEY, SHAKING BUILDINGS IN SURROUNDING STATES
Before that, an earthquake in South Carolina in 1886 is understood to have measured between 6.6 and 7.3 on the Richter scale. There is no definitive measurement of that quake since the Richter scale has only been around since the mid-1930s, but the tectonic shift still killed 60 people.
Professor John Ebel, a seismologist in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Boston College, tells Fox News Digital that when quakes start breaking 5.0 on the Richter scale, damage begins to occur.
For instance, the devastating earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria last year measured 7.8 and resulted in the death of nearly 62,000 people as tens of thousands of buildings were either destroyed or severely damaged.
California’s Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, meanwhile, measured 6.9 and caused 69 deaths, and the 1994 Northridge earthquake in the Golden State clocked 6.7, killing 57 people. Thousands more were injured.
“As you go above magnitude five, the shaking becomes stronger and the area over which the strong shaking is experienced becomes wider,” Ebel says. “So if you get a magnitude six, the shaking is ten times stronger than a magnitude five. So had this month’s earthquake been a 5.8, rather than a 4.8, then we would be looking at damage to unreinforced structures in the greater New York City area.”
“Now I have to qualify this and say that in the past few decades, New York City has had an earthquake provision in its building code while New Jersey, New York and Connecticut have all adopted some version of earthquake provisions in their building codes,” Ebel explained. “So modern buildings that are put up today will actually do quite well, even in strong earthquake shaking… If you have a magnitude 6 or even a magnitude seven.”
In terms of the Tri-state area, Ebel says that the region has had smaller earthquakes, but it’s been spared anything that’s been significantly damaging.
An 1884 quake in Brooklyn did cause limited damage and injuries. Seismologists estimated it would have measured in the region of 5.0 and 5.2, while a quake jolted Massachusetts in 1775 in the region of 6.0 and 6.3.
WHAT TO DO DURING AN EARTHQUAKE AND HOW TO PREPARE
“In 1884 there were things knocked from shelves, some cracks in walls that were reported, particularly plaster walls, which crack very easily if a building is shaken,” Ebel said. “There were some brick walls that had some cracks and people panicked because of the very strong shaking.”
A magnitude five earthquake hits the tri-state area once every 120 years, says Ebel, who penned the book “New England Earthquakes: The Surprising History of Seismic Activity in the Northeast.”
“The question is, can we have something bigger? And in my opinion, yes we can,” he said. “We can’t predict earthquakes, and we don’t know when the next one is going to occur, but we do have a low, not insignificant probability of a damaging earthquake at some point.”
Ebel said that the April 5 earthquake has left seismologists baffled since it didn’t occur on the Ramapo Fault zone, highlighting just how hard it is to predict the phenomenon from occurring. The Ramapo Fault zone is a series of small fault lines that runs through New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Spanning more than 185 miles, it was formed about 200 million years ago.
“Right now it’s a seismological mystery,” Ebel said. “We have some earthquakes in our region where we don’t have faults mapped. But that’s even true in California. Not every earthquake occurs on a known or mapped fault in California, so there are still a lot of seismologists have to learn about the exact relationship between old faults and modern earthquakes.”
Ebel noted that buildings aren’t the only thing to consider when earthquakes strike. In the California quakes, overpasses crumbled while the electrical grid can go down too, causing electrical surges and fires.
Toxic chemicals were knocked off of the shelves of a chemistry building in 1989 and the building had to be evacuated, Ebel said.
“And you think about hospitals and some industrial facilities having that situation,” he explained. “So you have these things that are not catastrophic necessarily, but are going to be a real problem.”
And an earthquake doesn’t necessarily have to rattle land in order to cause destruction.
A jolt out at sea could trigger a dangerous tsunami, like the one on the edge of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland in Canada in 1929. It was felt as far away as New York City.
Waves as high as 23 feet crashed on the shore, according to the International Tsunami Information Center, with up to 28 people losing their lives.
“A tsunami is not necessarily a very high probability event, but it’s one that we have to think about also,” Ebel says in relation to the East Coast.
The Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011 was triggered by an earthquake and subsequent tsunami.
Ebel says a tsunami similar to 1929 could cause a storm surge along the lines of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, where 43 people died in New York City.
“The threat of an earthquake is not as great as in California, but it’s something that we have to take into account and have emergency plans for and have building codes for,” Ebel says. “Our state and local emergency management agencies in all the northeastern states do earthquake planning — what we call tabletop exercises — where they pretend an earthquake occurs.”
“So those kinds of preparations are made on a regular basis,” he concludes. “Building codes are constantly being reevaluated and approved, not just for earthquakes, but for fires and chemical spills and all kinds of things. So we’re getting more prepared all the time.”
[Fox News] Get a handle on your time: Google Calendar tips and tricks
Before we get into it, I’ll acknowledge what you may be thinking: Using Calendar means handing over even more info to Google.
Win an iPhone 15 worth $799! I’m giving it to one person who tries my free daily tech newsletter. Sign up here while you’re thinking about it.
SEE WHAT THE HOME YOU GREW UP IN LOOKS LIKE NOW AND OTHER MAPS TRICKS
Sure, but here’s my take: For the sake of convenience, most of us choose a Big Tech company or two that we’re OK sharing a lot with. If you use Gmail and Google Maps, adding Calendar to the mix won’t make much difference in terms of privacy.
Here are some ideas to get the most out of it
Spoiler: A lot more than just meetings and dentist appointments. And yes, you can definitely use you preferred calendar app for all these things too, if Google isn’t your thing.
Let’s get to the tricks
FIX AUTOCORRECT IF IT’S DRIVING YOU DUCKING CRAZY
A little know-how goes a long way in getting more out of your everyday software.
Know when people are free: I use this daily at work. Put your cursor in the box labeled Search for people under the Meet with heading. Everybody in your organization should be searchable here, so no more setting meetings no one can attend. You can also create a new meeting, add guests and click Find a time under the date to see the attendees’ availability side by side!
WATCH OUT FOR THE NEW ‘GHOST HACKERS’
Automatically share meeting minutes: In your meeting details, click Create meeting notes under the event description to generate a Google Doc that automatically gets shared with attendees. It includes a built-in outline with the meeting date, attendees, notes and action items. Pro tip: Attach additional notes, docs, slides or whatever else to the meeting so no one’s looking around for them later!
Never miss a beat: When setting an appointment, simply click Add Notification. Choose how long before the event you’d like to be reminded. Boom! Whether it’s 10 minutes or a day in advance, Google Calendar’s got your back. No more oops moments.
You know I have more amazing tips up my sleeve. Get more Google Cal secrets.
Get tech-smarter on your schedule
Award-winning host Kim Komando is your secret weapon for navigating tech.
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[Baltimore Sun] Fourth Baltimore County officer charged in connection with September pepper-spraying of suspect
A Baltimore City grand jury indicted a fourth Baltimore County police officer earlier this month on charges related to a September encounter in which an...
[Fox Business] Biden issues new rule to crack down on bad retirement advice
The Biden administration on Tuesday finalized a new rule to crack down on retirement advice given by financial professionals, a move that has already drawn fierce backlash from Wall Street.
The Labor Department regulation aims to ensure that financial advisers, brokers and insurance agents work in the best interests of their clients. It purports to do so by broadening the scope of when these individuals must act as a fiduciary, meaning they have a legal obligation to put their clients’ interests ahead of their own.
Under current law, advisers are allowed to recommend investments that pay higher commissions but aren’t necessarily the best choice for their clients.
“America’s workers and their families rely on investment professionals for guidance as they save for retirement,” said acting Labor Secretary Julie Su. “This rule protects the retirement investors from improper investment recommendations and harmful conflicts of interest.”
CREDIT CARD LATE FEES CAPPED AT $8 UNDER NEW BIDEN ADMIN RULE
The White House estimated the rule, which takes effect Sept. 23, will affect about 5 million savers and boost retirement accounts by between 0.2% and 1.2% a year and up to 20% over a lifetime.
The rule applies to one-time advice for individuals rolling 401(k) plans into IRAs, retirement advisers regardless of which state they are located in and advice to plan sponsors about which investments to make available as options in 401(k)s and other employer-sponsored plans.
AMERICANS ARE DRAINING THEIR RETIREMENT ACCOUNTS, RACKING UP DEBT DUE TO HIGH INFLATION
Financial institutions slammed the latest rule targeting retirement advice, warning it could ultimately “hamper the efforts of millions of workers and retirees” to save for retirement.
“Unfortunately, based on our preliminary review, it appears that the regulation will make it much more expensive and difficult, if not impossible, for many consumers to access reliable professional assistance,” said Wayne Chopus, president and CEO of the Insured Retirement Institute, a trade group.
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Chopus said the Labor Department attempted to implement a similar rule in 2016 under then President Barack Obama that resulted in more than 10 million retirement account owners with more than $900 billion in savings losing access to their preferred financial professionals. That rule was ultimately overturned in 2018.
“There is no evidence that this enhanced and comprehensive framework, as it exists today, is not working effectively to protect retirement savers. Yet, [the Labor Department] persists in inflicting an unnecessary, redundant and harmful one-size-fits-all regulation,” Chopus said.
Labor Department officials said Tuesday the financial retirement rule differs significantly from the Obama-era regulation.
[Fox Business] Home Depot and Walmart US CEOs say ’employers should value skills above degrees’ in WSJ op-ed
The CEOs of Home Depot and Walmart U.S. penned a joint column in the Wall Street Journal urging employers to stop valuing college degrees and start valuing skills when hiring.
In the op-ed published Tuesday and titled “Not Everyone Needs a College Degree,” Home Depot’s Ted Decker and Walmart U.S. branch’s John Furner detail how they “are helping build a skills-based economy.”
“A skills-based approach to employment is critical in a country where 62% of adults don’t have a college degree,” the men wrote.
FORMER HOME DEPOT CEO SOUNDS ALARM ON ‘TREMENDOUS SHIFT’ IN LABOR MARKET
With student loan debt ballooning to nearly $1.8 trillion, the men reject the idea instilled in many Americans that achieving the American dream must include obtaining a college degree.
“The American dream isn’t dead, but the path to reach it might look different for job seekers today than it did for their parents,” Decker and Furner wrote. “While a college degree is a worthwhile path to prosperity, it isn’t the only one.”
In the op-ed, they point out that skilled trades such as plumbing, carpentry and electrical work are reliable ways to make a good living, but are not pursued enough because so many people believe success requires a bachelor’s degree at a 4-year college.
2024 WILL BE ‘TOUGHEST’ LABOR MARKET ‘IN OUR LIFETIME’: REPORT
The men lead two of the largest private-sector employers in the U.S., representing a combined 2 million jobs. They noted that 90% of Home Depot store leaders started out as hourly employees, as did 75% of Walmart store managers. These store leaders often manage up to hundreds of people and earn six-figures. Most importantly, the positions do not require a college degree.
Decker and Furner said employers should not only focus on skill-based hiring but also on fostering skill sets among their employees.
Home Depot and Walmart both offer various training programs for their employees which help create sustainable career paths for workers.
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“We need more employers to join us in building a system where workers can easily transfer skills from one company or industry to another,” they wrote in the op-ed. “We owe it to younger generations to open our minds to the different opportunities workers have to learn new skills and achieve their dreams.”
The two CEOs are hosting a workforce summit in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, during which they’ll talk to business leaders, government officials and workforce experts about the different skills for different careers, how to assess workers’ abilities and how to teach skills on the job.
[Fox Business] Private student loan interest rates continue upward surge
During the week of Apr. 15, 2024, average private student loan rates increased for borrowers with credit scores of 720 or higher who used the Credible marketplace to take out 10-year fixed-rate loans and 5-year variable-rate loans.
Through Credible, you can compare private student loan rates from multiple lenders.
For 10-year fixed private student loans, interest rates rose by over a full percentage point, while 5-year variable student loan interest ticked up by more than a third of a percentage point.
Borrowers with good credit may find a lower rate with a private student loan than with some federal loans. For the 2023-24 academic school year, federal student loan rates will range from 5.50% to 8.05%. Private student loan rates for borrowers with good to excellent credit can be lower right now.
Because federal loans come with certain benefits, like access to income-driven repayment plans, you should always exhaust federal student loan options first before turning to private student loans to cover any funding gaps. Private lenders such as banks, credit unions, and online lenders provide private student loans. You can use private loans to pay for education costs and living expenses, which might not be covered by your federal education loans.
Interest rates and terms on private student loans can vary depending on your financial situation, credit history, and the lender you choose.
Take a look at Credible partner lenders’ rates for borrowers who used the Credible marketplace to select a lender during the week of April 15:
Congress sets federal student loan interest rates each year. These fixed interest rates depend on the type of federal loan you take out, your dependency status and your year in school.
Private student loan interest rates can be fixed or variable and depend on your credit, repayment term and other factors. As a general rule, the better your credit score, the lower your interest rate is likely to be.
You can compare rates from multiple student loan lenders using Credible.
An interest rate is a percentage of the loan periodically tacked onto your balance — essentially the cost of borrowing money. Interest is one way lenders can make money from loans. Your monthly payment often pays interest first, with the rest going to the amount you initially borrowed (the principal).
Getting a low interest rate could help you save money over the life of the loan and pay off your debt faster.
Here’s the difference between a fixed and variable rate:
Comparison shopping for private student loan rates is easy when you use Credible.
Using a student loan interest calculator will help you estimate your monthly payments and the total amount you’ll owe over the life of your federal or private student loans.
Once you enter your information, you’ll be able to see what your estimated monthly payment will be, the total you’ll pay in interest over the life of the loan and the total amount you’ll pay back.
Credible is a multi-lender marketplace that empowers consumers to discover financial products that are the best fit for their unique circumstances. Credible’s integrations with leading lenders and credit bureaus allow consumers to quickly compare accurate, personalized loan options – without putting their personal information at risk or affecting their credit score. The Credible marketplace provides an unrivaled customer experience, as reflected by over 4,300 positive Trustpilot reviews and a TrustScore of 4.7/5.
[Fox Business] Various ground beef products may be contaminated with E. coli, health agency warns
The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is warning that some ground beef products may be tainted with E. coli.
The more than a dozen potentially contaminated products were produced by the Greater Omaha Packing Co., and include both patties and tubes of raw ground beef, according to the FSIS public health alert issued on Saturday.
The agency said it was “concerned that some products may be in consumers’ and food service institutions’ freezers” and urged the public not to consume them due to possible E. coli contamination.
Packaging of the products, which were made on March 28, should show an April 22 “Use/Freeze by” date and the establishment number “EST. 960A.”
THOUSANDS OF COOKING OIL BOTTLES RECALLED AS GLASS IS PRONE TO BREAK
No recall of the affected ground beef products occurred because they “are no longer available for purchase,” the FSIS alert said.
“The problem was discovered by the establishment while conducting an inventory of product that was on hold because it was found positive for E. coli 0157:H7. The company notified FSIS that they inadvertently used a portion of the contaminated beef to produce ground beef products that they subsequently shipped into commerce,” the agency said.
Both food service institutions and retailers received the meat products, FSIS said.
SALMONELLA PROMPTS TRADER JOE’S TO RECALL BASIL SOLD IN 29 STATES
The type of E. coli that the ground beef products could have “is a potentially deadly bacterium that can cause dehydration, bloody diarrhea and abdominal cramps 2-8 days (3-4 days, on average) after exposure,” FSIS said.
It is responsible for over one-third of the total 265,000 yearly cases of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli illnesses that arise in America, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated.
COMPANY RECALLS OVER 35,000 POUNDS OF KIELBASA FOR POSSIBLE RUBBER CONTAMINATION
FSIS said the ground beef products subject to Saturday’s public health alert haven’t led to any people getting sick to date.
Consumers can throw the meat in the trash or take it back to the retailer, according to the agency.
Greater Omaha Packing produces beef that goes to over 70 countries.
[Baltimore Sun] Financial literacy courses to be offered at former West Baltimore school that Thurgood Marshall once attended
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[WBALTV] Baltimore region receives mixed reviews in air quality report
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