February 2024 - Page 13 of 16

Yellen Says Stable Financial System Is Key to U.S. Economic Strength

06

Feb

Business

Yellen Says Stable Financial System Is Key to U.S. Economic Strength

Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen will tell lawmakers on Tuesday that the United States has had a “historic” economic recovery from the pandemic but that regulators must vigilantly safeguard the financial system from an array of looming risks to preserve the gains of the last three years.Ms. Yellen will deliver the comments in testimony to the House Financial Services Committee nearly a year after the Biden administration and federal regulators took aggressive steps to stabilize the nation’s banking system following the abrupt failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.While turmoil in the banking system has largely subsided, the Financial…

Chile Wildfire Photographs – The New York Times

05

Feb

By William Lee

New miscellaneous

Chile Wildfire Photographs – The New York Times

Runaway forest fires ravaged the coastal hills of central Chile, taking scores of lives, with hundreds of people reported as missing. Thousands of homes were destroyed, especially in the hilly neighborhoods around the resort town of Viña del Mar, where many older residents were not able to escape. The fires exploded on Friday amid unusually warm weather and strong winds.“We’re standing before a tragedy of immense proportions,” President Gabriel Boric said on Sunday, as survivors sought to comprehend their losses. He announced that the nation would observe two days of mourning.SundayUberlinda Silva, 72, in her burned house in El Olivar.Burned…

05

Feb

By William Lee

Health

When a Spouse Goes to the Nursing Home

Even as the signals of approaching dementia became impossible to ignore, Joseph Drolet dreaded the prospect of moving his partner into a long-term care facility.Mr. Drolet, 79, and his beloved Rebecca, 71, both retired lawyers and prosecutors in Atlanta, had been a couple for 33 years, though they retained separate homes. In 2019, she began getting lost while driving, mishandling her finances and struggling with the television remote. The diagnosis — Alzheimer’s disease — came in 2021.Over time, Mr. Drolet moved Rebecca (whose surname he asked to withhold to protect her privacy) into his home. But serving as her round-the-clock…

NHL player poll: Why 78 percent say there should be no neck-guard mandate

04

Feb

By William Lee

Sports

NHL player poll: Why 78 percent say there should be no neck-guard mandate

Mandatory neck guards are coming to youth hockey in the United States.Already required in Canada and many other countries, USA Hockey, which governs the sport at the amateur level in the U.S., has long held its line at “recommending” laceration protection — namely neck guards, but also cut-resistant socks, sleeves and undergarments.The decision was announced Sunday and will go into effect on Aug. 1, about nine months after the issue was thrust into the spotlight when former NHL player Adam Johnson died of a skate cut to the neck during a game in England.More NHLers have begun to wear neck…

Anxiety, Mood Swings and Sleepless Nights: Life Near a Bitcoin Mine

04

Feb

By William Lee

Technology

Anxiety, Mood Swings and Sleepless Nights: Life Near a Bitcoin Mine

On a sweltering July evening, the din from thousands of computers mining for Bitcoins pierced the night. Nearby, Matt Brown, a member of the Arkansas legislature, monitored the noise alongside a local magistrate.As the two men investigated complaints about the operation, Mr. Brown said, a security guard for the mine loaded rounds into an AR-15-style assault rifle that had been stored in a car.“He wanted to make sure that we knew he had his gun — that we knew it was loaded,” Mr. Brown, a Republican, said in an interview.The Bitcoin outfit here, 45 minutes north of Little Rock, is…

N.F.L.’s Rapid Embrace of Gambling Creates Mixed Signals

04

Feb

By William Lee

Business

N.F.L.’s Rapid Embrace of Gambling Creates Mixed Signals

Over the next week, the National Football League’s players, coaches, fans and executives will gather for an event that was virtually unthinkable just 10 years ago: the Super Bowl in Las Vegas, the gambling capital of the United States.Since the Supreme Court struck down, in 2018, a federal law that effectively banned sports betting outside Nevada — a prohibition once backed by the N.F.L.’s commissioner, Roger Goodell — the N.F.L. has embraced the gambling industry. It has forged partnerships reportedly worth nearly $1 billion over five years with sports betting companies, and permitted a sports book to operate inside one…