20 Year Old Colorado College Tennis Player Dies Unexpectedly In His Sleep
We hate to say it, but another day, another mysterious and unexpected death of a seemingly normal collegiate athlete. As we wrote yesterday, either there is a new focus in media on reporting about the untimely deaths of athletes and young adults, or something very odd appears to be taking place across the country.
Jack Madison, a sophomore on the Colorado College men’s tennis team, passed away in his sleep on January 2nd, a new report from the Gazette, published yesterday, confirms. Colorado College vice president and director of athletics Lesley Irvine commented: “We are devastated by the tragic passing of Jack Madison.”
A sought after athlete, the piece notes that Madison was recruited “out of Bexley, Ohio, where he was a two-time all-state selection at Columbus Academy.” His cause of death has not been announced.
“As a community, we grieve his death and loss and hold all who cared for and loved Jack in the light during this time of grief, especially his family and friends,” the college said in a statement obtained by FOX.
“He loved tennis and being part of CC’s tennis team, for which he was recruited. He engaged fully with campus life in a myriad of ways, embracing CC to the fullest. Jack was observant, super imaginative, creative, and independent-minded. His humor, deep thinking, and generous spirit were a gift in his friendships and to all of us,” it continued.
Madison’s death follows a growing list of mysterious deaths and medical episodes among young adults and athletes:
On January 12, 2023, we wrote about 18 year old Jordan Brister, a Las Vegas High School student who collapsed and died in the bathroom after gym class.
His death came the same week as the death of another Las Vegas High School student. Brister’s collapse was on January 8, 2023, and another student, 16 year old Ashari Hughes, had died just three days prior “following a flag football game at Desert Oasis High School” and suffering a “medical episode”.
Also in the first week of January 2023, we wrote about 21 year old Air Force football player Hunter Brown, who suffered a “medical emergency” while walking to class and passed away.
In the opening days of 2023 the MMA world was also shocked at the unexpected death of 18 year old Victoria Lee, a rising star on the the ONE Championship MMA promotion.
In January 2023, we also highlighted Old Dominion basketball player Imo Essien collapsing on the court during the middle of a game.
His collapse came a little more than a week after NFL player Demar Hamlin collapsed on the field due to cardiac arrest after making what appeared to be a routine tackle.
A larger number of U.S. consumers are having a tough time paying off credit card dues every month in an environment of elevated inflation, with those making lower income less likely to clear their debts while accruing greater interest payments.
Roughly 46 percent of credit card holders do not pay off their dues in full each month, according to data from Bankrate in December.
This is up from 39 percent a year back.
Roughly 43 percent of those with credit card debt are not aware of the interest rates charged on their cards.
“People may not be fully aware of how expensive credit card debt—or other alternative loans—are, and that interest on these loans compounds,” Michaela Pagel, a Columbia Business School professor, said to Bloomberg.
“If somebody rolls over $5,000 of credit card debt over five years, it balloons into $12,441 at 20 percent interest.”
Those who make more money are likely to pay their credit card dues in full each month. Pagel pointed out that it is getting more expensive to buy goods and services that households need.
The rising costs of living might be reflected in credit card obligations, and households may have trouble meeting such obligations if their wages have remained constant, he added. Annual inflation has remained above 7 percent for every single month last year until November.
Among those making less than $50,000 annually, only around 45 percent were able to clear off credit card debts each month, while it was 63 percent for people earning more than $100,000, according to Bankrate.
Rising Interest Rates
Credit card interest rates now average above 19 percent, which is an all-time high. According to Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate, rates will only go higher this year.
Interest rates on credit cards closely track the Federal Reserve’s benchmark interest rate changes. With the Fed having indicated that there might be more rate hikes in the future, average credit card annual percentage rate (APR) may hit 20.5 percent by the end of 2023, McBride predicted, according to CNBC.
“The important takeaway for current cardholders is that another one percentage point in rate hikes by the Fed means your rate will move up by one percentage point,” he said.
Overusing credit cards can be financially dangerous. An individual who carries a balance on their credit card is likely to face higher interest charges.
Moreover, credit scores can get affected. The score is calculated using multiple factors, including credit card balances and payment history. If your credit card balance becomes unmanageable and you miss a payment, it can have a negative impact on the score.
Credit Card Market in 2023
Since second quarter 2021, the credit card industry has seen “strong growth” in originations, according to a TransUnion news release on Dec. 14. Due to tighter lender underwriting standards in anticipation of a potential economic downturn, the company expects card originations to moderate this year.
Credit card originations in 2023 are predicted to be 7.6 percent lower when compared to 2022. TransUnion expects 80.9 million new credit cards this year compared to 87.5 million last year. Credit card balances are estimated to rise to $934.5 billion by the end of 2023, which would be a 1.8 percent year-over-year rise.
“When taking 2022 out of the equation, more consumers will gain access to credit cards in 2023 than in any other year in the last decade. In fact, TransUnion expects 14 million more credit cards to be issued in 2023 than in 2019, a strong year for the consumer credit market,” said Paul Siegfried, senior vice president and credit card business leader at TransUnion.
Credit card delinquency, which has been rising since 2022, is predicted to increase to 2.6 percent through the end of 2023, which would be a 20.3 percent year-over-year increase.
Explosion Rocks Natural Gas Pipeline Connecting Lithuania, Latvia; Village Evacuated
Lithuania natural gas transmission operator Amber Grid told Reuters its pipeline that connects Lithuania to Latvia was rocked by an explosion on Friday.
Footage of the explosion emerged on Twitter in the last 30 minutes.
🚨ALERT🇱🇹🇱🇻 Massive Fire caught on video from the blast from the gas pipeline connecting Lithuania and Latvia
Public broadcaster LRT reports that the entire town of Pasvalys, located in northern Lithuania, has evacuated due to the situation. pic.twitter.com/Q9kUhPmpWc
Explosion in gas pipeline connecting #Latvia & #Lithuania: very high flames, evacuations
Police officers reported that the flames reached a height of about 50 meters. Residents in the surrounding area have been evacuated. #MeteoWeb#Breakingpic.twitter.com/cvciuuPauo
A Lithuanian gas transmission operator to Reuters has stated that there has been an explosion at a gas pipeline between Latvia and Lithuania. pic.twitter.com/EOgz2n10nE
The location of the blast is in northern Lithuania. Amber Grid said an investigation is underway into the source of the explosion.
Baltic news agency BNS said police evacuated the entire town of Pasvalys, located in northern Lithuania, due to the situation.
“The gas transmission system in the area consists of two parallel pipelines, and initial data indicates that the explosion occurred in one of them,” SKY News said.
Amber Grid’s pipeline flows show where Natgas supplies have been halted.
The grid is an interconnected NatGas transmission system of four countries – Latvia, Belarus, Poland, Russia’s Kaliningrad region, the Klaipėda LNG terminal, and the systems of Lithuania’s gas distribution operators.
A statement from the grid operator read:
On Friday at around 5pm an explosion occurred in the Amber Grid gas pipeline in Pasvalys district. According to initial data, no people were injured. The explosion took place away from residential buildings. The fire is being extinguished by the fire brigades that immediately arrived on the scene.
The gas transmission system in this area consists of two parallel pipelines, and initial data indicate that the explosion occurred in one of them. The other pipeline was not damaged. The gas supply through the damaged pipeline was immediately interrupted, but the Pasvalys district consumers are already being supplied with gas through the adjacent pipeline.
Nemunas Biknius, CEO of the gas transmission system operator Amber Grid, said: “We regret this incident in the gas pipeline system. We immediately started to investigate the circumstances of the incident and ensure gas supply to consumers. At the moment, all our efforts and those of the responsible services are focused on containing the consequences of the fire and ensuring safety. We have immediately informed Government representatives, the Energy Distribution Operator (ESO) and Pasvalys city authorities about the situation. We will provide more details on the circumstances of the incident as we have more details.”
The gas pipeline where the fire broke out is used to supply gas to the northern part of Lithuania and to transport gas to Latvia.
Gas pipelines are potentially hazardous installations, so we ask residents to pay attention to the signs marking the route of the pipeline, to refrain from carrying out unplanned work in the protection zone of the pipeline that has not been approved by Amber Grid, and to protect themselves and their property.
Two ‘Contractors’ Allegedly Responsible For Crashing FAA System, Grounding All US Aircraft
The Federal Aviation Administration’s Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system, which alerts pilots and other personnel about airborne issues and delays at airports nationwide, experienced a massive outage on Wednesday that resulted in travel chaos of over 10,000 delayed flights and more than 1,000 canceled.
The White House quickly squashed speculation of a potential cyber attack. President Biden’s Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg, has since ordered an investigation of NOTAM’s outage.
Bloomberg reports that a person familiar with the FAA investigation might already know what caused headaches for tens of thousands of travelers — just weeks after the Southwest Airlines debacle.
The person said unspecified “personnel” corrupted a file on the NOTAM system, resulting in a nationwide outage.
The preliminary indications are that two people working for a contractor introduced errors into the core data used on the system known as Notice to Air Missions, or Notam, according to a person familiar with the FAA review. The person asked not to be identified speaking about the sensitive, ongoing issue.
Like other computer systems that are critical to operating flights, the FAA has imposed procedures to ensure data aren’t damaged by technicians working on them, said the person. The file or files were altered in spite of rules that prohibit those kind of changes on a live system. –Bloomberg
The question many are asking is if there was any wrongdoing:
Agency officials are attempting to determine whether the two people made the changes accidentally or intentionally, and if there was any malicious intent, the person said. –Bloomberg
The NOTAM system is more than three decades old. Perhaps Buttigieg should refocus his efforts on upgrading the FAA’s system instead of making it ‘more inclusive.’
Twitter Files Expose How Dems/Media Defied Twitter ‘Facts’ To Spread ‘Russian Bot’ Hoax
What’s this? Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and staff repeatedly pushed Twitter to remove perfectly legal content that they found offensive, according to Friday’s installment of “The Twitter Files.”
3.The real issue was Donald Trump retweeted the Biden pic. To its credit Twitter refused to remove it, with Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth saying it had obvious “humorous intent” and “any reasonable observer” – apparently, not a Schiff staffer – could see it was doctored. pic.twitter.com/QJtS6s506Z
Twitter also refused requests to ban content about Schiff and his staff, telling the congressman’s office that this would not be “conceivable.”
6.Even when Twitter didn’t suspend an account, that didn’t mean they didn’t act. Schiff’s office repeatedly complained about “QAnon related activity” that were often tweets about other matters, like the identity of the Ukraine “whistleblower” or the Steele dossier: pic.twitter.com/XKzY8AmB5R
Hilariously though, Schiff’s office was concerned that if tweets were “deamplified” that law enforcement may have a harder time tracking the offending users.
8.Schiff’s office had a concern about “deamplification,” though: it might make it harder for law enforcement to track the offending Tweeters.
The latest Twitter Files release shows how prominent Democrats knowingly pushed a false Russiagate-related narrative about “Russian bots” promoting a key House Intelligence Committee memo that detailed efforts to spy on the Trump campaign, despite the lawmakers being told by Twitter executives that it wasn’t true.
The 14th instalment of the Twitter Files was released on Jan. 12 by journalist Matt Taibbi, who explained in a series of posts that, at a key moment in the Trump-Russia investigation, Democrats alleged that “Russian bots” were spreading an explosive report from then-Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.).
“At a crucial moment in a years-long furor,” Taibbi explained in one of the posts, “Democrats denounced a report about flaws in the Trump-Russia investigation, saying it was boosted by Russian ‘bots’ and ‘trolls.’”
“Twitter officials were aghast, finding no evidence of Russian influence,” Taibbi continued.
In support of this take, Taibbi shared screenshots of correspondence from Twitter executives to several Congressional Democrats, including Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), confirming that they had “not identified any significant activity connected to Russia with respect to Tweets posting original content to this [#ReleaseTheMemo] hashtag.”
The #ReleaseTheMemo hashtag spread like wildfire on Twitter, topped its trending list starting on Jan. 18, 2018 and reflecting the widespread call to publicly release a then-classified memo submitted by Nunes, who at the time was the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
Widely referred to as the Nunes memo (pdf), it was later declassified under then-President Donald Trump’s order on Feb. 2, 2018.
The memo showed how the FBI under the Obama administration used unverified opposition research—the infamous “Steele Dossier” funded by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee—to obtain a FISA warrant to spy on Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page as part of an investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
The claims made in the Nunes memo were confirmed by Justice Department Inspector-General Michael Horowitz in his report, released on Dec. 9, 2019.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) had introduced the #ReleaseTheMemo hashtag on Jan. 18, 2018, and on the following day, joined a group of 65 House Republicans calling for the declassification of the memo. Many of the lawmakers, who collectively represent millions of voters, also sent out the hashtag on Twitter.
Just days later, on Jan. 23, 2018, Democrat lawmakers, including Feinstein and Schiff, wrote an open letterto then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to investigate allegations of “Russian bots and trolls surrounding the #ReleaseTheMemo online campaign.”
The letter from Feinstein and Schiff led Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) to himself issue a letter (pdf) that also alleged the hashtag was a part of Russian disinformation campaigns.
“We find it reprehensible that Russian agents have so eagerly manipulated innocent Americans,” he wrote in a letter issued later that day—even though before the letter’s issuance, Twitter’s staff told the senator’s staffers they did not believe Russian bots were behind the hashtag, Taibbi reported.
Multiple legacy outlets also did the same, claiming Russian bots and trolls were behind the effort. All had cited the same source—the Hamilton 68 dashboard, a project with the Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD), an organization that tracks 600 Twitter accounts it claims are linked to the Russian government or repeat its news.
According to Taibbi, executives inside Twitter at the time complained that “Hamilton 68 seemed to be everyone’s only source, and no one was checking with Twitter” to verify the claims.
Taibbi shared an email from Emily Horne, who was at the time the global policy communications director of Twitter. The email, shared internally on Jan. 23, said that “it is extraordinarily difficult for outside researchers, who do not have access to our full API and internal account signals, to say with any degree of certainty that they believe an account is behaving suspiciously is 1) automated and 2) Russian.”
Yoel Roth, who was Twitter’s trust and safety chief at the time, reportedly told colleagues: “I just reviewed the accounts that posted the first 50 tweets with #releasethememo and … none of them show any signs of affiliation to Russia.”
Taibbi reported that “outside counsel from DC-connected firms like Debevoise and Plimpton” had advised Twitter to respond to lawmakers by using language like: “With respect to particular hashtags, we take seriously any activity that may represent an abuse of our platform.”
According to an email screenshot shared by Taibbi, Twitter was also advised to say something to the effect of: “Our initial assessment indicates that these [hashtag] trends are driven primarily by organic, non-automated activity [if true], but we are continuing to analyze the data and … will inform Congress about what we find.”
“Despite universal internal conviction that there were no Russians in the story, Twitter went on to follow a slavish pattern of not challenging Russia claims on the record,” Taibbi wrote.
Absent any such challenge, “[a]s a result, reporters from the AP to Politico to NBC to Rolling Stone continued to hammer the ‘Russian bots’ theme, despite a total lack of evidence,” he reported.
“Russians weren’t just blamed for #ReleaseTheMemo but #SchumerShutdown, #ParklandShooting, even #GunControlNow—to ‘widen the divide,’ according to the New York Times,” Taibbi added.
Meanwhile, inside Twitter, staffers acknowledged that both the #SchumerShutdown and #ReleaseTheMemo hashtags “appear to be organically trending.”
Pelosi Punts Stocks, Takes Huge Losses In Tesla, Salesforce And PayPal
Now-former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has filed her latest periodic transaction report detailing recent stock trades – and she booked a ton of year-end losses.
For starters, Pelosi booked $854,000 in losses on PayPal
She also took a $733,000 loss in Salesforce, Inc.
Pelosi also took a $511,000 loss in Tesla.
Pelosi also took smaller losses in Roblox Corporation ($235,836), Netflix ($129,000),Disney ($114,138), and Alliance Bernstein ($11,500).
Interestingly, Pelosi also sold $2.6 million worth of Google parent Alphabet ($GOOGL), but doesn’t list details of a gain or loss, as was the case with her losses.
Is Nancy taking advantage of “tax loopholes for the rich” to avoid paying her fair share?
Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina filed a resolution earlier this week directing the Fine Arts Board of the U.S. House of Representatives to obtain a bust of Mr. Zelenskyy for display.
The board has authority over all works of art and historical objects displayed on the House wing of the U.S. Capitol and the associated office buildings.
[…]
A staunch conservative, who came under fire for shouting “you lie” at former President Obama during a 2009 address to Congress, Mr. Wilson has emerged as a strong supporter of Ukraine.
In December, he told the Charleston Post and Courier that Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression reminded him of the American Revolution.
Here’s the full text of his resolution:
Truly embarrassing.
If Congress insists that a bust of Zelensky go in the Capitol, it should be placed in a bathroom.
Russia Declares “Full Control” Over Soledar In 1st Major Win In Months
Russia has declared its first major victory over Ukrainian forces in months. On Thursday night the Russian defense ministry announced “full control” town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine, describing the salt mining town as of “great importance for the continuing successful offensive operations in the Donetsk direction.”
The official declaration came about 48 hours following the private military firm Wagner Group initially claiming capture of Soledar, with the group’s head Yevgeny Prigozhin photographing himself inside the sprawling salt mines the town is famous for.
The Wagner statement created immediate tensions inside Russia and reportedly in military command ranks over how quickly the mercenary fighters claimed victory for themselves. That same day, on Wednesday, the defense ministry put out an official statement suggesting full victory was premature at that point, and made no mention of Wagner.
A fresh military statement Friday declaring victory over the Donetsk town also failed to mention Wagner, instead hailing the efforts of aerial, paratrooper, and ground forces.
“On the evening of January 12, the liberation of the town of Soledar, which is vital for the continuation of successful offensive operations in the Donetsk area, was completed,” Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov said.
Full control of Soledar makes it possible to cut off the supply routes of Ukrainian troops in Artyomovsk located southwest and subsequently block the city and entrap the Ukrainian military there, the general explained.
The seizure of Soledar by Russian troops was facilitated by continuous air, missile and artillery strikes on Ukrainian army positions, Konashenkov reported.
“Soledar was seized thanks to continuous strikes delivered on the enemy by assault and army aviation aircraft, missile troops and artillery of the Russian group of troops (forces). They continuously delivered concentrated strikes on the Ukrainian army positions in the town, denying the enemy the redeployment of reserves, ammunition supplies and its attempts to retreat to other defensive lines,” the spokesman said.
The defense ministry statement then claimed over 700 Ukrainian troops were killed, but made no mention of casualties on the Russian side.
The Wagner Tuesday statements proved divisive and controversial for the Russian side…
1/ Yevgeny Prigozhin’s apparently premature announcement of Soledar’s capture has reportedly led to a desperate push by Wagner to make it a reality. Wagner is fighting without regard for casualties, not just to gain Soledar, but for Prigozhin’s reputation.pic.twitter.com/92Ji0oQn68
“In the past three days alone, over 700 Ukrainian troops and more than 300 weapon systems were destroyed in the area of the town of Soledar,” the spokesman added, describing that “In the course of operations for the liberation of Soledar, the Airborne Force units conducted a stealth maneuver from another direction and successfully attacked Ukrainian army positions from the march, having gained commanding heights, and blocked the town from the northern and southern sides.”
Interestingly, Ukraine is still as of Friday refuting that Russia has definitively captured Soledar; however, a CNN crew observed organized pullback of Ukrainian troops under heavy continued shelling.
And conveniently, Washington’s first reaction to news of Soledar’s capture by Russian forces was to downplay its significance. US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the Russian advance would not “have a strategic impact on the war itself.”
“It certainly isn’t going to stop the Ukrainians or slow them down in terms of their efforts to regain their territory,” be had said in a Thursday briefing.
This morning, I can’t help but wonder about Tesla cutting prices on some models (first in China and then domestically) and the off-the-charts cancellations builders are facing. But that could wait until this weekend’s report.
What can’t wait until this weekend is the messaging, I’m seeing related to inflation.
On the “political” front:
Senator Warren (@SenWarren) tweeted: “Inflation has slowed for six months, providing families more breathing room. The Fed needs to take this data into account and not drive the economy off a cliff with more extreme interest rate hikes.“
Let’s remember that this was all “transitory” until amongst other things, President Biden and Chair Powell sat down in November 2021 to discuss his renomination.
On the “media” front:
There is a “victory lap” sort of reporting. It is almost as though mainstream media got fed the talking points that “7.1% is bad! But 6.5% is good”. We are “winning” the war. It is headed in right direction, etc. Do NOT underestimate how much mainstream media is influenced via talking points to influence the public. Almost feels to me like we are setting up for a shift in how inflation is treated.
Nick Timiraos (@NickTimiraos) is writing about and tweeting about annualizing the Q4 data! (Where have we seen that before? From 2 + 2 =5 on December 15th) Whether true or not, many view him as the person in the press closest to this Fed, so it is interesting to see what narrative he is helping shape for the more specialized audience (financial media as opposed to mainstream media).
I am still neutral, but this shift in political and media talking points could pave the way for a series of Fed speakers to come out downplaying the inflation risk.
That would make me want to get on the bull one more time as that would fuel, likely erroneously, but fuel nonetheless, another big “soft landing” surge in stock prices (with a good rally in the front/belly of the yield curve).
Losses ‘Accelerate’ For Goldman’s Credit-Card Division
Goldman Sach’s credit card business, anchored by the Apple Card since 2019, has been one of the company’s biggest successes in gaining retail lending scale, but rising losses are very concerning for the new division.
Disclosed in a regulatory filing Friday, Goldman’s Platform Solutions segment incurred a whopping $1.2 billion loss for the first nine of last year, with losses accelerating by the year. The filing shows pretax losses have mounted to $3 billion since the start of 2020. People who are familiar with the unaudited stats told Bloomberg:
When the latest quarter’s figures get added to it next week, that cumulative loss will approach $4 billion in the three-year span and $2 billion for the year driven by loan-loss provisions.
The filing also revealed provisions for credit losses were $942 million for the first nine of 2022 (recall last year, we noted the losses were quickly mounting for Goldman). Losses are steadily rising as the Covid money helicopter drop has been over for more than a year.
Consumers are getting slaughtered with maxed-out credit cards and the highest interest rates in years, on top of 20 months of negative real wages, personal savings wiped out (at least for the poorest of folks), and increasing risks of recession, which has led to the emerging trend of people not being able to service their debts.
“The division is a whittled-down version of what was once Goldman’s lofty goal of storming the consumer market — building a digital bank of the future that would become an industry leader. Instead, rattled by the persistent costs and difficulty of setting up new business lines, the firm decided to scale back its ambitions and reposition the pieces,” Bloomberg said.
What’s left of Goldman’s entry into the consumer space is parked in Platform Solutions, including card tie-ups and installment lending. The most profitable part of the group is the transaction-banking business line.
Goldman forecasted the division would be profitable by the end of next year, but that prediction is too rosy and might not be until 2025, people with direct knowledge said.
Goldman reports quarterly earnings next week and will offer more insight into Platform Solutions. So far, the bank’s bet on consumer subprime (hoping to profit off America’s sub-700 FICO population by lending to it) appears to be a dud.
