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UnitedHealth shares rally as health care giant beats 2Q forecasts, eases care use concerns

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:57:51 GMT

By TOM MURPHY (AP Health Writer)UnitedHealth beat second-quarter expectations as an acquisition and more Medicare Advantage customers helped balance a jump in care use.The health care giant also raised the low end of its 2023 earnings forecast range on Friday after its profit jumped 8% to $5.47 billion in the quarter.UnitedHealth runs a health insurance business that covers more than 50 million people, mostly in the United States. It also has an Optum business that provides care and runs one of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefit managers.Optum revenue jumped 25% to more than $56 billion in the quarter, helped partly by UnitedHealth’s roughly $8 billion acquisition of Change Healthcare.The company also said it squeezed more revenue out of customers served through its Optum Health business, which runs clinics, outpatient surgery centers and provides home care. That business has been treating more people through value-based care arrangements, which base care provider pay...

Amsterdam's first cannabis dispensary looking to open in August

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:57:51 GMT

AMSTERDAM, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- The City of Amsterdam is getting its first legal cannabis dispensary. Amsterdam Cannabis will be located at 1451 Route 5S. Get the latest, news, weather, sports and community events delivered right to your inbox! Owners Anthony and Thomas Marcellino are two brothers from Amsterdam. They applied to get their CAURD license in September 2022 and it was granted in April 2023."The process for obtaining the license was tough," said Anthony Marcellino. "We had to track down a lot of paperwork, some from several years ago, and luckily we were able to find it all and get our application submitted to the Office of Cannabis Management." Swimming reopens at Brown’s Beach on Saratoga Lake Amsterdam Cannabis will have smokable cannabis, edibles, vape pens, prerolled joints, concentrates, and other cannabis products. Overall, they plan to carry about 100 different types of cannabis products."We hope that the local community comes to check out the variety of products...

Pittsfield Police looking for missing teen

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:57:51 GMT

PITTSFIELD, Mass. (NEWS10) -- The Pittsfield Police Department is asking the public for help in finding a missing 16-year-old girl. Police say Jaylynn Sullivan was last seen wearing ripped jeans, a red shirt, and black sandals. Get the latest, news, weather, sports and community events delivered right to your inbox! Image via Pittsfield Police DepartmentPolice say Sullivan is approximately 5'4" and approximately 150 pounds. According to police, it is believed she is in the Western Massachusetts area, specifically Berkshire County. Anyone with information regarding her whereabouts is urged to contact the Pittsfield Police Department at (413) 448-9700.

Missouri Powerball player credits lucky lightning for $50,000 win

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:57:51 GMT

ST. CLAIR, Mo. -- A Missouri Powerball player won $50,000 in the July 1st drawing. She credits two lightning strikes for her good luck.“There were two lightning bolts that both hit at the same time right next to me,” the player tells the Missouri Lottery. “I told my husband, ‘I don’t want to drive into that storm.’" Defendant who was serving life for murder gets unusual deal She pulled in to the On the Run gas station on Main Street in St. Clair and purchased a Powerball ticket while waiting for the storm to pass. It ended up matching five white-ball numbers and the Powerball. She plans on spending the money on her grandchildren.The Powerball jackpot is reaching record levels. This Saturday's jackpot is for $875 million.The chances of winning any Powerball jackpot are small, at around one in 292,201,338. The chances of taking home $50,000 are around one in 913,129.

Opinion: Devastating allegations against House leaders, force the question of Colorado’s open meetings law

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:57:51 GMT

Colorado state Representatives Elisabeth Epps (D-Denver) and Bob Marshall (D-Highlands Ranch) filed a lawsuit against House leadership and the House itself alleging both legislative caucuses were meeting in violation of the Colorado open meeting law.Taken at face value, the allegations are devastating. Among other things, Epps and Marshall allege the caucus meetings violated the law because they were held without any public notice; deliberately concealed those meetings from the public; and members conducted legislative business using encrypted group texts.Conflicts between rank-and-file members and legislative leadership are not unusual. However, it is highly unusual for members to sue the leadership over those conflicts, especially over meetings that have existed in some form for generations of Colorado legislators. As a former speaker of the House, I’m no stranger to internal conflicts and I also understand the importance of caucus meetings to the General Assembly. In fact, one of...

UCG Takes Center Stage in Central Asia's Infrastructure Boom

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:57:51 GMT

Further afield in the riskier frontier lands, Kazakhstan’s KazMuniGas, an integrated oil and gas company, has been selling shares to foreign investors in the country’s privatization program. Foreign investors are still waiting for this IPO, estimated to be valued at around $6.5 billion.Their neighbour, Uzbekistan, is thinking the same thing as a means to capture local and global investor interest in infrastructure investments.“As one of the directors of United Cement Group (in Uzbekistan), I would like the company to develop further, including through an IPO,” said Andreas Kern, Member of the Board of Directors, of UCG.United Cement Group has a total production capacity of just over 10 million tons of cement per year. Cemex’s installed capacity is 80 million tons.An example of what UCGs corner of the world looks like: The large infrastructure project "New Tashkent", presented by the President of Uzbekistan. Smart city in Tashkent, with a total city area of 20,000 hectares. It will b...

Hollywood film festival lets athletes tell their own story Uninterrupted

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:57:51 GMT

Some of the biggest names in sports were in Hollywood Thursday night, but it wasn't just because the ESPY Awards were in Los Angeles the day before.Stars like Summer and Winter Olympian Lolo Jones, NFL player Kayvon Thibodeaux and four-time NBA champion Draymond Green were on hand for the inaugural Uninterrupted Film Festival to discuss not only their athletic accomplishments, but also the changing media landscape for athletes.In the past few years, high school and college athletes have been allowed to be compensated for their name, image and likeness — a rapid about-face from the stiff penalties for such payments in the past — and stars can skip the press entirely and reach their fans directly on social media or through a podcast. To highlight these trends and others for sports stars, the festival showed off what it called "a whole new ball game in storytelling." Uninterrupted, the athlete-empowerment brand of the SpringHill Company founded by LeBron James and Maverick Carter, high...

China's Shein hit with lawsuit citing RICO violations, a law originally used against organized crime

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:57:51 GMT

China's fast fashion retailer Shein is facing a lawsuit that claims the clothing maker's copyright infringement is so aggressive, it amounts to racketeering.The filing this week claims that Shein is in violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, better known as RICO, a law originally crafted to prosecute organized crime. “Shein has grown rich by committing individual infringements over and over again, as part of a long and continuous pattern of racketeering, which shows no sign of abating,” the filing says.In an organized effort to create as many as 6,000 new items per day, Shein uses a “byzantine shell game of a corporate structure” to rip off designers, a coordinated illegal operation that can best be combated through the use of RICO statutes, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit is just the latest in a series of difficulties Shein has faced. In May a bipartisan group of two dozen lawmakers asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to put the brakes on...

Nikki Hu Injured, 3 Others Killed in Wrong-Way Crash on SR-20 [Sutter County, CA]

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:57:51 GMT

3 Dead, 1 Injured in Multi-Vehicle Crash near Acacia AvenueSUTTER COUNTY, CA (July 14, 2023) – Wednesday morning, Nikki Hu sustained injuries after a fatal 3-vehicle crash on State Route 20.The accident happened at 8:30 a.m. on July 5th, near Wadsworth Canal Bridge and Acacia Avenue.According to CHP, a 30-year-old man driving a 2016 Nissan Versa east on SR 20 swerved and crossed the solid double-yellow lines, colliding with a westbound Chevrolet Tahoe.As a result, a Ford F-350 pickup truck following the Tahoe rear-ended it.First responders extricated the pinned Nissan driver and pregnant woman passenger and their dog from the vehicle and took them to the hospital.Despite medical efforts, the unborn child did not make it, and the Nissan driver died as a result of his injuries.Sutter County Animal Control also responded and rushed the dog to Northpointe Animal Hospital, where he died from his injuries.The driver of the Tahoe, Nikki Hu, 45 of Yuba City, sustained minor injuries, ...

Jorge Salas Lopez, 2 Others Killed in Crash on Interstate 5 [Federal Way, WA]

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:57:51 GMT

Truck-Sedan Collision on Interstate 5 Left Three DeadFEDERAL WAY, WA (July 14, 2023) – Early Sunday morning, a vehicle crash on Interstate 5 killed Jorge Salas Lopez and two other people.The incident happened on July 9th, at around 3:50 a.m., in the area of Interstate 5 near Kitts Corner, involving a silver Acura Integra and a Chevrolet truck.According to Washington State Patrol Trooper Rick Johnson, the Acura was driven by 25-year-old Lopez with a 27-year-old and a 25-year-old passenger, and the truck was driven by a 31-year-old man.The investigation showed that Lopez collided with the Chevrolet upon approaching South 336th Street overpass at high speeds.As a result, the Chevrolet and the Acura ended up on the right shoulder of the interstate. At the time of the collision, Lopez and his two passengers were not wearing any seatbelts. Due to the impact of the collision, all three occupants of the Acura died at the scene.Meanwhile, the driver of the Chevrolet did not suffer any ...