Lastly, Excessive Faculty Musical Four is going on – with a twist

It’s going to be a high school reunion to remember.

Finally, High School Musical fans can look forward to the long-awaited upcoming fourth film, but with an epic plot twist we didn’t know we needed. In its fourth season, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, we witness High School Musical 4: The Reunion, filmed right on the campus of her beloved high school.

Per Disney, “On their first day back, the Principal announces that Disney has decided to shoot the long-awaited film High School Musical 4: The Reunion on location at their beloved high school, and our Wildcats will be made special in the film.” play extras.”

fan favorite Corbin Blue appeared in the third season, so there are high hopes for more appearances from High School Musical OG. The timing of the HSMTMTS Season 4 announcement is particularly strange, coming just a few months later Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens each attended school in Salt Lake City, Utah, where High School Musical was filmed. At the time, Efron posted a photo standing in front of the well-known location with the caption, “Huh… Forget me.”

Never that Zach!

Vacation flights would be the most costly in 5 years as fears of a pandemic ease

Los Angeles, CA – November 23: A passenger is hugged while being picked up amid a long line of travelers waiting for rides after arriving at Los Angeles International Airport’s Terminal 1 on Tuesday, November 23, 2021 for the Thanksgiving Holiday has arrived in Los Angeles.

Allen J. Cockroaches | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images

If you’re thinking about flying over Thanksgiving or Christmas, get ready to pay.

Flights for the holidays will be the most expensive in five years, fare tracker Hopper said Monday.

The average domestic fare for travel over Thanksgiving is $350 and international round-trip flights average $795 — both representing a 22% increase compared to 2019 before the Covid pandemic, Hopper said.

Domestic round-trip tickets over Christmas, which falls on a weekend this year, are nearly a third more expensive than 2019, averaging $463, while international tickets are up 26% to $1,300, according to Hopper’s data.

Traveling on high-demand days, like the Wednesday before Thanksgiving or the days leading up to Christmas, always demands higher prices. Travel experts recommend flexibility and travel outside of the busiest travel days.

But Brett Snyder, founder of travel website Cranky Flier and former airline executive, warns that cheap fares could be hard to find any day this holiday season as airlines have tightened their control over how many seats they sell.

“Airlines are so much better at this now,” Snyder said. “Now they just fly a lot fewer flights on Christmas Day. If it’s cheaper, it’s not significantly cheaper.”

Many of the factors that contributed to a chaotic summer for air travel — a shortage of planes, staff and a training backlog — are not going away immediately, which will limit flight capacity going forward. It also means that prices are likely to remain elevated even though they are already below year highs.

Hopper’s lead economist, Hayley Berg, recommends booking holiday travel no later than mid-October, saying: “If you see a good price, even a price that you think is reasonable, we encourage you to book.”

US report says corporations are struggling to help voting rights

A handful of large corporations have received poor marks for how they have responded to a variety of voting rights and democracy issues, including the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, according to a new report by a corporate accountability group.

Accountable.US, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporate watchdog, publishes its American Democracy Scorecard, which ranks the top 100 companies in the Fortune 500 )(3) nonprofit group that often funds progressive causes. According to its most recent 990 application form, the New Venture Fund spent over $440 million in 2020, including a $1.4 million donation to Accountable.US.

The group delivered a harsh assessment of how US corporate titans have dealt with voting rights and democracy. Over 60% of the companies evaluated received an F fail, according to results first submitted to CNBC and due to be released this week.

Many of the other companies rated Accountable didn’t fare much better. Another 16% received a D grade, 5% a C grade, and 13% a B grade. None of the companies received an A grade.

Companies that received an F grade include Comcast, the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC; AT&T; hardware store; Pfizer; Boeing; and Verizon. Those who received a B grade from Accountable include Tesla, Apple, Citigroup, and Bank of America.

“Americans overwhelmingly say that corporations should stand up for democracy, but we see the vast majority of large corporations fail miserably,” Kyle Herrig, president of Accountable.US, said in a statement to CNBC. Herrig said he plans to send letters to the CEOs of the 10 lowest-scoring companies.

He plans to tell CEOs that they are “currently failing to stand up for democracy,” but that “it’s not too late to get your priorities right and start aligning your values ​​with the values ​​that matter.” shared by most Americans,” reads a letter addressed to AT&T CEO John Stankey.

The new scorecard could put further pressure on companies to change both their plans for the 2022 midterm elections and their overall commitment to voting rights legislation.

The group’s scoring methodology focused on 14 criteria, including whether the company has supported lawmakers who opposed election-related legislation and whether the company has donated to campaigns by Republican lawmakers who have objected to certification of the 2020 presidential election.

Representatives of the companies named in this story did not respond to requests for comment.

The scorecard comes amid a spate of questions about what role corporations should play as Congress considers how to respond to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol and how to respond to restrictive state election laws.

Senate Republicans voted in January to block a sweeping voting rights bill. Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia then joined the GOP to oppose changes to the chamber’s filibuster rules that could have allowed Democrats to pass legislation themselves.

An August poll by NBC News showed that 21% of respondents said “threats to democracy” were the most important issue facing the country just months before the midterms, a higher proportion than any other issue.

The scorecard also comes as the House committee investigating the origins of the January 6 attack by supporters of former President Donald Trump seeks further hearings in September.

Over 140 Republican lawmakers have appealed the results of the 2020 election following the Jan. 6 riots. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., later told Reuters that he “concurred with the objections raised against two states, particularly because constitutional questions were raised about changes in the electoral process and whether those changes were authorized by their respective legislatures.” have been approved. as required by Article II.”

Accountable says its Aug. 19 review of Federal Election Commission filings shows that corporate political action committees donated over $20 million during the 2022 election cycle to lawmakers opposed to election laws like the Democrat-led Freedom to have pronounced the Vote Act.

Many companies said after the Jan. 6 attack their PACs would stop contributing to holdout campaigns or to legislators on either side of the aisle. Some companies have resumed their donations to these campaigns.

At least $5 million has flowed from corporate PACs to 2020 voters in this cycle, data from Accountable shows.

For example, Accountable says Home Depot received an F grade in part because of its donations to federal lawmakers who opposed election legislation and opposed the 2020 election certificate. The group’s data shows that the company, PAC, has donated at least $845,000 to members of Congress who have opposed federal voting rights legislation.

According to the report, Home Depot company PAC donated at least $360,000 to lawmakers who opposed confirming the election results. The company said after Jan. 6 that it was “taking a pause to take time to carefully review and re-evaluate each of the members who have objected to the election results before considering further contributions to them to be pulled”.

Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, CNBC’s parent company.

Four takeaways from Tuesday’s ‘morning assembly’ of the Investing Membership

What Foremost Road and Enterprise Want from Congress: CEO of Goldman Sachs

Pavel Toczynski | The image database | Getty Images

The US economy is going through one of the most difficult times I’ve seen in my 40-year career. Inflation, labor shortages, supply chain disruptions – all of these are hitting big companies hard and small companies even harder.

And so this week at Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Small Businesses Summit in Washington, DC, I join leaders from across the country in calling to action. The pandemic has presented a number of new challenges for small businesses, but the federal programs they rely on are not well-equipped to help. It’s time to give these programs an upgrade so small businesses have the tools they need to weather the turmoil ahead.

And instead of passing these reforms individually, Congress should consolidate them into a single piece of legislation: the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) first reauthorization in over 20 years.

Now it’s true that small businesses received a lot of help in the early days of the pandemic. Just last year, Congress passed the American Rescue Plan, which provided grants and loans to millions of small businesses so they could keep their doors open and their employees on their payrolls.

But now that the economy is heating up, the recovery is in jeopardy. According to a recent survey of 1,533 Goldman Sachs business education graduates and 10,000 small businesses, 93 percent fear the United States will enter a recession within the next year. 89% of small business owners say economic trends such as inflation, supply chain issues, and workforce issues are having a negative impact on their business. 80 percent say inflationary pressures have increased over the past three months, and 75 percent say inflation is hurting their companies’ financial health.

Goldman Sachs & Co. Chief Executive Officer David Solomon speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S. on Monday, April 29, 2019.

Kyle Grillot | Bloomberg | Getty Images

We already have a wide range of federal programs designed to help, but they need to be reformed to address the challenges ahead. Congress can help by taking action on the following four issues.

First, small businesses struggle to find and retain good workers. Lawmakers should consider new programs to help small businesses compete with big companies to retain and develop talent. For example, Congress could improve paid vacation programs and create new tax credits to support small business hiring and retention efforts.

Second, the pandemic has not only increased capital needs, it has also exposed gaps in credit markets, particularly for black-owned small businesses. According to Goldman Sachs survey data, 48 percent of black small business owners say they expect to get a loan or line of credit for their business in 2022 — yet only 19 percent are “very confident” their businesses will have access to capital. Therefore, Congress should strengthen the capacity of Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) to extend more lending to small businesses in underserved communities.

Third, childcare is one of the most significant economic vulnerabilities highlighted by the pandemic. According to Goldman Sachs survey data, 80 percent of small business owners support Congress to improve access to affordable childcare. Congress could help by expanding and improving programs aimed at reducing childcare costs and increasing access to so-called “childcare deserts” across the country.

Fourth, the barriers to entry are too high for small businesses seeking federal government contracts. From 2010 to 2019, the number of small businesses offering joint products and services to the federal government shrank by 38 percent. Even more alarmingly, the number of new small businesses entering the federal procurement market has fallen by 79 percent.

The federal government already has targets for the proportion of contracts awarded to different types of small businesses, including those owned by women and those located in historically underutilized business zones (HUBZones). But the federal goal for women-owned small businesses has only been met twice since its inception in 1994, and HUBZone’s goal has never been met.

A modernized SBA could help. Congress should create a level playing field by streamlining processes and expanding the scope of sourcing opportunities, particularly for minority and women-owned small businesses.

All of these reforms would go a long way in making small businesses as resilient and resilient as ever. Despite the challenges they face, 65% of small business owners remain upbeat about their company’s financial performance this year. With a modernized SBA and other efforts by policymakers, Congress can help ensure small businesses remain the pillars of our economy and local communities.

The road ahead will no doubt be bumpy, but if I know one thing, it’s that you should never bet against America. It is our entrepreneurial spirit that fuels the most resilient economy on earth. And when the public and private sectors work together, we can ensure small business owners have the tools they need to keep the economy on track.

—By David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs

20 years later, relive probably the most memorable moments from the 2002 Emmys

20 years ago television looked very different.

No one had ever heard of a streaming service, we used TiVo to record our favorite shows and a group of friends ruled the airwaves.

At the 2002 Primetime Emmy Awards, The West Wing took home their third of four straight wins for Outstanding Drama Series Everybody Loves Raymond’s Doris Roberts won her first of three consecutive trophies for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. Oprah Winfrey took home the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award and Friends won its first – and only! – Award for Outstanding Comedy Series.

Fresh off the season 1 finale of American Idol and season 1 of The Osbournes, the night also held meaning as reality stars and the best and brightest from the world of scripted television mingled and mingled like never before.

Of course, when we talk about the Emmys, we also have to talk about fashion. It was a red carpet showcasing some daring fashion choices, some baby-faced A-listers and some couples that sadly haven’t stood the test of time.

JPMorgan (JPM) fintech deal to amass Renovite to combat Stripe and Block

The main entrance at JPMorgan’s headquarters in New York City.

Eric McGregor | flare | Getty Images

JPMorgan Chase has agreed to acquire a payments startup called Renovite to fend off threats from fintech companies like Stripe and Block, CNBC has learned.

The bank, a major player in global payments, said its acquisition of Fremont, California-based Renovite will accelerate its ability to launch new offerings for merchants.

While JPMorgan is the world’s largest provider of commerce services by transaction volume, fast-growing newcomers like Stripe and Block have climbed the rankings in recent years thanks to booming e-commerce sales and the proliferation of new payment methods. Merchant acquirers are key behind-the-scenes vendors that enable sellers to accept in-person and online payments and keep a small stake in each transaction.

Though JPMorgan operates a payments juggernaut that processes more than $9 trillion a day across multiple businesses, JPMorgan’s merchant acquiring revenue has faltered over the past year in part because it lagged and lagged in some e-commerce segments offered services than some fintech competitors, Global Payments Chief Takis Georgakopoulos told investors in a May conference.

“Changing this image is a big story behind our investments,” Georgakopoulos vowed.

shopping spree

The acquisition of Renovite, first reported by CNBC, is the latest in a series of fintech deals struck under CEO Jamie Dimon. Since late 2020, JPMorgan has acquired at least five startups, ranging from an ESG investment platform to a UK-based roboadvisor, in addition to a number of smaller fintech investments.

Dimon has repeatedly sounded the alarm about the threat fintech players pose to traditional banks, particularly in highly competitive payments.

Fintech players have used merchant payment processing as a wedge to help them build ecosystems that have garnered staggering reviews. They were also generally more flexible in activating new payment methods such as offers from Klarna and Affirm.

Dimon has been forced to defend his bank’s rising spending this year as it invests billions of dollars in technology amid a 25% stock plunge on recession fears.

The Renovite deal on terms that could not be determined shows that the longtime CEO is not deterred by concerns that he is overspending on technology.

From rehearsal to delivery

JPMorgan conducted trials with Renovite as a vendor last fall, but was so impressed with the startup’s products — particularly a cloud-based switch that routes payments to multiple vendors — that it decided to acquire the company outright, Mike said Blandina, the Bank’s Global Head of Payment Technology.

The plug-and-play nature of the Switch platform allows JPMorgan to add new payment options in a fraction of the time it used to take because far less coding is required, he said in an interview.

“Our customers attach great importance to selection; they want to offer their customers many different payment methods, be it Visa, MasterCard, but also buy it now, pay later, etc.,” said Max Neukirchen, Global Head of Payments & Commerce for the company’s solutions.

“The ability to enable these very country-specific payment methods also helps us with our geographic expansion as we don’t have to spend a lot of time building local payment methods,” he added.

While JPMorgan is often content to partner with fintechs and take relatively small stakes in them, the bank felt Renovite’s product was too important not to own, Neukirchen said.

The bank was also looking for the company’s 125 or so engineers, based in India and the UK, to help JPMorgan with its product roadmap, he added.

Fundraising points plague GOP heading into halftime

What a difference a few months make. In the spring, it looked like the GOP was poised to make huge gains in the House of Representatives and retake the Senate. Now, as inflation worries, particularly gas prices, recede and post-Dobbs Democratic enthusiasm soars, the GOP is – according to the Washington Post – in complete disarray, with intra-party disagreements over Trump’s hand-picked nominees and serious funding problems threatening to upset plans in Congress to turn around While it’s highly likely at this point that the GOP will retake the House of Representatives, it’s not a given and Democrats are slight favorites to win the Senate. The GOP is in turmoil.

According to the post:

Republican Senate Chairman Mitch McConnell (Ky.) last week urged his fellow GOP senators to unite and focus on fundraising after spending much of the last month on the phone with donors who attempted to make up for party deficits. Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (California) has rallied his members to refocus their message on policy arguments he plans to make public on September 19th create a clearer contrast between his party and President Biden on issues such as immigration and crime and the economy.

Yes, unlike this spring, when gas prices and inflationary scares loomed, Democrats can expect a heavy dose of allegations of border mismanagement, a difficult issue for Democrats though far more manageable than the $5-a-per prices Gallon at the pump and a stronger economy, issues that touch every American on a daily basis.

As always, Trump and his subjects, especially his hand-picked candidates, play a big part in the difficulties:

The unity messages were intended to dampen distracting divisions that have sprung up within the party over controversial Senate candidates backed by former President Donald Trump and the party’s ability to fully fund campaigns in the face of a huge financial advantage for Democrats in key states.

Amazingly, Herschel Walker has emerged as Nate Silver’s most likely Republican pick-up by ten percentage points, but the fact that the race is evenly balanced, coupled with trouble in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Arizona, all driven by Trump-picked candidates, continues to pursue Republicans.

Trump himself continues to drag the party down as he represents what many consider to be “yesterday’s GOP” and has nothing to offer looking ahead.

“This is yesterday’s kind of crew, dealing with yesterday’s issues, with no personality and no optimism,” said one Republican strategist, who, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity to offer an honest assessment. The strategist was referring to candidates like Pennsylvania’s Mehmet Oz, Arizona’s Blake Masters and Ohio’s JD Vance, all of whom have been pushed to victory by a Trump endorsement in brutal primaries.

There is no question that Trump’s hand-picked candidates pose a massive problem. Mitch McConnell himself essentially admitted this last month. But the bigger problems are more persistent. The economy is improving. Just as voters were repeatedly reminded of the difficulties of gas prices in the spring. Now voters are constantly reminded that prices have shot down and are likely to fall further as we enter the “fall”. In addition, the Supreme Court is more unpopular than at any time in history. Voters directly link SCOTUS to MAGA extremism and the loss of women’s right to bodily autonomy. Voters are likely to worry about what MAGA extremism might lead to next.

But Democrats will likely focus on the positives they’ve brought to the nation. First and foremost is simple stability. The more Donald Trump rants about significant and self-evident issues, the more voters are reminded that nearly every Republican on the ballot still supports the man to an alarming degree. In addition, Democrats and Joe Biden have managed to win stunningly impressive legislative victories that are taking the nation into the 21st century and proving that government can serve the people. And yes, Democrats are suddenly leading the culture wars as the public becomes increasingly alienated by MAGA efforts to suppress women’s rights and tighten race relations, as well as advances along the LGBTQ frontline.

Expect Biden and the Democrats to counter GOP efforts to focus on the border and crime by announcing new policies aimed at addressing concerns.

In summary, the article notes that the GOP is terrified that their expected surge could result in only a small majority in the House of Representatives and perhaps even the loss of a Senate seat or even two (an extremely significant number), which would put the Democrats in one far stronger position in 2024, when control of at least one side of Congress could scuttle GOP plans to decide less about voting and more about state legislatures in the presidential election.

Meanwhile, the Democrats need only continue what they have been doing for the past two years to emerge as the adult party, the stable party, the party in charge and the party that cares about democracy – matching the “Democratic Party”. .

@JasonMiciak believes a day without learning is a day not lived. He is a political writer, columnist, author and lawyer. He is a Canadian-born dual citizen who spent his teens and college days in the Pacific Northwest and has since lived in seven states. Today he enjoys life as a single father to a young girl and writes on the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He loves making his flower pots, cooking and is currently studying philosophy of science, religion and non-mathematical principles behind quantum mechanics and cosmology. Please do not hesitate to contact us for lectures or other concerns.

Covid-Omicron booster vaccinations are meant to supply higher safety in opposition to an infection and severe sickness

US health officials expect new Omicron boosters will provide better protection against infections and serious diseases this fall as the new vaccines now match the dominant coronavirus variant.

The new Omicron images mark a milestone in the pandemic that will help the US fight the virus more effectively, said Dr. Ashish Jha, White House Covid Response Coordinator.

“For the first time since December 2020, our vaccines have caught up with the virus,” Jha told reporters during a Tuesday news briefing.

Jha said the US is moving towards a point where most Americans get a single Covid shot each year, which offers a high level of protection against the virus. People with serious illnesses or a weakened immune system may need additional vaccinations.

The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week released new booster shots for people 12 and older targeting the dominant subvariant Omicron BA.5, as well as the original Covid strain first identified in Wuhan, China. occurred in 2019.

Jha said the FDA is working to make the new boosters available to children under 12 and to switch the primary two-dose vaccine line to Omicron.

Pfizer’s new booster is available for people aged 12 and over, while adults aged 18 and over can get Moderna’s syringe. People can get the new vaccine at least two months after their primary vaccination or last booster shot with the older vaccines.

dr Anthony Fauci, senior White House medical adviser, said the new boosters should provide better protection against Omicron than the original vaccines. He added that it is difficult to predict how much better they will do.

Fauci said clinical data from Pfizer and Moderna on shots targeting the original version of Omicron, BA.1, elicited a stronger immune response against Omicron and other Covid variants compared to the original vaccines. BA.1 is the variant that caused last winter’s massive surge.

Pfizer and Moderna originally developed the Omicron boosters to target BA.1, but the FDA told the companies to change gears and produce shots targeting BA.5 in June as the subvariant rose to dominance.

As a result, they did not collect human data specifically on the BA.5 boosters. But FDA officials have said data from the BA.1 vaccines should give a good indication of how the BA.5 vaccines will work because they are very similar.

“Based on what we know about the immunology and science of this virus, these new vaccines can be expected to provide better protection against infection, better protection against transmission, and sustained and better protection against serious disease,” he said yeah

Fauci said the clinical trials of the BA.1 shots, which were administered to more than 1,700 people, have not raised any new safety concerns.

A new Covid variant could always emerge, but US health officials will meet annually to consider whether vaccines need to be adjusted to keep up with the virus, Fauci said. He added that the new boosters should provide significant protection even if BA.5 easily mutates into a new subvariant.

The first-generation Covid vaccines were more than 90% effective in preventing Covid disease when they were first approved in December 2020. But the protection offered by legacy vaccines targeting the original Covid strain has diminished because the virus has evolved dramatically in the past two years into the highly immune, evasive Omicron variant.

Members of the CDC’s Independent Advisory Committee last week expressed concern about the lack of human data on the BA.5 shooting. They nonetheless recommended the new boosters by an overwhelming 13 to 1 vote, arguing that the potential benefits of the vaccines outweigh any risks.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said the new boosters could prevent up to 100,000 hospital admissions and 9,000 deaths. She added that the vaccinations could save billions in medical costs if people get them at the same level as the annual flu shot.

These numbers are based on a forecast by a consortium of scientists called the Covid-19 Scenario Modeling Hub. The model assumes that the new boosters provide 80 percent protection against disease.

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said health officials will focus on making sure people who are at higher risk from Covid, particularly those aged 50 and over, are empowered with the new vaccinations this month.

CVS and Walgreens began offering dates for the new recordings over the weekend. By the end of this week, 90% of Americans will live within 5 miles of where they can get the new boosters, Becerra said.

You can visit Vaccines.gov to find a place where the shots are offered.

Jha said the Biden administration has asked Congress for additional funding to develop next-generation vaccines that can keep up with the virus over the long term.

Ray J takes a ballistic strategy to Kris Jenner and Kim Kardashian

Furious! What started as an ordinary Saturday night quickly turned into pure chaos courtesy of Ray J, who decided to air all about Kim Kardashian, Kris Jenner, and the sextape saga that just won’t die. After initially alerting his fans that he would provide receipts to prove that Kris Jenner and Kim Kardashian were the masterminds behind orchestrating their sex tape, Ray J kept his promises and dropped several bombshells!

Ray J set the tone for how deep he would get with receipts when he revealed that Kris Jenner allegedly got him and Kim Kardashian to reshoot their sex tape to make sure Kim looked the best in the video looked better, or as Ray put it, “to make her daughter look better.” That was just the beginning of his hour-long tea-spilling session, though.

Next, he called up past text messages between himself and Kanye West, which showed Kanye attempting to meet with him to secure the release of a second sex tape between Ray J and Kim. He also seemed upset that when Kanye posts text messages on social media he gets heaps of support, but Ray J doesn’t get the same love back.

Meanwhile, just as she was trying to share his Instagram DMs with Kim, she appeared to block him in the middle — and as a result, he couldn’t message her or go to her profile at all.

After dropping IG live multiple times, Ray J finally came back with the promised real receipts. He pulled out the original contract he and Kim had signed for the release of their sex tape and compared samples of Kim’s handwriting to prove that she not only signed, but also signed for him so the video could be released faster.

In the midst of all of this, neither Kris Jenner, Kim Kardashian, nor Kanye West have publicly responded, but we’re sure they will eventually … either through their attorneys or social media.