Latest news with #Irvine
Associated Press
8 hours ago
- General
- Associated Press
HomeAid Celebrates Milestone of Serving Over 1.4 Million People Nationwide
Building a Future Without Homelessness IRVINE, CA / ACCESS Newswire / July 31, 2025 / HomeAid, a leading national nonprofit organization dedicated to ending homelessness through construction, community engagement, and education, proudly announces a significant milestone in its 36-year history: over 1.4 million individuals and families have been served since the organization's founding in 1989. Through the efforts of 19 affiliates nationwide and a robust network of mission-driven partners, HomeAid has completed 1,500 housing projects across the United States. These projects represent a total construction value of $355 million, with nearly $158 million contributed as in-kind donations from our dedicated partners in the homebuilding and construction industries. 'This milestone isn't just about looking back. It's about leaning forward because we know that behind every number is a name, and behind every name is a need that still calls out to be met,' Scott Larson, CEO, HomeAid America. HomeAid's one-of-a-kind model leverages the expertise and resources of the building industry to create and renovate safe, dignified housing and programmatic facilities for other nonprofit organizations that directly help those facing homelessness. The variety of populations whose lives HomeAid's work has impacted includes individuals, families, veterans, at-risk youth, survivors of domestic violence, and those with disabilities. In addition to housing projects, HomeAid focuses on community engagement through its various essential drives, care days, and other community events. HomeAid is also a leading advocate for education that addresses the root causes of homelessness, works to reduce stigma, and empowers individuals, organizations, and communities to take action. As the homelessness crisis continues to impact every community in this country, HomeAid remains committed to building a future without homelessness. 'To every builder captain, trade partner, supplier, consultant, volunteer, and supporter, thank you. This impact belongs to all of us. Over 1.4 million lives. And we're just getting started,' said Larson. About HomeAid Founded in 1989, HomeAid develops, builds, and preserves a variety of housing, including emergency, interim, transitional, permanent supportive, and affordable housing through its 19 affiliates in 13 states. In addition, this includes resource centers that provide support services to those experiencing or at risk of homelessness. HomeAid partners with hundreds of nonprofit organizations nationwide to provide housing and supportive services that empower residents to move toward self-sufficiency. HomeAid has completed 1,501 housing and community engagement projects with a value of more than $355 million. HomeAid has added 15,824 beds that have served over 1.4 million previously homeless individuals. For more information, visit Contact InformationMonique Waddington HomeAid Chief Marketing and Communications Officer 949-777-1660 SOURCE: HomeAid press release
Belfast Telegraph
a day ago
- Sport
- Belfast Telegraph
More must be done to protect against the dangers of heading, says son of Northern Ireland hero
The son of Northern Ireland goal scoring hero Willie Irvine says more must be done to combat the impact of heading a ball on professional footballers. Irvine died at the age of 82 on Saturday after a long-battle with Alzheimer's disease. The centre-forward earned 23 caps and scored eight goals for his country between 1963 and 1972. At club level, he scored goals for Burnley, Preston North End and Brighton & Hove Albion. Son Stephen Irvine is in no doubt that heading old-fashioned footballs on a regular basis caused his father's illness. He explained: 'Heading a ball every day was the cause of my father's Alzheimer's and his death. 'He was an athlete and a man who always looked after himself. So even in his 80s his lungs and heart were strong. But his brain scan was similar to that of a boxer's. 'When you think about it, he was heading the ball every day. Not a modern day ball, but a caser. Those old footballs were like medicine balls, so it was repeated blows to the brain. 'My dad loved heading the ball. I remember him playing head tennis with myself and my brothers in the garden. We didn't know any better.' In recent years, several high-profile players of Irvine's generation have died with Alzheimer's, including both Bobby and Jack Charlton, Denis Law, Nobby Stiles and Martin Peters. Stephen believes that action must be taken to prevent the next generation of footballers suffering the same fate. He said: 'It's an industrial injury. 'I love football and I know heading the ball is an important part of the game, but I think we need to help safeguard the next generation of footballers. 'We should curb how much heading a footballer does in training, or perhaps players should wear something similar to a scrum cap. 'Organisations like the PFA need to be forward thinking on this matter.' Stephen was keen to thank both the Jeff Astle Foundation and the PFA for their help during his father's illness. The Astle Foundation is named after West Bromwich Albion's legendary striker Jeff who died in 2002. The charity is ran by Astle's wife Dawn. 'Dawn Astle was magnificent with our family. She was there to help us at every turn. I was delighted to read a few weeks ago that she is to receive an MBE. 'The PFA now has its Brain Health Fund, which helped us with care costs for my father. 'Things have moved on from, say, 10 years ago. It's a situation that is now being treated much more seriously than it was a few years ago.' Reflecting on his father's career, Stephen recalled the pride his father took in playing for Northern Ireland alongside his brother Bobby Irvine, who is still regarded as one of Linfield's greatest-ever goalkeepers. The brothers both played in a famous 1-1 draw with Spain in 1963, when Willie scored a late equaliser and Bobby was praised by the Spanish media for his spectacular saves. 'Dad loved playing for Northern Ireland and considered it a privilege. He always spoke with pride about standing for the national anthem before kick-off. 'He talked about playing alongside my Uncle Billy in Bilbao when they both had great games. It's very rare that two brothers play together at international level. 'In the last few years, we watched old footage on YouTube. Quite recently, we watched Northern Ireland's 1-0 win over England in 1972 that my dad played in. 'He was top goal scorer in the old First Division in the 1965/66 season with 29 goals for Burnley. 'If you did that today you would be a multi-millionaire, but my dad just got £60 a week and £5 per goal. 'Although that seems like nothing, it was decent money at the time. My brothers and I had a decent upbringing thanks to my dad's football career, so we can have no complaints. 'He broke his leg at Goodison Park in 1967. He always told me he was never the same player after that, that he had lost a yard of pace. 'But Preston still paid £45,000 for him in 1968, and he scored goals there too. 'I wasn't old enough to see him play professionally, but I watched him play in a few charity games and he was brilliant. He just seemed to glide past players.' Bobby — a year older than Willie — now resides in a care home. Stephen believes it would be a fitting tribute if a street in their hometown of Carrickfergus was named after the brothers. He said: 'There was talk of it a few years ago but it never came to fruition. 'My father loved Carrickfergus. He was born in Eden but moved to the Woodburn estate when he was quite young. He and my uncle used to play football on the green near their house. 'It would be nice if their achievements were commemorated in some way.' Willie Irvine's funeral has been arranged for 2pm on Thursday August 14 at St John's in Worsthorne, just outside Burnley. The procession will pass the centre-forward's beloved Turf Moor, where he is regarded as a club legend. 'My father died at 3pm on a Saturday,' said Stephen. 'It was like he waited for that moment because football was such a big part of his life. 'We all knew it was coming, but honestly it's still a difficult time. He was a brilliant man and a wonderful father. 'He is a hero on the pitch but to me he was just 'dad'.'
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The London Company Mid Cap Portfolio Sold Skyworks Solutions (SWKS) in Q2. Here's Why
The London Company, an investment management company, released 'The London Company Mid Cap Strategy' second quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. US equities saw a double-digit surge in the second quarter following a sharp decline in the first quarter. The mid-cap composite rose 5.7% (5.5% net) in the second quarter, falling short of the Russell Midcap Index's 8.5% increase. Please review the fund's top 5 holdings to gain insight into their key selections for 2025. In its second quarter 2025 investor letter, The London Company Mid Cap Strategy highlighted stocks such as Skyworks Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:SWKS). Headquartered in Irvine, California, Skyworks Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:SWKS) designs, develops, and manufactures semiconductor products. The one-month return of Skyworks Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:SWKS) was -7.98%, and its shares lost 36.68% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On July 29, 2025, Skyworks Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:SWKS) stock closed at $71.94 per share, with a market capitalization of $10.8 billion. The London Company Mid Cap Strategy stated the following regarding Skyworks Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:SWKS) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter: "Exited: Skyworks Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:SWKS) – Sold remaining position reflecting greater competition, client concentration, and recent management changes. We first purchased SWKS in late 2018. Shares of SWKS did well in the early years of our holding period, but the stock underperformed the broader market in recent years. While it is frustrating to sell on weakness, the recent loss of exclusivity on an iPhone 17 component with Apple highlights a significant risk to the firm. Apple represents over 60% of revenue to SWKS, so any change in the relationship is meaningful. This is the second loss of a component used in iPhones in recent years and is a sign of greater competition from large players like Qualcomm and Broadcom. SWKS also recently fired their CEO, which is another risk in the future. We decided to sell based on these concerns." A technician using a specialized tool to mount a wireless analog system on chip. Skyworks Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:SWKS) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 31 hedge fund portfolios held Skyworks Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:SWKS) at the end of the first quarter, which was 31 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Skyworks Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:SWKS) as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. In another article, we covered Skyworks Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:SWKS) and shared the list of most oversold semiconductor stocks so far in 2025. Skyworks Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:SWKS) detracted from The London Company Mid Cap Strategy's performance in Q1 2025 due to a major shift in its relationship with Apple. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors. READ NEXT: The Best and Worst Dow Stocks for the Next 12 Months and 10 Unstoppable Stocks That Could Double Your Money. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
New York Times
3 days ago
- Business
- New York Times
Study Undercuts Idea That Cash Payments to Poor Families Help Child Development
If the government wants poor children to thrive, it should give their parents money. That simple idea has propelled an avid movement to send low-income families regular payments with no strings attached. Significant but indirect evidence has suggested that unconditional cash aid would help children flourish. But now a rigorous experiment, in a more direct test, found that years of monthly payments did nothing to boost children's well-being, a result that defied researchers' predictions and could weaken the case for income guarantees. After four years of payments, children whose parents received $333 a month from the experiment fared no better than similar children without that help, the study found. They were no more likely to develop language skills, avoid behavioral problems or developmental delays, demonstrate executive function or exhibit brain activity associated with cognitive development. 'I was very surprised — we were all very surprised,' said Greg J. Duncan, an economist at the University of California, Irvine and one of six researchers who led the study, called Baby's First Years. 'The money did not make a difference.' The findings could weaken the case for turning the child tax credit into an income guarantee, as the Democrats did briefly four years ago in a pandemic-era effort to fight child poverty. That effort, in 2021, provided most families with children monthly checks of up to $300 per child and helped push child poverty to a record low, though it did not receive the kind of rigorous evaluation of its developmental impacts the new study offers. It lapsed after a year, and Democratic efforts to extend it failed amid unified Republican opposition. Many Democrats are pushing to bring it back. While the new research may shape the debate over income guarantees, the leaders of the new study disagree among themselves about the relevance of the experiment's results. Some think the pandemic, which erupted soon after the research began, may have skewed outcomes, both because it disrupted lives and triggered large government aid programs that diluted the impact of the stipends provided by the study. The payments from Baby's First Years were also much smaller, on a per-family basis, than those the Democrats propose. Larger payments might have beneficial effects. Since the test was unusual in targeting children in their earliest years, it is also possible that benefits will appear later, after they start school. Still, the test was unusually comprehensive, and the lack of results provides conservative critics of cash guarantees an empirical talking point. 'It shows that money alone won't lead to better outcomes for children,' said Robert Doar, president of the conservative American Enterprise Institute, who supports imposing work rules on aid on the theory that working parents offer children role models. The study did not test noncash programs like food stamps or Medicaid or subsidies tied to work. The results were reported earlier by NPR. It has long been clear that children from affluent families exhibit stronger cognitive development and fewer behavioral problems, on average, than their low-income counterparts. The question is whether their advantage comes from money itself or from related forces like parental health and education, neighborhood influences or the likelihood of having two parents in the home. A landmark study in 2019 from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine found that 'poverty itself causes negative child outcomes' and aid programs often help. But most of the evidence came from studies of noncash benefits, like food stamps or Medicaid, or the earned-income tax credit, a subsidy for parents with jobs. Some of the studies were decades old, when the safety net was smaller and expansions might have had larger effects. For a more precise test of cash guarantees, Baby's First Years raised about $22 million from the National Institutes of Health and private foundations and recruited 1,000 poor mothers with newborns in New York, New Orleans, greater Omaha and Minneapolis-St. Paul. More than 80 percent were Black or Latino, and most were unmarried. After randomly dividing the parents, researchers gave one group $333 a month while the other got a nominal $20. Random-control testing is considered an especially rigorous form of evaluation. The researchers specified in advance seven measures on which they thought children in high-cash families would outperform the others. But after four years they found no group differences on any of the yardsticks, which aimed for a comprehensive look at child development. Children in the families getting the higher cash payments did no better on tests of vocabulary, executive function, pre-literacy skills or spatial perception. Their mothers did not rank them more highly on assessments of social and emotional behavior. And they were no more likely than the children in the low-cash group to avoid chronic health conditions like asthma. Mothers in the high-cash group did spend about 5 percent more time on learning and enrichment activities, such as reading or playing with their children. They also spent about $68 a month more than the low-cash mothers on child-related goods, like toys, books and clothing. At the same time, the study found no support for two main criticisms of unconditional payments. While critics have warned that parents might abuse the money, high-cash mothers spent negligible sums on alcohol and no more than low-cash mothers, according to self-reporting. They spent less on cigarettes. Nor did they work less. While opponents say income guarantees could erode the work ethic, mothers in the two groups showed no differences across four years in hours worked, wages earned or the likelihood of having jobs. The high-cash mothers did prove less likely to work full time during the pandemic, which researchers considered positive — evidence that aid helps parents manage emergencies. One puzzling outcome is that the payments failed to reduce mothers' stress, as researchers predicted. On the contrary, mothers in the high-cash group reported higher levels of anxiety than their low-cash counterparts. It is possible they felt more pressure to excel as parents. Contrary to predictions by the researchers, children in both groups showed similar patterns of brain activity on the study's main neurological yardstick, an index of high-frequency brain activity, as measured by an electroencephalogram. High-frequency brain activity is often associated with cognitive development. Though an earlier paper showed promising activity on a related neurological measure in the high-cash infants, that trend did not endure. The new study detected 'some evidence' of other differences in neurological activity between the two groups of children, but its significance was unclear. While researchers publicized the earlier, more promising results, the follow-up study was released quietly and has received little attention. Several co-authors declined to comment on the results, saying that it was unclear why the payments had no effect and that the pattern could change as the children age. 'Anyone who tries to tell you they know what the data mean is just speculating,' Katherine A. Magnuson, a professor of social work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, wrote in an email. The payments continued for more than six years, and future analyses will examine the longer-range effect. Arloc Sherman of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a supporter of income guarantees, said the results were affected by the pandemic and should be weighed against conflicting evidence. 'I don't think these results undermine the conclusion, from a large volume of studies, that income is important for children's health, education and development,' he said. Jane Waldfogel, a professor at Columbia University whose book 'Child Benefits: The Smart Investment for America's Future' supports child-rearing subsidies, said the experimental payments were too small to have the predicted effect. Because the aid was capped at $333 per family, not per child, she said, households received an average subsidy less than half of what Democrats offered in 2021 and typically propose. 'It just wasn't enough to reduce financial hardship and strain,' Ms. Waldfogel said. The payments initially increased household income by 18 percent, but high inflation eroded their value. Virtually all parents in both groups remained low-income throughout the four years, and they reported similar levels of hardships like evictions or utility cutoffs. Robert Rector, an opponent of income guarantees at the Heritage Foundation, praised the rigor of the study and said it 'blows the arguments for unconditional cash aid out of the water.' The results are unsurprising, he said, because the safety net already provides what he called large food, health care, and wage subsidies, meaning few families face dire conditions and the extra stipends did little to differentiate the groups. While the aid did not boost child development in measurable ways, it may still have enriched family life. Some parents told researchers it let them buy children special gifts or share meaningful experiences, like dining out or visiting a zoo. One proudly photographed the winter coat she bought her child. 'The mothers are certainly not saying this money doesn't matter,' said Sarah Halpern-Meekin, a sociologist at the University of Madison-Wisconsin, who oversaw parent interviews. Michael R. Strain of the American Enterprise Institute said the study reinforced his doubts about cash aid, but he encouraged fellow conservatives not to make too much of it. 'It seems completely plausible to me that the pandemic overwhelmed an effect from the income,' he said. Still, he noted that poor families faced problems as varied as bad schools, violent neighborhoods and a shortage of role models. 'Can $300 a month address that?' he said. 'I don't know why it would.' A single study may alter few minds, but it has changed one expert's thinking. Mr. Duncan, a leading child poverty researcher, had been persuaded by studies of Medicaid, food stamps and the earned-income tax credit that unconditional cash aid would improve children's outcomes. But the uniform new results have made him reconsider. 'There is strong evidence that these other safety net programs reduce intergenerational poverty,' Mr. Duncan said. 'Our cash payments appear unlikely to follow suit. We've got to come to grips with that.'
Sky News
3 days ago
- Sky News
Shona Stevens: Man in court charged with murder of Irvine woman in 1994
A man has appeared in court charged with the murder of a woman more than 30 years ago. Shona Stevens, 31, suffered serious injuries after being attacked near her home in Irvine, North Ayrshire, in November 1994. She died in hospital three days later. The mother-of-one's family has never given up their campaign for justice, and in November last year a £20,000 reward was offered by Crimestoppers for information that could help catch and convict her killer. On Friday, Police Scotland announced its Major Investigation Team had arrested a man in connection with the case. Suspect Fraser Kilpatrick, 67, was charged the following day and appeared before Kilmarnock Sheriff Court on Monday. Kilpatrick, of Glasgow, made no plea to the single charge of murder. He is due back in the dock within the next eight days. "I am grateful for their information and input which greatly contributed to our investigation." Ms Stevens was attacked on 10 November 1994. After leaving Bourtreehill shopping centre, she was last seen walking alone on Towerlands Road at about 1.10pm. Ten minutes later, she was discovered seriously injured in a wooded area to the rear of Alder Green, just 200 yards from her home. Ms Stevens died in hospital on 13 November 1994. Appealing for fresh information last year, her daughter Candice and mother Mhairi Smith said: "There is not a day that goes by that she is not in our thoughts and in our hearts."
