Latest news with #JackKennedy
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Tuscaloosa police investigate Hargrove Road shooting that left one man injured
Tuscaloosa police are investigating a June 9 shooting that left a man injured on Hargrove Road. Officers with the Tuscaloosa Police Department responded to the reported shooting at the 1100 block of Hargrove Road. One man was shot, said Capt. Jack Kennedy of the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit. The Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit has assumed command of the investigation. Kennedy said the man's injuries are not life-threatening and there is a possible suspect in custody. More: 'A turning point': Tuscaloosa church marks 61 years since 'Bloody Tuesday' Reach Jasmine Hollie at JHollie@ This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Man injured in shooting on Hargrove Road in Tuscaloosa
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
Group linked to 10 shootings, $1 million in fraud, Tuscaloosa police say
Tuscaloosa law enforcement officials say they've linked a group of suspects to at least 10 shootings, including one homicide, and more than $1 million in financial fraud. During a June 6 news conference, Capt. Jack Kennedy of the Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit detailed the group's alleged crimes and the cooperation among law enforcement agencies that led to arrests in the more than yearlong investigation. The group of at least 10 people was funded through credit and bank fraud in an extensive scheme that involved several bank tellers, according to Kennedy. Some of the suspects who were arrested are older than 16, but under the age of 18. A grand jury has issued 75 indictments in connection with the group's alleged activities. More: Accessing local journalism is even easier with the News app Law enforcement executed more than 60 subpoenas and search warrants as investigators worked to obtain evidence, Kennedy said, in a probe that began in January 2024. The Violent Crimes Unit, a multi-agency task force that investigates violent crimes in Tuscaloosa County, worked closely with several state and local agencies in investigating what they called the 'criminal enterprise.' Among those agencies were the Tuscaloosa Police Department, the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office, the Tuscaloosa County District Attorney's Office and the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences. The crime scene units and the crime labs at TPD and TCSO collaborated during the probe. The cyber intelligence units at TPD and TCSO provided resources, such as video surveillance, cellphone and social media data extractions, financial links and detailed criminal histories. The Violent Crimes Unit itself consists of investigators from the TCSO, TPD, the Northport Police Department and the UAPD. Multiple federal law enforcement agencies, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms as well as the Postal Inspectors Service, also played roles in the investigation. The June 6 news conference was attended by Tuscaloosa County Sheriff Ron Abernathy, Tuscaloosa Police Department Chief Brent Blankley, Northport Police Department Chief Gerald Burton, UAP Department Chief John Hooks and Tuscaloosa County District Attorney Hays Webb. Representatives of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office were also in attendance. Here's a breakdown of the 10 shootings linked to the group, provided by the Violent Crimes Unit: July 8, 2023: A man was shot in the face in broad daylight while he sat inside a vehicle at a gas station on Tuscaloosa's west side. Investigation found that the group believed the man was related to their criminal, but the man he turned out to be a bystander. July 13, 2023: Group members got into a shootout in Alberta with a rival. A bystander was shot in the stomach. Jan. 7, 2024: Group members drove to a residence and fired into the occupied building several times because of a monetary dispute. Jan. 21, 2024: Group members fired into an occupied apartment using a fully automatic rifle. Jan. 21, 2024: Group members fired into a different occupied apartment in a different complex with the fully automatic rifle and a 9mm pistol. Jan: 22, 2024: Group members fired into an unoccupied residence with the fully automatic rifle. April 12, 2024: Group members wearing masks got into an altercation with a group of people at an apartment complex. One member allegedly tried to shoot one of the people, but the gun did not fire. A shootout ensued as the group members left the complex. No victims have come forward or been identified in this case. April 14, 2024: Multiple members of the group became involved in a large shootout in Coaling. A pistol, outfitted with a conversion device that made the weapon fully automatic, was used. One occupied vehicle was shot into, and three unoccupied vehicles were shot into. No one was killed. May 22, 2024: Multiple group members go to an apartment complex and shoot around 100 rounds into six occupied apartments, one unoccupied building and one unoccupied vehicle. They also stole a motorcycle about an hour before the shooting. 10-May 25, 2024: Members of the group commit a homicide in Pickens County. A capital murder case is pending in Pickens County. Reach Ken Roberts at This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Tuscaloosa police say group linked to 10 shootings, $1M in fraud
Irish Examiner
5 days ago
- Business
- Irish Examiner
Unemployment drops as Ireland's labour market shows resilience to global instability
Ireland's unemployment rate remains at historic lows, falling slightly in May to 4% from 4.1% in April, data from the CSO shows. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 3.9% for males and 4.1% for females, with the youth unemployment rate for those aged between 15 and 25 dropping to 10.9% from 11.2%. The resilient employment data comes amid growing fears of a softening in the labour market over Ireland's exposure to the current global instability and trade war. Separate CSO figures released yesterday on job churn showed that the number of jobs created in Ireland fell by 19.8% in the first quarter compared to the same period last year. A total of 100,856 new jobs were recorded in Q1 of this year, a drop of 24,915 when compared to Q1 2024. Hiring activity also slowed significantly, with 9.7% fewer hires than during the same period last year. Recruitment firm Indeed said job postings on their Irish platform are down to 8.8% above pre-pandemic levels and down 15% year-on-year. Postings dipped in May to their lowest level since early 2021. Jack Kennedy, senior economist at Indeed, said the softening has yet to lead to any expressed concerns. "This is in part because it is occurring gradually and has come after a sustained period of record low unemployment, but also because there are signs that the Irish labour market is continuing to remain relatively robust." "Employers continue to experience difficulties in recruiting staff and workers continue to retain leverage on pay and conditions," he said. In a report last week, the OECD highlighted Ireland's exposure to a global trade war. However, they said the significant sunk investments in both labour and capital equipment by manufacturing multinationals may help mitigate the impact of tariffs on growth. The OECD also said any employment correction or layoffs in Ireland due to tariffs might be softened by companies' reluctance to shed staff here due to the significant skills shortages.
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Britain's soaring minimum wage takes the shine off university degrees
Picture a job paying the minimum wage and you'll most likely picture a cleaner, refuse collector or manual labourer. What you probably wouldn't picture is a job in technology, accounting or the legal profession. Yet because of the soaring minimum wage and a weak economy, many entry-level roles in white-collar professions now pay the minimum wage, or just above. The National Living Wage in the UK has risen rapidly in recent years and is now one of the highest in the world. As average wages across the economy have struggled, one group is starting to take note – graduates. 'I just graduated with a Stem [science, technology, engineering or maths] degree from a Russell Group university, but the best I have been able to get is a £25k role as a research assistant. Feel like my last four years have been a waste,' complains one 23-year-old on a forum on Reddit, where Britain's sluggish wages are a recurring topic. They are hardly alone. One in four jobs advertised to graduates on jobs platform Indeed pay minimum wage or only scarcely higher. Big rises in the minimum wage – most recently by 6.7pc to £12.21 in April – means someone working 40 hours a week now makes around £25,500. This is a real-terms jump of 11pc in four years, a period when the typical worker's pay has risen just 0.8pc after inflation. 'It's an incredibly tough market for the graduates at the minute,' says Jack Kennedy, a senior economist at Indeed, a jobs search engine. 'Hiring appetite for less experienced entry-level positions has been first on the chopping block. Employers are responding to those market forces [in terms of pay].' Tech, accounting and legal are the professions where pay growth for graduates has been 'particularly underwhelming', Kennedy says, questioning whether AI is also to blame. Graduates in such professions are often tasked with sifting through material, making summaries and analyses. Now chatbots can do this far more efficiently. But the shrinking gap between the minimum wage and starting salaries for graduates has been decades in the making, according to Nye Cominetti, at the Resolution Foundation, a think tank. 'Overall wage growth in the UK economy has been poor. We're basically at the same wage level for average earners now in real terms that we were back in the time of the financial crisis. But in the same period, minimum wage has gone up very substantially,' he says. Twenty years ago, the median graduate made 2.5 times more than worker on the minimum wage. By 2023, this premium had shrunk to 1.6 times. The National Living Wage has made two inflation-busting jumps since, meaning the gap may be even smaller now. 'As a direct result of policy, the gap between bottom earners and middle earners has fallen, and that has also applied to graduate salaries,' Cominetti says. 'There is actually now the risk of minimum wage under payment for some of those jobs, which was very unlikely 10 years ago when the gap between the minimum wage and entry level graduate jobs was much bigger.' Rachel Reeves's tax raid on employers is likely to hit graduate wages further, warns Stephen Isherwood, joint chief executive of the Institute of Student Employers. 'If you've got a limited pay budget and you've got something like National Insurance increases, that is going to limit how much money is in the pay pot to to give to new entrants to an organisation,' he says. On top of facing low salaries, there is also the hit from repaying student loans. Graduates entering the job market this summer will on average have £45,600 in debt. Paying this off effectively means facing a much higher marginal tax rate for decades. A graduate paying back their student loan earning up to £50,271 is taxed at 37pc, compared with 28pc for someone who did not attend university. If this person starts to do really well, making more than £100,000 and decides to settle down and have children, they are rewarded with a marginal tax rate of 71pc – compared with 62pc for peers. What's more, those graduating next year will start paying back their student loans as soon as their earnings surpass £25,000, leaving them with less left after tax if they take a minimum wage job than those without a degree. All of the forces are making the gains from a degree appear less impressive than in the past. The concern is that by eroding the value of a degree, it will kill ambition among the young. Why go to university when you'll be better off in the short run taking a minimum wage job? Young people outside London have been the most afflicted by degrees losing value, according to Xiaowei Xu, from the Institute for Fiscal Studies. 'The increase in professional services jobs, banking and so on soaked up a lot of the demand for graduates in London. We haven't seen expansion of those sectors outside London to anything near the same degree,' she says. 'At the same time, the share of people getting degrees has increased pretty much evenly across the country. That seems to have led to lots of graduates not actually working at graduate jobs outside London.' Melissa Hewitt, at Stem recruiter Morson in Manchester, says businesses are struggling to keep pace with the big jumps in the minimum wage for entry roles – but grads should see it as a route to higher pay further down the line. 'It is reflective of the market. If it's a highly competitive market and it's a role that will give you structure and experience, it's weighing up how much you can afford to be paid,' she says. Hewitt and other experts emphasise that what matters most is not the starting salary but how fast and far it can grow. There, graduates are still in better stead than many of their peers who are swerving higher education. But for Britain's highly taxed, underpaid and underemployed graduates trying to find their feet in an employers' job market, there is no wonder degrees are losing their shine. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
18-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Britain's soaring minimum wage is killing aspiration
Picture a job paying the minimum wage and you'll most likely picture a cleaner, refuse collector or manual labourer. What you probably wouldn't picture is a job in technology, accounting or the legal profession. Yet because of the soaring minimum wage and a weak economy, many entry-level roles in white-collar professions now pay the minimum wage, or just above. The National Living Wage in the UK has risen rapidly in recent years and is now one of the highest in the world. As average wages across the economy have struggled, one group is starting to take note – graduates. 'I just graduated with a Stem [science, technology, engineering or maths] degree from a Russell Group university, but the best I have been able to get is a £25k role as a research assistant. Feel like my last four years have been a waste,' complains one 23-year-old on a forum on Reddit, where Britain's sluggish wages are a recurring topic. They are hardly alone. One in four jobs advertised to graduates on jobs platform Indeed pay minimum wage or only scarcely higher. Big rises in the minimum wage – most recently by 6.7pc to £12.21 in April – means someone working 40 hours a week now makes around £25,500. This is a real-terms jump of 11pc in four years, a period when the typical worker's pay has risen just 0.8pc after inflation. 'It's an incredibly tough market for the graduates at the minute,' says Jack Kennedy, a senior economist at Indeed, a jobs search engine. 'Hiring appetite for less experienced entry-level positions has been first on the chopping block. Employers are responding to those market forces [in terms of pay].' Tech, accounting and legal are the professions where pay growth for graduates has been 'particularly underwhelming', Kennedy says, questioning whether AI is also to blame. Graduates in such professions are often tasked with sifting through material, making summaries and analyses. Now chatbots can do this far more efficiently. But the shrinking gap between the minimum wage and starting salaries for graduates has been decades in the making, according to Nye Cominetti, at the Resolution Foundation, a think tank. 'Overall wage growth in the UK economy has been poor. We're basically at the same wage level for average earners now in real terms that we were back in the time of the financial crisis. But in the same period, minimum wage has gone up very substantially,' he says. Twenty years ago, the median graduate made 2.5 times more than worker on the minimum wage. By 2023, this premium had shrunk to 1.6 times. The National Living Wage has made two inflation-busting jumps since, meaning the gap may be even smaller now. 'As a direct result of policy, the gap between bottom earners and middle earners has fallen, and that has also applied to graduate salaries,' Cominetti says. 'There is actually now the risk of minimum wage under payment for some of those jobs, which was very unlikely 10 years ago when the gap between the minimum wage and entry level graduate jobs was much bigger.' Rachel Reeves's tax raid on employers is likely to hit graduate wages further, warns Stephen Isherwood, joint chief executive of the Institute of Student Employers. 'If you've got a limited pay budget and you've got something like National Insurance increases, that is going to limit how much money is in the pay pot to to give to new entrants to an organisation,' he says. On top of facing low salaries, there is also the hit from repaying student loans. Graduates entering the job market this summer will on average have £45,600 in debt. Paying this off effectively means facing a much higher marginal tax rate for decades. A graduate paying back their student loan earning up to £50,271 is taxed at 37pc, compared with 28pc for someone who did not attend university. If this person starts to do really well, making more than £100,000 and decides to settle down and have children, they are rewarded with a marginal tax rate of 71pc – compared with 62pc for peers. What's more, those graduating next year will start paying back their student loans as soon as their earnings surpass £25,000, leaving them with less left after tax if they take a minimum wage job than those without a degree. All of the forces are making the gains from a degree appear less impressive than in the past. The concern is that by eroding the value of a degree, it will kill ambition among the young. Why go to university when you'll be better off in the short run taking a minimum wage job? Young people outside London have been the most afflicted by degrees losing value, according to Xiaowei Xu, from the Institute for Fiscal Studies. 'The increase in professional services jobs, banking and so on soaked up a lot of the demand for graduates in London. We haven't seen expansion of those sectors outside London to anything near the same degree,' she says. 'At the same time, the share of people getting degrees has increased pretty much evenly across the country. That seems to have led to lots of graduates not actually working at graduate jobs outside London.' Melissa Hewitt, at Stem recruiter Morson in Manchester, says businesses are struggling to keep pace with the big jumps in the minimum wage for entry roles – but grads should see it as a route to higher pay further down the line. 'It is reflective of the market. If it's a highly competitive market and it's a role that will give you structure and experience, it's weighing up how much you can afford to be paid,' she says. Hewitt and other experts emphasise that what matters most is not the starting salary but how fast and far it can grow. There, graduates are still in better stead than many of their peers who are swerving higher education. But for Britain's highly taxed, underpaid and underemployed graduates trying to find their feet in an employers' job market, there is no wonder degrees are losing their shine.
