Latest news with #Kaufmann
Calgary Herald
22-05-2025
- Business
- Calgary Herald
Model of Banff Springs Hotel finds new home at Calgary business
A replica of the iconic Banff Springs Hotel has found a new home — although it won't be accepting reservations. Article content Article content After being owned by the Calgary International Airport for several years, Calgarian Frank Kaufmann's model of the hotel has been relocated to another Calgary-based business. Article content Gary Hinton, with Falkbuilt, a manufacturer specializing in interior construction, noticed the model separated into pieces at a warehouse near their facility in southeast Calgary. Article content Article content Falkbuilt found it, 'rescued it and displayed it for their own purpose,' said Kaufmann, 88, who was greeted by staff at Falkbuilt, including CEO Mogens Smed on Wednesday afternoon. Article content Hinton said, 'It's just great that that it didn't get destroyed . . . all the hard work and the effort that went in that Frank put into it.' Article content Article content Kaufmann built the replica — which is around the size of a small car — beginning in the late 1970s, and finished it over three years. Article content Falkbuilt currently has it on display at one of its showrooms, and may move it to a more permanent location in the future. Article content Before the airport bought it in 2019, the model sat in Kaufmann's southwest Calgary garage for decades. Article content Article content 'I feel quite happy, because originally I wanted to dump it . . . I had nobody who was interested,' said Kaufmann, noting he had approached the Banff Springs Hotel and they were not interested in purchasing it. Article content His model-building journey has included replicas of buildings such as Calgary's historic City Hall, churches and his homes over the years — but his largest and most spectacular is the Banff Springs Hotel. Article content Article content Kaufmann had difficulty mimicking the rock that lines the sides of the iconic hotel. He wound up using sand from a beach in Scheveningen, Holland. Article content 'That beach, the beach sand, had exactly the color that I was looking for. I came across it accidentally,' said Kaufmann, adding he brought some on the plane ride home.
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Bill expanding cancer coverage for firefighters, EMS goes to governor's desk
Legislation is headed to the governor's desk that would expand disability and death benefits for first responders from the current 14 cancers covered to all types of cancer. (Photo courtesy of the Des Moines Fire Department) Iowa House lawmakers unanimously passed a bill expanding cancer coverage for emergency responders in Iowa, sending it to the governor. House File 969 expands disability and death benefits for firefighters, emergency medical services responders and law enforcement officers from the current 14 cancers covered to all types of cancer. The bill also proposes changes to contribution rates for the Peace Officers' Retirement, Accident, and Disability System (PORS), the Municipal Fire and Police Retirement System of Iowa (411 System) and the Iowa Public Employees' Retirement System (IPERS) — the retirement programs for these public workers — in part to finance this expanded coverage. Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton, celebrated the bill making it to Gov. Kim Reynolds after failing to advance in the Senate in previous sessions. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX 'Finally, after six subcommittees, six committee votes, and what will be our fourth and hopefully final floor vote, we are finally going to get this bill for cancer coverage, screening for first responders down to the governor's desk,' Kaufmann said. The bill passed the Senate earlier in April with an amendment making minor changes to contribution rates, and only one 'no' vote, from Sen. Jason Schultz, R-Schleswig. The final House vote was greeted with a standing ovation from lawmakers and supporters of the legislation in the gallery. Kaufmann thanked Sen. Scott Webster, R-Bettendorf, for leading the bill in the other chamber. 'I think it's important also to know that we, as a House body, can pass this bill as many times as we want, but without a senator being willing to take up and run with it, it wasn't going to happen,' he said. 'And so I would be remiss if I did not thank Senator Scott Webster, who took this bill on, didn't take no for an answer and got this back to us.' He also thanked Rep. Josh Turek, D-Council Bluffs, for his work to pass the bipartisan measure. Turek spoke in support of the measure, saying this expansion of coverage will help the state better care for its workers responding to emergencies throughout the state. 'This is what we are here to do, is to take care of our citizens, protect our citizens, and particularly our heroes,' Turek said. Some supporters, including firefighters, law enforcement officers and their families, sat in the gallery as the House passed the measure. Turek said he was 'grateful that this is the last time you have to come back.' Kaufmann also thanked emergency responders for their efforts to move the bill forward. 'For the folks that are up in the gallery — each and every day, at any given moment, you lay down your lives or are willing to, for all of us,' Kaufmann said. 'This is the least we can do, is finally get this across the finish line.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Filipino Times
02-04-2025
- Politics
- Filipino Times
‘Insane': Pro-Duterte supporters mistake American author Nicholas Kaufmann for ICC lawyer
'I am not the ICC lawyer,' American author Nicholas Kaufmann said, appealing to Filipino netizens to stop messaging him after they mistook him for the lead legal counsel of former President Rodrigo Duterte in the International Criminal Court. 'I am being absolutely flooded today with followers and commenters from the Philippines who, I guess, don't believe I'm not Duterte's lawyer,' he said. 'Our names aren't even spelled the same (he's Kaufman with one N). It's insane,' the author clarified. Kaufman also pinned a March 21 post on his page where he begged Filipinos to stop bombarding him with private messages, which he said were more 'pro-Duterte' comments. Replying to a comment in the same post, Kaufmann said he has also started receiving apologetic messages from 'anti-Duterte' Filipinos. Kaufmann is a horror, urban fantasy, and adventure fiction writer who is known for his novelette General Slocum's Gold and novella Chasing Dragon – literary pieces which he was nominated for several awards for. Meanwhile, Nicholas Kaufman – whom he was mistaken for – is a British-Israeli lawyer who is one of the few accredited lawyers of the International Criminal Court.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
What we know about claim DOGE stopped payments to children whose parents died
On March 22, 2025, Barry Kaufmann, president of the New York State Alliance for Retired Americans, said (archived) at a rally in White Plains, New York, that Small Business Administration loans "discovered" (archived) by the Department of Government Efficiency paid to children 11 or younger were actually "survivor benefit annuities" — using the same SBA acronym — paid to children whose parents had died. Kaufmann said (at 44:10): As an example, DOGE claims to have found Social Security loans going to 11-year-olds and under. Not! SBA is not a loan, it's a survivor benefit annuity to young children whose parents have passed. That's the problem with IT programmers and billionaires without a clue doing jobs they don't understand. You can't find what you don't know. Kaufmann's claim spread across Facebook (archived), X (archived), Threads (archived), Reddit (archived) and Bluesky (archived). However, it was unclear how Kaufmann backed his claim about the confusion over the two different SBAs. While it is almost certain from his wording that he was referring to DOGE's SBA loan announcement on March 9, the claim of the funding belonging to the survivor benefit annuity — a benefit paid to eligible spouses, or sometimes children, of federal retirees — clashes with what federal officials have said. The Small Business Administration confirmed the existence of more than "5,500 loans, totaling about $312M" to businesses "whose only listed owner was 11 years old or younger" on March 12 — 10 days before Kaufmann's claim. DOGE had said it was working with the SBA to "solve this problem." We have reached out to Kaufmann and the SBA to further understand the claim and await their replies. A survivor benefit annuity is a benefit available to federal employees under the Civil Service Retirement System and the Federal Employees Retirement System. The benefit is normally paid to surviving spouses or ex-spouses, but according to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the federal government's central human-resources agency, children can be eligible if they are dependent on the retiree who chose the benefit. "Dependent" in this context means that the deceased "made regular and substantial contributions to the child's support." We reached out to the OPM, which manages the federal retirement plans, to ask how much money it paid to children 11 or younger under this benefit in 2020-21, when DOGE said the loans were paid out, and await a reply. Meanwhile, the details surrounding the loans allegedly discovered by DOGE remained unclear. The @DOGE or @DOGE_SBA X accounts, the former of which is generally used for DOGE's public communications, had not posted more information at the time of this writing. The SBA had not provided further details about the loans at the time of this writing. "Kaufmann: DOGE Claims to Have Found Social Security Loans Going to 11 Year Olds and Under. ." Bluesky, 22 Mar. 2025, An Autistic Witch. Learning witchcraft at every level. "Automatically Assuming SBA Payments Means 'Small Business Association' Loans and Not 'Survivor Benefits Annuity'." Facebook, 24 Mar. 2025, @Clobean4. "Kaufmann - "DOGE Claims to Have Found Social Security Loans Going to 11 Year Olds and Under." X, 24 Mar. 2025, @DOGE. "In 2020-2021, SBA Granted 5,593 Loans for $312M to Borrowers Whose Only Listed Owner Was 11 Years Old or Younger at the Time of the Loan." X, 9 Mar. 2025, FEBA. "Understanding Your Federal Employee Benefits | What Is a Survivor Benefit Annuity?" FEBA, 10 Aug. 2023, Give A Shift About Nature. "DOGE Claims to Have Found Social Security Loans Going to 11-Year-Olds and Under. ." Facebook, 23 Mar. 2025, "Learn More about Survivor Benefits and Retirement." U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Accessed 25 Mar. 2025. @seedanesti. "Elon Musk Told Millions of People That 8 and 11 Year Old Children Were Receiving Business Loans from Social Security." Threads, 20 Mar. 2025, Social Security Works. "Hands Off Social Security." Facebook, 22 Mar. 2025, u/RoyalChris. "Kaufmann - ' 'DOGE Claims to Have Found Social Security Loans Going to 11 Year Olds and Under." Reddit, 22 Mar. 2025,
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
GOP tax committee chairs introduce property tax legislation
Sen. Dan Dawson, R-Council Bluffs and Rep. Bobby Kaufman, R-Wilton talk to reporters March 6, 2025, about their proposal to make changes to Iowa's property tax system. (Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch) The Republican leaders of the Iowa Legislature's tax committees released their property tax proposal Thursday. Rep. Bobby Kaufman, R-Wilton and Sen. Dan Dawson, R-Council Bluffs, chairs of the House and Senate Ways and Means committees, respectively, introduced legislation that they said in a news release would be 'the biggest property tax system overhaul since the 1970s.' The measure, introduced as House Study Bill 313 and Senate Study Bill 1208, makes multiple changes to Iowa's system of property taxes that the lawmakers said would provide an estimated $426 million in property tax cuts. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE The bill would move Iowa's local property tax system away from assessing properties using rollbacks — a method where the taxes based on the assessed market value of a property is limited based on the statewide aggregate property values. Instead, Iowa would use a 'revenue-restricted system,' Dawson told reporters Thursday. The bill would create a new schedule of assessment limitations and a 2% growth factor restriction, based on the fiscal year's actual property tax dollars that have been certified for a local property tax levy. While the change would mean property owners pay more taxes based on the value of their property, Dawson said the revenue restriction 'buys down that rate.' 'Without a revenue restriction, it's going to be a windfall to local governments, which will be a shellacking to our property taxpayers,' Dawson said. 'This all has to work in unison. So at the end of the day, this is going to be property tax relief for Iowans, but not one of these parts will come out of system.' The system change would be phased in over five years. Kaufmann said the change would help address problems local governments have with the rollback system and would provide more certainty for local jurisdictions as they plan budgets over the long term. 'The number one thing I have heard with my visit with local governments has been that they have no predictability in what the revenues are going to look like,' he said. 'They have to wait for the rollback to come in, in December. And trying to plan out responsibly, two years, three years, four years, five years — next to impossible in the current system.' The system also shifts funding from Iowa's system of tax credits back to the state, which Kaufmann said would go toward about $400 million in school funding coverage through the state that is currently allocated through local property taxes. 'We're spending hundreds of millions of dollars on these credits right now,' Kaufmann said. 'Without their existence, we can reappropriate those dollars for direct property tax relief.' Other components in the legislation include a $25,000 property tax exemption for homesteads and a property tax freeze for seniors over age 70 who have incomes at 250% or less than the federal poverty level. The legislation has been anticipated as Republican leaders at the Statehouse have repeatedly stated that property tax changes will be a top priority in the 2025 session. The lawmakers said the new measure builds off of the 2023 property tax law that capped levy rates for cities and counties. Rep. Dave Jacoby, D-Coralville, said Iowans should be 'extremely skeptical' about the property tax proposal. 'Over the last decade, every attempt by GOP lawmakers to fix Iowa's property tax system has failed,' Jacoby said in a statement. 'Property taxes just keep going up every year, especially for homeowners. House Democrats believe we need to put money back in the pockets of homeowners and renters immediately.' While the measure was introduced Thursday, there will likely not be movement on the bill through the committee process for several weeks. Kaufmann said the bill was introduced this week in order to give time to local governments, schools and other impacted entities to review the legislation and give feedback to lawmakers on how best to proceed with potential changes. 'How those conversations turn out, what feedback we get, may result in some changes to the bill,' Kaufmann said. 'We're not dropping this out and saying, 'This is perfect, as is, this will pass out of subcommittee next week.' This will be a thoughtful process, that will take up the most the rest of the session, to make sure that we get it right and understand all the impacts.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
