Latest news with #PurpleHeart
Business Upturn
a day ago
- General
- Business Upturn
Western States Fire Protection Teams Up with Veteran Non-Profit, The Wounded Warriors in Action Foundation
Apollo Beach, FL, July 29, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Wounded Warriors in Action Foundation (WWIA) would like to recognize and thank Western States Fire Protection Co. (WSFP) for their remarkable support. Western States Fire has been proudly supporting WWIA since 2015, donating over $40,000 to help further their mission of serving and honoring America's combat-wounded Purple Heart Veterans through therapeutic and adaptive outdoor sports like hunting and fishing. Purple Heart Heroes from the WWIA having a memorable time at the annual MO-KAN Ducks, Bucks, and Trapping Event in St. Joseph, Missouri.. Wounded Warriors often return home differently than when they left to serve our nation; finding that their personal and professional lives are impacted by their war related experiences. WWIA in coordination with an incredible team of hosts, volunteers, donors, and supporters across North America helps show Purple Heart recipients that they can still experience and accomplish great things, no matter their current circumstances. WWIA's world-class outdoor events help these combat-wounded veterans achieve a level of satisfaction and achievement that has often been missing from their lives. Although hunting and fishing can be an exciting part of these outdoor adventures, the main event on these trips is the opportunity to connect with fellow Purple Heart recipients and to be welcomed warmly by local communities across North America who honor them for their service and sacrifice. President and CEO of Western States Fire Protection, Joe DePriest, explained the reason they proudly support WWIA. 'We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to these remarkable combat-wounded veterans. As Americans, we are privileged to enjoy the freedoms and liberties that we do today because of their patriotism and selfless service. We are honored to help support the mission of WWIA and hope that we can play a small part in the healing and recovery that these Heroes deserve.' Each WWIA event serves an average of 3-5 Heroes and lasts anywhere from 2-5 days on average, allowing for optimal bonding, brotherhood and camaraderie. These events help bolster self-confidence while strengthening the bond with nature, local communities and other Purple Heart veterans. Whether these Heroes suffer from traumatic brain injury, permanent limb disability or post-traumatic stress disorder, these connections are critical to the healing process. WWIA Founder and CEO, John McDaniel, explained, 'We cannot do what we do without the incredible support of partners like Western States Fire Protection. Their generosity allows us to continue our mission of providing healing and therapeutic sporting events to these combat-wounded veterans, all at no cost to those we serve. Lives are being changed, and countless Veterans and their families are finding healing and restoration because companies like the Western States team are making it possible through their philanthropic support. We are humbled by their tremendous partnership throughout the past decade, and grateful to call them our allies and friends.' Western States Fire Protection Co. (WSFP) is a fire protection and life safety company that delivers quality fire protection systems and solutions. They protect lives and property by providing a holistic approach to fire protection that starts with inspections and service and carries into new construction, special hazards, training, and virtually every aspect of the fire protection process. This is accomplished by the focus and delivery of the WSFP values: integrity, commitment, professionalism, quality, and safety. Western States Fire Protection Co. originated with two offices in 1985, Denver, CO, and Dallas, TX. By 1987, the company had expanded to 125 employees, and by 1989, WSFP became a subsidiary of APi Group, Inc., catapulting it forward in the life safety industry. The company has continued to grow successfully, expanding to more than 45 locations nationwide and covering nearly every state west of the Mississippi River. In addition to their winning culture and expansive business, they are also making strides internally to support veterans through hiring and training as opportunities arise. To learn more information about Western States Fire Protection, please visit their website at and follow them on social media at Facebook, X, YouTube, and LinkedIn. The Wounded Warriors in Action Foundation (WWIA) is a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in Apollo Beach, FL. Their mission is to serve our nation's combat-wounded Purple Heart recipients by providing world-class therapeutic outdoor adaptive sporting activities such as hunting and fishing as a means to recognize and honor their sacrifice, encourage independence and connections with communities, and promote healing and wellness through camaraderie and a shared passion for the outdoors. WWIA is in their 19th year of operation and since their inception in 2007, WWIA has proudly served and re-served thousands of combat-wounded Veterans, from every state in the U.S., providing all-expense paid outdoor sporting adventures. Most WWIA events serve an average of 3-5 Heroes and last anywhere from 3-5 days, allowing for optimal bonding, brotherhood and camaraderie. These events help bolster self-confidence while strengthening the bond with nature, local communities and other Purple Heart Veterans. Whether these Heroes suffer from traumatic brain injury, permanent limb disability or post-traumatic stress disorder, these connections are critical to the healing process. To learn more information about the Wounded Warriors in Action Foundation (WWIA), please visit their website at and follow them on social media at Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, or LinkedIn. Western States Fire Protection has been protecting lives and property for over 40 years by providing quality fire protection systems and solutions. About Wounded Warriors in Action (WWIA) The Wounded Warriors in Action Foundation Inc. (WWIA) serves our nation's combat-wounded Purple Heart recipients by providing therapeutic world-class outdoor adaptive sporting activities as a means to recognize and honor their sacrifice, encourage independence and connections with communities, and promote healing and wellness through camaraderie and a shared passion for the outdoors. Press inquiries Wounded Warriors in Action (WWIA) John McDaniel [email protected] 8139381390 Wounded Warriors in Action Foundation (WWIA)206 Apollo Beach Blvd Apollo Beach, FL 33572
Fast Company
a day ago
- Business
- Fast Company
Ancestry wants your dusty VHS tapes—and here's why
BY Listen to this Article More info 0:00 / 5:51 Ancestry has acquired the home-movies-and-photos digitizer service iMemories, a bet by the genealogy company that subscribers who spend their money on DNA kits and pour their time into building family trees will be further enticed by visual storytelling that weaves all those details together. The transaction will combine Ancestry, which has more than 3.7 million subscribers and generates over $1 billion in subscription revenue annually, with iMemories, the 'Netflix' of old family memories that has more than 100,000 paying subscribers and has digitized over 100 million memories from VHS videotapes, photo prints, DVDs, and other video formats. IMemories was also featured on the 2023 list of Fast Company 's Most Innovative Companies. 'The goal is to bring all family storytelling together into one spot,' says Howard Hochhauser, Ancestry's president and CEO, in an interview with Fast Company. Terms of the transaction weren't disclosed, although Hochhauser says it is Ancestry's largest acquisition in terms of revenue. Blending records with memories By integrating iMemories' content into Ancestry's platform, the combined company will build on a strategy spearheaded by Hochhauser to connect 10,000 terabytes of Ancestry data detailing birth records, marriages, deaths, military service, and immigration with archival family photos and videos. Over time, Ancestry says it will utilize artificial intelligence to weave together visuals from iMemories and Ancestry's own bank of user-uploaded content, as well as AI-created images, to produce short films that can tell family lore stories. 'When a consumer sees a photo versus say, a U.S. census, they retain better, higher engagement, higher retention,' says Hochhauser, who first joined Ancestry in 2009 as chief financial officer and has served as an executive at the company for an initial public offering in 2009, a going-private transaction in 2012, and the 2020 sale to asset manager Blackstone. Turning dusty records into audio This week, and separate from the iMemories transaction, Ancestry is launching a beta AI-enabled pilot to around 500 users that can create audio files from the documents found on Ancestry. Hochhauser says these assets can be especially compelling for younger consumers. He shares an anecdote of how his own 18-year-old son showed little interest in an ancestor's written tale of fighting in World War II. But when the text was converted into audio, Hochhauser says his son was on the edge of his seat when learning about a great uncle's experience in battle, including throwing grenades and eventually earning a Purple Heart. 'That's pretty powerful,' Hochhauser says. 'And so that's the direction we are taking the company.' Hochhauser says prior to the iMemories deal, Ancestry conducted research that found that 40% of its users said they wanted to have a digitization and storage service offered by the company. It also polled non-Ancestry users and found that a third of them shared the same sentiment. AI is speeding up history Ancestry is also leaning on AI to speed up the process of digitizing census data. Thirteen years ago, in 2012, when the U.S. Census Bureau released records for every living person in the country for the year 1940, it took the company nine months and millions of dollars to digitize all of that information. But when the 1950 files were released in 2022, technology had advanced to the point where Ancestry could use computer vision and AI to transcribe the files within nine days, without any manual labor. The company is using AI in a similar manner to comb through records from France, Belgium, and other foreign markets. Privacy concerns loom large The Ancestry-iMemories transaction does come at a heightened moment of consumer anxiety concerning the data protection of personal DNA information held by genomics companies. The 2023 data breach of rival 23andMe, which later fell into bankruptcy, inflamed fears about who would gain control of genetic information when one of these genealogy companies falters. 'People's confidence has been shaken, in Big Tech overall, and also in consumer genomics,' says Dr. Brandon Colby, the founder and CEO of a biotech company that performs whole genome sequencing. 'The need to be extra obvious about transparency is really important. There's no room for people to go and assume that we're trying to do something shady.' Sequencing stresses the company's 'Privacy Forever' commitment to consumers, which details that it sells no data to pharmaceutical companies, government agencies, or other outside parties, which is how some genomics companies generate revenue. Colby says Sequencing generates revenue from monthly subscriptions and by selling reports it produces based on genome sequencing that can show consumers details about their reaction to medications or offer tips on better sleep or nutrition strategies. Hochhauser echoes a similar refrain at Ancestry. Users control their own biological samples and DNA data, and have the freedom to delete that information from the service if they'd like. The same approach will be taken with the AI-related content that may be generated from iMemories data. It is up to users how they want to share it, he says. 'We are a family history company,' Hochhauser says. 'Consumers own their data, control their data, and we have multifactor authentication, as an example, and lots of different security protocols in place to protect and preserve data.' The early-rate deadline for Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies Awards is Friday, September 5, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply today. ABOUT THE AUTHOR John Kell is a New York-based freelance writer, covering consumer trends, technology, leadership, and sustainability. He is particularly interested in how business leaders respond to changes in culture and how they position their businesses for growth in a fast-changing world. More
New York Times
6 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
With a Single Image, U.S. Deportation Narrative Is Turned on Its Head
'No one will ever forgive me.' Those were the words Dahud Hanid Ortiz wrote in an email to an in-law after he barged into the office of a lawyer he believed was having an affair with his wife and brutally killed three people, the authorities say. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the crime. But forgiven or not, a beaming Mr. Hanid Ortiz appears in a photo released by the State Department of 10 Americans and U.S. permanent residents newly freed from a Venezuelan prison as part of a prisoner swap. At the time of the exchange, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the prisoners had been 'wrongfully detained' in Venezuela. But Mr. Hanid Ortiz has been less generous in his self-assessment, at least when it comes to his actions in Madrid, almost a decade ago. 'I am responsible for everything,' he wrote in the email to his wife's sister, the authorities in Spain said when they were seeking his extradition from Venezuela, where Mr. Hanid Ortiz, a dual U.S.-Venezuelan citizen, had fled. The killings took place in 2016. Mr. Hanid Ortiz arrived at the lawyer's office in search of a man he thought was having an affair with his wife, the Spanish authorities say. But he killed the wrong man, beating him to death along with a woman who was also in the office. He fatally stabbed another woman there. 'I did terrible things,' Mr. Hanid Ortiz, a U.S. Army veteran who was awarded a Purple Heart for injuries sustained in Iraq, said in the email. He said, 'I lost my head.' How Mr. Hanid Ortiz came to be on the plane with the other free Americans, at least some of whom had been seized by the Venezuelan government as bargaining chips, is uncertain. President Trump is better known for his vows to expel ostensible criminals from the United States, not repatriate them. The image of a convicted killer on a plane en route from Venezuela, surrounded by cheerful people waving American flags, is at best problematic for the White House. 'That runs counter to Trump's message that he's trying to purge this country of immigrants who are violent criminals,' said Jennifer Stromer-Galley, a professor at the Syracuse University's School of Information Studies. The State Department did not respond to questions about why the administration had decided to include Mr. Hanid Ortiz in the prisoner swap. It has also not said whether he is now a free man. Parin Behrooz and Julie Turkewitz contributed reporting.
Daily Mirror
13-07-2025
- Daily Mirror
Woman forced to dig her own grave escapes kidnap using friend's dead body
Nine people - one a 'war hero' - were sentenced for their parts in the kidnap of two friends who were made to dig their own graves and thrown down a well, with one shot dead A woman who was kidnapped and forced to dig her own grave has miraculously survived, but tragically her friend wasn't so lucky. Melissa Pugh and Sarah Pasco were sitting in a car on a street corner in Stotts City, Missouri, when Gary Hunter Jr approached them and asked to get in the vehicle. Once inside he pulled a gun on them and made them drive to the home of Christina Knapp, according to reports at the time. Knapp was one of the eight accomplices who would eventually face charges over the horrific crime on 16 August 2020. Terrifyingly, they were forced to start digging their own graves in Knapp's backyard. According to local KOLR 10, all nine suspects involved in the kidnapping plot travelled together in two separate cars to a wooded area in Miller, Missouri. Hunter then forced them to get into an abandoned well where he shot at them. Ms Pasco, who was 27, died instantly after being hit in the head by a bullet. Ms Pugh managed to survive further shots fired into the well by hiding under Ms Pasco's body and "playing dead" until the men left. She then climbed out of the well, ran for help and called 911. She was treated in hospital for gunshot wounds. Hunter admitted firing the weapon that killed Ms Pugh and his accomplices pleaded guilty. They were sentenced in 2022. However Steven "Chase" Calverley, 33, opted for a trial. He relied upon evidence given by Hunter, who claimed Calverley was not a 'willing accomplice' in the gruesome crime and had tried to talk him out of harming the women. However, in October last year Christian County Judge Laura Johnson said the testimony was not credible. He was found guilty of second-degree murder, first-degree robbery, kidnapping, assault, and four counts of armed criminal action. Calverley was sentenced to 40 years in prison, the same sentence given to Hunter. According to Springfield Daily Citizen, she told the court: "To me, it was clear what the plan was for these two women, that they were not coming out of that forest. Mr. Calverley was not the principal. He did not pull the trigger. He was there and he assisted." Calverley had been awarded the Purple Heart - a US military decoration given to service members who have been wounded or killed in action. He served with the Marines in Afghanistan, where he was deployed in 2011. He was injured when his vehicle was blown up by an IED, and he was credited with saving the lives of his fellow servicemen. His defense said he had suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder following his return to the US. They said this led to his "strange behavior" and the way he appeared to dissociate himself from what was happening around him, especially under police questioning. After his conviction Calverley read from a letter he wrote to the families of Pasco and Pugh. According to the Daily Citizen, he said: "I'm not asking you to forgive me. But I want you to know I am sorry. I'm sorry I was a coward and didn't try harder to stop him. I'm sorry I didn't call 911 and report it. I'm sorry I didn't try to put myself between him and you guys." At the time of sentencing, Ms Pugh testified against Calverley. She spoke via video link from prison, where she was on a parole violation, telling the jury she "forgave" him but didn't understand why he hadn't tried to help them. "I know God spared my life for a reason," she said. "But I don't understand why none of them tried to help us... Especially with Mr. Calverley being a war hero." Megan Pasco, Sarah Pasco's sister, furiously slammed Calverley for his role in the terrifying incident. She said: "There were nine of you and not one of you called 911. You are supposed to be a war hero. You should have been held to a higher standard."
Perth Now
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
The Mavericks star Raul Malo fears deportation
The Mavericks frontman Raul Malo fears he could be deported from the US despite being born in Florida. The 59-year-old singer was born and raised in Miami by parents who had settled in the city after fleeing Cuba, but Raul is worried changes in the government policy could mean his mother might be stripped of her "naturalized citizenship" and it would leave him facing an uncertain future as he could be ruled an "illegal birthright citizen" and forced to leave the country of his birth. In a post on Instagram to mark America's Independence Day, Raul wrote: "Dear America, today is the day we celebrate you and what you used to stand for. "The words 'liberty and justice for all' have faded into a distant past. "To some of us those words were deeply personal. My family came here because of those words. I was born here because of those words. I have had an extraordinary life because of those words. "And now those words have lost their meaning. They are now abstract concepts used to inflict cruelty and suffering on the unsuspecting, the weak, the sick, the poor, the needy. We can add Purple Heart war veterans to that list as several have been deported already. This is America right now." He went on to add: "Some will tell me that I should leave the country or my favorite - 'shut up and sing'. (A statement so void of any sense that it is impossible to execute) "On the 'leaving' part … that may come true whether I want to leave or not. The way the new law stands my mother could be stripped of her naturalized citizenship, then my sister and I would be illegal birthright citizens and away we go. "As far as 'shut up and sing' well, clearly that's not happening. You see the thing is this is my country too. Always has been ... " Raul concluded: "As Lady Liberty's flame dims with every atrocity committed in her name We will not be afraid of the dark. We will find the light again ... "This isn't about politics anymore. It's about humanity. It's about all of us. We, the people. Happy Birthday America!!" The Dance the Night Away singer was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer last year and he previously admitted talking about his health problems gave him hope. He told NPR: "It has been a beautiful, really remarkable kind of journey. I went public with this as soon as we could, and it helped me deal with it as well. "You know, it helped me find strength to not fear it, but tackle it head on and continue to live your life. Continue doing what you are doing."
