Latest news with #Sommerville
RTÉ News
27-05-2025
- Business
- RTÉ News
Investors are 'TACO' trading in US markets, but bond markets are rattled
Shares were mixed this morning following the postponement of 50% duties on European Union shipments to the US. The threat of tariffs has reinforced the unpredictability of US President Donald Trump's trade policies and kept investor sentiment fragile. But are investors beginning to take tariff-related announcements with a pinch of salt now? Over the last number of months, US assets have been under tremendous pressure, including bonds, the dollar and stock markets. "What we've seen recently has been a huge inflow into the stock markets over the last four to five weeks, especially from retail investors," said Paul Sommerville of Sommerville Advisory Markets. "In April alone, over $40 billion dollars net was put into the stock market by net investors in the USA," he said. He said this is due to TACO trading - Trump Always Chickens Out - which is leading some retail investors to jump into the markets because they feel the US President will change his mind. However, the bond markets are very worried about the spending that is currently going on in the US. The US credit rating was downgraded by Moody's just last week. "The bond market is saying we need to push up interest rates, spending is out of whack," Mr Sommerville said. "The deficits at the moment are around 7% of GDP which is recessionary type deficit spending. For example, the interest that the US Government is currently spending is higher than the defence spending budget for 2025," he said. "So stock markets are saying, we're actually not too worried about that because higher spending is going to lead to higher growth, but the bond market is extremely worried about that and that's why they're pushing up interest rates," he told Morning Ireland. Mr Sommerville said the stock market is more nuanced and some people are jumping into the market believing the second half of the market will be much more positive. "I have to caveat that; professional investors are much more cautious, they've been selling out of US assets, selling out of US stocks but it's the retail investor and this euphoria that are piling in," he added.
Yahoo
27-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
With the threat of federal funding cuts looming, here's what's at stake in Michigan schools
Kimberly Sommerville, an academic interventionist at Mark Twain School for Scholars in the Detroit Public Schools Community District, looks over a student's work during a session on Fri., April 4, 2025 in Detroit, Michigan. (Lori Higgins / Chalkbeat) This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Sign up for their newsletters at Sign up for Chalkbeat Detroit's free newsletter to keep up with the city's public school system and Michigan education policy. In a slightly warm classroom on a sunny April afternoon, five fifth graders loudly clapped their hands together or on their desks as they read a sentence out loud. 'Did' Clap. 'She' Clap. 'Wink' Clap. 'At' Clap. 'Hank' Clap. With each clap, the students at Mark Twain School for Scholars in Detroit were distinguishing between the different sounds they were hearing with each word in the sentence, a common exercise in literacy lessons on phonological awareness. They quickly moved to the next sentence, and Kimberly Sommerville, the academic interventionist who works closely with them to improve their literacy skills, immediately spotted a problem. One student read the sentence, then the other four students were expected to say, and clap, what they heard. But the students were clearly hearing 'A lot of junk is in the sink.' 'Listen,' Sommerville interrupted, then enunciated each word loudly for the group, helping them hear that the last word was supposed to be 'tank' and not 'sink.' Scenes like this happen across the Detroit Public Schools Community District and are led by academic interventionists like Sommerville, whose work is a vital part of the district's effort to improve academic achievement and get struggling students like the five in this classroom back on track. She is one of 600 such interventionists that the district employs. Their role existed before the pandemic, but the district has invested even more in them to address the learning loss students experienced during the public health crisis. It's 'the best program ever,' Sommerville said, because of its strong focus on phonics and its use of the Orton Gillingham method, a popular approach to teaching reading. But she worries about its future because it partly benefits from federal education funds that are at risk of being cut. (Money from the settlement of a literacy lawsuit and a grant from the MacKenzie Scott Foundation also cover the cost of the academic interventionists.) Sommerville has reason to worry, as do educators across Michigan whose schools rely on federal funding. The Republican-controlled Congress has signaled that it plans to substantially cut federal dollars for public schools. The Trump administration has threatened to withhold federal funding from schools if they allow transgender girls to participate in girls' athletics — already, it has moved to strip Maine of its funding for refusing to comply. The administration also has threatened to withhold federal funding from states that don't eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in schools. (Those efforts hit a legal roadblock Thursday.) Republican proposals could affect Michigan students in myriad ways, from early childhood to tutoring to accessing school meals. Trump has proposed eliminating Head Start, a long-running early childhood program for children from low-income homes. Republican lawmakers have pitched changes to federal school meal programs that could leave hundreds of thousands of students in Michigan without crucial breakfasts and lunches. Deep cuts in the U.S. Department of Education, part of Trump's efforts to eliminate the agency, have affected services for some of the most vulnerable children. Deep cuts in AmeriCorps could also be felt locally, particularly for a statewide tutoring program that helps students at about 80 schools in Michigan. And Trump's tariffs could increase costs for school districts. In Glen Lake Community Schools in northern Michigan's Leelanau County, district officials fear the district could lose nearly $3.3 million in federal impact aid that it receives to offset the loss of property tax revenue from Sleeping Bear Dunes national lakeshore, which is located within the district's boundaries. The impact aid provides operating funds for the district and makes up 20% of the district's budget. Glen Lake Superintendent Jason Misner said the proposed cut could be absorbed by the district's healthy fund balance for the next school year. But there are limits to how far that rainy day money can go. The uncertainty weighs on school district leaders who must build budgets for the 2025-26 school year by the end of June with little concrete information about how much federal funding they'll receive, or if they'll receive any. And teachers don't know yet what potential cuts will mean for them in the classroom. 'Every day I'm scared,' said Janine Scott, a math lead teacher at Davis Aerospace Technical High School (and a member of Chalkbeat's reader advisory board), during a recent panel discussion on teacher morale. 'We have kids who rely on [federal funds].' The unpredictability 'creates anxiety, and anxiety within our school administration and support staff' creates more concern,' said Nick Ceglarek, superintendent of the Northwest Education Services, an intermediate school district that provides services to local schools in Antrim, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, and Leelanau counties. Many of those services, including some that provide direct instruction and help to students, rely on federal funding. On an evening in mid-March, more than 1,000 people logged into a virtual engagement session with DPSCD Superintendent Nikolai Vitti to hear about the potential cuts and their impact on the district. Those attending peppered Vitti with questions about whether nurses, central office staff, special education staff, and others would be affected. Some wondered if class sizes would rise, whether there would be funding for school lunches, and whether paraprofessionals could lose their jobs. There were few concrete answers because so little is known about what might happen. Federal funds touch many aspects of education. Among the most common: Title I funding helps schools provide support to students from low-income homes. Title II funding provides money for teacher training and other initiatives on effective instruction. Title III money invests in English language learners. Title IV supports programs that provide educational enrichment for students from low-income homes. Schools receive Medicaid reimbursements for some students' special education services. And the federal school lunch program allows all students in a school with a large number of students from low-income homes to receive free school meals. The stakes are particularly high for DPSCD, the state's largest district, as about 32%, or $210 million, of its annual budget comes from federal funding. In the virtual session, Vitti shared how a 25% cut — which hasn't been proposed but is something a national urban schools' group has suggested might happen — would affect the district. Whatever cuts happen, Vitti said the district might be OK for the next school year if it uses its fund balance and state funding increases at the level Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has proposed. Other strategies to address potential funding cuts include accelerating the closure of schools the district is currently phasing out, reducing discretionary funding, freezing vacant positions, decreasing operating costs, decreasing the frequency of technology refreshes, and reducing insurance coverage. But he strongly urged those in attendance to reach out to state and federal lawmakers to share their concerns and ask them to fight back against the potential cuts. 'This current president and administration is not supportive of our children and our communities based on their budget. Budgets define your priorities, period,' Vitti told those in attendance. The possibility of federal funding cuts was the talk of a recent superintendent's meeting for the school districts that are part of the Northwest Education Services. Like most intermediate school districts in Michigan, the agency provides a range of direct services to students. Ceglarek, the superintendent, said he's particularly concerned about proposed cuts in Medicaid funding. Ceglarek said schools rely heavily on Medicaid dollars to provide services to students from low-income households and students who have individualized education programs, or IEPs, which spell out what services schools are required by law to provide. 'When a student has an IEP, we are obligated as a district to ensure that plan is enacted and those services are provided, whether we get funding for it or not,' he said. The ISD receives more than $2 million in Medicaid reimbursements, which is used to hire speech and language pathologists, psychologists, social workers, and physical therapists and then 'deploy them into our local districts to provide these needed services.' 'It's quite an efficient model,' Ceglarek said. 'Many of our districts … don't necessarily need a full-time speech pathologist. They may only need a half-time person.' He has the same concern about any potential cuts to federal migrant student funding, because the ISD hires a specialist who travels among the districts and provides a range of services to English learners. 'Should those dollars be eliminated … That's a scary proposition,' Ceglarek said. .' 'Are you ready?' one girl standing at the front of the classroom at Detroit's Mark Twain school said to her peers. When they all said yes, she began reading sounds such as 'ing,' 'sp,' 'a,' and 'wh.' With each sound, the students wrote what they were hearing onto a dry erase board then held it up when they were done. After a few exercises led by Sommerville, she turned it over to her students to guide their peers. Having students lead an activity isn't part of the academic intervention program, but it's something Sommerville began doing because students expressed an interest. 'To me, they take ownership of the program,' Sommerville said. They do so well that when Sommerville's coach visited her classroom two months ago, she joked that, 'you're not going to have a job.' Sommerville is trying to remain hopeful that the Trump administration won't make substantial cuts to education. 'I think he's just being spiteful right now, but I don't think he'll do that. Because you want your kids to do very well in life. You really do, and that looks bad on him if you cut education. This is a representation of you, you know,' she said. A little over a mile away from Mark Twain, at Ralph J. Bunche Elementary School in Ecorse Public Schools, similar literacy interventions were taking place as Marcie Gould, a tutor/interventionist, worked one-on-one with a struggling third grader. After doing a warm up activity, Gould, who wore a black shirt with 'literacy and justice for all' written in colorful letters, pulled out a set of small tiles and laid them out in front of the girl. 'We call these letter tiles so it helps the kids have a more hands-on experience,' Gould said of the tiles, each of which had different sounds that she moved around to create words and asked the student to read out loud. The Ecorse district uses state early literacy grant dollars to pay for tutors like Gould from the Michigan Education Corps. But the program could still be affected by federal cuts. The Michigan Education Corps program is part of AmeriCorps, a federal initiative that has undergone significant cuts since Trump took office. Ecorse Superintendent Josha Talison said that if any facet of the program had to be altered because of funding cuts, he would be concerned. 'Because the program has aided in the reading comprehension growth of our students since the program has been in place over the last five or six years,' he said. Holly Windram, executive director of the Michigan program, said a continuing budget resolution Congress passed March 14 keeps their funding stable through the 2025-26 school year for the 80 or so schools that will use corps tutors. After that, there is uncertainty. Federal funding makes up 20% of its budget, and if that funding is cut for the 2026-27 school year, she'll need to seek other sources of money. 'We financially have diversified funding. I'm concerned, but I'm not panicking financially at this point. My question is who are we going to get our money from,' Windram said. Lori Higgins is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at lhiggins@ Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Lathan Sommerville commits to another Big Ten Conference school
Lathan Sommerville is staying in the Big Ten Conference. The 6-foot-10 Richwoods graduate has committed to Washington for his sophomore college basketball season, transferring from Rutgers, where he started 15 games. Sommerville visited the Seattle-based campus this past weekend. Advertisement Previously: Former Richwoods all-stater enters NCAA men's college basketball transfer portal This news was first reported by On3's Pete Nakos. Sommerville also had Zoom calls with Butler and Villanova, according to his agent Ryan Murphy. In his freshman campaign, Sommerville averaged 8.2 points and 4.1 rebounds in just under 21 minutes per game. He appeared in all of Rutgers' 32 games as the Scarlet Knights finished 15-17 and 8-12 in Big Ten play. Washington finished last in the Big Ten during the 2024-25 season, going 13-18 overall and 4-16 in league action. This article originally appeared on Journal Star: NCAA transfer portal: Lathan Sommerville commits to Washington
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Texas A&M Basketball Eyeing Promising Transfer Prospect
Early in this year's transfer portal cycle, Texas A&M has been active as it tries to rebuild its roster. The Aggies have eight departing seniors, including leading scorers Wade Taylor IV and Zhuric Phelps and leading rebounders Andersson Garcia and Henry Coleman III, which makes rebuilding in the transfer portal crucial. Earlier this week, the Aggies reached out to USC Upstate guard Brit Harris, LSU forward Corey Chest Jr. and Quinnipiac forward and 2025 MAAC Player of the Year Amarri Monroe. They added another target to the list when they contacted Rutgers transfer center Lathan Sommerville Wednesday. On3's Joe Tipton reported that Texas A&M was one of nine teams to reach out to Sommerville, along with SEC rival Tennessee. Sommerville entered the portal Tuesday after a productive freshman season with Rutgers. While the Scarlet Knights underperformed as a team in 2025, Sommerville was a bright spot. The 6-foot-10 center averaged 8.2 points per game and 4.2 rebounds per game in his freshman season. Sommerville was part of Rutgers' best recruiting class in program history in 2024, which included projected top-five NBA prospects Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey. Advertisement A three-star recruit according to 247Sports, Sommerville picked up five major conference offers out of high school from Rutgers, Georgia Tech, SMU, Wake Forest and Xavier. The Peoria, Ill. native also received an offer from hometown school Bradley. The Braves were expected to target Sommerville once again out of the transfer portal, but have yet to contact him. Sommerville could fill a void inside for the Aggies with the departure of their two leading rebounders. Forward Pharrel Payne will likely take over as Texas A&M's primary big, but Sommerville would be a nice compliment to Payne. Sommerville could join Payne in the starting lineup or give the Aggies a quality big off the bench. Rutgers center Lathan Sommerville (24) holds the ball against Penn O'Haren/Imagn Images Sommerville scored at least ten points in ten games during his freshman season, including scoring a career-high 17 points in a road loss to Michigan in late February. He also scored 16 points on 6-11 shooting off the bench in Rutgers' double overtime loss to USC in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. The Aggies are familiar with Sommerville, as he scored eight points and grabbed four rebounds in Texas A&M's win over Rutgers in the Players Era Festival fifth place game. Advertisement Texas A&M's familiarity with Sommerville will be beneficial as they look to build a competitive roster for the 2025-26 season. Having had a closer look at Sommerville in November, the Aggies already have a scout on him, which could make recruiting him this spring an easier task. The Aggies have holes at multiple positions, but Sommerville could fill a major one. Sommerville would serve as a strong replacement for Coleman inside, so he would be a massive get for Texas A&M in the transfer portal. Regardless of Sommerville's decision, expect Buzz Williams and the Aggies to continue to be active in the transfer portal as this year's cycle progresses. Related: Texas A&M to Compete in Record-Breaking MTE in 2025
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Parkview Avenue residents file emergency injunction against St. Paul to save their trees
Near the northeast edge of Como Lake, four residents on a single block of Parkview Avenue have banded together to file an emergency injunction against the city of St. Paul. Their goal? Stopping the city from tearing down 13 mature trees on Monday morning. In their legal filing, homeowners Rita Amendola, Mary Jane Sommerville, Aric Wilber and Jeff Clark maintain they were assured by the city that it would 'would do everything possible to preserve neighborhood trees' as it pursued sidewalk improvements for the Wheelock-Grotto street reconstruction project this year and next. The homeowners said they were told 'meandering' new sidewalks will be built around some 20 mature trees on their block as an alternative to tree removal. Instead, on March 17, they were taken aback to find that 13 of the 20 trees had been marked with a red X for removal, with the designated removal date being March 24. The four homeowners filed their request for a temporary restraining order against tree removal in Ramsey County District Court on Thursday, and the case was assigned to Judge Edward Sheu on Friday. The request for a temporary injunction, which was filed by an attorney with Madia Law, cites emergency legal protections for public resources under the Minnesota Environmental Rights Act, and notes that the city has yet to solicit bids for the sidewalk reconstruction or hold a public hearing on the work, making the haste in removing trees unnecessary. On Friday evening, a spokesperson for St. Paul Public Works said the contractor had been instructed not to remove any trees on Monday. In an interview Thursday, Sommerville said residents worked closely with the city to plan for weeks, if not months, for tree preservation. The city indicated it needed to update sidewalks to keep up with Americans with Disabilities Act requirements. 'We said, we understand that, but could you just do one side of the street?' Sommerville said. 'They said OK. And then the city came out and marked every single old growth tree with a big red X for removal.' A city forester came out Thursday to inspect the site, and some 20 residents in the area urged the staffer to hold off on tree removal, she said. The injunction request notes the city council recently considered new rules surrounding tree preservation and replacement during public projects, but put final consideration on hold for six months for fine-tuning. The neighborhood street reconstruction project spans sections of streets around East Como Boulevard, Arlington Avenue, Dale Street and Maryland Avenue and is scheduled to roll out this year and next. A June 2024 notice to residents indicates the project is intended to improve street pavement, curb and gutter, street lighting, sidewalks, water mains and storm sewers, as well as improve pedestrian safety by filling in missing sidewalk gaps. Local News | Developer plans six-story, mixed-use project at Grand Avenue and Victoria Street in St. Paul Local News | Jason Adkins: Measuring the economic impact of the Catholic Church in Minnesota Local News | St. Paul mayor says council has 'plunged the city into crisis' by blocking garbage truck yard Local News | Minnesota Wild, St. Paul Saints make their pitches to state lawmakers for major bonding dollars Local News | First tow of 2025 reaches Mississippi River at Hastings
