Latest news with #TheNextGeneration
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Baton Rouge woman to talk about mental health, fentanyl crisis on Capitol Hill
BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) — Voices in mental health, public safety, and public policy are coming together on Capitol Hill Thursday. A Baton Rouge native will speak about the fentanyl crisis and mental health. Tonja Myles, a nationally recognized mental health advocate and CEO of Set Free Indeed Ministry, will discuss her journey battling drug addiction and using her influence to impact the lives of others. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 107,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2023, with nearly 70% of those deaths linked to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl. In addition, Myles said suicide continues to have a devastating impact across the U.S., with rising concerns particularly among youth and veterans. The 'Public Safety, Public Health, Public Hope' event is scheduled for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, May 15, in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. The Next Generation: Breaking Fentanyl's Grip Judge gives IRS green light to share migrants' taxpayer information with ICE Baton Rouge woman to talk about mental health, fentanyl crisis on Capitol Hill Republican tax bill would add $3.7 trillion to the national deficit: JCT Inflation rose in April, reversing March decline NFL player hosting football camp in Baton Rouge Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Advertiser
13-05-2025
- Business
- The Advertiser
'Outraged' residents urged to give opinion on council approvals policy
Lake Macquarie councillor Jason Pauling has urged any resident "who's ever been outraged" to voice their opinions on the review of the Local Approvals Policy. At Monday night's council meeting at the Morisset Showground, councillors unanimously voted to place the draft policy on public exhibition. It is the first review of the approvals policy since December 2022 and it proposes minor changes to rules around moveable dwellings such as manufactured homes, tents, caravans and campervans, as well as public car parking, busking and street theatre, fundraising and mobile vending. The Liberal West Ward councillor said it was essential that the community give the council their feedback. "This is quite a broad-ranging framework piece that dictates a lot of how council sees a whole range of things, from car parking to busking on the street to fundraising," Cr Pauling said. "It's going out for exhibition for 28 days. This is one of those things where anyone who's ever been outraged by something in the community should have a look at this document and make their views known. "One way or another, most of those issues will find their way back to this framework." Labor mayor Adam Shultz, who wore a Macquarie jersey during the meeting to mark the Scorpions' 22-20 victory over Lakes United in Saturday's Lake Macquarie Challenge Shield rugby league match, said the changes to the approvals policy would provide more clarity to the community. "These activities provide a range of economic opportunities for businesses and individuals to activate our public spaces and, in effect, add some vibrancy to Lake Macquarie," Cr Shultz said. "The review of the Local Approvals Policy will make it easier for the community to understand some of those complicated areas of regulation." In the brisk council meeting that was finished in under an hour, councillors also approved more than $14,500 in grant funding to support 17 local NAIDOC Week events. NAIDOC Week is July 6 to 13. This year's theme is The Next Generation: Strength, Vision and Legacy. Council received 18 applications totalling $18,749. The only applicant rejected was St Brigid's Catholic College at Lake Munmorah, due to the school being located in the Central Coast local government area. The Blacksmiths-based Bahtabah Local Aboriginal Land Council was the largest recipient, granted $2500 for The Eastlakes NAIDOC Family Fun Day. Councillors also endorsed a further $22,500 under council's Donations Program for 12 community organisations. These included $2000 for the ARAM Tamil Association, which teaches language and cultural classes at Cardiff North Public School; $2000 to the Newcastle Astronomical Society to support their viewing nights at Speers Point Park; $2000 to upgrade lighting in the Belmont North scout hall; and $2000 to purchase aquatic equipment for the Valentine Hydrotherapy Pool. "Each project, while unique, shares a common goal to strengthen the community from the ground up," Cr Shultz said. Lake Macquarie councillor Jason Pauling has urged any resident "who's ever been outraged" to voice their opinions on the review of the Local Approvals Policy. At Monday night's council meeting at the Morisset Showground, councillors unanimously voted to place the draft policy on public exhibition. It is the first review of the approvals policy since December 2022 and it proposes minor changes to rules around moveable dwellings such as manufactured homes, tents, caravans and campervans, as well as public car parking, busking and street theatre, fundraising and mobile vending. The Liberal West Ward councillor said it was essential that the community give the council their feedback. "This is quite a broad-ranging framework piece that dictates a lot of how council sees a whole range of things, from car parking to busking on the street to fundraising," Cr Pauling said. "It's going out for exhibition for 28 days. This is one of those things where anyone who's ever been outraged by something in the community should have a look at this document and make their views known. "One way or another, most of those issues will find their way back to this framework." Labor mayor Adam Shultz, who wore a Macquarie jersey during the meeting to mark the Scorpions' 22-20 victory over Lakes United in Saturday's Lake Macquarie Challenge Shield rugby league match, said the changes to the approvals policy would provide more clarity to the community. "These activities provide a range of economic opportunities for businesses and individuals to activate our public spaces and, in effect, add some vibrancy to Lake Macquarie," Cr Shultz said. "The review of the Local Approvals Policy will make it easier for the community to understand some of those complicated areas of regulation." In the brisk council meeting that was finished in under an hour, councillors also approved more than $14,500 in grant funding to support 17 local NAIDOC Week events. NAIDOC Week is July 6 to 13. This year's theme is The Next Generation: Strength, Vision and Legacy. Council received 18 applications totalling $18,749. The only applicant rejected was St Brigid's Catholic College at Lake Munmorah, due to the school being located in the Central Coast local government area. The Blacksmiths-based Bahtabah Local Aboriginal Land Council was the largest recipient, granted $2500 for The Eastlakes NAIDOC Family Fun Day. Councillors also endorsed a further $22,500 under council's Donations Program for 12 community organisations. These included $2000 for the ARAM Tamil Association, which teaches language and cultural classes at Cardiff North Public School; $2000 to the Newcastle Astronomical Society to support their viewing nights at Speers Point Park; $2000 to upgrade lighting in the Belmont North scout hall; and $2000 to purchase aquatic equipment for the Valentine Hydrotherapy Pool. "Each project, while unique, shares a common goal to strengthen the community from the ground up," Cr Shultz said. Lake Macquarie councillor Jason Pauling has urged any resident "who's ever been outraged" to voice their opinions on the review of the Local Approvals Policy. At Monday night's council meeting at the Morisset Showground, councillors unanimously voted to place the draft policy on public exhibition. It is the first review of the approvals policy since December 2022 and it proposes minor changes to rules around moveable dwellings such as manufactured homes, tents, caravans and campervans, as well as public car parking, busking and street theatre, fundraising and mobile vending. The Liberal West Ward councillor said it was essential that the community give the council their feedback. "This is quite a broad-ranging framework piece that dictates a lot of how council sees a whole range of things, from car parking to busking on the street to fundraising," Cr Pauling said. "It's going out for exhibition for 28 days. This is one of those things where anyone who's ever been outraged by something in the community should have a look at this document and make their views known. "One way or another, most of those issues will find their way back to this framework." Labor mayor Adam Shultz, who wore a Macquarie jersey during the meeting to mark the Scorpions' 22-20 victory over Lakes United in Saturday's Lake Macquarie Challenge Shield rugby league match, said the changes to the approvals policy would provide more clarity to the community. "These activities provide a range of economic opportunities for businesses and individuals to activate our public spaces and, in effect, add some vibrancy to Lake Macquarie," Cr Shultz said. "The review of the Local Approvals Policy will make it easier for the community to understand some of those complicated areas of regulation." In the brisk council meeting that was finished in under an hour, councillors also approved more than $14,500 in grant funding to support 17 local NAIDOC Week events. NAIDOC Week is July 6 to 13. This year's theme is The Next Generation: Strength, Vision and Legacy. Council received 18 applications totalling $18,749. The only applicant rejected was St Brigid's Catholic College at Lake Munmorah, due to the school being located in the Central Coast local government area. The Blacksmiths-based Bahtabah Local Aboriginal Land Council was the largest recipient, granted $2500 for The Eastlakes NAIDOC Family Fun Day. Councillors also endorsed a further $22,500 under council's Donations Program for 12 community organisations. These included $2000 for the ARAM Tamil Association, which teaches language and cultural classes at Cardiff North Public School; $2000 to the Newcastle Astronomical Society to support their viewing nights at Speers Point Park; $2000 to upgrade lighting in the Belmont North scout hall; and $2000 to purchase aquatic equipment for the Valentine Hydrotherapy Pool. "Each project, while unique, shares a common goal to strengthen the community from the ground up," Cr Shultz said. Lake Macquarie councillor Jason Pauling has urged any resident "who's ever been outraged" to voice their opinions on the review of the Local Approvals Policy. At Monday night's council meeting at the Morisset Showground, councillors unanimously voted to place the draft policy on public exhibition. It is the first review of the approvals policy since December 2022 and it proposes minor changes to rules around moveable dwellings such as manufactured homes, tents, caravans and campervans, as well as public car parking, busking and street theatre, fundraising and mobile vending. The Liberal West Ward councillor said it was essential that the community give the council their feedback. "This is quite a broad-ranging framework piece that dictates a lot of how council sees a whole range of things, from car parking to busking on the street to fundraising," Cr Pauling said. "It's going out for exhibition for 28 days. This is one of those things where anyone who's ever been outraged by something in the community should have a look at this document and make their views known. "One way or another, most of those issues will find their way back to this framework." Labor mayor Adam Shultz, who wore a Macquarie jersey during the meeting to mark the Scorpions' 22-20 victory over Lakes United in Saturday's Lake Macquarie Challenge Shield rugby league match, said the changes to the approvals policy would provide more clarity to the community. "These activities provide a range of economic opportunities for businesses and individuals to activate our public spaces and, in effect, add some vibrancy to Lake Macquarie," Cr Shultz said. "The review of the Local Approvals Policy will make it easier for the community to understand some of those complicated areas of regulation." In the brisk council meeting that was finished in under an hour, councillors also approved more than $14,500 in grant funding to support 17 local NAIDOC Week events. NAIDOC Week is July 6 to 13. This year's theme is The Next Generation: Strength, Vision and Legacy. Council received 18 applications totalling $18,749. The only applicant rejected was St Brigid's Catholic College at Lake Munmorah, due to the school being located in the Central Coast local government area. The Blacksmiths-based Bahtabah Local Aboriginal Land Council was the largest recipient, granted $2500 for The Eastlakes NAIDOC Family Fun Day. Councillors also endorsed a further $22,500 under council's Donations Program for 12 community organisations. These included $2000 for the ARAM Tamil Association, which teaches language and cultural classes at Cardiff North Public School; $2000 to the Newcastle Astronomical Society to support their viewing nights at Speers Point Park; $2000 to upgrade lighting in the Belmont North scout hall; and $2000 to purchase aquatic equipment for the Valentine Hydrotherapy Pool. "Each project, while unique, shares a common goal to strengthen the community from the ground up," Cr Shultz said.
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Yahoo
Man sentenced in one of RI's largest fentanyl busts
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — A Cranston man will spend two decades in federal prison following one of Rhode Island's largest fentanyl seizures, according to acting U.S. Attorney Sara Miron Bloom. Jorge Pimentel, 36, was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years behind bars followed by five years of supervised release for running what authorities described as a high-output drug lab and stash house. Prosecutors called Pimentel a 'well-established, large-scale fentanyl trafficker' who brokered the sale of approximately 34,000 counterfeit pills between May and September 2023, earning roughly $37,000. BACKGROUND: Cranston man pleads guilty to distributing 34K fentanyl-laced pills Pimentel was arrested on Sept. 29, 2023, after investigators searched a storage unit in Pawtucket, discovering more than 16 kilograms of fentanyl total—enough to kill the entire population of Rhode Island eight times over, based on data from the DEA and R.I. Department of Health. According to court documents, Pimentel 'produced his poison' inside the unit using blenders, sifters, and Red Solo cups to mix the drugs and press them into pills resembling pharmaceutical-grade Percocet or 'M-30s.' During the search, investigators uncovered more than 19,000 fentanyl-lace pills, nearly 9 kilograms of fentanyl powder, and various trafficking supplies—including respirator masks, 28,000 grams of cutting agent, and a high-speed industrial pill press valued at more than $10,000. WATCH | The Next Generation: Breaking Fentanyl's Grip Combined with the cutting agents found at the scene, prosecutors said Pimentel had the capacity to produce more than 633,000 fake pills. He sold the pills in bulk to other dealers for about $1.50 apiece, generating a 'significant profit,' according to court documents. Pimentel also employed a 'runner' to deliver the pills and clean the storage unit after production. His criminal history includes prior charges related to forgery, counterfeiting, and filing false statements connected to his work at his sister's now-shuttered Providence autobody shop. Despite denying drug or alcohol issues in a 2023 pretrial interview, court documents state Pimentel later claimed he used fentanyl and alcohol daily up until his arrest. In December, Pimentel pleaded guilty to a federal indictment charging him with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute fentanyl, as well as possession with intent to distribute fentanyl. No plea agreement was filed in the case. NEXT: Pawtucket man gets 40 years for causing woman's deadly overdose Download the and apps to get breaking news and weather alerts. Watch or with the new . Follow us on social media: Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Forbes
07-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Surveying The Landscape Of Institutional DeFi
A term that would have been unthinkable only a few years ago, 'Institutional DeFi' is widely predicted to be one of the defining themes of the digital asset sector in 2025 – and perhaps even the rest of the decade. If that seems far-fetched, just ask JPMorgan. The banking behemoth recently published a report subtitled 'The Next Generation of Finance?' into the potential benefits of adopting decentralized financial protocols for the TradFi sector One point that stands out from the report is a relatively strict definition of institutional DeFi as 'the application of DeFi protocols to tokenized real-world assets, combined with appropriate safeguards to ensure financial integrity, regulatory compliance, and customer protection,' going on to note an explicit exclusion – institutional players participating in 'crypto DeFi.' According to this definition, JPM's own tokenization efforts, based on its Kinexys Digital Assets platform, which is used to offer intra-day repo settlement, would be included. (It's worth noting that tokenized repo settlements are projected to reach $1 trillion in the coming years, according to Citi.) However, any institutional activity in the established DeFi sector –including the $60 billion surge in DeFi activity recently observed by institutional custodian Fireblocks – would be excluded. On the one hand, crypto DeFi still operates in a regulatory no-man's land, meaning many institutions will understandably be keen to distance themselves for compliance reasons. Various efforts have been underway to solidify regulator's understanding of DeFi, and to recommend policy frameworks that can balance innovation and investor protection. Examples of such include IOSCO's 'Final Report with Policy Recommendations for Decentralized Finance (DeFi)', and the Crypto Council for Innovation's 'Key Elements of an Effective DeFi Framework', in which I was a contributor. So in time, regulatory clarity for DeFi will happen. Just not yet. With that said, crypto DeFi is the very place where the innovation happens as the barriers between institutions and crypto-native DeFi are increasingly hard to define as banks increasingly look to the benefits of public decentralized infrastructure to issue their tokenized assets. For instance, a given blockchain ecosystem such as Polygon or Aptos is currently being used in multiple ways. JPMorgan itself has experimented with permissioned iterations, while other firms such as Franklin Templeton and BlackRock are using the public architecture for issuing their tokenized money market funds. All alongside an established ecosystem of native crypto DeFi apps. For institutional DeFi and native DeFi to play together, safeguards will be a non-negotiable necessity for TradFi players. However, a key question is: How eager are the innovators in DeFi willing to go along with the idea of rules and regulations? A ruling in the eleventh hour of the Biden administration that would compel DeFi platforms to implement KYC checks was met with predictable howls of dismay from industry insiders, indicating that resistance is still strong in some quarters. Even if such a ruling is now obsolete under the new administration, it's safeguards such as these that would potentially unlock institutional access to crypto DeFi. And according to the recent JPMorgan report, 'the prize for innovators who hone [institutional DeFi] for use in the world's trillion-dollar finance industry could be substantial.' A key argument espoused by the crypto and broader tech sector is that regulation stymies innovation. However, the reality is that the institutional DeFi opportunity is already stimulating innovation and industry development towards the kind of safeguards that institutions would demand. One of the often-discussed areas where DeFi falls short is in compliance with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing regulations. Thus, permissioned DeFi solutions were among the first to emerge, heavily supported by crypto-native institutional providers such as Ripple Custody and Fireblocks, among others. However, this is only part of the equation explaining why take-up has been slow. Data privacy is also a compliance requirement at odds with the public nature of blockchain transactions and the ease with which large transactions can be traced. The extension of zero-knowledge technologies into blockchain privacy, along with the development of innovations such as iExec's decentralized confidential computing, which uses hardware-based trusted execution environments, could bridge the gap between public blockchains and institutional privacy standards. Another bridge is needed between institutional models for organization, governance, and conduct, and the decentralized finance segment, where governance is managed through token ownership, and often, there is no figurehead by design. However, at this point in its evolution, the crypto sector arguably has its own institutions in the form of exchanges like or the other giants that also have a foot in the decentralized segment via their associated blockchain projects, such as the Cronos chain. These established firms, which have often courted institutional clients themselves, will have an important role to play in bringing together institutions and DeFi from their respective sides of the divide. The benefits of institutional DeFi are becoming too great to ignore, but the institutions themselves are invariably cautious about excessive risk, meaning they are keen to keep crypto DeFi at arm's length. However, as the source of the innovation, DeFi developers have an opportunity to share in the benefits of institutional DeFi, assuming they remain open to the kind of safeguards that will make it possible for TradFi to collaborate.
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Yahoo
Motorcyclist in serious condition after two-vehicle crash in Baton Rouge
BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) — Louisiana State Police is investigating a two-vehicle crash that critically injured a motorcyclist in East Baton Rouge Parish Sunday night. The crash involving a vehicle and motorcycle happened a little before 8:15 p.m. at Airline Highway and Siegen Lane. LSP said the motorcyclist was heading south on Airline Highway 'when it disregarded a traffic signal and struck a passenger vehicle that was traveling east on LA 3246 through the intersection with a green light.' The motorcyclist was wearing a DOT-approved helmet and suffered critical injuries. Emergency medical services officials confirmed that one person was taken to the hospital in serious condition. LSP said investigators will seek a warrant for medical records. The driver of the other vehicle involved in this crash was wearing a seat belt, and LSP does not suspect impairment on their part in this case. The investigation into this crash remains ongoing. Man shot in arm after confronting attempted car burglars in Baton Rouge 3 US soldiers found dead in armored vehicle in Lithuania; 1 still missing How Biden's frailties hampered Harris The Next Generation: Breaking Fentanyl's Grip Coffee machines at work could raise cholesterol: Study 'NYPD Blue' actress Kim Delaney arrested on suspicion of felony assault after domestic disturbance Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
