Latest news with #Yaw
New Straits Times
13-05-2025
- Business
- New Straits Times
Business body seals pact to boost Malaysia-Cambodia bilateral trade, investments
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia–Cambodia Business Association (MCBA) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU), involving 20 Malaysian industry associations. The MoU is part of the Malaysia-Cambodia trade and investment mission this year, which will culminate in a flagship event in Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville from June 26–29. Speaking at the signing, MCBA founding president Datuk Seri Dr Ricky Yaw highlighted the unique opportunities Cambodia offers for Malaysian businesses. "Malaysian products are trustable, and this gives us an edge in the Cambodian market," he said. "We aim to bring Malaysian entrepreneurs to Cambodia and simultaneously attract Cambodian investments into Malaysia." Cambodia's less restrictive regulations for foreign business ownership and its growing population were noted as key factors that make it an attractive destination for Malaysian entrepreneurs. "There isn't much restriction to setting up a company in Cambodia. For example, you don't need to have a local partner and can wholly own the company. "The market is not fully developed, but it holds tremendous potential," he explained. The initiative focuses on industries such as engineering, furniture, small and medium enterprises and tourism. Yaw emphasised Malaysia's strengths in these sectors and their compatibility with Cambodia's development goals. "For instance, Malaysia has many furniture factories capable of exporting high-quality products to Cambodia," he said. We also see great potential in franchising opportunities such as fast food, which can cater to Cambodia's evolving consumer market," he continued. "Currently, we are collaborating with 20 associations, but our aim is to expand this network and include even more stakeholders moving forward," he stated. The MoU will remain in effect for one year, according to Yaw.
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Will tax on skill games make next Pennsylvania budget?
HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) — The budget deadline is rapidly approaching, and many at the State Capitol are counting on money from a tax on skill games. But will that get done in time or at all? The lawmaker who may be closest to the issue has his doubts as the wheels keep spinning on tens of thousands of skill games across the Commonwealth. Lots of people are playing, but the biggest winners are the folks behind the machines, who continue to be untaxed and unregulated by the state. Governor Shapiro proposes regulations for skill games in budget address 'Last year, we left $300 million on the table. One year before, we left $300 million. This year, we're going to leave $300 million,' said Republican State Senator Gene Yaw. He's pro-skills games, which are manufactured in his district in Pennsylvania's Northern Tier. The fight is over the tax rate on the machines. He wants 16% while others want it closer to casino slot machines that are north of 50%. 'It's just kind of a wrestling match,' Yaw said. 'There's a lot of fencing going on.' Governor Josh Shapiro's budget calls for a 52% tax rate and is counting on $360 billion next fiscal year. The 'We need to take some of the money going into those slots and put it in our state coffers so we can maintain our reserves and keep building on our progress,' Shapiro said. Will the governor get his wish in the budget, now due in just over two months? 'I honestly don't see anything happening for this budget,' Yaw said. 'I really don't.' 'Well, I'm still optimistic that we can come to an agreement,' House Republican Leader Jesse Topper said. He says it's important to get it right. 'You don't want to use it as a cash grab,' Topper said. 'When you're sweating, when you're strapped for cash, I think that that breeds bad public policy. So I think we have an incentive to try and get something done early.' Early is a curious word for games that have lingered in legal and legislative limbo for years while the Commonwealth doesn't cash in. 'We've been putting this off for too long,' Shapiro said. 'Let's be real, it's time to regulate and tax skill games.' Yaw says a 50% or more tax rate would kill the industry because the smaller mom and pop shops and VFWs that have skills games can't afford it. Casinos argue it's only fair such machines be taxed at the same rate as their slots. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
16-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Senate Committee: Stream maintenance key to preventing devastating floods
Mar. 15—During a public hearing of the Senate Majority Policy Committee this week in Williamsport, local officials and conservation experts shared their perspectives on how maintaining and repairing streams prevents flooding from wreaking havoc on homes and employers. The hearing was hosted by Sen. Gene Yaw, R-Williamsport, and chaired by Sen. Dave Argall, R-Pottsville. Much of the discussion focused on proven strategies to prevent flooding including developing and protecting wetlands, providing access to floodplains, and stabilizing stream banks, as well as strategies like dredging gravel which can do more harm than good. Funding sources like the Growing Greener program were also reviewed in detail. The need for more flexibility for local and county governments to address emergency situations quickly in flood-prone areas was also discussed. Permitting delays were cited as a significant roadblock to removing obstructions and other flood-related hazards, with Yaw calling the process "lengthy, tedious, and inefficient." "Last year, nearly every county in my district was impacted by severe flooding from Tropical Storm Debby," Yaw said. "We have an opportunity to help local officials respond more quickly and efficiently to flood-related problems by allowing them to repair and remediate our streams. Proper stream maintenance protects our communities from flood damage." Sen. Argall said any community that has experienced the devastation caused by severe floods will tell you how important it is to plan ahead before the next storm hits. "We've seen how effective stream management can make a world of difference in communities like Pine Grove and Tremont, who experienced devastating floods from the Swatara Creek for years until a team of conservation experts, municipal officials, local employers, and state legislators and agencies created and executed a comprehensive plan to repair the local watershed," Argall said.. Yaw said he will soon reintroduce a package of bills to empower counties, local governments, and conservation districts to promptly act to ensure damaged waterways do not harm nearby communities. Last session, these bills were introduced as Senate Bill 689 and Senate Bill 690. Both bills were approved with bipartisan support in the Senate but were not considered by the House of Representatives. PennDOT and Anthracite Scenic Trails Assoc. to hold public meeting on March 20 The Anthracite Scenic Trails Association (ASTA) invites the public to a public meeting with plans display regarding the Oliver Mills to Mountain Top D&L Trail Segment project. The project consists of constructing a multi-purpose trail on the alignment and grade of the former Lehigh Valley Railroad. The existing surface is an unimproved rail bed with no rails and little or no ballast. The project also includes a trailhead on Lehigh Street in the vicinity of Woodlawn Avenue. The work includes grading and placement of an aggregate trail surface. This project is in Fairview and Hanover townships and Laurel Run Borough in Luzerne County. The construction of this project is funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources (DCNR) and PennDOT under the Transportation Alternative Set Aside (TASA) program. Hanover Township is the administrator of the TASA portion of the funding under an agreement with PennDOT. Construction is anticipated to take place in late 2025. There will be little or no impact to vehicular traffic. The trail may be closed to trail traffic during construction. Public meeting The in-person public display meeting for the project will take place: Time: 7 p.m. Date: Thursday, March 20 Location: Earth Conservancy office, 101 South Main St., Ashley The public comment period is from March 20 to April 18. The purpose of the plans display is to introduce the project, display and describe the project, and receive public input regarding questions or concerns with the project. Presentation material is available on ASTA's website Walnutport Post Office unveils Appalachian Trail Stamps The Walnutport, PA Post Office dedicated the Appalachian Trail Stamps — which includes one trail in Pennsylvania — at the Walnutport Post Office, 249 Lehigh Gap St., Walnutport, PA, 18088, on March 7. Alexis McAllister, Assistant Trail Committee Chair-East, Blue Mountain Climbing Club joined Walnutport Postmaster Kate Hutter in dedicating the stamps. Hutter's two children, Otto and Brooke, also delivered speeches regarding how young and old alike can enjoy the PA trail. Customers also were able to obtain a special cancellation to commemorate the event. The Appalachian National Scenic Trail offers 2,200 miles of unspoiled nature to the millions who hike it each year. Within easy reach of large East Coast metropolitan areas, the Appalachian Trail — often called the AT — provides peace, beauty and a break from the stresses of modern life. Stamp Artwork According to the U.S. Postal Service: —The pane of 15 Forever stamps includes photographs taken by Dave Allen, Hanit Mizrachi Avondoglio, Justin Birt, Sandra Burm, Jenna Foster, Ed Heaton, Drew Housten, Angelo Marcialis, Brent McGuirt, Jessica Rodriguez, Kevin Rohn, Nico Schueler, Bart Smith, and Ryan Tasto. —On the first row, are images from the "green tunnel" — the iconic Mount Katahdin in Maine, and a waterfall in Tennessee. —The second row of stamps feature photos taken from Mount Washington in New Hampshire facing the Presidential Range of the White Mountains, a waterfall along the trail in Georgia, and a view of the Green Mountains in Vermont. —The third row includes an image of a creek in Pennsylvania, a sunset highlighting the fall foliage in the Hagerstown Valley section of the trail as it runs through Maryland, and a view from Jefferson Rock in historic Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. —Rhododendron blooms in the Roan Mountain highlands of western North Carolina grace the first stamp of row four, followed by a waterfall in the foothills of New York's Catskill Mountains, and a scene from the Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts. —The last row begins with one of the most iconic sites along the trail, McAfee Knob in Virginia. Next is an image from part of New Jersey's portion of the A.T., a boardwalk that serves to protect a fragile wetland ecosystem. The last stamp photograph shows a footbridge in Connecticut that spans the Ten Mile River at the point where it flows into the Housatonic River.
CBC
14-03-2025
- Sport
- CBC
It's not just Jamaica with a 'Cool Runnings' story. There are sliders from all over the world now
Social Sharing It doesn't snow in Jamaica. Or Malta. Or Ghana. There's been a maybe dusting reported on rare occasions in parts of Thailand and Malaysia. And nobody thinks of Spain, Colombia, Israel, Brazil and Taiwan as winter sports superpowers. They're all sliding anyway. Those 10 nations — with a combined five Winter Olympic medals between them over the years, all won by Spain — were part of a record turnout of 38 nations over the last two weeks at the world bobsleigh and skeleton championships in Lake Placid, a sign that the sports are still growing. It's expected that some of the athletes from those nations, even without a sliding track in their homelands and not within thousands of miles of those countries in some cases, will compete at the Olympics next winter. "I'm really happy that more nations are here, and this sport is growing," said Adanna Johnson, a 17-year-old women's bobsleigh pilot from Jamaica after she finished the monobob race in Lake Placid last week. "I think one of the reasons is for the Olympics, they only allow for three sleds from the bigger nations to compete and that kind of allows smaller nations to get bumped up in the rankings." True, there are spots set aside at the Olympics for nations that are developing teams to compete on the sport's biggest stage. That's why there have been sliders from American Samoa, Bermuda, Greece, India, Ireland, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, Tonga and the Virgin Islands in the games over the years. Skeleton athlete Jonathan Yaw wants to add Malaysia to that list. He's a former handball player from Australia who slides for Malaysia — the country where he was born and his father's homeland — in large part because of a legacy program established in southeast Asia to promote winter sports after the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. Yaw finished 29th at the world championships last week. Out of 29 sleds, that is. He wasn't bothered and showed some progress; for example, he beat 2018 Olympian and 2026 hopeful Akwasi Frimpong of Ghana in their final run of the event. "We have some good ambassadors for our sport," Yaw said. "And, you know, in sport, sometimes you get the arrogance and the cockiness. I want to show people that you can be humble. You can just put your head down and work hard and still achieve good results and be a good role model for kids." Yaw has had some success, and there's a young girl in Lake Placid who has proof of that. She's the owner of the first medal Yaw ever won in a North American Cup race and wore it to the event's opening ceremony last week. He gave it to her to plant a seed, he hopes. "She actually started skeleton in Lake Placid because of that medal and because she met me," Yaw said. "That brings me to tears. If I can do that for one kid, then on a platform like the Olympics or world championships hopefully I'll be able to do much more." Shannon Galea — who works for the Canadian Olympic Committee — is now a skeleton slider representing Malta through the heritage of her father and grandparents. She trains when she can in Lake Placid now and has athletes from Malta and other places reaching out for guidance on how they can try to become Olympians. Like Yaw, she was last in the women's worlds race. WATCH | Canadian bobsledder Cynthia Appiah reflects on World Cup silver and the season ahead: Canadian bobsledder Cynthia Appiah reflects on World Cup silver and the season ahead 22 days ago Duration 14:29 "Last place is not fun," Galea said. "But I'm fortunate. A lot of athletes in the field are supportive." She was a star athlete in a slew of sports growing up. Softball was probably her best game; she was a pitcher throwing at high speeds, and now she finds herself sliding headfirst down mountains at even faster speeds — she topped out in Lake Placid last week around 72 mph — to chase that Olympic hope. "I played five varsity sports," Galea said. "This is not a varsity sport. This is, `go out there and be psycho."' The sliding sports have some traditional powers. Germany has long been the world's most successful nation, whether the sport is bobsleigh, skeleton or luge. The U.S. — with Kaysha Love in monobob and the mixed skeleton team of Austin Florian and Mystique Ro — was the lone nation to win more than one gold in Week 1 of the world championships. Austria, Italy, Britain, Switzerland, Latvia and Canada are also among the nations that are traditionally strong. China is coming, bolstered by massive investment in its programs around the 2022 Beijing Games. Brazil had a slider — Nicole Rocha Silveira — win two women's skeleton World Cup medals this season and finish fourth at the world championships. Ukraine nearly got its first skeleton medal at a world championships this year as well, with Vladyslav Heraskevych finishing fourth. "We're showing what can happen if you believe," Heraskevych said. "And if you fight." This phenomenon of sliding-sport dreamers might have really taken off as a novelty when Jamaica sent a bobsleigh team to the 1988 Calgary Olympics — a story that was turned into the 1993 movie "Cool Runnings." The movie is largely fictionalized but is still the most recognizable part of the Jamaica bobsleigh story. Johnson was a gymnast when she was recruited into sliding. She didn't know what "Cool Runnings" was. And now she's living her own version of the story, after finally seeing the movie.
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
It's not just Jamaica with a 'Cool Runnings' story. There are sliders from all over the world now
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. (AP) — It doesn't snow in Jamaica. Or Malta. Or Ghana. There's been a maybe dusting reported on rare occasions in parts of Thailand and Malaysia. And nobody thinks of Spain, Colombia, Israel, Brazil and Taiwan as winter sports superpowers. They're all sliding anyway. Those 10 nations — with a combined five Winter Olympic medals between them over the years, all won by Spain — were part of a record turnout of 38 nations over the last two weeks at the world bobsled and skeleton championships in Lake Placid, a sign that the sports are still growing. It's expected that some of the athletes from those nations, even without a sliding track in their homelands and not within thousands of miles of those countries in some cases, will compete at the Olympics next winter. 'I'm really happy that more nations are here, and this sport is growing,' said Adanna Johnson, a 17-year-old women's bobsled pilot from Jamaica after she finished the monobob race in Lake Placid last week. 'I think one of the reasons is for the Olympics, they only allow for three sleds from the bigger nations to compete and that kind of allows smaller nations to get bumped up in the rankings.' True, there are spots set aside at the Olympics for nations that are developing teams to compete on the sport's biggest stage. That's why there have been sliders from American Samoa, Bermuda, Greece, India, Ireland, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, Tonga and the Virgin Islands in the games over the years. Skeleton athlete Jonathan Yaw wants to add Malaysia to that list. He's a former handball player from Australia who slides for Malaysia — the country where he was born and his father's homeland — in large part because of a legacy program established in southeast Asia to promote winter sports after the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. Yaw finished 29th at the world championships last week. Out of 29 sleds, that is. He wasn't bothered and showed some progress; for example, he beat 2018 Olympian and 2026 hopeful Akwasi Frimpong of Ghana in their final run of the event. 'We have some good ambassadors for our sport,' Yaw said. 'And, you know, in sport, sometimes you get the arrogance and the cockiness. I want to show people that you can be humble. You can just put your head down and work hard and still achieve good results and be a good role model for kids.' Yaw has had some success, and there's a young girl in Lake Placid who has proof of that. She's the owner of the first medal Yaw ever won in a North American Cup race and wore it to the event's opening ceremony last week. He gave it to her to plant a seed, he hopes. 'She actually started skeleton in Lake Placid because of that medal and because she met me,' Yaw said. 'That brings me to tears. If I can do that for one kid, then on a platform like the Olympics or world championships hopefully I'll be able to do much more.' Shannon Galea — who works for the Canadian Olympic Committee — is now a skeleton slider representing Malta through the heritage of her father and grandparents. She trains when she can in Lake Placid now and has athletes from Malta and other places reaching out for guidance on how they can try to become Olympians. Like Yaw, she was last in the women's worlds race. 'Last place is not fun,' Galea said. 'But I'm fortunate. A lot of athletes in the field are supportive.' She was a star athlete in a slew of sports growing up. Softball was probably her best game; she was a pitcher throwing at high speeds, and now she finds herself sliding headfirst down mountains at even faster speeds — she topped out in Lake Placid last week around 72 mph — to chase that Olympic hope. 'I played five varsity sports,' Galea said. 'This is not a varsity sport. This is, 'go out there and be psycho.'' The sliding sports have some traditional powers. Germany has long been the world's most successful nation, whether the sport is bobsled, skeleton or luge. The U.S. — with Kaysha Love in monobob and the mixed skeleton team of Austin Florian and Mystique Ro — was the lone nation to win more than one gold in Week 1 of the world championships. Austria, Italy, Britain, Switzerland, Latvia and Canada are also among the nations that are traditionally strong. China is coming, bolstered by massive investment in its programs around the 2022 Beijing Games. Brazil had a slider — Nicole Rocha Silveira — win two women's skeleton World Cup medals this season and finish fourth at the world championships. Ukraine nearly got its first skeleton medal at a world championships this year as well, with Vladyslav Heraskevych finishing fourth. 'We're showing what can happen if you believe,' Heraskevych said. 'And if you fight.' This phenomenon of sliding-sport dreamers might have really taken off as a novelty when Jamaica sent a bobsled team to the 1988 Calgary Olympics — a story that was turned into the 1993 movie 'Cool Runnings.' The movie is largely fictionalized but is still the most recognizable part of the Jamaica bobsled story. Johnson was a gymnast when she was recruited into sliding. She didn't know what 'Cool Runnings' was. And now she's living her own version of the story, after finally seeing the movie. 'They made us watch it,' Johnson said. 'I had no idea what it was like.' ___ AP sports: Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press
