College students must spend money on tuition payments and school 
supplies as they prepare for the new year. However, scammers are taking 
this opportunity to try to steal some of that money through various 
schemes and scams.&nbsp;

One tactic that has been used to get students' personal information 
is a phishing email that claims to be from the school’s “Financial 
Department.” Messages via text or email may appear, instructing the 
student to click on a link provided in the email and log in with a 
student username and password. Don’t do it; doing so could give the user
 name, password, or other personal information to scammers, while 
possibly downloading malware onto the device.

Whether you are starting school away from home or have young students
 who may be vulnerable to such scams, BBB recommends watching out for 
these financial scams before heading into the new semester.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/1/1579883951052.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>BBBCollege students must spend money on tuition payments and school 
supplies as they prepare for the new year. However, scammers are taking 
this opportunity to try to steal some of that money through various 
schemes and scams.&nbsp;One tactic that has been used to get students' personal information 
is a phishing email that claims to be from the school’s “Financial 
Department.” Messages via text or email may appear, instructing the 
student to click on a link provided in the email and log in with a 
student username and password. Don’t do it; doing so could give the user
 name, password, or other personal information to scammers, while 
possibly downloading malware onto the device.Whether you are starting school away from home or have young students
 who may be vulnerable to such scams, BBB recommends watching out for 
these financial scams before heading into the new semester.&nbsp;<ul>
 <li>Fake credit cards - Offers to apply for the first 
credit card are tempting to many students. Not only could this create 
credit problems down the road due to unchecked spending, but some of the
 deals could be phony offers designed to get access to personal 
information. Research the offers from the credit card flyers and the 
banking institutions before applying. Review the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbb.org/article/news-releases/16909-bbb-tip-credit-card-scams">BBB tip on credit card scams</a>.&nbsp;</li><li>Too good to be true apartments -
 It’s hard not to jump on a convenient apartment so close to campus, 
especially if it advertises affordable rent. It’s tempting to hand over 
credit card information online to lock in a great spot, but it’s always 
worth seeing the apartment in person prior to a money transfer. This 
also applies to Craigslist and social media ads appearing to be from 
other students looking for roommates. Read more about <a href="https://www.bbb.org/article/scams/16908-scam-alert-rental-cons-cash-in-on-stressed-out-movers" target="_blank">rental scams</a>.</li><li>ID theft -&nbsp;
 It’s a good idea to start practicing healthy money habits, and one such
 habit is regularly checking your credit report for unusual activity and
 possible ID fraud. The official government website to do this for free 
is <a href="https://www.annualcreditreport.com/" target="_blank">annualcreditreport.com</a>. Read BBB's article on <a href="https://www.bbb.org/article/scams/25955-bbb-tip-how-to-know-if-someone-stole-your-identity" target="_blank">How to know if someone stole your identity</a>.</li><li>Scholarship and grant scams - Be
 wary of phone calls from companies guaranteeing they can help reduce 
loan payments or offer a hefty grant. Searching the company’s name 
online could bring up scam alerts or negative reviews from other 
consumers. Read reviews and complaints about the company at <a href="https://www.bbb.org/search" target="_blank">BBB.org</a> and contact the school’s financial aid office for advice and help regarding financing your education. Scholarship scams can affect college students even after graduation; <a href="https://www.bbb.org/article/news-releases/16922-bbb-tip-scholarship-scams" target="_blank">read our tips on scholarship scams</a>.&nbsp;</li><li>Online shopping scams - Online purchase scams can be especially effective when set up through social media platforms and apps. BBB has tips for <a href="https://www.bbb.org/article/tips/14040-bbb-tip-smart-shopping-online" target="_blank">smart shopping online</a> and a page dedicated to <a href="https://www.bbb.org/all/online-shopping" target="_blank">online shopping tips and scam alerts</a>.&nbsp;</li><li>Awareness of current scams - As tech-savvy as current college students can be, a surprising number of scams reported to <a href="https://www.bbb.org/scamtracker/akron">BBB’s ScamTracker</a> are from students who learned their lesson too late. Use <a href="https://www.bbb.org/all/scamtips">BBB’s Scam Tips</a> to learn the latest scam trends and read local reports of specific incidents.&nbsp;</li>
 </ul>

BBB: 6 scams for college students to avoid

Petition drive backers point to lack of paid circulators as a reason

By PAUL HAMMEL <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/08/22/medical-marijuana-petitions-fail-to-qualify-for-november-ballot/">Nebraska Examiner</a>

LINCOLN — The next petition drive to legalize medical marijuana may 
include permitting recreational use, an official with Nebraskans for 
Medical Marijuana said Monday.

Crista Eggers, who coordinated the medical marijuana initiative that 
fell short Monday of qualifying for the November ballot, said there 
definitely will be discussions about seeking legalization of both 
medical and recreational cannabis.

While medical marijuana has always been her group’s focus, adding 
recreational marijuana for adult use would attract bigger donations, 
which are needed to succeed in getting a medical marijuana issue on the 
ballot, she said.

The lack of funds to hire paid, professional petition circulators was
 blamed, in part, for the failure of this year’s petition drive by 
Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana.

“There is nothing off the table about how we get this done,” said 
Eggers, whose son suffers from up to 100 epileptic seizures a day. “I’m a
 parent, and I will do whatever it takes, and go to the ends of the 
Earth, to help my child.”

She said she’s willing to endure the criticism of anti-marijuana 
groups, who have claimed that the push for medical marijuana is a 
forerunner for seeking all-out legalization.

On Monday, one of those groups, Smart Approaches to Marijuana, pointed out that&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="ahttps://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/marijuana-hallucinogen-use-among-young-adults-reached-all-time-high-2021">a new National Institutes of Health report</a>&nbsp;concluded marijuana use had reached the highest levels ever, with daily use by young adults doubling in the past decade.

This was the second time in two years that an&nbsp;initiative to legalize 
medical marijuana has failed to qualify for Nebraska’s general election 
ballot.

The Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office said Monday that two 
petitions submitted by&nbsp;Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana failed to 
collect the necessary, valid signatures of 86,776 voters and fell short 
of another requirement — gathering at least 5% of registered voters in 
38 of the state’s 93 counties for its two petitions.

Eggers said she was trying to find the words to inform her 7-year-old
 son, Colton, who suffers from multiple seizures, that the initiative 
had failed again.

“He asks me every single night, ‘Did we get enough signatures so I can get the medicine I need?’ ” Eggers said.

She said the pro-medical marijuana forces will&nbsp;launch a new petition drive as soon as possible.

“We’re going to regroup, we’re going to hurt and we’re going to cry 
and we’re going to be angry, but then we’re going to take the anger we 
feel today and turn it into action,” Eggers said.

The Secretary of State’s Office said both petitions submitted fell 
short. A petition to legalize marijuana collected 77,843 signatures and 
qualified in 26 counties. A companion petition to set up regulation of 
medical marijuana turned in 77,119 valid signatures and qualified in 27 
counties.

Unlike two other initiative petition drives this year, which turned 
in more than 160,000 signatures each and used paid, professional 
petition circulators, Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana utilized 
primarily volunteers.

The marijuana group’s last campaign spending report listed about 
$146,000 in expenditures, compared with spending of $1.77 million by 
Citizens for Voter ID and $1.49 million for Raise the Wage Nebraska.

A leading anti-marijuana group said Nebraskans “were not duped by the
 marijuana industry’s trojan horse attempt to commercialize drug use 
under the guise of ‘medicine,’ ” said a statement from Smart Approaches 
to Marijuana.

“Today’s high potency, bioengineered marijuana and THC products such 
as edibles, vapes, and concentrates serve one purpose: to hook a 
generation of addicts to a commercialized drug for profit,” the 
statement added.

As of February, 37 states, three territories and the District of 
Columbia have legalized the use of cannabis as medicine, according to 
the National Conference of State Legislatures. That includes the 
neighboring states of Colorado, South Dakota and Missouri. Iowa and 
Wyoming have legalized low-dose cannabis and CBD medical products.

Marijuana for recreational use is allowed in 19 states, two territories and the District of Columbia.

The petition drive failure was a bitter defeat for the medical 
marijuana group, which had gathered more than enough signatures two 
years ago to qualify a single initiative for voters. But it was knocked 
off the ballot by the Nebraska Supreme Court, which ruled that the 
ballot language violated the state’s “single subject” rule.

Eggers said that now about a half million Nebraskans have signed petitions to allow a vote on medical marijuana.

“I hope the elected officials are paying attention,” she said. “They have the power to do something.”

Eggers said she hopes that the Legislature will hold a special session this fall to pass a medical marijuana law.

That would seem to be a long shot. State lawmakers have failed to 
advance any proposals to legalize medical cannabis, and Gov. Pete 
Ricketts — who leaves office in January due to term limits — is a 
staunch opponent of legalization.

Eggers said that despite falling short in 2022, she was very proud of
 the effort, which resulted in more than 90,000 signatures collected.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/8/1661188352281.png" alt="Crista Eggers, left, the campaign coordinator for Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, accepts more petitions from a volunteer, Samantha Chavez of Omaha, last month as the deadline loomed to submit petitiions. (Paul Hammel/Nebraska Examiner) " />
 <figcaption>Crista Eggers, left, the campaign coordinator for Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, accepts more petitions from a volunteer, Samantha Chavez of Omaha, last month as the deadline loomed to submit petitiions. (Paul Hammel/Nebraska Examiner) </figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Petition drive backers point to lack of paid circulators as a reason</h2>By PAUL HAMMEL <a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2022/08/22/medical-marijuana-petitions-fail-to-qualify-for-november-ballot/">Nebraska Examiner</a>LINCOLN — The next petition drive to legalize medical marijuana may 
include permitting recreational use, an official with Nebraskans for 
Medical Marijuana said Monday.Crista Eggers, who coordinated the medical marijuana initiative that 
fell short Monday of qualifying for the November ballot, said there 
definitely will be discussions about seeking legalization of both 
medical and recreational cannabis.While medical marijuana has always been her group’s focus, adding 
recreational marijuana for adult use would attract bigger donations, 
which are needed to succeed in getting a medical marijuana issue on the 
ballot, she said.The lack of funds to hire paid, professional petition circulators was
 blamed, in part, for the failure of this year’s petition drive by 
Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana.“There is nothing off the table about how we get this done,” said 
Eggers, whose son suffers from up to 100 epileptic seizures a day. “I’m a
 parent, and I will do whatever it takes, and go to the ends of the 
Earth, to help my child.”She said she’s willing to endure the criticism of anti-marijuana 
groups, who have claimed that the push for medical marijuana is a 
forerunner for seeking all-out legalization.<h2>Trying to find the words</h2>On Monday, one of those groups, Smart Approaches to Marijuana, pointed out that&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="ahttps://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/marijuana-hallucinogen-use-among-young-adults-reached-all-time-high-2021">a new National Institutes of Health report</a>&nbsp;concluded marijuana use had reached the highest levels ever, with daily use by young adults doubling in the past decade.This was the second time in two years that an&nbsp;initiative to legalize 
medical marijuana has failed to qualify for Nebraska’s general election 
ballot.The Nebraska Secretary of State’s Office said Monday that two 
petitions submitted by&nbsp;Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana failed to 
collect the necessary, valid signatures of 86,776 voters and fell short 
of another requirement — gathering at least 5% of registered voters in 
38 of the state’s 93 counties for its two petitions.Eggers said she was trying to find the words to inform her 7-year-old
 son, Colton, who suffers from multiple seizures, that the initiative 
had failed again.“He asks me every single night, ‘Did we get enough signatures so I can get the medicine I need?’ ” Eggers said.She said the pro-medical marijuana forces will&nbsp;launch a new petition drive as soon as possible.“We’re going to regroup, we’re going to hurt and we’re going to cry 
and we’re going to be angry, but then we’re going to take the anger we 
feel today and turn it into action,” Eggers said.“There’s no giving up,” she added<h2>Both petitions fell &nbsp;short</h2>The Secretary of State’s Office said both petitions submitted fell 
short. A petition to legalize marijuana collected 77,843 signatures and 
qualified in 26 counties. A companion petition to set up regulation of 
medical marijuana turned in 77,119 valid signatures and qualified in 27 
counties.Unlike two other initiative petition drives this year, which turned 
in more than 160,000 signatures each and used paid, professional 
petition circulators, Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana utilized 
primarily volunteers.The marijuana group’s last campaign spending report listed about 
$146,000 in expenditures, compared with spending of $1.77 million by 
Citizens for Voter ID and $1.49 million for Raise the Wage Nebraska.A leading anti-marijuana group said Nebraskans “were not duped by the
 marijuana industry’s trojan horse attempt to commercialize drug use 
under the guise of ‘medicine,’ ” said a statement from Smart Approaches 
to Marijuana.“Today’s high potency, bioengineered marijuana and THC products such 
as edibles, vapes, and concentrates serve one purpose: to hook a 
generation of addicts to a commercialized drug for profit,” the 
statement added.As of February, 37 states, three territories and the District of 
Columbia have legalized the use of cannabis as medicine, according to 
the National Conference of State Legislatures. That includes the 
neighboring states of Colorado, South Dakota and Missouri. Iowa and 
Wyoming have legalized low-dose cannabis and CBD medical products.Marijuana for recreational use is allowed in 19 states, two territories and the District of Columbia.<h2>Plenty of signatures in 2020</h2>The petition drive failure was a bitter defeat for the medical 
marijuana group, which had gathered more than enough signatures two 
years ago to qualify a single initiative for voters. But it was knocked 
off the ballot by the Nebraska Supreme Court, which ruled that the 
ballot language violated the state’s “single subject” rule.Eggers said that now about a half million Nebraskans have signed petitions to allow a vote on medical marijuana.“I hope the elected officials are paying attention,” she said. “They have the power to do something.”Eggers said she hopes that the Legislature will hold a special session this fall to pass a medical marijuana law.That would seem to be a long shot. State lawmakers have failed to 
advance any proposals to legalize medical cannabis, and Gov. Pete 
Ricketts — who leaves office in January due to term limits — is a 
staunch opponent of legalization.Eggers said that despite falling short in 2022, she was very proud of
 the effort, which resulted in more than 90,000 signatures collected.

After medical pot drive fails, Neb. group might push for recreational use

WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of people in the United States will be spared from big increases in health care costs next year&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-signs-climate-health-bill-9a7f349fa7b07387d20ad603f2ff4875">after President Joe Biden signed legislation</a>&nbsp;extending generous subsidies for those who buy plans through federal and state marketplaces.

The&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-biden-health-seniors-medicare-9c2b70dc2f2d7291acc4292799ff342c">sweeping climate, tax and health care bill</a>&nbsp;sets aside $70 billion over the next three years to keep out-of-pocket premium costs low for roughly 13 million people, just before the reduced prices were set to expire in a year beset by record-high inflation.

As the calendar pushed closer to the Nov. 1 open enrollment date, Sara Cariano was growing nervous about her work helping people across Virginia sign up for subsidized, private health insurance on the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.healthcare.gov/">HealthCare.gov</a>&nbsp;website.

“I expected very difficult conversation with folks to explain why their premiums were spiking,” said Cariano, a policy specialist at the Virginia Poverty Law Center.

But the passage of the “Inflation Reduction Act” erased those worries.

“Things aren’t going to change for the worst for individuals who are purchasing coverage through the market,” she said.

The bill will extend subsidies temporarily offered last year when Congress and Biden signed off on a $1.9 trillion&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-joe-biden-business-health-congress-dd18bbe9bfb69f7ef3e9393dc19ca023">coronavirus relief bill</a>&nbsp;that significantly lowered premiums and out-of-pocket costs for customers purchasing plans through the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/affordable-care-act/">Affordable Care Act’s marketplace</a>. It also continues reduced costs for more individuals and families who live well above the poverty line.

Only Democrats supported the extended health care subsidies and the other proposals in the bill that Biden signed on Tuesday. Republicans criticized the measure as big government overreach that will only worsen inflation. In reality, economists say,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-biden-health-congress-climate-and-environment-63df07e15002c01fb560a6f0e69fcb03">the bill will do little to either fan or extinguish the flames of exorbitant prices</a>.

Health insurance premiums in the marketplace are expected to rise significantly next year — roughly 10 percent — according to an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/brief/an-early-look-at-what-is-driving-health-costs-in-2023-aca-markets/">analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation</a>. The extended subsidies, which determine premium payments based on income, will guard most people from those price increases, said Cynthia Cox, a vice president at the foundation.

“Generally speaking, people should not see increases in their premiums,” Cox said.

Those who bought plans on the government marketplace saved on average about $700 in premium payments from the subsidies this year, according to estimates by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

As costs dropped, more people signed up for the coverage over the last year and the number of those&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-health-us-department-of-and-human-services-government-politics-24684188cb67c576ed00d01b2f53c09c">without health insurance dropped to an all-time low of 8% in August,</a>&nbsp;the Department of Health and Human Services announced. Roughly 26 million people, 2 percent of them children, remain uninsured in the U.S.

In California, many of the 1.7 million people who purchase health insurance through&nbsp;<a href="https://www.coveredca.com/">Covered California</a>, the state-operated insurance marketplace will continue to see savings ranging from $29 and $324 per month, depending on their income level.

State officials predict about 220,000 people will be saved from being priced out of coverage. Between 2 million and 3 million people in California might also turn to the state marketplace if they lose coverage through Medicaid when the federal government’s COVID-19 public health emergency expires. About 15 million people in the U.S. have been extended Medicaid coverage during the pandemic.

Cost is the biggest factor driving whether a person signs up for coverage or not, said Joseph Poindexter, the senior director of health insurance programs at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.healthcareaccessmaryland.org/">HealthCare Access Maryland</a>.

Some parents, for example, sign their children up for Medicaid but skip buying coverage for themselves, he said.

“It’s really sad to see folks who will say, I’ll forgo treatment, or won’t go visit the doctor,” Poindexter said.

Fewer people have had to make that calculation with the subsidies, Poindexter said, attributing the lowered prices to a 9% increase in new enrollees in the state last year.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/8/1660769479347.png" alt="The&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-biden-health-seniors-medicare-9c2b70dc2f2d7291acc4292799ff342c">sweeping climate, tax and health care bill</a>&nbsp;sets aside $70 billion over the next three years to keep out-of-pocket premium costs low for roughly 13 million people-White House photo" />
 <figcaption>The&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-biden-health-seniors-medicare-9c2b70dc2f2d7291acc4292799ff342c">sweeping climate, tax and health care bill</a>&nbsp;sets aside $70 billion over the next three years to keep out-of-pocket premium costs low for roughly 13 million people-White House photo</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of people in the United States will be spared from big increases in health care costs next year&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-signs-climate-health-bill-9a7f349fa7b07387d20ad603f2ff4875">after President Joe Biden signed legislation</a>&nbsp;extending generous subsidies for those who buy plans through federal and state marketplaces.The&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-biden-health-seniors-medicare-9c2b70dc2f2d7291acc4292799ff342c">sweeping climate, tax and health care bill</a>&nbsp;sets aside $70 billion over the next three years to keep out-of-pocket premium costs low for roughly 13 million people, just before the reduced prices were set to expire in a year beset by record-high inflation.As the calendar pushed closer to the Nov. 1 open enrollment date, Sara Cariano was growing nervous about her work helping people across Virginia sign up for subsidized, private health insurance on the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.healthcare.gov/">HealthCare.gov</a>&nbsp;website.“I expected very difficult conversation with folks to explain why their premiums were spiking,” said Cariano, a policy specialist at the Virginia Poverty Law Center.But the passage of the “Inflation Reduction Act” erased those worries.“Things aren’t going to change for the worst for individuals who are purchasing coverage through the market,” she said.The bill will extend subsidies temporarily offered last year when Congress and Biden signed off on a $1.9 trillion&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-joe-biden-business-health-congress-dd18bbe9bfb69f7ef3e9393dc19ca023">coronavirus relief bill</a>&nbsp;that significantly lowered premiums and out-of-pocket costs for customers purchasing plans through the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/affordable-care-act/">Affordable Care Act’s marketplace</a>. It also continues reduced costs for more individuals and families who live well above the poverty line.Only Democrats supported the extended health care subsidies and the other proposals in the bill that Biden signed on Tuesday. Republicans criticized the measure as big government overreach that will only worsen inflation. In reality, economists say,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-biden-health-congress-climate-and-environment-63df07e15002c01fb560a6f0e69fcb03">the bill will do little to either fan or extinguish the flames of exorbitant prices</a>.Health insurance premiums in the marketplace are expected to rise significantly next year — roughly 10 percent — according to an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/brief/an-early-look-at-what-is-driving-health-costs-in-2023-aca-markets/">analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation</a>. The extended subsidies, which determine premium payments based on income, will guard most people from those price increases, said Cynthia Cox, a vice president at the foundation.“Generally speaking, people should not see increases in their premiums,” Cox said.Those who bought plans on the government marketplace saved on average about $700 in premium payments from the subsidies this year, according to estimates by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.As costs dropped, more people signed up for the coverage over the last year and the number of those&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-health-us-department-of-and-human-services-government-politics-24684188cb67c576ed00d01b2f53c09c">without health insurance dropped to an all-time low of 8% in August,</a>&nbsp;the Department of Health and Human Services announced. Roughly 26 million people, 2 percent of them children, remain uninsured in the U.S.In California, many of the 1.7 million people who purchase health insurance through&nbsp;<a href="https://www.coveredca.com/">Covered California</a>, the state-operated insurance marketplace will continue to see savings ranging from $29 and $324 per month, depending on their income level.State officials predict about 220,000 people will be saved from being priced out of coverage. Between 2 million and 3 million people in California might also turn to the state marketplace if they lose coverage through Medicaid when the federal government’s COVID-19 public health emergency expires. About 15 million people in the U.S. have been extended Medicaid coverage during the pandemic.Cost is the biggest factor driving whether a person signs up for coverage or not, said Joseph Poindexter, the senior director of health insurance programs at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.healthcareaccessmaryland.org/">HealthCare Access Maryland</a>.Some parents, for example, sign their children up for Medicaid but skip buying coverage for themselves, he said.“It’s really sad to see folks who will say, I’ll forgo treatment, or won’t go visit the doctor,” Poindexter said.Fewer people have had to make that calculation with the subsidies, Poindexter said, attributing the lowered prices to a 9% increase in new enrollees in the state last year.

Biden bill to help millions escape higher health care costs

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Warren Buffett's company has received clearance to boost its 20% stake in Occidental Petroleum to as much as 50%, but it's not immediately clear how many more shares Berkshire Hathaway plans to buy or whether it will consider buying the entire company.

Shares of the of the oil producer soared nearly 12% Friday after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission revealed that it had approved Berkshire's request to buy up to 50% of the Houston company.

Shares slid 3% to around $69 amid a broader sell-off Monday and as speculation cooled over the potential for Berkshire to buy the entire company.

Berkshire doesn't typically comment on its stock investments beyond what it is required to disclose, and Buffett didn't respond to questions about Occidental on Monday. But Buffett told shareholders at the company's annual meeting in April that he started buying Occidental shares in late February because what the CEO was telling investors then “made nothing but sense” to him.

Berkshire's Occidental purchases and a $20 billion investment in Chevron shares early this year&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/nebraska-omaha-warren-buffett-cd510be1f39489aa447c28abf6b3e76b">allowed Buffett</a>&nbsp;to capitalize on the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-russia-ukraine-health-saudi-arabia-aa4ce431a7105ff94adb1f1a240657f0">surge in oil prices</a>&nbsp;after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Edward Jones analyst Jim Shanahan said he thinks it’s likely that Berkshire will keep buying Occidental shares when the price drops below $60 again. The shares are up 13% in just the past 30 days, and up 130% this year. But he doesn’t think it’s likely that Berkshire will try to acquire the whole company unless Occidental shares fall significantly.

CFRA Research analyst Cathy Seifert said she also expects Berkshire to keep buying, but she noted that Berkshire has committed to use $11.6 billion of its&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/earnings-warren-buffett-03d1c9296e24b5e7117ae7e1dc37aa8a">roughly $105 billion in cash</a>&nbsp;later this year to purchase the Alleghany insurance conglomerate.

In addition to Berkshire's massive stake in Occidental's common shares, it also holds $10 billion worth of preferred stock and warrants to buy another 83.9 million Occidental shares at $59.62 apiece. It picked up both of those in 2019 when it helped finance Occidental's purchase of Anadarko.

Besides investments, the Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire owns more than 90 companies outright including Geico insurance, several major utilities, BNSF railroad and an assortment of manufacturing and retail companies including See's Candy, Dairy Queen and Precision Castparts.

By Associated PressOMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Warren Buffett's company has received clearance to boost its 20% stake in Occidental Petroleum to as much as 50%, but it's not immediately clear how many more shares Berkshire Hathaway plans to buy or whether it will consider buying the entire company.Shares of the of the oil producer soared nearly 12% Friday after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission revealed that it had approved Berkshire's request to buy up to 50% of the Houston company.Shares slid 3% to around $69 amid a broader sell-off Monday and as speculation cooled over the potential for Berkshire to buy the entire company.Berkshire doesn't typically comment on its stock investments beyond what it is required to disclose, and Buffett didn't respond to questions about Occidental on Monday. But Buffett told shareholders at the company's annual meeting in April that he started buying Occidental shares in late February because what the CEO was telling investors then “made nothing but sense” to him.Berkshire's Occidental purchases and a $20 billion investment in Chevron shares early this year&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/nebraska-omaha-warren-buffett-cd510be1f39489aa447c28abf6b3e76b">allowed Buffett</a>&nbsp;to capitalize on the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-russia-ukraine-health-saudi-arabia-aa4ce431a7105ff94adb1f1a240657f0">surge in oil prices</a>&nbsp;after Russia invaded Ukraine.Edward Jones analyst Jim Shanahan said he thinks it’s likely that Berkshire will keep buying Occidental shares when the price drops below $60 again. The shares are up 13% in just the past 30 days, and up 130% this year. But he doesn’t think it’s likely that Berkshire will try to acquire the whole company unless Occidental shares fall significantly.CFRA Research analyst Cathy Seifert said she also expects Berkshire to keep buying, but she noted that Berkshire has committed to use $11.6 billion of its&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/earnings-warren-buffett-03d1c9296e24b5e7117ae7e1dc37aa8a">roughly $105 billion in cash</a>&nbsp;later this year to purchase the Alleghany insurance conglomerate.In addition to Berkshire's massive stake in Occidental's common shares, it also holds $10 billion worth of preferred stock and warrants to buy another 83.9 million Occidental shares at $59.62 apiece. It picked up both of those in 2019 when it helped finance Occidental's purchase of Anadarko.Besides investments, the Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire owns more than 90 companies outright including Geico insurance, several major utilities, BNSF railroad and an assortment of manufacturing and retail companies including See's Candy, Dairy Queen and Precision Castparts.

Buffett's company likely to add to its stake in Occidental

WASHINGTON (AP) — A former head of security at Twitter has filed whistleblower complaints with U.S. officials, alleging that the company misled regulators about its cybersecurity defenses and its problems with fake accounts, according to reports by The Washington Post and CNN.

Peiter Zatko, Twitter's security chief until he was fired early this year, filed the complaints last month with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice.

The Post, which obtained the complaint, reported that among the most serious accusations is that Twitter violated the terms of an FTC settlement by falsely claiming that it had a strong security plan.

Zatko also accuses the company of deceptions involving its handling of “spam" or fake accounts, an allegation that is at the core of the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-twitter-inc-technology-4193a27d86458952542dfa2176150a01">attempted withdrawal of a $44 billion takeover bid</a>&nbsp;for Twitter by billionaire Elon Musk.

Zatko didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday but told the Post he “felt ethically bound” to come forward.

Zatko, better known as Mudge, is a highly respected cybersecurity expert who first gained prominence in the 1990s and later worked in senior positions at the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Agency and Google. He joined Twitter at the urging of then-CEO Jack Dorsey in late 2020, the same year the company suffered an&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-news-ap-top-news-elections-politics-election-2020-dca638cac0a5ab2ff6f7be1a7a059ab4">embarrassing security breach</a>&nbsp;involving hackers who broke into the Twitter accounts of world leaders, celebrities and tech moguls, including Musk, in an attempt to scam their followers out of Bitcoin.

Twitter said in a prepared statement Tuesday that Zatko was fired for “ineffective leadership and poor performance” and that the “allegations and opportunistic timing appear designed to capture attention and inflict harm on Twitter, its customers and its shareholders.”

“What we’ve seen so far is a false narrative about Twitter and our privacy and data security practices that is riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies and lacks important context,” the company said.

The legal nonprofit Whistleblower Aid, which is representing Zatko, confirmed the authenticity of the document Tuesday, but said it is legally precluded from sharing it. The same group worked with former Facebook employee Frances Haugen, who testified to Congress last year after leaking internal documents and accusing the social media giant of choosing profit over safety.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Senate's intelligence committee, Rachel Cohen, said the committee has received Zatko's complaint and "is in the process of setting up a meeting to discuss the allegations in further detail. We take this matter seriously.”

Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, said in a prepared statement that if the claims are accurate, “they may show dangerous data privacy and security risks for Twitter users around the world.”

Among the most alarming complaints is Zatko’s allegation that Twitter knowingly allowed the Indian government to place its agents on the company payroll where they had “direct unsupervised access to the company’s systems and user data.”

A 2011 FTC complaint noted that Twitter’s systems were full of highly sensitive data that could allow a hostile government to find precise geo-location data for a specific user or group and target them for violence or arrest. Earlier this month, a former Twitter employee&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-middle-east-saudi-arabia-money-laundering-dc9612bf2f80af6be192606bd1af7d71">was found guilty after a trial in California</a>&nbsp;of passing along sensitive Twitter user data to royal family members in Saudi Arabia in exchange for bribes.

The complaint said Twitter was also heavily reliant on funding by Chinese entities and that there were concerns within Twitter that the company was providing information to those entities that would enable them to learn the identify and sensitive information of Chinese users who secretly use Twitter, which is officially banned in China.

Zatko also describes “deliberate ignorance” by Twitter executives on counting the millions of accounts that are automated “spam bots" or otherwise have no value to advertisers because there is no person behind them.

Alex Spiro, an attorney representing Musk in his effort to back out of the deal to buy Twitter, said lawyers have issued a subpoena for Zatko. “We found his exit and that of other key employees curious in light of what we have been finding,” Spiro wrote in an email Tuesday.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2019/8/1565281787584.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSWASHINGTON (AP) — A former head of security at Twitter has filed whistleblower complaints with U.S. officials, alleging that the company misled regulators about its cybersecurity defenses and its problems with fake accounts, according to reports by The Washington Post and CNN.Peiter Zatko, Twitter's security chief until he was fired early this year, filed the complaints last month with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice.The Post, which obtained the complaint, reported that among the most serious accusations is that Twitter violated the terms of an FTC settlement by falsely claiming that it had a strong security plan.Zatko also accuses the company of deceptions involving its handling of “spam" or fake accounts, an allegation that is at the core of the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-twitter-inc-technology-4193a27d86458952542dfa2176150a01">attempted withdrawal of a $44 billion takeover bid</a>&nbsp;for Twitter by billionaire Elon Musk.Shares of Twitter Inc. slid 4% Tuesday.Zatko didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday but told the Post he “felt ethically bound” to come forward.Zatko, better known as Mudge, is a highly respected cybersecurity expert who first gained prominence in the 1990s and later worked in senior positions at the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Agency and Google. He joined Twitter at the urging of then-CEO Jack Dorsey in late 2020, the same year the company suffered an&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-news-ap-top-news-elections-politics-election-2020-dca638cac0a5ab2ff6f7be1a7a059ab4">embarrassing security breach</a>&nbsp;involving hackers who broke into the Twitter accounts of world leaders, celebrities and tech moguls, including Musk, in an attempt to scam their followers out of Bitcoin.Twitter said in a prepared statement Tuesday that Zatko was fired for “ineffective leadership and poor performance” and that the “allegations and opportunistic timing appear designed to capture attention and inflict harm on Twitter, its customers and its shareholders.”“What we’ve seen so far is a false narrative about Twitter and our privacy and data security practices that is riddled with inconsistencies and inaccuracies and lacks important context,” the company said.The legal nonprofit Whistleblower Aid, which is representing Zatko, confirmed the authenticity of the document Tuesday, but said it is legally precluded from sharing it. The same group worked with former Facebook employee Frances Haugen, who testified to Congress last year after leaking internal documents and accusing the social media giant of choosing profit over safety.A spokesperson for the U.S. Senate's intelligence committee, Rachel Cohen, said the committee has received Zatko's complaint and "is in the process of setting up a meeting to discuss the allegations in further detail. We take this matter seriously.”Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, said in a prepared statement that if the claims are accurate, “they may show dangerous data privacy and security risks for Twitter users around the world.”Among the most alarming complaints is Zatko’s allegation that Twitter knowingly allowed the Indian government to place its agents on the company payroll where they had “direct unsupervised access to the company’s systems and user data.”A 2011 FTC complaint noted that Twitter’s systems were full of highly sensitive data that could allow a hostile government to find precise geo-location data for a specific user or group and target them for violence or arrest. Earlier this month, a former Twitter employee&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-middle-east-saudi-arabia-money-laundering-dc9612bf2f80af6be192606bd1af7d71">was found guilty after a trial in California</a>&nbsp;of passing along sensitive Twitter user data to royal family members in Saudi Arabia in exchange for bribes.The complaint said Twitter was also heavily reliant on funding by Chinese entities and that there were concerns within Twitter that the company was providing information to those entities that would enable them to learn the identify and sensitive information of Chinese users who secretly use Twitter, which is officially banned in China.Zatko also describes “deliberate ignorance” by Twitter executives on counting the millions of accounts that are automated “spam bots" or otherwise have no value to advertisers because there is no person behind them.Alex Spiro, an attorney representing Musk in his effort to back out of the deal to buy Twitter, said lawyers have issued a subpoena for Zatko. “We found his exit and that of other key employees curious in light of what we have been finding,” Spiro wrote in an email Tuesday.

Former Twitter security chief files whistleblower complaints

WASHINGTON (AP) —Pfizer asked U.S. regulators Monday to authorize its combination COVID-19 vaccine that adds protection against the newest omicron relatives — a key step toward opening a fall booster campaign.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-science-health-3742cacfc9c102e9748cd8ff17036db6">The Food and Drug Administration ordered vaccine makers to tweak their shots</a>&nbsp;to target BA.4 and BA.5 that are better than ever at dodging immunity from earlier vaccination or infection.

Pfizer and its partner BioNTech aim to offer updated boosters to people 12 and older, and shots could begin within weeks if the FDA quickly clears the modified vaccine — a step not expected to require waiting on new studies.

Moderna is expected to file a similar application soon for updated boosters for adults. The U.S. has a contract to buy 105 million of the Pfizer doses and 66 million Moderna ones, assuming FDA gives the green light.

“It’s going to be really important that people this fall and winter get the new shots. It’s designed for the virus that’s out there,” White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said last week.

For now at least. BA.5 currently is causing nearly all COVID-19 infections in the U.S. and much of the world. There’s no way to know if it still will be a threat this winter -- or if another mutant will have replaced it.

The vaccines currently used in the U.S. still offer strong protection against severe disease and death, especially if people have gotten their recommended boosters. But those vaccines target the coronavirus strain that spread in early 2020 and their effectiveness against infection has dropped markedly as new mutants came along, particularly the super-contagious omicron family.

How would combo shots work? Sort of like a second-generation vaccine. Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines contain the genetic instructions for the spike protein that coats the coronavirus, to train the immune system to recognize the real virus. The new combo doses will contain instructions for both the original spike target and the spike mutations carried by BA.4 and BA.5.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-bbda6ba6107b3c839e42925136007fed">The news comes after Britain a week ago</a>&nbsp;became the first in the world to authorize a different update to Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines -- shots that add protection against the original omicron that struck last winter.

European regulators also are considering the original omicron versions by Moderna and Pfizer. The U.S. opted not to use that earlier tweak -- setting up a fall where different countries will be using different versions of booster shots to rev up protection against another possible winter surge.

In the U.S., the FDA will be relying heavily on scientific testing of prior tweaks to the vaccine recipe — rather than a study of the newest boosters that could take months — to decide whether to fast-track updated shots for fall.

Pfizer previously announced results from a study that found its earlier omicron tweak significantly revved up antibodies capable of fighting the first omicron version, called BA.1, and to a lesser degree the genetically distinct BA.4 and BA.5 omicron relatives. Its application to the FDA contains that data plus animal testing of the newest recipe update.

It’s similar to how flu vaccines are updated every year without having to undergo large studies.

Pfizer and BioNTech expect to start a trial using the BA.4 and BA.5 boosters in the coming weeks, to shed additional light on how well tweaked shots work. Moderna has begun a similar study although full results wouldn’t be available before a fall booster campaign.

“It’s clear that none of these vaccines are going to completely prevent infection,” said Dr. Rachel Presti of Washington University in St. Louis, a researcher with the Moderna trial.

But prior studies of variant booster candidates show “you still get a broader immune response giving a variant booster than giving the same booster” again, which should be helpful even if a newer omicron relative emerges, she added.

Pfizer and Moderna don’t make the only U.S. vaccine options. Novavax makes a more traditional, protein-based shot — and U.S. health authorities just expanded its use for people as young as 12. Novavax also plans to offer a variant update later in the year.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/7/1658710648506.png" alt="“It’s going to be really important that people this fall and winter get the new shots. It’s designed for the virus that’s out there,” White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said last week.-White House photo" />
 <figcaption>“It’s going to be really important that people this fall and winter get the new shots. It’s designed for the virus that’s out there,” White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said last week.-White House photo</figcaption>
 </figure>By LAURAN NEERGAARDWASHINGTON (AP) —Pfizer asked U.S. regulators Monday to authorize its combination COVID-19 vaccine that adds protection against the newest omicron relatives — a key step toward opening a fall booster campaign.<a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-science-health-3742cacfc9c102e9748cd8ff17036db6">The Food and Drug Administration ordered vaccine makers to tweak their shots</a>&nbsp;to target BA.4 and BA.5 that are better than ever at dodging immunity from earlier vaccination or infection.Pfizer and its partner BioNTech aim to offer updated boosters to people 12 and older, and shots could begin within weeks if the FDA quickly clears the modified vaccine — a step not expected to require waiting on new studies.Moderna is expected to file a similar application soon for updated boosters for adults. The U.S. has a contract to buy 105 million of the Pfizer doses and 66 million Moderna ones, assuming FDA gives the green light.“It’s going to be really important that people this fall and winter get the new shots. It’s designed for the virus that’s out there,” White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said last week.For now at least. BA.5 currently is causing nearly all COVID-19 infections in the U.S. and much of the world. There’s no way to know if it still will be a threat this winter -- or if another mutant will have replaced it.The vaccines currently used in the U.S. still offer strong protection against severe disease and death, especially if people have gotten their recommended boosters. But those vaccines target the coronavirus strain that spread in early 2020 and their effectiveness against infection has dropped markedly as new mutants came along, particularly the super-contagious omicron family.How would combo shots work? Sort of like a second-generation vaccine. Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines contain the genetic instructions for the spike protein that coats the coronavirus, to train the immune system to recognize the real virus. The new combo doses will contain instructions for both the original spike target and the spike mutations carried by BA.4 and BA.5.<a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-bbda6ba6107b3c839e42925136007fed">The news comes after Britain a week ago</a>&nbsp;became the first in the world to authorize a different update to Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines -- shots that add protection against the original omicron that struck last winter.European regulators also are considering the original omicron versions by Moderna and Pfizer. The U.S. opted not to use that earlier tweak -- setting up a fall where different countries will be using different versions of booster shots to rev up protection against another possible winter surge.In the U.S., the FDA will be relying heavily on scientific testing of prior tweaks to the vaccine recipe — rather than a study of the newest boosters that could take months — to decide whether to fast-track updated shots for fall.Pfizer previously announced results from a study that found its earlier omicron tweak significantly revved up antibodies capable of fighting the first omicron version, called BA.1, and to a lesser degree the genetically distinct BA.4 and BA.5 omicron relatives. Its application to the FDA contains that data plus animal testing of the newest recipe update.It’s similar to how flu vaccines are updated every year without having to undergo large studies.Pfizer and BioNTech expect to start a trial using the BA.4 and BA.5 boosters in the coming weeks, to shed additional light on how well tweaked shots work. Moderna has begun a similar study although full results wouldn’t be available before a fall booster campaign.“It’s clear that none of these vaccines are going to completely prevent infection,” said Dr. Rachel Presti of Washington University in St. Louis, a researcher with the Moderna trial.But prior studies of variant booster candidates show “you still get a broader immune response giving a variant booster than giving the same booster” again, which should be helpful even if a newer omicron relative emerges, she added.Pfizer and Moderna don’t make the only U.S. vaccine options. Novavax makes a more traditional, protein-based shot — and U.S. health authorities just expanded its use for people as young as 12. Novavax also plans to offer a variant update later in the year.

Pfizer seeks FDA approval for updated COVID-19 booster

DETROIT (AP) — Hyundai and Kia are telling owners of some of their large SUVs to park them outdoors and away from buildings after a series of fires involving trailer hitch wiring.

The Korean automakers are recalling more than 281,000 vehicles in the U.S. because of the problem, but they haven’t figured out how to fix it yet. The automakers reported 25 fires or melting incidents in the U.S. and Canada caused by the problem, but no crashes or injuries.

The recalls cover more than 245,000 Hyundai Palisade and over 36,000 Kia Telluride SUVs from the 2020 through 2022 model years.

In documents posted Tuesday by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the companies said debris and moisture can accumulate in a circuit board in the tow hitch wiring. That can cause an electrical short, which can lead to a fire.

Hyundai said that dealers will inspect the wiring and remove a fuse as an interim repair. Kia doesn’t have an interim repair. The companies say a final repair is being developed.

In addition, dealers from both automakers have stopped selling the affected SUVs until repairs are made.

DETROIT (AP) — Hyundai and Kia are telling owners of some of their large SUVs to park them outdoors and away from buildings after a series of fires involving trailer hitch wiring.The Korean automakers are recalling more than 281,000 vehicles in the U.S. because of the problem, but they haven’t figured out how to fix it yet. The automakers reported 25 fires or melting incidents in the U.S. and Canada caused by the problem, but no crashes or injuries.The recalls cover more than 245,000 Hyundai Palisade and over 36,000 Kia Telluride SUVs from the 2020 through 2022 model years.In documents posted Tuesday by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the companies said debris and moisture can accumulate in a circuit board in the tow hitch wiring. That can cause an electrical short, which can lead to a fire.Hyundai said that dealers will inspect the wiring and remove a fuse as an interim repair. Kia doesn’t have an interim repair. The companies say a final repair is being developed.In addition, dealers from both automakers have stopped selling the affected SUVs until repairs are made.

Park outside: Fire risk prompts Hyundai, Kia hitch recalls

WASHINGTON (AP) — Responding to an increasing number of threats born of conspiracy theories that agents were going to aggressively target middle income taxpayers, the Internal Revenue Service announced Tuesday that it was conducting a comprehensive review of safety at its facilities.

The climate, healthcare and tax legislation signed into law by President Joe Biden last week included $80 billion in funding for tax collection efforts. Although Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen specifically directed the agency to not focus its attention on taxpayers with middle class incomes, misinformation spread rapidly online that agents were going to crack down on taxpayers of all earnings levels.

The baseless assertions also said the IRS would distribute firearms to employees authorized to used deadly force, prompting threats to the IRS employees.

Now agency leadership has launched an examination of agency safety.

“We are conducting a comprehensive review of existing safety and security measures,” said Chuck Rettig, IRS commissioner about the agency's 600 office locations nationwide. “This includes conducting risk assessments," he said, by monitoring perimeter security, designations of restricted areas, exterior lighting, security around entrances of facilities and other measures.

“For me this is personal. I’ll continue to make every effort to dispel any lingering misperceptions about our work,” Rettig said in a Tuesday letter to employees. “And I will continue to advocate for your safety in every venue where I have an audience.”

Rettig, whose term at the IRS ends in November, is&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-technology-personal-taxes-janet-yellen-26165108b1fe1907f216ed0357d8f0bf">tasked with developing</a>&nbsp;a plan on how to spend the new infusion of funds included in the Inflation Reduction Act.

Along with anonymous online forums, high-ranking Republican politicians have spread falsehoods about the IRS workforce and how the newly allocated funds would be spent.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla.,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.rickscott.senate.gov/services/files/FE938C2F-152C-47FA-A200-16BFE5573837">sent an August 16 open letter</a>&nbsp;to Americans, calling on them not to take any new IRS positions, reinforcing false information about open roles at the agency and their access to firearms.

“The IRS is making it very clear that you not only need to be ready to audit and investigate your fellow hardworking Americans, your neighbors and friends, you need to be ready and, to use the IRS’s words, willing, to kill them,” he said in the letter.

Tony Reardon, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said members have been vocal about their fears and worries about their safety.

“IRS employees are certainly very hard working and honest, they do the business of funding the government. They're saying they don’t deserve to be treated as the enemy of the government," he said.

He added that members who are of retirement age have expressed a greater desire to retire due to the increased attention on their jobs.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-ap-fact-check-congress-government-and-politics-11eae023a3dc3a04584371843234cab7">More than half</a>&nbsp;of the IRS' enforcement workforce of 80,000 is retirement eligible.

Reardon said several workers have talked about being reminded of the 2010 Austin, Texas suicide attack, where Andrew Joseph Stack III deliberately crashed his single engine plane into the Echelon office building, killing himself and Internal Revenue Service manager Vernon Hunter.

“The rhetoric we're hearing now is dangerous” Reardon said. “It's putting these patriotic Americans at risk.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/9/1599869632873.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSWASHINGTON (AP) — Responding to an increasing number of threats born of conspiracy theories that agents were going to aggressively target middle income taxpayers, the Internal Revenue Service announced Tuesday that it was conducting a comprehensive review of safety at its facilities.The climate, healthcare and tax legislation signed into law by President Joe Biden last week included $80 billion in funding for tax collection efforts. Although Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen specifically directed the agency to not focus its attention on taxpayers with middle class incomes, misinformation spread rapidly online that agents were going to crack down on taxpayers of all earnings levels.The baseless assertions also said the IRS would distribute firearms to employees authorized to used deadly force, prompting threats to the IRS employees.Now agency leadership has launched an examination of agency safety.“We are conducting a comprehensive review of existing safety and security measures,” said Chuck Rettig, IRS commissioner about the agency's 600 office locations nationwide. “This includes conducting risk assessments," he said, by monitoring perimeter security, designations of restricted areas, exterior lighting, security around entrances of facilities and other measures.“For me this is personal. I’ll continue to make every effort to dispel any lingering misperceptions about our work,” Rettig said in a Tuesday letter to employees. “And I will continue to advocate for your safety in every venue where I have an audience.”Rettig, whose term at the IRS ends in November, is&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-technology-personal-taxes-janet-yellen-26165108b1fe1907f216ed0357d8f0bf">tasked with developing</a>&nbsp;a plan on how to spend the new infusion of funds included in the Inflation Reduction Act.Along with anonymous online forums, high-ranking Republican politicians have spread falsehoods about the IRS workforce and how the newly allocated funds would be spent.Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla.,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.rickscott.senate.gov/services/files/FE938C2F-152C-47FA-A200-16BFE5573837">sent an August 16 open letter</a>&nbsp;to Americans, calling on them not to take any new IRS positions, reinforcing false information about open roles at the agency and their access to firearms.“The IRS is making it very clear that you not only need to be ready to audit and investigate your fellow hardworking Americans, your neighbors and friends, you need to be ready and, to use the IRS’s words, willing, to kill them,” he said in the letter.Tony Reardon, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said members have been vocal about their fears and worries about their safety.“IRS employees are certainly very hard working and honest, they do the business of funding the government. They're saying they don’t deserve to be treated as the enemy of the government," he said.He added that members who are of retirement age have expressed a greater desire to retire due to the increased attention on their jobs.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-ap-fact-check-congress-government-and-politics-11eae023a3dc3a04584371843234cab7">More than half</a>&nbsp;of the IRS' enforcement workforce of 80,000 is retirement eligible.Reardon said several workers have talked about being reminded of the 2010 Austin, Texas suicide attack, where Andrew Joseph Stack III deliberately crashed his single engine plane into the Echelon office building, killing himself and Internal Revenue Service manager Vernon Hunter.“The rhetoric we're hearing now is dangerous” Reardon said. “It's putting these patriotic Americans at risk.”

IRS initiates safety probe after threats to workers

From what you buy online, to how you remember tasks, to when you monitor your doorstep, Amazon is seemingly everywhere.

And it appears the company doesn’t want to halt its reach anytime soon. In recent weeks, Amazon has said it will spend billions of dollars in two gigantic acquisitions that, if approved, will broaden its ever growing presence in the lives of consumers.

This time, the company is targeting two areas: health care, through its $3.9 billion buyout of the primary care company&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-health-care-services-af3a96c37e0d2887fd8e47b6e030d7f4">One Medical</a>, and the “smart home,” where it plans to expand its already mighty presence through a $1.7 billion merger with&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/colin-angle-d4de06cdcf36beeec71166ff44abdf68">iRobot</a>, the maker of the popular robotic Roomba vacuum.

Perhaps unsurprisingly for a company known for its vast collection of consumer information, both mergers have heightened enduring privacy concerns about how Amazon gathers data and what it does with it. The latest line of Roombas, for example, employ sensors that map and remember a home’s floor plan.

“It’s acquiring this vast set of data that Roomba collects about people’s homes,” said Ron Knox, an Amazon critic who works for the anti-monopoly group Institute for Local Self-Reliance. “Its obvious intent, through all the other products that it sells to consumers, is to be in your home. (And) along with the privacy issues come the antitrust issues, because it’s buying market share.”

Amazon's reach goes well beyond that. Some estimates show the retail giant controls roughly 38% of the U.S. e-commerce market, allowing it to gather granular data about the shopping preferences of millions of Americans and more worldwide. Meanwhile, its Echo devices, which house the voice assistant Alexa, have dominated the U.S. smart speaker market, accounting for roughly 70% of sales, according to estimates by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.

Ring, which&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/5126946065b4434baaa3e1b5879964c0">Amazon purchased in 2018</a>&nbsp;for $1 billion, monitors doorsteps and helps police track down crime — even when users might not be aware. And at select Amazon stores and Whole Foods, the company is testing a palm-scanning technology that allows customers to pay for items by storing biometric data in the cloud, sparking concerns about risks of a data breach, which Amazon has attempted to assuage.

“We treat your palm signature just like other highly sensitive personal data and keep it safe using best-in-class technical and physical security controls,” the company said on a website that provides information about the technology.

Even consumers who actively avoid Amazon are still likely to have little say about how their employers power their computer networks, which Amazon — along with Google — has long dominated through its cloud-computing service AWS.

“It’s hard to think of another organization that has as many touch points as Amazon does to an individual,” said Ian Greenblatt, who heads up tech research at the consumer research and data analytics firm J.D. Power. “It’s almost overwhelming, and it’s hard to put a finger on it.”

And Amazon — like any company — aims to grow. In the past few years, the company has purchased the Wi-Fi startup Eero and partnered with the construction company Lennar to offer tech-powered houses. With iRobot, it would gain one more building block for the ultimate smart home — and, of course, more data.

Customers can opt out of having iRobot devices store a layout of their homes, according to the vacuum maker. But data privacy advocates worry the merger is another way Amazon could suck up information to integrate into its other devices or use to target consumers with ads.

In a statement, Amazon spokesperson Lisa Levandowski denied that’s what the company wants to do.

“We do not use home maps for targeted advertising and have no plans to do so,” Levandowski said.

Whether that will relieve concerns is another matter, especially in light of research about Amazon's other devices. Earlier this year, a group of university researchers released a report that found voice data from Amazon’s Echo devices are used to target ads to consumers — something the company had denied in the past.

Umar Iqbal, a postdoc at the University of Washington who led the research, said he and his colleagues found Echo devices running third-party Skills, which are like apps for Alexa, that communicate with advertisers.

Levandowski said consumers can opt out of receiving “interest-based” ads by adjusting their preferences on Amazon’s advertising preferences page. She also said Amazon doesn't share Alexa requests with advertising networks.

Skills that collect personal information are required to post their privacy policies on a detail page in Amazon’s store, according to the company. Researchers, however, found only 2% of Skills are clear about their data collection practices, and the vast majority don’t mention Alexa or Amazon at all.

For companies like Amazon, data collection is for more than just data’s sake, noted Kristen Martin, a professor of technology ethics at the University of Notre Dame.

“You can almost see them just trying to paint a broader picture of an individual,” Martin said. “It’s about the inferences that they’re able to draw about you specifically, and then you compared to other people.”

Amazon's One Medical deal, for instance, has sparked questions about how the company would handle personal health data that would fall into its lap.

Should the deal close, Levandowski said customers’ health information will be handled separately from all other Amazon businesses. She also added Amazon wouldn’t share personal health information outside of One Medical for “advertising or marketing purposes of other Amazon products and services without clear permission from the customer.”

But Lucia Savage, a chief privacy officer at the chronic care provider Omada Health, said that doesn’t mean One Medical wouldn’t be able to get data from other arms of Amazon’s business that could help it better profile its patients. The information just has to flow one way, she said.

To be sure, privacy concerns are not limited to Amazon. In the aftermath of Roe v Wade being overturned, for instance, Google said it would&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/google-abortion-location-data-privacy-9fc5d01d6d626249d53c4df4a443a760">automatically get rid of information</a>&nbsp;about users who visit abortion clinics. Meanwhile, Meta, which owns Facebook, settled a class action lawsuit in February over its use of “cookies” about a decade ago that tracked users after they logged off Facebook.

But unlike Meta and Google, whose focus is mainly on selling ads, Amazon might benefit more from collecting data because its primary goal is to sell products, said Alex Harman, director of competition policy at the anti-monopoly group Economic Security Project.

“For them, data is all about getting you to buy more and be locked into their stuff,” Harman said.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/8/1661249297982.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSFrom what you buy online, to how you remember tasks, to when you monitor your doorstep, Amazon is seemingly everywhere.And it appears the company doesn’t want to halt its reach anytime soon. In recent weeks, Amazon has said it will spend billions of dollars in two gigantic acquisitions that, if approved, will broaden its ever growing presence in the lives of consumers.This time, the company is targeting two areas: health care, through its $3.9 billion buyout of the primary care company&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-health-care-services-af3a96c37e0d2887fd8e47b6e030d7f4">One Medical</a>, and the “smart home,” where it plans to expand its already mighty presence through a $1.7 billion merger with&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/colin-angle-d4de06cdcf36beeec71166ff44abdf68">iRobot</a>, the maker of the popular robotic Roomba vacuum.Perhaps unsurprisingly for a company known for its vast collection of consumer information, both mergers have heightened enduring privacy concerns about how Amazon gathers data and what it does with it. The latest line of Roombas, for example, employ sensors that map and remember a home’s floor plan.“It’s acquiring this vast set of data that Roomba collects about people’s homes,” said Ron Knox, an Amazon critic who works for the anti-monopoly group Institute for Local Self-Reliance. “Its obvious intent, through all the other products that it sells to consumers, is to be in your home. (And) along with the privacy issues come the antitrust issues, because it’s buying market share.”Amazon's reach goes well beyond that. Some estimates show the retail giant controls roughly 38% of the U.S. e-commerce market, allowing it to gather granular data about the shopping preferences of millions of Americans and more worldwide. Meanwhile, its Echo devices, which house the voice assistant Alexa, have dominated the U.S. smart speaker market, accounting for roughly 70% of sales, according to estimates by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.Ring, which&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/5126946065b4434baaa3e1b5879964c0">Amazon purchased in 2018</a>&nbsp;for $1 billion, monitors doorsteps and helps police track down crime — even when users might not be aware. And at select Amazon stores and Whole Foods, the company is testing a palm-scanning technology that allows customers to pay for items by storing biometric data in the cloud, sparking concerns about risks of a data breach, which Amazon has attempted to assuage.“We treat your palm signature just like other highly sensitive personal data and keep it safe using best-in-class technical and physical security controls,” the company said on a website that provides information about the technology.Even consumers who actively avoid Amazon are still likely to have little say about how their employers power their computer networks, which Amazon — along with Google — has long dominated through its cloud-computing service AWS.“It’s hard to think of another organization that has as many touch points as Amazon does to an individual,” said Ian Greenblatt, who heads up tech research at the consumer research and data analytics firm J.D. Power. “It’s almost overwhelming, and it’s hard to put a finger on it.”And Amazon — like any company — aims to grow. In the past few years, the company has purchased the Wi-Fi startup Eero and partnered with the construction company Lennar to offer tech-powered houses. With iRobot, it would gain one more building block for the ultimate smart home — and, of course, more data.Customers can opt out of having iRobot devices store a layout of their homes, according to the vacuum maker. But data privacy advocates worry the merger is another way Amazon could suck up information to integrate into its other devices or use to target consumers with ads.In a statement, Amazon spokesperson Lisa Levandowski denied that’s what the company wants to do.“We do not use home maps for targeted advertising and have no plans to do so,” Levandowski said.Whether that will relieve concerns is another matter, especially in light of research about Amazon's other devices. Earlier this year, a group of university researchers released a report that found voice data from Amazon’s Echo devices are used to target ads to consumers — something the company had denied in the past.Umar Iqbal, a postdoc at the University of Washington who led the research, said he and his colleagues found Echo devices running third-party Skills, which are like apps for Alexa, that communicate with advertisers.Levandowski said consumers can opt out of receiving “interest-based” ads by adjusting their preferences on Amazon’s advertising preferences page. She also said Amazon doesn't share Alexa requests with advertising networks.Skills that collect personal information are required to post their privacy policies on a detail page in Amazon’s store, according to the company. Researchers, however, found only 2% of Skills are clear about their data collection practices, and the vast majority don’t mention Alexa or Amazon at all.For companies like Amazon, data collection is for more than just data’s sake, noted Kristen Martin, a professor of technology ethics at the University of Notre Dame.“You can almost see them just trying to paint a broader picture of an individual,” Martin said. “It’s about the inferences that they’re able to draw about you specifically, and then you compared to other people.”Amazon's One Medical deal, for instance, has sparked questions about how the company would handle personal health data that would fall into its lap.Should the deal close, Levandowski said customers’ health information will be handled separately from all other Amazon businesses. She also added Amazon wouldn’t share personal health information outside of One Medical for “advertising or marketing purposes of other Amazon products and services without clear permission from the customer.”But Lucia Savage, a chief privacy officer at the chronic care provider Omada Health, said that doesn’t mean One Medical wouldn’t be able to get data from other arms of Amazon’s business that could help it better profile its patients. The information just has to flow one way, she said.To be sure, privacy concerns are not limited to Amazon. In the aftermath of Roe v Wade being overturned, for instance, Google said it would&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/google-abortion-location-data-privacy-9fc5d01d6d626249d53c4df4a443a760">automatically get rid of information</a>&nbsp;about users who visit abortion clinics. Meanwhile, Meta, which owns Facebook, settled a class action lawsuit in February over its use of “cookies” about a decade ago that tracked users after they logged off Facebook.But unlike Meta and Google, whose focus is mainly on selling ads, Amazon might benefit more from collecting data because its primary goal is to sell products, said Alex Harman, director of competition policy at the anti-monopoly group Economic Security Project.“For them, data is all about getting you to buy more and be locked into their stuff,” Harman said.

As Amazon grows, so does its eye on consumers

JOHNSTOWN, Ohio (AP) — Ohio’s largest-ever economic development project comes with a big employment challenge: how to find 7,000 construction workers in an already booming building environment when there's also a national shortage of people working in the trades.

At hand is the $20 billion semiconductor manufacturing operation near the state's capital,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-business-lifestyle-games-video-games-cb3e3a36f48416a25b5d00baa405f91a">announced by Intel earlier this year</a>. When the two factories, known as fabs, open in 2025, the facility will employ 3,000 people with an average salary of around $135,000.

Before that happens, the 1,000-acre site must be leveled and the semiconductor factories built.

“This project reverberated nationwide,” said Michael Engbert, an Ohio-based official with the Laborers’ International Union of North America.

“We don’t field calls every day from members hundreds or thousands of miles away asking about transferring into Columbus, Ohio,” he said. “It’s because they know Intel is coming.”

To win the project, Ohio offered Intel&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-business-ohio-columbus-intel-corp-9b71a9526ef4a94209cd08f24b1dac02">roughly $2 billion in incentives</a>, including a 30-year tax break. Intel has&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-science-business-philanthropy-columbus-155cd895b8fa9c802531a06e7ef50161">outlined $150 million in educational funding</a>&nbsp;aimed at growing the semiconductor industry regionally and nationally.

Construction is expected to accelerate following&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-science-technology-united-states-economy-2fa651c540c9869890dfe670bcdcb7ea">Congress' approval last month</a>&nbsp;of a package boosting the semiconductor industry and scientific research in a bid to create more high-tech jobs in the United States and help it better compete with international rivals. It includes more than $52 billion in grants and other incentives for the semiconductor industry as well as a 25% tax credit for those companies that invest in chip plants in the U.S.

For the central Ohio project, all 7,000 workers aren't required right away. They're also only a portion of what will be needed as the Intel project transforms hundreds of largely rural acres about 30 minutes east of Columbus.

Just six months after Intel revealed the Ohio operation, for example, Missouri-based VanTrust Real Estate announced it was building a 500-acre (200-hectare) business park next door to house Intel suppliers. The site's 5 million square feet (464,515 square meters) is equivalent to nearly nine football fields. Other projects for additional suppliers are expected.

California-based Intel will rely on lessons learned in building previous semiconductor sites nationally and globally to ensure enough construction workers, the company said in a statement.

“One of Intel’s top reasons for choosing Ohio is access to the region’s robust workforce,” the company said. “It will not be without its challenges, but we are confident there is enough demand that these jobs will be filled.”

Labor leaders and state officials acknowledge there's not currently a pool of 7,000 extra workers in central Ohio, where other current projects include a 28-story Hilton near downtown Columbus, a $2 billion addition to The Ohio State University's medical center, and a $365 million Amgen biomanufacturing plant not far from the Intel plant.

And that's not counting at least three new Google and Amazon data centers, plans for a new $200 million municipal courthouse south of downtown Columbus and solar array projects that could require nearly 6,000 construction jobs by themselves.

Federal data shows about 45,000 home and commercial construction workers in central Ohio. That number increased by 1,800 from May 2021 to May 2022, meaning a future deficit given current and future demands.

"I don’t know of a single commercial construction company that’s not hiring," said Mary Tebeau, executive director of the Builders Exchange of Central Ohio, a construction industry trade association.

Offsetting the imbalance are training programs, a push to encourage more high school students to enter the trades, and pure economics. Including overtime, pay for skilled tradespeople could hit $125,000 annually, said Dorsey Hager, executive secretary-treasurer of the Columbus Building Trades Council.

Or as Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, the state's economic development point person, puts it, the Intel project is so big and lucrative it will create opportunities for people who didn't see construction jobs in their future.

“When you’re willing to pay people more to do something, you will find the talent,” he said.

In addition to new and out-of-state workers, some will likely be pulled from the residential construction industry, thinning out an already short supply of homebuilders, said Ed Brady, CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based Home Builders Institute.

That creates a housing shortage risk that could slow the very type of economic development that Intel is sparking, said Ed Dietz of the National Association of Home Builders.

“How do you attract those business investments if you can’t also provide additional housing available for the growth in the labor force?” he said.

Central Ohio is expected to reach 3 million residents by 2050, a rate that would require 11,000 to 14,000 housing units a year. That was before Intel was announced, said Jennifer Noll, the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission's associate director for community development. Meanwhile, the closest the region came to hitting that goal was in 2020 with 11,000 units.

“We know we’ve got some work to do as a region,” Noll said.

Shortage or not, work is underway at and near the Intel site, where parades of trucks rumbled down country roads on a recent August morning as the beeping of multiple construction vehicles sounded in the distance.

It was just another day for pipe layer Taylor Purdy, who made his regular 30-minute drive from Bangs, Ohio, to his construction job helping widen a road running alongside the Intel plant.

Purdy, 28, spends his days in trenches helping position storm and sanitary sewers and waterlines. Overtime is plentiful as deadlines approach. The Intel construction work is in its earliest phases as earthmovers reshape the 1,000 acres (400 hectares) of former farm and residential land being transformed into an industrial site.

Purdy said he likes the job security of being involved on such a big project. He's also noticed that, unlike other jobs he has worked, he does not need to explain to people what he is up to.

“They all know what I’m talking about,” he said.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/8/1661248734598.jpeg" alt="Taylor Purdy, a pipe layer with Complete General Construction, answers questions about his experience working around the new Intel semiconductor manufacturing plant construction site in Johnstown, Ohio, during an interview near the site Friday, Aug. 5, 2022. Purdy spends his days in trenches helping position storm and sanitary sewers and waterlines. Overtime is plentiful as deadlines approach. (AP Photo/Paul Vernon)" />
 <figcaption>Taylor Purdy, a pipe layer with Complete General Construction, answers questions about his experience working around the new Intel semiconductor manufacturing plant construction site in Johnstown, Ohio, during an interview near the site Friday, Aug. 5, 2022. Purdy spends his days in trenches helping position storm and sanitary sewers and waterlines. Overtime is plentiful as deadlines approach. (AP Photo/Paul Vernon)</figcaption>
 </figure>By THE ASSOCIATED PRESSJOHNSTOWN, Ohio (AP) — Ohio’s largest-ever economic development project comes with a big employment challenge: how to find 7,000 construction workers in an already booming building environment when there's also a national shortage of people working in the trades.At hand is the $20 billion semiconductor manufacturing operation near the state's capital,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-business-lifestyle-games-video-games-cb3e3a36f48416a25b5d00baa405f91a">announced by Intel earlier this year</a>. When the two factories, known as fabs, open in 2025, the facility will employ 3,000 people with an average salary of around $135,000.Before that happens, the 1,000-acre site must be leveled and the semiconductor factories built.“This project reverberated nationwide,” said Michael Engbert, an Ohio-based official with the Laborers’ International Union of North America.“We don’t field calls every day from members hundreds or thousands of miles away asking about transferring into Columbus, Ohio,” he said. “It’s because they know Intel is coming.”To win the project, Ohio offered Intel&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-business-ohio-columbus-intel-corp-9b71a9526ef4a94209cd08f24b1dac02">roughly $2 billion in incentives</a>, including a 30-year tax break. Intel has&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-science-business-philanthropy-columbus-155cd895b8fa9c802531a06e7ef50161">outlined $150 million in educational funding</a>&nbsp;aimed at growing the semiconductor industry regionally and nationally.Construction is expected to accelerate following&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/biden-science-technology-united-states-economy-2fa651c540c9869890dfe670bcdcb7ea">Congress' approval last month</a>&nbsp;of a package boosting the semiconductor industry and scientific research in a bid to create more high-tech jobs in the United States and help it better compete with international rivals. It includes more than $52 billion in grants and other incentives for the semiconductor industry as well as a 25% tax credit for those companies that invest in chip plants in the U.S.For the central Ohio project, all 7,000 workers aren't required right away. They're also only a portion of what will be needed as the Intel project transforms hundreds of largely rural acres about 30 minutes east of Columbus.Just six months after Intel revealed the Ohio operation, for example, Missouri-based VanTrust Real Estate announced it was building a 500-acre (200-hectare) business park next door to house Intel suppliers. The site's 5 million square feet (464,515 square meters) is equivalent to nearly nine football fields. Other projects for additional suppliers are expected.California-based Intel will rely on lessons learned in building previous semiconductor sites nationally and globally to ensure enough construction workers, the company said in a statement.“One of Intel’s top reasons for choosing Ohio is access to the region’s robust workforce,” the company said. “It will not be without its challenges, but we are confident there is enough demand that these jobs will be filled.”Labor leaders and state officials acknowledge there's not currently a pool of 7,000 extra workers in central Ohio, where other current projects include a 28-story Hilton near downtown Columbus, a $2 billion addition to The Ohio State University's medical center, and a $365 million Amgen biomanufacturing plant not far from the Intel plant.And that's not counting at least three new Google and Amazon data centers, plans for a new $200 million municipal courthouse south of downtown Columbus and solar array projects that could require nearly 6,000 construction jobs by themselves.Federal data shows about 45,000 home and commercial construction workers in central Ohio. That number increased by 1,800 from May 2021 to May 2022, meaning a future deficit given current and future demands."I don’t know of a single commercial construction company that’s not hiring," said Mary Tebeau, executive director of the Builders Exchange of Central Ohio, a construction industry trade association.Offsetting the imbalance are training programs, a push to encourage more high school students to enter the trades, and pure economics. Including overtime, pay for skilled tradespeople could hit $125,000 annually, said Dorsey Hager, executive secretary-treasurer of the Columbus Building Trades Council.Or as Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, the state's economic development point person, puts it, the Intel project is so big and lucrative it will create opportunities for people who didn't see construction jobs in their future.“When you’re willing to pay people more to do something, you will find the talent,” he said.In addition to new and out-of-state workers, some will likely be pulled from the residential construction industry, thinning out an already short supply of homebuilders, said Ed Brady, CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based Home Builders Institute.That creates a housing shortage risk that could slow the very type of economic development that Intel is sparking, said Ed Dietz of the National Association of Home Builders.“How do you attract those business investments if you can’t also provide additional housing available for the growth in the labor force?” he said.Central Ohio is expected to reach 3 million residents by 2050, a rate that would require 11,000 to 14,000 housing units a year. That was before Intel was announced, said Jennifer Noll, the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission's associate director for community development. Meanwhile, the closest the region came to hitting that goal was in 2020 with 11,000 units.“We know we’ve got some work to do as a region,” Noll said.Shortage or not, work is underway at and near the Intel site, where parades of trucks rumbled down country roads on a recent August morning as the beeping of multiple construction vehicles sounded in the distance.It was just another day for pipe layer Taylor Purdy, who made his regular 30-minute drive from Bangs, Ohio, to his construction job helping widen a road running alongside the Intel plant.Purdy, 28, spends his days in trenches helping position storm and sanitary sewers and waterlines. Overtime is plentiful as deadlines approach. The Intel construction work is in its earliest phases as earthmovers reshape the 1,000 acres (400 hectares) of former farm and residential land being transformed into an industrial site.Purdy said he likes the job security of being involved on such a big project. He's also noticed that, unlike other jobs he has worked, he does not need to explain to people what he is up to.“They all know what I’m talking about,” he said.

Wanted: 7,000 construction workers for Intel chip plants

To date, over $5.7B committed to close the 'homework gap'

WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission today announced it is committing nearly $42 million in two new funding rounds through the Emergency Connectivity Program, which provides digital services for students in communities across the country.  Today’s funding commitments support applications from all three application windows, benefiting approximately 100,000 students, including students in Arizona, Delaware, Idaho, Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin.  

“This is the time of year when families stock up on school supplies, and internet access should be on that list.  Yet we still have too many students who lack the ability to connect with school after hours,” said Chairwoman Rosenworcel.  “This latest round of funding will help more students get the online access they need for a successful education, and bring us closer to closing the Homework Gap.” 

To date, the Commission has committed over $5.7 billion to schools and libraries across the country as part of the Emergency Connectivity Program, which launched last year.  The program has provided schools and libraries three different “application windows,” for schools and libraries to apply for support.  Today’s announcement includes over $4.4 million from the first and second application windows providing support in the upcoming school year for 5 schools.  For the third application window, the Commission is committing nearly $37 million that will support over 230 schools, 30 libraries, and 5 consortia.  

The funding can be used to support off-campus learning, such as nightly homework, to ensure

students across the country have the necessary support to keep up with their education.  To date, the program has provided support to over 10,000 schools, 900 libraries, and 100 consortia, and providing nearly 12 million connected devices and over 7 million broadband connections.  Of the over $5.7 billion in funding commitments approved to date, approximately $4.1 billion is supporting applications from Window 1; $831 million from Window 2; and $811 million from Window 3.  

More details about which schools and libraries have received funding commitments can be found <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/emergency-connectivity-fund">HERE</a>.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2019/9/1569445831519.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure><h2>To date, over $5.7B committed to close the 'homework gap'</h2> FCCWASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission today announced it is committing nearly $42 million in two new funding rounds through the Emergency Connectivity Program, which provides digital services for students in communities across the country. Today’s funding commitments support applications from all three application windows, benefiting approximately 100,000 students, including students in Arizona, Delaware, Idaho, Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin. “This is the time of year when families stock up on school supplies, and internet access should be on that list. Yet we still have too many students who lack the ability to connect with school after hours,” said Chairwoman Rosenworcel. “This latest round of funding will help more students get the online access they need for a successful education, and bring us closer to closing the Homework Gap.” To date, the Commission has committed over $5.7 billion to schools and libraries across the country as part of the Emergency Connectivity Program, which launched last year. The program has provided schools and libraries three different “application windows,” for schools and libraries to apply for support. Today’s announcement includes over $4.4 million from the first and second application windows providing support in the upcoming school year for 5 schools. For the third application window, the Commission is committing nearly $37 million that will support over 230 schools, 30 libraries, and 5 consortia. The funding can be used to support off-campus learning, such as nightly homework, to ensurestudents across the country have the necessary support to keep up with their education. To date, the program has provided support to over 10,000 schools, 900 libraries, and 100 consortia, and providing nearly 12 million connected devices and over 7 million broadband connections. Of the over $5.7 billion in funding commitments approved to date, approximately $4.1 billion is supporting applications from Window 1; $831 million from Window 2; and $811 million from Window 3. More details about which schools and libraries have received funding commitments can be found <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/emergency-connectivity-fund">HERE</a>.

FCC: Another $42M for emergency broadband connectivity

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A man who was arrested last week after barricading himself inside an Iowa church has been charged in an arrest warrant with killing his grandmother and great grandmother in Omaha.

Gage Walter, 27, of Omaha, was charged Friday with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of 93-year-old Marceline Teeters and 70-year-old Linda Walter, according to online court records. The women's bodies were found Aug. 13 in an Omaha home.

Gage Walter is also charged with attempted murder in the hammer attack of Stephen Regnier of Omaha on Aug. 12, as well as three weapons counts.

Gage Walter was arrested Aug. 14 in Winterset, Iowa, after he barricaded himself inside a church there. Court records say he had been driving a car stolen from the home were his grandmother and great grandmother were killed.

Gage Walter is being held in the Polk County Jail in Des Moines, Iowa, until he can be extradited to Nebraska.

By Associated PressOMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A man who was arrested last week after barricading himself inside an Iowa church has been charged in an arrest warrant with killing his grandmother and great grandmother in Omaha.Gage Walter, 27, of Omaha, was charged Friday with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of 93-year-old Marceline Teeters and 70-year-old Linda Walter, according to online court records. The women's bodies were found Aug. 13 in an Omaha home.Gage Walter is also charged with attempted murder in the hammer attack of Stephen Regnier of Omaha on Aug. 12, as well as three weapons counts.Gage Walter was arrested Aug. 14 in Winterset, Iowa, after he barricaded himself inside a church there. Court records say he had been driving a car stolen from the home were his grandmother and great grandmother were killed.Gage Walter is being held in the Polk County Jail in Des Moines, Iowa, until he can be extradited to Nebraska.