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Category: housing

  • MIL-OSI: Pineapple Subsidiary SUNation Announces Strategic Partnership With Radial Power to Expand Renewable Energy Solutions

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    RONKONKOMA, N.Y., Oct. 28, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —  SUNation, the New York-based subsidiary of Pineapple Energy Inc. (Nasdaq: PEGY) (“Pineapple” or the “Company”), a leading provider of sustainable solar energy, backup power solutions, and system servicing, today announced a strategic partnership with Houston, Texas-based Radial Power, a key player within distributed energy and a provider of sustainability solutions for commercial and industrial real estate asset owners.

    This strategic partnership will harness the combined expertise of both companies to deliver innovative renewable energy solutions. It also marks a significant step in SUNation’s expansion beyond its traditional New York footprint, positioning the company for broader geographic growth.

    “The commercial and industrial space is booming, largely driven by the opportunities created by the Investment Recovery Act. Our partnership with SUNation enables us to scale quickly and efficiently,” said John Bates, CEO of Radial Power. “As SUNation has successfully completed many projects and with our internal pipeline in the hundreds of megawatts, we fully expect SUNation to grow alongside us as we execute on these projects.”

    About Pineapple Energy
    Pineapple is focused on growing leading local and regional solar, storage, and energy services companies nationwide. Our vision is to power the energy transition through grass-roots growth of solar electricity paired with battery storage. Our portfolio of brands (SUNation, Hawaii Energy Connection, E-Gear) provide homeowners and businesses of all sizes with an end-to-end product offering spanning solar, battery storage, and grid services.

    Forward Looking Statements 
    This press release includes certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on the Company’s current expectations or beliefs and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances, including the Company’s expectations regarding its ability to effect the reverse stock split and regain compliance with Nasdaq’s continued listing standards. While the Company believes its plans, intentions, and expectations reflected in those forward-looking statements are reasonable, these plans, intentions, or expectations may not be achieved. For information about the factors that could cause such differences, please refer to the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, the statements made under the heading “Risk Factors” in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023 and in subsequent filings. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, except as required by law.

    Safe Harbor Statement
    Our prospects here at Pineapple Energy Inc. are subject to uncertainties and risks. This news release (video statement) contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Act of 1934. The Company intends that such forward-looking statements be subject to the safe harbor provided by the foregoing Sections. These forward-looking statements are based largely on the expectations or forecasts of future events, can be affected by inaccurate assumptions, and are subject to various business risks and known and unknown uncertainties, a number of which are beyond the control of management. Therefore, actual results could differ materially from the forward-looking statements contained in this presentation. The Company cannot predict or determine after the fact what factors would cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements or other statements. The reader should consider statements that include the words “believes”, “expects”, “anticipates”, “intends”, “estimates”, “plans”, “projects”, “should”, or other expressions that are predictions of or indicate future events or trends, to be uncertain and forward-looking. We caution readers not to place undue reliance upon any such forward-looking statements. The Company does not undertake to publicly update or revise forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events or otherwise. Additional information respecting factors that could materially affect the Company and its operations are contained in the Company’s filings with the SEC which can be found on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.

    Contacts:

    Scott Maskin
    Interim Chief Executive Officer
    +1 (631) 823-7131
    scott.maskin@pineappleenergy.com

    Pineapple Investor Relations
    +1 (952) 996-1674
    IR@pineappleenergy.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI NGOs: Echoes from Darfur Sudan

    Source: Médecins Sans Frontières –

    One and a half years into the conflict in Sudan, refugees are still fleeing to eastern Chad in search for safety, where they arrive at camps in dire conditions. Access to clean water, sanitation and healthcare facilities is limited. We met Aziz, Youssef, Salwa, and Amina to hear their stories of fleeing the Darfur region of Sudan and survival in eastern Chad.

    Aziz Adam, displaced from West Darfur

    “My family is incomplete here. My mom, my dad, seven of us siblings- there’s nine of us in total. But the war separated us. Some of my family made it out of West Darfur, but the rest haven’t joined us yet. 

    We fled in a state of panic, terrified of the war. We didn’t have time to take anything with us, and some of us even arrived barefoot. 

    We walked 20 kilometres to get here, on foot. Along the way, we encountered the Rapid Support Forces who threatened us. Some of the young men traveling with us were accused of belonging to the Masalit tribe. They were arrested and killed. We thought we would die too. I couldn’t imagine we’d survive.

    The memories of fleeing stay with me. When I think about the tragedies, what pain we left behind, there’s no way I can go back.

    But I hear some people say they would rather return to the war in Sudan than endure the hell we face in the camp.

    I got here in July of last year, so it’s been almost a year, and now I’m 24 years old. Our situation is tragic. We left one difficult situation, only to find ourselves in an even worse one. 

    We lack the basic necessities for living— drinking water and food. It’s been four or five months in Iridimi camp since we last received any food aid. 

    Now, my family and I are desperate. We need education, healthcare, and a better future. But the reality we live in is bleak. I feel stuck, caught between Sudan, where the future is uncertain, and Chad, where I don’t belong.”

    Salwa Saleh, displaced from South Darfur

    “We used to live an urban life, but we’ve been displaced from our cities. It’s hard to accept living in a camp. And even some of my family members are still in Sudan. They always say they won’t leave because Sudan is their country. We all hope the war will end soon, we all want to return to our homeland.

    The war took us by surprise. We left in such a rush that we didn’t have time to take any of our important belongings or memories. I left behind so many beautiful things in Nyala. My children lost their father; now they are orphans. To get here we had to journey from Nyala to Tina, and that usually takes two days. But it took us four. We passed through areas of fighting between the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces. It was terrifying and exhausting.

    I’ve been in this camp for a year and two months. Living here, it’s like living in a house without walls or a fence. We still suffer from a lack of food, clean drinking water, proper education, hospitals, and medical care.

    Before the war, we would go to work and return home to our children. We could easily meet our needs. But since the war started, life has become much more difficult. I hope for the day when life returns to normal, when we find security and stability. When our children can go back to their schools.

    I hope for a better future for my children. When the war in Sudan ends, I dream of having the chance to travel, completing my education, learning new languages, and finding a job. I want to provide for my children and support my family.”

    Youssef Mohamed, displaced from North Darfur

    “I think constantly, which makes it hard to sleep. My family is far away, the war is ongoing, and every day brings news of more deaths. I have my wife and two children, a boy and a girl, but they are all in Kabkabiya, about 156 kilometres west of El Fasher.

    I’ve been here for about eight months, and I’m originally from North Darfur, 57 years old now. I came here to Iriba in east Chad coming from Adre, looking for work, but unfortunately, I couldn’t find a job. I left my family behind for this, so it’s difficult. My wife, my brothers, and sisters are scattered in different places. My children have been out of school for almost a year. They haven’t studied since last June. The war has destroyed everything.

    I’ve been living with diabetes for 12 years. Before the war, I would go to Khartoum for treatment. I was in Khartoum when the war broke out. I spent a month there, then moved to Gezira State for five months before heading to El Fasher. Along the way, I faced harassment, beatings, threats, and humiliation from the armed forces.

    As a diabetic, I need regular medical care, including eye, liver, and kidney tests every three months. But since coming here, I haven’t found any of these services. The treatment for diabetes is either too expensive or unavailable in Chad. I also need a specific diet, but here, things like vegetables and fruits are hard to find.

    Before the war, I had my own office in the market and was the principal of a school. I used to grow beans, sesame, and maize, but the war disrupted all of that.

    Educating my children is the most important thing for me now, but they are still in Kabkabiya, and I don’t know their fate. Sometimes there are airstrikes, and I worry they might be hit because the area is at war.
    My mother, brother, and sisters live in Shaqra, but even there, no place in Sudan is safe from the shells. I brought with me only a few photos of my children and family, as well as some teaching materials on flash drives.

    I hope to return to Sudan. I want my children to go to school, for my family to be stable, and for Sudan to be better than it was before.”

    Amina Suleiman, displaced from Central Darfur

    “The war started in Zalingei, where I’m from, on 15 April 2023- the same day it started in Khartoum. We kept hoping it would end, but it didn’t. What I witnessed in Zalingei and during our displacement will never leave me. The memories are etched in my mind, and they haunt our children too. They are playing with sticks, pretending they have weapons. Children are living with the trauma of war.

    In Sudan, we used to hide under beds to shield ourselves from the bombings. Those memories are painful, but here, we face even greater hardships. I’m 24 now, and I don’t know if I have a future. The children here, some are two or three years old, they deserve something better.

    I’ve been living in this camp for a year and a month, since 4 August 2023. Life here is hard. We’ve only received financial aid five times since we arrived. And food and water are scarce. We normally get them every two days, but even sometimes it’s after waiting four days.

    There are no jobs here, even for those of us who are educated. Our situation is critical. We’re also facing a health crisis. There is no health centre in the camp. We don’t have specialist doctors for heart or eye diseases, and many are suffering, including women needing obstetric care. In our previous camp, that health centre didn’t have medicines.

    We need psychological support. Many of us have lost family members to the war. People are missing, scattered across Sudan, or still in Darfur. The war has torn us apart, separating us from our loved ones. All of us here in the camp are missing someone.

    If I had the choice, I’d rather return to Sudan, even if it meant dying there. That would be better than dying in this camp.”

    MIL OSI NGO –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Defense News: Brothers Join Navy Nuclear Engineering Program

    Source: United States Navy

    LOVELAND, Colo. (Aug 28, 2024) — Brothers Jacob Wheeler, 17, and Mark Wheeler, 19, of Loveland enlisted in the U.S. Navy’s nuclear engineering program this summer through Navy Recruiting Station Fort Collins. The brothers joined the Delayed Entry Program within weeks of each other with Jacob enlisting in July and Mark in late August. While their parents are unaware that Mark has joined, the brothers plan to surprise them at graduation with help from their recruiter, Aviation Electronics Mate 2nd Class Erika Bravo.

    The Wheeler brothers, born in Greeley and raised in nearby Kersey, come from a family rooted in hard work. Their father, an electrician, and their grandfather, a farmer, instilled in them a strong work ethic and an appreciation for hands-on skills. Jacob initially joined with plans to become a Navy SEAL and persuaded his brother Mark to enlist in the Navy’s nuclear engineering program, primarily for the educational benefits.
    “I convinced him,” Jacob said, adding that the nuclear program offers not only strong pay but also the potential for a high-paying career after their service.Mark, who was not initially set on joining the Navy, became intrigued by the technical education offered through the nuclear program.
    “They’ll teach me calculus, thermodynamics and nuclear physics,” he said. “That sounds fantastic!”

    Both brothers are excited about the educational opportunities. While Mark admits he isn’t fond of traditional schooling, he looks forward to the fast-paced, targeted learning environment of the Navy.
    “I don’t enjoy going to school,” Mark said, “but I love learning. This job is more about the knowledge than the pay for me.”

    After completing boot camp at Recruit Training Command in Great Lakes, Illinois, the Wheeler brothers will attend Nuclear Power School in Charleston, South Carolina. The school, which lasts about two years, will train them to operate and maintain nuclear reactors aboard Navy submarines and aircraft carriers. Upon graduation, both Jacob and Mark will be promoted to E-4 and receive their contract bonuses.
    Although both will attend Nuclear Power School, the brothers are unsure if they will be stationed together after training.

    “There aren’t a lot of nukes in the Navy, so they need to spread us out,” Jacob said, though he remains hopeful they will attend school together, as he believes Mark would make a great tutor.
    The brothers are slated to ship out in November, before Thanksgiving. Their cousin, who lives in Chicago, has already warned them about the harsh winter weather in the Great Lakes, but the brothers are eager to take on the challenge. Jacob is especially excited about life aboard a Navy vessel. “It sounds fun!” he said.

    Looking beyond their service, Jacob is already considering his future.
    “If I still need more money after the Navy, I’m sure there are many opportunities for nuclear engineers,” he said.

    Jacob has long-term goals that include entrepreneurship and working with cars, while Mark is excited about the skills and experiences he’ll gain during his Navy career.
    The brothers’ family is mostly supportive, though their older sister isn’t thrilled that her roommates will be leaving. The brothers, who live with their older sister, also have younger siblings who don’t live with them. They see their Navy service as a way to set a good example for their younger siblings and feel proud of the path they are taking.

    Pets also play an important role in the Wheeler household. Mark’s cat, Katie, will stay with his fiancée while he’s away, while Jacob’s ball python and pit bull puppy will stay with family members until he completes his training. Both brothers are eager to reunite with their pets after graduating from Nuclear Power School.
    The Wheeler brothers are confident their decision to join the Navy’s nuclear engineering program will open doors to exciting careers, both during and after their time in uniform. As they prepare to embark on this journey, they do so with pride and a strong sense of family legacy.

    Navy Talent Acquisition Group Rocky Mountain encompasses Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and parts of Idaho, Nebraska and Kansas. It provides Navy recruiting services from more than 30 dispersed offices across the region.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: First UK survey on sensory loss begins this month

    Source: Anglia Ruskin University

    Published: 28 October 2024 at 11:36

    Project to provide robust data on vision and hearing loss starts in Cambridgeshire

    For the first time, robust data on the sensory health of the nation will be collected thanks to a study beginning this month in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

    The UK does not have an accurate set of data on vision and hearing loss, resulting in a lack of evidence to inform health policies and programmes, and is falling behind nations such as Trinidad and Tobago, Australia, USA, Nepal and Bangladesh that all have national sensory loss studies. It is estimated that 50% of all sight loss is avoidable.

    The UK National Eye Health and Hearing Study (UKNEHS) is a collaboration between sensory loss charities, Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), leading eye and hearing care professionals and the public sector to record accurate data on vision and hearing health to give confidence to the NHS and policymakers when making vital decisions that affect people’s health.

    This NHS research study has received charitable and National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) support funding to operate an initial study in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough that will see UKNEHS medical professionals visit households in randomly selected postcodes from late October this year until February 2025. The visits are first to introduce the study and then to invite those aged 50 years and older for a free local specialist eye and hearing assessment.

    The area has been chosen for its diverse population, rural and urban areas, and wide range of socio-economic factors.

    It is hoped that this initial study will lead to further funding for a UK-wide study that will, for the first time, give an accurate picture of the nation’s sensory health.

    Rupert Bourne, Professor of Ophthalmology at Anglia Ruskin University and Chief Investigator for the UKNEHS, said:

    “Hearing impairment costs the UK an estimated £30 billion each year and visual impairment, including sight loss and blindness, £28 billion.
     
    “Despite these huge costs, the datasets currently used in the UK are of limited value, due to a reliance on international data, or UK data samples that are either very small scale, or not generalisable to the population as a whole. There is subsequently no robust evidence-base upon which to design a prevention strategy or plan services for the future that meet the population’s needs”.
     
    “Our study aims to enable healthcare professionals and policy makers to understand why people are losing their sight and hearing due to preventable causes so they can target the right preventions, treatment, and public health services, providing support to people who really need it.”

    Phase one of the study has seen UKNEHS teams visit care homes in the area to survey the sensory health of residents. On one of these visits, Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Dr Nik Johnson observed teams carrying out their work.
     
    Dr Johnson said:

    “Having already seen what’s happened at local nursing homes in terms of the screening, it’s fantastic news that out and about in the near future there will be teams visiting different areas of the county, and local people in the community will have the opportunity to get involved in this study.
     
    “I’d really encourage people to take part and have their hearing and eyes checked.”

    Phase two of the study will involve the UKNEHS teams visiting 750 randomly chosen households in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. Those who receive an invitation are encouraged to take part in this important national project whatever their vision or hearing status, including those who may be regularly seen by eye or hearing services. It is estimated that 1 out of every 5 people aged 50 plus have impaired eyesight or an eye disease that goes undetected.
     
    The UKNEHS has been developed by Anglia Ruskin University’s Vision and Eye Research Institute in cooperation with the College of Optometrists, the Thomas Pocklington Trust and a number of other partner organisations across the eye health and hearing sector.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI China: Xi stresses building China into cultural powerhouse by 2035

    Source: China State Council Information Office 2

    Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on Monday emphasized focusing efforts to build the country into a powerhouse in culture by 2035.
    Xi made the remarks while presiding over a group study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.
    He stressed continuously developing a socialist culture with Chinese characteristics for the new era. 

    MIL OSI China News –

  • MIL-OSI: Array Acquires Payitoff to Strengthen its Intelligent Debt Management Offerings

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    NEW YORK, Oct. 28, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Money 20/20 Conference – Array, a leading embedded consumer products platform, announced the acquisition of Payitoff, a pioneer in embedded debt guidance solutions. This acquisition fortifies Array’s position as the industry leader in intelligent debt management solutions, empowering financial institutions, fintechs, and digital brands with seamless, no-code debt management tools that improve consumer outcomes, accelerate growth efforts, and unlock new revenue streams.

    Payitoff was founded by Bobby Matson, who created the company out of a personal need to manage his family’s student loans and other debt in order to buy a home. His team first launched student loan management before broadening its offerings to encompass a comprehensive suite of debt management tools. These user-friendly, embeddable tools seamlessly integrate into digital platforms without the need for complex coding, empowering financial institutions, fintechs, and digital brands to elevate their consumers’ financial experiences.

    The company has gained significant market traction, including wins with Earnest, EarnUp, Greenpath, LendKey, Splash Financial, and U.S. Bank, resulting in over 200,000 loans managed by Payitoff with a combined value of over $1.5 billion. These companies value the ability to add debt management features into their digital experience without the need to build the product themselves.

    Consumers can quickly link their debt accounts, explore repayment options, choose the most suitable plan, and apply—all within a few minutes. For student loans, a recent analysis found that users can save an average of $323 per month* that can be invested in other ways.

    “Financial institutions and other providers of financial products in digital experiences realize that helping their consumers better understand and manage their debt is a powerful way to increase deposits, revenue, and brand loyalty,” said Martin Toha, Founder and CEO of Array. “We acquired Payitoff because our companies have a shared vision to provide seamless, embeddable products that fuel financial progress. This provides our clients with the best of all worlds: bringing valuable products to market faster without additional resources and overhead.”

    “The opportunity for impact between Array and Payitoff is massive,” said Bobby Matson, CEO of Payitoff. “Student loan payments resumed a year ago, and with delinquencies starting to impact borrowers’ credit this month, the timing of this acquisition couldn’t be more critical. Array’s reach, combined with our debt management tools, will empower financial institutions and fintechs to help their consumers manage debt and save thousands—all with a seamless integration.”

    Payitoff Expands Array’s Private-Label Offerings
    The Array platform helps companies drive engagement and revenue by monetizing traffic private-labeled financial, identity and privacy protection products that build brand loyalty with users and help them take control of their financial lives. These products include:

    • My Credit Manager helps consumers view, understand, and manage their credit information. They can receive score change alerts, interact with a score simulator, and view credit score factors and debt analysis components.
    • Identity Protect includes identity monitoring, insurance, and restoration services that help keep users safe from fraud. It also features dark web monitoring, alerts, and identity theft restoration services.
    • Privacy Protect offers consumers the most effective data removal – more than 200 million records to date and assisting more than 4 million individuals.
    • Subscription Manager is an embeddable, private-label app that helps financial institutions, fintechs, and digital brands attract and retain consumers by providing insight into and control over recurring payments.​​
    • BuildCredit Rent helps consumers build credit or establish credit history when they opt to share their rent payments with a credit bureau.

    *Represents actual average savings of borrowers who linked their account with Payitoff and qualified for a federal repayment plan. The sample is based on an aggregated set of data representing over $1.5 billion in loan volume across 215,000+ loans on the Payitoff platform.

    About Array
    Array fuels financial progress for many of the world’s leading fintechs, financial institutions, and digital brands with a suite of private-label fintech solutions that can be easily embedded. Array drives engagement and revenue for clients by helping them stand out in a crowded market and forge deeper relationships with their customers. More than a suite of products, we’re building a platform to help consumers own their financial future. Array was founded in 2020 by Martin Toha and its investors include Battery Ventures, General Catalyst, and Nyca Partners. To learn more visit www.array.com.

    Media Contacts

    Kurt Foeller, Array
    press@array.com

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Canada: Opportunity for media to see future Canadian lunar rover

    Source: Government of Canada News

    Media advisory

    Longueuil, Quebec, — On , media are invited to attend a demonstration of the future Canadian lunar rover. The event will take place from to on the analogue terrain outside the Canadian Space Agency’s (CSA‘s) John H. Chapman Space Centre.

    The rover will undergo operational tests on an obstacle course, on a surface and in light conditions that replicate the Moon’s south pole. Media are welcome to take photos and videos during the demonstration. Representatives from the CSA and Canadensys will be available to answer questions.

    Media are expected to arrive by . Spots are limited: interested parties are required to register with the Media Relations Office. The event will proceed if weather conditions are favourable; registered media will receive confirmation on the day itself.

    – 30 –

    Contact information

    Canadian Space Agency
    Media Relations Office
    Telephone: 450-926-4370
    Email: asc.medias-media.csa@asc-csa.gc.ca
    Website: www.asc-csa.gc.ca
    Follow us on social media

    MIL OSI Canada News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why do we use gasoline for small vehicles and diesel fuel for big vehicles?

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Michael Leamy, Woodruff Endowed Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology

    Green pump for diesel, blue for gas – but what’s the difference? Jeffrey Greenberg/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

    Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com.

    Why do we use gasoline for small vehicles and diesel fuel for big vehicles? – Methdini, age 15, Sri Lanka

    Gasoline fuels most light-duty vehicles, such as passenger cars and pickup trucks. Heavy-duty vehicles, like buses, delivery trucks and long-haul tractor-trailers, typically run on diesel.

    Both fuel types are needed because gasoline and diesel engines have different strengths. As my automotive engineering students learn, this makes them suitable for different uses.

    Let’s start with what they have in common. Gas and diesel engines both work through a process called internal combustion.

    • First, they mix fuel with air because the fuel needs oxygen from the air to burn.

    • Next, they compress the fuel-air mixture, which makes the mixture hot enough to burn.

    • Then the engine burns the mix of fuel and air, releasing heat. This creates high pressure, which moves internal parts that make the car move.

    • Finally, the car releases spent combustion gases to the atmosphere through its tailpipe. These gases contain pollutants, such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and unburned fuel, that are harmful to human health, as well as carbon dioxide, which warms Earth’s atmosphere.

    How a gas-powered internal combustion engine converts chemical energy in gasoline into kinetic energy that makes the car move.

    Different engines for different jobs

    Gasoline and diesel fuel are both made from crude oil, a fossil-based energy source. But they have different chemical properties that require different types of engines.

    In a gas engine, a small device called a spark plug ignites the compressed fuel-air mixture. It uses hundreds of thousands of volts to create an electrical arc that can start the burn, much like striking a flint rock against another stone.

    Diesel fuel is harder to ignite and slower to burn than gasoline. But if it is compressed enough, it will ignite without a spark. And this higher compression results in higher efficiency, so vehicles powered with diesel get more miles per gallon. That’s important for transporting goods and people as economically as possible – one reason why most buses, trains and large trucks run on diesel.

    Diesel engines tend to be more expensive than gas engines, since they need sturdier parts to withstand the higher temperatures and pressures they produce. But they also last longer than gasoline engines. This is a plus for vehicles such as long-haul trucks that need to go many hundreds of thousands of miles between engine overhauls.

    So why do passenger cars use gas? One reason is that diesel engines’ higher compression and temperature make them noisier, especially at higher frequencies that humans find annoying. Diesel engines also produce higher levels of fine particle pollution, known as PM 2.5, that has been linked to many human health risks.

    These trade-offs typically lead consumers to prefer cheaper, quieter gasoline engines in cars they drive for work and pleasure. Efficient, long-lasting diesel engines are more attractive to companies hauling goods and transporting large numbers of people.

    Beyond internal combustion engines

    In the future, transportation may not use gas or diesel at all. Some cars and light trucks – models known as hybrids – already use gas or diesel together with batteries and electric motors, or run entirely on electricity. And cities across the U.S. are investing in electric school buses, which are lower-polluting and cheaper to maintain than diesel buses.

    Hybrid, plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicles promise to result in far fewer emissions of toxic gases and carbon dioxide – especially if they are recharged with electricity produced from renewable sources like wind and solar power. These vehicles will be quieter than gasoline and diesel models and also cheaper to maintain, since they have fewer moving parts. Gasoline and diesel vehicles will remain in use for years to come, but they no longer represent the forefront of transportation innovation.

    Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.

    And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.

    Michael Leamy receives funding from the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, General Motors, and other government agencies and corporations.

    – ref. Why do we use gasoline for small vehicles and diesel fuel for big vehicles? – https://theconversation.com/why-do-we-use-gasoline-for-small-vehicles-and-diesel-fuel-for-big-vehicles-235084

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Trump’s anti-Haitian rhetoric reflects America’s long-standing racism against Haiti and its people

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Thurka Sangaramoorthy, Professor of Anthropology, American University

    Pastor Dieufort Fleurissaint denounces the hateful rhetoric aimed at Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, during a Sept. 24, 2024, rally in Boston. Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe/Getty Images)

    Since 2021, about 15,000 Haitians have found new lives in Springfield, Ohio, after fleeing the violence of Haiti, their native country.

    But a wave of baseless rumors and hate, amplified by former President Donald Trump and his running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance, has shattered that sense of safety. Many of the city’s Haitian immigrants are left questioning whether their vision of an American dream is still possible.

    Frightened and worried, many Haitians say they are fearful of going outside and staying in Springfield.

    The morning after the presidential debate, a Haitian woman who had moved to Springfield six years ago told a newspaper reporter that “they’re attacking us in every way.”

    In addition to the anxiety, the woman, who asked not to be identified, said that her car windows had been broken in the middle of the night. “I’m going to have to move because this area is no longer good for me,” the woman said. “I can’t even leave my house to go to Walmart. I’m anxious and scared.”

    Trump’s inflammatory statements, which have included wrongful allegations of Haitians eating pets, are part of a broader historical pattern of racism and anti-Black xenophobia in the U.S. aimed at Haitians. Days after the debate, Trump further explained how he would start his mass deportation program in Springfield. “Illegal Haitian migrants have descended upon a town of 58,000 people, destroying their way of life,” Trump said.

    The comments have not only stoked existing racial tensions but have also sparked racist discourse and violent threats against Haitians across the country.

    As a scholar of migration who has studied Haitian immigrants in the U.S. for over 25 years, I have seen how Haitians, as Black immigrants, are doubly marginalized, by not only the structural racism embedded in U.S. immigration policies but also the broader societal racism experienced by Black Americans.

    In my view, Trump’s baseless allegations reflect America’s deeply rooted history of systemic racism against Haiti and its people.

    A flawed history

    The roots of anti-Haitian racism in the U.S. can be traced to the Haitian Revolution in 1804 in which Black Haitians who were enslaved rose up and overthrew the French colonial government.

    Haiti became the first independent Black republic in the world, and the country’s independence terrified many in the U.S., especially white slaveholders. They feared the revolution might inspire slave revolts at home.

    Illustration depicting the Haitian Revolution led by Toussaint Louverture.
    Bettmann/Getty Images

    For much of the 19th century, the U.S. refused to recognize Haiti as a legitimate nation. It wasn’t until 1862, during the Civil War, that the U.S. finally established diplomatic relations with the country.

    But the U.S. continued to exploit Haiti for its own economic and military interests, occupying the country with the military from 1915 to 1934. During this period, the U.S. controlled Haiti’s government and finances, installed a pro-American president and helped establish a brutal military force.

    The occupation worsened racial and economic inequality in Haiti and further destabilized the nation.

    This history of exploitation and interference has had long-lasting effects on Haiti’s ability to develop economically and politically, a situation exacerbated by continued U.S. intervention throughout the Cold War era.

    During the nearly 30-year dictatorships of François “Papa Doc” and Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier between 1957 and 1986, for example, the U.S. government provided approximately US$900 million in financial support to these repressive regimes, despite their notorious human-rights abuses.

    Anti-Black immigration policies

    All the history of U.S. involvement in Haiti set the stage for the mass migration of Haitians to the U.S. since the early 1960s.

    Over the years, about 200,000 Haitians have sought to escape violence and poverty to the U.S.

    Those with resources, such as the Haitian elite and middle class, migrated legally, settling in New York and Miami. Many of them organized ways to send aid to Haiti and brought attention to human-rights abuses being committed by the Duvalier regimes.

    Poor Haitians soon followed, arriving by crude boats.

    In September 1963, the first boatload of Haitian refugees landed in Miami. But instead of finding freedom, all 23 Haitians were denied asylum and sent back to Haiti by the U.S. immigration authorities.

    Since then, Haitians arriving by boat have faced arrest, detention, asylum denials and deportation as successive U.S. governments refused to recognize the political repression in Haiti. Instead, Haitians were labeled economic migrants who sought a better standard of living and, as such, were not eligible for asylum.

    From 1981 to 1991, for instance, 433 boats carrying approximately 25,580 Haitians were intercepted by U.S. immigration authorities. Only 28 people were allowed to pursue refugee claims.

    The Haitian experience in the US

    Often portrayed by white policymakers as disease carriers and criminals, Haitian immigrants have long suffered discrimination and dehumanization in the U.S.

    In the 1980s, during the HIV crisis, U.S. health officials wrongly labeled Haitians as high-risk carriers of the virus, reinforcing harmful racial and ethnic stereotypes.

    Despite a lack of scientific evidence, Haitians were stigmatized as a group, leading to economic and social exclusion within the U.S. Many Haitians lost jobs, housing and faced threats of violence simply because of their nationality and ethnicity.

    My research has shown this portrayal of Haitians as dangerous and undesirable persists today, as reflected in Trump’s and Vance’s recent claims. The narrative of immigrants eating pets and spreading diseases is a recycled trope in American history, used by white conservative politicians to stoke fears about foreigners to reinforce white supremacy.

    Historically, these kinds of claims have been used to justify exclusionary immigration policies and racial violence against nonwhite populations.

    A group of Haitian Americans in Springfield, Ohio, listen to area residents denounce the town’s growing Haitian population during a public meeting on Sept. 24, 2024.
    Dominic Gwinn/Middle East Images /Getty Images

    The accusations against Haitians in Springfield have not only triggered immediate threats of violence but have also reinforced deep-seated, anti-Black xenophobia that continues to plague U.S. society.

    In recent years, hate speech and attacks against Black immigrants, including Haitians, have been on the rise. Black immigrants, regardless of their legal status, face higher rates of deportation and are more likely to be targeted than white immigrants by law enforcement.

    Addressing anti-Haitian racism

    The allegations made by Trump and Vance represent a dangerous escalation of rhetoric that has real-life consequences for Haitians in the U.S.

    The demonization of Haitians in Springfield is not just a political ploy – it is part of a broader strategy to uphold systems of exclusion that have historically been used to marginalize Black people, both immigrants and citizens.

    Thurka Sangaramoorthy receives funding from the National Institutes of Health.

    – ref. Trump’s anti-Haitian rhetoric reflects America’s long-standing racism against Haiti and its people – https://theconversation.com/trumps-anti-haitian-rhetoric-reflects-americas-long-standing-racism-against-haiti-and-its-people-240975

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: LGBTQ+ voters in these 4 states could swing the 2024 presidential election

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Dorian Rhea Debussy, Lecturer of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, The Ohio State University

    LGBTQ+ voters lean heavily Democratic, and they tend to turn out in high numbers. Dani VG via Getty Images

    Victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential election may come down to LGBTQ+ voters.

    Polling data shows that Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are running in a near-dead heat in four states – Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. And as a scholar of LGBTQ+ politics, I suspect that LGBTQ+ voters could play an outsize role in these states and the race.

    So, how might LGBTQ+ voters swing these states?

    LGBTQ+ voting behavior, explained

    In the most comprehensive political survey of LGBTQ+ Americans ever conducted, the Pew Research Center found in 2013 that the vast majority of respondents – 85% – “always” or “nearly always” voted, compared with roughly a third of the general population. Turnout in the most recent presidential election validated that finding. A 2020 post-election survey by the advocacy group GLAAD found that 81% of LGBTQ+ voters cast a ballot.

    For context, 64% of all eligible voters cast a ballot in the 2020 presidential election, which was unusually high voter participation. Historically, turnout hovers around 55% for presidential elections and 35% for midterm elections.

    An LGBTQ+ delegate at the 2024 Democratic National Convention.
    Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images

    The National Center for Transgender Equality, an advocacy organization, finds that voter turnout is particularly high among transgender people.

    Even in the historically low-turnout 2014 midterm election, the group’s data indicated that roughly half of transgender respondents had voted, compared with only one-third of the general population. In the 2022 midterm election, transgender voter turnout increased to nearly 75%, according to the 2024 U.S. Trans Survey.

    LGBTQ+ voters and partisanship

    LGBTQ+ voters strongly lean Democratic. Pew’s 2013 survey found that nearly 60% of all LGBTQ+ respondents were Democrats, and less than 10% were Republicans. Transgender voters are even more partisan, and nearly 80% identified as Democratic or Democratic-leaning in the 2015 U.S. Trans Survey.

    Exit poll data from the 2016 presidential election supports this conclusion. Nearly 80% of LGBTQ+ voters told researchers outside polling stations that they’d cast their ballot for Hillary Clinton. Just 14% reported that they’d backed Trump.

    Initial exit poll data from the 2020 presidential election indicated that Trump had doubled his share of LGBTQ+ voters to 28%. Later analyses contradicted that finding, however, showing that LGBTQ+ voters were actually essential to Joe Biden’s victory.

    The surprising miscalculation was likely due to COVID-19-related polling errors. Exit poll data from the 2022 midterm election put LGBTQ+ support for Republican congressional candidates back at 14%.

    LGBTQ+ voters in ‘tipping-point’ states

    Taken together, past polling data indicates that the LGBTQ+ community will likely back Harris over Trump by strong margins in four of the most likely “tipping-point” states – that is, the swing states with enough electoral votes to tip the entire election for one candidate.

    Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania all have populations of LGBTQ+ adults that are significantly larger than the margin of victory by which the winning candidate took the state in 2020.

    For instance, Biden won Georgia and its 15 electoral votes by 11,779 votes in 2020, and there are over 400,000 LGBTQ+ adults in the state. Trump’s apparent current lead in Georgia is within the margin of error, and even a slight increase in Democratic-leaning LGBTQ+ voters, compared with 2020, could hand Harris the state.

    Georgia now has 16 electoral votes following a population increase.

    The gap between the two candidates in all four tipping-point states is similarly narrow – 2% or less. That’s well within state polls’ margin of error. Together, these states have a combined 66 electoral votes. That’s nearly double Biden’s Electoral College margin of victory in 2020 and Trump’s margin in 2016.

    If higher turnout among LGBTQ+ voters in these four likely tipping-point states could deliver the 2024 race for Harris, then lower LGBTQ+ turnout could pave Trump’s path to victory.

    Trump is well within striking distance in the Rust Belt states of Pennsylvania and Michigan, where polling puts him in a statistical dead heat with Harris. With those slim margins that are well within the margin of error, even a moderate decrease in turnout among the states’ many thousands of LGBTQ+ voters could cause serious problems for Harris.

    For context, Biden won Pennsylvania and Michigan by 80,555 and 154,188 votes, respectively, in 2020.

    Possible X factors

    Of course, the 2020 and 2024 presidential elections are not carbon copies of each other.

    The LGBTQ+ electorate grows each year, and by 2030 1 in 7 voters are expected to identify as LGBTQ+.

    Republicans have also ramped up legislative attacks on LGBTQ+ rights since 2020, and GOP campaign ads with anti-transgender messages dominate this election cycle. Both of these factors will play a role in 2024, as will a shake-up in the North Carolina governor’s race.

    In September, CNN reported that the Republican nominee for governor of North Carolina, Mark Robinson, had posted controversial comments on a pornographic website between 2008 and 2012. In addition to referring to himself as a “black Nazi,” Robinson said that he enjoyed watching transgender pornography.

    For a candidate whose anti-trans rhetoric includes saying transgender women should be arrested for using women’s restrooms, this was shocking news. Robinson has denied the allegation, which has severely damaged his campaign. Two weeks ahead of the election, polling gave Robinson’s Democratic opponent, Josh Stein, a clear lead over Robinson.

    Robinson’s troubled past and embattled campaign could mobilize multiple pockets of progressive North Carolinians, including LGBTQ+ voters, against him. Boosted turnout would almost certainly eat into Trump’s vote share in North Carolina – a state he won by 1.3% in 2020.

    What to expect on election night

    Historical trends, demographic data and current affairs all point toward LGBTQ+ voters playing an important – and potentially decisive – role in tipping swing states to Harris.

    Yet, there are also signs that Harris may underperform with LGBTQ+ voters.

    A September 2024 survey by the Human Rights Campaign, a LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, reported that about 20% of LGBTQ+ respondents were undecided, planning to stay home or backing a third party. Less than 8% of LGBTQ+ respondents were leaning toward Trump, but disaffected LGBTQ+ Democrats could cause problems for Harris.

    Ultimately, there’s no way to know what LGBTQ+ voters will actually do at the ballot box. This race is in flux, and plenty can happen before election day. Other voting blocs have grown or changed since 2024, too.

    The answers will come on election night or – in a race with such narrow margins of victory – in the days and weeks of counting and recounting to follow.

    Dorian Rhea Debussy does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. LGBTQ+ voters in these 4 states could swing the 2024 presidential election – https://theconversation.com/lgbtq-voters-in-these-4-states-could-swing-the-2024-presidential-election-239656

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Vampire bats – look beyond the fangs and blood to see animal friendships and unique adaptations

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Sebastian Stockmaier, Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee

    Vampire bats have complex social relationships. Samuel Betkowski/Moment via Getty Images

    You can probably picture a vampire: Pale, sharply fanged undead sucker of blood, deterred only by sunlight, religious paraphernalia and garlic. They’re gnarly creatures, often favorite subjects for movies or books. Luckily, they’re only imaginary … or are they?

    There are real vampires in the world of bats. Out of over 1,400 currently described bat species, three are known to feed on blood exclusively.

    The common vampire bat, Desmodus rotundus, is the most abundant. At home in the tropical forests of Central and South America, these bats feed on various animals, including tapirs, mountain lions, penguins and, most often nowadays, livestock.

    A vampire bat enjoys a blood meal at the expense of a domestic goat.
    Nicolas Reusens/Moment via Getty Images

    Feeding on a blood diet is unusual for a mammal and has led to many unique adaptations that facilitate their uncommon lifestyle. Unlike other bats, vampires are mobile on the ground, toggling between two distinct gaits to circle their sleeping prey. Heat-sensing receptors on their noses help them find warm blood under their prey’s skin. Finally, the combination of a small incision, made by potentially self-sharpening fangs, and an anticoagulant in their saliva allows these bats to feed on unsuspecting prey.

    To me, as a behavioral ecologist, who is interested in how pathogens affect social behaviors and vice versa, the most fascinating adaptations to a blood-feeding lifestyle are observable in vampire bats’ social lives.

    Vampire bats build reciprocal relationships

    Blood is not very nutritious, and vampire bats that fail to feed will starve relatively quickly. If a bat returns to the roost hungry, others may regurgitate a blood meal to get them through the night.

    Vampire bats will share their blood meal with a hungry friend.
    Gerry Carter

    Such food sharing happens between bats who are related – such as mothers and their offspring – but also unrelated individuals. This observation has puzzled evolutionary biologists for quite a while. Why help someone who is not closely related to you?

    It turns out that vampire bats keep track of who feeds them and reciprocate – or not, if the other bat has not been helpful in the past. In doing so, they form complex social relationships maintained by low-cost social investments, such as cleaning and maintaining the fur of another animal, called allogrooming, and higher-cost social investments, such as sharing food.

    These relationships are on par with what you would see in primates, and some people compare them to human friendships. Indeed, there are some parallels.

    For instance, humans will raise the stakes when forming new relationships with others. You start with social investments that don’t cost much – think sharing some of your lunch – and wait for the other person’s response. If they don’t reciprocate, the relationship may be doomed. But if the other person does reciprocate by sharing a bit of their dessert, for instance, your next investment might be larger. You gradually increase the stakes in a game of back-and-forth until the friendship eventually warrants larger social investments like going out of your way to give them a ride to work when their car breaks down.

    Vampire bats do the same. When strangers are introduced, they will start with small fur-cleaning interactions to test the waters. If both partners keep reciprocating and raising the stakes, the relationship will eventually escalate to food sharing, which is a bigger commitment.

    Relationships, in sickness and in health

    My lab studies how infections affect social behaviors and relationships. Given their vast array of social behaviors and the complexity of their social relationships, vampire bats are the ideal study system for me and my colleagues.

    How does being ill affect how vampire bats behave? How do other bats behave toward one that is sick? How does sickness affect the formation and maintenance of their social relationships?

    We simulate infections in bats in our lab by using molecules derived from pathogens to stimulate an immune response. We’ve repeatedly found a form of passive social distancing where sick individuals reduce their interaction with others, whether it’s allogrooming, social calling or just spending time near others.

    Researchers attach proximity sensors to bats. The sensors communicate with each other and exchange information about meeting time, duration and signal strength, which is a proxy for distance between two bats.
    Sherri and Brock Fenton

    Importantly, these behavioral changes haven’t necessarily evolved to minimize spreading disease to others. Rather, they are parts of the complex immune response that biologists call sickness behaviors. It’s comparable to someone infected with the flu staying at home simply because they don’t feel up to venturing out. Even if such passive social distancing may have not evolved to prevent transmission to others, simply being too sick to interact with others will still reduce the spread of germs.

    Interestingly, sickness behaviors can be suppressed. People do this all the time. So-called presenteeism is showing up at work despite illness due to various pressures. Similarly, many people have suppressed symptoms of an infection to engage in some sort of social obligation. If you have little kids, you know that when everyone in your household is coming down with something, there’s no way you can just sit back and not take care of the little ones, even if you feel quite bad yourself.

    Animals are no different. They can suppress sickness behaviors when competing needs arise, such as caring for young or defending territory. Despite their tendency to reduce social interactions with others when sick, in vampire bats, sick mothers will continue to groom their offspring and vice versa, probably because mother-daughter relationships are extra important. Mothers and daughters are often each other’s primary social relationships within groups of vampire bats.

    Despite vampire bats’ elaborate social relationships, farmers often consider them pests.
    Sherri and Brock Fenton

    Human-bat conflict centers on livestock

    Despite their many fascinating adaptations and complex social lives, vampire bats are not universally admired. In fact, in many areas in South and Central America, they are considered pests because they can transmit the deadly rabies virus to livestock, which can cause quite significant economic losses.

    Before people introduced livestock into their habitat, vampire bats probably had a harder time finding food in the form of native prey species such as tapirs. Now, livestock has become their primary food source. After all, why not feed on something that is reliably at the same place every night and quite abundant? Increases in livestock abundance come with increases in vampire bat populations, probably perpetuating the problem of rabies transmission.

    The farmers’ quarrels with vampires make sense, especially in smaller cattle herds, where losing even one cow can significantly hurt a farmer’s livelihood. Culling campaigns have used topically applied poisons called vampiricide, basically a mix of petroleum jelly and rat poison. Bats are caught, the paste is applied to the fur, and they carry it back to the roost, where others ingest the poison during social interactions. Interestingly, large-scale culling may not be very effective in reducing rabies spillover.

    Vampire bat colonies live in places like hollow trees.
    May Dixon

    Now, the focus has started to shift toward large-scale cattle vaccinations or vaccinating the vampire bats themselves. Researchers are even considering transmissible vaccines: They could genetically modify herpes viruses, which are quite common in vampire bats, to carry rabies genes and vaccinate large swaths of vampire bat populations.

    Whichever method is used to mitigate vampire bat-human conflicts, more empathy for these misunderstood animals could only help. After all, if you stick your head into a hollow tree full of vampire bats – assuming you can brave the smell of digested blood – remember: You’re looking at a complex network of individual friendships between animals that care deeply for each other.

    Some of the cited work in the article is from long-term collaborators (such as Dr. Gerald Carter at Princeton University) with whom I frequently interact and work together.

    – ref. Vampire bats – look beyond the fangs and blood to see animal friendships and unique adaptations – https://theconversation.com/vampire-bats-look-beyond-the-fangs-and-blood-to-see-animal-friendships-and-unique-adaptations-239980

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Defense News: USS Mobile (LCS 26) Returns to Homeport San Diego

    Source: United States Navy

    “Mobile’s maiden deployment to 7th fleet was incredibly successful, and we are extremely proud of the accomplishments of both crews,” said Capt. Douglas Meagher, commodore, Littoral Combat Ship Squadron One. “Mobile operated alongside other U.S. Navy assets as well as international allies and partners to not only strengthen our relationships but to demonstrate the tactical capabilities and strategic value of littoral combat ships.”

    Mobile participated in freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea, maritime domain awareness and patrol alongside the Philippine Navy, Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training (CARAT) Thailand 2023, Malaysia’s Langkawi International Maritime Aerospace Exhibition 2023 (LIMA 2023), and Noble Dingo with the Royal Australian Navy. Mobile also participated in trilateral exercises alongside the French Navy and Royal Australian Navy, multinational maritime cooperative activity exercises with Philippine Navy, Royal Australian Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, and bilateral operations with the Royal Netherlands Navy and Italian Navy.

    “I am particularly proud of the resiliency and self-sufficiency that our Sailors demonstrated throughout the deployment,” said Cmdr. David Gardner, commanding officer of Mobile Gold crew. “Mobile operated for extensive periods of time outside of the normal U.S. Navy logistics umbrella, which necessitated deliberate planning and at times time-critical actions to ensure that Mobile was fully mission-ready despite the prolonged operations and distance from shore-based support. The man-hours and money saved through Mobile’s self-sufficiency and can-do attitude was a key to our success.”

    Mobile was showcased at the International Maritime Defense Exhibition (IMDEX) Asia 2023 at Changi Naval Base in Singapore. The exhibition included displays and tours of 22 warships from 13 countries.

    Mobile participated in CARAT Thailand 2023, a bilateral exercise between Thailand and the United States designed to promote regional security cooperation, maintain and strengthen maritime partnerships, and enhance maritime interoperability.
    Mobile was an active participant in LIMA 2023, which included industry stakeholders, government, and military officials from more than a dozen countries dedicated to the maritime and aerospace sectors for defense, civil, and commercial applications. Apart from exhibits, forums and conferences, LIMA 23 also organized various activities such as cultural exchanges, flight simulators, technology talks, and career fairs for participants.
    Mobile conducted bilateral operations with the Royal Netherlands Navy in the South China Sea to improve allied interoperability and conduct complex scenarios to improve combined readiness. The operation was followed by a separate bilateral operation with the Italian Navy that was also held in the South China Sea.

    “These Sailors are returning home to their families with significant operational experience. Given the nature of our minimally manned crew each of these Sailors has amassed hundreds of hours of experience in specialized evolutions, both in real-world events and through training while deployed,” said Gardner. “The result is Mobile Sailors are highly qualified within rate and rapidly advancing in their careers. Mobile flies both the Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist and Surface Warfare Officer pennants as a visual indication of our highly warfare-qualified team.”

    Mobile is homeported in San Diego as a part of Littoral Combat Ship Squadron One. Littoral combat ships are fast, optimally-manned, mission-tailored surface combatants that operate in near-shore and open-ocean environments, winning against 21st-century threats. LCS integrate with joint, combined, manned and unmanned teams to support forward-presence, maritime security, sea control, and deterrence missions around the globe.
    For more news from Commander, Littoral Combat Ship Squadron One, visit https://www.surfpac.navy.mil/comlcsron1/ or follow on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/COMLCSRONONE/.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Defense News: Winnsboro native serving at U.S. Navy Medicine Readiness and Training Command Guantanamo Bay on the path to becoming an officer

    Source: United States Navy

    Peay graduated from Fairfield Central High School in 2006.

    The skills and values needed to succeed in the Navy are similar to those found in Winnsboro.

    “Growing up in Winnsboro, I learned the value of hard work and determination,” said Peay. “It’s a small town where everyone knows each other, and the sense of community taught me the importance of perseverance and supporting one another. That work ethic, ingrained in me from my early days, has been my guiding light throughout my Navy career. It’s the backbone of every challenge I’ve faced and every goal I’ve achieved. The lessons from Winnsboro have stayed with me, reminding me to always give my best, no matter the circumstances. It’s that unwavering commitment to hard work and community spirit that has shaped who I am today.”

    Peay joined the Navy 18 years ago. Today, Peay serves as a hospital corpsman.

    “I joined the Navy because I wanted to carve my own path and take control of my future.” said Peay “I dreamed of going to college, but I also wanted to earn that opportunity myself, to stand tall knowing I worked hard for it. The Navy offered me that chance—to learn, grow, and serve my country, all while building a foundation for my dreams. It was a decision fueled by a desire for independence and a commitment to my own potential. Every challenge I’ve faced and every lesson I’ve learned has been a step toward becoming the person I always hoped to be.”

    Naval Hospital Guantanamo Bay provides health care to the U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay community, which consists of approximately 4,500 military members, federal employees, U.S. and foreign national contractors and their families. The hospital also operates the only overseas military home health care facility providing care to elderly special category residents who sought asylum on the installation during the Cuban Revolution.

    With 90% of global commerce traveling by sea and access to the internet relying on the security of undersea fiber optic cables, Navy officials continue to emphasize that the prosperity of the United States is directly linked to recruiting and retaining talented people from across the rich fabric of America.

    Peay serves a Navy that operates far forward, around the world and around the clock, promoting the nation’s prosperity and security.

    “We will earn and reinforce the trust and confidence of the American people every day,” said Admiral Lisa Franchetti, Chief of Naval Operations. “Together we will deliver the Navy the nation needs.”

    Peay has many opportunities to achieve accomplishments during military service.

    “My proudest accomplishment in the Navy was the moment I saw my name on the list for Medical Service Corps Officer,” said Peay. “It felt like a culmination of all the sleepless nights, relentless training, and unwavering commitment. That moment was a testament to the perseverance and dedication that fueled my journey. It wasn’t just about the rank; it was about the recognition of all the sacrifices and hard work. Knowing that I had earned this honor through sheer determination made it incredibly fulfilling. It’s a milestone continually reminding me of the power of resilience and the incredible heights we can reach when we commit fully to our goals.”

    Peay can take pride in serving America through military service.

    “Serving in the Navy means everything to me,” said Peay. “It’s about safeguarding the freedom we all cherish, ensuring the security of our nation, and creating a pathway to a better life—for myself and countless others. It’s a profound commitment to a cause greater than any individual, and it’s given me a sense of purpose and belonging. The Navy has not only provided me with a stable and secure career but also with the opportunity to grow, learn, and forge a life filled with meaning and pride. Every day I serve, I’m reminded of the incredible impact we have on the world, and that is the greatest honor of all.”

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI USA: This Week in NJ – October 25th, 2024

    Source: US State of New Jersey

    Governor Murphy Highlights More Than $1 Billion Investment in Child Care Sector

    Governor Phil Murphy highlighted that his Administration has invested more than $1 billion in expanding access to high-quality, affordable child care across New Jersey. The Governor also announced an additional $17 million in funding for the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) Child Care Facilities Improvement Program. With these new resources, New Jersey is dedicating more than $140 million to improve child care infrastructure, representing one of the largest investments of any state in the country. The announcement was made at a child care center in West Orange that is expanding access to services thanks to funding from the NJEDA. 

    Building on the Murphy Administration’s comprehensive strategy to support the state’s vital child care sector, the NJEDA’s Child Care Facilities Improvement Program provides grants to eligible child care providers for improvements that contribute to high quality early childhood learning environments. Through the program, which awards grants of up to $200,000, the NJEDA has approved $85 million in grants to over 400 child care centers that collectively enroll over 34,000 children and employ over 8,500 staff. With the inclusion of new funding announced, the NJEDA now anticipates another 200 centers will receive awards, bringing the total to more than 600 child care centers across all 21 New Jersey counties. Nearly a third of all awards are to centers located in Opportunity Zones.

    “Affordable, exceptional child care is a vital part of a stronger and fairer New Jersey economy, and the increased funding announced today will strengthen our state’s economic security and provide equitable opportunities to working parents,” said Governor Phil Murphy. “Increased access to high-quality child care allows more parents to return to the workforce, bolstering New Jersey’s economic growth and competitiveness. Thank you to the Biden-Harris Administration, who have provided record-high federal funding to expand access to child care, health care, and other critical resources for families in the Garden State.” 

    With the additional $17 million in Federal American Rescue Plan State Fiscal Recovery Fund funding announced, the NJEDA anticipates being able to approve all eligible child care centers that applied to Phase One of the program, which is no longer accepting new applications. A significant focus of the program is expanding or unlocking capacity within child care centers, especially for infants and toddlers. All construction work is delivered by New Jersey Department of Labor Registered Public Works Contractors and subject to prevailing wage and affirmative action monitoring.

    READ MORE

    New Jersey Slated to Get a Total of $168M for Water Infrastructure

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced $3.6 billion in new funding under the Biden-Harris Administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) to upgrade water infrastructure and keep communities safe. New Jersey is slated to get more than $168 million for drinking water and wastewater improvements – including the $44 million that was announced as part of EPA’s announcement of the Lead and Copper Rule Improvements earlier this month. This BIL funding will help communities across the state upgrade water infrastructure that is essential to safely managing wastewater, protecting local freshwater resources, and delivering safe drinking water to homes, schools, and businesses. 

    These Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds will flow through the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds (CWSRF and DWSRF), a long-standing federal-state water investment partnership. This multibillion-dollar investment will fund state-run, low-interest loan programs that address key challenges in financing water infrastructure. This announcement includes allotments for New Jersey’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Clean Water General Supplemental funds totaling $101 million, Emerging Contaminant funds totaling $8.7 million, and $13.6 million in funds under the Drinking Water Emerging Contaminant Fund. 

    “We are grateful to the Biden-Harris Administration, New Jersey’s congressional delegation, and the Environmental Protection Agency for their continued support in helping us build a cleaner and healthier Garden State through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law,” said New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy. “This newly announced funding will help New Jersey communities with the vital tasks of ensuring that everyone in New Jersey has access to clean, safe drinking water and protecting and improving water quality throughout the state. These critical investments in our environmental infrastructure will help protect our citizens from lead and forever chemicals in drinking water, support proper management of wastewater and stormwater to protect our surface and ground waters, and create good-paying jobs for New Jerseyans.”

    READ MORE

    Governor Murphy Announces Planned Innovation Center Based in Newark

    Governor Phil Murphy announced that the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) and the New Jersey Innovation Institute (NJII), a corporation of the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), have launched the NJII Venture Studio, the state’s latest Strategic Innovation Center (SIC). The NJII Venture Studio will focus on accelerating and commercializing intellectual property with a focus on high technology and information technology developed by NJIT, NJII and NJIT’s corporate partners, as well as other academic institutions who contribute to the advancement of the industry. This will be the seventh SIC in New Jersey announced under the Murphy Administration.

    “Since I took office, my administration has been laser focused on positioning New Jersey as a national leader in innovation and technology development,” said Governor Phil Murphy. “The NJII Venture Studio, our seventh Strategic Innovation Center, will provide aspiring entrepreneurs with access to cutting-edge technology and the chance to collaborate with industry experts. This exciting initiative reinforces New Jersey’s reputation as a hub for innovation and research and the tremendous expertise within our state’s research universities.”

    NJII, a non-profit subsidiary corporation established by NJIT in 2014, will operate and manage the Studio. The NJEDA and NJII have entered into a non-binding term sheet to establish the creation, funding, and management of the Venture Studio with an opportunity to make equity investments into participating companies. The Studio, which will be located in the Paul Profeta Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Newark, will seek to launch two to three start-ups a year over a four-year period.

    The Venture Studio will provide emerging companies with necessary business training, operating services, physical space, and management guidance to transform their research into commercially viable products and services. Pending approval by its Board, the NJEDA intends to invest $5.8 million into the project on a 1:1 basis with NJII, with program funding for the Venture Studio totaling $11.6 million.

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    Lt. Governor Way, Attorney General Platkin, and OHSP Director Doran Announce Safeguards to Protect the Right to Vote During the 2024 General Election

    Lieutenant Governor Tahesha Way, Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin, and New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness (NJOHSP) Director Laurie Doran announced that the State of New Jersey will be taking a multi-pronged approach to help ensure that the 2024 General Election is fair, transparent, secure, and runs smoothly. Among the efforts highlighted are the Division of Elections Voter Information project and the Department of Law and Public Safety’s (LPS) Voter Protection Initiative.

    Presidential general elections see the highest voter participation numbers, and it is important for voters to know what to expect. New Jersey law contains many checks and balances to protect the right to vote, and the State has implemented measures that prioritize voting integrity and safety.

    “As chief election official, I am proud to work with my state and federal law enforcement and security colleagues to support our county election officials as they administer free and fair elections for all New Jersey voters,” said Lieutenant Governor Tahesha Way, who leads the New Jersey Division of Elections in her capacity as Secretary of State. “Together, we ensure that our elections are safe, secure, and free from interference. Every New Jersey voter can prepare to participate in this election by visiting vote.nj.gov and making their plan to vote.”

    “New Jersey is fully prepared to quickly and decisively identify and resolve any issues related to voting,” said Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin. “Voting is the cornerstone of our democracy and a fundamental right. We will do everything in our power to ensure every eligible voter can exercise their right to participate in the democratic process without interference.”

    “Year round, the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness collaborates with local, state, and federal partners through the Election Security Task Force to protect our elections and uphold our democratic processes,” said NJOHSP Director Laurie Doran. “As we prepare for the 2024 presidential election, NJOHSP and the Task Force are focused on ensuring New Jersey’s public safety and election officials are equipped to handle all threats and hazards, whether physical or cyber, foreign or domestic.”

    READ MORE

    New Jersey Board of Public Utilities Announces Adoption of Minimum Filing Requirements for Medium-and-Heavy-Duty Electric Vehicles

    The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) announced on Wednesday the adoption of minimum filing requirements (MFRs) that direct the state’s investor-owned electric distribution companies (EDCs) to propose programs to expand charging access for medium-and-heavy-duty (MHD) electric vehicles (EVs) and fleets. The expansion of New Jersey’s EV charging ecosystem will catalyze the ongoing clean transition of the state’s fleet, yielding significant greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions within the state’s transportation sector and improving localized air quality.

    New Jersey’s transportation sector accounts for nearly 40% of the state’s net GHG emissions, with MHD trucks and busses emitting an outsized share of those emissions. Low-income neighborhoods and communities of color are more likely to be exposed to these pollutants due to their disproportionate proximity to freight corridors, ports, and distribution centers. The adopted MFRs allow utilities to provide additional “bonus” incentives for overburdened municipalities and overburdened communities adjacent to Freight EV Corridors, as well as small businesses.

    “Today’s announcement by the BPU is a key part of my Administration’s whole-of-government approach to reducing harmful emissions from the transportation sector that negatively impact the health of our residents,” said Governor Phil Murphy. “Along with New Jersey’s action on Advanced Clean Trucks and the Clean Corridors Coalition, we are building a robust charging infrastructure for a clean transportation future.”

    “Under Governor Murphy’s leadership and in coordination with New Jersey’s EDCs, the NJBPU remains at the forefront of advancing smart, clean transportation initiatives and infrastructure that provide considerable health and environmental benefits,” said NJBPU President Christine Guhl-Sadovy. “These benefits are especially vital to the overburdened communities that have borne the brunt of air pollution and its health effects for far too long.”

    READ MORE

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: First Lady Tammy Murphy Hosts 22nd Family Festival in Orange to Address Maternal and Infant Health Crisis

    Source: US State of New Jersey

    The Family Festival Series Has Now Reached 14,950 Families Across 11 Counties

    ORANGE – First Lady Tammy Murphy marked her 22nd Nurture NJ Family Festival in Orange today, gathering 1,100 attendees to receive valuable state, county and local resources for expectant and new parents, including health care, housing support, food assistance, child care and more.

    “Over the past seven years, our Family Festivals have provided support and resources to countless mothers and families across the Garden State. There are incredible resources available to New Jerseyans and – with help from our partners – we are putting them within reach in every community we visit,” said First Lady Tammy Murphy. “Communities like Orange represent the very best of New Jersey. However, we know that communities of color experience significant disparities in maternal and infant health outcomes. That is why I look forward to continuing our festival series in targeted cities as we work to make New Jersey the safest and most equitable place in the nation to have a baby and raise a family.”

    In a city like Orange, with large Black and Latino communities, the consequences of New Jersey’s maternal and infant health crisis are unmistakable. In New Jersey, a Black mother is nearly seven times more likely and Hispanic mothers are three and a half times more likely than white mothers to die of maternity-related complications. Orange ranks sixth among our cities that experience high rates of Black infant mortality.

    Launched by First Lady Tammy Murphy in 2019, Nurture NJ is a statewide initiative committed to addressing our state’s maternal and infant health crisis. Since its inception, Nurture NJ has seen over 65 pieces of maternal and infant health legislation signed by Governor Murphy. The initiative has also developed and implemented groundbreaking programs and policies, such as the first-of-its-kind in the nation Maternal and Infant Health Innovation Authority (MIHIA), which is tasked with overseeing the groundbreaking New Jersey Maternal and Infant Health Innovation Center based in Trenton, and will be the arm of government that continues the vital work of Nurture NJ past the Murphy Administration.

    Under First Lady Murphy’s leadership, Nurture NJ has made significant policy achievements including: developing the Nurture NJ Maternal and Infant Health Strategic Plan – of which over half of its more than 80 recommendations have been started or completed; becoming the second state to expand Medicaid coverage to 365 days postpartum; establishing Medicaid reimbursement for doula care; increasing all perinatal Medicaid provider reimbursements to 100 percent of Medicare rates; and launching the most robust-in-the-nation universal nurse home visitation program so that every new parent is visited by a nurse in their home for free within two weeks after bringing home a new baby. Through these innovative policies and more, Nurture NJ has positioned New Jersey as a national leader in the fight against the maternal and infant health crisis.

    The Orange Family Festival was hosted in partnership with the Office of First Lady Tammy Murphy, Nurture NJ, Senator Britnee Timberlake, Assemblywoman Carmen Morales, Assemblyman Mike Venezia, County of Essex, City of Orange, Orange Public Schools, Essex Pregnancy and Parenting, Greater Newark Health Care Coalition, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, Newark Community Health Centers, Partnership for Maternal and Child Health of Northern NJ, Perinatal Health Equity Initiative, Prevent Child Abuse NJ, Programs for Parents, RWJBarnabas Health and The Burke Foundation. 

    “Partnering with First Lady Tammy Murphy for the Family Festival in Essex County, Orange, NJ, was a true privilege. This event united families and provided invaluable resources, aligning perfectly with my legislative priorities around children and families. My gratitude goes to the First Lady, the City of Orange, and all other organizers and partners for orchestrating such an inspiring and impactful event,” said Senator Britnee Timberlake.

    “I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude to First Lady Tammy Murphy for her unwavering support and dedication to our communities. I am thrilled to welcome the family festival to Orange, NJ. This investment not only enhances our community but also creates opportunities for our residents. Together, we are building a brighter future for our families and ensuring that the Oranges have all the resources and support that our families deserve,” said Assemblywoman Carmen Morales.

    “I’m proud to support First Lady Tammy Murphy’s Family Fun Day in Orange, which provides critical resources and services to our families in a warm, community-centered setting. This event exemplifies our commitment to ensuring all New Jersey families have access to the support they need to thrive,” said Assemblyman Mike Venezia.

    “If there is anything that we learned from the COVID pandemic, it’s that promoting public health and reaching out to the community to make health care more accessible are most important. Events like the Family Festival enable us to connect with underserved and hard to reach communities and provide a one-stop location where residents can begin their journey to wellness. Working with the state, health agencies and community partners, we are Putting Essex County’s Health First,” said Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr.

    “The core of family health is ensuring that every family, regardless of background or circumstance, has access to the care and resources they deserve. Through this event, we celebrate the incredible collaboration between the NJDOH, RWJBarnabas Health, and our community partners, working together to bridge the gaps in health equity and empower families across Essex County. Together, we are building a healthier, more equitable future for all,” said Maya Harlow, Essex County Health Officer/ Director.

    “With open arms we welcome First Lady Tammy Murphy and her staff as we collaborate to launch the Orange Family Festival on Saturday. This family and resource connection effort will serve as a direct pipeline to successes in Orange households, schools and community spaces by focusing on children and parents in need. We appreciate First Lady Murphy and the Governor for helping to extend our reach to every part of our community,” said Mayor Dwayne Warren of Orange.

    “The Orange School District supports opportunities for families to engage with our community partners. I am quite pleased that the City of Orange was selected to host this amazing event for our community.  I believe the powerful information must be disseminated and this event is right in line with this thinking,” said Superintendent of Schools Dr. Gerald Fitzhugh, II.

    “First Lady Tammy Murphy’s Family Festival in Orange is an inspiration to the people in these challenging times. The event clearly guides families in underserved communities to access the care and resources that are available in their community in an atmosphere of hope for a better and healthier life. The NJ Nurture program gives families, moms and children wealth in health,” said Dr Pamela Clarke, President & CEO of Newark Community Health Centers Inc.

    “Improving maternal and infant health is central to creating a healthier New Jersey and that is what the Family Festivals are all about.  Everyone deserves access to affordable healthcare no matter who they are or where they live and we are grateful for the opportunity to continue our partnership with the Governor and First Lady.  As New Jersey’s health solutions leader, Horizon is meeting our neighbors where they live and helping them achieve their best health through partnerships like this one,” said Wendy Morriarty, VP and Chief Medicaid Officer, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of NJ.

    “Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center, together with RWJBarnabas Health, remains committed to providing equitable health care, helping to improve the health and well-being of our community, said Richard L. Davis, President and CEO of Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center. “We are honored to be a part of First Lady Tammy Murphy’s Family Festival, which is in alignment with our system mission to partner with our communities to build and sustain a healthier New Jersey.”

    “The Burke Foundation is proud to support the First Lady’s Nurture NJ Family Festivals which bring together families and the support they need to thrive within the communities where they live. We’re committed to improving maternal and child health in New Jersey by investing $15 million over the next five years in programs that will improve families’ health and well-being, and we’re honored to be part of today’s celebration in Orange,” said Atiya Weiss, Executive Director of the Burke Foundation.

    “The Greater Newark Health Care Coalition is proud to partner with First Lady Tammy Murphy and our local and state partners to bring so many resources and programs to the Orange community and its neighbors. Having access to many critical resources under one roof in the community helps eliminate accessibility barriers that prevent our families from benefiting from great programs. We thank First Lady Tammy Murphy, Nurture NJ, and the sponsors for their vision and commitment to improve maternal and child health in NJ,” said Andrea Martinez-Mejia, Executive Director, Greater Newark Health Care Coalition.

    “The Family Festival brings communities together and provides important resources to strengthen and empower families.  We are thrilled to be part of this event which supports children and families and exemplifies prevention in partnership in New Jersey,” said Gina Hernandez, CEO and Executive Director, Prevent Child Abuse-New Jersey and Essex Pregnancy and Parenting.

    “We are thrilled to participate in the First Lady of New Jersey’s Family Festival, where we can stand alongside families and community partners dedicated to a future with equitable healthcare. Our participation in This event reflects our unwavering commitment to addressing disparities in Black infant and maternal health, and we look forward to empowering and supporting families with the resources, knowledge, and compassion they deserve,” said Dr. Nastassia Harris, Founder of Perinatal Health Equity Initiative.

    “We are excited to be part of the festival, so we can meet Essex County parents to share information about the New Jersey Child Care Assistance Program, how to find quality child care and talk, generally, with them about their child care needs,” said Nayibe Capellan, CEO Programs for Parents.

    “We are thrilled to support the First Lady’s Family Festival.  These events not only provide vital health resources for the residents of Orange, but they bring together the community for a day of fun,” said Mariekarl Vilceus-Talty, President & CEO, Partnership for Maternal and Child Health of Northern New Jersey.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Kamala Harris is being called ‘Jezebel’ – a Biblical expert explains why it’s a menacing slur

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By M.J.C. Warren, Senior Lecturer in Biblical and Religious Studies, University of Sheffield

    lev radin/Shutterstock

    Jezebel has long been used as a slur against women who are considered too self-confident, too independent or too close to power – particularly when they happen to be Black. From Beyonce to Nikki Minaj, US vice-president and Democratic Presidential candidate Kamala Harris is only the latest in a long line of women of colour to be on the receiving end of the slur.

    But beneath the use of Jezebel’s name as a way to paint powerful women as promiscuous lies something even more sinister: the threat of sexual violence for those who will not submit to white patriarchal control.

    An increasing number of Christian nationalist personalities have taken to claiming that the vice-president is a Jezebel spirit. Notably, televangelist Lance Wallnau appears in multiple videos on X (formerly Twitter) claiming that: “with Kamala you have a Jezebel spirit, a characteristic in the Bible, that is a Jezebel spirit. The personification of intimidation, seduction, domination and manipulation”.

    Nor is Wallnau shy about connecting his use of Jezebel to Harris’s race: according to his video, the fact that Harris is Black makes her even more of a seductive Jezebel than Hillary Clinton: “the spirit of Jezebel in a way that will be even more ominous than Hillary [Clinton] because she’ll bring a racial component, and she’s younger”.

    Jezebels old and new

    Different versions of Jezebel are found in the Old and New Testaments, but both are associated with power, independence and sexuality. In 1 Kings, Jezebel is a queen from Sidon (present-day Lebanon). She ruled along with her husband Ahab and refuses to worship the biblical God; she continued her traditional worship of Ba’al.

    Her authority in her marriage and in politics attracted the prophet Elijah’s negative attention. Elijah utters a prophecy that: “The dogs shall eat Jezebel” (1 Kings 21:23), and indeed, 2 Kings 9:32-37 says that the prophecy is fulfilled.

    Knowing her life is in danger, Jezebel puts on her make up and does her hair to prepare to meet her enemy.

    As religious studies academic Jennifer L. Koosed writes, while her self-beautification is used to sexualise Jezebel, “these acts are those of a proud and powerful queen” who boldly meets the man who is about to have her thrown from a window. Jezebel’s bloodied body is trampled by horses and her corpse utterly destroyed.

    Her violent death and the desecration of her body, which is consumed by dogs, dehumanises Jezebel. The Bible presents this as apt punishment for a woman who was so bold as to defy her husband’s traditions and maintain her independence.

    When we meet another Jezebel in the New Testament, the process begins again. In Revelation 2, Jezebel is a prophet, a rival of John the Seer, who travels to different early Christian communities and teaches them. John, the author of the Book of Revelation, imagines Jesus writing to the community who allow themselves to be taught by her. In that letter, the voice of Jesus declares that the punishment for this woman, who dares to be a leader, is rape. John uses vitriolic language to paint Jezebel as sexually immoral, but his complaint is with her authority.

    Long and damaging history

    The Bible frequently paints female characters as unacceptably sexual, or threatens them with sexual violence, in order to maintain its patriarchal hierarchy.

    Definition of the word Jezebel in a religious dictionary.
    Shutterstock

    For example, as biblical scholars such as Renita J. Weems have pointed out, Hosea 1-3 uses the metaphor of God as (abusive) husband and the people of Israel as their (abused) adulterous wife in order to convince the Israelites to worship God again.

    The infamous figure of the “Whore of Babylon” in Revelation 17-18 echoes that divine threat: her control over the kings of the world, her opulence and her sexuality all make her God’s enemy – and her punishment is sexual humiliation and violence.

    Kamala Harris has been labelled Jezebel since at least as early as 2021 when pastor Steve Swofford as “Jezebel Harris” and pastor Tom Buck tweeted: “I can’t imagine any truly God-fearing Israelite who would’ve wanted their daughters to view Jezebel as an inspirational role model because she was a woman in power.”

    Buck doubled down on his comments the next day, saying, “For those torn up over my tweet, I stand by it 100%. My problem is her godless character. She not only is the most radical pro-abortion VP ever, but also most radical LGBT advocate. She performed one of the first Lesbian ‘marriages.’ Pray for her, but don’t praise her!”

    Understood in the context of the attack on women’s rights by Christian nationalists and their allies, giving Harris the name Jezebel connects the biblical threats with the move to criminalise abortion access and even divorce – to take power away from women and restore it to the patriarchal Christian structure.

    While Jezebel is a clearly misogynist term, it has long been used in particular to dehumanise Black women. Racist stereotypes about Black women as hypersexual Jezebels were used by slavers to justify their rape of enslaved women. Even after the end of slavery, this use of the name persisted, as did the racist stereotype about Black women’s sexual availability to justify sexual violence. And Black women continue to experience sexual harassment and abuse at much higher levels than white women.

    So, when Christian nationalists urge their followers to “confront this Jezebel spirit” we can’t forget that confronting Jezebel is violent – in the Bible confronting Jezebel means her death or her rape. These veiled threats should not be taken lightly.

    Femicide is an ongoing crisis. A woman is killed by a man every three days in the UK and three women are killed by men every day in North America. Sexual violence against women is also rampant and is a weapon in the patriarchal arsenal for subduing independent women.

    Calling a powerful woman like Harris a Jezebel, then, isn’t just an offensive slur – it carries with it the persistent threat of racist violence and sexual assault.

    M.J.C. Warren does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Kamala Harris is being called ‘Jezebel’ – a Biblical expert explains why it’s a menacing slur – https://theconversation.com/kamala-harris-is-being-called-jezebel-a-biblical-expert-explains-why-its-a-menacing-slur-241746

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Is Tim Burton an outsider auteur or a global megastar? The Design Museum thinks it has the answer

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Catherine Spooner, Professor of Literature and Culture, Lancaster University

    “Like walking around in a weird, beautiful funhouse.” That’s how Tim Burton described his private viewing of The World of Tim Burton at the exhibition’s opening at London’s Design Museum.

    A travelling circus that initially took shape at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 2009 and has since visited 14 cities in 11 countries, the exhibition now reaches its grand finale in expanded, remixed form in Burton’s adopted hometown. At the press conference, he admitted to feeling somewhat anxious about it. This points to one of the underlying tensions of the exhibition itself – the contrast between laying bare an intensely personal creative process, and Burton’s global megastar status.

    The exhibition’s collaboration with the Design Museum has enabled its re-framing as an exploration of Burton’s “design practice” (in curator Maria McClintock’s words). It traces the complex path from Burton’s initial sketches to their realisation on screen.

    In this respect, the exhibition is successful. Visitors get a sense of the holistic development of Burton’s ideas from preliminary drawings to their realisation by puppet-makers and set and costume designers. Unrealised film projects and personal artworks are also included. This provides a unique insight into the director’s creative process.

    The work itself, moreover, is joyous – a riot of colour and fizzing line. The Burton that emerges is restlessly inventive. We see not only his prolific sketches in pen and ink and watercolour but also his experiments across media with collage, pastels, oils, acrylics on velvet, home movies, photography, children’s picture books and comic verse.

    Some of the most thrilling items are the most personal – teen fan art, scribbles on table napkins, university lecture notes. These offer an impression of intimacy, of unadulterated creativity bubbling up from some hidden wellspring of the subconscious. The staging of the exhibition enhances this impression. Skewed doorways and chequerboard floors suggest that the art is spilling out of the frame into the space of the gallery, evoking the “funhouse” feel that Burton commented on.

    The exhibition is invested in the notion of Burton as auteur, supported by a loyal team of creatives, many of whom are showcased here. One highlight is rows of Jack Skellington heads with different facial expressions, devised by stop-motion animators Mackinnon and Saunders for The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). Elsewhere, there is a genuine frisson in seeing Bob Ringwood and Mary Vogt’s iconic costume for Catwoman in Batman Returns (1992), now so fragile that it can only be laid flat, and looking uncannily like shed skin.

    The indisputable star among Burton’s collaborators, however, is costume designer Colleen Atwood. Her spectacular ensembles for Edward Scissorhands (1990), Mars Attacks! (1996), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Alice in Wonderland (2010) and Wednesday (2022) dominate the central room of the exhibition. Someone please give her a show of her own.

    Missed opportunities

    Where the exhibition is less successful is in its attempts to place Burton in a wider cultural framework. Burton’s influences are covered patchily and explained poorly. Vincent Price is conflated with Hammer Horror (he never made a film with Hammer Studios) and the theoretical concept of the carnivalesque is misunderstood.

    A more thorough exploration of the horror traditions on which Burton draws – particularly German expressionism and Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe adaptations – would have been welcome. The focus on Burton’s drawings also begs closer attention to the illustrative traditions he is indebted to, from Ralph Steadman to Charles Addams and Edward Gorey. To neglect this is to diminish Burton’s skill as an artist who consciously reworks the American gothic tradition into a distinctive new form.

    The final room, “Burtonesque”, has the potential to be the most interesting. It explores the way that Burton’s aesthetic has become distinctive enough to be recognisable in the work of other artists.

    Ultimately, however, it shies away from asking searching questions about stylistic transferability and influence. Rather, it looks at Burton’s collaborations with artists in other media, whether fashion designer Alexander McQueen, photographer Tim Walker, or rock band The Killers.

    These are interesting in their own right but crucially, Burton is still involved in this process. The traditional exit through the gift shop reveals another side to Burton, in which his highly recognisable aesthetic has lent itself to merchandise with varying degrees of connection to the original source. The director has been vocal about the exploitation of his work by AI. But is this, in today’s culture, the logical end-point of the “Burtonesque”?

    The exhibition avoids any kind of investigation of the Burton brand, or even of Burton’s influence on a new generation of creators. In doing so, it misses what is one of the most fascinating paradoxes about Burton: that an artist who is so preoccupied with the figure of the outsider has been so widely embraced, with such immense commercial success.

    Burton’s work raises serious questions about the role and popularity of gothic imagery in 21st-century culture, but this exhibition is content to stick with the funhouse thrills.

    The World of Tim Burton is on at the Design Museum, London, until April 21 2025.


    Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.

    Catherine Spooner has previously received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council for a related project.

    – ref. Is Tim Burton an outsider auteur or a global megastar? The Design Museum thinks it has the answer – https://theconversation.com/is-tim-burton-an-outsider-auteur-or-a-global-megastar-the-design-museum-thinks-it-has-the-answer-242172

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: I’m Not Okay: emo is alive and kicking at Barbican retrospective

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Francesca Sobande, Senior Lecturer in Digital Media Studies, Cardiff University

    An emo music retrospective has been a long time coming. There has been extensive work before now to archive and celebrate the cultural memory of this 2004-09 scene, whose name is short for emotional hardcore, but rarely has it been the sole focus of a public exhibition in the UK.

    Located at the Barbican Music Library in London, I’m Not Okay: An Emo Retrospective by the Museum of Youth Culture offers an inviting mix of nostalgia and dynamic documentation.

    The exhibition claims to focus on “a pivotal era when [US] bands like My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy and Finch sparked a transatlantic exchange, fuelling a distinct UK movement led by acts such as Funeral for a Friend”. Indeed the exhibition’s title is borrowed from a My Chemical Romance song of the same name. These are all bands that, to my delight as an emo fan, toured the UK in recent years, reflecting the ongoing appreciation and demand for such music.

    Much more than just spotlighting bands and musicians, the Museum of Youth Culture’s exhibition takes visitors on a trip down memory lane. It allows you to revisit digital culture from the days of file-sharing software like Limewire and the blogging and social media sites Myspace, LiveJournal and Xanga.

    The retrospective is a snapshot of the world of emo around 20 years ago, shaped by people’s recollections of their bedrooms, youth and digital culture, in addition to depictions of emo gigs and gatherings.

    I’m Not Okay, the 2004 song by My Chemical Romance that the exhibition is named for.

    The exhibition charts key points in emo’s 2000s era, from its origins in Washington DC’s post-hardcore scene in the mid-1980s. By bringing together people’s memories of emo from various parts of the world, the exhibition also tracks the ways that the internet, fandom and globalisation were experienced then.

    This is captured by the opening line of text displayed at the beginning of the retrospective: “I’m Not Okay is a rallying cry from a generation whose identity was spread across virtual infinities against the uncertain futures of a new millennium.”

    No one’s 20s and 30s look the same. You might be saving for a mortgage or just struggling to pay rent. You could be swiping dating apps, or trying to understand childcare. No matter your current challenges, our Quarter Life series has articles to share in the group chat, or just to remind you that you’re not alone.

    Read more from Quarter Life:

    In the exhibition, excerpts from people who embraced emo in the 2000s (and beyond) paint a picture of digital culture as being key to the genre’s beating heart. The importance of early social media sites such as MySpace and Bebo is mentioned several times.

    Despite its relatively small scale, the Barbican show covers lots of different dimensions of emo between 2004 and 2009. It touches on matters as diverse as the rise of smartphones, the messiness of MSN messenger and online forums, and the specifics of being Black and emo.

    Emo at home and abroad

    Many of the memories documented in the exhibition point to the way that music and popular culture from North America had, and continues to have, a significant impact on youth culture and music in the UK. But the retrospective also makes clear that there was and is no absence of homegrown talent, spirit and scenes. These subcultures are firmly rooted in the realities of local life in the UK.

    In the 2000s, emo emerged and developed in distinctly regional as well as national ways. Stories about its uniqueness in certain towns, cities and states, sit alongside memories of learning about and yearning to experience its idiosyncrasies in different countries.

    Paramore were one of the few female-fronted emo bands of the 2000s.

    Statements adorning the exhibition walls include people’s recollections of growing up in rural areas, where they were one of few emo kids. Again, what ties those thoughts together is the role of the internet in connecting people to and through emo, as well as the meaningfulness of trips to nearby bigger places with more of an underground scene.

    Within such retrospective reflections are memories of young people’s experiences of a third place. Places that are not home and not a place of study or work, such as public squares, skate parks and club nights, that have increasingly diminished, been unfunded, or become more policed since the 2000s. Through these reflections, the show examines how places and spaces – both online and offline – have changed since the 2000s, in ways that impact young people and music today.

    I’m Not Okay: An Emo Retrospective takes seriously the significance and brilliance of emo. Illuminating elements of youth culture, digital culture and the layered history of emo music and subcultures, this retrospective is a reminder that while the internet of the past is long gone, emo remains alive and kicking.

    I’m Not Okay: An Emo Retrospective is on at the Barbican Music Library until January 15 2025.


    Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.

    Francesca Sobande received Impact Acceleration funding from UKRI in 2024, towards a project that involves collaborating with the Museum of Youth Culture.

    – ref. I’m Not Okay: emo is alive and kicking at Barbican retrospective – https://theconversation.com/im-not-okay-emo-is-alive-and-kicking-at-barbican-retrospective-241870

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: SEK 50 million in humanitarian assistance to Sudan

    Source: Government of Sweden

    SEK 50 million in humanitarian assistance to Sudan – Government.se

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    Press release from Ministry for Foreign Affairs

    Published

    The humanitarian crisis in Sudan is the largest in the world, with around half of the country’s population in need of humanitarian assistance. The Swedish Government has now decided to provide an additional SEK 50 million in humanitarian assistance. Women and children are particularly vulnerable in the current crisis. This assistance aims particularly at helping vulnerable children and meeting women’s needs related to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).

    “The humanitarian situation in Sudan is disastrous. Millions of people are in need of emergency support, care and protection – none more so than the millions of children who are vulnerable, and those affected by the critical situation as regards SRHR. The Government is now increasing Sweden’s humanitarian assistance to Sudan by SEK 50 million. The conditions for humanitarian organisations to reach affected people also need to be greatly improved, which the Government is continuing to work for,” says Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Benjamin Dousa.

    “The situation in Sudan is the most extensive humanitarian crisis right now, which unfortunately is easily forgotten. As is always the case, women and children are most severely affected. We are targeting our assistance where it’s needed the most, which is currently in Sudan,” says Gudrun Brunegård, development assistance policy spokesperson for the Christian Democrats.

    “Children are affected especially severely by the critical conditions and warrant special protection. I’m proud that Sweden is scaling up its humanitarian assistance to Sudan,” says Joar Forssell, foreign policy spokesperson for the Liberal Party.

    SEK 30 million is being allocated to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). UNICEF’s humanitarian activities in Sudan aim to provide children with health and medical care, and they also support initiatives for nutrition, water and sanitation in areas severely affected by the conflict.

    SEK 20 million is being allocated to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). In light of the increase in sexual and gender-based violence during the civil war and the lack of access to health and medical care, UNFPA’s humanitarian activities in Sudan are helping address the SRHR-related needs of women, girls and adolescents, including through the prevention of sexual and gender-based violence and support to people who have been subjected to violence.

    Press contact

    Sweden’s support to Sudan

    With these additional funds, Sweden’s total support – from the Government and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) – to the civilian population in Sudan in 2024 amounts to SEK 709 million. This consists of SEK 489 million in humanitarian assistance and SEK 220 million in long-term development cooperation.

    Sweden’s humanitarian support in Sudan is distributed between a number of civil society organisations, UN agencies and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The assistance is going to health and medical care, life-saving food assistance, water and sanitation, and protection and shelter for families who have been forcibly displaced from their homes.

    Sweden is also providing humanitarian assistance to neighbouring countries Chad and South Sudan, which helps to meet the humanitarian needs of Sudanese refugees.

    MIL OSI Europe News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Marat Khusnullin: Almost 5.5 million schoolchildren took part in the fifth All-Russian online Olympiad “Safe Roads”

    Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

    Source: Government of the Russian Federation – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

    The All-Russian online Olympiad “Safe Roads” is held with the support of the national project “Safe High-Quality Roads”. Schoolchildren in grades 1–9 test their knowledge of road safety rules in a game format. From September 24 to October 27, almost 5.5 million schoolchildren took part in the Olympiad, Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin reported.

    “Reducing road accidents is a task that is included in the national goal “Comfortable and safe living environment”. And a special priority of our work is child safety. In the context of growing traffic flow and expansion of the country’s road network, knowledge of traffic rules is becoming extremely important. The All-Russian online Olympiad “Safe Roads”, which is held with the support of the national project “Safe High-Quality Roads”, has proven itself as an effective tool for educational work. The online competition helps students in grades 1-9 test their level of road literacy and deepen their knowledge. The event received a great response from children and parents. This year, almost 5.5 million schoolchildren took part in it, which is 10% more than last year. And over five years, the total audience has exceeded 20.8 million participants,” said Marat Khusnullin.

    The Deputy Prime Minister added that the leaders in the number of students who took part in the Olympiad were the Ivanovo, Tambov, Belgorod, Tula regions, as well as the Republic of Mordovia.

    Using real road situations as an example, the Olympiad participants analyzed how to behave correctly as a pedestrian and a passenger, as well as behind the wheel of bicycles and personal mobility devices (PMD). The most difficult tasks during the Olympiad were those about bicycles and PMDs, including electric scooters. Only a fifth of the Olympiad participants coped with them. The schoolchildren coped best with the tasks on safe behavior in a car and public transport vehicles – 81% and 61%, respectively.

    “Work to instill in children and teenagers the skills of safe behavior on the road is not only talks in schools and at home, lectures and street events held by the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate. It is also a very effective format in terms of assimilation of information, an Olympiad in which schoolchildren of different ages from all over Russia participate. It is easier to get acquainted with the rules of the road in the format of tasks and specific answers due to the clear structure of the material presentation. I am sure that everyone who has at least once passed the tests of the All-Russian online Olympiad “Safe Roads”, transfers theoretical knowledge to real road conditions, turning into very responsible pedestrians, and in the future, drivers,” said the head of the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, Police Lieutenant General Mikhail Chernikov.

    Not only knowledge of traffic rules, but also good roads help to improve road safety. Work at sites is usually carried out in a comprehensive manner: specialists not only update the road surface, but also equip elements of the road infrastructure – pedestrian crossings, traffic lights, barriers, road signs, markings, photo and video recording cameras.

    “Every day, children go to school, attend extracurricular activities, and one of our priorities is to make these routes safer. Over the past six years, more than 5,000 road sections leading to children’s educational and leisure institutions have been repaired in Russian regions under the national project “Safe High-Quality Roads”. These are streets in populated areas, as well as sections of regional and inter-municipal roads on which school buses travel,” commented Roman Novikov, head of the Federal Road Agency.

    The organizers of the Olympiad are the Ministry of Transport, the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia and the National Priorities ANO with the support of the Ministry of Education.

    Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: When Loans Become Cheesy

    Source: US Global Legal Monitor

    Did you know there is a bank in Italy that accepts wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano as collateral on loans? If, like me, you are now contemplating leaving your current career and getting a job as a bank teller for Credito Emiliano (commonly referred to in the region as Credem), read on.

    Most of the time, when we think of collateral, we think of something like the mortgage on a house. If a homeowner is unable to make payments on the house, the bank that holds the mortgage may seize the collateral (the house) and sell it to satisfy the debt (we call this liquidating the assets). So, how does this work with big wheels of cheese?

    First, it is important to note that Parmigiano Reggiano is no ordinary cheese. True Parmigiano Reggiano can only be produced in one of five provinces within Italy: Parma, Reggio-Emilia, Modena, Bologna, or Mantova. While the ingredients that go into a wheel of Parmigiano are simple – just cow’s milk, salt, and calf rennet (a natural enzyme from cow intestines that helps form curds) – the strict process, which has remained largely unchanged for eight centuries, takes time. After the cheese has aged for 12 months, the Consorzio del Formaggio Parmigiano Reggiano (the Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium), which is the governing body that regulates standards for Parmigiano Reggiano, inspects each wheel. As an aside: each wheel of Parmigiano is the same size to ensure consistent texture – and each wheel weighs over 80 pounds! If a wheel passes the 12-month test, it receives a literal stamp of approval and the protected designation of origin label (PDO or DOP in Italian). The Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium helpfully provides links to legislation and guidelines surrounding Parmigiano in English on its website, here.

    So now, back to Credem, the bank that accepts wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano as collateral on small-business loans it makes to dairy farmers in the Emilia Romagna region. Wheels of Parmigiano can go for anywhere between $900 and $2500. Parmigiano only gets more valuable as it ages. But often, farmers will sell off less mature wheels to have more immediate access to money, even though this turns into a loss of revenue in the long term. In 1953, Credem saw an opportunity to help local farmers maximize their profits by offering loans of up to 70 or 80% on wheels of Parmigiano. That way, the farmers could get the cash they needed up-front and the bank could ensure the wheels of cheese would have time to age and reach their highest value. Credem takes its role seriously, storing the wheels of cheese it accepts as collateral in climate-controlled vaults that are inspected by Parmigiano Reggiano experts for the duration of the loan.

    By the way, this is not the only instance of unusual loan collateral. Before Prohibition, banks in the United States accepted whiskey as collateral. In 2013, it was reported that a bank in Hong Kong accepted designer bags as loan collateral. Perhaps my favorite example of strange collateral is a bank in Spain that sought a loan from the European Central Bank and wanted to offer Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaká as collateral.

    Subscribe to In Custodia Legis – it’s free! – to receive interesting posts drawn from the Law Library of Congress’s vast collections and our staff’s expertise in U.S., foreign, and international law.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Be Aware of World Series Ticket Scams

    Source: US State of New York

    Governor Kathy Hochul today warned New York baseball fans looking to purchase last-minute World Series tickets to be aware of potential scams. This year is the first time the Yankees and Dodgers have faced off in the World Series since 1981, and Game 3 on Monday brings the series to New York City. The match up is historic for baseball fans, but also an opportunity for scammers to take advantage of high demand. Governor Hochul is urging consumers to follow tips provided by the New York Department of State’s Division of Consumer Protection to avoid event ticket scams leading up to the Yankees vs. Dodgers World Series home games at Yankee Stadium.

    “We couldn’t be more excited for our New York Yankees to bring the World Series to the Bronx this week,” Governor Hochul said. “With demand soaring to witness this historic match up, I’m encouraging New Yorkers to protect their hard earned money and be on the lookout for potential ticket scams. Follow our tips to avoid falling victim as we cheer on the Yankees this week.”

    TIPS TO AVOID TICKET SCAMS:

    • Purchase from the venue: Many official ticket sales agents now offer secondary sales options, as well.
    • Verify the seller: You can look up the seller on VerifiedTicketSource.com to confirm you are buying from a National Association of Ticket Brokers-member resale company, which requires its members to guarantee that every ticket sold on their websites is legitimate. Beware of fake websites impersonating a legitimate ticket seller; check the URL for accuracy.
    • Buy only from trusted sources: Buy only from vendors you know and trust. Be especially wary of online marketplaces like Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace and other social media sites, as they are ripe with scammers peddling bogus tickets. Also avoid the so-called ticket scalpers who approach you outside the event gates, since it’s easy for scammers to sell you a fake ticket and disappear.
    • Use payment methods that come with protection: Always use a credit card or PayPal goods and services payment option so you may have some recourse if the tickets are not as promised. Debit cards, wire transfers, or cash transactions are risky; if the tickets are fraudulent, you won’t be able to get your money back.
    • Beware of low prices: When you search the web for online tickets, advertisements for cheap tickets will often appear. Use good judgment; some ads will be ticket scams, especially if the prices are low. If it looks too good to be true, it’s probably a scam.
    • Use a strong password: Many stadiums and venues have gone to only accepting digital tickets, which can only be accessed through an app. Be sure to use a strong password to ensure a scammer can’t hack into your account and steal your ticket.

    New York State Secretary of State Walter T. Mosley said, “As tickets sell out and excitement runs high, scammers will try to take advantage of fans still looking to buy tickets. Fans looking to score last-minute seats for this iconic match up should follow our Division of Consumer Protection tips to avoid being scammed. And lastly, let’s go Yankees!”

    About the New York State Division of Consumer Protection
    Follow the New York Department of State on Facebook, X and Instagram and check in every Tuesday for more practical tips that educate and empower New York consumers on a variety of topics. Sign up to receive consumer alerts directly to your email or phone.

    The New York State Division of Consumer Protection provides voluntary mediation between a consumer and a business when a consumer has been unsuccessful at reaching a resolution on their own. The Consumer Assistance Helpline 1-800-697-1220 is available Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., excluding State Holidays, and consumer complaints can be filed at any time online. The Division can also be reached via X at @NYSConsumer or Facebook.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI: American Rebel Holdings, Inc. – Champion Safe Co. Announces the Introduction of Two New SAFE GUARD® Models: Sport 20™ and BTC 12™

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Provo, Utah, Oct. 28, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Champion Safe Company (www.championsafe.com) (“Champion”), a subsidiary of American Rebel Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: AREB) (“American Rebel”) is excited to announce the reintroduction of the SAFE GUARD®, brand, with the launch of two new models designed to meet the evolving needs of cost-conscious consumers: the Sport 20 and BTC 12.

    Champion Safe Company has been producing industry-leading gun safes with American-made steel since 1999 and their dedication to manufacturing superior quality gun safes has never changed. Champion products offer real security and are built the old-fashioned way: Heavy and tough with thick American, high-strength steel. Champion Safes are “built to a standard and not down to a price” which is why safes manufactured by Champion are built to be the strongest and most secure safes on the market.

    Tom Mihalek, CEO of Champion Safe Company since April of 2024 said, “We are excited to bring back the SAFE GUARD® brand with these two models that cater to different segments of the market. Champion Safe Co. delivered $15.6 million in revenue last year and we believe a reintroduction of SAFE GUARD® will help to drive expansion in the years to come.”

    The Sport 20 and BTC 12 embody the SAFE GUARD® legacy of affordable, quality protection, and we are confident these safes will meet the expectations of today’s security-focused consumers.”

    The Sport 20 is the perfect blend of strength and reliability, offering superior fire protection and security.

    Key features include:

    Up to 3 layers of fireboard for enhanced fire protection (rated at 1200°F for 30 minutes).
    – A durable 14-gauge steel body construction weighing in at 403 lbs.
    – A secure locking system with 4 one-inch locking bolts and a UL® electronic lock.
    – Adjustable shelving, deluxe door panel, and long gun storage for versatile organization.
    – Hardplate lock protection for added defense against tampering.
    – Available in a sleek, textured granite finish.

    With its large interior and premium features, the Sport 20 is built to secure firearms and valuables while providing easy access for authorized users. Measuring 28”W x 60”H x 22.5”D, this model delivers uncompromised protection for both home and office use.

    The BTC 12 (Bolt-Together Cabinet) brings security with a flexible, lightweight design, ideal for cost-conscious buyers and/or those needing a compact storage solution.

    Its standout features include:

    – A sturdy 3-point locking system and tamper-proof bolts for enhanced security.
    – Rubber-coated racks and adjustable shelving to safely store guns and valuables.
    – High-security key lock for simple, effective access control.
    – A rugged 16/18-gauge steel construction weighing only 115 lbs.
    – Easy assembly with its bolt-together design and a convenient package size of 23.5”W x 65”L x 9”D.

    Measuring 21”W x 55”H x 18.5”D, the BTC 12 is perfect for all situations where space is a priority. The textured granite finish offers a modern look while providing robust protection.

    The SAFE GUARD® Sport 20 and BTC 12 will be available for purchase through authorized retailers in 2025.

    American Rebel Holdings, Inc., America’s Patriotic Brand (www.americanrebel.com) and the creator of American Rebel Beer (www.americanrebelbeer.com), and a premier manufacturer and marketer of branded safes and security products acquired Champion in July 2022.
    —

    About Champion Safe Company

    Champion Safe Company has been at the forefront of safe manufacturing for over 25 years, offering a range of high-quality safes designed for ultimate security and fire protection. With a commitment to craftsmanship and innovation, Champion Safes are trusted by homeowners, gun owners, and businesses across the nation.

    About American Rebel Holdings, Inc.

    American Rebel Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: AREB) has operated primarily as a designer, manufacturer and marketer of branded safes and personal security and self-defense products and has recently transitioned into the beverage industry through the introduction of American Rebel Beer. The Company also designs and produces branded apparel and accessories. To learn more, visit www.americanrebel.com www.championsafe.com and www.americanrebelbeer.com. For investor information, visit www.americanrebel.com/investor-relations.

    Forward-Looking Statements

    This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. American Rebel Holdings, Inc., (NASDAQ: AREB; AREBW) (the “Company,” “American Rebel,” “we,” “our” or “us”) desires to take advantage of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and is including this cautionary statement in connection with this safe harbor legislation. The words “forecasts” “believe,” “may,” “estimate,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “should,” “plan,” “could,” “target,” “potential,” “is likely,” “expect” and similar expressions, as they relate to us, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. We have based these forward-looking statements primarily on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy, and financial needs. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ from those in the forward-looking statements include continued increase in revenues, continued compliance with Nasdaq listing requirements, the ability of the Company to introduce new products and gain market shares, actual distribution timing and availability of American Rebel Beer, our ability to effectively execute our business plan, and the Risk Factors contained within our filings with the SEC, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023. Any forward-looking statement made by us herein speaks only as of the date on which it is made. Factors or events that could cause our actual results to differ may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all of them. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as may be required by law.

    Company Contact:
    info@americanrebel.com

    Investor Relations:
    Brian Prenoveau
    MZ North America
    +1 (561) 489-5315
    areb@mzgroup.us

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Ascend Learning Appoints Proven Healthcare Technology Leader Dr. Lissy Hu as Chief Executive Officer

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Greg Sebasky to Retire, Transition to Role of Chairman of the Ascend Board of Managers in January 2025

    Positions Company to Execute on Strategic Healthcare Focus to Deliver
    Innovative Learning and Workforce Development Solutions

    BURLINGTON, Mass., Oct. 28, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Ascend Learning, LLC (“Ascend” or “the Company”), a leading learning technology company, today announced the appointment of Dr. Lissy Hu as Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Hu succeeds Greg Sebasky, who is retiring after 10 years as CEO and will transition to the role of Chairman of the Ascend Board of Managers in January 2025.

    Dr. Hu has deep experience building and leading transformational healthcare technology companies. She was previously the CEO of CarePort Health, a care coordination technology company she founded in 2012 to improve patient transitions by connecting hospitals and post-acute care providers. In 2020, CarePort Health was acquired by WellSky, where Dr. Hu most recently served as President, Connected Networks, working with providers and payers to optimize post-acute care outcomes across 2,500 hospitals, physician groups, risk-bearing entities and 130,000 post-acute, home and community-based providers.

    Ascend Learning has been delivering critical learning solutions to the healthcare industry since 2008. The Company’s offerings, educational content, software, simulation, and analytics, serve students, healthcare and educational institutions, and employers in all 50 states. Each year, Ascend Learning’s products, from testing to certification, enable more than 60% of U.S. nursing school programs and are used by over 300,000 nursing students, more than 245,000 allied health professionals, 100,000 medical students, 145,000 fitness professionals and over 150,000 first responders.

    “Over the last 10 years, we have grown the Ascend family of brands thoughtfully, building a market-leading provider of data-driven online learning tools,” said Mr. Sebasky. “As we sharpen our focus on developing and delivering tailored solutions across the healthcare ecosystem, Lissy’s wealth of market experience and track record of driving positive outcomes through leading-edge technology makes her the perfect fit to lead Ascend forward. With Lissy at the helm, I am confident that Ascend will continue to grow, innovate and find new and better ways to help make communities across the U.S. healthier. I look forward to working with her and continuing to support the Ascend team and mission in my role as Chairman beginning in January.”

    As communities across the U.S. face shortages of healthcare professionals, aging populations, and rising healthcare costs, Ascend is committed to delivering next-generation technology, content and analytics to train, develop and retain healthcare teams empowered to address these challenges.

    “Fundamental to improving patient care is investing in our healthcare teams, and I am excited to further drive Ascend’s success in enabling clients to achieve elevated learner and educator outcomes and to support workers as they progress through their careers,” said Dr. Hu. “Ascend’s innovative learning solutions are needed now more than ever before, and I am honored to join a best-in-class organization and team that have such a significant, positive impact on the entire lifecycle of learning. I look forward to leading Ascend’s next chapter of scalable growth.

    “Under Greg’s leadership, Ascend has solidified its position as a clear leader in the tech-enabled learning services market. I thank him for his strategic vision and invaluable contributions, and I look forward to working with him, our clients, our leaders, our employees and the Board to continue accelerating learning and professional success across the country,” continued Dr. Hu.

    Dr. Hu earned a Doctor of Medicine from Harvard Medical School, a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in pre-medical studies and sociology from Columbia University.

    About Ascend Learning
    Ascend Learning is a leading provider of educational content and software tools for students, educational institutions, and employers. With products that span the learning continuum, Ascend Learning focuses on high-growth careers in a range of industries, with a special focus on healthcare and other licensure-driven occupations. Ascend Learning products, from testing to certification, are used by physicians, emergency medical professionals, nurses, certified personal trainers, financial advisors, skilled trades professionals and insurance brokers. Learn more at www.ascendlearning.com.

    Media Contact
    V2 Communications for Ascend Learning
    ascend@v2comms.com

    A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/61335701-5169-4263-8b05-17ec38fc5749

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Coastal Financial Corporation Announces Third Quarter 2024 Results

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    EVERETT, Wash., Oct. 28, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Coastal Financial Corporation (Nasdaq: CCB) (the “Company”, “Coastal”, “we”, “our”, or “us”), the holding company for Coastal Community Bank (the “Bank”), through which it operates a community-focused bank with an industry leading banking as a service (“BaaS”) segment, today reported unaudited financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2024, including net income of $13.5 million, or $0.97 per diluted common share, compared to $11.6 million, or $0.84 per diluted common share, for the three months ended June 30, 2024. 

    Management Discussion of the Quarter

    “The third quarter demonstrated strong momentum across both our community bank and CCBX operating segments, despite a still challenging operating environment,” said CEO Eric Sprink. “We saw high quality net loan growth of $92.4 million despite selling $423.7 million in loans. We are implementing strategies to increase fee income and we continue to build out and invest in an infrastructure that is scalable, and that we believe will enable us to be innovative leaders in financial services.”

    Key Points for Third Quarter and Our Go-Forward Strategy

    • Balance Sheet Well Positioned for Lower Rates. Our balance sheet stands in a modestly liability sensitive position as of September 30, 2024, with $1.95 billion of CCBX deposits that contractually reprice lower immediately upon any reduction in the Federal Funds Rate, with $1.09 billion of CCBX loans repricing in 90 days or less following such reduction. The Federal Open Market Committee recently lowered the targeted Federal Funds rate 0.50% on September 19, 2024; a reduction of 0.50% compared to June 30, 2024 and September 30, 2023. The rate decrease came late in the quarter, so the full impact of this and any subsequent rate changes will be reflected in future periods.
    • Expanding Relationships with CCBX Partners. We continue to focus on expanding product offerings with existing CCBX partners. We believe that launching new products with existing partners positions us to reach a wide and established customer base with modest increase in enterprise risk. Products launched in 2024 with existing partners have gained traction and are growing the balance sheet and increasing income. The pipeline for CCBX is active, although we expect to remain selective in adding new partners to manage risk and capital.
    • On-going Loan Sales. We sold $423.7 million loans in the quarter ended September 30, 2024 as part of our strategy to balance credit risk, manage partner and lending limits, protect capital levels and move credit card balances to an off balance sheet fee generating model. We are retaining a portion of the fee income for our role in processing transactions on sold credit card balances. This provides an on-going and passive revenue stream with no on balance sheet risk.
    • Continued Regulatory and Compliance Infrastructure Investments Position Us Well for Next Phase of Growth. We continue to utilize co-sourced personnel as a component of our risk and compliance efforts. This flexible co-sourcing approach allows us to manage the growth of our internal team while also ensuring CCBX has the resources it needs. While we remain 100% indemnified against partner fraud losses, we were encouraged to see fraudulent activity amongst our partners remains low during the current quarter, compared to the same period last year, a positive indicator of our continued investments in our risk infrastructure.
    • Reorganization and Strengthening of Talent to Accommodate Growth and Plans for the Future. We recently announced the bifurcation of the President of the Bank into two roles, appointing Brian Hamilton as President of CCBX, the Fintech and BaaS segment of the Bank, with Curt Queyrouze serving as President of the community bank and corporate credit.

    Third Quarter 2024 Financial Highlights

    The tables below outline some of our key operating metrics.

        Three Months Ended
    (Dollars in thousands, except share and per share data; unaudited)   September 30,
    2024    		   June 30,
    2024    		   March 31,
    2024    		   December 31,
    2023    		   September 30,
    2023
    Income Statement Data:                    
    Interest and dividend income   $ 105,079     $ 97,487     $ 90,472     $ 88,243     $ 88,331  
    Interest expense     32,892       31,250       29,536       28,586       26,102  
    Net interest income     72,187       66,237       60,936       59,657       62,229  
    Provision for credit losses     70,257       62,325       83,158       60,789       27,253  
    Net interest (expense)/ income after provision for credit losses     1,930       3,912       (22,222 )     (1,132 )     34,976  
    Noninterest income     80,068       69,918       86,955       64,694       34,579  
    Noninterest expense     65,616       58,809       56,018       51,703       56,501  
    Provision for income tax     2,926       3,425       1,915       2,847       2,784  
    Net income     13,456       11,596       6,800       9,012       10,270  
                         
        As of and for the Three Month Period
        September 30,
    2024    		   June 30,
    2024    		   March 31,
    2024    		   December 31,
    2023    		   September 30,
    2023
    Balance Sheet Data:                    
    Cash and cash equivalents   $ 484,026     $ 487,245     $ 515,128     $ 483,128     $ 474,946  
    Investment securities     48,620       49,213       50,090       150,364       141,489  
    Loans held for sale     7,565       —       797       —       —  
    Loans receivable     3,418,832       3,326,460       3,199,554       3,026,092       2,967,035  
    Allowance for credit losses     (170,263 )     (147,914 )     (139,258 )     (116,958 )     (101,085 )
    Total assets     4,065,821       3,961,546       3,865,258       3,753,366       3,678,265  
    Interest bearing deposits     3,047,861       2,949,643       2,888,867       2,735,161       2,637,914  
    Noninterest bearing deposits     579,427       593,789       574,112       625,202       651,786  
    Core deposits (1)     3,190,869       3,528,339       3,447,864       3,342,004       3,269,082  
    Total deposits     3,627,288       3,543,432       3,462,979       3,360,363       3,289,700  
    Total borrowings     47,847       47,810       47,771       47,734       47,695  
    Total shareholders’ equity     331,930       316,693       303,709       294,978       284,450  
                         
    Share and Per Share Data (2):                    
    Earnings per share – basic   $ 1.00     $ 0.86     $ 0.51     $ 0.68     $ 0.77  
    Earnings per share – diluted   $ 0.97     $ 0.84     $ 0.50     $ 0.66     $ 0.75  
    Dividends per share     —       —       —       —       —  
    Book value per share (3)   $ 24.51     $ 23.54     $ 22.65     $ 22.17     $ 21.38  
    Tangible book value per share (4)   $ 24.51     $ 23.54     $ 22.65     $ 22.17     $ 21.38  
    Weighted avg outstanding shares – basic     13,447,066       13,412,667       13,340,997       13,286,828       13,285,974  
    Weighted avg outstanding shares – diluted     13,822,270       13,736,508       13,676,917       13,676,513       13,675,833  
    Shares outstanding at end of period     13,543,282       13,453,805       13,407,320       13,304,339       13,302,449  
    Stock options outstanding at end of period     198,370       286,119       309,069       354,969       356,359  
                                             
    See footnotes that follow the tables below
     
        As of and for the Three Month Period
        September 30,
    2024    		   June 30,
    2024    		   March 31,
    2024    		   December 31,
    2023    		   September 30,
    2023
    Credit Quality Data:                    
    Nonperforming assets (5) to total assets     1.34 %     1.34 %     1.42 %     1.43 %     1.18 %
    Nonperforming assets (5) to loans receivable and OREO     1.60 %     1.60 %     1.71 %     1.78 %     1.47 %
    Nonperforming loans (5) to total loans receivable     1.60 %     1.60 %     1.71 %     1.78 %     1.47 %
    Allowance for credit losses to nonperforming loans     311.5 %     278.1 %     253.8 %     217.2 %     232.2 %
    Allowance for credit losses to total loans receivable     4.98 %     4.45 %     4.35 %     3.86 %     3.41 %
    Gross charge-offs   $ 53,305     $ 55,207     $ 58,994     $ 47,652     $ 37,879  
    Gross recoveries   $ 4,069     $ 1,973     $ 1,776     $ 2,781     $ 1,045  
    Net charge-offs to average loans (6)     5.65 %     6.57 %     7.34 %     5.92 %     4.77 %
                         
    Capital Ratios:                    
    Company                    
    Tier 1 leverage capital     8.40 %     8.31 %     8.24 %     8.10 %     8.03 %
    Common equity Tier 1 risk-based capital     9.26 %     9.03 %     8.98 %     9.10 %     9.00 %
    Tier 1 risk-based capital     9.35 %     9.13 %     9.08 %     9.20 %     9.11 %
    Total risk-based capital     11.90 %     11.70 %     11.70 %     11.87 %     11.80 %
    Bank                    
    Tier 1 leverage capital     9.29 %     9.24 %     9.19 %     9.06 %     8.99 %
    Common equity Tier 1 risk-based capital     10.36 %     10.15 %     10.14 %     10.30 %     10.21 %
    Tier 1 risk-based capital     10.36 %     10.15 %     10.14 %     10.30 %     10.21 %
    Total risk-based capital     11.65 %     11.44 %     11.43 %     11.58 %     11.48 %
                                             

    (1)  Core deposits are defined as all deposits excluding brokered and all time deposits.
    (2)  Share and per share amounts are based on total actual or average common shares outstanding, as applicable.
    (3)  We calculate book value per share as total shareholders’ equity at the end of the relevant period divided by the outstanding number of our common shares at the end of each period.
    (4)  Tangible book value per share is a non-GAAP financial measure. We calculate tangible book value per share as total shareholders’ equity at the end of the relevant period, less goodwill and other intangible assets, divided by the outstanding number of our common shares at the end of each period. The most directly comparable GAAP financial measure is book value per share. We had no goodwill or other intangible assets as of any of the dates indicated. As a result, tangible book value per share is the same as book value per share as of each of the dates indicated.
    (5)  Nonperforming assets and nonperforming loans include loans 90+ days past due and accruing interest.
    (6)  Annualized calculations.

    Key Performance Ratios

    Return on average assets (“ROA”) was 1.34% for the quarter ended September 30, 2024 compared to 1.21% and 1.13% for the quarters ended June 30, 2024 and September 30, 2023, respectively.  ROA for the quarter ended September 30, 2024, increased 0.13% and 0.21% compared to June 30, 2024 and September 30, 2023, respectively. Noninterest expenses were higher for the quarter ended September 30, 2024 compared to the quarters ended June 30, 2024 and September 30, 2023 largely due to an increase in BaaS loan expense, which is directly related to the increase in the amount of interest earned on CCBX loans.

    The following table shows the Company’s key performance ratios for the periods indicated.  

        Three Months Ended
    (unaudited)   September 30,
    2024    		   June 30,
    2024    		   March 31,
    2024    		   December 31,
    2023    		   September 30,
    2023
                         
    Return on average assets (1)   1.34 %   1.21 %   0.73 %   0.97 %   1.13 %
    Return on average equity (1)   16.67 %   15.22 %   9.21 %   12.35 %   14.60 %
    Yield on earnings assets (1)   10.79 %   10.49 %   10.07 %   9.77 %   10.08 %
    Yield on loans receivable (1)   11.43 %   11.23 %   10.85 %   10.71 %   10.84 %
    Cost of funds (1)   3.62 %   3.60 %   3.52 %   3.39 %   3.18 %
    Cost of deposits (1)   3.59 %   3.58 %   3.49 %   3.36 %   3.14 %
    Net interest margin (1)   7.41 %   7.13 %   6.78 %   6.61 %   7.10 %
    Noninterest expense to average assets (1)   6.54 %   6.14 %   6.04 %   5.56 %   6.23 %
    Noninterest income to average assets (1)   7.98 %   7.30 %   9.38 %   6.95 %   3.81 %
    Efficiency ratio   43.10 %   43.19 %   37.88 %   41.58 %   58.36 %
    Loans receivable to deposits (2)   94.46 %   93.88 %   92.42 %   90.05 %   90.19 %
                                   

    (1)  Annualized calculations shown for quarterly periods presented.
    (2)  Includes loans held for sale.

    Management Outlook; CEO Eric Sprink

    “As we look ahead to the fourth quarter and 2025, we remain laser focused on building out our technology and risk management infrastructure to more efficiently support our next phase of growth within CCBX. While the balance sheet re-mix earlier this year resulted in a short-term reduction to income, we continue to make strategic decisions which are enhancing credit quality, generating passive fee income, strengthening our talent and growing relationships with established and prospective CCBX partners all of which are expected to position Coastal to be more profitable in 2025.”

    Coastal Financial Corporation Overview

    The Company has one main subsidiary, the Bank which consists of three segments: CCBX, the community bank and treasury & administration.  The CCBX segment includes all of our BaaS activities, the community bank segment includes all community banking activities, and the treasury & administration segment includes treasury management, overall administration and all other aspects of the Company.  

    CCBX Performance Update

    Our CCBX segment continues to evolve, and we have 22 relationships, at varying stages, as of September 30, 2024.  We continue to refine the criteria for CCBX partnerships, are exiting relationships where it makes sense for us to do so and are focusing on larger more established partners, with experienced management teams, existing customer bases and strong financial positions.

    We are expanding product offerings with our existing CCBX partners. We believe that launching new products with existing partners positions us to reach a wide and established customer base with a modest increase in regulatory risk given we have already vetted these partners and have operational history. Products launched earlier in the year with existing partners have gained traction and are growing the balance sheet and increasing income. We continue to sell loans as part of our strategy to balance partner and lending limits, and manage the loan portfolio and credit quality. We retain a portion of the fee income for our role in processing transactions on sold credit card balances. This is expected to provide an on-going and passive revenue stream with no on balance sheet risk.

    The following table illustrates the activity and evolution in CCBX relationships for the periods presented.

        As of
    (unaudited)   September 30,
    2024    		 June 30,
    2024    		 September 30,
    2023
    Active   19 19 18
    Friends and family / testing   1 1 1
    Implementation / onboarding   1 1 1
    Signed letters of intent   1 0 1
    Wind down – active but preparing to exit relationship   0 0 1
    Total CCBX relationships   22 21 22
     

    CCBX loans increased $106.9 million, or 7.6%, despite selling $423.7 million loans during the three months ended September 30, 2024 to $1.52 billion, while we continued to enhance credit standards on new CCBX loan originations. In accordance with the program agreement for one partner, effective April 1, 2024, the portion of the CCBX portfolio that we are responsible for losses on decreased from 10% to 5%. At September 30, 2024 the portion of this portfolio for which we are responsible represented $19.8 million in loans.

    The following table details the CCBX loan portfolio:

    CCBX   As of
        September 30, 2024   June 30, 2024   September 30, 2023
    (dollars in thousands; unaudited)   Balance   % to Total   Balance   % to Total   Balance   % to Total
    Commercial and industrial loans:                        
    Capital call lines   $ 103,924     6.8 %   $ 109,133     7.7 %   $ 114,174     9.6 %
    All other commercial & industrial loans     36,494     2.4       41,731     3.0       58,869     5.0  
    Real estate loans:                        
    Residential real estate loans     265,402     17.5       287,950     20.4       251,775     21.3  
    Consumer and other loans:                        
    Credit cards     633,691     41.6       549,241     38.7       440,993     37.3  
    Other consumer and other loans     482,228     31.7       426,809     30.2       316,987     26.8  
    Gross CCBX loans receivable     1,521,739     100.0 %     1,414,864     100.0 %     1,182,798     100.0 %
    Net deferred origination (fees) costs     (447 )         (438 )         (424 )    
    Loans receivable   $ 1,521,292         $ 1,414,426         $ 1,182,374      
    Loan Yield – CCBX (1)(2)     17.35 %         17.77 %         17.05 %    
                             

    (1)  CCBX yield does not include the impact of BaaS loan expense.  BaaS loan expense represents the amount paid or payable to partners for credit enhancements and originating & servicing CCBX loans. See reconciliation of the non-GAAP measures at the end of this earnings release for the impact of BaaS loan expense on CCBX loan yield.
    (2)  Loan yield is annualized for the three months ended for each period presented and includes loans held for sale and nonaccrual loans.

    The increase in CCBX loans in the quarter ended September 30, 2024, includes an increase of $139.9 million or 14.3%, in consumer and other loans, partially offset by a $22.5 million, or 7.8%, decrease in residential real estate loans and a decrease of $5.2 million, or 4.8%, in capital call lines as a result of normal balance fluctuations and business activities. We continue to monitor and manage the CCBX loan portfolio, and sold $423.7 million in CCBX loans during the quarter ended September 30, 2024 compared to sales of $155.2 million in the quarter ended June 30, 2024. We continue to reposition ourselves by managing CCBX credit and concentration levels in an effort to optimize our loan portfolio and generate off balance sheet fee income.

    Our credit card program through CCBX continues to grow in dollars and number of active cards as shown in the graph below:

    The following table details the CCBX deposit portfolio:

    CCBX   As of
        September 30, 2024   June 30, 2024   September 30, 2023
    (dollars in thousands; unaudited)   Balance   % to Total   Balance   % to Total   Balance   % to Total
    Demand, noninterest bearing   $ 60,655     2.9 %   $ 62,234     3.0 %   $ 67,782     3.9 %
    Interest bearing demand and money market     1,991,858     94.6       1,989,105     96.7       1,679,921     95.9  
    Savings     5,204     0.3       5,150     0.3       4,529     0.2  
    Total core deposits     2,057,717     97.8       2,056,489     100.0       1,752,232     100.0  
    Other deposits     47,046     2.2       —     0.0       —     —  
    Total CCBX deposits   $ 2,104,763     100.0 %   $ 2,056,489     100.0 %   $ 1,752,232     100.0 %
    Cost of deposits (1)     4.82 %         4.92 %         4.80 %    

    (1)  Cost of deposits is annualized for the three months ended for each period presented.

    CCBX deposits increased $48.3 million, or 2.3%, in the three months ended September 30, 2024 to $2.10 billion. This excludes the $214.5 million in CCBX deposits that were transferred off balance sheet for increased Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) insurance coverage purposes, compared to $117.7 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2024. Amounts in excess of FDIC insurance coverage are transferred, using a third party facilitator/vendor sweep product, to participating financial institutions.

    Community Bank Performance Update

    In the quarter ended September 30, 2024, the community bank saw net loans decrease $14.5 million, or 0.8%, to $1.90 billion.

    The following table details the Community Bank loan portfolio:

    Community Bank   As of
        September 30, 2024   June 30, 2024   September 30, 2023
    (dollars in thousands; unaudited)   Balance   % to Total   Balance   % to Total   Balance   % to Total
    Commercial and industrial loans   $ 152,161     8.0 %   $ 144,436     7.5 %   $ 158,232     8.8 %
    Real estate loans:                        
    Construction, land and land development loans     163,051     8.6       173,064     9.0       167,686     9.4  
    Residential real estate loans     212,467     11.2       229,639     12.0       225,372     12.6  
    Commercial real estate loans     1,362,452     71.5       1,357,979     70.8       1,237,849     69.1  
    Consumer and other loans:                        
    Other consumer and other loans     14,173     0.7       14,220     0.7       2,483     0.1  
    Gross Community Bank loans receivable     1,904,304     100.0 %     1,919,338     100.0 %     1,791,622     100.0 %
    Net deferred origination fees     (6,764 )         (7,304 )         (6,961 )    
    Loans receivable   $ 1,897,540         $ 1,912,034         $ 1,784,661      
    Loan Yield(1)     6.64 %         6.52 %         6.20 %    

    (1)  Loan yield is annualized for the three months ended for each period presented and includes loans held for sale and nonaccrual loans.

    Community bank loans had a $10.0 million decrease in construction, land and land development loans, partially offset by an increase of $7.7 million in commercial and industrial loans and an increase in commercial real estate loans of $4.5 million during the quarter ended September 30, 2024; consumer and other loans were flat.

    The following table details the community bank deposit portfolio:

    Community Bank   As of
        September 30, 2024   June 30, 2024   September 30, 2023
    (dollars in thousands; unaudited)   Balance   % to Total   Balance   % to Total   Balance   % to Total
    Demand, noninterest bearing   $ 518,772     34.1 %   $ 531,555     35.6 %   $ 584,004     37.9 %
    Interest bearing demand and money market     552,108     36.3       876,668     59.0       852,747     55.5  
    Savings     62,272     4.1       63,627     4.3       80,099     5.2  
    Total core deposits     1,133,152     74.5       1,471,850     98.9       1,516,850     98.6  
    Other deposits     373,681     24.5       1     0.0       1     0.0  
    Time deposits less than $100,000     6,305     0.4       6,741     0.5       8,635     0.6  
    Time deposits $100,000 and over     9,387     0.6       8,351     0.6       11,982     0.8  
    Total Community Bank deposits   $ 1,522,525     100.0 %   $ 1,486,943     100.0 %   $ 1,537,468     100.0 %
    Cost of deposits(1)     1.92 %         1.77 %         1.31 %    

    (1)  Cost of deposits is annualized for the three months ended for each period presented.

    Community bank deposits increased $35.6 million, or 2.4%, during the three months ended September 30, 2024 to $1.52 billion. This is the second consecutive quarter of growth after allowing higher rate balances to run-off earlier in the year. The community bank segment includes noninterest bearing deposits of $518.8 million, or 34.1%, of total community bank deposits, resulting in a cost of deposits of 1.92%, which compared to 1.77% for the quarter ended June 30, 2024.

    Net Interest Income and Margin Discussion

    Net interest income was $72.2 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2024, an increase of $5.9 million, or 9.0%, from $66.2 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2024, and an increase of $10.0 million, or 16.0%, from $62.2 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2023. The increase in net interest income compared to June 30, 2024, was a result of increased interest income due to an increase in average loans receivable partially offset by an increase in cost of funds. The increase in net interest income compared to September 30, 2023 was largely related to increased yield on loans resulting from higher interest rates and growth in higher yielding loans partially offset by an increase in cost of funds relating to higher interest rates and growth in interest bearing deposits.  

    Net interest margin was 7.41% for the three months ended September 30, 2024, compared to 7.13% for the three months ended June 30, 2024, with the increase primarily due to higher loan yields. Net interest margin was 7.10% for the three months ended September 30, 2023. The increase in net interest margin for the three months ended September 30, 2024 compared to the three months ended September 30, 2023 was largely due to an increase in loan yield partially offset by higher interest rates on interest bearing deposits. Interest and fees on loans receivable increased $8.6 million, or 9.5%, to $99.6 million for the three months ended September 30, 2024, compared to $90.9 million for the three months ended June 30, 2024, and increased $15.9 million, or 19.1%, compared to $83.7 million for the three months ended September 30, 2023, due to an increase in outstanding balances and higher interest rates. 

    Average investment securities decreased $795,000 to $49.0 million compared to the three months ended June 30, 2024 and decreased $69.0 million compared to the three months ended September 30, 2023 as a result of maturing securities.

    Cost of funds was 3.62% for the quarter ended September 30, 2024, an increase of 2 basis points from the quarter ended June 30, 2024 and an increase of 44 basis points from the quarter ended September 30, 2023. Cost of deposits for the quarter ended September 30, 2024 was 3.59%, compared to 3.58% for the quarter ended June 30, 2024, and 3.14% for the quarter ended September 30, 2023. The increased cost of funds and deposits compared to June 30, 2024 and September 30, 2023 was due to the continued high interest rate environment. The late September reduction in the Fed funds rate is expected to help to lower our cost of deposits in future periods.

    The following table summarizes the average yield on loans receivable and cost of deposits:

        For the Three Months Ended
        September 30, 2024   June 30, 2024   September 30, 2023
        Yield on
    Loans (2)    		   Cost of
    Deposits (2)    		   Yield on
    Loans (2)    		   Cost of
    Deposits (2)    		   Yield on
    Loans (2)    		   Cost of
    Deposits (2)
    Community Bank   6.64 %   1.92 %   6.52 %   1.77 %   6.20 %   1.31 %
    CCBX (1)   17.35 %   4.82 %   17.77 %   4.92 %   17.05 %   4.80 %
    Consolidated   11.43 %   3.59 %   11.23 %   3.58 %   10.84 %   3.14 %

    (1)  CCBX yield on loans does not include the impact of BaaS loan expense.  BaaS loan expense represents the amount paid or payable to partners for credit and fraud enhancements and originating & servicing CCBX loans.  To determine Net BaaS loan income earned from CCBX loan relationships, the Company takes BaaS loan interest income and deducts BaaS loan expense to arrive at Net BaaS loan income which can be compared to interest income on the Company’s community bank loans. See reconciliation of the non-GAAP measures at the end of this earnings release for the impact of BaaS loan expense on CCBX loan yield.
    (2)  Annualized calculations for periods shown.

    The following tables illustrates how BaaS loan interest income is affected by BaaS loan expense resulting in net BaaS loan income and the associated yield:

        For the Three Months Ended
        September 30, 2024   June 30, 2024   September 30, 2023
    (dollars in thousands, unaudited)   Income /
    Expense    		   Income /
    expense divided
    by average
    CCBX loans     (2)    		   Income /
    Expense    		   Income /
    expense divided
    by
    average CCBX
    loans    (2)    		   Income /
    Expense    		   Income /
    expense divided
    by average
    CCBX loans     (2)
    BaaS loan interest income   $ 67,692   17.35 %   $ 60,203   17.77 %   $ 56,279   17.05 %
    Less: BaaS loan expense     32,612   8.36 %     29,076   8.58 %     23,003   6.97 %
    Net BaaS loan income (1)   $ 35,080   8.99 %   $ 31,127   9.19 %   $ 33,276   10.08 %
    Average BaaS Loans(3)   $ 1,552,443       $ 1,362,343       $ 1,309,380    

    (1) A reconciliation of the non-GAAP measures are set forth at the end of this earnings release.
    (2) Annualized calculations shown for quarterly periods presented.
    (3) Includes loans held for sale.

    Noninterest Income Discussion

    Noninterest income was $80.1 million for the three months ended September 30, 2024, an increase of $10.2 million from $69.9 million for the three months ended June 30, 2024, and an increase of $45.5 million from $34.6 million for the three months ended September 30, 2023.  The increase in noninterest income over the quarter ended June 30, 2024 was primarily due to an increase of $9.9 million in total BaaS income.  The $9.9 million increase in total BaaS income included a $9.3 million increase in BaaS credit enhancements related to the provision for credit losses, a $300,000 increase in BaaS fraud enhancements, and an increase of $340,000 in BaaS program income. The increase in BaaS program income is largely due to higher servicing and other BaaS fees, transaction fees and interchange fees and our primary BaaS source for recurring fee income (see “Appendix B” for more information on the accounting for BaaS allowance for credit losses and credit and fraud enhancements). Additionally, other income increased $229,000 largely due to increased incoming ACH activity.

    The $45.5 million increase in noninterest income over the quarter ended September 30, 2023 was primarily due to a $43.4 million increase in BaaS credit and fraud enhancements, and an increase of $2.0 million in BaaS program income.

    Noninterest Expense Discussion
    Total noninterest expense increased $6.8 million to $65.6 million for the three months ended September 30, 2024, compared to $58.8 million for the three months ended June 30, 2024, and increased $9.1 million from $56.5 million for the three months ended September 30, 2023. The increase in noninterest expense for the quarter ended September 30, 2024, as compared to the quarter ended June 30, 2024, was primarily due to a $3.8 million increase in BaaS expense (including a $300,000 increase in BaaS fraud expense and a $3.5 million increase in BaaS loan expense). BaaS loan expense represents the amount paid or payable to partners for credit enhancements, fraud enhancements, and originating & servicing CCBX loans. BaaS fraud expense represents non-credit fraud losses on partner’s customer loan and deposit accounts. A portion of this expense is realized during the quarter in which the loss occurs, and a portion is estimated based on historical or other information from our partners, partially offset by a $1.5 million increase in excise taxes (due to the recording of $1.2 million business and occupation tax credit from the State of Washington which resulted in the recognition of a net credit of $706,000 for the quarter ended June 30, 2024, compared to expense of $762,000 for the quarter ended September 30, 2024). We also recorded an increase of $587,000 in data processing and software licenses as a result of our continued investment in our infrastructure and the automation of our processes so that they are scalable and an increase of $499,000 in point of sale expenses as a result of increased partner transaction activity.

    The increase in noninterest expenses for the quarter ended September 30, 2024 compared to the quarter ended September 30, 2023 was largely due to an increase of $8.8 million in BaaS partner expense (including a $9.6 million increase in BaaS loan expense partially offset by a decrease of $766,000 in BaaS fraud expense), a $1.1 million increase in data processing and software licenses due to enhancements in technology, and a $526,000 increase in occupancy expense, largely due to higher software depreciation/amortization expense, partially offset by a $986,000 decrease in salary and employee benefits largely as a result of some one-time costs that were expensed in the quarter ended September 30, 2023 for which there was no similar expense in the current quarter, and an $850,000 decrease in legal and professional expenses as a result of risk management and projects being completed.

    Provision for Income Taxes

    The provision for income taxes was $2.9 million for the three months ended September 30, 2024, $3.4 million for the three months ended June 30, 2024 and $2.8 million for the third quarter of 2023.  The income tax provision was lower for the three months ended September 30, 2024 compared to the quarter ended June 30, 2024 as a result of the deductibility of certain equity awards which reduced tax expense despite net income being higher and higher than the quarter ended September 30, 2023, primarily due to higher net income compared to that quarter.

    The Company is subject to various state taxes that are assessed as CCBX activities and employees expand into other states, which has increased the overall tax rate used in calculating the provision for income taxes in the current and future periods. The Company uses a federal statutory tax rate of 21.0% as a basis for calculating provision for federal income taxes and 2.62% for calculating the provision for state income taxes.

    Financial Condition Overview

    Total assets increased $104.3 million, or 2.6%, to $4.07 billion at September 30, 2024 compared to $3.96 billion at June 30, 2024.  The increase is primarily due to stronger loan growth partially offset by lower cash balances. Total loans receivable increased $92.4 million to $3.42 billion at September 30, 2024, from $3.33 billion at June 30, 2024.

    As of September 30, 2024, the Company had the capacity to borrow up to a total of $656.3 million from the Federal Reserve Bank discount window and Federal Home Loan Bank, and an additional $50.0 million from a correspondent bank no borrowings outstanding on these lines as of September 30, 2024.

    The Company had a cash balance of $5.9 million as of September 30, 2024, which is retained for general operating purposes, including debt repayment, and for funding $530,000 in commitments to bank technology funds.  

    Uninsured deposits were $542.2 million as of September 30, 2024, compared to $532.9 million as of June 30, 2024.

    Total shareholders’ equity increased $15.2 million since June 30, 2024.  The increase in shareholders’ equity was primarily due to $13.5 million in net earnings, combined with an increase of $1.8 million in common stock outstanding as a result of equity awards exercised during the three months ended September 30, 2024.

    The Company and the Bank remained well capitalized at September 30, 2024, as summarized in the following table.

    (unaudited)   Coastal
    Community
    Bank    		   Coastal
    Financial
    Corporation    		   Minimum Well
    Capitalized
    Ratios under
    Prompt
    Corrective
    Action     (1)
    Tier 1 Leverage Capital (to average assets)   9.29 %   8.40 %   5.00 %
    Common Equity Tier 1 Capital (to risk-weighted assets)   10.36 %   9.26 %   6.50 %
    Tier 1 Capital (to risk-weighted assets)   10.36 %   9.35 %   8.00 %
    Total Capital (to risk-weighted assets)   11.65 %   11.90 %   10.00 %

    (1) Presents the minimum capital ratios for an insured depository institution, such as the Bank, to be considered well capitalized under the Prompt Corrective Action framework. The minimum requirements for the Company to be considered well capitalized under Regulation Y include to maintain, on a consolidated basis, a total risk-based capital ratio of 10.0 percent or greater and a tier 1 risk-based capital ratio of 6.0 percent or greater.

    Asset Quality

    The total allowance for credit losses was $170.3 million and 4.98% of loans receivable at September 30, 2024 compared to $147.9 million and 4.45% at June 30, 2024 and $101.1 million and 3.41% at September 30, 2023. The allowance for credit loss allocated to the CCBX portfolio was $150.1 million and 9.87% of CCBX loans receivable at September 30, 2024, with $20.1 million of allowance for credit loss allocated to the community bank or 1.06% of total community bank loans receivable.

    The following table details the allocation of the allowance for credit loss as of the period indicated:

        As of September 30, 2024   As of June 30, 2024   As of September 30, 2023
    (dollars in thousands; unaudited)   Community
    Bank    		   CCBX   Total   Community
    Bank    		   CCBX   Total   Community
    Bank    		   CCBX   Total
    Loans receivable   $ 1,897,540     $ 1,521,292     $ 3,418,832     $ 1,912,034     $ 1,414,426     $ 3,326,460     $ 1,784,661     $ 1,182,374     $ 2,967,035  
    Allowance for credit losses     (20,132 )     (150,131 )     (170,263 )     (21,045 )     (126,869 )     (147,914 )     (21,316 )     (79,769 )     (101,085 )
    Allowance for credit losses to total loans receivable     1.06 %     9.87 %     4.98 %     1.10 %     8.97 %     4.45 %     1.19 %     6.75 %     3.41 %
                                                                             

    Net charge-offs totaled $49.2 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2024, compared to $53.2 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2024 and $36.8 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2023. Net charge-offs as a percent of average loans decreased to 5.65% for the quarter ended September 30, 2024 compared to 6.57% for the quarter ended June 30, 2024, which we believe is a result of the steps we took manage our credit quality.   CCBX partner agreements provide for a credit enhancement that covers the net-charge-offs on CCBX loans and negative deposit accounts by indemnifying or reimbursing incurred losses, except in accordance with the program agreement for one partner where the Company was responsible for credit losses on approximately 5% of a $400.8 million loan portfolio. At September 30, 2024, our portion of this portfolio represented $19.8 million in loans. Net charge-offs for this $19.8 million in loans were $1.1 million for the three months ended September 30, 2024, compared to $1.3 million for the three months ended June 30, 2024 and $579,000 for the three months ended September 30, 2023.

    The following table details net charge-offs for the community bank and CCBX for the period indicated:

        Three Months Ended
        September 30, 2024   June 30, 2024   September 30, 2023
    (dollars in thousands; unaudited)   Community
    Bank    		   CCBX   Total   Community
    Bank    		   CCBX   Total   Community
    Bank    		   CCBX   Total
    Gross charge-offs   $ 398     $ 52,907     $ 53,305     $ 2     $ 55,205     $ 55,207     $ 3     $ 37,876     $ 37,879  
    Gross recoveries     (3 )     (4,066 )     (4,069 )     (4 )     (1,969 )     (1,973 )     (3 )     (1,042 )     (1,045 )
    Net charge-offs   $ 395     $ 48,841     $ 49,236     $ (2 )   $ 53,236     $ 53,234     $ —     $ 36,834     $ 36,834  
    Net charge-offs to average loans (1)     0.08 %     12.52 %     5.65 %     0.00 %     15.72 %     6.57 %     0.00 %     11.16 %     4.77 %

    (1) Annualized calculations shown for periods presented.

    During the quarter ended September 30, 2024, a $72.1 million provision for credit losses – loans was recorded for CCBX partner loans based on management’s analysis, compared to the $62.2 million provision for credit losses – loans that was recorded for CCBX for the quarter ended June 30, 2024. CCBX loans have a higher level of expected losses than our community bank loans, which is reflected in the factors for the allowance for credit losses. Agreements with our CCBX partners provide for a credit enhancement which protects the Bank by indemnifying or reimbursing incurred losses.

    In accordance with accounting guidance, we estimate and record a provision for expected losses for these CCBX loans and reclassified negative deposit accounts. When the provision for CCBX credit losses and provision for unfunded commitments is recorded, a credit enhancement asset is also recorded on the balance sheet through noninterest income (BaaS credit enhancements). Expected losses are recorded in the allowance for credit losses. The credit enhancement asset is relieved when credit enhancement recoveries are received from the CCBX partner. If our partner is unable to fulfill their contracted obligations then the Bank could be exposed to additional credit losses. Management regularly evaluates and manages this counterparty risk.

    The factors used in management’s analysis for community bank credit losses indicated that a provision recapture of $519,000 and was needed for the quarter ended September 30, 2024 compared to a provision recapture of $341,000 and provision of $664,000 for the quarters ended June 30, 2024 and September 30, 2023, respectively. The recapture in the current period was largely due to a change in remaining average lives of community bank loans.

    The following table details the provision expense/(recapture) for the community bank and CCBX for the period indicated:

        Three Months Ended
    (dollars in thousands; unaudited)   September 30,
    2024    		   June 30,
    2024    		   September 30,
    2023
    Community bank   $ (519 )   $ (341 )   $ 664
    CCBX     72,104       62,231       26,493
    Total provision expense   $ 71,585     $ 61,890     $ 27,157

    At September 30, 2024, our nonperforming assets were $54.7 million, or 1.34%, of total assets, compared to $53.2 million, or 1.34%, of total assets, at June 30, 2024, and $43.5 million, or 1.18%, of total assets, at September 30, 2023. These ratios are impacted by nonperforming CCBX loans that are covered by CCBX partner credit enhancements. As of September 30, 2024, $52.0 million of the $53.6 million in nonperforming CCBX loans were covered by CCBX partner credit enhancements described above.

    Nonperforming assets increased $1.5 million during the quarter ended September 30, 2024, compared to the quarter ended June 30, 2024. This change is largely due to an increase in CCBX nonaccrual loans partially offset by a decrease in community bank nonaccrual loans. CCBX nonaccrual loans increased $8.0 million as a result of a new collection practice that places certain loans on nonaccrual status to improve collectability, $5.3 million of these loans are less than 90 days past due as of September 30, 2024. CCBX loans that are past due 90 days or more and still accruing was $45.6 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2024 compared to $45.2 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2024. As a result of the type of loans (primarily consumer loans) originated through our CCBX partners we anticipate that balances 90 days past due or more and still accruing will generally increase as those loan portfolios grow. Installment/closed-end and revolving/open-end consumer loans originated through CCBX lending partners will continue to accrue interest until 120 and 180 days past due, respectively and are reported as substandard, 90 days or more days past due and still accruing. There were no repossessed assets or other real estate owned at September 30, 2024. Our nonperforming loans to loans receivable ratio was 1.60% at September 30, 2024, compared to 1.60% at June 30, 2024, and 1.47% at September 30, 2023.

    For the quarter ended September 30, 2024, there were $395,000 community bank net charge-offs and $1.1 million nonperforming community bank loans. For the quarter ended September 30, 2024 $48.8 million in net charge-offs were recorded on CCBX loans. These CCBX loans have a higher level of expected losses than our community bank loans, which is reflected in the factors for the allowance for credit losses.

    The following table details the Company’s nonperforming assets for the periods indicated.

    Consolidated   As of
    (dollars in thousands; unaudited)   September 30,
    2024    		   June 30,
    2024    		   September 30,
    2023
    Nonaccrual loans:            
    Commercial and industrial loans   $ 198     $ —     $ 2  
    Real estate loans:            
    Construction, land and land development     —       —       —  
    Residential real estate     44       213       176  
    Commercial real estate     831       7,731       7,145  
    Consumer and other loans:            
    Credit cards     7,987       —       —  
    Total nonaccrual loans     9,060       7,944       7,323  
    Accruing loans past due 90 days or more:            
    Commercial & industrial loans     1,593       1,278       1,387  
    Real estate loans:            
    Residential real estate loans     3,025       2,722       1,462  
    Consumer and other loans:            
    Credit cards     34,562       36,465       24,807  
    Other consumer and other loans     6,412       4,779       8,561  
         Total accruing loans past due 90 days or more     45,592       45,244       36,217  
    Total nonperforming loans     54,652       53,188       43,540  
    Real estate owned     —       —       —  
    Repossessed assets     —       —       —  
    Total nonperforming assets   $ 54,652     $ 53,188     $ 43,540  
    Total nonaccrual loans to loans receivable     0.27 %     0.24 %     0.25 %
    Total nonperforming loans to loans receivable     1.60 %     1.60 %     1.47 %
    Total nonperforming assets to total assets     1.34 %     1.34 %     1.18 %
                             

    The following tables detail the CCBX and community bank nonperforming assets which are included in the total nonperforming assets table above.

    CCBX   As of
    (dollars in thousands; unaudited)   September 30,
    2024    		   June 30,
    2024    		   September 30,
    2023
    Nonaccrual loans:            
    Consumer and other loans:            
    Credit cards   $ 7,987     $ —     $ —  
    Total nonaccrual loans     7,987       —       —  
    Accruing loans past due 90 days or more:            
    Commercial & industrial loans     1,593       1,278       1,387  
    Real estate loans:            
    Residential real estate loans     3,025       2,722       1,462  
    Consumer and other loans:            
    Credit cards     34,562       36,465       24,807  
    Other consumer and other loans     6,412       4,779       8,561  
    Total accruing loans past due 90 days or more     45,592       45,244       36,217  
    Total nonperforming loans     53,579       45,244       36,217  
    Other real estate owned     —       —       —  
    Repossessed assets     —       —       —  
    Total nonperforming assets   $ 53,579     $ 45,244     $ 36,217  
    Total CCBX nonperforming assets to total consolidated assets     1.32 %     1.14 %     0.98 %
    Community Bank   As of
    (dollars in thousands; unaudited)   September 30,
    2024    		   June 30,
    2024    		   September 30,
    2023
    Nonaccrual loans:            
    Commercial and industrial loans   $ 198     $ —     $ 2  
    Real estate:            
    Construction, land and land development     —       —       —  
    Residential real estate     44       213       176  
    Commercial real estate     831       7,731       7,145  
    Total nonaccrual loans     1,073       7,944       7,323  
    Accruing loans past due 90 days or more:            
    Total accruing loans past due 90 days or more     —       —       —  
    Total nonperforming loans     1,073       7,944       7,323  
    Other real estate owned     —       —       —  
    Repossessed assets     —       —       —  
    Total nonperforming assets   $ 1,073     $ 7,944     $ 7,323  
    Total community bank nonperforming assets to total consolidated assets     0.03 %     0.20 %     0.20 %
                             

    About Coastal Financial

    Coastal Financial Corporation (Nasdaq: CCB) (the “Company”), is an Everett, Washington based bank holding company whose wholly owned subsidiaries are Coastal Community Bank (“Bank”) and Arlington Olympic LLC.  The $4.07 billion Bank provides service through 14 branches in Snohomish, Island, and King Counties, the Internet and its mobile banking application.  The Bank provides banking as a service to broker-dealers, digital financial service providers, companies and brands that want to provide financial services to their customers through the Bank’s CCBX segment.  To learn more about the Company visit www.coastalbank.com. 

    CCB-ER

    Contact

    Eric Sprink, Chief Executive Officer, (425) 357-3659
    Joel Edwards, Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, (425) 357-3687

    Forward-Looking Statements

    This earnings release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements reflect our current views with respect to, among other things, future events and our financial performance. Any statements about our management’s expectations, beliefs, plans, predictions, forecasts, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance are not historical facts and may be forward-looking. These statements are often, but not always, made through the use of words or phrases such as “anticipate,” “believes,” “can,” “could,” “may,” “predicts,” “potential,” “should,” “will,” “estimate,” “plans,” “projects,” “continuing,” “ongoing,” “expects,” “intends” and similar words or phrases. Any or all of the forward-looking statements in this earnings release may turn out to be inaccurate. The inclusion of or reference to forward-looking information in this earnings release should not be regarded as a representation by us or any other person that the future plans, estimates or expectations contemplated by us will be achieved. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and financial needs. Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements as a result of risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, without limitation, the risks and uncertainties discussed under “Risk Factors” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the most recent period filed and in any of our subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

    If one or more events related to these or other risks or uncertainties materialize, or if our underlying assumptions prove to be incorrect, actual results may differ materially from what we anticipate. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Further, any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which the statement is made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law.

     
    COASTAL FINANCIAL CORPORATION
    CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION
    (Dollars in thousands; unaudited)
     
    ASSETS
        September 30,
    2024    		   June 30,
    2024    		   March 31,
    2024    		   December 31,
    2023    		   September 30,
    2023
    Cash and due from banks   $ 45,327     $ 59,995     $ 32,790     $ 31,345     $ 29,984  
    Interest earning deposits with other banks     438,699       427,250       482,338       451,783       444,962  
    Investment securities, available for sale, at fair value     38       39       41       99,504       98,939  
    Investment securities, held to maturity, at amortized cost     48,582       49,174       50,049       50,860       42,550  
    Other investments     10,757       10,664       10,583       10,227       11,898  
    Loans held for sale     7,565       —       797       —       —  
    Loans receivable     3,418,832       3,326,460       3,199,554       3,026,092       2,967,035  
    Allowance for credit losses     (170,263 )     (147,914 )     (139,258 )     (116,958 )     (101,085 )
    Total loans receivable, net     3,248,569       3,178,546       3,060,296       2,909,134       2,865,950  
    CCBX credit enhancement asset     167,251       143,485       137,276       107,921       91,867  
    CCBX receivable     16,060       11,520       10,369       9,088       10,623  
    Premises and equipment, net     25,833       24,526       22,995       22,090       20,543  
    Lease right-of-use assets     5,427       5,635       5,756       5,932       6,126  
    Accrued interest receivable     23,664       23,617       24,681       26,819       23,428  
    Bank-owned life insurance, net     13,255       13,132       12,991       12,870       12,970  
    Deferred tax asset, net     3,083       2,221       2,221       3,806       4,404  
    Other assets     11,711       11,742       12,075       11,987       14,021  
    Total assets   $ 4,065,821     $ 3,961,546     $ 3,865,258     $ 3,753,366     $ 3,678,265  
                         
    LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS’ EQUITY
    LIABILITIES                    
    Deposits   $ 3,627,288     $ 3,543,432     $ 3,462,979     $ 3,360,363     $ 3,289,700  
    Subordinated debt, net     44,256       44,219       44,181       44,144       44,106  
    Junior subordinated debentures, net     3,591       3,591       3,590       3,590       3,589  
    Deferred compensation     369       405       442       479       513  
    Accrued interest payable     1,070       999       1,061       892       1,056  
    Lease liabilities     5,609       5,821       5,946       6,124       6,321  
    CCBX payable     39,188       34,536       33,095       33,651       38,229  
    Other liabilities     12,520       11,850       10,255       9,145       10,301  
    Total liabilities     3,733,891       3,644,853       3,561,549       3,458,388       3,393,815  
    SHAREHOLDERS’ EQUITY                    
    Common Stock     134,769       132,989       131,601       130,136       129,244  
    Retained earnings     197,162       183,706       172,110       165,311       156,299  
    Accumulated other comprehensive loss, net of tax     (1 )     (2 )     (2 )     (469 )     (1,093 )
    Total shareholders’ equity     331,930       316,693       303,709       294,978       284,450  
    Total liabilities and shareholders’ equity   $ 4,065,821     $ 3,961,546     $ 3,865,258     $ 3,753,366     $ 3,678,265  
     
    COASTAL FINANCIAL CORPORATION
    CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME
    (Dollars in thousands, except per share amounts; unaudited)
     
        Three Months Ended
        September 30,
    2024    		   June 30,
    2024    		   March 31,
    2024    		   December 31,
    2023    		   September 30,
    2023
    INTEREST AND DIVIDEND INCOME                    
    Interest and fees on loans   $ 99,590   $ 90,944     $ 84,621     $ 81,159     $ 83,652
    Interest on interest earning deposits with other banks     4,781     5,683       4,780       5,687       3,884
    Interest on investment securities     675     686       1,034       1,225       766
    Dividends on other investments     33     174       37       172       29
    Total interest income     105,079     97,487       90,472       88,243       88,331
    INTEREST EXPENSE                    
    Interest on deposits     32,083     30,578       28,867       27,916       25,451
    Interest on borrowed funds     809     672       669       670       651
    Total interest expense     32,892     31,250       29,536       28,586       26,102
    Net interest income     72,187     66,237       60,936       59,657       62,229
    PROVISION FOR CREDIT LOSSES     70,257     62,325       83,158       60,789       27,253
    Net interest income/(expense) after provision for credit losses     1,930     3,912       (22,222 )     (1,132 )     34,976
    NONINTEREST INCOME                    
    Deposit service charges and fees     952     946       908       957       998
    Loan referral fees     —     —       168       —       1
    Gain on sales of loans, net     —     —       —       —       107
    Unrealized gain (loss) on equity securities, net     2     9       15       80       5
    Other income     486     257       308       60       291
    Noninterest income, excluding BaaS program income and BaaS indemnification income     1,440     1,212       1,399       1,097       1,402
    Servicing and other BaaS fees     1,044     1,525       1,131       1,015       997
    Transaction fees     1,696     1,309       1,122       1,006       1,036
    Interchange fees     1,853     1,625       1,539       1,272       1,216
    Reimbursement of expenses     1,843     1,637       1,033       1,076       1,152
    BaaS program income     6,436     6,096       4,825       4,369       4,401
    BaaS credit enhancements     70,108     60,826       79,808       58,449       25,926
    BaaS fraud enhancements     2,084     1,784       923       779       2,850
    BaaS indemnification income     72,192     62,610       80,731       59,228       28,776
    Total noninterest income     80,068     69,918       86,955       64,694       34,579
    NONINTEREST EXPENSE                    
    Salaries and employee benefits     17,101     17,005       17,984       16,490       18,087
    Occupancy     1,750     1,686       1,518       1,340       1,224
    Data processing and software licenses     3,511     2,924       2,892       2,417       2,366
    Legal and professional expenses     3,597     3,631       3,672       2,649       4,447
    Point of sale expense     1,351     852       869       899       1,068
    Excise taxes     762     (706 )     320       449       541
    Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) assessments     740     690       683       665       694
    Director and staff expenses     559     470       400       478       529
    Marketing     67     14       53       138       169
    Other expense     1,482     1,383       1,867       1,089       1,523
    Noninterest expense, excluding BaaS loan and BaaS fraud expense     30,920     27,949       30,258       26,614       30,648
    BaaS loan expense     32,612     29,076       24,837       24,310       23,003
    BaaS fraud expense     2,084     1,784       923       779       2,850
    BaaS loan and fraud expense     34,696     30,860       25,760       25,089       25,853
    Total noninterest expense     65,616     58,809       56,018       51,703       56,501
    Income before provision for income taxes     16,382     15,021       8,715       11,859       13,054
    PROVISION FOR INCOME TAXES     2,926     3,425       1,915       2,847       2,784
    NET INCOME   $ 13,456   $ 11,596     $ 6,800     $ 9,012     $ 10,270
    Basic earnings per common share   $ 1.00   $ 0.86     $ 0.51     $ 0.68     $ 0.77
    Diluted earnings per common share   $ 0.97   $ 0.84     $ 0.50     $ 0.66     $ 0.75
    Weighted average number of common shares outstanding:                    
    Basic     13,447,066     13,412,667       13,340,997       13,286,828       13,285,974
    Diluted     13,822,270     13,736,508       13,676,917       13,676,513       13,675,833
     
    COASTAL FINANCIAL CORPORATION
    AVERAGE BALANCES, YIELDS, AND RATES – QUARTERLY
    (Dollars in thousands; unaudited)
     
        For the Three Months Ended
        September 30, 2024   June 30, 2024   September 30, 2023
        Average
    Balance    		   Interest &
    Dividends    		   Yield /
    Cost (1)    		   Average
    Balance    		   Interest &
    Dividends    		   Yield /
    Cost (1)    		   Average
    Balance    		   Interest &
    Dividends    		   Yield /
    Cost (1)
    Assets                                    
    Interest earning assets:                                    
    Interest earning deposits with other banks   $ 350,915     $ 4,781   5.42 %   $ 418,165     $ 5,683   5.47 %   $ 285,596     $ 3,884   5.40 %
    Investment securities, available for sale (2)     40       —   —       43       —   3.13       100,283       543   2.15  
    Investment securities, held to maturity (2)     48,945       675   5.49       49,737       686   5.55       17,703       223   5.00  
    Other investments     11,140       33   1.18       10,592       174   6.61       11,943       29   0.96  
    Loans receivable (3)     3,464,871       99,590   11.43       3,258,042       90,944   11.23       3,062,214       83,652   10.84  
    Total interest earning assets     3,875,911       105,079   10.79       3,736,579       97,487   10.49       3,477,739       88,331   10.08  
    Noninterest earning assets:                                    
    Allowance for credit losses     (151,292 )             (138,472 )             (100,329 )        
    Other noninterest earning assets     268,903               255,205               220,750          
    Total assets   $ 3,993,522             $ 3,853,312             $ 3,598,160          
                                         
    Liabilities and Shareholders’ Equity                                    
    Interest bearing liabilities:                                    
    Interest bearing deposits   $ 2,966,527     $ 32,083   4.30 %   $ 2,854,575     $ 30,578   4.31 %   $ 2,515,093     $ 25,451   4.01 %
    FHLB advances and other borrowings     9,717       140   5.73       1,648       3   0.73       —       —   —  
    Subordinated debt     44,234       598   5.38       44,197       598   5.44       44,084       580   5.22  
    Junior subordinated debentures     3,591       71   7.87       3,590       71   7.95       3,589       71   7.85  
    Total interest bearing liabilities     3,024,069       32,892   4.33       2,904,010       31,250   4.33       2,562,766       26,102   4.04  
    Noninterest bearing deposits     588,178               584,661               698,532          
    Other liabilities     60,101               58,267               57,865          
    Total shareholders’ equity     321,174               306,374               278,997          
    Total liabilities and shareholders’ equity   $ 3,993,522             $ 3,853,312             $ 3,598,160          
    Net interest income       $ 72,187           $ 66,237           $ 62,229    
    Interest rate spread           6.46 %           6.17 %           6.04 %
    Net interest margin (4)           7.41 %           7.13 %           7.10 %

    (1)  Yields and costs are annualized.
    (2) For presentation in this table, average balances and the corresponding average rates for investment securities are based upon historical cost, adjusted for amortization of premiums and accretion of discounts.
    (3)  Includes loans held for sale and nonaccrual loans.
    (4)  Net interest margin represents net interest income divided by the average total interest earning assets.

     
    COASTAL FINANCIAL CORPORATION
    SELECTED AVERAGE BALANCES, YIELDS, AND RATES – BY SEGMENT – QUARTERLY
    (Dollars in thousands; unaudited)
     
        For the Three Months Ended
        September 30, 2024   June 30, 2024   September 30, 2023
    (dollars in thousands, unaudited)   Average
    Balance    		   Interest &
    Dividends    		   Yield /
    Cost (1)    		   Average
    Balance    		   Interest &
    Dividends    		   Yield /
    Cost (1)    		   Average
    Balance    		   Interest &
    Dividends    		   Yield /
    Cost (1)
    Community Bank                                    
    Assets                                    
    Interest earning assets:                                    
    Loans receivable (2)   $ 1,912,428   $ 31,898   6.64 %   $ 1,895,699   $ 30,741   6.52 %   $ 1,752,834   $ 27,373   6.20 %
    Total interest earning assets     1,912,428     31,898   6.64       1,895,699     30,741   6.52       1,752,834     27,373   6.20  
    Liabilities                                    
    Interest bearing liabilities:                                      
    Interest bearing deposits     982,280     7,264   2.94 %     938,033     6,459   2.77 %     920,707     5,067   2.18 %
    Intrabank liability     406,641     5,540   5.42       429,452     5,836   5.47       223,221     3,036   5.40  
    Total interest bearing liabilities     1,388,921     12,804   3.67       1,367,485     12,295   3.62       1,143,928     8,103   2.81  
    Noninterest bearing deposits     523,507             528,214             608,906        
    Net interest income       $ 19,094           $ 18,446           $ 19,270    
    Net interest margin(3)           3.97 %           3.91 %           4.36 %
                                         
    CCBX                                    
    Assets                                    
    Interest earning assets:                                    
    Loans receivable (2)(4)   $ 1,552,443   $ 67,692   17.35 %   $ 1,362,343   $ 60,203   17.77 %   $ 1,309,380   $ 56,279   17.05 %
    Intrabank asset     496,475     6,764   5.42       610,646     8,299   5.47       374,632     5,095   5.40  
    Total interest earning assets     2,048,918     74,456   14.46       1,972,989     68,502   13.96       1,684,012     61,374   14.46  
    Liabilities                                    
    Interest bearing liabilities:                                        
    Interest bearing deposits     1,984,247     24,819   4.98 %     1,916,542     24,119   5.06 %     1,594,386     20,384   5.07 %
    Total interest bearing liabilities     1,984,247     24,819   4.98       1,916,542     24,119   5.06       1,594,386     20,384   5.07  
    Noninterest bearing deposits     64,671             56,447             89,626        
    Net interest income       $ 49,637           $ 44,383           $ 40,990    
    Net interest margin(3)           9.64 %           9.05 %           9.66 %
    Net interest margin, net of Baas loan expense (5)           3.31 %           3.12 %           4.24 %
                                               
        For the Three Months Ended
        September 30, 2024   June 30, 2024   September 30, 2023
    (dollars in thousands, unaudited)   Average
    Balance    		   Interest &
    Dividends    		   Yield /
    Cost (1)    		   Average
    Balance    		   Interest &
    Dividends    		   Yield /
    Cost (1)    		   Average
    Balance    		   Interest &
    Dividends    		   Yield /
    Cost (1)
    Treasury & Administration                            
    Assets                                    
    Interest earning assets:                                    
    Interest earning deposits with other banks   $ 350,915   $ 4,781   5.42 %   $ 418,165   $ 5,683   5.47 %   $ 285,596   $ 3,884   5.40 %
    Investment securities, available for sale (6)     40     —   —       43     —   3.13       100,283     543   2.15  
    Investment securities, held to maturity (6)     48,945     675   5.49       49,737     686   5.55       17,703     223   5.00  
    Other investments     11,140     33   1.18       10,592     174   6.61       11,943     29   0.96  
    Total interest earning assets     411,040     5,489   5.31 %     478,537     6,543   5.50 %     415,525     4,679   4.47 %
    Liabilities                                    
    Interest bearing liabilities:                                    
    FHLB advances and borrowings   $ 9,717   $ 140   5.73 %     1,648     3   0.73 %     —     —   — %
    Subordinated debt     44,234     598   5.38 %     44,197     598   5.44 %     44,084     580   5.22 %
    Junior subordinated debentures     3,591     71   7.87       3,590     71   7.95       3,589     71   7.85  
    Intrabank liability, net (7)     89,834     1,224   5.42       181,194     2,463   5.47       151,411     2,059   5.40  
    Total interest bearing liabilities     147,376     2,033   5.49       230,629     3,135   5.47       199,084     2,710   5.40  
    Net interest income       $ 3,456           $ 3,408           $ 1,969    
    Net interest margin(3)           3.34 %           2.86 %           1.88 %

    (1)  Yields and costs are annualized. 
    (2)  Includes loans held for sale and nonaccrual loans. 
    (3)  Net interest margin represents net interest income divided by the average total interest earning assets. 
    (4)  CCBX yield does not include the impact of BaaS loan expense. BaaS loan expense represents the amount paid or payable to partners for credit enhancements, fraud enhancements and originating & servicing CCBX loans. See reconciliation of the non-GAAP measures at the end of this earnings release for the impact of BaaS loan expense on CCBX loan yield. 
    (5)  Net interest margin, net of BaaS loan expense includes the impact of BaaS loan expense. BaaS loan expense represents the amount paid or payable to partners for credit enhancements, fraud enhancements, originating & servicing CCBX loans. See reconciliation of the non-GAAP measures at the end of this earnings release. 
    (6) For presentation in this table, average balances and the corresponding average rates for investment securities are based upon historical cost, adjusted for amortization of premiums and accretion of discounts. 
    (7)  Intrabank assets and liabilities are consolidated for period calculations and presented as intrabank asset, net or intrabank liability, net in the table above.

    Non-GAAP Financial Measures

    The Company uses certain non-GAAP financial measures to provide meaningful supplemental information regarding the Company’s operational performance and to enhance investors’ overall understanding of such financial performance.

    However, these non-GAAP financial measures are supplemental and are not a substitute for an analysis based on GAAP measures. As other companies may use different calculations for these adjusted measures, this presentation may not be comparable to other similarly titled adjusted measures reported by other companies.

    The following non-GAAP measures are presented to illustrate the impact of BaaS loan expense on net loan income and yield on CCBX loans and the impact of BaaS loan expense on net interest income and net interest margin.

    Net BaaS loan income divided by average CCBX loans is a non-GAAP measure that includes the impact BaaS loan expense on net BaaS loan income and the yield on CCBX loans. The most directly comparable GAAP measure is yield on CCBX loans.

    Net interest income net of BaaS loan expense is a non-GAAP measure that includes the impact BaaS loan expense on net interest income. The most directly comparable GAAP measure is net interest income.

    Net interest margin, net of BaaS loan expense is a non-GAAP measure that includes the impact of BaaS loan expense on net interest rate margin. The most directly comparable GAAP measure is net interest margin.

    Reconciliations of the GAAP and non-GAAP measures are presented below.

        As of and for the Three Months Ended
    (dollars in thousands; unaudited)   September 30,
    2024    		   June 30,
    2024    		   September 30,
    2023
    Net BaaS loan income divided by average CCBX loans:
    CCBX loan yield (GAAP)(1)     17.35 %     17.77 %     17.05 %
    Total average CCBX loans receivable   $ 1,552,443     $ 1,362,343     $ 1,309,380  
    Interest and earned fee income on CCBX loans (GAAP)     67,692       60,203       56,279  
    BaaS loan expense     (32,612 )     (29,076 )     (23,003 )
    Net BaaS loan income   $ 35,080     $ 31,127     $ 33,276  
    Net BaaS loan income divided by average CCBX loans (1)     8.99 %     9.19 %     10.08 %
    Net interest margin, net of BaaS loan expense:                
    CCBX interest margin (1)     9.64 %     9.05 %     9.66 %
    CCBX earning assets     2,048,918       1,972,989       1,684,012  
    Net interest income     49,637       44,383       40,990  
    Less: BaaS loan expense     (32,612 )     (29,076 )     (23,003 )
    Net interest income, net of BaaS loan expense   $ 17,025     $ 15,307     $ 17,987  
    CCBX net interest margin, net of BaaS loan expense (1)     3.31 %     3.12 %     4.24 %

    (1) Annualized calculations for periods presented.

    APPENDIX A –
    As of September 30, 2024

    Industry Concentration

    We have a diversified loan portfolio, representing a wide variety of industries. Our major categories of loans are commercial real estate, consumer and other loans, residential real estate, commercial and industrial, and construction, land and land development loans. Together they represent $3.43 billion in outstanding loan balances. When combined with $2.29 billion in unused commitments the total of these categories is $5.72 billion.

    Commercial real estate loans represent the largest segment of our loans, comprising 39.8% of our total balance of outstanding loans as of September 30, 2024. Unused commitments to extend credit represents an additional $41.5 million, and the combined total in commercial real estate loans represents $1.40 billion, or 24.6% of our total outstanding loans and loan commitments.

    The following table summarizes our loan commitment by industry for our commercial real estate portfolio as of September 30, 2024:

    (dollars in thousands; unaudited)   Outstanding
    Balance    		   Available
    Loan
    Commitments    		   Total
    Outstanding
    Balance &
    Available
    Commitment    		   %
    of Total
    Loans
    (Outstanding
    Balance &
    Available
    Commitment)    		   Average
    Loan
    Balance    		   Number
    of
    Loans
    Apartments   $ 382,498   $ 5,685   $ 388,183   6.8 %   $ 3,714   103
    Hotel/Motel     155,441     189     155,630   2.7       6,758   23
    Convenience Store     142,366     614     142,980   2.5       2,296   62
    Office     123,423     8,204     131,627   2.3       1,371   90
    Warehouse     102,818     2,000     104,818   1.8       1,743   59
    Retail     107,934     620     108,554   1.9       1,018   106
    Mixed use     93,490     5,273     98,763   1.7       1,154   81
    Mini Storage     79,395     14,330     93,725   1.7       3,452   23
    Strip Mall     44,089     —     44,089   0.8       6,298   7
    Manufacturing     34,599     1,200     35,799   0.6       1,193   29
    Groups < 0.70% of total     96,393     3,392     99,785   1.8       1,205   80
    Total   $ 1,362,446   $ 41,507   $ 1,403,953   24.6 %   $ 2,055   663
     

    Consumer loans comprise 33.0% of our total balance of outstanding loans as of September 30, 2024. Unused commitments to extend credit represents an additional $1.07 billion, and the combined total in consumer and other loans represents $2.20 billion, or 38.4% of our total outstanding loans and loan commitments. As illustrated in the table below, our CCBX partners bring in a large number of mostly smaller dollar loans, resulting in an average consumer loan balance of just $900. CCBX consumer loans are underwritten to CCBX credit standards and underwriting of these loans is regularly tested, including quarterly testing for partners with portfolio balances greater than $10.0 million.

    The following table summarizes our loan commitment by industry for our consumer and other loan portfolio as of September 30, 2024:

    (dollars in thousands; unaudited)   Outstanding
    Balance    		   Available
    Loan
    Commitments    		   Total
    Outstanding
    Balance &
    Available
    Commitment     (1)    		   %
    of Total
    Loans
    (Outstanding
    Balance &
    Available
    Commitment)    		   Average
    Loan
    Balance    		   Number
    of
    Loans
    CCBX consumer loans
    Credit cards   $ 633,691   $ 1,055,684   $ 1,689,375   29.5 %   $ 1.7   369,404
    Installment loans     471,813     7,112     478,925   8.4       0.9   513,897
    Lines of credit     1,362     —     1,362   0.0       2.4   558
    Other loans     9,053     —     9,053   0.2       —   365,834
    Community bank consumer loans
    		                            
    Installment loans     1,291     1     1,292   0.0       51.6   25
    Lines of credit     194     365     559   0.0       6.1   32
    Other loans     12,688     3,000     15,688   0.3       32.5   390
    Total   $ 1,130,092   $ 1,066,162   $ 2,196,254   38.4 %   $ 0.9   1,250,140

    (1)  Total exposure on CCBX loans is subject to CCBX partner/portfolio maximum limits.

    Residential real estate loans comprise 13.9% of our total balance of outstanding loans as of September 30, 2024. Unused commitments to extend credit represents an additional $522.8 million, and the combined total in residential real estate loans represents $1.00 billion, or 17.5% of our total outstanding loans and loan commitments.

    The following table summarizes our loan commitment by industry for our residential real estate loan portfolio as of September 30, 2024:

    (dollars in thousands; unaudited)   Outstanding
    Balance    		   Available
    Loan
    Commitments    		   Total
    Outstanding
    Balance &
    Available
    Commitment     (1)    		   %
    of Total
    Loans
    (Outstanding
    Balance &
    Available
    Commitment)    		   Average
    Loan
    Balance    		   Number
    of
    Loans
    CCBX residential real estate loans                                  
    Home equity line of credit   $ 265,402   $ 472,385   $ 737,787   12.9 %   $ 25   10,742
    Community bank residential real estate loans                                  
    Closed end, secured by first liens     176,066     2,961     179,027   3.1       555   317
    Home equity line of credit     25,427     46,515     71,942   1.3       106   239
    Closed end, second liens     10,974     925     11,899   0.2       366   30
    Total   $ 477,869   $ 522,786   $ 1,000,655   17.5 %   $ 42   11,328

    (1)  Total exposure on CCBX loans is subject to CCBX partner/portfolio maximum limits.

    Commercial and industrial loans comprise 8.5% of our total balance of outstanding loans as of September 30, 2024. Unused commitments to extend credit represents an additional $598.4 million, and the combined total in commercial and industrial loans represents $891.0 million, or 15.6% of our total outstanding loans and loan commitments. Included in commercial and industrial loans is $103.9 million in outstanding capital call lines, with an additional $504.6 million in available loan commitments which is limited to a $350.0 million portfolio maximum. Capital call lines are provided to venture capital firms through one of our CCBX BaaS clients. These loans are secured by the capital call rights and are individually underwritten to the Bank’s credit standards and the underwriting is reviewed by the Bank on every capital call line.

    The following table summarizes our loan commitment by industry for our commercial and industrial loan portfolio as of September 30, 2024:

    (dollars in thousands; unaudited)   Outstanding
    Balance    		   Available
    Loan
    Commitments    		   Total
    Outstanding
    Balance &
    Available
    Commitment     (1)    		   %
    of Total
    Loans
    (Outstanding
    Balance &
    Available
    Commitment)    		   Average
    Loan
    Balance    		   Number
    of
    Loans
    Consolidated C&I loans
    Capital Call Lines   $ 103,924   $ 504,561   $ 608,485   10.6 %   $ 764   136
    Construction/Contractor Services     27,463     34,658     62,121   1.1       136   202
    Financial Institutions     48,648     —     48,648   0.9       4,054   12
    Retail     33,003     5,725     38,728   0.7       15   2,247
    Manufacturing     6,124     5,460     11,584   0.2       149   41
    Medical / Dental / Other Care     6,864     2,731     9,595   0.2       528   13
    Groups < 0.20% of total     66,553     45,299     111,852   2.0       58   1,143
    Total   $ 292,579   $ 598,434   $ 891,013   15.6 %   $ 77   3,794

    (1)  Total exposure on CCBX loans is subject to CCBX partner/portfolio maximum limits.

    Construction, land and land development loans comprise 4.8% of our total balance of outstanding loans as of September 30, 2024. Unused commitments to extend credit represents an additional $63.5 million, and the combined total in construction, land and land development loans represents $226.6 million, or 4.0% of our total outstanding loans and loan commitments.

    The following table details our loan commitment for our construction, land and land development portfolio as of September 30, 2024:

    (dollars in thousands; unaudited)   Outstanding
    Balance    		   Available
    Loan
    Commitments    		   Total
    Outstanding
    Balance &
    Available
    Commitment    		   %
    of Total
    Loans
    (Outstanding
    Balance &
    Available
    Commitment)    		   Average
    Loan
    Balance    		   Number
    of
    Loans
    Commercial construction   $ 97,798   $ 41,521   $ 139,319   2.5 %   $ 7,523   13
    Residential construction     35,822     16,846     52,668   0.9       1,990   18
    Developed land loans     14,863     723     15,586   0.3       743   20
    Undeveloped land loans     8,606     4,086     12,692   0.2       574   15
    Land development     5,968     345     6,313   0.1       597   10
    Total   $ 163,057   $ 63,521   $ 226,578   4.0 %   $ 2,145   76
     

    Exposure and risk in our construction, land and land development portfolio is in line with our average historically, compared to June 30, 2024 when the balance was elevated as indicated in the following table:

        Outstanding Balance as of
    (dollars in thousands; unaudited)   September 30,
    2024    		   June 30,
    2024    		   March 31,
    2024    		   December 31,
    2023    		   September 30,
    2023
    Commercial construction   $ 97,798   $ 110,372   $ 102,099   $ 81,489   $ 91,396
    Residential construction     35,822     34,652     28,751     34,213     33,971
    Undeveloped land loans     8,606     8,372     8,190     7,890     8,310
    Developed land loans     14,863     13,954     14,307     20,515     21,369
    Land development     5,968     5,714     7,515     12,993     12,640
    Total   $ 163,057   $ 173,064   $ 160,862   $ 157,100   $ 167,686
     

    Commitments to extend credit total $2.29 billion at September 30, 2024,   however we do not anticipate our customers using the $2.29 billion that is showing as available.

    The following table presents outstanding commitments to extend credit as of September 30, 2024:

    Consolidated    
    (dollars in thousands; unaudited)   As of September
    30, 2024
    Commitments to extend credit:    
    Commercial and industrial loans   $ 93,873
    Commercial and industrial loans – capital call lines     504,561
    Construction – commercial real estate loans     46,007
    Construction – residential real estate loans     17,514
    Residential real estate loans     522,786
    Commercial real estate loans     41,507
    Credit cards     1,055,684
    Consumer and other loans     10,478
    Total commitments to extend credit   $ 2,292,410
     

    We have individual CCBX partner portfolio limits with our each of our partners to manage loan concentration risk, liquidity risk, and counter-party partner risk. For example, as of September 30, 2024, capital call lines outstanding balance totaled $103.9 million, and while commitments totaled $504.6 million, the commitments are limited to a maximum of $350.0 million by agreement with the partner. If a CCBX partner goes over their individual limit, it would be a breach of their contract and the Bank may impose penalties and would not be required to fund the loan.

    See the table below for CCBX portfolio maximums and related available commitments:

    CCBX                
    (dollars in thousands; unaudited)   Balance   Percent
    of CCBX
    loans
    receivable    		 Available
    Commitments     (1)    		   Maximum
    Portfolio
    Size    		 Cash
    Reserve/
    Pledge
    Account
    Amount     (2)
    Commercial and industrial loans:            
    Capital call lines   $ 103,924     6.8 % $ 504,561   $ 350,000 $ —
    All other commercial & industrial loans     36,494     2.4     16,922     285,153   675
    Real estate loans:                
    Home equity lines of credit (3)     265,402     17.5     472,385     375,000   35,597
    Consumer and other loans:            
    Credit cards – cash secured     180         —       —
    Credit cards – unsecured     633,511         1,055,684       37,065
    Credit cards – total     633,691     41.6     1,055,684     807,263   37,065
    Installment loans – cash secured     129,138         7,112       —
    Installment loans – unsecured     342,675         —       2,222
    Installment loans – total     471,813     31.0     7,112     1,630,027   2,222
    Other consumer and other loans     10,415     0.7     —     7,557   383
    Gross CCBX loans receivable     1,521,739     100.0 %   2,056,664     3,455,000 $ 75,942
    Net deferred origination fees     (447 )            
    Loans receivable   $ 1,521,292              

    (1) Remaining commitment available, net of outstanding balance.
    (2) Balances are as of October 4, 2024.
    (3) These home equity lines of credit are secured by residential real estate and are accessed by using a credit card, but are classified as 1-4 family residential properties per regulatory guidelines.

    APPENDIX B –
    As of September 30, 2024

    CCBX – BaaS Reporting Information

    During the quarter ended September 30, 2024, $70.1 million was recorded in BaaS credit enhancements related to the provision for credit losses – loans and reserve for unfunded commitments for CCBX partner loans and negative deposit accounts. Agreements with our CCBX partners provide for a credit enhancement provided by the partner which protects the Bank by indemnifying or reimbursing incurred losses. In accordance with accounting guidance, we estimate and record a provision for expected losses for these CCBX loans, unfunded commitments and negative deposit accounts. When the provision for credit losses – loans and provision for unfunded commitments is recorded, a credit enhancement asset is also recorded on the balance sheet through noninterest income (BaaS credit enhancements) in recognition of the CCBX partner legal commitment to indemnify or reimburse losses. The credit enhancement asset is relieved as credit enhancement payments and recoveries are received from the CCBX partner or taken from the partner’s cash reserve account. Agreements with our CCBX partners also provide protection to the Bank from fraud by indemnifying or reimbursing incurred fraud losses. BaaS fraud includes noncredit fraud losses on loans and deposits originated through partners. Fraud losses are recorded when incurred as losses in noninterest expense, and the enhancement received from the CCBX partner is recorded in noninterest income, resulting in a net impact of zero to the income statement. Many CCBX partners also pledge a cash reserve account at the Bank which the Bank can collect from when losses occur that is then replenished by the partner on a regular interval. Although agreements with our CCBX partners provide for credit enhancements that provide protection to the Bank from credit and fraud losses by indemnifying or reimbursing incurred credit and fraud losses, if our partner is unable to fulfill their contracted obligation then the bank would be exposed to additional loan and deposit losses if the cash flows on the loans were not sufficient to fund the reimbursement of loan losses, as a result of this counterparty risk. If a CCBX partner does not replenish their cash reserve account the Bank may consider an alternative plan for funding the cash reserve. This may involve the possibility of adjusting the funding amounts or timelines to better align with the partner’s specific situation. If a mutually agreeable funding plan is not agreed to, the Bank could declare the agreement in default, take over servicing and cease paying the partner for servicing the loan and providing credit enhancements. The Bank would evaluate any remaining credit enhancement asset from the CCBX partner in the event the partner failed to determine if a write-off is appropriate. If a write-off occurs, the Bank would retain the full yield and any fee income on the loan portfolio going forward, and our BaaS loan expense would decrease once default occurred and payments to the CCBX partner were stopped.

    The Bank records contractual interest earned from the borrower on CCBX partner loans in interest income, adjusted for origination costs which are paid or payable to the CCBX partner. BaaS loan expense represents the amount paid or payable to partners for credit and fraud enhancements and originating & servicing CCBX loans. To determine net revenue (Net BaaS loan income) earned from CCBX loan relationships, the Bank takes BaaS loan interest income and deducts BaaS loan expense to arrive at Net BaaS loan income (A reconciliation of the non-GAAP measures are set forth in the preceding section of this earnings release.) which can be compared to interest income on the Company’s community bank loans.

    The following table illustrates how CCBX partner loan income and expenses are recorded in the financial statements:

    Loan income and related loan expense   Three Months Ended
    (dollars in thousands; unaudited)   September 30,
    2024    		   June 30,
    2024    		   September 30,
    2023
    Yield on loans (1)     17.35 %     17.77 %     17.05 %
    BaaS loan interest income   $ 67,692     $ 60,203     $ 56,279  
    Less: BaaS loan expense     32,612       29,076       23,003  
    Net BaaS loan income (2)   $ 35,080     $ 31,127     $ 33,276  
    Net BaaS loan income divided by average BaaS loans (1)(2)     8.99 %     9.19 %     10.08 %

    (1) Annualized calculation for quarterly periods shown.
    (2) A reconciliation of the non-GAAP measures are set forth in the preceding section of this earnings release.

    An increase in average CCBX loans receivable resulted in increased interest income on CCBX loans during the quarter ended September 30, 2024 compared to the quarter ended June 30, 2024. The increase in average CCBX loans receivable was primarily due to growth in the CCBX loan portfolio as part of our strategy to optimize the CCBX loan portfolio and strengthen our balance sheet through originating higher quality new loans and enhanced credit standards. Increased interest rates and growth in CCBX loans and deposits has resulted in increases in interest income and expense for the quarter ended September 30, 2024 compared to the quarter ended September 30, 2023.

    The following tables are a summary of the interest components, direct fees, and expenses of BaaS for the periods indicated and are not inclusive of all income and expense related to BaaS.

    Interest income   Three Months Ended
    (dollars in thousands; unaudited)   September 30,
    2024    		   June 30,
    2024    		   September 30,
    2023
    Loan interest income   $ 67,692   $ 60,203   $ 56,279
    Total BaaS interest income   $ 67,692   $ 60,203   $ 56,279
    Interest expense   Three Months Ended
    (dollars in thousands; unaudited)   September 30,
    2024    		   June 30,
    2024    		   September 30,
    2023
    BaaS interest expense   $ 24,819   $ 24,119   $ 20,384
    Total BaaS interest expense   $ 24,819   $ 24,119   $ 20,384
    BaaS income   Three Months Ended
    (dollars in thousands; unaudited)   September 30,
    2024    		   June 30,
    2024    		   September 30,
    2023
    BaaS program income:            
    Servicing and other BaaS fees   $ 1,044   $ 1,525   $ 997
    Transaction fees     1,696     1,309     1,036
    Interchange fees     1,853     1,625     1,216
    Reimbursement of expenses     1,843     1,637     1,152
    BaaS program income     6,436     6,096     4,401
    BaaS indemnification income:            
    BaaS credit enhancements     70,108     60,826     25,926
    BaaS fraud enhancements     2,084     1,784     2,850
    BaaS indemnification income     72,192     62,610     28,776
    Total noninterest BaaS income   $ 78,628   $ 68,706   $ 33,177
     

    Servicing and other BaaS fees decreased $481,000 in the quarter ended September 30, 2024 compared to the quarter ended June 30, 2024 while transaction fees and interchange fees increased $387,000 and $228,000, respectively. We expect servicing and other BaaS fees to decrease and transaction and interchange fees to increase as partner activity grows and contracted minimum fees are replaced with recurring fees and then exceed those minimum fees.

    BaaS loan and fraud expense:   Three Months Ended
    (dollars in thousands; unaudited)   September 30,
    2024    		   June 30,
    2024    		   September 30,
    2023
    BaaS loan expense   $ 32,612   $ 29,076   $ 23,003
    BaaS fraud expense     2,084     1,784     2,850
    Total BaaS loan and fraud expense   $ 34,696   $ 30,860   $ 25,853
     

    A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/2d50cba0-18d9-4c78-8e96-0418250a8658

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Economics: Samsung Music Frame WICKED Edition is Now Available

    Source: Samsung

    Samsung today announced availability for Music Frame WICKED Edition, a customizable wireless speaker designed to seamlessly blend into any environment and enhance the home entertainment experience. This new edition, created in partnership with Universal Pictures’ spectacular film adaptation of the iconic stage musical (in cinemas November 22), brings a unique combination of art and technology to offer consumers a personalized and immersive audio experience. It’s available for purchase starting today on Samsung.com and at the Samsung 837 retail experience store in New York City.
    “Music Frame represents an entirely new category of audio – a customizable speaker that doubles as a picture frame. Not only can you display your favorite print photos – you can also create an orchestra of sound with your favorite playlist,” said James Fishler, Senior Vice President, Home Entertainment & Display Division at Samsung Electronics America. “Music and art evoke such strong memories, and Music Frame offers a seamless way to capture both in one innovative device. This limited-time Music Frame WICKED Edition beautifully brings this concept to life, helping you unlock the music within.”

    Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Jon M. Chu (“Crazy Rich Asians,” “In the Heights”), Wicked is the untold story of the witches of Oz, starring Emmy-, Grammy- and Tony-winning powerhouse Cynthia Erivo (“Harriet,” Broadway’s “The Color Purple”) as Elphaba, a young woman misunderstood because of her unusual green skin, who has yet to discover her true power, and Grammy-winning, multi-platinum recording artist and global superstar Ariana Grande as Glinda, a popular young woman gilded by privilege and ambition, who has yet to discover her true heart.
    Unlocking the Music Within Homes With “Wicked”
    In collaboration with Wicked, Music Frame WICKED Edition offers a unique combination of functionality and aesthetic appeal. It includes a Wicked edition Photo Frame with three photo cards featuring autographs and images of the film’s beloved characters, including one exclusive picture only available with Music Frame WICKED Edition.
    Further enhancing the experience, Music Frame WICKED Edition comes with a specially designed limited edition Wicked-themed bezel and customized Wicked-themed packaging, adding an extra touch of excitement and making the unboxing experience truly enchanting.

    Music Frame is also fully customizable, allowing users to effortlessly match their home decor with photo frames and optional art panels. The sleek and slim design, combined with a discreet wall-mount bracket and slim power cable, ensures the Music Frame blends seamlessly into any environment.
    Elevating Homes With Immersive Sound and Smart Features
    With its rich, immersive sound, Music Frame WICKED Edition enables users to transform their living space into a surround sound haven. Equipped with Dolby Atmos1 technology, it creates a multidimensional audio experience that brings every note and sound to life. Music Frame can also work closely with other compatible Samsung screens and soundbars using Q-Symphony2, which offers a more immersive, three-dimensional sound experience.
    Boasting two-channel 120W sound quality, Music Frame WICKED Edition incorporates clear and powerful sound via SpaceFit Sound Pro for optimized audio based on the acoustics of a given room, as well as Adaptive Sound that adjusts audio settings based on content to deliver premium audio performance. These features ensure that Music Frame WICKED Edition offers exceptional sound quality and versatility, making it a perfect addition to any home.
    The built-in Alexa3 and Chromecast offer easy smart home integration with supported devices, while Airplay and Tap Sound4 provide seamless connectivity with Android and iOS devices. Versatile connectivity options — including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Optical — ensure the device meets all audio needs.
    Music Frame WICKED Edition is available now on Samsung.com, as well as at the Samsung 837 retail experience store in New York City. For more information, please visit Samsung.com.

    MIL OSI Economics –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: AMERICA/HAITI – Celebration in Pourcine for access to drinking water and the launch of the Scout movement of the Catholic Church

    Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI

    Monday, 28 October 2024

    Pourcine (Agenzia Fides) – While Haiti remains immersed in a deep crisis, the small mountain town of Pourcine has found reasons to celebrate: the arrival of drinking water and the launch of its first group of Scouts of the Catholic Church.“In the parish of Our Lady of Help, 70 children, young people and adults have participated in the inauguration of the KIRO movement, a Catholic branch of Scouts. It was a weekend of training, games and songs,” said Father Massimo Miraglio, Camillian missionary and parish priest of this community in the mountainous hinterland of Jérémie, to Fides.Meanwhile, the construction of the aqueduct continues with the help of the local population, who transport materials, often on foot and barefoot, despite the climatic difficulties. “Although the bad weather has slowed down the work, we have reached the water tanks,” reports Father Miraglio. “While the connection of the reservoirs and the main pipeline to the springs of Pourcine is being completed, residents have begun to drink water from a temporary pipeline, a moment of celebration for the community that can now access clean water close to their homes.”“All this always with hope and with the aim of building an increasingly united, supportive and willing to work together Christian community,” concludes the Camillian.Returning to the social context of the entire Caribbean country, local agencies report that after a period of relative calm, the “Viv Ansanm” gang coalition has intensified its attacks in the suburbs of the capital in recent days, where they now control up to 80% of the capital. This violence has aggravated food insecurity, with transport routes blocked and the countryside taken over by gangs. Despite the approval of the UN Security Council to deploy a multinational force to support the Haitian police, the operation lacks the resources and personnel necessary to deal with the crisis. The Haitian transitional government has asked that this force be transformed into a UN Blue Helmets peacekeeping mission, but this initiative has not gone ahead. In addition, gangs that previously mainly attacked Haitian police, militias and government infrastructure now appear to be targeting foreign mission vehicles.Amid this chaos, forced displacement has also increased. More than 10,000 Haitians left their homes in the last week alone, and last September the number of displaced is estimated to have exceeded 700,000, almost doubling in just six months. (AP) (Agenzia Fides, 28/10/2024)
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  • MIL-OSI Europe: ASIA/IRAN – Archbishop of Tehran: Putting aside the designs of supremacy is key to restoring peace

    Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI

    OFMConv

    Tehran (Agenzia Fides) – “We must abandon the aspiration to assert our supremacy and stop investing time, energy and resources in techniques and strategies that distance us from the light,” says Conventual Franciscan Dominique Joseph Mathieu, Archbishop of Tehran-Ispahan of the Latins and future Cardinal and stresses that this is the key to restoring peace in the Middle East and in the world.The Iranian capital, where Archbishop Mathieu exercises his ministry, was hit on the night between Friday and Saturday by an air strike by the Israeli armed forces, along with other areas of the country. The Israeli attack on Iran, coordinated with the United States, hit military targets. According to the Anbamed website, the assessment of the attack has divided opinions in Israel and Tehran: “Netanyahu claims to have given Iran a lesson it will not forget, while the opposition says it was a theatrical action to show firmness, but that in reality it was ‘a caress’, as the minister himself, Ben Gvir, described it. The same type of debate continues in Tehran. But the spiritual leader Khamenei has warned against maximalist and minimalist exaggerations.” “Pope Francis – affirms Archbishop Mathieu in a conversation with Fides Agency – constantly reminds us of the urgency of putting an end to wars, which only bring death and darkness. It is time to face conflicts with courage and transparency. Only through authentic encounter with the other can the spark of fraternity emerge in our common home, which God, made love, has entrusted to us.” Tehran’s politicians and military maintain their position that there will be a reaction, according to the Anbamed website: “Israeli intelligence services say that Tehran could launch up to 100 ballistic missiles in retaliation.” Today, a meeting of the Security Council is also being held in New York, convened by Iran and supported by Russia, China and Algeria. It seems that the possibility of not being absorbed by the vortex of violence is suspended in the prevalence of political options that recognize the prospect of a truce and the end of reprisals as the only realistic way out of the chaos and end the pain of entire peoples. Archbishop Mathieu, who will be created a cardinal by Pope Francis on December 7, concludes: “by walking together, despite our differences, we can be true witnesses of peace. Let us not limit ourselves to dreaming about it: let us build it with concrete actions of reconciliation and unity.” The Archdiocese of Tehran-Ispahan of the Latins is responsible for the pastoral care of all Catholics (approximately 2,000 faithful) of the Latin rite in Iran, divided into 4 parishes. (GV) (Agenzia Fides, 28/10/2024)
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  • MIL-OSI Europe: AFRICA/DR CONGO – Controversial debate over proposed constitutional amendment

    Source: Agenzia Fides – MIL OSI

    Kinshasa (Agenzia Fides) – The announcement by President Felix Tshisekedi that he will set up a commission next year to draft a new constitution for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is causing a controversial debate in the country.”Next year I will appoint a commission made up of people from different sectors of society to draft a new constitution that is adapted to the realities of the Democratic Republic of Congo and no longer hinders the functioning of the country,” said the Congolese Head of State during his visit to Kisangani last week.The central point of the constitutional amendment is the abolition of the limit of two presidential mandates, which gives Tshisekedi the opportunity to run for a third term in the next presidential elections. The current Head of State has already been elected twice and, under current regulations, cannot run in the next presidential elections. The proposal to abolish the two-term limit was already put forward in 2015 by Tshisekedi’s predecessor Joseph Kabila, but had provoked opposition from members of civil society and Catholic bishops (see Fides, 16/11/2015). Today, it is Kabila’s own party, now in opposition, that is opposing such a constitutional amendment. The former president’s opposition alliance “Front commun pour le Congo” (FCC) rejects the draft constitutional amendment “firmly and categorically”. Opposition MP Moïse Katumbi also stated that “the constitution will not be changed”. “A change to the constitution is very dangerous because it can further destabilize the country in the current situation in which it is unstable,” said the Secretary General of the Congolese Episcopal Conference (CENCO), Donatien Nshole, in a television interview. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 28/10/2024)
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  • MIL-OSI Security: Defense News: NAVFAC MIDLANT Environmental, Chesapeake Bay Program volunteers support 2024 NAS Oceana STEM Lab for nearly 8,000 Students

    Source: United States Navy

    The free event, which has been held nearly every year since 2016, allows 5th graders from Virginia Beach City and Chesapeake Public Schools to receive an exclusive sneak peek of the Air Show performances, including the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels and the F-22 Raptor Demonstration Team; vendor booths and activities; and numerous STEM Laboratory exhibits. It’s estimated nearly 8,000 students and more than 1,500 teachers/chaperones were in attendance this year.

    Students were able to engage in a multitude of environment-based activities to learn how to become better stewards of the environment, such as play a Jeopardy-style trivia game to test their knowledge of the Chesapeake Bay, recycling, and watersheds; and compete in a head-to-head recycling relay to determine if discarded items were recyclable or trash. Additionally, many of the questions asked were derived from the Virginia Standards of Learning curriculum to help reinforce state education, and meet stewardship and literacy goals embodied in the EPA Executive Order 13508 for Chesapeake Bay Protection and Restoration outreach commitments.

    “It was fun to engage with students on topics so close to where we all live – seeing what they know, and share information to help protect the Chesapeake Bay,” said Vincent Orazi, Natural Resource Management Specialist. “It was good experience.”

    An interactive watershed model further showed students how pollutants, such as pet waste, oil, fertilizer, and detergents can adversely impact water quality by entering our waterways, pollute stormwater, and impact outside activities like swimming and fishing.

    “It’s great to see the students captivated by our hands-on demonstration,” said Dawn Friedrichs, PWD Oceana EV Drinking Water and Environmental Management System Program Manager, noting students used oil absorbent fabric to cleanup oil spills in aquatic and marine environments in the display. “Interaction and visualization go a long way in helping them retain what they’ve learned.”

    Students also learned the importance of recycling, proper waste disposal, natural resource conservation, and how to prevent household and industrial pollutants, trash, and yard debris from entering our waterways.

    “I’ve been participating in the NAS Oceana Air Show STEM Lab since 2017, and I’m amazed every year by the great questions asked by these students,” said Tara Fisher, PWD Oceana EV Water, Tanks, and Petroleum, Oil, and Lubricants (POL) Program Manager. “We really enjoy interacting with them, and we hope our message of stormwater pollution prevention sticks with them throughout their lives.”

    NAVFAC MIDLANT provides facilities engineering, public works and environmental products and services across an area of responsibility that spans from South Carolina to Maine, as far west as Illinois, and down to Indiana. As an integral member of the Commander, Navy Region Mid-Atlantic team, NAVFAC MIDLANT provides leadership through the Regional Engineer organization to ensure the region’s facilities and infrastructure are managed efficiently and effectively.

    For additional information about NAVFAC MIDLANT on social media, follow our activities on Facebook at www.facebook.com/navfacmidatlantic and on Instagram @navfacmidatlantic.

    MIL Security OSI –