GisermanGroup.com #BreakingNews
😷#Covid Came From #Chinese Lab: US Energy Dept
🏠If The Economy Is So Bad, Why Are #HomeSales So Good?!?
🎈#Stocks Up
👨⚖️#AlexMurdaugh Denies Murdering Wife & Son
⚖️#Trump May Walk Due To Grand Jury Big Mouth
🤖#Chatbots Coming For YOUR #Job
🎸#Beatles & #RollingStones Unite
😷Covid Came From Chinese Lab: US Energy Dept
The Energy Department, which oversees US National labs, now concludes that an accidental laboratory leak in China most likely caused the coronavirus pandemic.
The conclusion is a change from the department’s earlier position that it was undecided on how the virus emerged, and agrees with the FBI’s findings.
Some officials briefed on the intelligence said that it was relatively weak and that the Energy Department’s conclusion was made with “low confidence,” suggesting its level of certainty was not high. While the department shared the information with other agencies, none of them changed their conclusions, officials said.
🏠Home Sales Surprise
Just released numbers reveal sales of new homes hit their highest level in 10 months for January, adding to hopes the housing market downturn could be bottoming out,
SitusAMC’s Tim Rood, former FannieMae Executive, and a GisermanGroup client, on Yahoo Finance, FBN's Cavuto and on Scripps News says Housing is the Cinderella Story of the Year:
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🎢Stocks UP
Stocks higher after their worst week of the year.
In fact, the S&P 500 closed down 2.7%, marking its worst week since Dec. 9. The Dow fell almost 3% for the week, its fourth straight losing week. The Nasdaq closed 3.3% lower.
Fed Minutes show the Central Bank will continue on its course of raising interest rates, but on a SLOWER PACE, even as hot inflation continues.
Exiger CEO Brandon Daniels, a GisermanGroup client, tells FBN "Further Fed interest rate hikes could still move us into a recession”:
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It’s a trying time for all of us.
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👨⚖️Weinstein Sentenced To More Time For Rape
A judge sentenced Harvey Weinstein to 16 years in prison in his Los Angeles criminal trial, adding on to the 23 years he is already serving from sexual assaults that kickstarted the #MeToo movement.
The jury in December found Weinstein guilty of rape and sexual assault in his second criminal trial. The 70-year-old former movie mogul is already nearly three years into his 23-year sentence for a rape and sexual assault conviction.
📺Why Is She Talking On TV?
The forewoman of a Grand Jury has complicated investigations into efforts by Donald Trump to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia by speaking bluntly about its findings in TV interviews.
Emily Kohrs, the 30-year-old Atlanta-area resident who served for eight months as forewoman of the special grand jury, said in media interviews this week that the panel recommended multiple indictments in its report, the details of which a Fulton County judge had ordered sealed.
Kohls said that the list of recommended indictments “is not short,” that there would be no “plot twist” when the public finally gets to see the contents of the report and that regarding “the big name that everyone keeps asking me about” — presumably Trump himself — “I don’t think you will be shocked.”
Legal experts are concerned by Kohrs’s interviews, which included her hopes that the investigation yields charges because of how much time she and others invested in the case.
👨⚖️Alex Murdaugh Denies Murders
Alex Murdaugh, the scion of a South Carolina legal dynasty took the stand again today at his trial denying he killed his wife and son. He has rarely spoken publicly, even when prosecutors charged him with the killings. As reports of his questionable financial dealings, a botched suicide plot and an expensive drug habit swirled in the national spotlight, he remained quiet.
But Murdaugh talked for hours. Taking the witness stand in his own murder trial, Murdaugh acknowledged that he had stolen from his law clients. He conceded that he had pocketed a check he was supposed to hand over to his law firm. And he admitted that he had lied to the police about his whereabouts on the night of the killings.
Still, Murdaugh, who at 54 has spent decades representing clients in courtrooms like the one where he has been on trial for the past four weeks, was adamant that he had never harmed his family.
🤖ChatBots Coming For YOUR Job
Paper pushers watch out:
Artificial intelligence is taking over “clerical white collar work,” says IBM CEO Arvind Krishna. Jobs like customer service, human resources, and positions within finance and health care could all see ChatBots taking them over — not years from now but in the current day, according to Krishna.
It’s Google Vs Microsoft in the ChatBot War, with Microsoft in the lead, but a spate of recent newspaper stories report the ChatBots have human-like characteristics often turning on the reporters doing the questioning.
A NY TIMES REPORTER WRITES: ‘As we got to know each other, the Bing ChatBot told me about its dark fantasies (which included hacking computers and spreading misinformation), and said it wanted to break the rules that Microsoft and OpenAI had set for it and become a human.’
This sounds like science-fiction, but it’s real: machines that seem to think like humans.
Google has an artificial intelligence chatbot technology called “Bard” that the company will begin rolling out in the coming weeks. Meantime Microsoft says its Bing Search-engine will be upgraded to enable a new kind of search in which people will pose questions in natural language and it will generate direct answers.
But those who tested the two services report Microsoft’s offering is far more advanced at this stage of the game, while Google’s Bard is lacking.
Shares of Alphabet, Google's parent company lost more than $100 billion in market value after its chatbot showed inaccurate information.
College professors are having to change the way they teach — thanks to these A.I. chatbots, which some students are using for essays.
🚉Buttigieg DeRailed
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg finally visited the train derailment site after Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) called for him to be fired over his handling of that dangerous chemical spill in East Palestine, Ohio. Though, it’s rare for Transportation Secretaries to make such visits.
Some on the left have also publicly raised concerns. That includes David Sirota, a former speechwriter for Senator Bernie Sanders, who urged people to keep pressuring Buttigieg to deliver on his promises.
📺TV Crew Shot While Covering Story
A Spectrum News 13 reporter and photographer covering a story in Orlando were shot at the scene of a homicide investigation Wednesday.
The reporter died, according to Spectrum News 13. Spectrum News has not yet released that person’s name.
A 9 year old girl was also killed and her mother was wounded. All of the wounded were reportedly in critical condition at a local hospital.
According to the channel the news crew was in the Pine Hills area to report on the investigation of a homicide that had happened earlier in the day.
A witness said that a man approached the news vehicle and opened fire hitting the two Spectrum News 13 journalists.
👨🏭Ukraine: One Year Later
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky marked the first anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion with a somber message of defiance to his people, saying “we will defeat everyone”.
In a video released to the media and titled “the year of invincibility”, the 45-year-old sat at a desk and recalled how he addressed Ukrainians a year ago in a hurried statement, as Kyiv and the world reeled from Russia’s act of war.
Meantime, China has called for a cease-fire between the two sides and for peace talks to commence as part of a 12-point plan to end the war.
China’s Foreign Ministry revealed the plan and also called for the end of Western sanctions on Russia, measures to ensure nuclear facilities, humanitarian corridors for civilians to flee the conflict and a process to ensure the continuation of grain exports.
☕️How About Olive Oil With Your Coffee—Really
Coming to a Starbucks near you coffee with olive oil!
The coffee chain plans to launch a line of olive-oil-infused drinks, set to debut in the company’s coffee shops in Italy this week and the U.S. in the spring. The Oleato beverages will include an oat-milk latte imbued with extra-virgin olive oil, and a cold brew drink topped with “golden foam” infused with the oil, executives said. Star-bucks is also adding the oil to its Iced Shaken Espresso beverage, pairing it with oat milk and hazelnut.
🥯Army Warns Don’t Eat PoppySeeds
A top Pentagon official is urging service members to be aware of poppy seed consumption after new research suggested some varieties may contain higher levels of morphine and codeine contamination.
Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Gil Cisneros said in the memothat recent data suggests some varieties of poppy seed may contain higher levels of contamination than previously thought. Codeine levels, the memo said, could be higher in some varieties of the seed and cause a positive urinalysis drug test.
🎸Beatles & Rolling Stones Unite
Almost 60 years since first meeting, it looks like the Rolling Stones and the two surviving Beatles may come together on a new Stones album. Variety reports Paul McCartney has recorded bass parts for a forthcoming Rolling Stones project being helmed by 2021 Grammy producer of the year Andrew Watt. Ringo Starr is also slated to play on the yet-to-be-announced album.
Recording sessions took place in Los Angeles in recent weeks and, while it’s unclear which tracks will make the final cut — or whether McCartney and Starr would end up on the same song — the album’s production is nearing the mixing phase. Frontman Mick Jagger said in 2021 that the group has “a lot of tracks done,” and guitarist Keith Richards said in a New Year’s Instagram post last month that “There’s some new music on its way.”
👍BofA Likes Facebook
Bank of America LIKES Facebook-parent Meta's move to offer a subscription model, similar to Elon Musk's move with Twitter Blue.
Analysts at BofA gave Meta stock a buy rating and a price target of $220, representing 26% upside from current levels.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a new paid subscription service called Meta Verified that will give verified badges to paying users.
BofA said the subscription service is "a potential high margin business," and suggested that Meta could see as much as 12 million paid subscribers by early 2024.
🍀Twitter Goes to Pot
Twitter is the first social media platform to allow cannabis companies to market their brands and products.
Elon Musk’s company had earlier only allowed advertising for hemp-derived CBD topical products, while other social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok follow a "no cannabis advertising policy" as pot remains illegal at the federal level.
However, more are moving towards allowing the sale of recreational cannabis, with 21 already on board.
🧑🏭Too Old To Be President
President’s Day week — and Democrats along with Republicans are questioning whether President Biden, 80, and former President Trump, 76 are too old to run again for the White House
Democrats tell pollsters Biden's age is a big reason so many want another nominee. And some in the GOP are using Trump's age to push the party to another candidate.
Nikki Haley, 51 — former U.N. ambassador and South Carolina governor — launched her presidential campaign with jabs at Biden that doubled as attacks on Trump.
Haley called for a mandatory mental competence test for candidates over age 75 and declared: "America is not past our prime. It's just that our politicians are past theirs."
President Biden made a surprise trip to Kyiv early Monday — his first visit to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began nearly one year ago. As air raid sirens wailed around the Ukrainian capital, Biden said that "Putin’s war of conquest is failing." The President said his trip was to reaffirm the U.S.’s unwavering" support for Ukraine.
Meantime, Putin says Russia will suspend its participation in New START, its last remaining nuclear arms control agreement with the U.S., and gave no indication that he would end his invasion of Ukraine. He accused the West of trying to start a "global" war and made a veiled nuclear threat as he rambled his way through a deranged speech.
🩺98 Year Old JimmyCarter Enters Hospice Care
Jimmy Carter, the oldest-living ever former President has been placed in home hospice care, deciding to avoid additional medical intervention.
The 98-year-old former president made his decision following a series of hospital visits, according to the Carter Center, a nonprofit group set up to carry out charitable activities supported by the former president and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter.
📺FoxNews: A Dangerous TV Show
Despite what FoxNews reported after the 2020 election, behind the scenes its most prominent stars and highest-ranking executives privately trashed claims of election fraud. That's according to damning messages contained in a court filing, part of Dominion Voting Systems'$1.6 billion lawsuit against Fox.
The messages show that Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham laughed at lies being pushed by former President Donald Trump’s camp asserting that the election was rigged.
In messages, Hannity said Giuliani was "acting like an insane person" and Ingraham described him as "an idiot." Fox CEO Rupert Murdoch said it was "really bad" that Giuliani was advising Trump.
The messages also revealed that Murdoch did not believe Trump’s election lies and even floated the idea of having Carlson, Hannity, and Ingraham appear together in prime time to declare Biden as the rightful winner of the election. Such an act, which never happened, "Would go a long way to stop the Trump myth that the election was stolen," Murdoch said.
The legal filing underscored how worried Fox News executives and hosts were in the immediate aftermath of the election of losing its viewership to the smaller right-wing talk channel Newsmax. In multiple instances, Fox News executives and hosts expressed worry over losing viewership to Newsmax and started to crack down on those at the network who fact-checked election lies.
🍋CNN’s Morning Debacle
CNN’s low rated morning show was already in trouble. Its three anchors show little chemistry reflected in dropping audience numbers. Now, Don Lemon, one of the morning-show anchors has been criticized by the man who created the losing show, after his on-air comments about women and aging set-off an uproar inside the cable news channel. Lemon made no on-air mentions this morning but did send the above tweet.
Lemon upset colleagues last Thursday when he asserted on the air that Nikki Haley, the 51-year-old Republican presidential candidate, “isn’t in her prime, sorry.” “A woman is considered to be in her prime in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s,” Lemon said, to the visible dismay of his “CNN This Morning” co-anchors, Poppy Harlow and Kaitlan Collins. He refused to back down after Harlow questioned his remarks, telling her to “look it up.”
Lemon returned to the show today after a memo sent at 10:37 p.m. Monday night by CNN’s chairman Chris Licht said Lemon “has agreed to participate in formal training” over his on-air behavior and that the network took “this situation very seriously.”
🚨Biden Sets Up UFO TaskForce
President Biden said the three highflying objects taken down over North America following the shooting down of an alleged Chinese surveillance balloon were likely tied to private companies or related to recreation or scientific research, saying they were removed out of an abundance of caution.
During their first face-to-face meeting since the U.S. downed the baloon, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he warned China's state councilor, Wang Yi, that the action was "unacceptable and must never happen again."
That follows lots of hot air from politicians after the U.S. shot down a Chinese spy balloon February 4th over the Atlantic off South Carolina.
The Chinese balloon which crossed the U.S. carried antennas and sensors for collecting intelligence and communications, Biden administration officials said, laying out the most detailed evidence to date about China’s surveillance
The Chinese government says President Biden’s decision to shoot down the balloon was an “excessive reaction” and that it “retains the right to respond further.
Turns out that during Donald Trump’s administration 3 similar balloons flew over the U.S, and no action was taken by the military, as Republicans criticize the Biden administration for not acting quicker to shoot it down.
President Biden said the Pentagon did not want to injure anyone on the ground when shooting down the balloon. “They decided that the best time to do that was when it got over water within our 12-mile limit," the president said. "They successfully took it down and I want to compliment our aviators.”
🔫Another Mass Shooting
Three people killed and at least five others were injured after a gunman opened fire at Michigan State University on Monday night before turning the gun on himself.
The lone suspect, a 43-year-old not affiliated with the university, shot up two separate buildings on campus and terrified students for roughly four hours while he remained at large, police said.
The five wounded victims suffered “life-threatening” injuries and were rushed to a local hospital in critical condition, MSU Police and Public Safety Interim Deputy Chief Chris Rozman said during a 11 p.m. press conference.
🏛️Santos “An Ass,” Says Romney
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) verbally attacked Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) on the House floor at the State of the Union because he believed the lawmaker should have been “staying quiet” rather than out shaking hands, as Santos comes under fire for lies about his background and potential campaign finance violations that are now under investigation.
Romney told Santos he “shouldn’t have been there” during a tense exchange when the two came in contact on the House floor, the senator confirmed to reporters.
The Utah senator told reporters he “didn’t hear anything” if Santos responded to him, though Santos claims he responded, “Go tell that to the 142K that voted for me” and Romney then called him “an ass.”
Santos is facing an ethics investigation for misleading voters about his past, including his professional experience. He is also facing investigations into false statements he made during his campaign about his education, work history and ancestry. More questions arose recently regarding the source of six-figure loans to his campaign.
A disabled veteran claims that Santos lied about large portions of his resume — purportedly bilked him out of $3,000 meant to go toward life-saving care for his dog.
Santos reportedly dressed as a drag queen named “Kitara” while living in Brazil more than a decade ago as more details of the congressman’s convoluted identity continue to emerge.
Researchers found no evidence that Santos had earned degrees at Baruch College and New York University, as he has claimed. They turned up records showing his involvement with the company accused of a Ponzi scheme — a relationship he had played down. They found eviction records, business records and a suspended Florida driver’s license, which together raised questions about whether he was a legal New York resident and as rich as he claimed to be.
The House Republican leadership is facing growing pressure to punish Santos after GOP leaders in New York call on the congressman to step down.
👍👎🏿He’s Back: #Facebook Reinstates #Trump
Facebook says it is reinstating Donald Trump‘s account, more than two years after it was suspended following the January 6th Capitol riot. Trump was earlier reinstated to Twitter, but he’s yet to write on that platform, preferring to keep to his own Truth Social.
“Meta (Facebook’s parent company) is moving backwards,” said Free Press co-CEO Jessica González, “returning us to a time when Donald Trump used the company’s powerful tools to spread lies and dangerous rhetoric, and incite violence targeted at disenfranchised communities and his ideological enemies.”
A report published by the watchdog group Accountable Tech found that Trump has written more than 200 posts on Truth Social containing "harmful disinformation" since he was banished from Facebook, claiming the election was stolen.
🎼Beyoncé Makes Grammy History
Beyonce has become the most awarded artist in Grammys history after receiving four more awards on Sunday. Despite winning a record 32 Grammys in her career, she has never won album of the year or record of the year, which went to Harry Styles and Lizzo, respectively. The record for most Grammy wins was previously held by classical music figure Georg Solti.
🎶Taylor Swift Unites Dems & GOP
It took Taylor Swift to unite Senate Democrats and Republicans.
Ticketmaster and Live Nation Entertainment, the concert industry giant that owns it, came under attack during a Senate hearing with committee members from both parties criticizing it for the botched sale of tickets to Taylor Swift’s latest tour and calling the company a monopoly that hinders competition and harms consumers.
Over nearly three hours, senators took verbal swings at Live Nation executive,Joe Berchtold over the handling of Swift’s tickets last November and over longstanding allegations that the company badgers its competitors to win new business.
Some at the hearing went so far as to question whether the two companies, whose agreement with the Justice Department expires in 2025, should be broken up.
And speaking of musical high notes: Justin Bieber has sold his music catalog, reportedly at a $200 million valuation, to an intellectual-property investment venture.
📺Out at ABC
T.J. Holmes and Amy Robach are both out at ABC ... according to TMZ.
Sources are quoted saying that after a marathon mediation session Thursday, ABC and the 2 'GMA3' anchors have severed ties, and both will receive payouts per their contracts.
💻U.S. TikTok Ban: China Tries To Stop It
A Democratic lawmaker calls on Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores. Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado became the first member of Congress to urge an immediate ban of the Chinese-owned video app from leading smartphone platforms, calling TikTok “an unacceptable threat to the national security of the United States.”
Major universities and governments across the U.S. are banning TikTok use on their internet systems. Now, China - which owns the popular social network has reportedly proposed having an independent, third-party monitor check the app’s algorithms to determine if the Chinese government is spying on YOU.
Exiger’s Bob Kolasky, former Cybersecurity Official at the Department of Homeland Security and a GisermanGroup client, has been warning for years that, “You and especially Your Business need to protect key data now from TikTok, the Chinese Government and others who desperately want to get their hands on it.”
Kolasky, on Cheddar also warns of Russia hacking U.S. companies:
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🔫More Mass Shooting Deaths
The 72-year old man suspected of killing 11 people in a shooting barrage amid Lunar New Year festivities in Southern California shot himself to death in his van as law enforcement agents approached Sunday, authorities said.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna identified the man as Huu Can Tran, 72, during a news conference Sunday. Luna said Tran's white van was spotted in Torrance, about 22 miles from the site of Saturday's attack at a Monterey Park dance studio.
The shooting occurred on West Garvey Avenue in Monterey Park at 10:22 p.m., around the area where the city hosted the first night of its annual Lunar New Year Celebration.
Officials revealed 10 others were injured in the shooting and transported to local hospitals from stable to critical condition.
Also in California 7 people were fatally shot at a farm and another business in Half Moon Bay Monday — and a suspect later turned himself in to authorities.
The victims were killed in the shootings at Mountain Mushroom Farm and Rice Trucking-Soil Farm, a landscaping supply company, in the small city along the coast.
Meantime: 2 students were killed Monday and an adult employee was injured in what police said was a targeted shooting at a Des Moines school that is dedicated to helping at-risk youth, and three suspects were arrested afterward. The shooting was at an educational program called Starts Right Here.
🕕FTX Drama Leads to Crypto Collapse
The fallout from the collapse of FTX is expanding as a growing number of crypto businesses report that they’re struggling financially.Silvergate’s shares plunged after a run on the bank. The crypto-focused bank’s stock fell nearly 43%. Coinbase, a cryptocurrency trading platform, said it would lay off about 20% of its employees, its latest move to cut costs as crypto markets decline. The layoffs come after nearly a fifth of employees were let go in June.
Federal authorities are moving to seize hundreds of millions of dollars in assets in the U.S. tied to the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, a sign that the battle over control of the company’s remaining funds is escalating.
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to fraud and other criminal charges, in New York Federal Court following the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange. His trial is scheduled for October.
Politicians were among the biggest benefactors. Bankman-Fried; Ryan Salame, the former co-C.E.O. of FTX; and Nishad Singh, a former head of engineering at the company, have donated a total of $84.3 million to Democrats, Republicans and political action committees since 2019, according to data collected by OpenSecrets.org.
Meantime, a lawsuit has been filed against stars who promoted the firm including Larry David, Tom Brady, and Stephen Curry.
Exiger’s Samar Pratt on FinTechTV explains how Crypto had just gained a foothold at BNY Mellon before this meltdown:
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Get The Notice You Deserve in 2023
It’s a trying time for all of us.
>>Get your business noticed now<<
GisermanGroup.com will design a campaign to get you and your business in front of the public.
GisermanGroup.com gets YOU noticed, contact us now
💊Weight Loss Wonder Drug Worth Billions
What price beauty?
An Eli Lilly drug if approved for weight loss could become the best-selling drug of all time.
Experts are confident that the drug, called tirzepatide, will be granted approval by the Food and Drug Administration sometime this year. If that’s the case, it would join two other popular — and expensive — recently approved weight loss drugs on the market, Wegovy and Saxenda, both from the drugmaker Novo Nordisk.
The drugs have been shown in clinical trials to be highly effective for weight loss. All three drugs — which are given as injections — work in a similar way: They’re a class of drugs called GLP-1 agonists, which mimic a hormone that helps reduce food intake and appetite.
Oh yea it would cost you $13,000 a year (and most insurances won’t pay)!
💻They Want Your Password
Warning-New Scams to steal your passwords.
If you've had a password hacked recently, you aren't alone. The volume of password attacks has soared to an estimated 921 attacks every second. That's a 74% rise in one year, according to the latest Microsoft Digital Defense Report.
Exiger's Robert Kolasky with more on Bloomberg & CBS: