Community Capital Receives US Department of Treasury Grant
Community Capital of Central Vermont is one of 41 organizations nationwide to receive a Technical Assistance Award from the U.S. Department of Treasurys CDFI Fund. CDFIs Community Development Financial Institutions are specialized organizations that respond to financial gaps in their local markets. Totaling $50,000, this grant will be used over the next two years to improve Community Capitals ability to offer flexible and affordable financing and technical assistance to new and growing businesses that do not yet have access to traditional bank financing. Specific activities include: a tri-county market assessment to identify unmet demand for alternative commercial financing, an internal organizational assessment conducted by CDFI industry leaders, board and staff training, strategic planning, and technology upgrades. Founded in 1995 as the Central Vermont Revolving Loan Fund, Community Capital has lent over $1.4 million in flexible and affordable loans to 58 micro and small businesses that are not yet able to qualify for a traditional bank loan. Almost half of these businesses have in turn benefited from over 1,000 hours of specialized post-loan business counseling, a unique program available only to borrowers of Community Capital. Other funding for Community Capital comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Vermont Community Development Program, and a variety of local bank and other private donations. For more information, please contact Emily Kaminsky at 479-1053, ext. 263. Or, visit our website at www.cvcapital.org(link is external). Community Capital is a partner of the Central Vermont Community Action Council.
Germany’s RWE raises $2.4 billion in new capital to fund renewable energy expansion efforts FacebookTwitterLinkedInEmailPrint分享Reuters:German utility RWE on Tuesday completed a 2 billion euro ($2.4 billion) share issue to back its expansion into renewable energy, including its $480 million purchase of wind turbine maker Nordex’s project development pipeline.The move increases RWE’s share capital by 10% and was successfully placed with institutional investors via an accelerated bookbuilding process, RWE said in a statement issued after the Frankfurt market close. The 61,474,549 new common bearer shares were placed at 32.55 euros apiece, a discount of 4.9% to Tuesday’s closing price. Frankfurt-listed shares in RWE closed 4.3% lower at 33.08 euros.“We are very pleased how well our offer was accepted and how our growth ambition in renewable energy is being supported by our investors,” Chief Executive Rolf Martin Schmitz said in a statement. “The additional financial flexibility enables us to enhance our project pipeline and to accelerate our continued growth in wind and solar power.”Part of the proceeds will be used to buy 2.7 gigawatts (GW) worth of European wind and solar projects from turbine maker Nordex in a deal made public at the end of July.RWE, Germany’s biggest utility, wants to increase its renewables portfolio to more than 13 GW and invest a total of 5 billion euros by the end of 2022.The Nordex transaction was the first major renewables deal since RWE took over the wind and solar activities of former subsidiary Innogy and German peer E.ON. The restructuring positions RWE as Europe’s third-largest renewables player as Germany phases out nuclear power and coal in pursuit of a safe and environmentally sustainable energy mix.[Douglas Busvine and Christoph Steitz]More: Germany’s RWE rakes in $2.4 billion to fund renewable energy expansion
The Heeter’s were originally set to be married on March 28, and were one of the early couple’s who had to make the difficult decision to postpone. For Endicott couple J.R. and Julie Heeter, they realized marriage is more important than the wedding itself. J.R. and Julie put together their backyard wedding within a few hours, saying “I Do” in front of their immediate family. “It definitely wasn’t the big day we thought it was going to be, it ended up, it worked, it was awesome,” said J.R. The couple went through countless plans, ultimately deciding to get married in their backyard. Referring to it as “an Amazon wedding,” Julie said they were ordering whatever they needed as quickly as possible. J.R. and Julie pushed their wedding back to March of 2021, but knew they still wanted to be married on their original “save the date.” On March 26, the stress of planning nearly changed the Heeter’s plans. At the end of the day, Julie said “the biggest thing was knowing no matter where we got married, he was at the end of the aisle for me and we were going to be together.” “We sat down and talked about it and were very much like, we’re getting married on the 28th, even if it’s in our living room,” said Julie. ENDICOTT (WBNG) — Couples with wedding plans for this year had to get creative amid the coronavirus pandemic cancelling large gatherings. The state of New York began to shut down the second week of March. “If you had asked me Monday of that week if it (postponing) was even a possibility, I would’ve been like no way,” said J.R. “Thursday happened, we’re not going to do it, we changed our minds. We cancelled, it totally cancelled it,” said J.R. and Julie. “The next day it was the perfect day. We got a hold of our parents, and I was like we’re going to do this.” Now, the Heeter’s have a memorable marriage story to tell, and will have two special wedding days to look back on. “Like” Nicole Menner on Facebook and “Follow” her on Twitter.
“We’re busy enough that we’re able to donate our time instead of keep working,” Kaczynski said. “We work thru this COVID pandemic, so we wanted to still try to give back in some sort of way.” Kaczynski says he feels very fortunate that his company was able to help. “It went out for big and we won the bid on it,” Kacynski said. “We are donating 100 percent of the bid that we got, which is $3500, back to the Handicapped Children’s Association.” BINGHAMTON (WBNG) — After a fire destroyed the Our Space Playground, CNY Tree Services went to work Thursday morning cutting what’s left of the burnt trees at Recreation Park. Tom Kacynski, owner of CNY Tree Services, says he reached out to the City of Binghamton Parks Department to see if his company could donate their time to help cut the trees, but he was told insurance was able to cover it. 
Kaczynski says he hopes his company’s actions will help inspire the community to do the same. CNY cut down one tree and trimmed the branches from two others surrounding the park. “Do good where you can,” Kaczynski said. “We want to try to inspire people.”
Read more: US election 2020: Three viral vote claims fact-checked Republican Randi Reed has clashed with Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis over claims that Democrats stopped the counting of votes in several states because President Trump was seeing a “tremendous surge”.“What do you mean they stopped counting? They’re still counting the votes,” Maitlis pushed the former Congressional candidate from Nevada to clarify what she was saying.- Advertisement – – Advertisement –
Topics : Oil prices soared on Thursday after US President Donald Trump said he expects Russia and Saudi Arabia to announce a major oil production cut, and Saudi state media said the kingdom was calling an emergency meeting of oil producers to deal with the market turmoil.Trump said he had spoken to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and expects Saudi Arabia and Russia to cut oil output by as much as 10 million to 15 million barrels per day, as the two countries signaled willingness to make a deal.That set off a swift rally in oil markets, with Brent futures soaring $4.80, or 19%, to $29.56 a barrel by 11:42 a.m. EDT (1542 GMT), while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose $4.59, or 23%, to $22.55. Oil markets have been under pressure ever since early March, when Saudi Arabia and Russia were unable to come to terms on a deal to curb production, and the Saudis responded by boosting output to more than 12 million bpd and shipping out cargoes worldwide at discounted prices. Since then, the worsening of the coronavirus pandemic has severely cut fuel demand, pushing US crude as low as about $20 per barrel.With fuel demand expected to fall by 20% to 30% in the coming months, pressure was building on the oil producers to come to a deal, and Trump expressed growing frustration about the price of oil and its effect on the energy industry. He is meeting with major energy chief executives at the White House on Friday.A cut of 10 million to 15 million barrels per day would be unprecedented, and would likely need the participation of numerous countries outside of OPEC and its allies.Texas regulators are exploring the possibility of cutting production in that state, which produces more than 5 million barrels per day.”It’s one thing to send optimistic tweets and quite another to coordinate actual production cuts when Russia dragged its feet throughout the OPEC+ era and the US has no controlling authority to implement production limits,” said Sandy Fielden, director of oil and products research at Morningstar in Austin, Texas.
Saudi Arabia was expected to call an emergency meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The Wall Street Journal reported that the kingdom would consider dropping output to roughly 9 million barrels per day, or about 3 million bpd less than what it planned on pumping in April.”The question will come down to, will they be able to agree to something? It’s taken couple of weeks of Brent at $25 and WTI at $20 and it seems as if Russians are more approachable than they were a month ago,” said Gene McGillian, vice president of market research at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut.Trump did not specify that the cut referred to barrels per day, but that is the most common way oil markets refer to supply and demand.Earlier in the session, Brent soared as much as 47%, its highest gain ever. WTI, meanwhile, jumped as much as 35%, which was it second highest ever following an intraday gain of 36% on March 19.
Kendall Cardwell (pictured) and her husband Trent bought an investment in Fig Tree Pocket a year ago and are very happy they did. Photo: Adam HeadBrisbane’s property market was on the rise last financial year with some addresses providing a return almost twice that of the ASX.Exclusive analysis of CoreLogic data by the Courier Mail identified 36 Greater Brisbane mainland suburbs where combined value growth and rent return exceeded the 14.6% gains made on the ASX 100 Accumulation Index over the 2016/17 financial year.The ASX 100 Accumulation Index measures returns based on share price rises plus dividend reinvestment.The analysis was based on gross returns and ignores vagaries created by share franking credits and property depreciation schedules and tax breaks.If you bought an investment in Fig Tree Pocket, fire your stockbroker and take a bow because the analysis showed a whopping 28.3 per cent financial gain last financial year.Anstead property was the next best performer with a return of 27.9 per cent while the inner west suburb of St Lucia returned 26.6 per cent to investors.Wargent Advisory CEO, Pete Wargent, said combined returns were a reasonable way to compare performance, with one caveat.“It’s important not to generalise too much,” Mr Wargent said.In comparing the two investment types, Mr Wargent said real estate investor were able to borrow more to invest in property, which was an advantage over shares.“The share market tends to be more liquid, which can make it more volatile, but the liquidity also means that it’s comparatively easier to sell at short notice,” he said.Property Pursuit Buyers’ Agent principal, Meighan Hetherington said total returns should always be part of your analysis.“We certainly look at it when we’re analysing individual properties and when we do portfolio reviews,” Ms Hetherington said.She said the next step is to look at long-term trends in you suburbs of interest.She said among our top performers, consistent growth in Wilston caught her eye.“Wilston’s growth over five years has been steady — it doesn’t have those big peaks or big troughs,” she said.“Wilston has 66 per cent houses and it has a very strong family focus with high household income — and it has access to very good schools. It’s very close to the city and there’s been lots of renovation work to large Queenslanders,” she said.“The fundamentals are very strong.”Ms Hetherington said Fig Tree Pockets strong showing proved its 2011 flood stigma was fading with an increased number of high-end riverfront sales as well.“There are more transactions happening and it’s an area that people with a high disposable income are attracted to,” Ms Hetherington said.In Gaythorne, Ms Hetherington said apart from increased development site sales, the suburb also has good fundamentals.“It’s well sort after by army (Enoggera Barracks) families, plus is got good schools and the train,” she said.Brisbane Real Estate rentals principal, Lauren Smith, is not surprised to see Fig Tree Pocket top the list.Ms Smith said the suburb contained the right ingredients for success.More from newsMould, age, not enough to stop 17 bidders fighting for this homeless than 1 hour agoBuyers ‘crazy’ not to take govt freebies, says 28-yr-old investorless than 1 hour ago“We have essentially a (rental) database of clients wanting to go into that area whenever we have properties available,” Ms Smith said.She said there are still affordable options for investors looking to build wealth.“They’re definitely out there. You’ve got the older 70s-style brick homes on the western side of the highway and then riverfront high-end property on the other side,” Ms Smith said.“There’s always strong tenant demand in that area,” she said.Kendall and Trent Cardwell bought their Norman St, Fig Tree Pocket investment for $628,000 just over a year ago and couldn’t’ be happier.Their lowset dual occupancy house allowed for two tenancies and created a combined income of $660 per week reflecting a very healthy gross yield of 5.5 per cent.Mrs Cardwell said they were looking for a renovatable property in a suburb with reasonable access to the CBD and large housing blocks, so Fig Tree Pocket fit the bill.“We’re really happy — it pretty much looks after itself and that’s what you hope for when you buy an investment property,” Mrs Cardwell said.Mrs Cardwell said while they do own shares, this type of investment wasn’t their passion.“To be honest I don’t know anything really about shares — we’ve just got a small amount of shares, but it’s not really our interest,” she said.“My husband is very interested in property — it’s a really great interest.”“We’d love to get another property maybe next year,” Mrs Cardwell said.Here’s the full list of Brisbane’s mainland suburbs where total returns on houses exceeded the ASX 100 Cummulative Index of 14.6%:Top total returns for Brisbane houses in financial year 2016/17Follow Kieran Clair on Twitter at @kieranclair or Facebook on Kieran Clair — journo
BACOLOD City – “Activism is not a crime, but supporting terrorism isa crime.” This was Philippine Army’s 303rdInfantry Brigade commander Brigadier General Benedict Arevalo’s stark reminderto parents and students in Victorias City, Negros Occidental. Arevalo also showed a short animatedvideo entitled “Pindoy”, exposing the modus of the in deceiving and misleadingthe youth to join the CPP-NPA./PN “Our government respects the right toacademic freedom, however a student joining the NPA or supporting terroristorganizations is illegal and a crime,” Arevalo stressed.
He urged both the students and theirparents to be wary of student organizations which he believed to have beeninfiltrated by the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA). Arevalo was the guest of honor andspeaker during the Reserve Officer Training Corps Presentation of the Colegiode Sta Ana de Victorias on Saturday. 
Image Courtesy: Getty/EAAdvertisement 0ebeNBA Finals | Brooklyn Vs3h8aWingsuit rodeo📽Sindre E2ygw4( IG: @_aubreyfisher @imraino ) rWould you ever consider trying this?😱c36Can your students do this? 🌚xRoller skating! Powered by Firework Over the years, the football video game franchise FIFA by EA Sports has been established as one of the most played games all over the world, and its Ultimate Team game mode has been the most popular among its player base. However, EA has faced numerous criticism for its implementation of packs, which players have to buy with real money and expect to get a good card for their squads. This gambling system has been controversial, and is termed as ‘pay to win’ by many players, and recently, Manchester City icon Sergio Agüero has taken a slack at EA for the format.Advertisement Image Courtesy: Getty/EAWith no match days or training drills to attend to in the novel Coronavirus pandemic, Sergio Agüero has been utilising his time with jumping in FIFA 20 Ultimate Team live streams for his fans.Recently, the Argentine international joined in with Boca Juniours star and compatriot Eduardo Salvio for a FUT stream on his Twitch channel, where he lashed out at EA for the card reward system, in which the chances of getting a high rated player card is based entirely on luck.Advertisement “If you want to get colourful cards you’ve got to go to FIFA Points and put your card in mate, to buy packs,” Agüero spoke to Salvio during the live stream.Most of the times, players don’t receive a good enough card from the packs, and the same reaction was received from the 31 year old goal machine.Advertisement “It is like that, don’t expect something from EA SPORTS because they won’t give you anything. If they gave me those 2 cards just imagine what they’ll give you,” the Citizens forward added.A short clip from the live stream was uploaded on the FIFA subreddit by Reddit user josesaabz. Check out the video below- Even though he has been spending time in FIFA, Agüero did not take part in the recent ePremier League Invitational Fifa 20 tournament, where a number of EPL stars joined in to test their gaming skills, as all on-field action is now suspended due to the COVID-19 crisis.The final match of the tournament saw Wolverhampton Wanderers forward Diogo Jota beating out Liverpool FC stalwart Trent Alexander-Arnold 2-1 last Saturday.If you like reading about MMA, make sure you check out MMAIndia.com Also follow India’s biggest arm wrestling tournament at ProPanja.comAlso read-Interview with Simranjit KaurMinister Kiren Rijiju wants this Indian sport to be included in the Olympics! Advertisement