7,071 Shares in Schneider National, Inc. (NYSE:SNDR) Bought by Mutual of America Capital Management LLC2023 National Literary Awards, Lifetime Achievement Awards announced
CHEYENNE — The Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Transportation, Highways and Military Affairs Committee voted Friday to sponsor a bill draft that would add citizenship/residency status to state-issued identification cards. If passed during the 2025 general session, the bill would require a complete redesign of ID cards issued by the Wyoming Department of Transportation. The additions would be a line reading, “Not a United States citizen” and colors that would indicate the citizenship status of a cardholder. The number of these types of cards needed and the cost are unknown at this time. The bill’s intent, according to Secretary of State Chuck Gray, is to take a “step in the right direction” by continuing to enforce voter security and make the jobs of county clerks easier when registering voters. “While we do have safeguards in place to ensure that only United States citizens are registering to vote, which is called a HAVA check, there are a number of areas where there are weaknesses that can be exposed,” Gray told the committee. “That’s why we need to continue to shore up this frontend monitoring, which I think this bill draft does.” Gray’s primary concern is addressing alleged instances of noncitizens registering to vote, even though there have been no recent reports of noncitizens voting. WYDOT Driver Services Program Manager Misty Zimmerman testified that there is already a nonresident designation on ID cards, marked by an “NR” for nonresident, but that doesn’t indicate citizenship. Zimmerman testified that no matter the type of addition to the driver’s license or ID card — whether it be a symbol, a line of text or a color — WYDOT would need to completely redesign the cards to accommodate the change. Gray was asked several times by Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, to clarify the need for the bill given existing identifications in place. Gray was unable to quantify a need beyond his own suspicions. Instead, he reiterated his concerns about being able to adequately record these suspected incidents of noncitizens registering to vote. “I appreciate everything that you just mentioned there, Secretary Gray. Not once did you answer my question about the ‘NR’ doing the designation and what more this is going to protect when we already have front-end discussions,” Brown said. In addition to concerns about need and cost, one issue with passing this draft bill is the limited information a physical ID provides. “What we’re talking about is changing the look of the physical credential, and from a timing perspective, it may be a slightly antiquated way of dealing with the issue,” WYDOT Deputy Director Taylor Rossetti said. “That card, when it’s printed, it’s a snapshot in time. The status of that individual could change, they could become a citizen during that time period, and maybe didn’t come back in and get a new credential.” Rossetti testified that by the 2026 election cycle, there may be a more technologically advanced way to address the issue without spending the time and money redesigning ID cards. Zimmerman testified that by waiting on WYDOT’s modernization project, which is expected to be launched next year, mobile ID could be used to show real-time status, as opposed to looking at a limited physical ID. Mary Lankford, representing the County Clerks Association of Wyoming, reiterated the benefit of waiting for the mobile IDs. Saying that while county clerks appreciate the support in clarifying the registration process, they also want to be clear that they very rarely have noncitizens attempt to register to vote. “We understand the concern of noncitizens attempting to register to vote, after all, only Wyoming citizens should be voting in Wyoming elections,” Lankford said. “... Proper participation in the WYDOT system modernization project would provide up-to-date citizenship and residency information without the redesign of the current card.” Regardless, the committee voted 10-4 to sponsor the draft bill, with opposition coming from Brown; Sen. Evie Brennan, R-Cheyenne; Rep. Kevin O’Hearn, R-Mills; and Rep. Jerry Obermueller, R-Casper. “In my opinion, this was not a request of the Management Council, this was not an interim topic assigned to us, this was not something that was brought to us,” Brown said. “This is well outside the wheelhouse, trying to fix something when it comes to voting. We’re going to redesign and tell WYDOT to go fix something that we can do within our rules, and we’re already in that process.” “I think we have to have as much confidence in the system with the constituents,” Sen. John Kolb, R-Rock Springs, said. “It’s not to say that I think this is a necessary thing at that level, but I believe that’s irrelevant in this case. What’s relevant is what people think. I think whatever we can do to make them have confidence in our system is what we need to do.” Should the amended draft bill pass, the change would take place Jan. 1, 2026, rather than the originally proposed date of July 1, 2025. This story was published on November 16, 2024.
In keeping with a long-standing Thanksgiving tradition, President Joe Biden recently pardoned a pair of turkeys . During a ceremony at the White House, the birds — named Peach and Blossom — were spared from the dinner table and given a new lease on life. While it was an act of pure political pageantry, it highlights the president’s expansive pardon powers — which could be used liberally during his final two months in office. Historically, presidents have issued numerous pardons during their lame duck periods, including quite a few that have raised eyebrows. Here is what to know about presidential pardons. Article II of the Constitution enables the president to grant clemency for any federal crime, according to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report. This authority is rooted in an old English law that permits monarchs to bestow mercy on criminals. “The president’s power to pardon is astronomical,” Taylor Stoermer, a historian at Johns Hopkins University, told McClatchy News. “The Constitution doesn’t even require an explanation. The only real limits are that it doesn’t apply to state crimes or impeachment cases.” “So the president can grant full pardons, commute sentences, or even offer amnesty, on an individual basis or for an entire class of people,” Stoermer said. Most presidents have issued numerous acts of clemency throughout their terms in office, according to historians. For example, Donald Trump, during his first term, granted 143 pardons and 94 commutations, according to the Pew Research Center. During Barack Obama’s eight years in office, he issued 212 pardons and 1,715 commutations. Among the commutations granted by both men were multiple that concerned low-level drug offenses , such as possession of marijuana. However, these acts of clemency have not typically been distributed evenly throughout a president’s tenure. Since 1945, every president — with the exception of Lyndon Johnson — granted clemency at a higher rate during the last four months of their terms, according to CRS. For example, Obama granted an average of 296 acts of clemency per month during his final four months in office, compared with an average of eight per month before that. Similarly, Trump issued an average of 50 per month during the last four months compared with an average of one per month before that. “Trump certainly kept to that pattern, and I would not be surprised if Biden does as well,” Thomas Balcerski, a presidential historian at Eastern Connecticut State University, told McClatchy News. Additionally, these 11th hour acts of mercy tend to be the most controversial ones. “Most save the big, bold pardons for the end of their terms,” Stoermer said. “And because exactly why you’d think: No voters to answer to.” Throughout history, presidents have issued a fair number of pardons, commutations and acts of amnesty that have received widespread scrutiny. “The most famous, of course, is Gerald Ford’s pardoning of Richard Nixon,” Vernon Burton, an emeritus history professor at Clemson University, told McClatchy News. In September 1974, following the Watergate scandal and Nixon’s resignation, Ford issued a full pardon for any crimes Nixon “committed or may have committed” against the United States. Jimmy Carter also took flak for pardoning “all of the Vietnam War draft dodgers,” Burton said. “That was huge.” This pardon, issued on Carter’s first day in office in 1977, applied to roughly 100,000 military-age men who avoided going to war , according to Politico. “Then there’s George H.W. Bush pardoning key players in Iran-Contra,” Stoermer said. With less than one month until he left office, Bush pardoned six people , including a former secretary of defense, wrapped up in the illegal arms scandal. More recently, Obama reduced the sentence of Oscar Lopez Rivera, a Puerto Rican activist whose political organization was responsible for dozens of robberies and bombings in the U.S. And Trump preemptively pardoned adviser Steven Bannon, who was charged with bilking donors out of money they gave toward the construction of a border wall. “These kinds of moves show how the pardon power can get tangled up in political strategy or personal connections—and that’s what makes it fascinating (or infuriating) to watch,” Stoermer said. Given that Biden’s son Hunter Biden has been convicted of felony offenses , some have wondered whether he will issue a pardon before he leaves office. “Would he pardon Hunter Biden? That’d be quite something,” Balcerski said. “There is some precedent.” On his last day in office, President Bill Clinton issued a pardon for his half-brother Roger Clinton, who had pleaded guilty to a cocaine distribution charge. “That was slightly less impactful because Roger Clinton had already served the time,” Stoermer said. “So that was mostly about clearing his record than dodging accountability.” Joe Biden, though, has said he has no plans to grant clemency to his son. Trump could break with long-standing tradition of issuing controversial pardons at the end of his term, historians said. The president-elect has vowed to pardon some of the people convicted of participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot on his first day in office. “I am inclined to pardon many of them ,” he wrote on social media in March, according to ABC News. Throughout the country, about 1,500 people have been charged in connection with the riot, including about 547 who were charged with “assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees.” “It wouldn’t be surprising to see an unprecedented wave of pardons right out of the gate, particularly for January 6 rioters,” Stoermer said. “That would take the use of the pardon power into completely uncharted territory.” “Of course, there is a precedent: Carter’s first-day pardon of draft evaders of the Vietnam era,” Stoermer said. “That applied to hundreds of thousands of people. But that’s not quite the same as a coup.”Alyssa Nakken, the first woman coach in Major League Baseball history, is leaving the Giants to join the Cleveland Guardians as an assistant in player development, as first reported by 95.7 The Game’s Steven Rissotto. Nakken is the latest member of last year’s coaching staff to depart from the team, joining Justin Viele (Rangers), Pedro Guerrero (Marlins) and Bryan Price (stepped down). Additionally, Pete Putila, the team’s general manager in 2023 and 2024, and Michael Schwartze, the team’s former director of baseball analytics, have joined the Braves. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.
A 7-year-old rivalry between tech leaders Elon Musk and Sam Altman over who should run OpenAI and prevent an artificial intelligence "dictatorship" is now heading to a federal judge as Musk seeks to halt the ChatGPT maker's ongoing shift into a for-profit company. Musk, an early OpenAI investor and board member, sued the artificial intelligence company earlier this year alleging it had betrayed its founding aims as a nonprofit research lab benefiting the public good rather than pursuing profits. Musk has since escalated the dispute, adding new claims and asking for a court order that would stop OpenAI’s plans to convert itself into a for-profit business more fully. The world's richest man, whose companies include Tesla, SpaceX and social media platform X, last year started his own rival AI company, xAI. Musk says it faces unfair competition from OpenAI and its close business partner Microsoft, which has supplied the huge computing resources needed to build AI systems such as ChatGPT. “OpenAI and Microsoft together exploiting Musk’s donations so they can build a for-profit monopoly, one now specifically targeting xAI, is just too much,” says Musk's filing that alleges the companies are violating the terms of Musk’s foundational contributions to the charity. OpenAI is filing a response Friday opposing Musk’s requested order, saying it would cripple OpenAI’s business and mission to the advantage of Musk and his own AI company. A hearing is set for January before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland. At the heart of the dispute is a 2017 internal power struggle at the fledgling startup that led to Altman becoming OpenAI's CEO. Musk also sought to be CEO and in an email outlined a plan where he would “unequivocally have initial control of the company” but said that would be temporary. He grew frustrated after two other OpenAI co-founders said he would hold too much power as a major shareholder and chief executive if the startup succeeded in its goal to achieve better-than-human AI known as artificial general intelligence , or AGI. Musk has long voiced concerns about how advanced forms of AI could threaten humanity. “The current structure provides you with a path where you end up with unilateral absolute control over the AGI," said a 2017 email to Musk from co-founders Ilya Sutskever and Greg Brockman. “You stated that you don't want to control the final AGI, but during this negotiation, you've shown to us that absolute control is extremely important to you.” In the same email, titled “Honest Thoughts,” Sutskever and Brockman also voiced concerns about Altman's desire to be CEO and whether he was motivated by “political goals.” Altman eventually succeeded in becoming CEO, and has remained so except for a period last year when he was fired and then reinstated days later after the board that ousted him was replaced. OpenAI published the messages Friday in a blog post meant to show its side of the story, particularly Musk's early support for the idea of making OpenAI a for-profit business so it could raise money for the hardware and computer power that AI needs. It was Musk, through his wealth manager Jared Birchall, who first registered “Open Artificial Technologies Technologies, Inc.”, a public benefit corporation, in September 2017. Then came the “Honest Thoughts” email that Musk described as the “final straw.” “Either go do something on your own or continue with OpenAI as a nonprofit,” Musk wrote back. OpenAI said Musk later proposed merging the startup into Tesla before resigning as the co-chair of OpenAI's board in early 2018. Musk didn't immediately respond to emailed requests for comment sent to his companies Friday. Asked about his frayed relationship with Musk at a New York Times conference last week, Altman said he felt “tremendously sad” but also characterized Musk’s legal fight as one about business competition. “He’s a competitor and we’re doing well,” Altman said. He also said at the conference that he is “not that worried” about the Tesla CEO’s influence with President-elect Donald Trump. OpenAI said Friday that Altman plans to make a $1 million personal donation to Trump’s inauguration fund, joining a number of tech companies and executives who are working to improve their relationships with the incoming administration. —————————— The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement allowing OpenAI access to part of the AP’s text archives.
Editor's note: A&M's Chancellor John Sharp's announcement that he will retire in 2025 is The Eagle's No. 4 news story of 2024. This is part of a daily series of the top 10 stories in Bryan-College Station and the Brazos Valley this year. Stories will appear daily with No. 1 running in the Dec. 31 edition. Longtime Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp announced on July 1 that he would retire on June 30, 2025. During his 13-plus years as chancellor, Sharp became one of the most transformative figures in A&M history as he was able to take the A&M System to new heights under his leadership by wielding his political prowess to the advantage of his beloved school. Sharp is A&M Class of 1972 and was a member of the Squadron Six "Flying Tigers." He had no prior experience in higher education, but used his career in Texas politics to his advantage. Sharp said it doesn't hurt to be a member of "the club." "I hope I'm remembered as the chancellor that made everybody realize that A&M ain't nobody's little brother anymore," Sharp told The Eagle the day he announced his retirement. "And 14 years ago, we were, and we ain't anymore. We are the school of choice for this state. Period." One of Sharp's original main goals was to land A&M a law school, something A&M leaders had sought for decades. He accomplished that less than a year into the job when A&M spent $25 million to buy operational control of Texas Wesleyan School of Law in Fort Worth. Sharp didn't stop there, though. The law school purchase only opened the door for him to do more. The epicenter of his work as chancellor has been the RELLIS campus in Bryan. Since Sharp announced the transformation of the campus to become a technology and testing research hub in May 2016, the A&M System and state have invested over $1 billion in various initiatives. RELLIS has now become a hub for academic, government and industry partners to collaborate in applied research for various initiatives. The campus is home to a 5G research testbed, the Bush Combat Development Complex featuring a hypersonic testing site and will soon be home to A&M's Semiconductor Institute and possibly a modular nuclear reactor. In 2022, the Bryan City Council renamed Texas 47 — the road that leads to RELLIS — as John Sharp Parkway for his efforts at the campus. "It'll be a national laboratory for the Pentagon or somebody one of these days," Sharp said of RELLIS. A&M is still in the process of its national search to find Sharp's successor. Sharp decided to stay on for a year since he still has several irons in the fire and the 2025 state legislative session looming. The lengthy transition period also has allowed a longer runway for regents to find Sharp's successor. "It's an understatement to say we have giant boots to fill," Regent Bill Mahomes said when Sharp retired. "John Sharp is an Aggie icon — bigger than life — and we all are the beneficiaries of his bold leadership. He has made the System smarter, more innovative, and more responsive to the needs of Texans in every corner of the state." "John Sharp is an Aggie icon — bigger than life — and we all are the beneficiaries of his bold leadership. He has made the System smarter, more innovative, and more responsive to the needs of Texans in every corner of the state." Bill Mahomes, regentMatch Group, Inc. ( NASDAQ:MTCH – Get Free Report ) was the target of a large drop in short interest in December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 15,340,000 shares, a drop of 21.9% from the November 30th total of 19,650,000 shares. Currently, 6.2% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 4,490,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.4 days. Insider Activity In related news, Director Stephen Bailey sold 801 shares of Match Group stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.61, for a total transaction of $25,319.61. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 12,398 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $391,900.78. The trade was a 6.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link . Insiders own 0.77% of the company’s stock. Institutional Trading of Match Group A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MTCH. Retirement Systems of Alabama lifted its stake in shares of Match Group by 2,732.1% during the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 1,659,718 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $62,804,000 after purchasing an additional 1,601,115 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Match Group by 9.0% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 276,775 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,459,000 after buying an additional 22,887 shares during the period. Boyar Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in Match Group during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,376,000. TD Private Client Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Match Group by 131.9% in the 3rd quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 6,515 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $247,000 after acquiring an additional 3,705 shares during the period. Finally, Coldstream Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Match Group in the third quarter valued at approximately $249,000. 94.05% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors. Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades Get Our Latest Analysis on MTCH Match Group Trading Down 0.8 % Shares of MTCH opened at $33.17 on Friday. Match Group has a twelve month low of $27.66 and a twelve month high of $42.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.47. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $33.33 and its 200 day simple moving average is $34.24. Match Group declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, December 11th that allows the company to repurchase $1.50 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the technology company to reacquire up to 19% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued. Match Group Dividend Announcement The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, January 21st. Stockholders of record on Monday, January 6th will be paid a $0.19 dividend. This represents a $0.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, January 6th. Match Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 33.93%. Match Group Company Profile ( Get Free Report ) Match Group, Inc engages in the provision of dating products. Its portfolio of brands includes Tinder, Hinge, Match, Meetic, OkCupid, Pairs, Plenty Of Fish, Azar, BLK, and Hakuna, as well as a various other brands, each built to increase users' likelihood of connecting with others. Its services are available in over 40 languages to users worldwide. 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In keeping with a long-standing Thanksgiving tradition, President Joe Biden recently pardoned a pair of turkeys . During a ceremony at the White House, the birds — named Peach and Blossom — were spared from the dinner table and given a new lease on life. While it was an act of pure political pageantry, it highlights the president’s expansive pardon powers — which could be used liberally during his final two months in office. Historically, presidents have issued numerous pardons during their lame duck periods, including quite a few that have raised eyebrows. Here is what to know about presidential pardons. Presidential pardon power Article II of the Constitution enables the president to grant clemency for any federal crime, according to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report. This authority is rooted in an old English law that permits monarchs to bestow mercy on criminals. “The president’s power to pardon is astronomical,” Taylor Stoermer, a historian at Johns Hopkins University, told McClatchy News. “The Constitution doesn’t even require an explanation. The only real limits are that it doesn’t apply to state crimes or impeachment cases.” “So the president can grant full pardons, commute sentences, or even offer amnesty, on an individual basis or for an entire class of people,” Stoermer said. How often do presidents grant clemency? Most presidents have issued numerous acts of clemency throughout their terms in office, according to historians. For example, Donald Trump, during his first term, granted 143 pardons and 94 commutations, according to the Pew Research Center. During Barack Obama’s eight years in office, he issued 212 pardons and 1,715 commutations. Among the commutations granted by both men were multiple that concerned low-level drug offenses , such as possession of marijuana. However, these acts of clemency have not typically been distributed evenly throughout a president’s tenure. Since 1945, every president — with the exception of Lyndon Johnson — granted clemency at a higher rate during the last four months of their terms, according to CRS. For example, Obama granted an average of 296 acts of clemency per month during his final four months in office, compared with an average of eight per month before that. Similarly, Trump issued an average of 50 per month during the last four months compared with an average of one per month before that. “Trump certainly kept to that pattern, and I would not be surprised if Biden does as well,” Thomas Balcerski, a presidential historian at Eastern Connecticut State University, told McClatchy News. Additionally, these 11th hour acts of mercy tend to be the most controversial ones. “Most save the big, bold pardons for the end of their terms,” Stoermer said. “And because exactly why you’d think: No voters to answer to.” Controversial acts of clemency Throughout history, presidents have issued a fair number of pardons, commutations and acts of amnesty that have received widespread scrutiny. “The most famous, of course, is Gerald Ford’s pardoning of Richard Nixon,” Vernon Burton, an emeritus history professor at Clemson University, told McClatchy News. In September 1974, following the Watergate scandal and Nixon’s resignation, Ford issued a full pardon for any crimes Nixon “committed or may have committed” against the United States. Jimmy Carter also took flak for pardoning “all of the Vietnam War draft dodgers,” Burton said. “That was huge.” This pardon, issued on Carter’s first day in office in 1977, applied to roughly 100,000 military-age men who avoided going to war , according to Politico. “Then there’s George H.W. Bush pardoning key players in Iran-Contra,” Stoermer said. With less than one month until he left office, Bush pardoned six people , including a former secretary of defense, wrapped up in the illegal arms scandal. More recently, Obama reduced the sentence of Oscar Lopez Rivera, a Puerto Rican activist whose political organization was responsible for dozens of robberies and bombings in the U.S. And Trump preemptively pardoned adviser Steven Bannon, who was charged with bilking donors out of money they gave toward the construction of a border wall. “These kinds of moves show how the pardon power can get tangled up in political strategy or personal connections—and that’s what makes it fascinating (or infuriating) to watch,” Stoermer said. Have presidents pardoned family members? Given that Biden’s son Hunter Biden has been convicted of felony offenses , some have wondered whether he will issue a pardon before he leaves office. “Would he pardon Hunter Biden? That’d be quite something,” Balcerski said. “There is some precedent.” On his last day in office, President Bill Clinton issued a pardon for his half-brother Roger Clinton, who had pleaded guilty to a cocaine distribution charge. “That was slightly less impactful because Roger Clinton had already served the time,” Stoermer said. “So that was mostly about clearing his record than dodging accountability.” Joe Biden, though, has said he has no plans to grant clemency to his son. Could Trump break the mold? Trump could break with long-standing tradition of issuing controversial pardons at the end of his term, historians said. The president-elect has vowed to pardon some of the people convicted of participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot on his first day in office. “I am inclined to pardon many of them ,” he wrote on social media in March, according to ABC News. Throughout the country, about 1,500 people have been charged in connection with the riot, including about 547 who were charged with “assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees.” “It wouldn’t be surprising to see an unprecedented wave of pardons right out of the gate, particularly for January 6 rioters,” Stoermer said. “That would take the use of the pardon power into completely uncharted territory.” “Of course, there is a precedent: Carter’s first-day pardon of draft evaders of the Vietnam era,” Stoermer said. “That applied to hundreds of thousands of people. But that’s not quite the same as a coup.” Do Ukrainians still support the war against Russia? New poll finds ‘decisive shift’ Trump could impose tariffs without Congress, experts say. Here’s how it could work How are vacancies in Congress filled? What to know as Trump picks members for Cabinet
