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NMSP issue 110 citations for street racing KRQE News 13
Detroit-based Huron Capital Partners has announced its full-service insurance brokerage platform, High Street Insurance Partners in Traverse City, has acquired Elliott Hartman Agency in Iowa and Wall Street Insurance in Colorado. Terms of the deals were not disclosed.
High Street was formed in August 2018 by Huron Capital to build a full-service insurance brokerage business. It has completed 21 acquisitions and continues to pursue add-on acquisitions.
“The addition of these two great companies in new markets builds on our ongoing geographic insurance agency expansion and also enforces our specialty market strategy,” says Scott Wick, CEO of High Street.
Elliott Hartman specializes in transportation insurance with coverage options spanning a range of recreational vehicle packages as well as comprehensive automotive and truck offerings, including commercial policies and cargo protection. All agency principals will remain active in the business. It was founded in 1959.
“The deep knowledge and experience we have gained by providing trucking and transportation insurance for more than 62 years has been the bedrock of our success,” says Scott Poppens, president of Elliott Hartman. “We now have a chance to offer our expertise to HSIP as we, in turn, benefit from the scale and financial resources HSIP can offer.”
For more than 30 years, Wall Street Insurance has provided coverage for personal products and business needs including aircraft, art collections, automobiles, boats, and wine collections. It has clients around the world.
“We are thrilled to join HSIP’s network of agency partners as we continue to offer specialized services to current and prospective clients,” says Nick Budor, president of Wall Street Insurance. “Similar to the individually tailored portfolios we help customers insure, we feel this partnership provides us with the resources necessary to expand our services.”
High Street is one of 15 Huron Capital ExecFactor initiatives. It employs more than 450 insurance coverage specialists and consultants in offices in Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Oregon, and Pennsylvania.
“HSIP continues to be one of our fastest growing platforms, and we are thrilled with the momentum the team has had identifying new partners to join the company thus far in 2021,” says Brian Rassel, principal at Huron Capital. “In addition to scale, both acquisitions provide a variety of expertise and insurance specializations that will benefit HSIP and all of our partners.”
Huron Capital is a lower middle market private equity platform that was founded in 1999. Its six private equity funds aggregate nearly $2 billion in capital and invested in more than 200 companies; its portfolio companies have employed more than 11,000 people throughout North America.
The Hancock City Council held a snappy, 40-minute special session on Tuesday in which it approved three measures. It resolved a matter that had been tabled at a previous session regarding a grant application for obtaining four parcels near Navy Street, including a strip of canalfront land that stretches towards Porvoo Park. Member John Haeussler recommended an editing correction. The acronym used was MNTRF, and he suggested it be changed to properly reflect the organization issuing the grant, the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund.
Member Will Lytle was one of two councilors to express hesitation about the resolution earlier this month. He said it was appropriate to take things slow due to the complex nature of the acquisition.
Lytle said he felt his concerns had been met. The vote was 6-0, with member Whitney Warstler absent. There are still changes that could occur in the future. Three of the lots are owned by Finlandia University and they are available for sale. If a third party were to purchase those parcels, the city would have the opportunity to ask for an easement allowing for public access. Hancock already has that arrangement with other properties in the area. Based on current prices, the grant would provide a little over $171,000. The city would be responsible for $60,230 should the application be approved by the MNRTF.
The board also approved the changing of the legal definition for the lot at 444 Hancock Street. A residence there has a door and porch that hang out onto an adjacent parcel. The modification expands the boundaries of the house property, while creating a second address, 446 Hancock, for the lot next door. It has only a garage on it and is otherwise vacant land. The current owners are attempting to complete the sale of the house. The definition change will also affect the assessed value for the parcels.
Lastly, the board approved a new city logo.
Like most freeways, I long took the 4th Street viaducts for granted. They just loomed there at the edge of downtown taking up space, hoisted 30’ in the air like a helium whale. A grey meaningless concrete backdrop generating constant noise and microscopic particles of plastic, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and other subtle poison. These are the freeway onramps of our lives, and other than a few thousand drivers, for whom an extra exit off I-94 shaves a minute from their commute, most people ignore them.
But that all changed one day, years ago, when a friend helped me realize that this pair of concrete one-lane freeway onramps take up a huge amount of valuable land in Minneapolis’ North Loop. After that, I couldn’t stop staring at them.
“Wait, it’s just one really long onramp?” I asked.
“Just look at the onramps, Bill. Just look at them,” replied my sage companion.
The 4th Street viaducts in the North Loop are one of many ramps on and off I-94, working for one direction of travel. They are used by about 15,000 drivers each day, and save maybe two minutes of time if you are being extremely generous with route mapping. In other words, they’re not very useful!
This year, MnDOT is spending $3,000,000 of Minnesota taxpayer dollars to repair these large onramps. It’s a damn shame that MnDOT is fixing them up, because what they really should be doing is tearing these onramps down.
Here are a few reasons why:
What I mean to say is that these two onramps occupy over 15 acres (!) of land in Minneapolis’ North Loop, some of the hottest real estate in the entire country. They exist so that a few thousand drivers might save a small bit of time on their way to Maple Grove. In the meantime, thousands of people living, working, or hanging out in the heart of Minneapolis have to deal with the rather unhealthy consequences.
It’s just one metric, but I was curious about how much this land might actually be worth if the super-long onramps were not there. Instead of spending $3,000,000 to keep these onramps in place, what if they were torn down? How valuable might that land be for the city?
I crunched some numbers to try and estimate Minneapolis’ direct tax base loss. Luckily, this is pretty easy to guess, because you can just sum up the property taxes of the half-block right next to them: everything from the Salvation Army facility (very low value property) to the Bookman Flats (very high value property).
In 2020, those seven acres of North Loop real estate, half the footprint of the 4th Street onramps, brought $2,469,830 dollars into city coffers. If you double that, you get a sense for how much money Minneapolis loses each year in tax base revenue by having these onramps exist.
The answer? Almost five million dollars, year after year.
Mind you, this is a conservative estimate, just the direct tax base of the land under the onramps. It does not get into the ambient effects of removing a freeway onramp, which I imagine are significant. Ponder for a moment how not living next to a massive grey concrete onramp that hovers in the air spewing pollution might improve your quality of life…
In conclusion, this is a textbook case of how urban freeways privilege suburban drivers at the expense of people living nearby. As I wrote in 2013, this is a half-assed freeway onramp that nobody would miss. These massive lanes take up some of the most valuable land in the city of Minneapolis, making nearly everyone’s lives worse, just to make it marginally easier to drive north onto I-94 from a few select parts of downtown and/or allow drivers to speed nonstop into the Warehouse District at over 50 miles per hour.
Commissioner Anderson Kelliher, tear down this wall!
Development teams behind Water Street Tampa are facing at least 20 liens and disputes on buildings in their growing downtown mini-city, all for unpaid construction and labor contracts within the past year.
The groups, including builders and limited liability corporations tied to developers and land owners, owe more than $30.1 million in unpaid construction and labor costs, according to lien documents filed with the Hillsborough County Clerk’s office within the past year.
The debts come from $427 million in contracts for services including roofing, masonry, water sprinklers and window cleaning across five properties. In at least eight cases, property owners have transferred the liens to surety bonds — a way to ensure disputes can be resolved without risking the property as collateral — but the debts remain outstanding.
The bulk of the liens were placed on the new JW Marriott, a high-end hotel that opened in December at 510 Water Street. According to the lien documents, development teams have yet to pay $29.1 million on 16 contracts and subcontracts worth a total of $348.7 million. Seven of those liens, worth $7.1 million, have been transferred to surety bonds, which protects the property but does not resolve the payment dispute.
The JW Marriott liens were all filed by lead builder Coastal Construction or a Coastal subcontractor. Through a spokesman, Coastal declined to comment on the liens. But speaking at a groundbreaking for another project Tuesday in St. Petersburg, the company’s Central Florida president Craig Klingensmith said their Tampa Bay work has generally gone smoothly.
“It sounds maybe like a coined answer, but it’s been great,” he said. “Mayor Castor, Mayor Kriseman, they’re very supportive of the development. Their departments, their people there help us out anytime they can. So honestly it’s just been really great.”
Other Water Street Tampa properties facing action:
In Florida, construction liens must be filed within 90 days of completed work. The Water Street team has satisfied several other liens against its properties, including the JW Marriott, since mid-2019.
Durlach Industries of Palmetto has provided stairs for several Water Street properties, including the JW Marriott, but payments “got slower towards the end,” said vice president Kristina Durlach. They filed a lien for $77,421.82 on 1010 Water Street — one of the few liens they’ve had to place on a property in the last 20 years, she said.
“We’ve been waiting for our bills to get paid,” she said. “We want to get paid for our work. That’s only fair.”
The $3.5 billion Water Street Tampa development of hotels, residences, retail, office and research space is backed by Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik and Cascade Investment, a group led in part by Bill Gates.
Vinik belongs to a team of local investors that has loaned $15 million to the Times Publishing Company, which owns the Tampa Bay Times.
Spokespeople for lead Water Street developers Strategic Property Partners did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Water Street Tampa is a sprawling project, so the fact that it’s facing multiple liens is not necessarily surprising, said Gregg Hutt, who specializes in construction litigation at Trenam Law in Tampa.
“Construction disputes over payment and performance are very common on these kind of big, complicated projects, and liens themselves are not uncommon,” Hutt said. “There could be lots of reasons. It’s hard to say whether it’s right or wrong. Given the nature of this pandemic, who knows what was driving the payment and performance issues.”
The number of liens involving the JW Marriott, he said, is more complicated.
“Sixteen liens on a project? It’s clear there is an issue,” he said. “Exactly what the issue is, you can’t really be sure without looking at it in more detail.”
Times staff writer Emily L. Mahoney contributed to this report.
Earlier this week Kermit Ruffins took to Instagram, as he often does, to address the way in which the city has attacked his establishment, The Mother-in-Law Lounge, while still allowing Bourbon Street businesses to operate as usual during the pandemic. Ruffins captioned under a video of him with a slew of NOLA PD cars behind him on Instagram: “JUSTIFY THIS. Live on Bourbon Street tonight!! Just to prove a point.We’ve been shut down for 2 weeks now and I’m positive that this action will further delay my reopening but somebody has to stand up for the local club owners and the targeting of black owned bars.” He included Instastory coverage of packed Bourbon Street activity.
As the city of New Orleans has lifted restrictions, Bourbon Street business owners have seen a bevy activity that did not necessarily stop when the rest of the city was affected by pandemic protocols. Kermit Ruffins’ Mother-in-Law Lounge was closed by the city at least twice for violating protocol while tourists continued to strut and party on Bourbon Street. Ruffins told reporters at Channel 4 WWL, ““They have more money on Bourbon Street, and you have more white people on Bourbon Street.” Notably, Ruffins had a high profile GoFundMe campaign to preserve his business.
He admitted Bourbon Street is “one of [my] favorite places” and WWL wasn’t shy about showing the high level of activity going on in the French Quarter.
Those who frequent the Quarter can echo Ruffins’ sentiment as activity during the pandemic has rarely, if ever, slowed down, aside from the earliest days of the pandemic. And yet, the Claiborne Avenue area businesses are shuttered and penalized, something Ruffins attributes to race.
Those interested in supporting the work of Kermit Ruffins will be pleased to know that he has returned to perform Tuesday nights (6 p.m.) at Bullet’s 2441 A.P. Tureaud Street.
The shell companies that many private firms use to go public on the country’s stock exchanges have been all the rage on Wall Street for more than a year. Now, just as their explosive growth shows signs of waning, they are coming under scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators.
Special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, which have no business operations and whose only purpose is to acquire a private company to then list on an exchange, have become so popular that they have outstripped traditional initial public offerings. The attraction of these so-called blank check companies, which have been backed by everyone from Shaquille O'Neal and A-Rod to Serena Williams? They get to bypass the costly IPO process, where companies must undergo vetting by the Securities and Exchange Commission before they can sell stock.
Now, lawmakers and consumer advocates are increasingly raising alarms about the risks facing unwitting investors, particularly retail buyers who might not be able to spot a bad deal on their own. And the SEC, which has been pressed by investor advocates for months to take steps to protect investors, is moving in.
"You shouldn't be able to use a SPAC to evade the disclosures and liabilities inherent upon taking a company public," said Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), chair of the House Financial Services subcommittee that oversees capital markets and investor protection.
Sherman said he thinks "a chunk" of companies are using the process to do just that, a concern shared by other Democrats on the committee, including Rep. Bill Foster of Illinois.
The SEC is looking into potentially illegal activity related to SPACs, according to people with knowledge of the inquiry. The probe was earlier reported by Reuters, which cited letters from the SEC to banks and other underwriters asking about their SPACs activity related to these offerings.
A banker familiar with the situation confirmed to POLITICO that the SEC had sent a letter to the bank. Another banker said their company was aware that letters were going out on SPACs and that a probe is taking place.
The SEC declined to comment. But the agency this month issued a statement calling on investors to ignore celebrity endorsements of these vehicles. That came after earlier warnings from the regulator, including an investor bulletin in December — "What you need to know about SPACs."
But just as policymakers and the SEC move to investigate, the performance of these companies appears to be faltering, according to data tracking their performance on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq.
Data on SPAC performance 30 days out from a deal to take a private company public show the companies are performing worse on average in 2021 compared to 2020. While investors continue to show keen interest in buying stock in these SPAC shells before a deal, the declining performance suggests that finding a good deal to take a private firm public could be getting more difficult.
That could be a problem given all the new companies that are out there looking for deals.
Less than three months into 2021, SPAC IPO activity has already surpassed all of 2020, the year that the investment vehicles took up roughly half the market for new public company listings, in terms of deals and dollars raised. By comparison, the previous peak was 14 percent of the market in 2007, according to research firm SPAC Analytics.
Behind the surge is the prospect of a good deal for those who get in early, usually large, institutional investors. SPACs generally list on public markets with the proviso that they must acquire a private company in two or three years with the help of a sponsor who collects fees for a successful deal. That's when it tends to draw lots of small investors. If the SPAC fails to bring a private company public, it must return the money to investors, making the potentially lucrative investment appear relatively low risk.
But advocates fear many of these newly established companies will be under pressure to strike a bad deal instead of none at all, so early investors get a big return, sponsors get their fees and then retail investors take the loss when share prices plummet.
"Now all of a sudden, you own a garbage company," said Andrew Park, senior policy analyst at Americans for Financial Reform, a progressive investor advocacy group that has been warning policymakers for months about the dangers of SPACs.
Combined with growing animosity — particularly from private equity — toward the rigors of the traditional public offering process, interest in the companies soared along with the rising stock market. That has fed concern that there’s a bubble ready to pop in SPACs.
"One of the clear dangers here is that there are going to be too many SPACs, chasing too few merger targets, that we're going to see some truly bad deals struck," said Foster, the Illinois Democrat. "This boom will just cause them to scrape the mud off the bottom of the of the pool."
Companies consult with the SEC when putting together the proxy and registration statements to take the private company public, and the agency can comment on their drafts. If there are enough shareholder votes to approve the acquisition, a financial disclosure to the SEC is then required of the combined entity. But during the initial listing process, a SPAC has little to offer except the promise of big future plans. That's a major reason why it has been so easy for them to crop up on public exchanges.
From January to mid-March, there were 264 SPAC offerings on the Nasdaq and the NYSE raising $76.8 billion, according to a POLITICO analysis of listing data for the nation’s two largest exchanges. That eclipsed traditional IPOs, which had just 74 deals and raised $30.1 billion over the same time period.
"The SEC's been warning investors now for months about the risks of SPACs, but that hasn't made a dent," said Tyler Gellasch, executive director of investor advocacy group Healthy Markets Association. "I expect the SEC and Congress are going to try to pop the speculative bubble soon, and a quick way to do that would be to restore some basic liability on those involved in the deals."
Proponents of SPACs say the transactions offer retail investors the chance to see bigger returns that might otherwise be reserved for the private market. They also view the boom in public offerings as positive for the market, regardless of whether companies fail, because it means more businesses are going public and providing financial disclosure to the SEC.
Those supporters include U.S. climate envoy John Kerry, who earlier in March said the investment vehicles are valuable because they could help finance green energy companies — a remark that drew a sharp rebuke from AFR.
"They provide spectacular windfalls for insiders while performing very poorly for most investors. They're not the solution to the climate crisis," AFR said in a tweet directed at Kerry.
Republican SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce has warned against regulating the new offerings too quickly. Doing so could reduce the cost-effectiveness of SPACs, she said this month during a meeting of the SEC’s Investor Advisory Committee.
"Let's certainly look at what's going on, and try to get our arms around what's going on. The ‘why now’ questions I think are good questions to ask," Peirce said in an interview. But "we need to appreciate the potential for SPACs."
AFR and the Consumer Federation of America want policy changes that would require more disclosure and ensure legal protections for investors. The groups also say the SEC should conduct more research into what kinds of investors bear the most losses when these companies fail.
Carson Block runs a hedge fund that has bet against companies going public through SPACs, citing research on flimsy company fundamentals. But his warnings have been met with resentment from retail investors.
"This is clearly a situation in which unsophisticated retail is being preyed upon," Block said. "It's because there's euphoria, it's because the markets are being artificially stimulated, and I have seen this movie before, most closely in the late '90s to 2000s Internet bubble. The cure for it is to learn hard lessons."
John Jenkins, a veteran corporate lawyer, said regardless of what regulators do, the boom reflected a fundamental problem in the market.
"You can hammer on the disclosure side, you can hammer on making sure that the conflicts of interest are out there and laid out, but these things are prospering because there's kind of something wrong with the IPO process in general," he said.
But Sherman said the demand is a sign that regulators need to focus on the issue more.
Many companies "don’t like the process of going public," the California lawmaker said. "If we can protect investors and make it easier to go public, that's what we should do. But, on the other hand, you don't need a backdoor that evades all of our efforts to protect investors."
Ben White contributed to this story.
Regular street sweeping schedules resume Thursday, April 1, and continue through December 31, unless otherwise announced.
On designated street sweeping days, vehicles must be moved from the side of the street being swept, as noted on signs posted on each street. The penalty for not complying with street sweeping parking regulations is a $50 fine. You can find street sweeping information for your neighborhood by checking street signs or visiting www.somervillema.gov/sweeper. Please note that if there is a discrepancy between the online schedule and street signs, follow what is printed on street signs.
Persons with disabilities who need auxiliary aids and services for effective communication (i.e., CART, ASL), written materials in alternative formats, or reasonable modifications in policies and procedures in order to access the programs, activities, and meetings of the City of Somerville should please contact Nancy Bacci at 617-625-6600 x 2250 or [email protected].
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MELBOURNE, Fla. – A Brevard County man is behind bars Tuesday after police say he took part in a street race, was involved in a four-car crash and ran off.
Melbourne police were called to the BP Gas Station at 4502 S. Babcock St. on March 8 after officers say two vehicles had been involved in a front bumper to rear bumper crash, according to an arrest affidavit. Officers noted a silver Infiniti against the curb to the entrance of the gas station.
Police said the fourth vehicle, a white Ford Mustang, was on fire and overturned into a ditch nearby. One person was taken to the hospital due to injuries in the crash, according to investigators.
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Records show one of the witnesses was an off-duty Brevard County sheriff’s agent. He told officers the Infiniti and Ford Mustang were traveling in the area at a high rate of speed trying to pass another vehicle, the affidavit reads.
As the Mustang tried to merge back onto South Babcock Street from the turn lane, the driver lost control of the vehicle, struck a curb, flipped once, struck a wooden utility pole and landed in the ditch, according to police. The driver of the Infiniti was able to slow down but struck the curb by the gas station.
The sheriff’s agent stopped to try and help the individuals involved in the crash. As he walked up to the Ford Mustang, the driver, identified as Deontarrius Smith, crawled out of the driver’s side window and ran to the driver of the Infiniti, police said. According to the arrest affidavit, the sheriff’s agent recognized Smith from other arrests.
As Smith ran toward the other driver, he said “grab the bag and let’s go!” according to crash investigators. The other driver was seen grabbing a grey backpack and a black fanny pack, records show. The two men then took off northwest as they ran from the scene of the crash.
The Brevard County sheriff’s agent was able to stop and restrain the other driver until Palm Bay police officers arrived to assist.
During the interview, the driver admitted to racing Smith on South Babcock Street. He also admitted to crashing in front of the BP gas station, causing two other vehicles to crash, the arrest affidavit reads.
Officers were not able to track down Smith, however, the sheriff’s office agent and surveillance video helped detail Smith’s description.
After issuing a warrant earlier this month, Smith was booked into the Brevard County Jail Tuesday.
He’s being held without bond facing racing charges including leaving the scene of a crash involving injury, racing on a highway and reckless driving causing property damage and personal injury.
CHICAGO - Warmer weather and budding trees are signs spring — and they’re also signs of street sweeping season.
Street sweepers will hit Chicago roads Thursday, April 1, working daily to clear debris across the city until mid-November.
But unlike last year, when the pandemic lockdown delayed street sweeping until May, operations at the Department of Streets and Sanitation should remain unaffected.
"We’re going back to a normal (street sweeping) season," department spokeswoman Cristina Villarreal said.
Residents should check for temporary orange no-parking notices to avoid towing on street sweeping days.
Ward schedules and a real-time street sweeper tracker can be found online.
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"We take pride in maintaining the cleanliness of our streets," DSS Commissioner John Tully said in a statement. "We ask residents to help us keep Chicago clean by following parking restrictions related to street sweeping."
A year ago, as the pandemic locked down the city, Chicago paused several services including street sweeping. At the time, Tully said it was nearly impossible to continue street sweeping with people locked inside and the city temporarily suspending ticking and towing.
The pause in sweeping lasted until May, even though Chicago’s no-towing order continued until July.
The New York City Police Department says an Asian American woman was attacked by a man Monday afternoon who repeatedly kicked her in front of witnesses who seemingly stood by
NEW YORK -- An Asian American woman was attacked in New York City by a man who repeatedly kicked her as two people nearby who appeared to be security guards did not intervene, according to surveillance footage released by police.
The 65-year-old woman was walking in midtown Manhattan a few blocks from Times Square on Monday afternoon when a man approached her and kicked her in the stomach, knocking her to the ground, police said. The man then stomped on the woman's face several times while hurling anti-Asian sentiments at her, police said. He later casually walked away, the footage shows.
The attack comes amid a national spike in anti-Asian hate crimes, and happened just weeks after a mass shooting in Atlanta that left eight people dead, six of them women of Asian descent. The NYPD says there have been 33 hate crimes with an Asian victim so far this year, news outlets reported.
Mayor Bill de Blasio called the video “absolutely disgusting and outrageous” and said it was “absolutely unacceptable” that witnesses did not intervene.
“I don’t care who you are, I don’t care what you do, you’ve got to help your fellow New Yorker,” de Blasio said Tuesday at his daily news briefing. “If you see someone being attacked, do whatever you can. Make noise. Call out what’s happening. Go and try and help. Immediately call for help. Call 911. This is something where we all have to be part of the solution. We can’t just stand back and watch a heinous act happening.”
According to video footage of the New York City assault, the two people who appeared to be security guards walked into the frame and one of them closed the door as the woman was on the ground.
The property developer and manager of the building, Brodsky Organization, wrote on Instagram that it was aware of the assault and said staff members who witnessed it were suspended pending an investigation.
The woman is currently hospitalized with serious injuries.
The NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force is investigating the attack and has asked anyone with information to contact the department. No arrests have been made.
Police Commissioner Dermot Shea called Monday's attack “disgusting."
“I don’t know who attacks a 65-year-old woman and leaves her on the street like that," Shea said Tuesday on TV station NY1.
Shea recently said the agency would increase its outreach and patrols in predominantly Asian communities.
According to a report from Stop AAPI Hate over 3,795 incidents were reported to the organization from March 19, 2020, to February 28, 2021. The organization said that number is “only a fraction of the number of hate incidents that actually occur.”
The diverging fortunes of major banks in the fallout from the Archegos Capital Management meltdown has posed serious questions for global regulators, experts have suggested.
Archegos' forced liquidation of several of its positions triggered a fire sale of a number of U.S. media stocks last week.
Nomura and Credit Suisse announced Monday that they both expect to suffer "significant" losses, after the multibillion dollar family office defaulted on margin calls last week. Both banks had served as prime brokers to the beleaguered hedge fund.
However, fellow brokers Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley escaped relatively scot free, having already unloaded positions relating to their Archegos margin calls. The margin call defaults are estimated to have cost the banks around $6 billion in total.
Reports suggested that several of the banks had communicated with one another on the Archegos issue, yet some proceeded to unload their positions in the nick of time, while others were left holding the bag.
Former SEC lawyer Mark Berman said regulators would be looking not just at how Wall Street prime brokers allowed Archegos to build such heavily leveraged positions, but also the banks' collective approach to credit negotiations and risk management.
"If it is true that four major prime brokers, commercial banks, were sitting trying to negotiate a situation, what caused some of them to go out on the side and deal to reduce their exposure and let others sink?" Berman, who is currently CEO of compliance consultancy CompliGlobe, told CNBC on Tuesday.
Berman and several experts also told CNBC on Tuesday that the focus of regulators should not necessarily be on bringing family offices just need to explain this and link it to Archegos back into the SEC's jurisdiction, but focusing on the risk reporting by regulated entities such as investment banks.
Archegos reportedly purchased derivatives from the banks known as total return swaps, which enable investors to bet on share price moves without owning the underlying stock. The fund was therefore able to use loans to build outsized positions investing in global stock markets.
The banks issued margin calls on the hedge fund last week — a demand that Archegos deposit more money into its margin accounts or sell some of the assets held in them, so as to bring it up to the brokers' required minimum value. The hedge fund proceeded to default on these calls.
"In terms of regulation, it is not so much necessarily about regulating the family firms — I mean, if they want to bet their money, that is fine — it is the fact that it is leveraged," said Thorsten Beck, professor of banking and finance at Cass Business School.
"It's the fact that the different investment banks have lent too much money and are now trying to unwind all of their positions in a rather uncoordinated way, so I think that is where the regulation has to start."
Beck told CNBC that some regulators may look at "ringfencing" of banks' operations, ensuring that if banks wish to lend to potentially risky clients such as Archegos, such activities must separate from the commercial bank and units which have implications for the real economy.
Since Jan. 2019, large banks in the U.K. are required to legally separate their retail and investment banking operations to prevent shocks from the financial system negatively affecting consumer banking.
Unlike the former regulations in the U.S. under the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, which were repealed in 1999, new U.K. legislation permits retail banks to be part of a larger banking group that also engages in investment banking.
The markets have largely shrugged off the Archegos fallout as an isolated incident, since so far only a limited number of investment banks seem to be affected.
Luke Hickmore, investment director at Aberdeen Standard Investments, who holds Credit Suisse debt in his fixed income portfolio, said the likely hit based on Monday's equity movement was "probably not enough to stress their capital buffers to the point where the regulator steps in."
However, Pluribus Labs Head of Strategy Greg Williamson suggested there could be lasting effects from the issues highlighted by Archegos' meltdown, which will come in the form of global regulatory change.
"Things like total return swaps just weren't looked at for the positions that were held by the holders of the swaps. You really didn't know what the risk exposure was of the portfolio that entered into the swap, but also of the bank that was on the other side of the swap," Williamson told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Tuesday.
"It is clear that neither of the parties were exercising risk control when they put these total return swaps on. I think the next shoe to fall will be an increase in regulatory oversight."
Archegos founder and Co-CEO Bill Hwang, who managed $10 billion of family money through the fund, previously worked at Tiger Management and pleaded guilty on behalf of his firm to insider trading in a case brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2012.
"In all likelihood, we will see derivatives be added to additional scrutiny and probably the upstanding derivatives positions added to the capital bases of banks and investment banks, which could restrict activity in the future. I think that is the big shoe that could fall," said Williamson.
NEW YORK — (AP) — An Asian American woman was attacked by a man who repeatedly kicked her as two people nearby who appeared to be security guards did not intervene, according to surveillance footage released by the New York City Police Department.
The 65-year-old woman was walking in midtown Manhattan on Monday afternoon when a man came up to her and kicked her in the stomach, knocking her to the ground, the NYPD said. The man then stomped on the woman's face several times while hurling anti-Asian sentiments at her, police said. He later casually walked away, the footage shows.
The attack comes amid a national spike in anti-Asian hate crimes, and happened just weeks after a mass shooting in Atlanta that left eight people dead, six of them women of Asian descent. The NYPD says there have been 33 hate crimes with an Asian victim so far this year, news outlets reported.
According to video footage of the New York City assault, the two people who appeared to be security guards walked into the frame and one of them closed the door as the woman was on the ground.
The property developer and manager of the building, Brodsky Organization, wrote on Instagram that it was aware of the assault and said staff members who witnessed it were suspended pending an investigation.
The woman is currently hospitalized with serious injuries.
The NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force is investigating the attack and has asked anyone with information to contact the department.
Police Commissioner Dermot Shea called Monday's attack “disgusting."
“I don’t know who attacks a 65-year-old woman and leaves her on the street like that," Shea said Tuesday on TV station NY1.
Shea recently said the agency would increase its outreach and patrols in predominantly Asian communities.
According to a report from Stop AAPI Hate over 3,795 incidents were reported to the organization from March 19, 2020, to February 28, 2021. The organization said that number is "only a fraction of the number of hate incidents that actually occur."
Graphic by Owensboro Times
The southbound lanes of Frederica Street will be closed beginning today between 18 Street and Hill Avenue for manhole grouting. The closure is expected to last through Friday, pending no delays or inclement weather.
The intersection of 18th and Frederica is across from Owensboro High School. Hill Avenue intersects Frederica Street next to Jimmy John’s.
A detour will be appropriately marked for this closure. Motorists should use caution and attention while driving in this area.
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Di YouTube channel miliknya, Jerome Polin yang merupakan mahasiswa Jepang asal Indonesia, berbagi keseruan mencoba jajanan street food Korea. Jerome ditemani temannya yang merupakan orang Korea asli bernama Rachel. Mereka mengunjungi Korea Town yang berada di daerah Shin-Okubo, Tokyo, Jepang.
Pertama-tama, Jerome dan Rachel mencicipi roti panggang. Rachel menjelaskan bahwa roti panggang ala Korea menggunakan saus keju spesial yang sangat lezat. Mereka memesan snack tersebut menggunakan mesin otomatis.
Terdapat ham, telur, dan keju di dalam roti panggang ini. Saking besarnya, Jerome kesulitan saat berusaha menggigit roti tersebut.
“Manis, rasanya seperti mayonnaise,” ujar Rachel.
“Tapi rasanya lebih manis dari mayonnaise biasa,” timpal Jerome.
Selanjutnya, makanan yang mereka coba adalah sosis, kue beras, dan cheese ball. Tidak seperti biasanya, kue beras ini digoreng menggunakan minyak.
Setelah itu, Jerome dan Rachel memesan makanan manis yaitu macaron. Macaron ini dibentuk dengan desain yang sangat imut dan lucu, ada karakter Cookie Monster juga, lho!
Lanjut lagi, Jerome dan Rachel memesan yangnyeom chicken, yaitu ayam goreng dengan saus manis spesial khas Korea ditambah dengan keju mozarella.
Jerome dan Rachel menyukai seluruh street food yang mereka coba di Korea Town ini. Yuk tonton video lengkapnya di YouTube channel Nihongo Mantappu!
JAKARTA, iNews.id - Siapa yang tidak kenal dengan makanan khas Korea Selatan. Korea Selatan dikenal dengan makanan-makanan khas yang memiliki cita rasa kuat. Negara ini memiliki banyak makanan pinggiran atau street food yang sangat populer di berbagai belahan negara, termasuk Indonesia. Street food ala Korea ini juga tidak kalah populer di negeri sakura alias Jepang!
Di YouTube channel miliknya, Jerome Polin yang merupakan mahasiswa Jepang asal Indonesia berbagi keseruan mencoba jajanan street food Korea. Jerome ditemani oleh temannya yang merupakan orang Korea asli bernama Rachel, mereka mengunjungi Korea Town yang berada di daerah Shin-Okubo, Tokyo, Jepang.
Editor : Vien Dimyati
A 55-year-old man died after being shot multiple times on Page Street near 19th at around 8 p.m. Monday, wrote Miguel Torres, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia Police Department, in an email to The Temple News.
Officers transported the man to Temple University Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 8:11 p.m., Torres wrote.
Police are still on the scene. They have not recovered any weapons or made any arrests, Torres wrote.
BICARA soal Korea Selatan tak bisa terlepas dari ragam makanan khas yang memiliki cita rasa kuat. Negeri Ginseng kaya akan makanan pinggiran atau street food yang sangat populer di berbagai belahan negara, termasuk Indonesia. Street food ala Korea ini juga tidak kalah populer di negeri sakura alias Jepang!
Di YouTube channel miliknya, Jerome Polin yang merupakan mahasiswa Jepang asal Indonesia berbagi keseruan mencoba jajanan street food Korea.
Jerome ditemani oleh temannya yang merupakan orang Korea asli bernama Rachel, mereka mengunjungi Korea Town yang berada di daerah Shin-Okubo, Tokyo, Jepang.
Baca juga: Resep Ayam Woku, Gampang Banget Masaknya Bunda
Pertama-tama, Jerome dan Rachel mencicipi roti panggang. Rachel menjelaskan bahwa roti panggang ala Korea menggunakan saus keju spesial yang sangat lezat. Mereka memesan snack tersebut menggunakan mesin otomatis.
Terdapat ham, telur, dan keju di dalam roti panggang ini. Saking besarnya, Jerome kesulitan saat berusaha menggigit roti tersebut.
“Manis, rasanya seperti mayonnaise” tutur Rachel.
“Tapi rasanya lebih manis dari mayonnaise biasa” tambah Jerome.
Selanjutnya, makanan yang mereka coba adalah sosis, kue beras, dan cheese ball. Tidak seperti biasanya, kue beras ini digoreng menggunakan minyak.
Wall Street banks grappling with the implosion of Bill Hwang’s investment firm spent Monday briefing U.S. regulators as Washington starts to dig into one of the biggest fund blowups in years.
The Securities and Exchange Commission summoned the banks for hasty meetings on what triggered the forced sale of more than $20 billion of stocks linked to Hwang’s Archegos Capital Management, said people with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be named in discussing private conversations. The calls also involved the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, with officials quizzing brokerages about any impacts on their operations, potential credit risks and other threats, said one of the people.
Hwang’s brokers included Credit Suisse Group AG, Nomura Holdings Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley. The speed at which Archegos ran into trouble and Wall Street’s swiftness in liquidating its positions shocked traders, while prompting a race at U.S. agencies to keep up with events.
“We have been monitoring the situation and communicating with market participants since last week,” an SEC spokesperson said in emailed statement. A Finra spokesman declined to comment.
The banks either declined to comment or didn’t immediately respond to messages.
“This is a challenging time for the family office of Archegos Capital Management, our partners and employees,” Karen Kessler, a spokesperson for the firm, said in an emailed statement. “All plans are being discussed as Mr. Hwang and the team determine the best path forward.”
Credit Suisse and Nomura warned investors earlier Monday that they may face “significant” losses after an unnamed U.S. hedge fund client defaulted on margin calls. Goldman told investors and clients that any impact from Archegos is likely to be immaterial, a person familiar with the matter said.
The blowup has prompted questions about oversight, particularly because Archegos amassed tens of billions of dollars in stock bets without disclosing its positions to other market participants.
Hwang’s family office did so by entering into derivative transactions with banks that gave him exposure to companies without buying actual shares. He also maximized his wagers by borrowing significants amount of money from his brokers, increasing risks to banks. Among stocks sold starting March 26 were GSX Techedu Inc. and Discovery Inc.
The episode has rekindled fears of earlier hedge fund failures that blew holes in lenders’ balance sheets. Still, the industry is arguably much better equipped to handle such meltdowns because of rules implemented after the 2008 financial crisis that forced banks to hold significantly more capital as a buffer against losses.
The fallout reached the highest corridors of power in Washington, with White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki telling reporters that the Biden administration was monitoring the situation. She referred specific questions to the SEC.
Hwang is no stranger to the Wall Street regulator, which joined prosecutors in accusing him and his former hedge fund, Tiger Asia Management, of insider trading in 2012. In resolving the case, the firm pleaded guilty and paid more than $60 million in penalties. Hwang started Archegos after the SEC barred him from managing money on behalf of clients as part of the settlement.
Gustave White Sotheby’s International Realty today announced the sale of 115 Pelham Street. The property recently sold for $4,550,000.
The seller was represented by Chris West, Broker/Owner of Gustave White Sotheby’s International Realty, and the buyer was represented by Annamarie Ringheim, Broker Associate of Mott & Chace Sotheby’s International Realty.
“Swinburne” is an elegant Greek Revival home once owned by 19th-century Rhode Island State Legislator and Mayor of Newport, William Swinburne. The property, c1860, has undergone exquisite renovations offering modern amenities. Located on a sought-after street in the picturesque Historic Hill neighborhood.
According to data available from the Rhode Island Statewide Multiple Listing Service, the sale of 115 Pelham Street is the second-highest sale in Newport County this year. Gustave White Sotheby’s International Realty also represented the sellers of the highest sale in Newport County thus far this year at $6.5 million.
Photos provided by Gustave White Sotheby’s International .Realty
San Rafael officials are finalizing a new design for a downtown traffic corridor to include a two-way bike lane, wider sidewalks and new traffic lights.
The estimated $13.8 million renovation project for Second and Third streets, which has been in the planning stages since 2017, is expected to begin over the summer, officials said.
The city is planning to seek applications from construction companies next month for the work, which would take place along Third Street between Union and Second streets and along Second Street between West and Shaver streets. Construction is expected to take about a year and will cause traffic delays, according to city officials.
The project calls for repaving the road, replacing and adding new traffic signals and extending sidewalks near intersections to improve safety for pedestrians. The two-way bike lane, separated from the road by a barrier, is planned along the south side of Second Street between West and East streets.
Parking spaces will be removed along Second and Third streets during the project, but new ones will be installed. There will be between one and four fewer parking spaces along the route when the project is completed.
City officials presented the latest design during an online meeting on March 24. Among the major changes to the project since the early planning stages is a new configuration for the intersection where Third Street meets Lindaro Street and Lootens Place.
The city was flooded with comments about its earlier plan for the intersection, said Robert Stevens, principal at CSW/Stuber-Stroeh Engineering Group, which the city hired for about $925,000 to design the project. While the design initially called for closing off the driveway into the Walgreens parking lot from Third Street, a new plan would allow cars to exit there, but not enter the lot.
Construction will begin with replacing utilities along the corridor, including sewer and water infrastructure. The city will next work on sidewalks and curb ramps before installing the new traffic signals, paving the road and planting new trees.
“In order to accommodate this work there’s going to need to be lane closures,” Stevens said. “There’s just not physically enough room to be able to do all this stuff and allow workers to work safely without closing a lane.”
Lane closures would be permitted along Second Street between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. and along Third Street between 6 a.m. and 3 p.m., Stevens said.
Construction will occasionally happen overnight. Driveways along the corridor will also need to be closed periodically for up to four hours at a time, Stevens said.
Bill Carney, president of Sustainable San Rafael, told city officials he would prefer a multi-use path that could be used by cyclists and pedestrians rather than a bike lane and an adjacent sidewalk.
“Those are much preferable from a pedestrian standpoint,” Carney said. “It’s much more gracious.”
Amy Likover, a San Rafael resident, urged project planners to design wider crosswalks at intersections near BioMarin’s offices.
“Really accommodate the number of pedestrians that will hopefully take that path so people aren’t squished together and more likely to fall off or walk on the street itself unprotected,” Likover said. “I think that would be very appreciated by the employees.”
The one-way, westbound Third Street is among the city’s busiest routes, carrying 30,000 cars daily, according to city officials. It serves as a major connecting point between Highway 101 and communities in Ross Valley and West Marin.
Though Third Street is heavily used by drivers, city officials say it’s imperative to create safer pedestrian access along the road. Third Street sits between one of the city’s major commercial hubs along Fourth Street and the homes and businesses to the south.
Funding for the project comes primarily from Measure A, a sales tax approved by voters in 2004 that pays for major road improvement projects in Marin. The sales tax revenue, which is administered by the Transportation Authority of Marin, will contribute $9.1 million toward the project.
Berwisata ke luar negeri tak lengkap rasanya jika tidak mencoba berbagai hal yang khas dari negara tersebut. Mulai dari tempat wisata , b...
