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2024.05.19 09:20 zlaxy On this day 116 years ago, Nikolay Pilchikov, a scientist-physicist, developer of radio-controlled devices, died in Kharkov from a shot in the heart

On this day 116 years ago in Kharkov Nikolay Dmitrievich Pilchikov – scientist-physicist, inventor in the field of radio engineering, author of works on optics, terrestrial magnetism, electrical and radio engineering, radioactivity, X-rays, electrochemistry, geophysics, meteorology – was shot in the heart.
At about seven o’clock in the morning of 6 May 1908, a shot rang out in a ward of an expensive Kharkov hospital. Breaking open the door locked from the inside, the doctors saw its only patient – it seemed that his life had been cut short in his sleep. The man was lying in his bunk, as if he hadn’t woken up yet. And if not for the bloodstain on his chest, no one would have realised the tragedy. A revolver lay on the tea-table beside the bed. It was from this revolver that the bullet that had pierced the scientist’s heart had been fired. Could a man who was undergoing medical treatment have carefully placed the gun beside his tea glass and folded his arms across his chest after shooting himself at point-blank range? Nevertheless, the “cadaver book” records ruled the death a suicide.
For some reason forensic experts did not do dactyloscopy – the investigation was not puzzled by fingerprints on the black “bulldog”, which became the murder weapon. And the authoritative professor Nikolai Bokarius, whose name now bears the local Institute of Forensic Medicine, even described Pilchikova’s case in a textbook for lawyers and doctors as an example of temporary purposeful capacity of suicides with fatal gunshot wounds in the heart area. At that, the luminary recommended to take into account not only anatomical features of the injury, but also the functional state of the central nervous system. The picture was completed by the conclusion of pathologists, who found in the killed after the autopsy of the corpse modifications in the structure of the brain.
A purely “police” justification for not considering the murder version was the fact that the incident took place in a locked room on the first floor (as if this could be an obstacle to unauthorised entry).
And a week after the scientist’s death, on 13 May 1908, the head of the police department received a report from the head of the Kharkov security service about the unreliability of the “extreme leftist” Professor Pilchikov, who was known for his active participation in “criminal agitation activities of engineering students”. This was confirmed by a search of the scientist’s house, during which propaganda literature from the period of the first Russian revolution of 1905 was found.
What was Professor Pilchikov doing before he was “worked out” by the police? The scientific fate of Nikolai Dmitrievich was as unusual as his death was mysterious and the fate of outstanding discoveries inexplicable.
The scientist, whose life was cut short at the age of 51, was not only a physicist, but also a lyricist: he was no less talented in composing poetry, painting pictures and playing the violin. But he considered his life’s work to be his scientific career, which was unusually successful.
The son of a public and cultural figure, who was a friend of Taras Shevchenko, was born on 9 May 1857 in Poltava, and already during his studies in gymnasium showed remarkable abilities in exact sciences. Entering the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Kharkiv University, he experimented in new at that time experiments in the field of sound recording, while still a student invented an electric phonograph.
After graduation, the graduate was left to work at the Department of Physics. His first scientific monograph was devoted to optical analysis. Later the scientist made a number of discoveries on the topics of scattered light polarisation and atmospheric ionisation, atmospheric electricity and geomagnetism, radioactivity and X-rays. Pilchikov was awarded the Silver Medal from the Russian Geographical Society for a series of studies of the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly, during which iron ore deposits near Prokhorovka were predicted.
After defending his thesis at the University of St. Petersburg, the master of physics was appointed privat-docent of the Kharkov University, and two years later he went to practice at a magnetic observatory in Paris, where he discovered flaws in the design of the seismograph and offered his mentors a way to correct them.
Soon the young professor of Kharkov University becomes famous outside Russia, becoming a regular at international scientific conferences and a member of the Toulouse Academy of Sciences.
Nikolay Pilchikov returned to Kharkov as a university professor, where he created a meteorological station that still exists today. To study the upper atmosphere, the professor developed a stratostat and then a high-altitude spacesuit to equip the pilot. The atmospheric optics researcher created his own seismograph and designed equipment to determine magnetic pressure.
Having moved for some time to Odessa (to work at the Imperial Novorossiysk University), in 1894 the scientist invented an original lamp for the study of X-rays, called “Pilchikov’s focus tube”. The optical and galvanic version of the study of electrolysis developed by him made it possible to obtain images on metal plates – so the inventor became the author of electrophotography or photogalvanography.
And on 25 March 1898, Nikolai Pilchikov demonstrated for the first time a device working with radio waves of a certain length and rejecting interference. During his experiments in Odessa he lit a lighthouse with the help of radio waves and moved a railway semaphore, blew up a yacht and made a cannon fire.
The scientist characterised his contribution to radio physics as follows: while Popov and Marconi were looking for a way to transmit a signal over the greatest possible distance, he was solving the problem of cutting off wireless power transmission from extraneous electrical waves. Thus appeared the first device with a protector – a security filter, allowing only the waves addressed to it to reach the mechanism and protecting the equipment from atmospheric and radio interference. The scientist not only designed and manufactured different types of the first protectors, but also tested them in practice.
With the help of his revolutionary device, Professor Pilchikov made it possible to create radio-controlled mine boats that could sink enemy ships without a crew and fire on enemy targets. In proposing the idea to the Russian military, the inventor characterised it as a way of detonating objects at a considerable distance without cables or other visible communication.
Applying for financial assistance from the military department, Pilchikov planned to spend 15,000 roubles on laboratory equipment, manufacture of devices and their testing with the support of the Sevastopol naval forces. For his part, the scientist undertook to keep the know-how in strict secrecy and not to publish any information about the development in scientific literature. As a result, this circumstance may have contributed to the fact that the scientist’s works disappeared and he himself may have been eliminated.
Military engineers discussed the professor’s petition for research funds with reference to foreign experience. Specialists compared Pilchikov’s achievements with the developments of foreign scientists experimenting with wireless telegraph, to whom the authorities did not refuse anything. For example, Preece was authorised for experiments by the postal department of England, Marconi obtained in 1897 large sums of money from the naval department of Italy, and the Berlin scientist Slaby received aeronautical parks, watercraft and troops of the Potsdam garrison from the Emperor of Germany. Pilchikov, on the other hand, had a much more extensive programme and was naturally expected to produce the most ambitious results.
On his return to Kharkov in 1902, the professor continued his research in the best-equipped physical laboratory of those times, the local University of Technology. He was also allocated a ship “Dnestr” and funds for marine experiments. On the ship in 1903 the scientist equipped a receiving radio station, and on the Chersonese lighthouse – transmitting.
Alas, neither the scheme of those protectors, nor the content of the experiments, nor their further fate are known today. In the archives we found only information about a letter of gratitude to Professor Pilchikov from the Commander of the Pacific Fleet. It was dated the beginning of September 1904. It is clear that in the midst of the war with Japan secret military developments could be of interest to both belligerents. Moreover, other external enemies were also interested in preventing Russia’s military advantage.
Professor Pilchikov’s research competed with American experiments in the Maritime Ministry under Tesla, who was also working on the task of wireless control of a minelayer from the shore. This is a case in science when “an idea is in the air” and the same discovery is independently made by scientists at different ends of the world.
It is believed that the first radio-controlled telemechanical system in the world was developed by Nikola Tesla – he patented and presented an unprecedented ship model in the summer of 1898, but came to the discovery the day before, in spring. And “Russian Tesla” Nikolai Pilchikov tested a similar invention in March of the same year, which was reported in a note in the “Odessa Review”, which for some reason remained unnoticed by the scientific community.
The “two Nicholas” had a lot in common, despite the fact that they lived and created on different continents. Scientists were almost the same age. Both had no family – neither wives nor close relatives. Both were undividedly attracted to physical science – the mysteries of radioactivity, X-rays and lightning. But to Pilchikov did not appear one day George Westinghouse with a million dollars for four dozen patents. And an understanding friend, as Tesla had in the person of Katharine Johnson, next to Nikolay Dmitrievich was not there either…
Being left without further state support, Pilchikov could not complete the work on his wireless protector. In 1905 he left to observe the solar eclipse in Algeria, from where he returned with failing health. Ill-health was aggravated by an acute feeling of loneliness.
1908 was a fateful year in the fate of the scientist. It was the best time of the year, the beginning of May, a time of intoxication with life and romantic dreams. But for Pilchikov, the “delight of nature” had no inspiring meaning: five days before his own birthday, he went to a psychoneurological clinic. And it happened under very mysterious circumstances.
According to police reports, the owner of a private hospital and a well-known doctor I. Y. Platonov received a call from an unknown man on 3 May with a request to hospitalise Nikolai Dmitrievich Pilchikov. It was asked to prepare a separate room where the patient would be alone.
When the professor appeared in the clinic, the doctors saw nothing critical in his condition. He was elegantly dressed, and in his hands held a suitcase with papers. Two days later, a shot rang out in the ward, and the papers were gone. Not a single piece of his war work was found among his household belongings. The blueprints of inventions of world importance, which the scientist had not even had time to patent, disappeared.
Wasn’t the murder then the final fat point in the planned operation? And didn’t the inventor-physicist take with him to the ward what the special services hunting for his military developments were tracking down?
Perhaps it was in the hospital that Nikolai Pilchikov, who had a premonition of trouble, tried to hide from his threatening pursuers? Or maybe they put him there so that it would be easier to realise what they had planned? And who were these mysterious killers?..
We will probably never get answers to these questions. But it is known how the brilliant ideas of the tragically departed scientist were put into practice.
In 1913, the first radio-controlled aeroplane took to the skies. Four years later, a German boat controlled from a plane blew up the quay in the English harbour of Newport. In the same year, 1917, a German ship was damaged by a British minelayer guided from a radio-controlled aeroplane. In 1925 the first mine without wires appeared. And in 1943 the Soviet troops destroyed the Nazi headquarters with General von Braun in Kharkov occupied by the enemy by controlled explosion from Voronezh.
Radio warfare has long been supplemented by radio defence, where the first role is played by devices like Pilchikov’s protectors. Thanks to radio defence, in 1944 the British were invulnerable to German fighters in the Libyan desert. Radio locks of increased complexity are used in satellite navigation and launching systems for space and military rockets. And all responsible radio electronic equipment is protected from interference by modern devices working on the principle of Professor Pilchikov’s protector – the “Russian Tesla”, who became a hindrance to someone himself…
Source: Vyacheslav Kapreljants

submitted by zlaxy to ThisDayInHistory [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 09:05 Alteredchaos 📢 Sunday News - with a focus on carers this week

Ministers apologise and return £7,000 in benefits to woman, 93, with dementia
Government ministers have formally apologised and repaid £7,000 to a 93-year-old woman whom they held responsible for running up benefits overpayment debts even though they were told she had dementia and was unable to manage her affairs.
The case, which the minister for disability, Mims Davies, admitted was “disturbing”, was brought to light by the Guardian as part of its investigation into carer's allowance overpayments.
The agreement to write off the debt of the 93-year-old, whom the Guardian has chosen not to name, comes as ministers have promised to try new ways of sharing information with carers to try to prevent them building up months and years of overpayments.
Read the full article on theguardian.com

DWP confirmed that it is developing an ‘enhanced notification strategy’ to alert carer’s allowance claimants to possible overpayments
Notifications designed to encourage claimants to report changes in income and so reduce the risk of being overpaid.
As part of its policy paper, Fighting Fraud in the Welfare System: Going Further, that was published earlier this week, the Department says (at paragraph 78) -

'In carer’s allowance we are progressing an enhanced notification strategy as part of our existing commitment to improve customer engagement, building on our existing communications with customers. As part of this notification strategy we are considering all forms of targeted contact to find the most effective and efficient solution, such as exploring the use of targeted text messages or emails to alert claimants and encourage them to contact the Department when the DWP is made aware of a potential overpayment.'

The Department added -

'The new strategy will help claimants understand when they may have received an earnings-related overpayment or are at risk of doing so, and will encourage claimants to contact the DWP to meet their obligation to inform the Department of changes in their income and other relevant circumstances. This will reduce the risk of those customers being overpaid.'

Note: having expressed concern that the DWP had 'done nothing' to stop carers building up huge overpayments of benefit despite knowing what people are earning, Work and Pensions Committee Chair Stephen Timms called on the National Audit Office to investigate problems with the carer's allowance system and, in particular, its failure to prevent or rectify overpayments.
Stephen Timms has also written to Secretary for State for Work and Pensions Mel Stride highlighting concerns about the DWP's lack of progress with overpayments since the previous committee's report in 2019. Mr Timms' letter repeats the committee's recommendation that the DWP increase the rate of carer's allowance and goes on to call for the DWP to review both the amount and the cliff-edge nature of the earnings limit and for the removal of the 21-hour study rule.
For more information, see Policy paper: Fighting Fraud in the Welfare System: Going Further from gov.uk

Carers UK has welcomed the DWP's plans, noting this is the 'minimum' they've been calling for to tackle carers' overpayments. However, Director of Policy and Public Affairs Emily Holzhausen also highlights that implementing the strategy is 'urgent', asks that the whole issue be moved out of being branded benefits fraud, and that carer's allowance be reviewed as it should be 'modernised to reflect the realities of caring'.

DWP-commissioned research highlights how the carer’s allowance earnings threshold influences decisions about how many hours carers work
Report also makes clear that the Department was made aware three years ago that there was room to improve claimant understanding and possibly reduce mistakes leading to overpayments by improving its communications.
The research, Experiences of claiming and receiving carer’s allowance, explores how and why people claim carer's allowance; their caring roles; experiences of combining paid work and care; and how well claimants understand the rules associated with the benefit. While carried out in 2020/2021, the research has been published today against a backdrop of calls for the wholescale reform of carer's allowance as a result of evidence that claimants who have earned above the carer's allowance earnings limit have been left with large overpayments and, in some cases, prosecuted for fraud.
While the research found that many claimants in employment felt there was a practical limit to the hours they could work, with many saying it was only feasible to be working part-time due to their caring responsibilities, it also found that -

the earnings threshold appeared to influence decisions about how many hours some people worked. Even though claimants often denied that the threshold influenced their choices, they acknowledged being mindful to stay below the threshold. One claimant felt he had to refuse shifts at work that would take him over the threshold;
in another example, the earnings limit led a claimant to reduce her hours as her wages increased, and eventually she was working so few hours that her employer felt it was not worth employing her due to her limited availability; and
some claimants in paid work felt they might work more hours if not for the earnings threshold, and even suggested tapering the carer’s allowance earnings rule to encourage claimants to work more.

Published on the same day that the Work and Pensions Select Committee said that there has been insufficient progress in addressing the problems with carer's allowance that it highlighted five years ago, the research makes clear that the Department has been aware of the issues for some time. For example, it highlights confusion relating to the complexity of the earnings calculation, including how deductions such as childcare expenses and pension contributions are taken account of, and whether wages can be averaged if you earn more in a particular week.
In addition, with the Chair of the Select Committee Stephen Timms having said recently that the DWP has done nothing to stop carers building up huge overpayments despite knowing what people are earning, and the Committee having called on the National Audit Office to investigate the problems with the system, the research found that -

poor communication on the part of the DWP meant that not all of those that had been overpaid benefit were clear on the reason for the overpayment;
some said that while they were initially notified or questioned about an overpayment there was then no follow-up from the Department; and
when the overpayment was initially raised, several claimants felt that they were spoken to or treated by DWP as though they had intentionally committed fraud when the overpayment had been a misunderstanding.

As a result, the research says -

'... there is room to improve claimant understanding and possibly reduce mistakes leading to overpayments by improving communications around eligibility criteria. Since claimants did not engage with the detail of their benefit regularly, possibly only considering it once a year when they received their annual letter, more frequent communications may improve clarity of knowledge around carer’s allowance.'

Other key findings include that -

most claimants cared for close relatives, with two in five caring for a child (39 per cent), a quarter caring for a spouse or partner (25 per cent), and one in five (22 per cent) caring for a parent;
caring was a long-term and high-intensity commitment, with half of claimants (52 per cent) spending 65 or more hours caring per week and more than half (54 per cent) caring for between 5 and 20 years;
only 16 per cent of carer's allowance claimants were currently in paid work, tending to work part- time in lower paid jobs that they were able to fit around their caring responsibilities, with most (81 per cent) working 20 hours or less a week;
of those not currently in paid work, seven in ten (69 per cent) said this was due to their responsibilities as a carer, with other barriers including a lack of flexible working options, claimants’ own health and confidence issues; and
there was a lag between starting caring and claiming carer's allowance, with seven in ten claimants (70 per cent) caring for 5+ years, but only 3 in 10 (34 per cent) having claimed carer's allowance for that length of time.

For more information, see Experiences of claiming and receiving carer’s allowance from gov.uk

Almost 135,000 people currently have an outstanding carer's allowance debt, with more than £250 million owed in total, according to figures supplied by DWP Minister Paul Maynard
DWP Minister also confirms that women represent 68 per cent of those with an outstanding debt.
Responding to a written question in Parliament from Work and Pensions Committee Chair Stephen Timms, Mr Maynard said -

'As of 14 May 2024, the volume of people who have an outstanding carers allowance debt is 134,800 with a total value of £251 million. This figure represents the total stock and as such the total monetary amount may have been accrued over multiple years. Those who have an outstanding carers allowance debt may no longer be in receipt of the benefit.'

Mr Maynard added that -

'Women make up the majority of carer’s allowance claims, and this is reflected in the proportion of those with an outstanding carer’s allowance debt. As of 14 May 2024, there were 42,800 (32 per cent) males, 91,900 (68 per cent) females and 100 (less than 1 per cent) not identified, with an outstanding carer's allowance debt.'

The Minister also confirmed that, as of November 2023, there were more than 991,000 people in receipt of carer's allowance, consisting of around 271,000 (27 per cent) males and 720,000 (73 per cent) females.
Mr Maynard's written answer is available from parliament.uk

Total value of benefit overpayments in 2023/2024 increased to almost £10 billion, representing 3.7 per cent of benefit expenditure for the year
New DWP figures also show that official error underpayments remained at around £1 billion, and that people could have claimed more than £3 billion more 'if they had provided accurate information about their circumstances'.
In Fraud and error in the benefit system: financial year 2023 to 2024 estimates, the DWP calculates how much money it overpaid or underpaid as a percentage of total benefit expenditure for the year (£266.2bn) - for benefits including universal credit, housing benefit, personal independence payment, employment and support allowance and pension credit - and how many claims were paid an incorrect amount.
Note: the statistics no longer include estimates of claimant error underpayments as these are now published separately, as confirmed in recent DWP guidance.
In relation to incorrect payment rates across all benefits for the financial year ending (FYE) 2024, the figures show that the total rate of benefit expenditure overpaid was 3.7 per cent (£9.7bn), compared with 3.6 per cent (£8.3bn) in 2022/2023. In addition, the total rate of benefit expenditure underpaid was 0.4 per cent (£1.1bn), compared with 0.5 per cent (£1.2bn) in FYE 2023.
Looking in more detail at the figures for individual benefits, the statistics include data showing that -

for universal credit, expenditure increased to £51.9bn in 2024 with an overpayment rate of 12.4 per cent (£6.5bn) and underpayment rate of 0.3 per cent (£180m), compared to expenditure of £43.4 bn, overpayments at 12.7 per cent (£5.5bn) and underpayments at 0.6 per cent (£240m) in FYE 2023;
for personal independence payment (PIP), the overpayment rate was at the lowest recorded level of 0.4 per cent (£90m), compared with 1.1 per cent (£200m) in FYE 2023. However, the underpayment rate went up to 0.4 per cent (£80m), from 0.3 per cent (£60m) the previous year;
for pension credit, the overpayment rate was 9.7 per cent (£520m) in FYE 2024, compared with 6.8 per cent (£330m) in the previous year, with underpayments remaining unchanged at 0.3 per cent (£50m) for both years; and
for housing benefit, almost £1bn (£980m) was overpaid in FYE 2024 (6.3 per cent of expenditure), compared with £860m (5.7 per cent) in 2023. Underpayments remained stable at 0.4 per cent of spending (£50m in FYE 2024 and £60m in FYE 2023).

In addition to the fraud and error statistics, the DWP has also issued Unfulfilled eligibility in the benefit system: Financial Year Ending (FYE) 2024, in line with its decision to remove claimant underpayments from its main fraud and error estimates. The new statistics set out the percentage of benefit expenditure that could have been paid to people with unfulfilled eligibility 'if they had provided the correct information', and show key findings that include -

the unfulfilled eligibility rate for 2024 is 1.2 per cent of expenditure (£3.1bn), compared with 1.0 per cent (£2.3bn) in the previous year; and
universal credit, PIP and disability living allowance (DLA) account for around three-quarters of the total value of unfulfilled eligibility (at £730m, £870m and £750m respectively in FYE 2024).

The DWP highlighted that -

'PIP has the second highest unfulfilled eligibility rate [4 per cent] of all benefits and fairly high expenditure [£21.6bn], so due to this combination, PIP accounts for around one-quarter of total unfulfilled eligibility in FYE 2024. DLA has the highest unfulfilled eligibility rate [11.1 per cent] but relatively low expenditure [£6.8m], so even though its rate is higher than PIP, it accounts for a similar amount of total unfulfilled eligibility in FYE 2024. Universal credit has a lower unfulfilled eligibility rate than DLA and PIP [1.4 per cent] but its high expenditure means that it also accounts for a similar amount of total unfulfilled eligibility in FYE 2024.'

For more information, see Fraud and error in the benefit system: financial year 2023 to 2024 estimates and Unfulfilled eligibility in the benefit system: financial year 2023 to 2024 estimates from gov.uk

Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride has set out the DWP's plans to scale up its 'fight against fraudsters'
New measures include using machine learning to detect and prevent fraudulent claims, as well as introducing a new Bill to enable benefit fraud to be treated like tax fraud.
Issuing a written statement in the House of Commons on 13th May, Mr Stride said -

'In the continued fight against fraud, today the Government will publish a new paper setting out the progress we have made in tackling fraud and error in the welfare system - Fighting Fraud in the Welfare System: Going Further. The paper sets out the progress we have made in delivering the commitments in the Government's 2022 command paper Fighting Fraud in the Welfare System and it demonstrates where we are going further to protect taxpayers’ money from fraudsters.'

Highlighting that the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill, currently before Parliament, will enable the Department to work with third parties such as banks to identify claims that signal potential fraud and error, Mr Stride says that the new measures being introduced include -

bringing forward a new Fraud Bill in the next parliament to treat benefit fraud like tax fraud, by providing for the ability to make arrests and conduct searches and seizures by warrant;
exploring a new civil penalty to punish fraudsters, potentially broadening the scope of cases that can receive a penalty when the courts are not prosecuting, and increasing the value of the civil penalty;
tripling the size of the Targeted Case Review programme to reach almost 6,000 staff with the aim of saving £6.6 billion by 2027/2028; and
making changes to universal credit including new partly automated checks on self-employed income, new online prompts for claimants to re-declare their circumstances (such as if they have moved in with a partner), and increasing checks on capital when people claim the benefit to ensure they are eligible.

Note: the Department confirms that final decisions on accepting or stopping a claim will, however, continue to be made by a member of DWP staff.
For more information, see DWP updates Fraud Plan from gov.uk
In response to the above article the Disability News Service reported that the government's fraud policy paper ignores coroner’s concerns over review of disabled woman’s universal credit claim. Read the DNS article on disabilitynewsservice.com

Less than half of legacy benefit claimants who were sent a migration notice between July 2022 and March 2024 have made a claim for universal credit, according to new figures from the DWP
However, new DWP statistics also show that 60 per cent of households that claimed universal credit have been awarded transitional protection.
In Completing the move to Universal Credit: statistics related to the move of households claiming Tax Credits and DWP benefits to Universal Credit: data to end of March 2024, the DWP sets out figures for the period since July 2022, noting that -

'In the period covered by this bulletin, the vast majority of migration notices have been sent to tax credit households whose likelihood of claiming universal credit and receiving transitional protection may be different from DWP legacy benefit claimants, the majority of whom had not yet been sent a migration notice in the period covered in this bulletin.'

The statistics include that -

a total of 824,050 individuals (in 540,070 households) were sent migration notices up to March 2024 - up by around 300,000 and 200,000 respectively compared to the totals for December 2023;
a total of 400,940 individuals (49 per cent of those sent migration notices), living in 275,980 households, have made a claim for universal credit;
of households that have claimed universal credit, 166,860 (60 per cent) have been awarded transitional protection;
a total of 238,990 individuals who were sent migration notices are still going through the managed migration process; and
a total of 184,120 individuals who were sent migration notices have had their legacy benefit claims closed.

Move to Universal Credit statistics, July 2022 to March 2024 is available from gov.uk
Note: the DWP has also published Universal Credit statistics, 29 April 2013 to 11 April 2024 which show that there were 6.7 million people on universal credit in April 2024 (300,000 more than the 6.4 million in January 2024) and that half of households on universal credit that received a payment in February 2024 included children.

Department for Communities also confirms that claimants in receipt of other legacy benefits will be issued with migration notices 'in the coming months'
The Department for Communities (DfC) has confirmed that the 'Move to UC' rollout in Northern Ireland has expanded this week to include people receiving tax credits along with housing benefit.
Announcing the expansion of the process, Deputy Secretary of Work and Health at the DfC Paddy Rooney said -

'We continue to take a measured and carefully managed approach to migrating legacy benefit recipients to universal credit. We have already successfully completed issuing migration notices to tax credit only recipients and we will continue to take every step possible to ensure that everyone receives the help and support they need during this next phase of Move to UC.'

The Department also confirmed that once it has issued migration notices to all those receiving tax credits with housing benefit, the following groups will be contacted in this order -

people claiming income support;
people claiming housing benefit only, and those claiming child tax credit with income-related employment and support allowance (ESA); and
people claiming income-based jobseeker's allowance.

In relation to the bringing forward of managed migration for ESA and ESA/housing benefit claimants in Great Britain, announced by the Prime Minister on 19 April 2024, the DfC says that it is working to assess the impact of this on the region. It also confirms that it will align with the DWP's aim to complete the migration of legacy benefit claimants to universal credit by March 2025.
For more information, see Tax credit with housing benefit recipients next to 'Move to UC' and Rollout of Universal Credit for Tax Credit and Legacy Benefit customers - screening from ni.gov.uk

57,000 adverse universal credit sanction decisions were made in January 2024, according to new DWP statistics
DWP statistics also highlight that around 95 per cent of decisions are as a result of failure to attend or participate in a mandatory interview.
In Benefit sanctions statistics to February 2024, the DWP reports on both the rate and duration of sanctions for universal credit claimants who are in conditionality regimes where they be applied.
Key findings include that -

in February 2024, 30.1 per cent of claimants were in conditionality regimes that were subject to sanctions and, of these, 6.52 per cent were sanctioned - down 0.64 percentage points from the previous quarter;
over the last year, 94.9 per cent of adverse sanction decisions were for failure to attend or participate in a mandatory interview; and
in February 2024, there were 20,000 completed sanctions in the 4 weeks to 13 weeks sanction duration band, 4,800 in the over 13 weeks to 26 weeks duration band, and 4,000 of over 26 weeks duration.

In addition, while the total number of claimants in conditionality regimes where sanctions can be applied has remained largely stable since May 2022 (currently at 1.95 million), the total number of adverse sanction decisions stood at 57,000 in January 2024, the highest since March 2022.
The DWP notes that -

'Comparisons with universal credit prior to February 2024 ... should not be made. This is because the data sources, methodology and rules of the benefits differ from those used for universal credit currently.'

However, it adds that, following the reinstated duration measures and rate methodology improvements, the data is now determined stable and fit for purpose and, as of May 2024, it is published under the 'Official Statistics' label as opposed to 'in development'.
For more information, see Benefit sanctions statistics to February 2024 from gov.uk

DWP has admitted missing multiple opportunities to record the 'vulnerability' of a disabled woman whose death was later linked by a coroner to failings at the heart of its UC system
The Disability News Service reported on the case of Nazerine (known as Naz) Anderson, from Melton Mowbray, who died of an overdose in June last year, after receiving a UC review notice.
According to a prevention of future deaths (PFD) report sent to the department by coroner Fiona Butler, the DWP missed six opportunities to record Anderson’s “vulnerability” on its IT system while it was reviewing her universal credit claim, and had failed to act on the mental distress she showed in phone calls about her claim. It also repeatedly failed to act on requests to direct its telephone calls and letters to her daughter.
The DWP admits multiple universal credit failures before disabled woman’s death article is available on disabilitynewsservice.com

Number of emergency food parcels distributed across the UK by the Trussell Trust has increased by 90 per cent over the past five years
Food charity reports that it distributed more than three million parcels last year, with more than a million of them going to children.
In Emergency food parcel distribution in the UK: April 2023 - March 2024, the Trust says that it distributed 3,121,404 food parcels, the most parcels that it has ever distributed in a financial year, representing a four per cent increase on last year's record-breaking numbers for 2022/2023 and a 94 per cent increase since 2018/2019.
The charity also highlights that the number of parcels provided to children has continued to rise, exceeding 1.1 million in 2023/2024, and that food bank support is provided disproportionately to children, compared to the proportion of children in the UK population. In addition, it notes that pension age households are increasingly likely to need to use a food bank, with food bank support for these households having more than quadrupled between 2018/2019 and 2023/2024 (an increase of 345 per cent), compared to an 81 per cent rise amongst households without someone of pension age.
Also sharing statistics on the reason for referral for an emergency food parcel - which include health, benefit issues, work hour changes, insecure housing, changes in personal circumstances, immigration status and domestic abuse, as well as income and debt levels - the Trussell Trust says -

'Across all households the most common reason for referral was due to issues with income and debt levels. The vital role of the social security system in driving these trends is clear from the fact that the majority (78 per cent) of people referred to food banks were reported to solely have income from the social security system, with a further 8 per cent having earned income as well as income from social security.'

Trussell Trust Chief Executive Emma Revie said -

'It’s 2024 and we’re facing historically high levels of food bank need. As a society, we cannot allow this to continue. We must not let food banks become the new norm ... A supportive social security system is the bedrock on which we end hunger for good. Building on this, we need much more effective employment and financial support for parents, carers and disabled people, and action to ensure everyone can have the security we all need to access opportunities and have hope for the future, through more secure and flexible jobs and investment in social housing. Food banks are not the answer. They will be there to support people as long as they are needed, but our political leaders must take bold action to build a future where everyone has enough money to afford the life’s essentials. The time to act is now.'

For more information, see End of Year Stats from trusselltrust.org

Employment Minister Jo Churchill has provided a House of Lords Select Committee with an undertaking that the administrative earnings threshold (AET) in universal credit will not be increased again without a 'sound evidence base'
However, Minister's evidence to Lords Committee fails to address its dissatisfaction with DWP's explanation for not publishing robust evidence to support previous increases in the threshold.
Further to the Lords Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee's report on new regulations that implemented a further increase in the AET from 13 May 2024 - that criticised the ‘inexplicable’ lack of data evaluating previous increases in the threshold in September 2022 and January 2023 - the Committee held a one-off evidence session yesterday to question the Minister and DWP officials.
Introducing the session, Committee Chair Lord Hunt acknowledged that the DWP had agreed to share its informal findings supporting its AET policy. However Lord Hunt added that -

'... similar, no doubt to the material that the Social Security Advisory Committee saw but correctly declined, if information is not available to the House and the public, then we feel unable to consider it either.'

The Committee then questioned the Minister about the Department's failure to publish evidence providing an assessment of the impact of increasing the AET either before or after implementing the change.
In response, Ms Churchill highlighted that the Department did publish a randomised controlled trial evaluation in 2018 providing the highest level of evidence on the impacts of increased in-work conditionality that Ministers have had sight of. When challenged that this evidence is somewhat outdated and 'a bit threadbare' - as it has been relied on for three increases in the AET - Ms Churchill indicated that Ministers also had early sight of unpublished research (a Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) study) that compares the experiences of claimants who are just below and just above the AET.
When pressed on the expected publication dates for this and further evidence, Mr Churchill said -

'I have asked for [the RDD study] to be available as soon as it can be, and the date I was given was spring 2024 ... I would like it out the door as soon as possible, so you have more data ... RDD is the next piece, the next building block and then, the longitudinal study will come through in 2025.'

Concluding the session with a final question, Lord Hunt, speaking on behalf of the whole Committee, said -

'... we're looking for an undertaking from you, not to further expand the cohort until the Department can publish robust evidence of its effects. Are you able to give us that undertaking?

Ms Churchill responded -

'So are you alluding to us holding 15 hours or with this latest laying at 18? Because I could certainly say to you, I think with all confidence that at 18, we want to understand the iterations and make sure that we've got a sound evidence base from there.'

NB - the increase in the AET in January 2023 was based, for individuals, on the equivalent of them working 15 hours per week at the National Living Wage, and this week's increase to the equivalent of them working 18 hours per week.
Despite welcoming the Minister's reply, Lord Hunt went on to say -

'... we accept your undertaking, except we are still as dissatisfied as we were because you haven't provided, in the view of the Committee, sufficient explanation yet. We are awaiting this robust evidence, which I think that we now expect in June 2024.'

The evidence session Regulations to increase the Administrative Earnings Threshold (Legislative scrutiny) is available from parliament.tv

Work and Pensions Select Committee has called on the government to bring forward proposals to compensate women born in the 1950s who suffered as a result of the DWP's communication failures when their pension age was increased, and asks that it does so in the current parliamentary session
Committee chair highlights lengthy delay and urgency for affected women and calls on government to act on Parliamentary Ombudsman recommendations before summer recess.
Writing to Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Mel Stride, Committee Chair Stephen Timms requests government support for 'urgent action' following the Parliamentary Ombudsman's final report in March 2024 which recommended a remedy based on level 4 of its severity of injustice scale, putting awards at between £1,000 and £2,950.
Mr Timms says that the Committee does not seek to question the Ombudsman's proposal for compensation at level 4, but instead has focused on what a remedy may look like -

'The evidence we received indicated support for a rules-based system. This would be a system where payments would be adjusted within a range (based on the PHSO’s severity of injustice scale) to reflect the extent of change in the individual’s State Pension age and the notice of the change which the individual received. This would mean that the less notice you had of the change and the bigger the change in your SPA, the higher the payment you would receive. While not perfect, the advantages of such a system are that it would be: quick to administer; applying known data to a formula to determine the amount due; and relatively inexpensive (compared to a more bespoke system).'

The Committee's recommendation also includes some flexibility for individuals to make the case for further compensation in the event that they have experienced direct financial loss, for example where a woman whose divorce settlement was less than it would have been because it was based on the expectation that she would receive her state pension at 60.
Mr Timms also asks the government to consider -

'... the need for urgent action, given that the Ombudsman started to look at this issue in 2018 and that every 13 minutes a woman born in the 1950s dies ... Implementing a remedy will need parliamentary time, financial resources, and the data and technical systems only available to your department. It cannot happen without government support. We would ask you to bring forward proposals for a remedy by the summer recess.'

Mr Timms' letter to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is available from parliament.uk

submitted by Alteredchaos to DWPhelp [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 07:04 Ok_Start1379 Do you think therapy can help me (27F) and my (ex)fiancé (28M) repair our relationship?

My (ex)fiancé and I had been together for almost 6.5 years, engaged for almost 2.5. Over the last several months, my (ex)fiancé has sat me down to talk about our relationship about once a month. Before these conversations, he would shut down and barely speak to me for several days even when I would ask what was wrong. Then he would finally tell me he was ready to have a conversation and would express his frustrations with the relationship. By the time of our conversations, I would already be on the defensive from his recent behavior. I also generally do not receive feedback well. When he would try to tell me that he was unhappy in our relationship because I didn't compliment him enough, flirt with him enough, or tell him I loved him enough, I would shut down. I was not able to hear what he was really trying to tell me. Instead, I put up a wall and told him to love me for who I am. I basically asked him "If I'm happy in our relationship despite my frustrations, why can't you be?" I now realize that is not an appropriate or healthy response when your partner is trying to communicate with you.
I did try to hear him. I gifted him some lingerie for the first time and let him take a boudoir photo shoot of me wearing it. I started sending a few more cute messages. I tried to make more time to cuddle with him when he would ask. I tried to give him more hugs. I tried to thank him more for picking up around the house. I wrote him a cute letter and surprised him with a few gifts for Easter. However, about a month ago, we had another one of those conversations. Except this time the first things he brought up were 'wondering what else is out there' and talking about how other girls are always complimenting him. Again came the walls and extra defensiveness. I ended up writing him a letter talking about how I didn't know if I could ever be what he wanted me to be and that maybe he should think about calling things off. This was obviously a defense mechanism to try to beat him to the punch line and talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy. Three weeks later he would sit me down and tell me he wanted to know what else was out there again and that he didn't know if he could go through with marrying me. My efforts did not feel like enough for him and I understand why. I was having a hard time connecting my emotions with my actions which made my actions seem reactionary and not genuine or provoked by love.
I have been through a lot more trauma in my life than I realized. My dad was in the Navy while I was growing up. We had to move every three years. A very pivotal point in my life was when we moved when I was in the 6th grade. I lived right next door to my best friend. I was finding my love for math and theater. I also played soccer and was a Girl Scout. When we moved, I became very depressed, though I didn't understand that's what it was at the time. I stopped all of my extracurricular activities. I stopped getting too close to people because I knew I would have to move or they would have to move eventually. I mostly stayed in my room and kept to myself, even from my family. I also have struggled with anxiety for as long as I can remember. Then, in my senior year of high school, I got my first-ever boyfriend. We were in a relationship for over 4 years. In that relationship, I would always be the one to try to talk about our problems. I would be the one who would always want longer hugs and more cuddles. But it was not a healthy relationship. We broke up and got back together many times. I found several illicit texts to other girls on multiple occasions and he would always gaslight me by saying his younger brother stole his phone or I misinterpreted the messages. I think this caused me not to want to show my emotions because it wasn't reciprocated and resulted in heartache. Then, three years ago my younger brother died in a tragic car accident at the age of 17.
When I realized I could lose the love of my life, I realized that he was right about me not being affectionate enough. I had built up walls to protect myself. I thought I had made progress on my anxiety and depression, but I realized I was wrong. I also realized that I have issues with communication, trust, and vulnerability. I was a great partner in other ways and I did express my love in other ways. I moved across the country, coast to coast, with him to a state where I didn't know anyone so that he could attend his dream school. I take care of the household. I get the majority of the groceries. I do all of the cooking. I do all of the maintenance cleaning. I take care of our 2 cats and 1 dog. I say all of those in the present tense because we currently still live together but are sleeping in separate rooms. I also financially supported him by lending him money and letting him pay less of the rent because I made more money. I accept all of him including that he has terrible time management skills, he can have a hard time controlling his emotions at times, and he is disorganized and messy. I also accepted that I would have to wait for marriage and children because of his school and accepted that he did not have a lot of free time between school, work, and his hobbies. I supported his love for his hobbies by accepting his purchasing of expensive equipment even when he owed me money, traveling to watch several events that were important to him, and traveling to see him win an award from his job. I would write heartfelt cards for every holiday. I also bought him dozens of children's books about love that I wanted us to read to our children one day.
When I realized I could lose him, I felt something change inside me. It was like I could feel a hole being blown in the wall I had built up. I felt all my love for him overwhelm me. I couldn't hug him, kiss him, or tell him I love him enough. I tried to talk to him to apologize for my behavior and how badly I'd hurt him. I tried to explain how I felt like a different person and how I really wanted to work hard on improving myself as a partner to make our relationship work. I tried to prove my words with actions. I wrote a list of things I needed to work on including communication and being more affectionate. I also wrote out a list of ways to work on those things and actually started doing the things on the list. Some of the items I had already begun to do like hug and kiss him more and tell him I love him more. I also tried to ask more questions about his interests/hobbies/day. I was more vulnerable and talked with him about my feelings more. I even initiated intimacy, something I had really only done once in a blue moon when I was intoxicated. I also set up my individual therapy sessions.
Despite all of my efforts, over the next two weeks, he continued to say he did not know if he could be with me and wanted to know what else was out there. He was very wavering and said multiple times "I don't know what the right decision is." He said he could not trust that my changes would last and that it was probably too late. I begged him to try couples therapy, but he refused and said "Therapy takes too long" and basically said it wasn't worth the time. He finally broke up with me after 2 weeks of going back and forth and I was devastated. He later talked to a mutual friend of ours and changed his mind about therapy. I was so happy to hear that he had changed his mind. However, now I feel like I can't even trust him anymore. He's turning into a person I don't recognize and I don't know what he's capable of anymore. I don't know if the man I love still exists. When he told me he was now agreeable to try therapy he said "We're still broken up, but I won't talk to any other girls." and then promptly said "And it will give me more time to find a place to live if things don't work out." He deleted several Instagram posts that had photos of me after he agreed to try therapy which makes me think he's not actually that open to healing our relationship. He complained to me about how he might have to take out student loans after I told him he needed to pay me for half of the rent while we're broken up and not decreased rate he had been paying me. He also "checked on me" on the night of the 3rd year anniversary of my brother's death when he heard me crying. Then he just sat on the end of the bed scrolling his phone while I cried as if he was checking on me because he felt like he had to and not because he wanted to. When I asked him if he had some sort of deadline in mind for the therapy, because he had previously mentioned that it takes too long, he said July or August and I have a suspicion that is because a girl he likes is leaving for summer break but will be back at the end of August for the next semester.
I just feel like the way he has been acting is not how you act towards someone you were in a relationship with for almost 6.5 years. Especially after saying you still love them and have no negative feelings towards them. That means even though you don't think you are a good relationship match, you should still want to treat them with respect. You should care that they are hurting during this time. You should want to comfort them in their grief of a separate event. You should mean it if you say you want to try therapy.
TL; DR : Do you think therapy will help?

submitted by Ok_Start1379 to relationship_advice [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 06:49 Ok_Accountant1541 Targeting an MBO

Since we own a significant portion of the company’s float we could in theory force a management buyout (MBO) where we would be selling our shares to the management team.
This is 100% legal btw.
Here is a step-by-step guide tailored to this specific scenario:
Step 1: Engage with Management
Objective: Determine if the management team is interested in and capable of buying out the retail shareholders to take the company private. Action: Initiate discussions with company management to gauge their interest and discuss potential terms for a buyout.
Step 2: Valuation Assessment
Objective: Establish a fair valuation of the company that reflects its current and potential future worth. Action: Hire financial advisors to conduct a comprehensive valuation. This will serve as a basis for negotiating the sale price with management.
Step 3: Proposal Development
Objective: Develop a formal buyout proposal based on the valuation. Action: Prepare a detailed proposal that includes the valuation, proposed price per share, and the rationale behind the buyout. Present this to the management team.
Step 4: Legal and Financial Advisory
Objective: Ensure that all aspects of the buyout are legally compliant and financially sound. Action: Engage legal and financial experts to review and advise on all aspects of the deal structure, financing arrangements, and regulatory compliance.
Step 5: Negotiate Terms
Objective: Reach an agreement on the buyout terms that are favorable and acceptable to both retail investors and management. Action: Enter into negotiations with management to finalize the sale price and other terms of the buyout. Consider factors like payment methods, timelines, and any potential earn-outs or contingencies.
Step 6: Funding the Buyout
Objective: Ensure management has the necessary funds to complete the purchase. Action: Management may need to secure funding from external sources, such as bank loans, private equity investors, or other financial institutions. As a shareholder, understand the source and stability of this funding to ensure it does not jeopardize the buyout.
Step 7: Shareholder Approval
Objective: Obtain approval from the majority of shareholders, if required. Action: Organize a shareholder meeting to vote on the buyout proposal. As part of the majority float, coordinate with other retail investors to ensure there is consensus.
Step 8: Finalize the Transaction
Objective: Complete the legal and financial transactions to transfer shares from retail investors to management. Action: Work with attorneys and financial advisors to execute the share transfer, handle the exchange of funds, and complete all necessary regulatory filings.
Step 9: Post-Transaction Adjustments
Objective: Adjust to the new ownership structure. Action: Monitor the transition and implementation of the new business strategies under private ownership. Ensure that all agreed terms are adhered to during the post-buyout phase.
Exit Strategy
Objective: Retail investors exit the investment with satisfactory returns. Action: Ensure that the payment received reflects the agreed valuation and terms, completing the investment cycle.
In this scenario, it’s essential for retail investors to ensure that they are receiving fair compensation for their shares, reflecting the true value of the company. Legal and financial advice is crucial throughout this process to protect the interests of all parties involved.

submitted by Ok_Accountant1541 to FFIE [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 06:06 Distinct_Camera1602 R. Ghani SCAM

Hi
I am very much grateful to you for your swift response and I want to assure you that you will be gratefully rewarded for your concern. Though this mail might come to you as a surprise and the temptation to ignore it seriously could come into your mind. Please consider it a divine wish and accept it with a deep sense of humility as I seek your indulgence to solicit for your assistance concerning the content of my email because I know in my heart that you can be trusted. Please note that I found your contact email on Google email database while doing some search and you seem to be a reasonable person I can work with, because I needed a reliable and experienced person who can handle an investment worth $22 Million US Dollars.
INTRODUCTION: I am Mrs. Rula Ghani, born in 1948 and wife of the former Afghanistan President (Mr. Ashraf Ghani) whose throne/office was taken over by the Taliban on 15th August 2021 for political reasons. I am presently writing to you from the UAE where I and my husband have currently sought Asylum. I have been in emotional devastation after the assassination attempt on me and my husband in Afghanistan and because of the crisis in the Kabul city of Afghanistan. So, I am seeking your assistance in relocating the sum of $22,000,000 USD (Twenty-Two Million United State Dollars) from my foreign bank account in Jakarta, Indonesia to your Country so that the funds can be used for investment there in your Country and the funds can also be invested into your existing business if any.
I am trusting you with the sum of $22,000,000.00 USD (Twenty-Two Million United State Dollars) which will be transferred to you from my foreign Bank account in Jakarta, Indonesia. I am willing to share 60% / 40% of whatever profit that will be made from the investment. The funds can be invested into any profitable business of your choice and the investment has to be in your name since I will not be able to come there in person for now.
All I need is your absolute trust, commitment, honesty and confidentiality. Because you have to do all the transactions and the investment on my behalf since I am very far away. I advised that you kindly keep all our discussion and the transaction secret and confidential to ensure safe and uninterrupted transfer of funds. Be rest assured that the transaction is 100% legal because I and my husband had deposited the money in my foreign Bank account in Jakarta, Indonesia and the funds will be transferred to you legally on your readiness. I will instruct my bank to start the transfer process as soon as you are willing and ready.
Please note that whatever we are facing currently in Afghanistan are political matters and I know it was a plan from our political opponent. You may not understand this if you are not a politician. Anyway, I will enlighten you more on the political matter in future as I do not have much time to discuss politics at the moment.
Please think about the proposal very well and let me know your decision whether you are INTERESTED or NOT to enable me to proceed to the next step. If you are interested and agree to accept 60/40 sharing, kindly reply immediately so that I can provide you with more detail.
I am hoping to hear from you again and may God bless you for taking your time to read my letter.
Regards Mrs. Rula Ghani.

submitted by Distinct_Camera1602 to u/Distinct_Camera1602 [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 06:03 AdStreet6033 Formatting of Research proposal question

Hey everyone!
So I was wondering, how exactly are you supposed to format your research proposal ?
I know its supposed to fit in 2 pages but can you write from margin to margin ? What text font and size are you supposed to use ?
I've been able to fit comfortably most of what I wanted to say using a arial font size 10 but I've stretched the margins through all available space.
Does anyone know if that cause any problems ?
Edit: Also, I just realized, we're supposed to write everything using block letters, that is everything in all caps, right? damn that makes the space even smaller.

submitted by AdStreet6033 to mext [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 05:54 WillieWangWang1 Creating a Legal Obligation for Child's University Expenses

TLDR: I'm happy to enter into an agreement with my ex-spouse where I pay our son's first year of college expenses, and she pays the second year; but how do I protect myself from unexpected "changes."
Context:
We live in Texas. She was, historically, custodial parent, I was non-custodial parent, and my "support obligation" (which I have always paid willingly - and was actually satisfied early) ended in March of this year.
Our son is graduating high school and has been accepted to university. I have offered to pay 50% of any and all college financial obligations. She has cut off all communication and apparently expects me to foot 100% of the bill for all four years. While I am financially capable of doing that, I believe she should be responsible for half. Therein lies the conundrum.
I have pointed out that I would pay cash for half, and she could take out fafsa/student/parent loans for her half. She is refusing.
My son has proposed that I pay the first year, and Mom will pay the second year. My problem with that is the "what if's".......what if she refuses next year, as she has done for year #1? As ridiculous as it sounds, what if he goes to school one year and then decides to join the circus.....or finds the woman of his dreams.....or any number of other distractions? I wouldn't fault him in any of those circumstances. But what about the funds I have put down? Is his mother responsible for nothing?
The proposal is that we draw up a legal document that makes her legally obligated to fulfill the proposal. And if she doesn't, she's financially liable for penalties/interest.
Believe me, I know this sounds cold, and I don't mean it to be. It actually kills me to even be having this conversation. But I simply don't feel I should risk my family's (and that includes my son) financial well-being, based on her verbal agreement. She has a history of lying and doing "sneaky things" to deny my ability to spend time or participate in his life.
How would (or even could) one draw up a legal agreement where, if I pay my son's first year of university, my ex-spouse is obligated to fulfill her part of the bargain and pay the second year; and if she doesn't, there are financial ramifications?
I'm happy to request the assistance of an attorney. If that's the appropriate route, for what should I be asking?
I want my son to go to college. And i'm happy to pay my part in it. I just don't want to over-expose myself to manipulation.
Am I thinking about this incorrectly? Are there landmines I'm not thinking of?
Please, and thank you in advance to all of you.

submitted by WillieWangWang1 to legaladvice [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 05:06 Only_Spinach3449 Financial aid letter

Financial aid letter from Merrimack. Coming in as a transfer student so I’ll be there for my junior and senior year if I accept. I don’t know whether to get mad at this or not. Additionally, is there any way I can increase my subsidized loans?

submitted by Only_Spinach3449 to FAFSA [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 04:41 Horror-Earth4073 Waiting on Loan Officer….

We have been house hunting for many months. We have walked from one house and put in a few offer rejected offers. We have found another house and agent needs an updated pre approval letter. Our lender writes a letter for each property with the offer price as the loan amount and a one month expiration. She has been MIA and so has her coworker.
I get it’s the weekend but I will be so sad if we lose out on yet another house, esp if it isn’t our fault.
Is this normal for a loan officer? We have never needed anything from her on a weekend so didn’t know she would not be available.

submitted by Horror-Earth4073 to FirstTimeHomeBuyer [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 03:05 emkid09 Westwood College: Borrower Defense Ineligible. Anyone else is the same boat?

Went to see if I can apply for the Westwood College Borrower Defense.
It says "You cannot apply for a borrower defense discharge for this school because you do not have any Direct Loans, or because you already paid off your other federal student loans."
*Didn't pay anything\*
DEPT OF ED/NELNET: DIRECT STAFFORD SUBSIDIZED
Eligibility: Ineligible
Loan Status: Closed School Discharge
Next line
DEPT OF ED/NELNET: DIRECT STAFFORD UNSUBSIDIZED
Eligibility: Ineligible
Loan Status: Closed School Discharge
However, i did receive the Student Loan Discharge Based on Borrower Defense Evidence email from March of last year (2023)
"The Department of Education ("Department") has determined that the Federal student loan(s) you received to attend a school owned and operated by Westwood College (including enrollment in Westwood's online program) at some time during the period from January 1, 2002 through the school's closure in 2016 are eligible for a full discharge. This means the remaining balance on the loan(s) will be forgiven. You do not have to make any more payments on the loan(s)."
"You also may receive a refund for prior payments made to the Department on the loans that are being discharged. Your servicer will let you know if you are eligible for a payment refund, which would be mailed to you."
My thing is, I attended the school from 2014-2015 years before it officially closed & I didn't receive an updated letter / email at all. Do i reach out to the studentgov or reach out to Nelnet?

submitted by emkid09 to StudentLoans [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 02:55 Thump4 💲 G M E 💵 The Green, Cash-and-Criminal-Siphoning, Tornado-Spawning, Category 6 Hurricane of Our Evolving Stock Market

1. Intro, 2. Developments, 3. Business Tailwinds, 4. Technicals, 5. TLDR

1. Introduction

Just as meteorologists propose that a new 'Category 6' is needed for Hurricanes, a new category 6 financial event is clearly needed to describe what is happening, and what will continue to happen, with the Monstrous Hurricane that is GameStop Corp. This cash-siphoning hurricane continues to properly-serve GameStop Corp's long term shareholders.
https://preview.redd.it/6qwncfnl3a1d1.jpg?width=1536&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=81c535c7bf5d19290992da697333183e6eeadb09
Just as no man can control the weather, no firm (Citadel, Virtu, Amazon) can control the stock market. Detailed below, and as an effect of Citadel/Virtu's/Amazon's failures, GameStop is actively swallowing up equity in the stock market in a manner that can only be described as a green, cash-siphoning Hurricane

2. Developments

"DFV" Week
"DFV Week" may be behind us. There could be more weeks of tweets. We will never know. Yet, it can be summarized what the man, myth, and legend was telling us:
From a psychological perspective, Roaring Kitty expressed himself through his tweets considerably well. He 'memed' to us that GameStop has influenced his life at this point, that people in his social circles still don't really understand him and routinely make fun of him as being 'the GameStop guy'. He missed us. He misses streaming and investing. He misses the market.
He chastised his friends who now all-of-a-sudden care about him, now that he's on the news again. GameStop has come to define him, and he doesn't really know who he is anymore: but what he does know, is that he wants to do the right thing. He truly feels as if his ''return'' is an aspect of him doing the right thing. Advocating for his company that he is still clearly a part of, likely by ownership of droves of shares.
The government and regulators, however, are watching him. He feels trapped. He feels alone. As someone who regulators do not want communicating on the market, he is a main character against a criminal syndicate that has impacted all sectors and most countries. He understands the importance of GameStop as it relates to fixing the broken system that has led to Generation Z and Millennials having the lowest societal-fraction of wealth in history.
"Hang in There"
SuperStonkers are wise enough, and zen enough, to realize that it is not likely that DFV tweets ten times a day for the remainder of the year. That takes a lot of work, whether he led a team to create those memes, or made them himself, it was clearly a gargantuan effort. He has been dying to 'return' for a long time now: 3 years. And he made his return, whether brief or not, legendary.
He ended the week with a clear message:

Short sellers are in dire straights: they no longer have any sense of a bear thesis, and GameStop is only beginning its business dominance
Bad actors, both regarding SHF and other subs, are under the microscope. It's 'out of his hands' and 'the cops are coming' to get bad actors.
There is no rational 'exit strategy,' and that it is a clearly a strong idea to hold the stock forever to collect depositaries/dividends/subscriptions/warrants/etc over time, and that it could be a family-friendly investment that provides long term dividends in a manner that can be transferred by trust to your family.
Hold on / Hang on / Buy More because something 'big' is coming

https://preview.redd.it/jb191yun3a1d1.png?width=623&format=png&auto=webp&s=942d13d382c490c2fbadd1fbfec2ee0d23dd53df
GameStop's Friday Filings: Dividend Discussion
CEO Ryan Cohen owns a considerable amount of shares of the company. Yesterday, GameStop Corp announced implications of how its shareholder dividend(s) could look over time via the implementation of its Preferred Stock 'Depositary' Shares . These shares, for each series, will be used for voting and will count as preferred shares. They apparently cannot be sold short. They may be in the form of cash distributions or non-fungible-tokens since GameStop has already created its non-fungible-token website and infrastructure. These depositary shares, for voting purposes, can be voted upon by mail and will have the powers of preferred shareholders.
Holders of GameStop Common stock can receive the depositary shares via Dividend
Today's filings with the SEC reveal substantial information about how GameBank ($GME) can issue its dividend using either cash assets, any legally approved assets, etc.
On Friday, and as many here have pointed out, Barnes and Noble stock went up over 200% due to issuing a subscription to shareholders. This subscription allows all stock holders on issue date to buy 17 more shares at the listed price in the paperwork.
Guess what: the share owners have to be located to issue said subscription, and there are only as many issued as there are shares. The mechanism for this? All shorts must close with this option. This is additional to the previous option I stated today. Which MOASS option will Ryan Cohen choose? He could choose any, depending on how he feels while drinking his morning tea. He could initiate MOASS now at the sleight of hand, impending now at any time.
This is when GameStop would likely sell their 45 million shares, so they profit as much as shareholders will, perhaps for a quick $5 billion dollars more in cash on hand. The S-3SR filing for the right for GameStop to issue subscriptions to stock holders.
Example of How Quickly this can occur
9th of May - Barnes and noble releases registration statement declaring their right to issue subscriptions (we are here, since GME released their declaration of right today)
14th of May - Barnes and noble issue prospectus to shareholders that they grant the subscription right
17th of May - date of subscription rate issue and 200% price increase (note that it is estimated that GameStop Corp with current 1.5 Billion shares visible as 'on loan' has been sold short roughly 100x more than Barnes & Noble was, so GME's rise would be much higher than 200%)
According to the Options Clearing Corporation, there are now 1.5 Billion GameStop shares on loan
Impact on short sellers during a subscription issuance
As one redditor yesterday put it: "When a company offers subscription rights to its shareholders, it can significantly impact short sellers in several ways:
Obligation to Cover Rights: Short sellers may need to cover the cost of the subscription rights if they are borrowed and sold shares. This means they might have to buy the rights in the market to pass them on to the holders of the shares they borrowed, potentially increasing their costs.
Price Adjustment: The stock price usually adjusts to reflect the value of the subscription rights. This can affect short sellers because the value of the shares they are shorting changes. If the rights are valuable, the stock price might drop by an equivalent amount when the rights are issued, impacting the short seller's position.
Complexity in Managing Positions: The introduction of subscription rights adds complexity to managing a short position. Short sellers need to keep track of the rights, understand their value, and manage the timing of their actions to cover any resulting obligations. This could involve additional transactions, which increase costs and risks.
Potential for Short Squeeze: If the subscription rights are perceived as highly valuable or if many short sellers need to cover their positions simultaneously, it could lead to a short squeeze. This happens when short sellers rush to buy back shares to close their positions, driving the stock price up.
In summary, the issuance of subscription rights can increase the costs and risks for short sellers, potentially leading to a more challenging environment for maintaining a short position."
GameStop (GameBank) could also rebrand $GME through a new offering. The company could then do some kind of restart that force closes all shorts and then they start off as a new company (a company restart where we get a share for share type of thing, get paid, then have cash to buy the new company i.e. GMERICA). It may be true that the news shares would only be purchased through computershare and booked.
This is very legal: GME has added new companies (i.e. the $217 Million that is now unaccounted for) and is therefore already a “new” company.
On this, it can be expected that a new price runup occurs next week. GameStop Corp, if it sells 45 Million shares immediately into this high-volume, would then have about $2.5 Billion dollars in cash on hand.
It had been prophesized for years that Keith Gill would return, GameStop would set up the lethal bear trap, and that the "Legally-Approved Mother of All Short Squeezes" would be the only rational conclusion, followed by a company with such high reserves, that it would survive forever. This is the cash absorbing, rapidly-rising share price, company of GameStop today.
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3. GameStop's Business Tailwinds

Ken Griffin and Jeff Bezos have financially-collaborated on several projects together
While it's clear that Jeff Bezos is enjoying the wealth that was mostly created by the naked-short-selling complex that unfairly allowed his company to benefit at the expense of his competitors (i.e. collused targets and subsequent corporate victims), Ken Griffin is the one who is depicted in recent photos as being under more stress than his business collaborator
Ryan Cohen is taking on Amazon (in business), and Citadel, and Virtu (market makers) directly. Although Ryan Cohen already bested Jeff Bezos in the pet arena with Chewy, he is clearly showing an intent to dominate Amazon across gaming and all other business sectors

4. Technicals

MOASS is still actively playing out
12 days ago, I disclosed in another sub [from a technical perspective] that 'MOASS' was starting. There was a clear chart breakout of a 3-year long wedge. Then it became clear: that about 500 Million FTDs would be on the books.
"FTD Train Stacking" Failures to Deliver need to be bought back
There were $7 Million worth of FTDs from March 28th, 2024 to April 2nd, 2024 (a two day trading period). C+35 from those dates is May 2nd, 2024 to May 3rd, 2024 (the first dates that GME's price started accelerating). Thus, there is lock-step evidence of the first 'FTD train' being stacked, and broker dealers being too overwhelmed (i.e. no shares available) to settle them. Thus, since the goal of bad actors who FTD is to hopefully buy the shares back at cheaper prices this week... if price is not cheaper (it's not)... then they become even more overwhelmed. This exact same FTD "train stacking" phenomenon is what led to the GME Sneeze of January 2021, in perfect 35 day volume-infused runups that were indicative of FTD buybacks in accordance with Reg SHO Rule 204.
I presented this image 9 days ago depicting the current trend
Bears are begging for a downtrend, yet even with a downtrend, a Fibonacci Retracement right back to $60 is anticipated
Bulls are expecting an uptrend back to retest $125
Options
Max pain for May 17th for the majority of the week was $18, but the week ended at $22. Options are handsomely-undergoing 'gamma ramps', as they have since May 2nd's initial MOASS-evidencing price rise. The price has began this process around $10 per share.
Max pain for each week is inching its way higher, which reflexively increases share price
I presented this chart in 2022 to help describe the bear-trap and gamma snake, which shows gamma ramps after a low point in the chart. Technicals reveal the current low was in late April 2024, and that GameStop is now experiencing the right-hand gamma ramps in May.
Options gamma ramp-ups are yet another accelerant to this process, and an early-January-2021 similarity is present in current ramp up.
GameStop is a green hurricane with spawning tornadoes, each of which actively absorb cash. GameStop, in effect, is actively swallowing up the global equities market
All of this, to me, is a watershed moment. It is thanks to all of the teamwork by GameStop's board, officers, employees, and dedicated shareholders- all of whom led to the company's current profitability, debt-free stature, and its strong and rapidly-growing cash position.

5. TLDR

GameStop Corp's mixed shelf filing, and its discussion of dividend and subscription information, is now leading to a position where short-sellers have no idea where the exit is. Ryan Cohen has shut multiple doors on them at once.
For the sake of their financial survival, short-sellers of GameStop need to get out. Ryan Cohen and the board showed on Friday that they are aware of this. Subscription and/or dividends are able to force short sellers to be obligated to pay.
Short-sellers only alternative now is to go through GameStop's shareholders (via share price rise for the demand to meet the limited supply) and/or GameStop itself now (cash infusion). Further, FTDs for the last 2 weeks have to be bought back, and options gamma only makes this messier for those still short (1.5 Billion shares, 5x the float, is shown as loaned out). Technicals clearly reveal that there is more to this runup: 'MOASS' is still young and is actively playing out.
Further, like in 2021, GameStop is rapidly accumulating cash [even though the price is still 100% higher than what it was two weeks ago] through a minor offering while the price is in the middle of a price runup. This further evidences that the board was confident that there would be a 2021-like 'sneeze' starting here [at the minimum], but that they know the company's market cap will continue to grow in sync with its price rise.

🌪 💵The only name for this can be described as a "green, Category 6, stock-market Hurricane with tornadoes" that quickly siphons up cash, as GameStop Corp actively takes over and dominates the global equities market 💵🌪

submitted by Thump4 to Superstonk [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 02:26 Fleshypudge Trying to understand my wife's loans and the current 0 balance.

So my wife may or may not have had loans forgiven. She hasn't applied for a long time. We realized that it's been over 10 years and tried. She has to also apply for consolidationi guess when she applied for forgiveness.
Current process
All work places seem to count.
She had an amount greater then 20k on Nelnet
Now that's gone.
Aidvantage had taken over on the 9th of May
Now that's gone.
It says resale as of the 15th of May but there's also no information beyond that.
Studentaid.gov says 0 dollars owed.
Last known servicer reported by student aid says aidvantage is in charge.
We have no letters on any site saying things were forgiven.

submitted by Fleshypudge to StudentLoans [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 02:02 wallstbetsapparel File for bankruptcy, consumer proposal, etc?

Hi there, I'm M25, looking for some solutions here. For context, I'm living in British Columbia, Canada. I think the situation can be viewed from the light of any country though. I've taken on about 60,000 in federal debt from the covid times, in addition to currently owing about $15,000 in back taxes, plus an additional $7,500 or so once I finally get around to filing my taxes from the 2021 year.
The last couple of years I haven't worked much. I was self-employed, and never taught about taxes. In fact, my education about taxes, from my non-educated, high school drop out father, was basically, "taxes are theft," "earn your money in cash," and "the only thing you'd need to file taxes for is if you want a loan for a house, car, business, etc." I still agree with many of his sentiments today, and I know he's not the only one with these ideas. Frankly I find it hard and very frustrating to have to give my money to the government, considering I know they're just unlimited printing money and the limited amount of money I have right now isn't going to make even a small dent in the national debt.
The $60,000 from the federal government is currently accruing interest at a nominal rate of 5% per year. $3,000 per year in interest.
The reason I haven't worked much, is largely because of some mental health and physical health issues. Now, I find myself in a situation where I owe roughly $80,000 to the federal and provincial governments. In addition, I have now racked up an additional $30,000 in student loans [also, from the federal/provincial governments][no interest for now, thankfully, not overly concerned about it.]
There's $110,000 in total debt to the government. I have also, an additional $25,000 approximately in personal loans from friends/family.
I have high hopes for myself, always have. I'm fairly sure, I could win some pretty large contracts with enough grit, or expand an existing business with someone I know, at the end of this summer. Both options have a good potential of coming true in the long-term, I think. But in the meantime, I have considerable debt which I'm not sure what to do about, and, frankly, it's depressing.
If I filed for bankruptcy, I'd lose the option to keep getting student loans, and the federal grants that go along with it [free money]. It's not clear if this happens if I file the consumer proposal. I thought about just continuing to run up the student loans, and then declare bankruptcy later, but, frankly, the whole idea of the debt hanging over my head during that time is very anxiety provoking, even if it's not 'immediately due.' I just want it out of my hair.
I have concerns that this becomes public record, and if I entered into politics later in life, that this might come back to burn me, but I'm honestly starting to get to the point where I think it might be there best option. There's also an element of feeling like a moral failure, if I have to take either of these options.
In summation:
What would you do in the scenario, and why?
What kind of mindset shift should I adopt around taxation?

submitted by wallstbetsapparel to debtfree [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 01:43 misheeck11 Credit card debt + foreclosure notice just received

I feel like i am drowning and am starting to get really scared and depressed. I got cancer in 2019 and went thru a major depression so i was unable to work all while my husband was trying to start his business so it was very tight at that time so we were racking up our cc’s… then covid happened and he ended up closing his business while i worked my low paying job to build experience in a new industry.
Fast forward- the house we live is in probate (we are in so cal/la county). We have not been able to do loan modifications and forbearance because we were waiting for the letters appointing my husband as the executor. During this time our loan got bought out by selene. They requested a birth certificate which we ordered but will take maybe another 2 weeks to get. During this time, we received a notice that a notice of default was entered. There is currently 2 properties- 1 is paid off and a rental currently with a tenant that isnt paying with a pending eviction case. The home we live in is the main we want to stay in but has a delinquent mortgage of 150k out of 280k remaining. The plan was to sell the other home and pay off the remaining balance but our target end date for probate is next year sept and our foreclosure is set to kick in end of Aug. We wanted to do the covid forbearance and do loan modification but since my husband was not appointed to be executor, we were unable to do so until now but it seems like all the protections are all expired?…. My husband and I make ok income combined but we are having to choose between our high cc payments + mortgage but clearly id much rather choose a home than my credit. We can try to do a probate sale but we need to evict the tenant first… so we are currently looking into all options such as chapter 13 while waiting for my husbands birth certificate to arrive. Any advice or personal experience would be greatly appreciated.

submitted by misheeck11 to personalfinance [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 00:38 misheeck11 Credit card debt + notice to foreclose received

submitted by misheeck11 to Bankruptcy [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 00:28 KonradFreeman Ideas for Helping Homeless People Secure Affordable Transportation and Employment

Hey Austin,
As a homeless person, I've faced challenges like a bad credit rating and poverty. To improve my situation, I took advantage of Uber and Lyft's rental programs, which allowed me to rent a car, gain employment, and have temporary shelter. However, the weekly rental costs are exorbitant, often upwards of $400. Financing a cheap used car would be far more affordable and sustainable.
I propose creating a charitable institution to help homeless people finance used cars. Donations could be in the form of used cars or financial assistance to secure loans for those with bad credit or no current income. This would enable access to jobs, not just with Uber or Lyft, but in various fields where having a car is essential.
For me, having a car was a game-changer. It provided income and temporary shelter until I couldn't keep up with the high rental costs. I believe a more affordable solution could help many others in similar situations.
Does something like this already exist? What do y'all think of this idea? Any advice or support would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!

submitted by KonradFreeman to Austin [link] [comments]

2024.05.19 00:08 Your_Moooom_XD Updated my resume and I am looking for employment in the psychology field. Please give me any tips and advice, and let me know if you have questions! All advice is appreciated

submitted by Your_Moooom_XD to resumes [link] [comments]

2024.05.18 23:28 FakeElectionMaker What if a national conservative and economically populist Greek businessmen existed and became Prime Minister in 2012, only to compromise on his more radical proposals?

What if a national conservative and economically populist Greek businessmen existed and became Prime Minister in 2012, only to compromise on his more radical proposals?

On 7 September 2005, businessman and owner of the AEK Athens football club Ioannis Konstantinos announced he was leaving New Democracy and creating the Party of the Greek Nation (Κόμμα Ελληνικού Έθνους).
The new right-wing party also had the involvement of dissenters from LAOS and Golden Dawn, and several military officers. Konstantinos was announced to be the party's chairman, with Kyriakos Veuopoulos and Vasilis Stigkas also being founding members. On 11 February 2006, the KEE was officially registered with the Ministry of the Interior, allowing it to participate in that year's local elections.
The KEE fielded 42 candidates during the election, including in Athens and other PASOK strongholds like Crete and Thrace, but the majority of them ran in rural districts. Konstantinos self-funded the KEE's campaign efforts, and refused donations; the party elected two councillors, both of whom were in conservative small towns, and only won 0.34% of the vote in Athens, the majority of which is speculated to have come from AEK fans.
Throughout the rest of 2006, the KEE tried to capitalize on right-wing discontent with the European Union, and especially Turkey's proposed entry in the EU. It also fought against multiculturalism and immigration, and demanded that Germany pay Greece war reparations. The KEE manifesto (released to the public on 15 February 2006) did not make any mention of economics, which were not a winning issue for them before 2008, but in power, the party has pursued Keynesianism and economic nationalism.
On 10 January 2007, Konstantinos stepped down as AEK's official chairman, allowing him to focus on politics. During the legislative election, the KEE fielded 98 candidates for the Greek Parliament, and again refused to receive public funding,
its wealthy leader funding the campaign instead. Party campaigning focused on anti-immigration and eurosceptic views, supporting the restoration of drachma as a step towards Grexit, a points-based immigration system and border fence with Turkey, and a limit on how many refugees Greece could receive a year.
KEE eventually won 70,655 votes, 0.99% of the nationwide vote. Much of it came from rural districts that heavily supported ND, with football aficionados playing a lesser role, although many of them understood Konstantinos remained the power behind the throne. This low percentage of the vote (two percentage points below the electoral threshold) had an effect in the election, as ND fell two seats short of a parliamentary majority, forcing a confidence and supply agreement with the Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS) to be formed.
During his second term, Kostas Karamanlis was forced to take a harder line on immigration and social issues in order to please his coalition partners, moving closer to the right wing of the ND, subsequently leading to the Party of Growth being formed as a centre-right schism from the ruling party. The 2008–09 financial crisis subsequently led to a vote of no confidence on his unpopular government, and PASOK won a landslide at the 2009 legislative election. Karamanlis also announced his opposition to Turkey's membership in the EU, and threatened to take the Macedonia naming dispute to the International Court of Justice, leading to international embarrassment.
The ND-LAOS coalition government followed a more conservative policy than previous administrations, opposing Turkish membership in the EU and threatening to sue Macedonia over its name.
The privatisation and deregulation policies of Kostas Karamanlis' first term were continued, as was European integration, generating tensions with ND's coalition partner while members of the ND establishment broke from the party to form the Party of Growth (KA). The KA's 2009 campaign was substantially hyped, but it won 168,953 votes and 2.46% of the vote, meaning it did not win any seats.
After his vote of no confidence pushed by the PASOK and dissatisfied ND politicians who opposed his inconsistent line and handling of the financial crisis, Karamanlis was replaced as its leader by Dora Bakoyannis, Foreign Minister of Greece, and formerly the first female major of Athens who hosted the 2004 Olympics. With two popular far-right parties, a broken economy and recently impeached head of government, voters agreed the ND was doomed from the start, and it had a historically poor result.
After the global economic crisis began in September 2008, KEE ran on economic interventionism, returning to the drachma, and protectionist trade policies, occasionally bringing up restrictions on immigration and law and order. Konstantinos continued to self-fund his party's campaign efforts, and often emphasized how his movement did not receive any government money, unlike the majority of competitors. On 28 May 2009, he and Georgios Karatzaferis agreed to a nonaggression pact between KEE and LAOS.
The 2009 general election produced a hung parliament for the second consecutive time, and again, one of the two major parties had to form a coalition government with a smaller, anti-estabilishment movement. George Papandreou, on the other hand, only agreed to govern as a 1970s social democrat and resist any further neoliberal measures.
KKE had a strong performance, getting double digits of the popular vote and 36 seats, while kingmaker Syriza and LAOS remained static. Over the next three years, Greece's economy continued to worsen, allowing KEE to form a majority government after the 2012 elections. Democratic backsliding and efforts to control government institutions have led to it governing Greece as of May 2024.
The PASOK-SYRIZA administration attempted to return to social democracy, but a crushing debt crisis made itself the main issue facing the country, and the left-wing coalition's policies failed to fix it.
As such, in 2011, the left-wing coalition government was replaced by a grand coalition of the ND and PASOK, which obtained a far greater margin in Parliament. Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras felt betrayed and broke with the PASOK, challenging it from its left and attempting to attract the working class and students.
In the meantime, the KEE, which proposed a Greek withdrawal from the Eurozone, protectionist economic policies and restrictions on immigration, continued to grow in support, attracting socially conservative workers who blamed immigrants and other minorities for the recession. In the 2010 local elections, it was the third most voted party nationwide and fourth in Athens, winning three city council seats in the capital, and actively used the internet for campaigning, the same strategy Konstantinos had used as a football chairman. By late 2011, it was polling second in general election surveys, behind Syriza, which was not blamed for the economic situation by voters due to having 15 seats.
Some pundits feared scheduling a new legislative election would hand over seats to the KEE, and those fears proved prescient, as it went from the second smallest to the largest party in Parliament, although 80 seats below a majority. The three days after the election were marked by pessimism, and the Athens stock market dropped noticeably.
On 7 May, Ioannis Konstantinos called Antonis Samaras, and offered to compromise on the Euro by supporting a referendum on the national currency instead. Polling showed the electorate to be split on whether or not to readopt the drachma, although the majority of them went on to vote for it, restoring Greece's sovereign currency. Later that day, he contacted Panos Kammenos, who was unaware of the compromise, and asked for him to support a right-wing coalition government; the ANEL leader accepted, and the governing majority was formed two days later – having a bare majority of 151 seats, and forcing Konstantinos to govern in a more moderate manner than expected.
The KKE lost eight seats to the Syriza, effectively realigning Greek politics between a national conservative and a democratic socialist parties. They have finished first or second in every Greek legislative election since, with SYRIZA having won the lastest due to the KEE administration getting unpopular.
The right-wing coalition went on to increase their seats the following year, as it did not take any further loans and instead focused paying down Greece's debt, implemented a balanced budget amendment, and closed corporate tax loopholes in order to stop tax evasion.

submitted by FakeElectionMaker to imaginaryelections [link] [comments]

2024.05.18 23:19 FakeElectionMaker The PASOK-SYRIZA administration attempted to return to social democracy, but a crushing debt crisis made itself the main issue facing the country, and the left-wing coalition's policies failed to fix it

The PASOK-SYRIZA administration attempted to return to social democracy, but a crushing debt crisis made itself the main issue facing the country, and the left-wing coalition's policies failed to fix it

As such, in 2011, the left-wing coalition government was replaced by a grand coalition of the ND and PASOK, which obtained a far greater margin in Parliament. Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras felt betrayed and broke with the PASOK, challenging it from its left and attempting to attract the working class and students.
In the meantime, the KEE, which proposed a Greek withdrawal from the Eurozone, protectionist economic policies and restrictions on immigration, continued to grow in support, attracting socially conservative workers who blamed immigrants and other minorities for the recession. In the 2010 local elections, it was the third most voted party nationwide and fourth in Athens, winning three city council seats in the capital, and actively used the internet for campaigning, the same strategy Konstantinos had used as a football chairman. By late 2011, it was polling second in general election surveys, behind Syriza, which was not blamed for the economic situation by voters due to having 15 seats.
Some pundits feared scheduling a new legislative election would hand over seats to the KEE, and those fears proved prescient, as it went from the second smallest to the largest party in Parliament, although 80 seats below a majority. The three days after the election were marked by pessimism, and the Athens stock market dropped noticably.
On 7 May, Ioannis Konstantinos called Antonis Samaras, and offered to compromise on the Euro by supporting a referendum on the national currency instead. Polling showed the electorate to be split on whether or not to readopt the drachma, although the majority of them went on to vote for it, restoring Greece's sovereign currency. Later that day, he contacted Panos Kammenos, who was unaware of the compromise, and asked for him to support a right-wing coalition government; the ANEL leader accepted, and the governing majority was formed two days later – having a bare majority of 151 seats, and forcing Konstantinos to govern in a more moderate manner than expected.
The KKE lost eight seats to the Syriza, effectively realigning Greek politics between a national conservative and a democratic socialist parties. They have finished first or second in every Greek legislative election since, with SYRIZA having won the lastest due to the KEE administration getting unpopular.
The right-wing coalition went on to increase their seats the following year, as it did not take any further loans and instead focused paying down Greece's debt, implemented a balanced budget amendment, and closed corporate tax loopholes in order to stop tax evasion.

submitted by FakeElectionMaker to GustavosAltUniverses [link] [comments]

2024.05.18 23:08 godawgsnik12 When will I get my student loan refund check?

Timeline
4/15/2024- I received a letter from Advantage saying "we have received an overpayment on your account" and "you may be owed a refund."
5/1/2024 - I received an email saying "your student loans have been forgiven.”
When will I get the refund check?

submitted by godawgsnik12 to StudentLoans [link] [comments]

2024.05.18 23:00 AutoModerator What is #VALZUBIRIAGENDA and some ideas and insights

The 3 basic parameters of hashtag #Valzubiriagenda:

We artists and everyone else can write and self-publish art- and artist-related books: memoirs, biographies, art books and art catalogs. Books are forever. Pamphlets and brochures are not books.
We announce a schedule of increasing prices of our art pieces, which includes quantities (scarcity numbers) per price point and overall (the total quantity of art pieces we might ever make). This helps art traders, art investors and art collectors speculate or even stop speculating and instead join a community of investors working together to hopefully skyrocket to the higher announced prices in a shorter span of time.
We can use the NFT world, because NFTs provide the tracking (who owns what) and trading.

We can also not be involved with NFTs. Stores and individuals can help sell art using online presence and our catalogs in the stores. If this trends, or once this trends, even expensive art can be sold by neighboring businesses, without exclusivity. Commission systems do not have to be standardized. Art investors can produce their own catalogs to leave at the cafés. Even the cafés can produce their own catalogs.
Valzubiriagenda NFTs
NFTs only came about a few years ago. But I had been working on this since the 1990s. I wrote a book, Valzubiriagenda, along with fellow artist Silverio Perez, and released it in 2018 (Amazon and elsewhere), tackling everything related to #1 & #2. We'll come up with #3 in a later book/ memoi marketing book.
Any artist, including tangible artists can release 10,000 NFTs if the artist chooses to do so. For tangible artists, the NFT first becomes an Art Commission Contract for sight unseen, yet-to-be made art. Once the art is made, the NFT becomes proof of ownership that the actual, tangible art is theirs.
Warehousing our tangible art
Another related idea is that the tangible art may be warehoused by the artist so that the NFT traders continue to trade. This means that even 10-ton 10-foot tall sculptures can be owned and traded by anyone without worrying about shipping, reshipping, scratches, smudges, parts breaking off, etc. The newness of the pieces remain because they are stored by the artist, source, gallery, etc. The art piece gets shipped to the art collector, the ultimate owner.
An artist who makes ceramic coffee mugs - smaller art pieces, can release 10,000 NFTs with a schedule of increasing prices so that NFT traders can trade immediately. The 10,000 coffee mugs can get damaged, so as they are made, they continue to be stored by the artist, until the time when art collectors decide to have the art pieces shipped to them.
Why only now?
I decided to write as many book-length memoirs as I can before I came out to promote this.
I'm an artist and an author. Both need time to "master." I would not even fully use "master" on myself, because there's always something new, even to my own art, my own writing and publishing.

I am now claiming that I'm the visual artist who has produced the most artist memoirs in the world. I have 5 on Amazon. I count Valzubiriagenda as both a marketing book and a memoir-of-sorts, because it has a lot of my own life lessons on writing and publishing. I would not care to contest my claim of having the most memoirs. I will release 5 more over the next 3 years.

BARTER! Get help to write, photograph art and publish your books!
Anyone can hire 11 ghostwriters for 11 memoirs. If you can make art, but you cannot write, then barter your forever art with those who can help you produce forever books.
I don't feel the pressure of writing and publishing because I feel my focus should be on art students and art experts who would study my art and my books 100 years from now. Don't expect relatives and friends to read your books.
I call myself the Dollman
For my NFTs, I am proposing to make dioramas - my original, costumed, bejeweled porcelain dolls in backdrops that will also have precious metals and gemstones. This way I can incorporate precious metals and gemstones in my work, to make sure that people perceive my art as expensive, just in case I myself don't become "famous" - there's no need to get world famous. We are artists and all we need to do is to satisfy the art niche.
Use your laptop now!
I will encourage you to start writing your book-length memoir. Write, Edit and then Self-publish it. Get help. Why wait a hundred years for someone to write about you when all you need is a laptop and a nearby coffee shop.
Don't start counting chickens before the eggs hatch. I have encountered a lot of would-be writers who immediately see themselves as bestselling. world famous assets to society. Two even wanted me to sign NDAs (Nondisclosure agreements), because they did not want me to steal their book ideas.
Here's a suggestion. I would not personally do it. From one manuscript can come 2 books: The Original Draft (unedited, with misspellings, considered to be an art piece, scanned pages(?) of your handwritten original effort), and The Final Edition (edited).
PROVENANCE!
Another way to enhance our investability, tradability and collectability is PROVENANCE - how art ownership proceeds through time. The way this can be done is also through publishing books. Everyone can write their memoirs, biographies, art books and art catalogs, including traders, investors and art collectors. In effect, we artists can continue to be included or mentioned in even more books, without any additional effort by us.
You as an investor, reseller, trader, art collector should be able to publish a catalog with 250 works by 250 different artists, but they need to agree to this right from the start - it's your money, you should require them to follow your version of the hashtag #valzubiriagenda parameters, which preferably should include permission for you to publish their art. Why would you track down 250 artists later?
No exclusive contracts
If you're a café, you can call for artists, and come up with a book with for example, 30 artists, with a chapter devoted to each artist's profile and images of the artist's art.
You can distribute your catalogs to businesses and individuals near and far and online.
The book Valzubiriagenda even cites that funeral homes and janitors closets can sell art, with or without exclusivity. Airline catalogs can include million dollar art pieces. Car manufacturers, showrooms and even car repair shops can sell art as well. Everyone should be able to do this, anywhere in the world, especially not just because of the pandemic, but right now, we are in really bad economies.
What's with the name #Valzubiriagenda
I was into conspiracy theories in 2018, and this term, "The Mandela Effect," was popular. I had read many times that an artist coined the term, but I had to research online, for her name, many times, before remembering it. I'm not good at remembering names. It took me a year and a half to finally tell you that Fiona Broome coined "The Mandela Effect."
I also thought I might have to research trademarks and copyrights just to come up with a generic name. So I decided on "Valzubiriagenda." I was not really sure at first, but I decided to use it as the title for my book (with co-authoartist Silverio Perez) so that there would be no turning back and I can move on.
Am I a FUTURIST?
Someone I recently met this May 2022 just called me a futurist.
In the 1990s, I proposed to a pension fund that they can raise billions of dollars, especially for emergencies, or as needed, or out of desperation, if the pension fund purchases a quantity of art from an artist who not only has a current, reasonable price, but an announced future price that the artist wants to reach.
That future price would obviously be higher than the current price. The art commission contract for multiple art pieces can be taken to the fund's financial lender for a loan. The higher future price can be used for financing purposes.
The pension fund's treasurer, a publicly elected official, said this idea might work, but we had to keep this a secret and discuss this some more, because other pension funds might copy and do this prematurely. This idea had to come from the two of us. The treasurer needed his votes and I needed credentials.
Added into the pot was my idea that I, as the artist, will also write one book-length artist memoir. This was and still is a strong factor, because the leadership and marketing books I had read then mentioned a strong tip. If you want to advance in your field, write a full-length book that is related to the field.
Unfortunately, the elected official, the treasurer of the pension fund, who was also a friend, passed away - he was old and had ailments. At that point in time, I cannot just approach another pension fund treasurer to share this idea with.
I realized I had to write a few memoirs. I needed to set an example for other artists, so I needed to write more than one memoir. Then I felt I should also make ready another book - the how-to of what I'm up to. I wrote Valzubiriagenda, which was a memoir of sorts. I knew how long it would take me to write a book, so I had to make sure I can also consider this book a memoir.
In 2008, I imagined that someone like Bernie Madoff, or a fund like Lehman Brothers, would be desperate enough to use this to save themselves and their companies. I was not ready. I had only written 1 manuscript for a memoir.
In 2012, I released Dollman the Musical, A Memoir of an Artist as a Dollmaker. Once again, I was not ready because writing it depressed me a little, and I knew I had to write more.
In 2014, I released 3 memoirs, and re-released Dollman the Musical. Besides releasing regular books, I released special editions of the 4 books, which had a "Special Secret Insert for Bankers," which explains my ideas of an announced schedule of exponentially increasing prices, to satisfy investors, and the publication of artist memoirs, to satisfy art collectors.
In 2014, I also issued out a press release. Google "Can Billion Dollar Artist Save Investors and World Economy Valentino Zubiri PRWeb August 19 2014" and you will see the press release.
What I did was stake a claim on my ideas. I did not promote my books and the press release. I just wanted them to stay online, like a sleeping giant or a dormant volcano. I even designed 3 of the book covers to look like indie books from the 1980s. I was planting the seeds, thinking they will eventually grow and bear fruit in the future.
In 2015, I was interviewed by Richard Syrett, about one of my memoirs, Hocus Pocus Lately. This book is my memoir with paranormal stories. I could have pursued promoting my paranormal stories, but I wanted to be known first as a visual artist and memoirist, so I allowed myself one interview related to Hocus Pocus Lately. Richard Syrett has(had?) his own syndicated radio show, The Conspiracy Show with Richard Syrett, about the paranormal. He also guest hosts on Coast to Coast AM, another internationally syndicated show about the paranormal.
In 2018, I released Valzubiriagenda (co-authored by artist Silverio Perez, a fellow artist). Finally, this book is "the how-to of what I'm to."
I'm going to end this with some strangeness. In 1986, a lady at a religious gathering went into a trance and left a good number of messages. Supposedly, anyone who got into a trance would have messages, but once the trance was over, the person would not remember what was said.
I was not part of the group, but the lady turned her head to face me. She "foretold" that whatever I would decide to do in the future, it will take time, but it will be the right thing. This is one of my stories in one of my memoirs, Hocus Pocus Lately.
The Tulipmania of 1634-37
I discovered that there was this incident of rare tulips becoming collectible during the Dutch Golden Age. There were tulips so rare and so well-desired that their prices equaled to that of a house. You can read more about this online (Wikipedia) or watch a few YouTube videos about it.
Here is the most useful idea that I gleaned from the Tulipmania. The tulip bulbs remained safe inside nurseries. The traders were carrying the deeds of ownership to the tulip bulbs.
Then NFTs came to the forefront
I started learning PHP, an HTML scripting language, and MySQL, the database that PHP can connect to in the background, in 1999, when there were only 3 books about PHP and MySQL at the bookstores.
By 2014, I was trying to figure out how to make the "ledger," or database that can be used to update ownership and who can be contacted. If we are trading art, then the art ownership should be updated.
Then NFTs came about. This can be used as our ledger. Everyone can immediately trade NFTs of future, yet-to-be made art pieces, especially because it takes time to make tangible art.
NFTs actually went a step ahead, by allowing digital art to be traded.
The only setback with NFTs, in my opinion, is that it still lacks a commission system for resellers and representatives.
For example, if a café wants to represent me, then they can promote me at their café and on their online pages. If I make one piece of art that will be exclusively represented by a gallery, then that commission will be different and more specific. As ownership is transferred, the subsequent owners should be able to reset the commission. We should also have the option of giving commissions to hundreds of representatives at one time with different percentages if need be.
The recent crypto crash
Lately, we have observed that NFTs and cryptocurrencies have been behaving like the stock market and other markets. They have been fluctuating.
I believe that it is time for a trend which discourages fluctuation of prices.
I have also seen YouTube videos where social influencers are encouraging us to be on the lookout for exponentially profitable ventures, because we have all seen this happen with the exponential increase of Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Let's see if #Valzubiriagenda trends
We can announce present and future art prices. The galleries won't do this (yet?) because they follow a more traditional approach to the business of art.
We have a choice of using incrementally or exponentially increasing prices. We still reserve the right to change things in the future, so everyone should know to follow the latest update.
If this trends, if you as an artist simply announces that you will write an artist memoir, or that you will include the future works in future art books, you might have more art traders, investors and collectors approaching you.
Get your pen, paper and calculator
Imagine yourself as an artist, where you are right now. Let's just say you still do not have a book about yourself and your art yet. Imagine now that you have a memoir out there. Don't you think it makes sense to charge more than what you are charging now? Writing and publishing books is just the beginning. I'm just standardizing this approach. The books also say to do other related projects. In my case, getting Dollman the Musical onstage is one idea. You will have other related projects, but the publication of memoirs, biographies, art books and art catalogs will help all of us.
You can also imagine that a law firm that has meeting rooms, with someone who wants to form a local #valzubiriagenda group, can have meetings. A local café can do the same. Local photographers for your art, writers, editors, book designers, proofreaders and others can join in.
I suggest have printed books to share. 15 copies of your memoir or art books will be better than an e-reader or laptop or your phone to show. These gadgets can be stolen, sabotaged, broken, have coffee spilled on them, etc. 15 printed books means simultaneously showing to 15 people. You can even give them away to potential resellers, investors, traders and collectors.
When it rains, it pours, as in the days of Noah
There's a saying, "When it rains, it pours." There is a negative interpretation and a positive interpretation.
Negative: When trouble comes, they cascade to even more.
Positive: When opportunity comes knocking, more follow suit. We can assume that if one gets our art because of #valzubiriagenda, more want to do it now, because of the rising prices, and FOMO - fear of missing out. What will they lose if they miss the boat?
As I have said earlier, if the #valzubiriagenda trends, if you announce a future memoir or art catalog, you might have an increase of investors, traders and art collectors who would want to check you out. You might encourage more sales. Just remember to write and publish that memoir and art catalog.
There's this saying, "As in the days of Noah." Imagine Noah, building his ark, with members of his own family, putting all his time and effort into it. Noah was a nice guy. I'm sure every once in a while a neighbor offered him coffee, or chai latte, or whatever refreshing drink they might have back then.
Here's the lesson to be learned. Just because they offered him some type of bubble tea drink, or coca cola, they still didn't make it to the ark. Rubbing shoulders with actors does not make you an actor. I have told my artist friends to write their memoirs. They told me that once they see me succeed, after all these many years of seeing my seemingly useless efforts, then they will write their memoirs and follow the road that I had paved for them.
Good luck to them, but if I were you, act now, get my art or make art. Support the 5-year old artist whose parent promised to release a comprehensive art catalog. If you get that 5-year old's art, and mine, I would be honored to be in the same art catalog that you will produce. I'm already successful at that point. You have gotten the mission just right.
I have already claimed to have written the most book-length artist memoirs in the world. Dethrone that claim. Barter. Use ghostwriters. Success to me means facing God one day and saying, I wrote my memoirs and left the world a legacy of books and art. I will not tell God, smiling and proudly, that I encouraged a run for my art by announcing a schedule of exponentially increasing prices that reached 9 figures. I'm sure God knows we had fun.

JOIN THIS GROUP

If you want to try out #valzubiriagenda, in any capacity, join this group. Let others know about this group as well.
If you are an artist, you can let everyone know here that you will produce your memoir, art catalogs, etc. It's okay if you don't know how to go about publishing yet, I will discuss this. Please be honorable enough to produce what you promise to produce.
If you want to meet fellow artists, investors, resellers, etc., join us here.
If you are a book writer, editor, proofreader; if you can photograph art pieces; if you are a book designer, etc., join us here. Let us know if you charge, barter for art, or both.
If you have your own tips and knowledge to share, join us here.
If you have underaged artists you are managing (parents, etc.) join us here.
Join this group if you want to sell works. Post your works. You web links. I'm sure I will.
You can announce meetings in your area. You might have meeting rooms, a café, restaurant, etc. where people can meet. In the future, you can have the regular show and tell, where books can be shown and shared.

Thanks for reading. Please let me know if I need to edit some parts. Please share and join this group. - Valentino Zubiri, Dollman, Artist, Memoirist
Underaged artists are welcome here, so please be mindful of your language. We cannot post your adult-oriented art pieces, but you can direct us to a separate page or community. There will be limits to your posts, and there will be adult-oriented art that we cannot allow to be posted.
Thanks for reading. Please let me know if I need to edit some parts. Please share and join this group. - Valentino Zubiri, Dollman, artist & memoirist

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2024.05.18 22:48 n4hu1 Walking backwards, then forwards

Currently there are 306,186,849 shares of common stock outstanding. Last week, the posted snapshot from Bloomberg indicated that in sum about 1.2 million shares have been bought by GameStop under rule 10b-18. This would decrease the publicly available share count to approximately 305 million. GameStop have now declared they may at any time issue an additional 45 million common shares and 5 million preferred shares.
Tinfoil Prediction: they will issue 10 million common shares at market price and raise the share count (ex counterfeits) to 315 million. That number is divisible by 7. After issuance of those 10 million common shares, they will issue one (fraction of a) preferred share for every 7 common shares (741). The preferred shares will be issued via an issuing agent which happens to be Computershare. Accounts held with the transfer agent, which also happens to be computershare, will receive the preferred shares directly and the remaining 60-70% of preferred shares will be dumped on the depo (DTC) or the brokers, who then can try to distribute them (lol) or rather fight for them because: Holders of shares of Common Stock held in “street name” through a brokerage account, bank or other nominee will not receive physical rights certificates and must instruct their broker, bank or other nominee whether to exercise Subscription Rights on their behalf.
The clue is in the name and preferred shares have some preferable status, such as regular dividends etc. In this particular case, they may have the non-transferable and non (cash-)substitutable right attached to a subscription of common shares, meaning the right to acquire common shares at a predefined price such as for a discount to the market price. This makes preferred shares inherently more valuable than common shares (take a look at BNED this week and their filing on 15 May 2024). Consequently, market participants may compete to receive the preferred shares and may pay a premium for common shares prior to issuance of preferred shares or recall the ones which may have been lent. This may put shorts under water. GameStop may use the proceeds from issuing 10 million shares to strengthen the balance sheet. GameStop might also incentivize holders of preferred stock further by issuing other benefits such as NFT divis, wu tang audio etc. However, the proceeds may also be used to finance equity investments in compliance with GameStops investment policy or repurchase of their common stock. The continuation of such repurchases under rule 10b-18 may be particularly interesting at the time due to the volume restriction based on average trading volume of the preceding four weeks at the time of a buyback under this rule. Currently, the 10 day trading volume is 73.1 million shares (according to Schwab). This is another factor that might put shorts under water. To spell it out clearly: given the action of the last week, GameStop could currently raise capital (but don’t need to) and repurchase a fat amount of its own common stock on the free market and yet remain in compliance with the safe harbor rule.
Substantial rises in the stock price could then incentive GameStop to issue more of their remaining 35 million shares of common stock to procure working capital or capital for future buybacks. However, a decreasing stock price could incentivize GameStop to issue shares and then repurchase them at a lower price, continuously decreasing the share count and thus applying upwards pressure on the price in the long run. Holders of common stock AND preferred stock need not worry about this since proceeds from the business activities could then be rerouted via preferred shares. In the end, every market participant had a right and chance to gain his preferred shares, right ;)
Edit: fractionalizability of preferred shares as defined in the recently published S3 document.
Edit 2: Relevant Barnes filing:
BASKING RIDGE, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 15, 2024--Barnes & Noble Education, Inc. (NYSE: BNED) (“BNED” or the “Company”), a leading solutions provider for the education industry, announced today that its registration statement for its fully backstopped $45 million equity rights offering (the “Rights Offering”), was declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on May 14, 2024.
The Rights Offering is one of the previously announced proposed transactions (the “Transactions”) contemplated by the Company’s definitive agreement with Immersion Corporation (NASDAQ: IMMR) (“Immersion”), and certain of the Company’s existing shareholders and strategic partners, that will enable the Company to substantially deleverage its balance sheet, strategically invest in innovation and operate from a position of strength. The Transactions remain subject to shareholder approval and other closing conditions.
Upon closing of the Transactions, which is currently expected to occur in June 2024:
BNED will receive gross proceeds of $95 million of new equity capital through the Rights Offering and a $50 million new equity investment led by Immersion; the Transactions are expected to infuse approximately $75 million of net cash proceeds after transaction costs;
The Company’s existing second lien lenders will convert approximately $34 million of outstanding principal and any accrued and unpaid interest into BNED Common Stock; and
The Company has received commitments to refinance its existing asset backed loan facility, pursuant to an agreement with its first lien holders, providing the Company with access to a $325 million facility (the “ABL Facility”) maturing in 2028. The refinanced ABL Facility will meaningfully enhance BNED’s financial flexibility and reduce its annual interest expense.
Through the Rights Offering, BNED will issue 900,000,000 shares of its common stock, par value $0.01 per share (the “Common Stock”) at a cash subscription price (the “Subscription Price”) of $0.05 per share. In the Rights Offering, BNED will distribute to each holder of record of its Common Stock on May 14, 2024 (the “Record Date”) one non-transferable subscription right (each, a “Subscription Right”) for every share of Common Stock owned by such holder on the Record Date, and each Subscription Right will entitle the holder to purchase 17 shares of Common Stock. Each holder that fully exercises their Subscription Rights will be entitled to Over-Subscription Rights to subscribe for additional shares of Common Stock that remain unsubscribed as a result of any unexercised Subscription Rights, which allows such holder to subscribe for additional shares of Common Stock up to the number of shares purchased under such holder’s basic Subscription Right at $0.05 per share.
If any Subscription Rights remain unexercised upon the expiration of the Rights Offering after accounting for all Over-Subscription Rights exercised, the standby purchasers led by Immersion, Outerbridge Capital Management, LLC and Selz Family 2011 Trust will collectively purchase, at the Subscription Price, up to $45 million in shares of Common Stock not subscribed for by the Company’s stockholders.
The Company will not issue fractional shares in the Rights Offering or cash in lieu of fractional shares of Common Stock. Any fractional shares of Common Stock that would be created by an exercise of the Subscription Rights will be rounded to the nearest whole share.
The Company expects that the net proceeds of the offering will be used to pay expenses in connection with the Transactions and reduce the balance under the Company’s ABL Facility.
The Company expects that Computershare Trust Company N.A., the subscription agent for the Rights Offering, will mail rights certificates and a copy of the prospectus for the Rights Offering to holders of record of Common Stock as of the Record Date beginning on or about May 15, 2024. Holders of shares of Common Stock held in “street name” through a brokerage account, bank or other nominee will not receive physical rights certificates and must instruct their broker, bank or other nominee whether to exercise Subscription Rights on their behalf.
The subscription period will expire at 5:00 p.m., Eastern Time, on June 5, 2024. However, the Company may extend the period for exercising the Subscription Rights. Subscription Rights that are not exercised by the expiration date of the Rights Offering will expire and will have no value.
The shares of Common Stock to be issued upon exercise of the Subscription Rights will be listed for trading on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) under the symbol “BNED.” The Subscription Rights are non-transferable and the Company will not be listing the Subscription Rights on the NYSE or any other national securities exchange.
Neither the Company nor its Board of Directors has made or will make any recommendation to holders regarding the exercise of Subscription Rights. Holders should make an independent investment decision about whether or not to exercise their Subscription Rights based on their own assessment of the Company’s business, the Rights Offering and the other Transactions.
Questions about the Rights Offering or requests for a copy of the prospectus related to the Rights Offering may be directed to the Information Agent, Innisfree M&A Incorporated, at (877) 800-5185. (Banks & Brokers may call collect: (212) 750-5833.
Other Important Information
The issuance and sale of shares of Common Stock pursuant to the Rights Offering is subject to, among other things, the approval of our stockholders at a special meeting (the “Special Meeting”) to be held on June 5, 2024. If the issuance and sale of our Common Stock pursuant to the Rights Offering is not approved at the Special Meeting, then the Rights Offering will be cancelled. The Rights Offering is being made pursuant to the Company’s registration statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-278799), which was declared effective on May 14, 2024. The Company reserves the right to cancel or terminate the Rights Offering at any time. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any Subscription Rights or any other securities to be issued in the Rights Offering or any related transactions, nor shall there be any offer, solicitation or sale of Subscription Rights or any other securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.
Edit 3: Barnes pumped 150% on Friday.

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http://rodzice.org/