It's Been Reported

Within A Month, 6 Largest U.S. Banks Leave UN Net-Zero Banking Alliance (Center Square) — Within one month of each other, six of the largest U.S. banks left the United Nations Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) not soon after Donald Trump was elected president. Last month, Goldman Sachs was the first to withdraw from the alliance, followed by Wells Fargo, The Center Square reported. By Dec. 31, Citigroup and Bank of America left, followed by Morgan Stanley on Jan. 6 and JPMorgan on Jan. 7. They did so after joining the alliance several years ago pledging to require environmental social governance standards (ESG) across their platforms, products and systems. According to the "bank-led and UN-convened" alliance, global banks joined, pledging to align their lending, investment and capital markets activities with a net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, NZBA explains. See full story	BlackRock Leaves Major Climate Group Amid Wall Street Exodus (Bloomberg) — BlackRock Inc. is parting ways with one of the world’s biggest climate-investor groups after being targeted by Republican politicians for its efforts on global warming. The money manager has decided to leave the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative, it said in a letter to clients on Thursday. Membership in the group “caused confusion regarding BlackRock’s practices and subjected us to legal inquiries from various public officials,” the New York-based firm said. BlackRock, which oversees more than $11 trillion, has been the subject of attacks from GOP lawmakers for embracing what conservatives call “woke” policies. Most recently, BlackRock was among a group of asset managers singled out in a lawsuit led by Texas alleging breaches of antitrust laws due to the adoption of pro-climate strategies that suppress coal production. And with President-elect Donald Trump headed for the White House, Wall Street is bracing for more attacks on climate finance. See full story
Appeals Court Temporarily Blocks Controversial Sept 11 Plea Deal With Alleged Terrorists (Just the News) — A federal appeals court on Thursday temporarily blocked the plea deal that the Defense Department offered three alleged 9/11 terrorists, which would eliminate the death penalty in exchange for guilty pleas and life sentences. The ruling comes after the Justice Department asked the federal court to intervene, after a military appeals court last month declined to overturn a lower court's ruling that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin lacked the proper authority to revoke a plea deal made with the alleged terrorists. Austin initially attempted to revoke the plea deal last August. The Justice Department argued in its brief that the government would be irreparably harmed if the guilty pleas were accepted, and would rob the department of holding a public trial and the opportunity to “seek capital punishment against three men charged with a heinous act of mass murder that caused the death of thousands of people and shocked the nation and the world." The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in the Thursday ruling that it has granted the stay for now, but that it was only in place until a full decision could be made, according to The Hill. See full story	Nancy Pelosi’s Stock Portfolio Explodes In Value, Beats Market By Nearly 200% (Daily Caller) — Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi beat the S&P 500 by nearly 200% in 2024, continuing her streak of outperforming the stock index. Pelosi’s portfolio grew 70.9% between Dec. 29, 2023, and Dec. 30, 2024, compared to the S&P 500’s 24.9% return for the period, according to financial data platform Unusual Whales’ 2024 Congress Trading Report. The former speaker’s 2024 investment results exceeded her stellar 2023 performance, when she secured a return of 65.5% – outperforming that year’s S&P 500 return of 24.8% by approximately 164%. Pelosi outdid many of the world’s oldest and largest hedge funds in 2024, including Citadel, which had $66 billion in assets under management as of December, and Discovery Capital, which has been around for over 25 years and had $15 billion in assets under management at its peak. She also outperformed legendary investor Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway, more than doubling its 27.1% 2024 return. See full story
Silent On Arrival: LA Mayor Bass Refuses To Answer Questions For Her Absence As Wildfires Ravage City (Fox News) — An expressionless Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass refused to answer reporters' questions after being pressed on her initial absence as wildfires raged across her jurisdiction. "Do you owe citizens an apology for being absent while their homes were burning? And do you regret cutting the Fire Department budget by millions of dollars, Madame Mayor?" Sky News reporter David Blevins asked as Bass waited to deplane Wednesday following her trip to Ghana. "Have you absolutely nothing to say to the citizens today?" he added. Bass refused to acknowledge the reporter, continuing to ignore questions as she looked at the ground. "No apology to them? Do you think you should have been visiting Ghana while this was unfolding back home?" he said. See full story	Gov. Newsom Passes The Buck To 'local Folks' When Asked About Hydrants Running Out Of Water During Pacific Palisades Fire (NY Post) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom passed the blame on to “local folks” when grilled over fire hydrants running out of water during the raging Pacific Palisades fire – and said he couldn’t even respond to President-elect Donald Trump’s accusations that he mismanaged the state’s water supply. Newsom, in an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, said local officials need to figure out why the hydrants in Los Angeles ran dry and left firefighters helpless as countless homes burned down in the ritzy neighborhood overnight into Wednesday. “Look, the local folks are trying to figure that out,” he told Cooper, who asked about the hydrant situation. “I mean when you have a system – but it’s not dissimilar from what we’ve seen in other extraordinarily large-scale fires, whether it be pipe, electricity, or whether it just be the complete overwhelm of the system,” Newsom rambled on. See full story
Rick Scott Reintroduces Bill To Keep Daylight Saving Time Year-Round (Just the News) — Florida GOP Sen. Rick Scott on Tuesday reintroduced a bill that would make Daylight Saving Time (DST) permanent year-round, meaning there would be no setting clocks back in the fall. The legislation is supported by President-elect Donald Trump, who vowed last month that Republicans "will use [their] best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time." The Senate previously passed a bill to make DST permanent in 2022, but it did not become law. Trump and Scott have both claimed that the practice of changing their clocks twice a year is an inconvenient and unnecessary task, according to The Hill. “I hear from Americans constantly that they are sick and tired of changing their clocks twice a year – it’s an unnecessary, decades-old practice that’s more of an annoyance to families than benefit to them,” Scott said in a statement. “I’m excited to have President Trump back in the White House and fully on board to LOCK THE CLOCK so we can get this good bill passed and make this common-sense change that will simplify and benefit the lives of American families." See full story	Strong December Jobs Report Kills Chances Of A January Fed Rate Cut (Forbes) — The December jobs report revealed a drop in the unemployment rate to 4.1%, accompanied by a rise and acceleration in monthly net non-farm payroll gains of 256,000. Before the jobs report was released, the odds were already low for an interest rate cut in the next Federal Reserve decision on January 29. However, the strong December jobs report is the nail in the coffin for January rate cut expectations. With solid labor market data and near-term risks of an acceleration in year-on-year consumer inflation rates, the next Fed rate cut may not happen until May 2025. The Employment Situation report, known to economists and analysts as the jobs report, was solid for December 2024. It reaffirmed that the labor market is on solid footing and that recession is not an imminent risk. It also reduced the chances of an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve on January 29. On the upside, the unemployment rate fell modestly to 4.1% from 4.2% as December payrolls reflected a net increase of 256,000 jobs. Total U.S. payrolls are now at a record high of more than 159.5 million jobs. See full story
Feral Hogs Terrorizing Texas Town, Infuriating Locals: 'I Can't Go Out There And Start Blasting' (Fox News) — A passel of feral hogs has been terrorizing the city of Irving, Texas, frustrating residents as their properties are destroyed by the invasive animals. As many as 10 hogs have been tearing up yards and rooting through trash left for garbage collectors, according to WFAA. Locals have become frustrated after they repair their yards dug up by the hogs, just for the animals to return to wreak havoc again. "A couple of weeks back, I started seeing some diggings on the ground," homeowner Eric Mendez told WFAA, noting that he set up a camera on a tree to capture the culprit. "To my surprise, a pig was on the camera," he said. But there was more than one pig digging up the property. There were as many as 10, and some were quite large. See full story	Illegal Charged With Lighting Sleeping Woman On Fire Pleads Not Guilty (Fox News) — Sebastian Zapeta, the Guatemalan man accused of lighting a sleeping subway rider on fire and watching her burn to death on a Brooklyn subway car, pleaded not guilty to murder and arson charges Tuesday. The 33-year-old was indicted on one count of first-degree murder, three counts of second-degree murder, and arson. Prosecutors said Tuesday that he fanned the flames before sitting down to watch her burn as police and a subway worker tried to put out the fire. According to court documents, Zapeta later told detectives he was in a drunken blackout during the attack. "I am very sorry. I didn't mean to. But I really don't know, I don't know what happened, but I'm very sorry for that woman," he allegedly told detectives, according to a transcript from his interrogation translated from Spanish to English. See full story