Latest news with #PSAs
GMA Network
2 days ago
- Business
- GMA Network
ERC launches probe into Siquijor power crisis
The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) on Thursday announced that it is conducting a formal inquiry into the power crisis in the island province of Siquijor. In a statement, the ERC said it asked the Province of Siquijor Electric Cooperative Inc. (PROSIELCO), S.I. Power Corporation (SIPCOR) and the National Power Corporation (NPC) to appear and provide explanations at a public hearing scheduled for July 3. The regulator said it is reviewing the compliance of PROSIELCO and SIPCOR with their respective Power Supply Agreements (PSAs) with contracted capacity of 9.5 megawatts (MW), which the ERC said 'should be sufficient to meet the peak demand in Siquijor.' 'The investigation was prompted by reports received by the Commission regarding frequent and prolonged power outages across Siquijor, which have disrupted economic activities and affected the welfare of residents, businesses, and tourists in the province,' the ERC said. The provincial government of Siquijor, through its Sangguniang Panlalawigan, earlier this month declared a state of calamity due to the worsening power crisis, as residents have been facing rotational brownouts since May 13, 2025. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. inspected the SIPCOR power plant in the province last week and directed an investigation into SIPCOR's operations amid the ongoing power issues. He added that he was open to the possibility of having another power provider in the province. 'In calling for this public inquiry, the commission is determined to find long-term solutions to the power reliability issues experienced by the province and ensure that contractual commitments are delivered and services are improved moving forward,' said ERC chairperson and CEO Monalisa Dimalanta. The ERC said, during its technical inspection last month, it observed several operational and regulatory deficiencies in the generation facilities and distribution lines in the province. 'These deficiencies include inadequate preventive maintenance, lack of fuel inventory, operating without required safety certifications and plant certificate of compliance, and the use of rental generators without permits,' it said. 'The Commission also noted the use of improper sectionalizing equipment and delays in infrastructure relocation on the distribution side,' it added. Over the weekend, the National Electrification Administration (NEA) said it had successfully restored power in Siquijor. —VBL, GMA Integrated News
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
A former firefighter went from earning $1,600 a month to owning over 30 properties. He explains how he used creative financing to land his first $3 million deal with $30,000 in savings.
Jeremy Barker started a hidden-door company, Murphy Door, to supplement his firefighter income. The company grew rapidly, prompting him to look into large commercial spaces. He bought a $3 million building with just $30,000 of his own money and expanded his portfolio from there. Jeremy Barker spent much of his career bouncing between construction, working as a paramedic, and working as a fireman, as well as experimenting with startups. "I kind of played ping-pong for the first 35 years, trying to decide what it is that I loved, which was fire," he told Business Insider. "Unfortunately, it doesn't pay. I didn't want to live on $1,600 take-home a month." Unwilling to give up his firefighter career completely, he decided to supplement the modest salary with a side hustle. He started making hinges for hidden doors — an idea inspired by a DIY home theater project for his kids — and called the company Murphy Door. "That escalated quickly from 2013 into 2016," he said. "We signed Home Depot. It just grew really fast." While Murphy Door created an additional revenue stream, he put most of the profit back into the business. It wasn't until he stumbled into real estate that his wealth started to snowball. Besides his primary home in Utah, Barker had no experience buying real estate. But as Murphy Door took off and outgrew its original space, he and his real estate agent started looking at larger buildings. His agent found a deal on a 90,000-square-foot building that he told Barker was too good to pass up and pitched it as a space the company could grow into. It was listed for $3 million. "I looked at him and I'm like: 'Are you freaking crazy? $3 million? I work at a fire department. I have no idea how to get a loan.' My mortgage was difficult enough," Barker said. "He goes: 'You sign this LOI. I'll help you figure out the money.'" That night, Barker turned to YouTube to learn about financing commercial real estate. He learned a couple of things: One, he'd need to raise capital. His $30,000 in savings was a start, but not enough for a down payment. Two, he could lease a large portion of the space, about 70,000 square feet, that he didn't need for Murphy Door. Once he understood how letters of intent, or LOIs, and purchase and sale agreements, or PSAs, worked, he realized he could take advantage of the time between signing one and the closing date to get a head start on leasing. After some back-and-forth with the seller regarding terms, he got the green light to list the building for lease before closing. "I had to sell them a little bit," he said. "I said: 'Look, I only use a small space, but if I could put it up for lease, you're not committed to anything. I'll let everybody know early that it's not bought yet, but there's a 90% chance it closes.'" He signed the PSA, put a "for lease" sign outside the building, and, "within 24 hours, I had my first tenant that was like 22,000 square feet," he said. "Within the next couple of days, I got another big tenant, and before I closed, I had a full package of lease rent roll equivalent to about $140,000 at that time annually in that space." The lease agreements helped him secure the rest of the capital he needed — a couple of hundred thousand dollars — for the down payment, as he was able to show investors the expected net operating income. It also helped secure a loan. "I went back to Bank of Utah, and I said, 'Here are my rent rolls.' They did the first mortgage," he said. "Within 12 months, I retabled it over to Golden West Credit Union and pulled $2 million out — and I'd only put in $30,000." He said he paid his investors back within 24 months, and the building's value has more than quadrupled over the past decade. Recognizing the tremendous wealth-building opportunity in real estate, Barker "just rinsed and repeated" from there, he said. He's fine-tuned his strategy, but it's not dissimilar to his first deal: Find an overlooked or undervalued property — ideally a building that has been on the market for years in order to gain negotiation leverage — and build a long enough closing period into the terms with the seller in order to have time to set up lease agreements with future tenants. As of June, Barker owns more than 30 commercial and residential properties. BI confirmed his ownership by reviewing his 2024 property tax notices and his lease agreements. Barker, who said he faced bankruptcy twice early in his career, didn't have much savings to work with when he started buying real estate. "I knew that I had to think outside the box," he said. What he didn't have in capital, he made up for in research. His edge, at least in the beginning, would be understanding his market better than anyone else, and using that knowledge to pitch investors. "Spend a whole bunch of time understanding the marketplace," he said. "I've learned about buildings. I learned what rent goes for around here. And you don't have to get complicated. I'm looking at: What is the average rent rate? OK, it's going for $12 to $15 a square foot. If I buy this property, my hard costs are going to be $4 a square foot." Once you find a deal that you're confident will work, start pitching to any prospective investors within your networks. Barker said he'd frame it as: "I don't have any money to bring to the table, but you have all my time. I'm willing to give away X% of the equity to just pull off my first deal." Pitch with confidence, not arrogance, he added. "I would understand the market really well and talk at a super basic level, not to sound like you're smarter than you are," he said. "Just be confident. You don't have to talk outside your scope." Barker said he reached financial independence years ago, thanks to his real estate portfolio, which brings in about $2.5 million in annual revenue. It's freed him up to spend his time exactly how he wants: in the fire department, where he still works part time, and at Murphy Door. When it comes to real estate investment, "we get stuck on the reasons not to do it rather than figuring out how and why to do it," he said. "Quit saying, 'I can't because I don't have money.' Or, 'I can't because I've never done it.'" "I think we have to just do the homework and spend a little time to reverse engineer stuff, think about pricing, and think about 'what is the opportunity?'" Barker said. "When other people see a lack of opportunity, a different lens could probably see some opportunity there." Read the original article on Business Insider Sign in to access your portfolio
USA Today
2 days ago
- Politics
- USA Today
FIFA abandons principles once again by dropping anti-racism messages
FIFA abandons principles once again by dropping anti-racism messages | Opinion Show Caption Hide Caption Soccer fans worry over the threat of ICE at FIFA Club World Cup Ahead of the kick-off of the FIFA Club World Cup, fans discussed fears of ICE raids impacting the soccer tournament. Maybe one of these days FIFA's actions will back up its big talk about combatting hate and discrimination. Today is not that day, however. A month after FIFA president Gianni Infantino said racism and bigotry were such a blight on the beautiful game that offenders deserve criminal penalties, the federation seems to have lost the messages that had become a staple of its anti-discrimination campaigns. The PSAs on the Jumbotron, the decals and banners on the field, the messages on the P.A. system, the posts on social media — they're nowhere to be found at the Club World Cup. Maybe they got misplaced on the way from FIFA headquarters. Maybe FIFA ran out of money after making its gaudy new trophy for the Club World Cup — you know, the one Infantino made sure to etch his name on. Or maybe, just maybe, Infantino saw how sensitive U.S. President Donald Trump is to anything that dares suggest racism is bad or that Black and brown people are entitled to respect and decided it was best if FIFA didn't bring it up. If this sounds familiar, it should. The last time there was a major tournament in a country run by a great and all-powerful Oz, Infantino and FIFA were quick to abandon their values, too. Rather than risk offending their Qatari hosts, they threw both longtime partner AB InBev and the LGBTQ community under the bus during the men's World Cup in 2022. Now FIFA is abandoning what should be one of its highest priorities: Calling out the racism and discrimination that remains far too prevalent in soccer. As if any reminder of why it's so imperative for FIFA to challenge discrimination in full throat, a Spanish court on Monday issued prison sentences to four people convicted of a hate crime for hanging an effigy of Vinicius Jr. The Brazilian has been subjected to repeated racist abuse since joining Real Madrid, which just so happens to be one of the 32 teams playing in the Club World Cup. Real Madrid's first game in the tournament is Wednesday, June 18, against Saudi Arabia's Al-Hilal. More: Kylian Mbappé deals with fever ahead of Real Madrid's Club World Cup opener 'I play in Spain, where I suffered a lot and still suffer sometimes,' Vinicius Jr. said last year. 'But of course, it is less with the help of all the clubs, of all the people who are doing everything possible to combat racism.' That FIFA can no longer be counted on to be part of that is appalling. That it's done so voluntarily is infuriating. FIFA hasn't commented on why it is suddenly caving on its commitment to calling out racism and discrimination, either to The Athletic, which first reported the absence of the messages, or USA TODAY Sports. But really, what's there to say? Infantino had his fingers crossed behind his back when he said last month that, and I quote, 'Racism and discrimination — they are not just wrong, they are crimes.'? FIFA really does want to stamp out racism but it wants to avoid Trump's ire more? They're just trying to get the Club World Cup, and next year's men's World Cup, played without Trump and Stephen Miller realizing the tournaments will bring an influx of thousands of Black and brown people to the United States? If Infantino and FIFA do actually believe racism, and every other form of discrimination, is bad and has no place in the game, it shouldn't matter where a tournament is being played. If Infantino and FIFA truly want soccer to be a game that belongs to everyone, the 'local customs' of a host nation and the personal prejudices of its leaders ought to be irrelevant. But by their actions, first in Qatar and now in the United States, Infantino and FIFA have made it clear their supposed core values of equality and respect have limits. Or come with a whole lot of asterisks attached. Airing a PSA, making a couple of social posts and slapping signs on the field and the LED boards that surround it is the bare minimum of what FIFA should be doing, and it can't even muster the courage to do that. It's easy to have convictions when they're not being put to the test. Infantino and FIFA's are, and they're failing miserably. Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.
Business Insider
2 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
A former firefighter went from earning $1,600 a month to owning over 30 properties. He explains how he used creative financing to land his first $3 million deal with $30,000 in savings.
Jeremy Barker spent much of his career bouncing between construction, working as a paramedic and as a fireman, as well as experimenting with start-ups. "I kind of played ping pong for the first 35 years, trying to decide what it is that I loved, which was fire," he told Business Insider. "Unfortunately, it doesn't pay. I didn't want to live on $1,600 take-home a month." Unwilling to give up his firefighter career completely, he decided to supplement the modest salary with a side hustle. He started making hinges for hidden doors — an idea inspired by a DIY home theater project for his kids — and called the company Murphy Door. "That escalated quickly from 2013 into 2016," he said. "We signed Home Depot. It just grew really fast." While Murphy Door created an additional revenue stream, he put most of the profit back into the business. It wasn't until he stumbled into real estate that his wealth started to snowball. Financing a $3 million space with $30,000 in savings Besides his primary home in Utah, Barker had no experience buying real estate. But as Murphy Door took off and outgrew its original space, he and his real estate agent started looking at larger buildings. His agent found a deal on a 90,000-square-foot building that he told Barker was too good to pass up, and pitched it as a space the company could grow into. It was listed for $3 million. "I looked at him and I'm like, 'Are you freaking crazy? $3 million? I work at a fire department. I have no idea how to get a loan. My mortgage was difficult enough,'" said Barker. "He goes, 'You sign this LOI. I'll help you figure out the money.'" That night, Barker turned to YouTube to learn about financing commercial real estate. He learned a couple of things: One, he'd need to raise capital. His $30,000 in savings was a start, but not enough for a down payment. Two, he could lease a large portion of the space, about 70,000 square feet, that he didn't need for Murphy Door. Once he understood how letters of intent (LOIs) and purchase and sale agreements (PSAs) worked, he realized he could take advantage of the time between signing one and the closing date to get a head start on leasing. After some back-and-forth with the seller regarding terms, he got the green light to list the building for lease before closing: "I had to sell them a little bit. I said, 'Look, I only use a small space, but if I could put it up for lease, you're not committed to anything. I'll let everybody know early that it's not bought yet, but there's a 90% chance it closes.'" He signed the PSA, put a 'for lease' sign outside the building, and, "within 24 hours, I had my first tenant that was like 22,000 square feet," he said. "Within the next couple of days, I got another big tenant, and before I closed, I had a full package of lease rent roll equivalent to about $140,000 at that time annually in that space." The lease agreements helped him secure the rest of the capital he needed — a couple of hundred thousand dollars — for the down payment, as he was able to show investors the expected NOI. It also helped secure a loan. "I went back to Bank of Utah, and I said, 'Here are my rent rolls.' They did the first mortgage," he said. "Within 12 months, I retabled it over to Golden West Credit Union and pulled $2 million out — and I'd only put in $30,000." He said he paid his investors back within 24 months, and the building's value has more than quadrupled over the last decade. Recognizing the tremendous wealth-building opportunity in real estate, from there, "I just rinsed and repeated," said Barker. He's fine-tuned his strategy, but it's not dissimilar to his first deal: Find an overlooked or undervalued property — ideally a building that has been on the market for years in order to gain negotiation leverage — and build a long enough closing period into the terms with the seller in order to have time to set up lease agreements with future tenants. As of June 2025, Barker owns more than 30 commercial and residential properties. BI confirmed his ownership by reviewing his 2024 property tax notices and his lease agreements. How to get started in real estate with little to no savings Barker, who said he faced bankruptcy twice early in his career, didn't have much savings to work with when he started buying real estate. "I knew that I had to think outside the box," he said. What he didn't have in capital, he made up for in research. His edge, at least in the beginning, would be understanding his market better than anyone else, and using that knowledge to pitch investors. "Spend a whole bunch of time understanding the marketplace," he said. "I've learned about buildings. I learned what rent goes for around here. And you don't have to get complicated. I'm looking at: What is the average rent rate? OK, it's going for $12 to $15 a square foot. If I buy this property, my hard costs are going to be $4 a square foot." Once you find a deal that you're confident will work, start pitching to any potential investors within your networks. He'd frame it as: "I don't have any money to bring to the table, but you have all my time. I'm willing to give away X% of the equity to just pull off my first deal." Pitch with confidence, not arrogance, he added: "I would understand the market really well and talk at a super basic level, not to sound like you're smarter than you are. Just be confident. You don't have to talk outside your scope." Barker says he reached financial independence years ago, thanks to his real estate portfolio, which brings in about $2.5 million in annual revenue. It's freed him up to spend his time exactly how he wants: in the fire department, where he still works part-time, and at Murphy Door. When it comes to real estate investment, "we get stuck on the reasons not to do it rather than figuring out how and why to do it," he said. "Quit saying, 'I can't because I don't have money.' Or, 'I can't because I've never done it.'" Instead, "I think we have to just do the homework and spend a little time to reverse engineer stuff, think about pricing, and think about 'what is the opportunity?' When other people see a lack of opportunity, a different lens could probably see some opportunity there."
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Yale oncologist: Biden's marker should have been picked up ‘years ago'
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — Doctors nationwide are responding and breaking down former President Joe Biden's recent cancer diagnosis. News 8 sat down with Dr. Isaac Kim, a urologic oncologist at Smilow Cancer Hospital and chief of urology at Yale School of Medicine. Kim tells us he was surprised when he heard the news of the former president's diagnosis because there is such a good screening marker for it. Yale doctor weighs in on Biden's cancer diagnosis 'If President Biden was getting that marker checked on a regular basis, it should have been picked up years ago,' Kim said. Biden's office released a statement on his diagnosis and included that the cancer has metastasized to his bones, indicating it is an aggressive form of prostate cancer. Kim tells us it is likely his doctors could have stopped testing for PSAs, or prostate specific antigens years ago. 'There is a guideline that says, in patients over the age of 70 we should discourage PSA,' Kim said. 'Especially over 75, PSA often times is abandoned. So that may have happened with President Biden in this case.' PSAs indicate a disturbance in the body through a blood test. The normal flow of PSA gets disturbed and leaks into the bloodstream, causing a spike in the blood level. The harm in not testing for PSAs, blood tests would usually pick up the prostate cancer before it reaches a metastatic level. Kim tells us if little to no antigens are picked up, it could mean the prostate cancer is already in an aggressive state. While it is not clear if Biden's doctors tested for PSAs, we know they identified a nodule on his prostate which led to his diagnosis. The physical exam is the second part of the common two-part screening. After identifying the cancer, Kim says the pathologist will then give a Gleason score. 'So the Gleason score is actually addition of two areas, two largest areas of cancer that the pathologist finds and those would be added up,' he said. They will grade the areas on a scale of one to five. One showing the cancer cell resembles a normal cell and five indicates it is completely abnormal and does not look like a regular cell. Yale New Haven Health notifying customers after March data breach Kim says the lowest score you can get is a two and the highest score is a 10. Biden has a Gleason score of nine. Normally, a Gleason score will help dictate the treatment course for the patient but in Biden's case, because it has metastasized his team will likely pursue the most aggressive form of treatment. Lower Gleason scores would require radiation whereas higher Gleason scores would require radiation and hormonal therapy. For patients, Kim recommends getting in a screening routine with your primary care doctor. He says you want to get prostate screenings every other year starting around the age of 50 years old, unless you are high risk. 'Like an African-American man, I recommend to get checked at age 40 as a baseline,' Kim said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
