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After a volatile first quarter, Q2 has kicked off in style, and the major indexes sit at or hover near all-time highs. The government bond market has also been steadying as yields have pulled back after rising higher earlier in the year, soothing investor fears that inflation could get out of hand. Moreover, the economic recovery seems to be gathering steam at a faster pace than anticipated. We had been expecting the data to improve about this time, and early signals are that the recovery is absolutely on track, said Hugh Gimber, J.P. Morgans global market strategist. This is the period where the forecast of a strong recovery in growth is starting to look more like the fact of a strong recovery in growth. Against this backdrop, the analysts at J.P. Morgan have pinpointed 2 names which they believe are set for strong growth in the year ahead; both are expected to handsomely reward investors with at least 80% of gains over the coming months. We ran them through TipRanks database to see what other Wall Street's analysts have to say about them. Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) Well start in China, where Tencent Music Entertainment is the offspring of Chinas giant online venture company, Tencent, and Spotify, the Swedish streaming company that makes music and playlists easy. Tencent Music has seen consistently strong sales and earnings for the past year, with the top line growing year-over-year in each quarter of 2020. The Q4 report showed $1.26 billion in the top line, the highest in the last two years, along with 12 cents per share in earnings, up 33% year-over-year. Strong streaming revenue, which showed 29% growth, helped drive the results. And, Tencent Music, through its variety of apps, is the top music streaming service in the Chinese online market as shown by the 40.4% yoy increase in paid subscribers during Q4. In its quarterly results, the company reported 4.3 million net new users in Q4, to reach 56 million active premium accounts across its apps. That said, the stock has pulled back sharply recently, as like many other high-flying growth names, worries regarding an overheated valuation have come to the fore. But pullbacks often spell opportunity, and covering the stock for JPM, Alex Yao notes the strong subscription growth, as well as the potential in the companys other businesses, online ads and long-form audio, for monetization. We believe TME is entering a healthy development cycle with successive growth engines: 1) music subscription remains the core revenue driver with consistent paying ratio improvement, 2) ads revenue ramps up quickly, and 3) active investments in long-form audio initiative, which could become a new growth driver in 2022 and afterwards," Yao noted. To this end, Yao puts a $36 price target on TME, suggesting a one-year upside of 84%, to back his Overweight (i.e. Buy) rating on the stock. (To watch Yaos track record, click here) Overall, TME has a thumbs up from Wall Street. Of the 11 reviews on record, 7 are to Buy, 3 are to Hold, and 1 says Sell, making the analyst consensus a Moderate Buy. The shares are priced at $19.50, and their $30.19 average price target implies an upside of 55% for the months ahead. (See TME stock analysis on TipRanks) Y-mAbs Therapeutics (YMAB) The next JPM pick were looking at is Y-mAbs, a late-stage clinical biopharma company with a focus on pediatric oncology. The company is working on the development and commercialization of new antibody-based cancer therapeutics. Y-mAbs has one medication Danyelza approved for use to treat neuroblastoma in children age 1 and over, and a broad and advanced pipeline of drug candidates in various stages of the clinical process, as well as five additional products in pre-clinical research stages. Having an approved drug is a holy grail for clinical biopharmaceutical companies, and in 4Q20 Y-mAbs saw considerable income from Danyelza. The company announced at the end of December that it had agreed to sell the Priority Review Voucher for the drug to United Therapeutics for $105 million. Y-mAbs will retain the rights to 60% of the net proceeds from the sale, under an agreement with Memorial Sloan Kettering. Also in December, the company announced a license agreement with SciClone. The partnership gives Y-mAbs and Danyelza an opening for treating pediatric patients in China. The agreement includes Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, and is worth up to $120 million for Y-mAbs. The company has entered other agreements making Danyelza available in Eastern Europe and Russia. Danyelza is Y-mAbs flagship product, but the company also has omburtamab in advanced stages of the pipeline. This drug candidate saw a setback in October last year, when the FDA refused to file the company's Biologics License Application, proposed for the treatment of pediatric patients with CNS/leptomeningeal metastasis. Y-mAbs has been in steady communication with the FDA since then, with a new target date for the BLA at the end of 2Q21 or early in 3Q21. These two drugs one approved and one not yet form the basis of the JPM outlook on this stock. Analyst Tessa Romero writes, Our thesis revolves around the de-risked nature of the pediatric oncology pipeline. Our recent KOL feedback is enthusiastic about use of lead asset Danyelza in patients with high-risk neuroblastoma (NB). For second lead asset omburtamab in NB metastatic to the central nervous system (CNS/LM from NB), while the Refuse to File last year and subsequent regulatory delays were certainly disappointing, we still see a high probability of approval for the product in the 2Q/3Q22 timeframe Looking ahead, Romero sees an upbeat outlook for the company: Coupling our anticipation of a healthy launch for Danyelza, with regulatory/clinical momentum expected in the near- to mid-term, we see shares poised to rebound and see an attractive buying opportunity at current levels. The analyst puts a $52 price target on YMAB shares, implying an upside of 86% for the year ahead, and supporting an Overweight (i.e. Buy) rating. (To watch Romeros track record, click here) Overall, the Wall Street reviews break down 3 to 1 in favor of Buys versus Holds on Y-mAbs, giving the stock a Strong Buy consensus rating. The shares have an average price target of $61.25, suggestive of a 121% upside potential this year. (See YMAB stock analysis on TipRanks) To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.

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This is the single worst time to be a passive investor: veteran investor - Yahoo Finance

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signs a baseball after a ceremony to announce that Atlanta will host baseball's 2021 All-Star Game, Wednesday, May 29, 2019, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

After watching the fallout from the new Georgia voting law passed two weeks ago, Ive come to five conclusions.

-The right to vote shouldnt be a partisan issue, but sadly has become one.

-The new law isnt about election integrity, its meant to suppress voting.

-The law has set off a chain reaction that continues to this day.

-The consequences here are changing the relationship between politics (mostly the GOP) and business.

-And in all this there is nuance and a good many twists to the story.

Used to be that if you ran a business in America youd stay as far away as possible from politics, (unless you sold George McGovern T-shirts or some such.) The math was simple. Take a stand and potentially lose 40% to 60% of your customers. So most businesspeople when asked a question about politics kept mum, even when they felt strongly about an issue.

We accepted this choice of money over principles because as customers, employees or shareholders while we might not agree with someone's politics, we just wanted the business relationship and knowing someones politics might make things awkward, inconvenient or uncomfortable.

But this has been changing in recent years, and now taken to another level with the Georgia voting law, the fallout of which has rippled from Fortune 500 companies and prominent executives to Major League Baseball and golf, as well as politics in Texas, Colorado, Kentucky and beyond.

To get into this let me take you through whats transpired over the past two-plus weeks because its historic but also a bit convoluted.

Lets start with the new Georgia law itself, the 98-page "Election Integrity Act of 2021," signed on Thursday, March 25. Charges that the law amounted to nothing less than voter suppression, particularly of Black voters, came fast and furious. In fact the bill, (which started off as a two-page measure ballooned to its current omnibus octopus), was watered down to a degree to remove what critics considered to be its most egregious featuressuch as a ban on Sunday voting, something of an after-church tradition amongst Black voters. Activists quickly filed lawsuits challenging the bill and President Biden lashed out as well.

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Business leaders spoke out too, with more likely to come. Yale professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld is holding a CEO confab today, which the executives requested, to organize resistance to the bill and others like it, (more on that later.)

The Georgia GOP, including Gov. Brian Kemp, say the new law improves the states voting process. But clearly that is not the intention. The intention is to make voting more difficult particularly for Black citizens, through new ID requirements, restricting drop-off boxes and by giving state (GOP) officials more power over elections. Be wary of those who cherry-pick specific points of voting laws in other states to show Georgias is not restrictive. The larger point is that, in toto, Georgias new law is a move to discourage not encourage voting.

Heres the thing: Voting is an inalienable right in our country. Lawmakers should be making every effort to make voting easier for all Americans, not harder. Suppressing the right to vote, something so essential in our country, is nuts. What are they going to do next, deny people food and drink?

Oh wait, the new Georgia voting law does just that, right there in Section 33, beginning in line 1873 [emphasis mine]: nor shall any person give, offer to give, or participate in the giving of any money or gifts, including, but not limited to, food and drink, to an elector

Only thing left is the air that we breathe.

Richard "Dick" Parsons, former chairman of Citigroup and former chairman and CEO of Time Warner, in an interview on January 9, 2015 -- (Photo by: David A. Grogan/CNBC/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)

I'm a lifelong Republican, says Dick Parsons, former Citigroup chairman who also served as Time Warner CEO. I believe in a lot of things that the old Republican Party stood for. And I think we've kind of gone off course here. Parsons, who spoke to Yahoo Finance for a special that will air on Monday, was one of 72 Black executives who signed a letter protesting the new law.

Parsons continued: My party has sort of said, Well, look, we got one or two choices, we can either battle for those votes going forward or we can just try and preclude them from showing up again. And I think the direction that has been taken, certainly in Georgia and in other states is, let's not go out and battle for those votes. Let's just try and keep them from showing up. That's just flat wrong."

Immediately after the law passed, Georgias businesses were drawn into the fray, particularly two of the states biggest and most iconic companies, Delta Air Lines (DAL) (Georgias largest employer) and Coca-Cola (KO). And within a week, Delta and Coke found themselves in the remarkable and nearly unprecedented position of having boycotts called on them by both the political left and the political right over the same issuebut of course for different reasons.

Let me explain. When the law was first promulgated, Delta and Coca-Colas response was negative, but tepidly so. Some Black leaders called for a boycott of their products and services, turning up the heat on those companies. Days later, on March 31 to be exact, Parsons and the other Black business leaders ran a full-page ad in the New York Times, which carried an open letter strongly denouncing the new law and calling on our colleagues in corporate America to join us in taking a non-partisan stand for equality and democracy.

To characterize this as a political statement by corporate America I think is inaccurate, it's not political, Parsons says. This is about defending democracy, defending one of the keystones that make this a unique country in the world. I mean, how can you sit by and, and watch people intentionally try and prevent or discourage other people from exercising their right to vote?

The same day as the letter, both Coke CEO James Quincey and Delta CEO Ed Bastian went on CNBC and spoke forcefully against the bill, making in a sense, "to be clear, we were always against this," kind of statements. Critics on the left said that was too little too late. (Other big companies in Georgia most notably UPS (UPS) and Home Depot (HD) have not taken strong positions on the matter.)

[Ed Bastian] was slow to action, Khadijah Abdur-Rahman, Fulton County, Georgia Commissioner told Yahoo Finance this week. I will resolve that he has made a statement, but he needs to do more. We need him to put his money where his mouth is. He needs to help us change the law.

That was nothing like the fury though on the right, which came from Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and local state politicians, as well as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul and former President Trump.

FILE - In this Nov. 3, 2020, file photo, a poll worker talks to a voter before they vote on a paper ballot on Election Day in Atlanta. The sweeping rewrite of Georgia's election rules that was signed into law by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp Thursday, March 25, 2021, represents the first big set of changes since former President Donald Trump's repeated, baseless claims of fraud following his presidential loss to Joe Biden. Georgias new, 98-page law makes numerous changes to how elections will be administered, including a new photo ID requirement for voting absentee by mail. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)

"It is finally time for Republicans and Conservatives to fight back...Boycott Major League Baseball, Coca-Cola, Delta Airlines Trump said in a statement. (Well get to baseball in a second.) But get this twist. Earlier this week, after Trump called for the boycott of Coke, it appeared the former president had a bottle of, guess what, on his desk. (It seems Trump hasnt learned how to say "Pepsi please," yet.)

A week ago on Friday, April 2, another letter was released condemning the new law, this one signed by some 240 top executives at a wide range of companies including Dow Chemical (DOW), Cisco (CSCO), Etsy (ETSY) and Paypal (PYPL).

When 72 Black executives published their powerful letter last Wednesday that really helped ignite more urgency behind this issue and brought an outpouring of support and interest from many member companies, says Steven Levine, director at the Civic Alliance, the advocacy group which organized the letter. We worked with many of them to draft a statement and we were proud to publish it. Were deeply committed to remaining nonpartisan and to ensuring that all Americans have the freedom to vote will remain a priority for our companies.

To be honest though, most Fortune 500 CEOs did not sign the letter. I asked Edith Cooper, a former Goldman Sachs (GS) executive, founder of professional development startup Medley, and member of the board at Slack (WORK) and Etsy, about that. I think if you are going to be a company that's relevant now, going forward, it is not only appropriate, but it is expected for you as the leader of that organization, and as a company to have a point of view, says Cooper, who signed the Black executives letter. Silence, in effect, is a point of view. By not saying anything, is it reasonable to assume that you are comfortable with the legislation, I would suspect that for many of these largest organizations, that might not be the case, but we don't know."

It's imperative for organizations to support the right thing, because ultimately, it will impact their bottom line, your employees will demand it, your customers will expect it, Cooper continued. And if you do not have a point of view that supports equality, and that represents justice and democracy, how will you be a company that's relevant going forward? And it all starts with the opportunity and the access to vote? It's fundamental.

Lets turn now to Senator Mitch McConnell, whos of particular interest here as he thrust himself into the debate and in doing so opened himself up to charges of hypocrisy. Initially McConnell said: Corporations will invite serious consequences if they become a vehicle for far-left mobs to hijack our country from outside the constitutional order. Businesses must not use economic blackmail to spread disinformation and push bad ideas that citizens reject at the ballot box.

Then he added: "My warning, if you will, to corporate America is to stay out of politics."

But on Wednesday he began walking it back saying that he didnt speak so artfully and that when he was telling businesses to stay out of politics, he didnt mean campaign contributions. (Oh no, not that!)

That follows, as an analysis by MarketWatch, noted that McConnell, an outspoken supporter of Citizens United, the 2010 Supreme Court decision which allowed for corporate contributions, received more contributions from Fortune 500 company CEOs (almost $260,000) than any other Senator in 2020.

And then theres McConnell v. FEC:

What McConnell is essentially saying, critics suggest, is that donations are OK for corporations, but taking political stands are not. Or as Trevor Noah put it: Thats my Mitch right there! ... Keep your mouth shut and hand over the money. Thats literally what bank robbers say.

But get this twist, one of two CEOs who donated the most money to McConnell last year, at just over $21,000, according to MarketWatch, is none other than Ken Frazier of Merck, one of the 72 Black business leader signatories, (and in fact, one of eight of the executives who paid for the ad.)

That one leaves me wondering whos biting which hand thats feeding whom, to be perfectly honest.

Theres been a fundamental change in our politics, says Bruce Freed, the president of the Center for Political Accountability, which tracks corporate political donations. It presents companies with an existential challenge. Its not politics as usual anymore where they could give to both sides and have lines open to both sides. Well, I guess well see.

In any event, lets move on to baseball, because the national pastime has become a focal point here as you probably know. Two days after the letter by the Black executives, Major League Baseball, not known for being political or progressive, took action in response to the new law. This from MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred:

Over the last week, we have engaged in thoughtful conversations with Clubs, former and current players, the Players Association, and The Players Alliance, among others, to listen to their views. I have decided that the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport is by relocating this years All-Star Game and MLB Draft.

Most Black leaders and Democrats supported MLBs move. But get this twist, Georgias powerful Stacey Abrams, (along with some other local Black leaders), was opposed to MLB moving the game, on economic grounds. "Disappointed @MLB will move the All-Star Game, but proud of their stance on voting rights. GA GOP traded economic opportunity for suppression," Abrams wrote on Twitter. Parsons wasnt adamant here. Do I think MLB should have moved the game? I think that's something they have to determine within their own corporate culture and the values that they stand for.

Meanwhile Republicans are vowing to retaliate against MLB:

(I think you mean "exemption," Congressman, not "exception," but we get your point.)

Then the baseball story spread to Texas. This past Monday afternoon, April 5, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced that he would not be throwing out the first pitch for the Texas Rangers game that afternoon. I was looking forward to throwing out the first pitch at the Texas Rangers' home opening game until @MLB adopted what has turned out to be a false narrative about Georgia's election law reforms. It is shameful that America's pastime is being influenced by partisan politics, the governor wrote in a tweet, where he also posted a letter to Rangers COO Neil Leibman.

The capacity crowd of 38,000 didnt seem to mind, though the Rangers did lose to the Toronto Blue Jays, 6-2.

The next day MLB dropped this statement: Major League Baseball announced today that the 2021 All-Star Game and its surrounding events will be hosted by the Colorado Rockies, which also noted this: The Los Angeles Dodgers remain the hosts of the 2022 All-Star Game, as previously announced. It will be the first Midsummer Classic at historic Dodger Stadium since 1980.

Why not move the All-Star game to Texas? After all there had been speculation the game was coming soon to the Rangers home field and Manfred has stated previously that the Midsummer Classic is on the docket for Globe Life Field in the near future, according to Sports Illustrated. It goes back perhaps to a sentence in Gov. Abbotts letter from the day before: I will not participate in an event held by MLB, and the State will not seek to host the All-Star Game or any other MLB special events."

But get this twist, the principal owner of the Rangers, secretive Texas billionaire Ray C. Davis is a big donor to, you guessed it, the GOP, having given some $156,000 to Republicans in the 2016-2020 election cycle, according to FiveThirtyEight.

You wonder if this means MLBs All-Star game is destined to be played only in blue or purple states from now on? I sure hope it hasnt come to that. Can you imagine our country that way? Say with coffee shops catering to different political persuasions? Wait, gulp, that already exists.

If we move more and more towards a polarized society, its natural that every system in the society becomes polarized, says Nooshin Warren, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Arizona Eller College of Management. A group of corporations will cater to one side, another group to the other side. My hope is that we dont go there. I think our government, our corporations, our population we all should not let this happen.

CEOs are certainly concerned, some of whom will be hashing this out at Jeffrey Sonnenfelds meeting. A group of business titans, every one a household name, in the middle of the Masters, has asked if I would convene a forum to discuss the voting rights issue, Sonnenfeld says. (The Masters golf tournament held in Georgia of course has wrestled with how to respond to the law, but opted to play on.)

We invited 120 CEOs over the past 50 hours and 87 have already accepted, including Ken Frazier, Ken Chenault (former CEO of American Express), Brad Karp (chairman of Paul Weiss), and Rich Lesser (CEO of BCG).

The purpose of the confab Sonnenfeld says is to 1) set off an alarm of concern beyond Georgia for the business communitys universal outrage, 2) clarify what partisan voices have unfortunately and intentionally misstated in terms of the Georgia legislation itself and 3) generate options and positions on a state-by-state basis with Texas being the most immediate next threat. And to make sure Americans know this is premised on the big lie, that there was not any systematic election fraud.

CEOs have decided that undermining democracy is not a partisan issue, Sonnenfeld says. They also believe its in the immediate interest of their shareholders, customers, employees, and communities because to a person they believe that politicians are creating these secretly conceived unneeded election restrictions, which are intended to divide the population. No public company CEO wants divided shareholders, angry communities, and distrustful finger pointing employees. They want social harmony. And sadly these legislative devices are created only cynically by some misguided political partisans to create destructive divides in American society.

Scary stuff to vote suppressors everywhere.

The Republican party, which since Eisenhower has tried to define itself as the party of big business, clearly is not, Sonnenfeld added.

Unfortunately polarization still appears to be waxing, not waning. New York City mayoral candidate and former Citigroup executive Ray McGuire notes that we need to be mindful that according to the Brennan Center, you have 47 states that today are entertaining over 300 pieces of legislation that could fall in line and what we're experiencing in Georgia.

One place this is not occurring is McConnells home state of Kentucky. Just this Wednesday, in a bipartisan move, red-state Kentucky expanded voting rights. It should be noted that Kentucky had some of the tightest voting laws in the country, according to the New York Times, and Trump and McConnell won there easily in 2020. Still, isnt it nice to see Democrats and Republicans work together on voting rights?

My goodness, yes it is.

This article was featured in a Saturday edition of the Morning Brief on April 10, 2021. Get the Morning Brief sent directly to your inbox every Monday to Friday by 6:30 a.m. ET. Subscribe

Andy Serwer is editor-in-chief of Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter: @serwer

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5 ironclad truths about the new Georgia voting law and business - Yahoo Finance

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase will be conducting its own Initial Public Offering (IPO). Following a successful year that saw the exchange generate over $1.8 billion in revenue. BiC looks at the bullish and bearish scenarios of the potential Coinbase IPO.

The market has historically witnessed a lot of fundraising events, such as ICOs and IEOs. But the arrival of IPOs onto the crypto market is a significant development being led by none other than Coinbase.

Coinbase is one of the largest digital assets exchanges in the industry. There is a reason why such significance is being placed by analysts and market players alike on the decision of the Coinbase management team.

The term Coinbase effect, which signifies significant price boosts for assets immediately after their listing therein. This may well convert not only onto the exchanges own shares, but on the market as a whole.

Coinbase is the primary gateway of a significant percentage of all crypto activities on the market. Coinbases essential legalization on the traditional market as a share-traded entity cannot be downplayed.

The question of price, is now up in the air as investors, both traditional and crypto, are salivating at the prospect of owning a share of the major exchange.

Bloomberg states that Coinbases shares were traded between $350 and $375 based on a recent private Nasdaq auction. Which means that the pre-IPO value of the company is likely to be in the region of $100 billion. Making it the most capitalized legal entity in the industry.

Coinbase has also decided to opt for a direct listing approach. Bypassing investment bank underwriting. This is a clear indication of its adherence to the principles of decentralization, disruption and all the other virtues of the blockchain industry.

The approach is also a clever marketing ploy. Which will reassure clients that the exchange is still in line with its path of development that is highlighted by its status as a peoples exchange.

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A direct listing is also a means of attracting greater capital and liquidity with added transparency. This is sure to please decentralization and cryptocurrency fans. But the company opted against issuing new shares, allowing more investors to buy them.

The approach is also a means of avoiding the associated costs of IPOs, such as the services of underwriters. The exchange is in for a good start with pricing. However Its final listing share price is highly dependent on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. as these will be acting as the main funds investors will be contributing to the IPO.

The last two quarters have been instrumental in determining the decision of Coinbases management made into going public. With over $7 billion in bitcoin being invested over the period and $20 billion being diverted from gold exchange-traded funds, the management team has decided not to wait for better times, but capitalize on the current situation.

Such an approach is justified. Considering that the likes of Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Blackrock and others are investing in bitcoin as a means of saving value. The move made by Coinbase is also being viewed as the first major step in establishing a legal and reliable bridge between the decentralized and traditional financial markets that can attract a slew of investors who have been waiting for such a development as reassurance in the viability of the crypto market.

The billowing price of bitcoin has also inflated Coinbases capital by over 8 times over the past few months. And market sentiment is hinting at continued growth. As exemplified by the likes of Tesla, having bitcoin on the balance sheet is a sure way of increasing capital and attracting investors. Thus inflating the capitalization and market value of the company.

Coinbases IPO can have both a negative and positive impact on the crypto market. As its position is that of a cornerstone of the industry. Thus any sways it may undergo will affect the rest of the superstructure resting on it.

The positive scenario that can be foreseen with a successful launch of Coinbases IPO is that the price of major cryptocurrencies will go up as a result of bolstered investor confidence and the influx of new players willing to partake in the crypto market.

The DeFi market will follow in tow. As its services will experience heightened demand among users rushing to buy digital assets to take part in the trading frenzy that is sure to follow the initial sale of Coinbases shares.

There is, however, also a negative scenario that can play out as a barrier-building event, rather than a barrier-breaking one. This is demonstrated by the fact that Coinbase is a crypto-only company that does not allow fiat trading.

Which would only increase caution among casual investors. Another possibility is one that is tied to the uncertainty of IPO participation levels and the fallout that comes after. As can be pictured by Facebooks IPO, the turnout was vast. But share price collapsed the following day as the joy subsided.

The same could happen to Coinbase if the arrival of the exchange on the traditional market proves to be underwhelming among average investors.

The results would be disappointment among crypto audiences and a certain drop in prices of cryptocurrencies that had been bought up in advance in expectation of a major price boost.

Though Coinbases IPO is a milestone for the crypto industry as a whole. There are risks that the sale of its shares will either spur a major upheaval in prices, or lead to a blow that would undermine investor confidence in digital assets. Which has been growing of late.

Whatever the scenario that plays out, more likely Coinbase will be a winner as it establishes itself on the traditional financial market as well.

Excerpt from:

The Coinbase IPO: What Does It Mean For The Crypto Market? - Yahoo Finance

Yahoo Answers is going to be shut down after more than 15 years of providing the web with hilarious content.

The website is first slipping into read-only mode from 20 April, before being shut down entirely on 4 May - redirecting visitors to the Yahoo homepage instead.

When the site disappears then all of its many brilliant questions - with their innovative grammatical and spelling errors, and the amazing credulity of the askers - will be lost, like tears in rain.

While "how is babby formed? How girl get pragnent?" will forever be the site's greatest contribution to web culture, there are many more to find - at least, for the next month or so.

While we can, here are 10 more of the best questions and answers the site has ever featured.

1) do you think humans will ever walk on the sun?

It is actually hypothetically possible to walk on the sun - as long as we defined what the surface was - but it would be a brief walk.

2) HOW DO I TURN OFF CAPLOCK?

3) Is throwing your hair in the garbage safe?

The user continued: "I wanted to be sure because in biology we learned that it had DNA and stuff so is it safe?"

4) What if the girl that thinks i'm the dad isn't the mom?

This is frightening on a number of levels.

5) Is there a spell to become a mermaid that actually works?

User bmx4life only ever asked three questions, including the above.

They also asked: "My sister walks around with out socks on all the time and her feet ar starting to stink really bad, why?" and the classic: "runescape please answer?"

6) If i eat myself would i become twice as big or disappear completely?

Although official accounts claim that French philosopher Gilles Deleuze died in 1995, but this question contributes to a body of evidence he was active online up until quite recently, posting metaphysical provocations on Yahoo Answers...

7) Why does my cat "vibrate"?

This purrplexed user wrote: "Her chest always vibrates like she was worms or something in her. Is it normal? When she vibrated she makes a tiny vibrate noise and its scaring me it doesn't seem normal!"

8) Can I tell by the smell of my husbands gas if he has been cheating?

"I know this sounds crazy... BUT," begins this anonymous post. Sadly, three years later, we can only imagine what the status of this marriage is as the question was never updated.

9) Will my laptop get heavier if I put more files on it?

10) how many calories are in a booger?

The answer to this potential troll is even better than the remarkably poignant description: "it sometimes wet and color yellow".

There are more to be found, for another month anyway.

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Yahoo Answers is shutting down - here are 10 of the best questions ever asked - Sky News

TipRanks

After a volatile first quarter, Q2 has kicked off in style, and the major indexes sit at or hover near all-time highs. The government bond market has also been steadying as yields have pulled back after rising higher earlier in the year, soothing investor fears that inflation could get out of hand. Moreover, the economic recovery seems to be gathering steam at a faster pace than anticipated. We had been expecting the data to improve about this time, and early signals are that the recovery is absolutely on track, said Hugh Gimber, J.P. Morgans global market strategist. This is the period where the forecast of a strong recovery in growth is starting to look more like the fact of a strong recovery in growth. Against this backdrop, the analysts at J.P. Morgan have pinpointed 2 names which they believe are set for strong growth in the year ahead; both are expected to handsomely reward investors with at least 80% of gains over the coming months. We ran them through TipRanks database to see what other Wall Street's analysts have to say about them. Tencent Music Entertainment (TME) Well start in China, where Tencent Music Entertainment is the offspring of Chinas giant online venture company, Tencent, and Spotify, the Swedish streaming company that makes music and playlists easy. Tencent Music has seen consistently strong sales and earnings for the past year, with the top line growing year-over-year in each quarter of 2020. The Q4 report showed $1.26 billion in the top line, the highest in the last two years, along with 12 cents per share in earnings, up 33% year-over-year. Strong streaming revenue, which showed 29% growth, helped drive the results. And, Tencent Music, through its variety of apps, is the top music streaming service in the Chinese online market as shown by the 40.4% yoy increase in paid subscribers during Q4. In its quarterly results, the company reported 4.3 million net new users in Q4, to reach 56 million active premium accounts across its apps. That said, the stock has pulled back sharply recently, as like many other high-flying growth names, worries regarding an overheated valuation have come to the fore. But pullbacks often spell opportunity, and covering the stock for JPM, Alex Yao notes the strong subscription growth, as well as the potential in the companys other businesses, online ads and long-form audio, for monetization. We believe TME is entering a healthy development cycle with successive growth engines: 1) music subscription remains the core revenue driver with consistent paying ratio improvement, 2) ads revenue ramps up quickly, and 3) active investments in long-form audio initiative, which could become a new growth driver in 2022 and afterwards," Yao noted. To this end, Yao puts a $36 price target on TME, suggesting a one-year upside of 84%, to back his Overweight (i.e. Buy) rating on the stock. (To watch Yaos track record, click here) Overall, TME has a thumbs up from Wall Street. Of the 11 reviews on record, 7 are to Buy, 3 are to Hold, and 1 says Sell, making the analyst consensus a Moderate Buy. The shares are priced at $19.50, and their $30.19 average price target implies an upside of 55% for the months ahead. (See TME stock analysis on TipRanks) Y-mAbs Therapeutics (YMAB) The next JPM pick were looking at is Y-mAbs, a late-stage clinical biopharma company with a focus on pediatric oncology. The company is working on the development and commercialization of new antibody-based cancer therapeutics. Y-mAbs has one medication Danyelza approved for use to treat neuroblastoma in children age 1 and over, and a broad and advanced pipeline of drug candidates in various stages of the clinical process, as well as five additional products in pre-clinical research stages. Having an approved drug is a holy grail for clinical biopharmaceutical companies, and in 4Q20 Y-mAbs saw considerable income from Danyelza. The company announced at the end of December that it had agreed to sell the Priority Review Voucher for the drug to United Therapeutics for $105 million. Y-mAbs will retain the rights to 60% of the net proceeds from the sale, under an agreement with Memorial Sloan Kettering. Also in December, the company announced a license agreement with SciClone. The partnership gives Y-mAbs and Danyelza an opening for treating pediatric patients in China. The agreement includes Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, and is worth up to $120 million for Y-mAbs. The company has entered other agreements making Danyelza available in Eastern Europe and Russia. Danyelza is Y-mAbs flagship product, but the company also has omburtamab in advanced stages of the pipeline. This drug candidate saw a setback in October last year, when the FDA refused to file the company's Biologics License Application, proposed for the treatment of pediatric patients with CNS/leptomeningeal metastasis. Y-mAbs has been in steady communication with the FDA since then, with a new target date for the BLA at the end of 2Q21 or early in 3Q21. These two drugs one approved and one not yet form the basis of the JPM outlook on this stock. Analyst Tessa Romero writes, Our thesis revolves around the de-risked nature of the pediatric oncology pipeline. Our recent KOL feedback is enthusiastic about use of lead asset Danyelza in patients with high-risk neuroblastoma (NB). For second lead asset omburtamab in NB metastatic to the central nervous system (CNS/LM from NB), while the Refuse to File last year and subsequent regulatory delays were certainly disappointing, we still see a high probability of approval for the product in the 2Q/3Q22 timeframe Looking ahead, Romero sees an upbeat outlook for the company: Coupling our anticipation of a healthy launch for Danyelza, with regulatory/clinical momentum expected in the near- to mid-term, we see shares poised to rebound and see an attractive buying opportunity at current levels. The analyst puts a $52 price target on YMAB shares, implying an upside of 86% for the year ahead, and supporting an Overweight (i.e. Buy) rating. (To watch Romeros track record, click here) Overall, the Wall Street reviews break down 3 to 1 in favor of Buys versus Holds on Y-mAbs, giving the stock a Strong Buy consensus rating. The shares have an average price target of $61.25, suggestive of a 121% upside potential this year. (See YMAB stock analysis on TipRanks) To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks equity insights. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.

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Who is Will Zalatoris, the guy near the top of the Masters leaderboard? - Yahoo Sports

On the eve of the Masters, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has released the cause of the February wreck where Tiger Woods suffered extensive injury: excessive speed of 82-87 mph in a 45-mph zone.

Early in the morning of Feb. 24, Woods was driving in the Rancho Palos Verdes area of Los Angeles, en route to a golf course where he was filming a segment for a television show, when his SUV left the road and flipped before coming to rest on its side.

In a news conference Wednesday, law enforcement said that data recordings from the car show that Woods did not brake prior to the accident but did press on the accelerator at a "99 percent" rate. Lomita Captain James Powers said investigators believe Woods accidentally hit the accelerator instead of the brake. The final estimated speed when Woods' vehicle struck a tree was 75 mph.

Woods was taken to a nearby hospital with severe injuries to his right leg; he returned home to Florida several weeks later. (Here's a complete update of all that's known about Woods' condition since the wreck.)

Woods has little to no memory of the accident, and suffered several blows to the head during the wreck. Deputies on the scene said there was no evidence of Woods being under the influence of drugs or alcohol. L.A. Powers reiterated that finding Wednesday, saying no evidence of alcohol or narcotics were found in the vehicle.

The L.A. County Sheriff's Department did not seek a search warrant for Woods' blood samples or cell phone records, saying there was no probable cause for a criminal investigation. The department did obtain a search warrant for the data recorder of the 2021 Genesis GV80 SUV. However, the department did not forward any criminal charges to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office.

When asked why Woods has not been issued a citation, Powers explained that in cases where there are no eye witnesses or observation by police, there is no evidence to support writing a citation.

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"You can do it, but it would be kind of, I don't want to say a waste of time, but a lot of the courts would dismiss it because it wasn't observed by a police officer," Power said.

L.A. County Sheriff Alex Villanueva added, "The decision not to issue a citation would be the exact same thing for anyone in this room for anyone who went through this same situation a solo traffic collision. There's no witness. It's an infraction only, and we're not going to issue a citation on an infraction not committed in a peace officer's presence or an independent witness, period. That would apply to everybody."

When asked if the data recorder would provide evidence to issue a citation, Villanueva said, "Data recorder, that tells us physically what happened but we need a human being to witness it."

The sheriff's department had determined the cause of the wreck last week, but held off on releasing it publicly until consulting with Woods' team, a move that drew charges of special treatment.

Villanueva said allegations of preferential treatment are unfounded.

"For the record, under Sec. 20012 of the California vehicle code, the details of this report would remain confidential except for the involved parties," Villanueva said. "This is true of the thousands of reports like this type we prepare every year throughout LA County. And No ones asking for those reports. And so this is treated no differently."

Woods has not been seen publicly since the accident, but has been in regular communication with several of his fellow players, and has tweeted out occasional updates and messages to his fans. "Ill miss running up @DJohnsonPGAs bill at the Champions Dinner tonight," Woods tweeted on Tuesday. "Its still one of my favorite nights of the year."

The full extent of Woods' injuries, to say nothing of his return to the golf course, remains unknown.

The ruins of Tiger Woods' SUV leave the scene in February. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

_____

Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter at @jaybusbee or contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com.

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Police release cause of Tiger Woods's wreck: excessive speed - Yahoo Sports

As millions of Americans get vaccinated and the demand for travel returns, some big players in the travel industry are supporting the idea of vaccine passports in an effort to revive international travel.

We need to start rebuilding international travel. And if theres something like a technological way to show that you are safe to travel, then I am in favor of that, Glenn Fogel, CEO of Booking Holdings (BKNG), the parent company of Booking.com, Kayak and Priceline, told Yahoo Finance. We really need international travel to come back and the only way that's going to happen is if we have more people vaccinated and governments feel it is safe to travel.

After more than a year of restrictions, a full travel rebound rests on reopening international destinations, especially in tourist reliant countries. A vaccine passport, which is a digital card that would show proof of COVID-19 vaccination, could help countries do just that. The idea is that it would help reopen borders by loosening some of the testing and quarantine mandates.

If it happens though, its up to the private and nonprofit sectors to implement a system. White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday said the administration will not support a system that requires Americans to carry a credential and that there will be no federal mandate requiring everyone to obtain a single vaccination credential.

BAY SHORE, NEW YORK - MARCH 03: Susan Maxwell-Trumble holds up a vaccination card at South Shore University Hospital after receiving the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine on March 03, 2021 in Bay Shore, New York. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

According to a recent Booking.com survey, travel demand is showing signs of recovery. 71% of adults in the U.S. say COVID-19 vaccinations make them feel more hopeful and optimistic about traveling in 2021. Meanwhile, 74% of Booking.coms accommodation partners in the U.S. say they are cautiously optimistic about the future of their business.

There absolutely is a lot of pent-up demand, said Fogel. We know that people love to travel. Basically, they are waiting to feel safe and now that people are getting their vaccines, they are feeling it is okay to travel. We are beginning to see [the rebound] happen.

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The survey also showed that more than half of Americans have re-evaluated the importance of travel in their lives. They now view it as more important than they did before the pandemic because of the "role it plays in their emotional well-being."

As more people book vacations, demand will ultimately struggle to keep up, pushing prices higher after being depressed for more than a year.

You should have done it yesterday, Fogel said of booking summer vacations. We are seeing airfare and hotel prices go up.

And thats certainly being reflected in airports nationwide. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers screened 1.58 million travelers on Friday, marking the busiest travel day since the pandemic began. In fact, the TSA has screened more than 1.5 million people at airport checkpoints every day since the start of the month.

Seana Smith anchors Yahoo Finance Lives 3-5 p.m. ET program. Follow her on Twitter @SeanaNSmith

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Vaccine passports will revive international travel: Booking Holdings CEO - Yahoo Finance

InvestorPlace

No matter what stage an investor is at in their stock market journey, dividend stocks inevitably become a focus. For some, its a focus that lasts a lifetime. For others, their interest is fleeting. In any regard, these holdings play a large role when it comes to how the individual investor deploys their capital. As youll see in some of the examples below, many of these stocks have been big-time winners over the decades. However, those returns inflate even more once the dividend is taken into consideration. In many cases, a companys dividend can be fleeting. Many end up needed to cut the dividend because the business environment became too difficult, because a recession occurred or cash flows tightened. In many cases, these companies may not eliminate the dividend. Instead, they may simply reduce the payout or take a couple years off from giving it a raise.InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips 7 Great Stocks to Buy Under $10 However, nothing is better than owning a stake in a consistent business with great leadership, that gives us a raise each year. Lets look at seven dividend stocks with more than 50 years of rising dividends: Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) 3M Co (NYSE:MMM) Federal Realty Trust (NYSE:FRT) Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) Lowes (NYSE:LOW) Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) Illinois Tool Works (NYSE:ITW) Dividend Stocks: Procter & Gamble (PG) Source: monticello / Shutterstock.com Consecutive Annual Dividend Raises: 64 Lets begin this list with the company that has the longest streak of the stocks we chose: P&G. The company has made its dividend raise a habit at this point, with more than six decades of consecutive increases. Investors can count on the sun rising in the east, setting in the west and Procter & Gamble raising its dividend each year. Over the years, Procter & Gamble has cemented itself as a staple in the consumer packaged goods business. The company has found a way into nearly every corner of the consumers home. Whether thats paper towels or toilet paper, baby wipes or diapers, tampons, toothpaste, razor blades, shampoo, laundry detergent, dish soap you name it. These products are essential. It doesnt matter if were in a booming economy or a deep recession. Either way, consumers are still going to use deodorant and brush their teeth. Thus, P&G has raised its dividend for decades on end. Look for that to continue. 3M Co (MMM) Source: josefkubes / Shutterstock.com Consecutive Annual Dividend Raises: 63 3M Company doesnt lag far beyond Procter & Gamble in the dividend department. Kicking out a 3.1% dividend yield and this one is on income investors radar. This stock has not had the best performance, though. While shares are up nicely from the March 2020 low, they remain about 26% off the all-time high, set in January 2018. The stock was locked in a multi-year downtrend before the novel coronavirus swept around the world. 3M has not been firing on all cylinders, although the industrial and consumer goods company has really turned things around lately. Analysts expect decent growth, too. Revenue forecasts call for growth of 6.7% and 4% this year and next year, respectively. Thats alongside roughly 10% and 9% earnings growth estimates in those years, respectively. 7 Great Stocks to Buy Under $10 Shares trade at a reasonable 20 times earnings. Thats not a bad valuation for this type of growth and the dependability that comes with 3Ms dividend. Further, the stock is taking out last years high and looks to have some decent momentum on the technical side. Federal Realty Trust (FRT) Source: Shutterstock Consecutive Annual Dividend Raises: 53 Federal Realty is one of the most interesting names on this list, in my humble opinion. Over the years, Federal Realty has become one of the most coveted blue-chip REITs in the business. With more than five decades of consecutive dividend increases, theres not many companies in the industry that can challenge FRT. When we run into dividend stocks with this many years of consecutive increases, it can be hard to find a meaty payout. Despite the rebound weve seen in the stock price Federal Realty is up 62% from the 2020 lows it still has a solid yield of 4.1%. This diversified real estate player has a proven history of strong operations and dependable income. To put this stocks yield in a bit more perspective, FRT hasnt had a yield north of 3.6% in the past 10 years. That is, until 2020. Given the beating that the REIT space took last year, it looks like a solid opportunity for long-term investors. Dividend Stocks: Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) Source: Niloo / Shutterstock.com Consecutive Annual Dividend Raises: 58 This company truly has a lot going for it. Not only is J&J a dependable dividend stalwart with almost six decades of consecutive pay increases, its a staple in the healthcare sector, too. With multiple business units within this space, J&J has its patients covered. Whether thats medical equipment in the hospital or at-home care via Tylenol and Band-Aids, the companys products are dependable. The company has a foothold in the pharma space, medical devices and consumer products all with relatively wide-ranging reach. Its one reason this stock commands a $432 billion market capitalization. However, its latest accomplishment may be one of the most commendable. J&J has developed a vaccine for Covid-19. Its now one of three companies vaccinating against the vaccine here in the U.S., joining Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA). While the U.S. has tremendous vaccination momentum, the rest of the world isnt quite there yet. That should pave a nice runway for companies like Johnson & Johnson as its ramps up production. 7 Great Stocks to Buy Under $10 With that in motion, investors can turn their attention to the companys next dividend hike likely due up in April. Lowes (LOW) Source: Helen89 / Shutterstock.com Consecutive Annual Dividend Raises: 58 The momentum in the housing market is breathtaking. Low interest rates, supply chain disruptions due to Covid-19, an exodus out of larger cities and rent moratorium have allowed the housing market to boom. Thats been a major catalyst for home improvement retailers like Lowes. As with J&J, the company is just a few years shy of six consecutive decades of dividend increases. So not only can we count on Lowes for solid execution, but we can also expect a bump to the dividend each year. While revenue growth is stagnating, the earnings growth is there. Analysts expect the bottom line to increase almost 10% this year, followed by an acceleration up to 13.7% growth in 2022. Unlike many dividend stocks, this name has been enjoying a huge rally over the past year. Shares are fresh off new all-time highs and have surged from the 2020 lows, up about 225%. Obviously no one expects Lowes to repeat that performance in the next 12 months. But its shown that there is serious demand for this dividend stalwart, although it now yields just 1.25% after the stocks run. I guess thats the price you pay after a stock has tripled in less than a year. Coca-Cola (KO) Source: Soloviov Vadym / Shutterstock.com Consecutive Annual Dividend Raises: 59 It shouldnt be too surprising to see Coca-Cola make the list here. The company is a long-held stalwart when it comes to investing. Its slow and steady nature has won the appraise of millions including Warren Buffett. While it may not be a high-flying tech stock, Coca-Colas consistency over the years has won over many investors. On the verge of 60 consecutive dividend raises will help in that regard. In fact, because of Coca-Cola stock, the small town of Quincy, Florida, became filled with millionaires. They were busy gobbling up shares of stock during the depression, at the urging of one of the towns trusted bankers. 7 Great Stocks to Buy Under $10 This year is setting up as a good one for the company, too. Analysts expect 11.2% revenue growth and almost 10% earnings growth. If Coca-Cola has proven anything whether its a depression in the 1920s or a pandemic in 2020 it can survive just about anything thrown its way. Dividend Stocks: Illinois Tool Works (ITW) Source: Casimiro PT / Shutterstock.com Consecutive Annual Dividend Raises: 57 Last, but certainly not least, on our list of dividend stocks is Illinois Tool Works. I absolutely love this stock, because it emphasizes just how well investors can do if theyre patient and stick with quality over the long haul. Shares are up more than 3,200% in the last 30 years and 30,000% in the last 50 years. Granted, those are incredibly long hold times compared to the average investor. However, it emphasizes just how much wealth a great company can produce over several decades. Not to turn this into a stat-fest, but I think its an important reminder of what dividends can do. If we shift our focus from the stock-price return such as the returns I mentioned above to total return, meaning it includes the dividends, then those 30-year and 50-year returns explode to 5,600% and 56,400%, respectively. Despite all that strength, the company is still going strong. Consensus estimates call for 19.5% earnings growth this year and 9.5% growth next year. Heres to the next 50 years of stellar returns. On the date of publication, Bret Kenwell did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. Bret Kenwell is the manager and author of Future Blue Chips and is on Twitter @BretKenwell. More From InvestorPlace Why Everyone Is Investing in 5G All WRONG It doesnt matter if you have $500 in savings or $5 million. Do this now. Top Stock Picker Reveals His Next Potential 500% Winner Stock Prodigy Who Found NIO at $2 Says Buy THIS Now The post 7 Dividend Stocks With 50 Years of Dividend Increases appeared first on InvestorPlace.

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America's expansion of broadband access is 'absolutely critical': Year Up CEO - Yahoo Finance

The New York Times

The last time Republicans in South Dakota made a serious push to bar transgender girls from school sports, in 2019, their bill was known only by its nondescript numerical title, Senate Bill 49. Its two main sponsors were men. And it died without ever getting out of committee, just 10 days after it was introduced. But when Republicans decided to try again in January, they were far more strategic in their approach. The sponsors this time were two women who modeled their bill after a template provided by a conservative legal organization. They gave the bill a name that suggested noble intent: the act to promote continued fairness in womens sports. Supporters from Minnesota and Idaho traveled to the Capitol in Pierre to testify that a new law was urgently needed to keep anyone with male biological characteristics out of female competitions, even though they acknowledged only a handful of examples of that happening in South Dakota. These efforts appear to be far more slick and far more organized, said Elizabeth A. Skarin of the American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota, which opposes the bill. Anytime they give a bill a name in South Dakota, she added, you know somethings up. Sign up for The Morning newsletter from the New York Times Then things took an unexpected turn. Gov. Kristi Noem, who is seen as a possible contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, demanded changes to the bill. The response was swift and harsh: Social conservative activists and Republican lawmakers accused Noem of bowing to pressure from business and athletics organizations, which have been successful at stopping laws in other states that single out transgender people for exclusion and feed ugly stereotypes. On Monday, the Legislature rebuked the governor and formally rejected her changes. She said she hoped to force the issue again in a special legislative session before summer. South Dakota is just one of a growing number of states where Republicans are diving into a culture war clash that seems to have come out of nowhere. It has been brought about by a coordinated and poll-tested campaign by social conservative organizations like the American Principles Project and Concerned Women for America, which say they are determined to move forward with what may be one of their last footholds in the fight against expanding LGBTQ rights. Three other states have passed bills this month that resemble South Dakotas. In Mississippi and Arkansas, they are set to become law this summer. And similar bills have been introduced by Republicans in two dozen other states, including North Carolina, where an unpopular bathroom bill enacted in 2016 prompted costly boycotts and led conservatives nationwide to pull back on efforts to restrict rights for transgender people. You make change in our society by making laws, and luckily we have some great states that have stepped up, said Beth Stelzer, the founder of a new organization, Save Womens Sports, that she said opposes demolishing womens sports for the sake of feelings. Stelzer, an amateur power lifter, has testified in support of new laws in South Dakota, Montana and Arkansas. But the idea that there is a sudden influx of transgender competitors who are dominating womens and girls sports does not reflect reality in high school, college or professionally. Sports associations like the NCAA, which has promoted the inclusion of transgender athletes, have policies in place to address concerns about physical differences in male and female biology. The NCAA requires athletes who are transitioning to female to be on testosterone suppression treatment for a year before they can compete on a womens team. Stelzer, who competes in a weight lifting league that does not allow transgender women to participate, said the point is to get ahead of what she and other activists believe will become a bigger issue. Were nipping it in the bud, she said. In high school sports, policies vary widely. Some states pose no barriers to transgender athletes; some have policies similar to those of the NCAA and others have outright bans or demand that students verify their sex if questioned. Rarely has an issue that so few people encounter and one that public opinion analysts have only recently begun to study in depth become a political and cultural flash point so quickly. The lack of awareness creates an environment in which the real impact of transgender participation in sports can be overshadowed by hyperbole. But the debate also raises questions that ethicists, lawmakers and the courts are only beginning to address about whether the decadeslong effort to give women and girls equal opportunities in sports is compatible with efforts to give transgender people equal opportunities in life. A lawsuit in federal court in Connecticut brought by three high school runners who lost in competition against transgender girls will be among the first to test how nondiscrimination laws apply. A mix of factors has helped social conservatives breathe new life into the issue: activists who agreed to give up on unpopular bills regulating public bathrooms; an awareness that women, not men, could be more persuasive and sympathetic advocates; a new Democratic administration that quickly moved to broaden and restore rights for transgender people that the Trump administration had eliminated; and a political and media culture on the right that often reduces the nuanced issue of gender identity to a punchline about political correctness. Activists who have been fighting the anti-transgender efforts say the focus on school athletics is creating a false and misplaced perception of victimization. Theres a sense that theres a victim of transness, said Chase Strangio, a lawyer with the ACLU, which was successful in temporarily blocking the implementation of a transgender athlete ban in Idaho last year. In fact, studies have shown that the majority of transgender students report feeling unsafe at school. What we have is a speculative fear of something that hasnt materialized, Strangio, who is a transgender man, added. Theyre acting like LeBron James is going to put on a wig and play basketball with fourth graders. And not one LeBron James, 100. In reality, youre talking about little kids who just want to play rec sports. They just want to get through life. But the isolated instances that have been filmed or generated headlines female weight lifting records being broken by a new transgender competitor, for example make for viral content, bolstered by media personalities with huge followings like Ben Shapiro, Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan. The issue is much more widely covered in conservative media and often presented with a heavy dose of sarcasm. According to a review of social media content conducted for The New York Times by Media Matters, a left-leaning watchdog, seven of the 10 most popular stories about the proposed laws targeting transgender people so far this year were from the Daily Wire, a website founded by Shapiro. Two others were from Fox News. Combined, the articles were read, shared and commented on 6 million times, Media Matters said. The heightened media awareness on the right is due in part to how social conservative activists have improved at packaging transgender-specific restrictions. Borrowing a page from the anti-abortion movement, which was led by men for much of its early period, they have begun featuring women as public advocates. In Arkansas, where the governor signed the Fairness in Womens Sports Act into law last week, the leading proponents were the attorney general, Leslie Rutledge, who is a candidate for governor, and the Arkansas Republican Womens Caucus. The bill will prohibit transgender participation on female teams from kindergarten through college. In many instances, lawmakers have worked closely with groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal organization that has argued several Supreme Court cases on behalf of people claiming discrimination because of their traditional beliefs about marriage and gender roles. In the case in Idaho, opponents of the law argued that it was exclusionary, discriminatory and a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution. The Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing two female college runners who said they had deflating experiences after losing to a transgender woman, agreed that the case was about equality, but in the context of creating a level playing field, said Kristen Waggoner, the groups general counsel. When the law ignores the legitimate differences that exist between men and women, it creates chaos, she added. Limiting the rights of transgender people is an issue that has resonance with an increasingly small share of the overall population. A new study by the Public Religion Research Institute reported that only 7% of Americans were completely against pro-LGBTQ policies. But it is a vocal group intent on showing that it can flex its power in the Republican Party. Noem is now at odds with most Republicans in the Legislature. Though she initially said she was excited to sign their bill as is, she is now demanding that they leave college athletes out of any new law. Social conservative organizations went on the attack, taking aim at her apparent presidential ambitions. Its no secret that Gov. Noem has national aspirations, so its time she hears from a national audience, the Family Policy Alliance, an affiliate of Focus on the Family, wrote in an email to supporters. Noem appeared to be aware of how damaging it could be to have conservatives think she was on the wrong side of the issue. On Thursday, she and her advisers joined a hastily arranged conference call with members of the Conservative Action Project, which includes leaders of the largest right-wing groups in the country. Noem expressed concern that if she signed the law, the NCAA would retaliate against South Dakota, as it did with North Carolina, by refusing to hold tournaments there, according to one person on the call. The activists were respectful but clear, this person said: This was not what they expected from the conservative firebrand they had come to admire so much. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. 2021 The New York Times Company

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New Yahoo News/YouGov poll: Americans give Biden mixed reviews on immigration and the border - Yahoo News

Fourth stimulus check: Will Biden and Congress give you another payment?

As millions of Americans still wait for their third stimulus check, speculation is heating up over the prospects for a fourth round of cash payments to help households and the U.S. economy recover from the pandemic.

Online searches for the phrase "fourth stimulus check" have mushroomed over the past few weeks, according to Google Trends, and one economist says another payment is "certainly possible."

More than 60 members of Congress are pressing President Joe Biden to support a fourth stimulus check and even more after that, because they say many Americans are still struggling more than a year into the COVID crisis.

Will you get another "stimmy"? Here's where things currently stand.

Iakov Filimonov / Shutterstock

Fifty Democratic U.S. representatives and 11 members of the U.S. Senate have signed letters urging the Biden administration to support regular stimulus checks to help Americans cover essential needs as long as the coronavirus threat endures.

One more check is not enough during this public health and economic crisis, says the letter from the House Democrats. It does't suggest a dollar amount for recurring payments, but Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar tweeted in January that the government should provide $2,000 per month to carry people through the pandemic.

In their letter, the senators including Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden and Budget Committee Chair Bernie Sanders write that the crisis is far from over, "and families deserve certainty that they can put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads."

Many Americans have used their aid money for groceries, rent and other basic needs, according to a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics study based on how last year's first, $1,200 stimulus checks were spent.

The cash also has gone toward saving, investing and other expenses, the BLS found. Some consumers likely went shopping for affordable life insurance, because demand for those policies has surged amid the pandemic.

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Some experts agree that the government must do more. "There will likely need to be further stimulus spending in the hundreds of billion dollars," says Stanley Litow, a professor at Columbia and Duke, in a column for Barron's.

"More direct stimulus payments are certainly possible," says Peter Earle, an economist at the American Institute for Economic Research. He was interviewed by Acorns, an app that allows you to grow your investing using spare change.

The idea of additional, maybe even monthly, stimulus checks may attract fans in high places. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell last week told members of Congress "the recovery is far from complete," and indicated that stimulus checks and other aid weren't likely to drive up inflation.

CEOs of retail chains might like to see more government cash going to consumers. Retail sales surged in January after Round 2 of the checks went out, and Macy's said it was expecting a big sales boost from the third stimulus checks.

But further checks would have no shortage of detractors. Republicans opposed the third checks as expensive and unnecessary, and moderate Democrats may feel that way about any further payments. They demanded changes for the third round, to "target" the stimulus checks toward the neediest Americans.

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Beyond the likely opposition, there's a more convoluted issue that could stand in the way of a fourth round of stimulus checks.

The $1.9 trillion COVID rescue package President Biden signed March 11 was approved using an arcane budget process that allowed the Democrats who control Congress to pass the legislation with simple majorities. Typically, bills need a 60-vote supermajority to make it through the Senate, because of the "filibuster rule."

Biden and the Democrats can use the streamlined, go-it-alone approach just one more time in 2020, and they'd have to wait until the next fiscal year starts on Oct. 1 to do that.

In the coming week, Biden plans to unveil a $3 trillion infrastructure plan that will include money for roads and bridges, plus new tax increases. So far, there's been no indication that the package will include a fourth stimulus check.

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If youre anxiously waiting for your third stimulus check or it's already gone and you're worrying about how you'll get by later in the year, you have some options to find more cash.

Cut costly interest charges. Have you been leaning hard on your credit cards through the pandemic, and piling up interest? Make your debt more manageable and pay it off more quickly by folding your balances into a lower-interest debt consolidation loan.

Make savings your policy. Car insurance companies have been doling out discounts for drivers who have been using their cars less because of COVID. If yours wont offer savings, shop around for a better deal. And while youre at it, comparing rates on homeowners insurance could save you hundreds of dollars a year.

Refinance your mortgage (if you've got one) and slash your payments. Mortgage rates remain historically low, and refinancing your existing home loan could reap big savings. The mortgage technology and data provider Black Knight says 11.1 million mortgage holders are still sitting on loans worth refinancing for average savings of $277 a month.

Trim your budget and "make your own" stimulus check. Using a few creative ways to cut back, you might come up with the equivalent of a monthly stimulus check. Contact your cellphone provider and switch to a cheaper option. Have a hobby or special talent? Turn it into a side hustle to bring in extra income. And, download a free browser extension that will automatically scour for better prices and coupons whenever you shop online.

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Fourth stimulus check: Will Biden and Congress give you another payment? - Yahoo Finance