Tag: Additional

University Heights’ finances looking better after city takes in additional $461,000 in CARES Act money

UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio — Although it is uncertain what lies ahead, the city’s finances are looking a lot better these days after University Heights recently received an additional $461,000 in federal CARES Act money to help it deal with COVID-related expenses.

Gov. Mike DeWine, by signing into law House Bill 614 Oct. 1 allowed for the distribution of an additional $650 million to local governments across Ohio, bringing the total of money distributed to Ohio governments to $1.2 billion. The added $461,000 means that University Heights has now received just over $1.1 million in relief money.

“At first, we didn’t know if we’d get any (CARES Act) money,” said Mayor Michael Dylan Brennan. But, now that the city has been granted the money, Brennan, in his report at the start of Monday’s (Oct. 5) City Council meeting, told of how the aid has significantly closed the gap on what was once a projected $2-million deficit the city faced.

With the added funding, Brennan also plans to pay city employees money they had to forego by working four-day weeks over the course of 20 weeks, beginning in June. Brennan announced at the council meeting that the furloughs, that were to carry on until Oct. 31, were ending earlier than planned.

Initially, when faced with a possible $2-million shortfall, the administration and council worked to reduce the city’s spending by about $1 million. The reduction was made, among other things, by putting off this year’s road repair program, instituting the furloughs, and, due to the pandemic, not having to spend money on opening the city’s pools or in programming summer activities.

“While tax revenues remain down from this point last year,” Brennan reported to council, “for everything we have been through, we are down just 1 percent from this time last

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Fairfield’s finance board approves additional $300K grant for wastewater treatment project

FAIRFIELD — The town is one step closer to accepting an additional $300,000 for the wastewater treatment plant hardening project, which aims to make the site more resistant to coastal flooding.

The Board of Finance unanimously approved a resolution to accept a Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery at a recent meeting.

Town officials reached out to the state — which administers the grant for the federal government — to request more funding after contaminants were found at the plant during construction on the project, said Brian Carey, the acting director of the Public Works Department.

“The state was able to come up with additional funding for us in the amount of $300,000,” Carey said. “So, we’re just back in front of the Board of Selectmen and Board of Finance at this time to get the agreement signed so that we can acquire that (funding).”

In February, First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick said the project would cost a total of $7.4 million but $3.33 million would be funded through a grant from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.


Carey said workers noticed oily water coming in from one of the excavations about six weeks into the work, which started in March and April. The water was tested and showed petroleum and PCBs.

“We actually ended up having to do soil testing, and the extent of that has just grown over time as we’ve discovered that there’s PCBs pretty much throughout the northeast corner of the site and, then, sporadically through the rest of the site,” Carey said, who has previously stated the contaminants are unrelated to the fill pile scandal.

The town is working with its licensed environmental professional, Tighe and Bond, as well as with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

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‘Thousands of additional restaurants will close’ because White House halted stimulus talks, says Texas lobbyist

As restaurants across Texas continue to suffer due to inadequate revenue during the coronavirus pandemic, representatives at the Texas Restaurant Association have drastically changed their rallying cry.

No longer is Texas Restaurant Association CEO Emily Williams Knight telling restaurant owners to lean on the government for help during a once-in-a-lifetime crisis. She’s now saying that more federal financial aid is not coming. At least, not fast enough to save another 10% of restaurants in Texas from failing.

“I can no longer string along our restaurants,” Knight says. “There isn’t financial relief coming.”

Discussions, though rocky, had continued between Democrats and Republicans until President Donald Trump told them to “stop negotiating,” he wrote in a tweet on Oct. 6.

Knight believes that this news from the White House “means thousands of additional restaurants will close.”

President Donald Trump holds his face mask as he stands on the Blue Room Balcony upon returning to the White House on Monday.

The Democrats’ $2.2 trillion bill, an updated version of the HEROES act, might still provide stimulus checks someday. The House of Representatives passed the act on Oct. 1. But even before Trump halted talks, Knight believed that financial help for restaurants seemed unlikely. Major news events like the Supreme Court justice nominee discussion, last week’s presidential debate, the president’s COVID-19 diagnosis and, of course, the upcoming presidential election slowed Congressional talks.

“We have given up,” Knight says. “Washington, D.C., and our elected officials have played games. … There’s nothing but partisan politics to blame for this.”

Representatives from the national Independent Restaurant Coalition are still optimistic that both Democrats and Republicans want to help restaurants eventually. Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin offered a separate plan that gives $120 billion to restaurants and hotels in his $1.62 trillion proposal. Trump called Mnuchin’s plan “very generous” in a tweet.

Congress remains gridlocked over how to provide Americans additional relief related to the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

University of Houston professor Nancy Beck Young, Ph.D., guesses a relief package could land in mid to late

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Benitec Biopharma Announces Closing of $11.5 Million Public Offering and Full Exercise of Underwriter’s Option to Purchase Additional Shares

HAYWARD, Calif., Oct. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Benitec Biopharma Inc. (NASDAQ: BNTC) (“Benitec” or “the Company”), a development-stage, gene therapy-focused, biotechnology company developing novel genetic medicines based on the proprietary DNA-directed RNA interference (“ddRNAi”) platform, today announced the closing of an underwritten public offering of 3,225,806 shares of its common stock (or common stock equivalents in lieu thereof) at an effective offering price of $3.10 per share of common stock. In addition, the Company also announced that the underwriter fully exercised its over-allotment option to purchase 483,870 additional shares of its common stock.


(PRNewsfoto/Benitec Biopharma Inc.)

H.C. Wainwright & Co. acted as the sole book-running manager for the offering.

The gross proceeds from this offering to the Company are approximately $11.5 million, before deducting underwriting discounts and commissions and other estimated offering expenses payable by the Company. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for the continued advancement of development activities for its product pipeline, general corporate purposes, and strategic growth opportunities.

A registration statement on Form S-1 (File No. 333-246314) relating to these securities was declared effective by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC“) on October 2, 2020. This offering is being made only by means of a prospectus forming part of the effective registration statement. A final prospectus relating to and describing the terms of the offering has been filed with the SEC. Electronic copies of the final prospectus relating to the offering may be obtained for free by visiting the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov or by contacting H.C. Wainwright & Co., LLC, 430 Park Avenue, 3rd Floor, New York, New York 10022, by email at [email protected] or by telephone at 646-975-6996.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer

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Trump administration will not take additional money from FDNY’s 9/11 treatment program

WASHINGTON — According to a letter sent to New York lawmakers late Wednesday, the U.S. Treasury Department has agreed to stop siphoning cash away from the Fire Department’s 9/11 treatment program, but it remains unclear when or if the FDNY would get its missing money back.

The federal agency began docking payments meant to care for ill firefighters and EMTs back in 2016 in a move that was never explained to the FDNY’s World Trade Center Treatment program.

In all, FDNY Chief Medical Officer Dr. David Prezant estimates that $3.7 million that was sent to his program by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health simply vanished in transit.

After years of investigation, he learned the Treasury Department was taking the money, apparently to satisfy a wholly unrelated debt dispute between the city and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS.

The Treasury Department initially said it was bound by law to take the money, but now says there is a fix.

“Since the issue was brought to our attention, Treasury worked with CMS to suspend offsets for CMS debts pending resolution of this matter,” says the letter addressed to Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y. “Treasury is actively engaged with CMS to explore any additional accommodations that can be made to assist FDNY. Ultimately, however, a determination about these accommodations is up to CMS.”

A spokesperson for CMS was unable to say immediately what the agency would do.

The fix identified by The New York Daily News and lawmakers last month is a provision in the law that Treasury cited that says Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin can exempt payments if the paying agency involved asks for it.

That would be NIOSH, which, like CMS, is under the Department of Health and Human Services.

Treasury’s letter said it has

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