The CEO of the latest major Aussie construction firm on the brink of collapse died just days before the crisis talks.

Building giant Metricon is in urgent crisis talks with clients after falling into financial strife.

Sales staff within the company were being instructed to increase cash flow by securing more deposits, the Herald Sun reported on Wednesday.

Metricon bosses are expected to meet with major clients including the Victorian Government on Thursday.

Earlier this week, the company co-founder and CEO Mario Biasin died unexpectedly at the age of 71.

The company confirmed Mr Biasin had been experiencing mental health issues.

In a statement, an executive from Metricon, Ross Palazzesi, revealed his colleague’s sudden death was a shock.

“As friends and colleagues of Mario, we are shocked and so saddened by the news,” he said on Monday.

“Our hearts and thoughts are with the Biasin family. We will ensure Metricon Homes continues all operations and on-site construction as usual during a very emotional time.”

Just days later, though, the company has entered crisis talks.

Metricon employs approximately 2500 staff, primarily in eastern Australia, where it has a pipeline of roughly 4000 homes under construction.

Acting CEO Peter Langfelder denied the company had solvency issues and said the business continued to be viable.

“There is simply no basis to these rumours. Metricon is a strong viable business without any solvency problem,” he said.

The biggest challenge Australia faces is to get more homes built for more Australian families and as the biggest home builder in the country we are the ones to deliver.”

Construction businesses across Australia are facing difficult circumstances in the face of rising materials costs and labour shortages.

Earlier this year, giant firms Probuild and Condev went into liquidation, impacting thousands of staff and subcontractors.

Government efforts to support construction during the pandemic have boosted production rates beyond what key supply chains can support.

Metricon has been trying to alter, offload or delay contracts to help deal with the constraints.

https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/crisis-talks-underway-as-building-giant-on-brink-of-collapse/news-story/4a819c88bd378ec0cc286074303cb503

She’ll Have me Indicted” – Far-Left Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo Panics After DA Turns the Screws on Her Indicted Staffers in Probe Into $11 Million ‘Vaccine Outreach’ Contract

It appears at least one of Lina Hidalgo’s indicted staffers may be ‘talking’ to prosecutors.

Texas – Far-left Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo on Wednesday attacked Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg amid an investigation into the judge’s canceled $11 million ‘vaccine outreach’ contract.

Hidalgo’s top three staffers were indicted last month after prosecutors expanded the investigation into an $11 million ‘vaccine outreach contract’ awarded to one of the judge’s political cronies.

While Hidalgo was threatening to jail and fine people for violating her Covid rules, she was secretly trying to award one of her political cronies an $11 million ‘vaccine outreach’ contract.

Hidalgo ultimately panicked and canceled the $11 million vaccine contract after questions were raised that it was with a one-person firm with no experience.

Earlier this month prosecutors alleged Hidalgo’s indicted Chief of Staff, Alex Triantaphyllis, violated one of four bond conditions just one day after a court hearing on April 12.

Alex Triantaphyllis steered a $48 million contract to a small, Houston-based firm in violation of his bond, according to ABC 13.

Lina Hidalgo knows she’s going to be indicted next which is why she’s lashing out at the District Attorney and trying to smear her investigation as a ‘political vendetta.’

“I expect this political exercise to continue through Election Day. [Kim Ogg] will have me indicted. Or name a ‘special prosecutor’- an illusion of independence since those are still beholden to the DA. She did that before in a political prosecution that went nowhere. I’m not deterred.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/05/indicted-far-left-harris-county-judge-lina-hidalgo-panics-da-indicts-three-staffers-probe-11-million-vaccine-outreach-contract/

NY Gov. Hochul announces gun control executive orders after Buffalo shooting

The governor said the orders are in 'direct response' to the attack in Buffalo

New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday signed executive orders implementing more gun control in response to the Buffalo shooting that left 10 people dead.

"Today, I issued Executive Orders to devote substantial resources and focus toward combating the troubling surge in domestic terrorism by identifying radicalized individuals and tracking their threats amplified on social media, and further empower State Police to keep guns away from dangerous people," she wrote in a press release.

She also sent a letter urging New York Attorney General Letitia James to investigate the role of social media in the Buffalo shooting.

Hochul's first executive order establishes a domestic terrorism unit under the state's Office of Counter Terrorism.

Her other executive order expands New York's Red Flag Law by requiring state police to seize firearms more aggressively.

Police are classifying 18-year-old Payton Grendon's alleged rampage as a hate crime because 11 of the 13 people shot were black.

The suspect threatened to commit a mass shooting at his high school last year, authorities state. However, New York's current Red Flag Law did not prevent Grendon from legally obtaining firearms.

"The horrific and despicable act of terror committed by a white supremacist this past weekend in Buffalo showed that we as a country are facing an intersection of two crises: the mainstreaming of hate speech - including white nationalism, racism and white supremacy - and the easy access to military-style weapons and magazines," Hochul said.

https://justthenews.com/government/state-houses/ny-gov-hochul-announces-gun-control-executive-orders-after-buffalo-shooting

U.S. embassy resumes operations in Kyiv

The Secretary of State said his department has implemented additional security measures at the embassy

The U.S. embassy resumed operations in Kyiv, Ukraine, more than three months after moving due to the threat of Russian military action.

"Today, thanks to Ukraine's courageous defense and the bravery of its people, we're back," U.S. Embassy Kyiv tweeted.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday officially announced that operations have resumed in Ukraine's capital.

"We stand proudly with the government and people of Ukraine as they bravely defend their country from Putin’s brutal invasion. Slava Ukraini!" Blinken tweeted.

In an official statement, Blinken said the State Department has "put forward additional measures to increase the safety of our colleagues who are returning to Kyiv and have enhanced our security measures and protocols."

The U.S. embassy relocated from Kyiv to Lviv on Feb. 14 "due to the dramatic acceleration in the buildup of Russian forces." Russia invaded Ukraine 10 days later.

The U.S. embassy's return comes about a month after the United Kingdom announced it would reopen its embassy in Kyiv.

https://justthenews.com/government/diplomacy/us-embassy-resumes-operations-kyiv

FF attack in 3, 2……

Netflix Lays Off Dozens of Employees Involved With ‘BIPOC’ & ‘LGBTQ+’ Projects

The streaming giant has been struggling mightily in recent months

Netflix has announced a new round of layoffs, choosing this time to let go of over 150 employees. Many of the laid off employees were involved with “LBGT+ and BIPOC” projects.

The move comes just weeks after Netflix shut down its branded content arm Tudum, which was comprised of “predominately Black women and women of color staffers”, according to Yahoo News.

The struggling streaming giant later announced a fresh round of layoffs this past Tuesday. According to the Los Angeles Times, the platform announced it would be letting go of 150 employees “amid a slowdown in revenue and a decline in subscribers.” In a statement announcing the layoffs, a Netflix spokesperson explained that the reasoning behind the decision was “primarily driven by business needs rather than individual performance.”

Netflix has been struggling mightily as surging inflation has been driving Americans to cut entertainment costs. The streaming service has been steadily increasing its prices over the years and has announced plans to cut down on password sharing, further drawing the ire of customers.

The company has also become very political, particularly in the realm of leftist social policies. Thousands of customers cancelled their subscriptions last summer over the company’s distribution of the French film “Cuties”, which featured sexualized images of pre-teen children.

“Cuties” has been described as child pornography by one Texas DA, who brought charges against Netflix for child porn distribution. The case is currently playing out in court, though thousands have said they will never return to the company over its distribution of “Cuties” regardless of what happens with the case.

Internal Netflix projections had the company picking up 1.3 million subscribers in the period immediately following the film’s release, but they ultimately gained just 177,000.

Netflix has been one of the worst performing blue-chip stocks since the beginning of 2021. The streaming giant recently announced that it had lost 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2022. The decline marked the first time Netflix had lost subscribers in a quarter for the first time in more than a decade.

As the downturn continues, company executives appear to be backtracking on their backing of leftist social agendas. A recent company memo essentially told far-left employees that they should quit if they have any issue with a piece of content.

https://nationalfile.com/netflix-lays-off-dozens-of-employees-involved-with-bipoc-lgbtq-projects/

U.S. Bioethics Chief, Who Happens to be Fauci’s Wife, Published a New Paper Telling Corporates They Can Ethically ‘Pressure Employees’ And ‘Embarrass Vaccine Resistors.’

The paper comes hot on the heels of a number of White House losses regarding federal worker vaccination and mask mandates.

Anthony Fauci’s wife – who is also head of the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center – authored a paper defending the ethics of corporations “pressuring employees to get vaccinated” and “embarrass[ing] vaccine resistors.”

The study – “The Ethics of Encouraging Employees to Get the COVID‑19 Vaccination” – was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center and the National Human Genome Research Institute and counted Christine Grady, Fauci’s wife, amongst its authors.

Published in March 2022, the paper followed attempts by the White House as well as Democratic Party politicians across America to mandate COVID-19 vaccination for federal and state workers.

Grady’s paper focuses on the “ethics of encouragement strategies aimed at overcoming vaccine reluctance (which can be due to resistance, hesitance, misinformation, or inertia) to facilitate voluntary employee vaccination.”

Grady and her three co-authors outline how it is “ethically acceptable” to “subtly pressure employees to get vaccinated”:

While employment-based vaccine encouragement may raise privacy and autonomy concerns, and though some employers might hesitate to encourage employees to get vaccinated, our analysis suggests ethically acceptable ways to inform, encourage, strongly encourage, incentivize, and even subtly pressure employees to get vaccinated.

While discussing vaccine mandates, the paper posits they can “be ethically appropriate” if there is “clear articulation about the consequences of not complying with the policy.”

“In that circumstance, employees have a choice between getting vaccinated or accepting the consequences of a choice to remain unvaccinated,” it explains.

Grady outlines other tactics employers could use to boost COVID-19 vaccination rates within their company, such as sharing “targeted statistics (such as 75% of the company or unit have been vaccinated) to spur competition or even implicitly embarrass vaccine resistors.”

https://thenationalpulse.com/2022/05/18/fauci-wife-authors-paper-supporting-vaccine-pressure-campaigns/

https://thenationalpulse.com/2022/05/18/fauci-wife-authors-paper-supporting-vaccine-pressure-campaigns/

First daughter Ashley Biden has COVID, bails on another Jill Biden trip: WH

President Biden’s daughter, Ashley, tested positive for COVID-19 and won’t join her mother on a trip to Latin America, first lady Jill Biden’s office said Wednesday, shortly before she departed for Ecuador on a three-nation tour.

The 40-year-old first daughter backed out of a trip to Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine earlier this month, citing exposure to the virus about a week after she attended several parties for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

Michael LaRosa, a spokesman for Jill Biden — who also is visiting Panama and Costa Rica — said Ashley Biden doesn’t meet the CDC definition of a “close contact” for either of her parents.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday afternoon that Joe and Jill Biden last saw their daughter in person “several days” ago.

“About a week is what I’ve been told,” Jean-Pierre added.

President Biden turns 80 this year and is at elevated risk from COVID-19 due to his advanced age. Biden has had four shots of Pfizer’s vaccine, reducing the chance of serious illness or death.

Ashley Biden has struggled with drug addiction, and intimate reflections from her diary were published in 2020 that referred to “probably not appropriate” childhood showers with her father. The diary gained little attention until last year, when an FBI investigation and additional reporting confirmed its authenticity.

The president has not yet caught the virus that’s killed 1 million Americans, despite a lengthy list of close calls.

Susan Rice, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, tested positive last week after meeting with Biden. A week earlier, Secretary of State Antony Blinken tested positive following the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, where the president shook hands with ABC reporter Jonathan Karl — who tested positive two days later.

https://nypost.com/2022/05/18/first-daughter-ashley-biden-has-covid-bails-on-jill-biden-trip/