2023

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — From an ice storm in North Dakota that sealed windows shut to blizzard conditions in Colorado causing hundreds of airport delays and cancellations, a winter storm pummeled much of the central United States on Tuesday, the day after Christmas.

“The heavy snow conditions in the Plains should be slowly alleviating today, but it’ll be very slow. Even when the snow ends, the high winds should keep visibility near zero — whiteout conditions — for a decent part of today,” said Weather Prediction Center Forecaster David Roth.

Laura Schmidt-Dockter, a resident of Bismarck, North Dakota, wore ice spikes on her shoes as she walked outside to the trash can. Her driveway was sheer ice, she said. A neighbor took to the street on ice skates.

“It’s actually not bad!” the neighbor quipped about the quality of the ice, skating by Schmidt-Dockter in a video she posted to social media.

But at Denver International Airport there were over 440 flight delays and 22 cancellations as of Tuesday afternoon, according to the tracking website FlightAware. Blizzard conditions on the high plains east of the city closed Interstate 70 overnight Tuesday from Denver all the way to the Kansas border, but it reopened later in the morning. According to the National Weather Service, it’s considered a blizzard when winds exceed 35 miles per hour (56 kilometers per hour) for three hours or more, with considerable blowing snow and visibility down to less than a quarter mile (0.4 kilometers).

Blizzard warnings were in effect mid-Tuesday for western portions of South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas, along with eastern portions of Colorado and Wyoming. Ice storm warnings and winter weather advisories remained in place in South Dakota, North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota.

On Christmas Day, one person was killed and three others were injured in Kansas, when the driver of a pickup truck lost control on snow and ice and collided head-on with a sport utility vehicle 5 miles (8 kilometers) west of Larned, according to the State Patrol. The woman killed in the crash was identified as 86-year-old Evelyn Reece of Wichita.

Rosebud Sioux Tribe officials in South Dakota said on social media that some people had ignored the no-travel advisory issued Monday evening. The advisory meant no one should have been on highways or backroads because of the whiteout, they said.

“We have multiple resources being dispatched to rescue a total of 13 people who ignored the advisory, and then rescue the ranchers who got stuck trying to get to them,” the tribe’s Office of Emergency Management posted on Facebook early Tuesday, along. Nine hours later, the office gave an update saying the motorists were safe “and all is well.”

Badlands National Park and the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site in South Dakota were closed Tuesday due to the severe weather.

On Monday, wind gusts howled as high as 67 miles per hour (108 kilometers per hour) in Oakes, North Dakota, said National Weather Service Meteorologist Megan Jones.

The ice storm has affected highways throughout the eastern parts of the state, with Interstate 29 from Grand Forks to the Canadian border closed until Tuesday afternoon, and no travel advised in south-central parts of the state. Freezing rain began in Fargo on Monday afternoon and expanded westward, Jones said, and as much as three-quarters of an inch of freezing rain fell in Jamestown.

Heavy icing and strong winds downed tree branches and cause power outages in the southern James River Valley.

No major outages were reported. Still, the weather service reminded people about the risk of fire caused by candles or space heaters. Anyone using a portable generator should keep it outside and at least 20 feet (6 meters) away from doors, windows and garages to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning.

“We just want people to be careful if they have power outages,” Jones said. “You always want to be careful with your heat sources.”

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Associated Press writers Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas, and Jack Dura in Bismarck, North Dakota, contributed to this report.

Trisha Ahmed is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @TrishaAhmed15

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Christmas is over, but giving season for nonprofits is just starting to peak.

The end of the calendar year is when nonprofits make appeals far and wide to attract donors — in part because of holiday traditions or, for some, tax advantages. Nonprofits get about 30% of their annual donations in December — including 10% in the final three days of the year — according to marketing agency Nonprofits Source.

“This is one of the busiest times of the year for us as we assist donors with their year-end giving,” said Erin Musgrave, a spokesperson for the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

Many potential donors don’t realize how much nonprofits value even small gifts, especially local organizations that meet community needs. And nonprofits and industry groups warn that donations are down this year, so gifts right now could help them a lot.

Only 11% of Americans itemize their taxes, which allows them to claim significant tax deductions for charitable donations. That means most Americans don’t give in December for tax reasons.

“They’re thinking about the organization in their community that’s having an impact and digging deep and giving,” said Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies.

As you watch commercial appeals and sort through donation requests, here are some things to consider:

Experienced donors often have a short list of criteria they use to help select nonprofits to support. It could be organizations that serve the area where they live or specific causes or issues with which they have a personal connection.

A question to ask yourself is: “What are the issues or communities that are important to me and where do I want to make a difference?”

A great way to find out about organizations in your area is to ask your friends, coworkers and neighbors. They may have interacted directly with a nonprofit that supports after-school programs, sends companions to elderly residents, advocates around traffic safety or supports local artists. For any topic that is important to you, an organization in your area is likely working on it.

Another potential consideration is check if your employer will match donations to the nonprofit you want to support. If so, your donation could go even further.

If you feel burdened by all the urgent appeals everywhere from the checkout line to the mail or online, one tactic is to make a budget and set aside time to give to organizations important to you. Be realistic, make a plan and then, set aside the guilt.

No, simply put.

First, there’s no obligation to give to nonprofits. Many people make a difference in their communities — donating blood, volunteering with their fire department, caring for neighbors and myriad other ways.

Second, many nonprofits actually prefer for donors to set up automatic monthly donations, even in very small amounts, rather than giving a lump sum at the end of the year. The automatic donation from your bank account or credit card means they can plan for how to spend those funds in advance, which often helps them save money and resources.

Some donors say they want their dollars to go directly to the nonprofit’s work and not to pay for rent or salaries. This perennial view of wasteful “ overhead ” spending has some draw backs, though to be clear, donors have good reason to assess the organizations they support carefully.

But a useful data point comes from the nonprofit ratings agencies themselves. Starting ten years ago, the agencies like BBB Wise Giving Alliance and GuideStar, now part of Candid, teamed up to challenge the idea that the best way to measure the value of a nonprofit was the portion of its funds spent on administrative costs and fundraising.

Michael Thatcher, the president and CEO of Charity Navigator, which overhauled its rating methodology in September, advises that donors consider the organization’s impact and whether it’s achieving its mission.

“What does the money do? Not where was the money spent?,” he told The Associated Press earlier this year.

People who study philanthropy and advise donors like Vanessa Lee, a program officer who coordinates giving circles at the Chicago Foundation for Women, emphasize that giving back is not the purview of the ultrawealthy.

“It’s not like you have to have millions of dollars to be a philanthropist,” said Lee. “You can do this at $10 a month.”

Additionally, donations from low- and middle-income people, who give smaller amounts, usually go directly to nonprofit organizations, in contrast to many of the wealthiest donors, Collins of the Institute for Policy Studies said. His organization has researched the giving behaviors of billionaires and found that a growing portion of the overall dollars donated each year goes to donor-advised funds and foundations, not directly to nonprofits.

In one recent example, the CEO of Dell Technologies, Michael Dell, donated stocks valued at $1.7 billion in October and December to the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and to donor-advised funds for future charitable donations. Private foundations are obligated to grant out at least 5% of their assets each year but there is no minimum granting requirement for DAFs.

“The very wealthy are giving it to intermediaries they control and parking the money indefinitely,” Collins said. “So there’s a more of a tax advantage goal, whereas most people are giving, regardless of the tax consequence.”

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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

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By Sabrina Valle

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Wall Street analysts are trimming their earnings estimates for Chevron Corp and employees are preparing for potential job cuts as a series of operational setbacks are poised to bleed into 2024.

Chevron in 2023 was hit by reversals at two key oil producing regions – the U.S. Permian and Kazakhstan – and its hopes for a quick approval of a $53 billion acquisition of rival Hess Corp have dimmed.

The company’s shares year to date are down 15%, lagging the stock performance at its four big rivals – BP, Exxon Mobil, Shell and TotalEnergies. The weak share returns contrast with its performance compared with the same companies in the five years to December 2022.

Seven Wall Street firms have lowered their fourth quarter earnings estimates for Chevron by an average 12% in the last 30 days, according to investment firm LSEG. None of the 15 firms that LSEG tracks raised their forecast.

“Chevron is a performance-driven company and recognizes that we have not been performing to our potential,” a spokesperson said in an emailed response. He did not comment on whether the company is considering job cuts next year.

Estimates for Chevron’s 2024 profit have been cut by an average 10.3% in the last 30 days, to $14.17 per share, according to LSEG. Its larger U.S. rival, Exxon Mobil, also had estimates lowered, but by less than 4%.

Investors historically awarded Chevron a valuation premium on good operational delivery and capital allocation, said Citibank analyst Alastair Syme, who this month cut his target price on the company to $148 from $170, rating it as neutral.

WILL 2024 BE AN INTERLUDE?

Restoring investor confidence in the company’s operational targets “could well take time,” Syme said, characterizing 2024 as “a hiatus year in terms of growth.”

The first half of 2024 “is muddied by M&A”, said UBS analyst Josh Silverstein, who this month cut his Chevron target price to $185 from $194. Still, he rates the company a buy because of its “discounted share price” and prospects for new oil production after the second quarter of 2024.

Chevron Chief Financial Officer Pierre Breber admonished workers in an email this month, saying its oil and gas production, refinery operations and carbon abatement projects were each below plan.

“We can – and must – do better,” he said, in an unusually harsh message that alarmed some employees who saw the note as an indication the company was preparing for cost and job cuts to improve 2024 results.

Breber’s reprimand came together with a second request from U.S. antitrust regulators for information on its pending Hess acquisition.

CEO Michael Wirth said the request means the deal’s closing “will extend further out in the year” from his hope of a first quarter completion. The delay will push back Chevron’s access to the about 400,000 barrels of oil and gas per day (bpd) Hess would add to Chevron’s output.

In October, Wirth disclosed a more than six-month delay and higher-than-expected costs for a 260,000 bpd expansion at its massive Kazakhstan oil project. Production at the facility will fall by 50,000 bpd compared to 2023 on maintenance and equipment changes.

In its Permian shale operations, Chevron’s production fell 2% in the third quarter from the second. But it expects to complete the year with a 10% year-over-year increase, officials said.

The company in August closed the acquisition of shale producer PDC Energy Inc that added 285,000 bpd to Chevron’s U.S. production. It reaffirmed previous guidance to increase output by 3% annually, now on a higher basis.

The “recent underperformance”, said Bank of America analyst Doug Leggate, “positions the stock as potentially favored among the global oil majors in 2024”.

(Reporting by Sabrina Valle in Houston; additional reporting by Shariq Khan in Bengaluru; editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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