{"id":9675,"date":"2024-04-18T09:10:55","date_gmt":"2024-04-18T09:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bloomingtonnews.online\/?p=9675"},"modified":"2024-04-19T15:06:23","modified_gmt":"2024-04-19T15:06:23","slug":"local-news-headlines-april-19-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bloomingtonnews.online\/?p=9675","title":{"rendered":"Local News Headlines: April 19, 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Indiana Attorney General leads multistate inquiry into financial company\u2019s ties to Chinese Communist Party<\/strong>
Attorney General Todd Rokita is leading a multistate inquiry into whether a Chinese-owned financial company \u2014 Webull Financial LLC \u2014 may have exposed clients\u2019 personal information to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On behalf of Hoosiers, Attorney General Rokita previously brought a complaint against Chinese-owned social media company TikTok for allegedly violating data privacy laws and deceiving app users into believing their information is protected when that data is subject to Chinese law and may be intercepted by the CCP.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On March 13, 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which would ban TikTok from operating in the U.S. unless it separates from its Chinese owner, ByteDance.  The Act is now working its way through the Senate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company is a U.S.-registered broker-dealer that allows customers to trade U.S. stocks, options, and certain cryptocurrencies. Webull is owned by Hunan Fumi Information Technology Co., a Chinese company, and it appears to conduct substantial operations for its U.S. business using personnel and resources located directly in the People\u2019s Republic of China.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a letter to Webull\u2019s CEO, Attorney General Rokita and the other attorneys general request answers from the company to 11 questions in order to shed more light on its data protection practices on behalf of customers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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City of Bloomington launches Climate Action Dashboard\u00a0<\/strong>
The City of Bloomington is excited to unveil its Climate Action Dashboard, an innovative digital platform to learn more about the City\u2019s efforts around local climate action and sustainability. The dashboard is part of the City\u2019s commitment toward making progress on local climate action more transparent and accessible to residents. To view and interact with the dashboard, residents can visit\u00a0bloomington.climatenavhub.com<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dashboard was developed in partnership between the City\u2019s Economic and Sustainable Development Department and ClimateNav<\/a>, a public-benefit startup that builds tools and resources to help local governments fight climate change. The dashboard breaks down the City\u2019s sustainability goals into the different sectors they address and includes information about City initiatives and opportunities within each sector. As an added benefit, the dashboard includes useful information and resources about actions that Bloomington residents and businesses can take to reduce their own personal carbon footprint within each of the sectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2021, the Bloomington City Council unanimously adopted the Climate Action Plan, setting an ambitious goal for achieving carbon neutrality by 2050\u00a0and defining several milestone goals along the way. The dashboard is designed to serve as a central tool in promoting greater transparency and data-driven leadership in implementing this plan. For each of the City\u2019s major initiatives, the dashboard will track key metrics such as the amount of energy generated by municipally-owned solar installations or the total number of climate-related grant dollars City staff have applied for. In this way, the dashboard provides a data-driven and hands-on way for residents to interact with the City’s Climate Action Plan, while also serving as an accountability tool for monitoring the City\u2019s advancement toward its climate goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dashboard will be updated on a consistent basis in order to promote new programs, announce important sustainability-related events, and maintain up-to-date metrics to share with the public. The ClimateNav Hub platform that powers the dashboard also provides City staff with powerful tools that can estimate the mitigated greenhouse gas emissions from City-run programs, calculate up-to-date greenhouse gas inventories each year, and manage important annual climate reporting. Collectively, these tools will help City staff to identify and fund the most cost-effective programs in terms of climate impact, ensuring that Bloomington\u2019s sustainability work is both data-driven and maximally impactful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please visit bloomington.climatenavhub.com<\/a> to view the Climate Action Dashboard directly. If you have any questions regarding the dashboard or issues accessing it, please contact sustain@bloomington.in.gov<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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City of Bloomington Celebrates 2024 Be More Award Recipients<\/strong>
The City of Bloomington announced the recipients of the 2024 Be More Awards. The annual Be More Awards honor exceptional volunteers and promote volunteerism and civic engagement in the Bloomington community.\u00a0In honor of the volunteer\u2019s outstanding service, each non-profit agency represented by one of the eight Be More Award recipients will receive a $1,000 cash award provided by the Community Foundation of Bloomington and Monroe County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following recipients will be honored on Thursday, April 25, at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater. The event begins with a meet & greet from 5:45-6:30pm., and the awards ceremony begins promptly at 6:30pm. The celebration is free, family-friendly, and open to members of the community.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n