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(NEW YORK) — Electricity bills are a fact of life for many Americans, but with energy prices expected to rise in many parts of the country, you may be looking for a way to keep those costs in check.

The average American household spent $121 per month, or $1,452 per year, on energy bills in 2021, according to the Energy Information Administration.

While some projections expect rising energy rates this winter, as prices for fuels like natural gas increase, there are ways to offset those increases by making your home more energy efficient.

So what can you do? Here are three tips to help keep your bills down:

Tip #1: Schedule a home energy audit

One of the best ways to start figuring out how to save on your energy bills is to bring in an expert to check out your home.

Local utility companies, private firms, and even some government agencies offer this service, called an energy audit or energy assessment. In the audit, an expert will look for opportunities to reduce energy use in your home, ranging from replacing old lightbulbs with more efficient LED options, testing for air leaks in your doors and windows that allow heat to escape or cold air in, or recommending which appliances to replace with newer, more efficient alternatives.

In some cases, the energy auditor could install some of those swaps with no additional cost at the time of the audit.

The Department of Energy has information on how to find a certified energy assessment in your area, or you can check with your local utility company.

Tip #2: Reduce your energy use

Reducing your home’s energy footprint may seem intimidating but there are simple steps that can help limit wasted energy in your home. The Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program says homeowners could save up to $400 a year by taking steps to be more energy efficient, although the amount will vary depending on the size and energy use of the home.

Many of the options involve taking steps to ensure your household isn’t powering electronics when they aren’t needed or allowing cold air to leak into the home, making it harder to keep it warm.

Installing a smart or programmable thermostat is one way to help save 10% on your energy bills by allowing you to automatically turn down the temperature at night or when no one is home, according to the Energy Department.

Replacing traditional light bulbs with LED bulbs can also save the average homeowner $225 a year, the department says.

Other examples include sealing gaps around windows and doors and using smart power strips to prevent electronics like printers or video game systems from using electricity when they’re turned off.

If you’re in the market for appliances like a new dishwasher, refrigerator, or even a water heater or furnace, appliances with the Energy Star label are certified to use less energy and be more efficient in the long run.

There are also resources online, including the EPA Energy Star Program’s Home Advisor website, that lay out different options to cut back on energy use.

Tip #3: Look for incentives to upgrade your home

If you’re looking to make bigger changes to your home like buying new appliances, replacing windows, or even installing solar panels, the Inflation Reduction Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law last August, includes updated tax credits and rebates this year to help with some of those costs. In some cases, upgrading to newer, more efficient appliances or systems to keep your home warm can cut back on your energy use and ultimately, your bills.

A heat pump, for example, is an electric system that can replace both an air conditioner and heater and is considered three to five times more efficient than a traditional furnace fueled by natural gas, according to the nonprofit Rewiring America. Under the Inflation Reduction Act, consumers who install a heat pump will be eligible to claim a tax credit for up to 30% of the cost, up to $2,000.

In addition to the heat pump tax credit, the legislation also expanded tax credits that cover up to 30% of the cost of installing solar panels, and installing new energy efficient doors, windows, or insulation.

The Inflation Reduction Act’s programs will provide up-front rebates worth hundreds of dollars to help low- and middle-income Americans. The programs will be run by each state and are expected to launch later this year.

Rewiring America has a calculator to check which Inflation Reduction Act programs could benefit your home. There are also links to all the available programs at whitehouse.gov/cleanenergy.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Artificial intelligence isn’t just making inroads in technology. Soon, AI may replace human beings in jobs as evidenced by one company that has created two AI interns.

Kyle Monson, co-founder of the digital marketing company Codeword, appeared on ABC News’ daily podcast “Start Here” to talk about the creation of AI interns Aiden and Aiko, who will be assisting in editorial and engineering. Their creation comes amid the sensation of the artificial intelligence-driven program ChatGPT, which has gone viral for responding to user prompts, utilizing Shakespeare and poetry in their efforts to recreate human interaction.

Monson spoke about the implications of these digital hires that mirror humans and if there is a potential to erase human intelligence.

START HERE: If you’ve ever been an intern, you know there’s a lot of thankless work involved. But perhaps no intern has ever been asked to do as much as these ones. Is it true that your interns don’t get to take any time off?

Kyle Monson: That’s a great question. Yeah, they’re there when we need them. They are hustling and grinding all the time.

START HERE: That’s Kyle Monson from this digital marketing company called Codeword and this taskmaster has two subordinates that only exist digitally.

Monson: We figured why not bring on some non-human resources to go along with our human resources? Yeah, we brought on two. We’re calling them AI interns. Their names are Aiden and Aiko.

START HERE: So maybe in recent days you’ve heard of this thing called ChatGPT. It’s basically this piece of software that can teach itself to understand human questions, scour the internet for relevant info, and deliver an intelligible answer. It’s like Siri, but if Siri could write a five-paragraph essay on command. Well, this company has decided to use this type of technology to create two artificial intelligence interns.

Their first assignment was naming themselves; they came up with Aiden and Aiko. Both start with the letters A-I, get it? One will be a writer for the editorial team, one will work in engineering. What would they do?

Monson: What do any interns do? I don’t know. We’re going to figure that out. There’s actually quite a lot. There’s a lot of support that Aiko can do for writers and editors, for instance, especially in the marketing context, tone analysis, for instance, research on the industry, and news roundups.

START HERE: What was fascinating, how many times Kyle said they’re treating them like any intern because the most common thing among interns is that they’re inexperienced, unproven. As a result, Aiden and Aiko will not be blindly given big assignments. Their work won’t be seen directly by clients, since they can make embarrassing mistakes. While computer systems have taken care of data entry for a long time, part of the assignment here for Codeword is to figure out whether these systems can help a creative field.

Are you worried that Aiko might plagiarize things? Or Aiden? When you ask them about stuff, are they going to get you in trouble?

Monson: That’s a really good question, as well. We’re not going to put them to work doing public facing assignments.

START HERE: The obvious question here is whether the “hiring” of these interns came at the expense of young, hungry, human tech workers just out of college. Are entry-level jobs going to become irrelevant? I decided to ask the interns about this directly. They haven’t been given voices yet – although creepily, they do have computer-generated faces – so Kyle volunteered to read Aiden’s response to my question.

Monson: Here’s how Aiden responded: “Artificial intelligence is already being used in marketing and other areas of the information economy, and it has the potential to significantly improve efficiency and effectiveness. However, it is unlikely that AI will completely replace human intelligence in these areas.”

START HERE: And yet even that didn’t reassure me. This is like an essay. How long did it take Aiden to write this?

Monson: Like 0.6 seconds.

START HERE: One of the big challenges for teachers, just in recent weeks, is knowing whether their students’ essays were written by humans or by ChatbotGPT.

Kyle says he usually skims cover letters from college kids, but if job applicants are now asking AI to do their work for them, it’ll be tough to hold that against. After all, candidates and management now have the same intern.

 

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Electric vehicle company Tesla slashed the price of its cars across global markets as much as 20%, the automaker announced on Thursday night.

The move aims to bolster demand as Tesla faces falling sales amid recession fears and heightened competition, some analysts and investors said.

The U.S. price cuts on top-selling cars – such as the Model 3 sedan and Model Y crossover – came in between 6% and 20%, according to an analysis from Reuters. The basic Model Y now costs $52,990, a sharp decline from $65,990, Reuters found.

The price cuts add to the savings that U.S. customers will receive from a $7,500 federal tax credit that took hold for many electric vehicles at the outset of the year.

CEO Elon Musk, who acquired Twitter in late October, has drawn scrutiny over his apparent focus on the social media platform.

“It’s no secret that demand for Tesla is starting to see some cracks in this global slowdown for 2023,” Dan Ives, a longtime Tesla bull and managing director of equity research at Wedbush, said in a research note on Friday.

“We believe this was the right strategic poker move by Musk & Co. at the right time,” he added.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A disappointing sales report released last week showed that Tesla fell short of Wall Street expectations for car deliveries over the final three months of 2022.

Shares of Tesla have fallen more than 45% since Musk took over Twitter less than three months ago. Tesla’s stock fell more than 2% in early trading on Friday in response to the price cut.

Despite the immediate negative reaction in trading, Ross Gerber, CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management, a prominent Tesla investor, praised the company’s move.

“I expect Tesla will sell out of inventory and have a long order book with the price cuts AND government credit now for the Model Y,” he said in a tweet. “I think this is the right move.”

Previously, Musk has attributed the falling stock price to rising interest rates, which typically benefit savers who stand to gain from an uptick in the interest yielded by accounts held at banks.

Musk has defended his actions at Twitter as part of an aggressive effort to rescue the company from financial peril, which he described in a Twitter Spaces interview last month as an “emergency fire drill.”

“That’s the reason for my actions,” he added. “They may seem sometimes spurious or odd or whatever.”

Musk said in December that he will resign as head of Twitter when the company identifies a successor.

The price cuts mark the second such announcement by Tesla. The company said in December that it would offer $7,500 discounts on Model 3 and Model Y vehicles delivered in the U.S. that month.

Tesla remains the top seller of EVs in the U.S., but its lead has slipped in recent months as competitors offer a host of affordable alternatives, a S&P Global Mobility report showed in November.

The company held a 65% market share of newly registered electric vehicles in the U.S. through the third quarter 2022, a drop from 71% in 2021 and 79% in 2020, the report found.

Ives, of Wedbush, said the price cut announced on Thursday could increase global sales this year by as much as 15%.

“This is a clear shot across the bow at European automakers and U.S. stalwarts (GM and Ford) that Tesla is not going to play nice in the sandbox with an EV price war now underway,” he said.

 

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(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump’s namesake family real estate firm was sentenced to the maximum allowable fine Friday in New York following its conviction on 17 counts, include a 13-year scheme to defraud.

The company will pay a fine of just over $1.6 million.

While a prosecutor, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass, conceded the amount is a fraction of the company’s earnings, he called the scheme it was convicted of “far-reaching and brazen.”

“The sheer magnitude of this fraud merits the largest financial sanction authorized by law,” Steinglass said. “The defendants cultivated a pervasive culture of fraud.”

Judge Juan Merchan imposed the maximum sentence and scolded the defense for continuing to blame the company’s accountant for the fraud.

“It’s not what the evidence has showed and it’s not what the jury found,” Merchan said.

He gave the company 14 days to pay.

The verdict, delivered Dec. 6, held the Trump Organization liable for the criminal conduct of some of its top executives, mainly Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer who was sent to jail on Rikers Island earlier this week for arranging nearly $2 million of his compensation off the books.

Trump himself was not charged and the company’s defense attorneys said he did not know about the scheme. However, his name came up dozens of times, mainly on defense examination of witnesses.

Defense attorney Michael van der Veen said in his closing statement that jurors “heard no evidence in this case that Mr. Trump or any of his children were aware of anything improper.”

Prosecutors said the former president sanctioned fraud. They showed the jury checks Trump signed and a memo he initialed

“This whole narrative that Donald Trump is blissfully ignorant is just not true,” Assistant District Attorney Josh Steinglass said during his closing statement.

Prosecutors said the Trump Organization arranged for Weisselberg and other company executives to receive part of their compensation in perks, like private school tuition and car payments, to evade taxes. In doing so, prosecutors said the executives had some intent to help the company pay less in salaries, bonuses and payroll taxes.

The defense argued the executives never intended to benefit the company and said the scheme the executives hatched was motivated solely by personal greed.

The trial revealed potentially embarrassing details about Trump, including nearly $1 billion in operating losses Trump reported over a two-year period in 2009 and 2010.

Trump’s outside accountant also testified that Trump reported losses each year for eight years from 2009 to 2018, some of the same years Trump was touting his business acumen on reality television and on the campaign trail.

“This was a case about greed and cheating. In Manhattan, no corporation is above the law,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said at the time the verdict was announced last month. “For 13 years the Trump Corporation and the Trump Payroll Corporation got away with a scheme that awarded high-level executives with lavish perks and compensation while intentionally concealing the benefits from the taxing authorities to avoid paying taxes.”

In addition to the fine, the Trump Organization faces potential collateral consequences that could be more severe if banks call in loans or business partners cancel contracts due to internal clauses that prohibit doing business with felons.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LONDON) — The appointment of an oil executive as head of the United Nations’ COP28 climate conference on Thursday sparked backlash from environmental organizations.

The Office of the United Arab Emirates’ Special Envoy for Climate Change announced Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, the head of the state-run Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, as the president-designate for the 2023 climate change conference, which will take place in Dubai over two weeks in November and December.

Al Jaber is chair of the UAE government-owned renewable energy company Masdar and has served as the UAE’s climate envoy twice, a statement from the special envoy said.

He is the first CEO to ever serve as COP president, “having played a key role in shaping the country’s clean energy path,” according to Al Jaber’s office.

The president of the conference is confirmed by the delegates to the conference when it begins.

But the announcement Thursday over the appointment of a top oil executive to lead the most important climate conference of the year was quickly met with disapproval by some environmental policy experts and activists who called for the CEO to step down from his role leading one of the biggest oil companies in the world.

Al Jaber’s nomination is “devastating blow to the climate negotiations at a critical moment in history,” Tzeporah Berman, chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, told ABC News.

He must resign from the oil company he presides over in order to obtain a seat at COP, not to mention the presidency, Berman said.

“The nomination of Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber is a clear example of the fox watching the hen house,” Berman said. “The oil and gas companies are not going to design their own demise.”

The appointment of Al Jaber to lead COP28 is “egregious” and “could potentially impede the sole purpose of the meeting,” Delta Merner, head of the Science Hub for Climate Litigation at the Union for Concerned Scientists, told ABC News.

“During COP27, we saw a 25% increase in fossil fuel interest direct participation in the meeting, this is a trend we need to move away from for meaningful progress, not embrace through leadership choices,” Merner said. He agreed that Al Jaber should step down from his role overseeing the production of fossil fuels.

Catherine Abreu, founder and executive director of environmental nonprofit Destination Zero, told ABC News, “An oil company CEO cannot be the kind of President that COP28 needs.”

“A person tasked with making the most profit possible from oil and gas extraction can’t be the same person tasked with landing the most ambitious outcome possible from a climate conference,” Abreu said.

Al Jaber’s appointment “sets a dangerous precedent” and risks the credibility of the UAE, Tracy Carty, global climate politics expert with Greenpeace, said in a statement.

“Greenpeace is deeply alarmed at the appointment of an oil company CEO to lead the global climate negotiations,” Carty said.

Carty continued, “There is no place for the fossil fuel industry in the global climate negotiations.”

Tasneem Essop, executive director for the Climate Action Network International, described Al Jaber’s appointment as a “conflict of interest.”

“He cannot preside over a process that is tasked to address the climate crisis with such a conflict of interest, heading an industry that is responsible for the crisis itself,” Essop said.

Every year, the country hosting the U.N.’s Conference of the Parties, from which COP gets its name, nominates someone — typically a veteran diplomat — to chair the talks.

“This will be a critical year in a critical decade for climate action,” Al Jaber said in a statement. “The UAE is approaching COP28 with a strong sense of responsibility and the highest possible level of ambition.”

“The announcement further highlights the UAE’s regional leadership in climate action and its role as a global advocate for clean energy,” the Office of the UAE’s Special Envoy for Climate Change added. “The UAE is home to three of the largest and lowest-cost solar projects in the world and has invested more than $50 billion in renewable energy projects across 70 countries, with plans to invest a minimum of $50 billion over the next decade.”

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(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump’s namesake family real estate firm will be sentenced Friday in New York following its conviction on 17 counts, include a 13-year scheme to defraud.

The company faces a sentence that potentially includes a $1.7 million fine.

The verdict, delivered Dec. 6, held the Trump Organization liable for the criminal conduct of some of its top executives, mainly Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer who was sent to jail on Rikers Island earlier this week for arranging nearly $2 million of his compensation off the books.

Trump himself was not charged and the company’s defense attorneys said he did not know about the scheme. However, his name came up dozens of times, mainly on defense examination of witnesses.

Defense attorney Michael van der Veen said in his closing statement that jurors “heard no evidence in this case that Mr. Trump or any of his children were aware of anything improper.”

Prosecutors said the former president sanctioned fraud. They showed the jury checks Trump signed and a memo he initialed

“This whole narrative that Donald Trump is blissfully ignorant is just not true,” Assistant District Attorney Josh Steinglass said during his closing statement.

Prosecutors said the Trump Organization arranged for Weisselberg and other company executives to receive part of their compensation in perks, like private school tuition and car payments, to evade taxes. In doing so, prosecutors said the executives had some intent to help the company pay less in salaries, bonuses and payroll taxes.

The defense argued the executives never intended to benefit the company and said the scheme the executives hatched was motivated solely by personal greed.

The trial revealed potentially embarrassing details about Trump, including nearly $1 billion in operating losses Trump reported over a two-year period in 2009 and 2010.

Trump’s outside accountant also testified that Trump reported losses each year for eight years from 2009 to 2018, some of the same years Trump was touting his business acumen on reality television and on the campaign trail.

“This was a case about greed and cheating. In Manhattan, no corporation is above the law,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said at the time the verdict was announced last month. “For 13 years the Trump Corporation and the Trump Payroll Corporation got away with a scheme that awarded high-level executives with lavish perks and compensation while intentionally concealing the benefits from the taxing authorities to avoid paying taxes.”

In addition to the fine, the Trump Organization faces potential collateral consequences that could be more severe if banks call in loans or business partners cancel contracts due to internal clauses that prohibit doing business with felons.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Fans of three-egg omelets and bacon-egg-and-cheese sandwiches have more to worry about than just high cholesterol. The wholesale price of a dozen eggs has more than quadrupled year over year, and some experts warn the prices are unlikely to decrease anytime soon.

Egg prices peaked during the holiday season, hurting smaller grocery chains that can’t compete with larger chains and leading to price increases for restaurants and other small businesses, experts said. The price increase in eggs also comes as the cost of most foods have increased significantly, putting a strain on grocery shoppers and small business owners alike.

“I’ve been here 50 years, I have never seen anything like that with control of prices, maybe with Carter in the 70s,” said Gus Benetos, the owner of Manhattan’s Westside Restaurant.

Urner Barry, a company that publishes the “fair market price” for items like eggs, meat, and plant proteins, set the wholesale trade value for a dozen “midwest large” eggs at 89 cents on Dec. 22, 2021. A year later, the price for a dozen eggs skyrocketed to $5.46, according to Karyn Rispoli, the editor of Urner Barry’s Egg Price Current. The price beat the previous record high of $3.09 during the pandemic.

“We blew that previous high, way out of the water,” Rispoli said.

Since the holiday peak, Rispoli noted that the egg market has since “corrected” to $4.33 on Jan. 10, mainly due to decreased demand following the holiday season. However, with the avian flu outbreak still impacting U.S. poultry farmers, Rispoli said the price will likely remain high for now.

Outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza have killed nearly 40 million hens since February 2021, five percent of the U.S. chicken flock, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Egg production has also declined by 4 percent since 2021, the spokesperson said.

Mark Sauder, the CEO of Sauder Eggs, one of the country’s largest family-owned egg wholesalers, said he believes most significant factor impacting business is avian flu.

“This particular strain or this particular outbreak seems to be lasting longer,” he said.

While the wholesale price has steadily increased, consumers have felt the delayed impact of the price increase due to a few factors unique to eggs.

First, the demand for eggs in the short term is inelastic, according to Dartmouth College economics professor Bruce Sacerdote. Their status as a low cost, staple item in the grocery store, and a necessity in many recipes and diets lead many consumers to continue buying eggs in the short term despite price increases.

The USDA spokesperson said eggs are still one of the most competitively priced proteins in the grocery store compared to other animal proteins. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in November a yearly 10 percent increase in the overall cost of food.

“It has gone up, but as a percentage relative to the other spend of my food, it’s like it hasn’t been that impactful,” Leonard Chung, a Manhattan grocery shopper, said about the cost of eggs.

Second, according to Rispoli, many grocery stores use a “loss leader” tactic, artificially lowering the price of eggs to attract consumers. Grocery stores recover losses when shoppers buy other items with a higher profit margin. According to the USDA, a 12-pack of brown grade-A eggs cost $3.99 on average for consumers on the week of Dec. 23, while the wholesale cost was significantly higher.

“Even as the market was rising rather dramatically, consumers weren’t always seeing those prices at the consumer level grocery stores,” Rispoli said.

Sharmilla Dabieden, a resident of Queens who traveled to Whole Foods in Tribeca for lower egg prices, was one of the beneficiaries of this pricing approach. After seeing eggs advertised at roughly $3.29, she loaded her cart with three cartons of eggs.

“We need eggs, so this is why I’m shopping around, and I look online to see where I can get the cheapest,” Dabieden said.

According to Rispoli, the price increase in eggs is beginning to become apparent to consumers despite these two factors.

While prices cool, small businesses will feel the impact of the price hike alongside consumers.

“Smaller independent chains, regional chains, you know, they’ve struggled to be able to offer those same kinds of discounts, and so they’ve really taken a hit in terms of their sales numbers,” Rispoli noted.

At the Westside Restaurant, the archetype of a Greek diner in Manhattan, the cost of eggs and food has tightened profit margins. Benetos said that one case of eggs – 30 dozen eggs – has increased from $90 to $160 over a few months, and other food costs have risen by 30 to 40 percent, leading to price increases across the menu. His son Nikos Benetos noted that they priced a recent daily special — a feta cheese, broccoli, and tomato omelet — at over $19.

At a coffee cart on the Upper West Side, employee Santi Sayago said egg prices increased by 150 percent over six months, making it difficult to turn a 50-cent profit on a bacon-egg-and-cheese sandwich.

Abi Coffey, a manager at chain Think Coffee, noted that they have increased the price of egg sandwiches by a dollar over the last year, leading to customer complaints.

According to Sacerdote, when consumers begin to recognize the price hike at the grocery store, it might validate concerns about inflation.

“I think that is probably how people get a notion of how bad inflation is when they get their fuel bill for their home, the gas bill for their car, and their food bill,” Sacerdote said.

While costs have decreased recently, experts say it might take months for the prices to return to normal levels fully.

“Whether it’s going to continue into 2023; obviously, I don’t have a crystal ball, but all signs point to yes,” Rispoli said.

Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Department of Justice announced a $31 million settlement with City National Bank over allegations that the Los Angeles-based bank engaged in “redlining” – a pattern of lending discrimination – in Los Angeles County.

The settlement, which according to the DOJ is the largest redlining settlement in the department’s history, will benefit individuals and communities impacted by the discriminatory practice, the DOJ announced on Thursday.

Redlining, a discriminatory and illegal practice, is when lenders withhold services from customers who live in low-income neighborhoods, disproportionately impacting communities of color.

“We disagree with the allegations, but nonetheless support the DOJ in its efforts to ensure equal access to credit for all consumers, regardless of race,” City National said in a statement to ABC News.” … We are committed to ensuring that all consumers have an equal opportunity to apply for and obtain credit. We stand proudly on our legacy of integrity, corporate philanthropy and commitment to the communities we serve.”

“The Justice Department will continue to build on our efforts to vigorously enforce federal fair lending laws and work to ensure that financial institutions provide equal opportunity for every American to obtain credit,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement on Thursday. “In advance of what would have been Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 94th birthday, it is a fitting time to reaffirm our commitment to that work, and to the pursuit of justice for all Americans.”

Despite 50 years of federal oversight under the landmark Fair Housing Act of 1968, housing segregation persists in America’s largest cities and urban centers.

An exclusive ABC News analysis of mortgage-lending data published in February 2022 shows a pattern of racial isolation remains consistent following decades of failed initiatives.

The analysis shows that 20 of the nation’s top 100 metropolitan areas have an “extreme dissimilarity index” of 50 or higher — meaning at least half of the population would have had to move to another neighborhood in the area to achieve total integration in 2019.

The complaint against City National Bank, which was filed by the DOJ in federal court on Thursday, alleges that from 2017 through at least 2020 the bank avoided marketing and underwriting mortgage lending services to majority Black and Latino neighborhoods and discouraging those Los Angeles County residents from obtaining mortgage loans.

City National Bank only opened one branch in a majority-Black and Hispanic neighborhood and did not assign an employee to generate loan applications for the branch like they did branches located in majority-white areas over the past 20 years, according to the complaint.

According to the DOJ, City National agreed to take a number of actions to address redlining, including investing at least $29.5 million in a loan subsidy fund for communities of color in LA County. They will also open a new branch in a predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhood as well as conducting an assessment to identify needs for lending services in those communities.

“City National worked cooperatively with the Department to remedy the redlining allegations,” the DOJ said in the statement on Thursday. “In conjunction with this settlement, City National has announced that it is proactively taking steps to expand its lending services in other markets around the country to provide greater access to credit in communities of color.”

City National Bank announced a new lending initiative on Wednesday that will help entrepreneurs and potential homebuyers in underserved communities gain access to capital, according to a press release.

“At City National, supporting our communities is core to who we are as an organization,” City National CEO Kelly Coffey said in a statement on Wednesday. “We take very seriously our obligation to ensure that all businesses and consumers have an equal opportunity to apply for and obtain credit.”

The settlement comes more than one year after the DOJ announced an initiative to combat redlining – a practice that is illegal under the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.

Garland said on Thursday that the Combating Redlining Initiative, which was launched in October 2021, has secured over $75 million dollars in relief for communities impacted by lending discrimination.

City National is the latest bank that was found over the past few years to be engaging in redlining practices in the U.S.

In October 2021, federal officials and the DOJ announced that Trustmark National Bank agreed to pay a $5 million settlement over allegations it engaged in lending discrimination in communities of color in Memphis, Tennessee.

ABC News’ Mark Nichols contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Stuck in house arrest and awaiting trial, disgraced crypto executive Sam Bankman-Fried spoke out on Thursday with the most extensive remarks since his arrest a month ago.

The fallen former CEO of FTX issued a 2,300-word rebuke of fraud and conspiracy charges, replete with charts and graphs. He said that he didn’t steal customer funds, instead blaming the company’s woes on a sharp downturn in the cryptocurrency market.

“I didn’t steal funds, and I certainly didn’t stash billions away,” said Bankman-Fried, who pleaded not guilty last week. He’s tentatively scheduled to stand trial in October.

The account marked Bankman-Fried’s first post on the newsletter platform Substack, which prompts readers to subscribe to receive future messages from Bankman-Fried directly in their inbox.

Federal prosecutors charged Bankman-Fried last month in an eight-count indictment for fraud, conspiracy and campaign finance violations linked to tens of millions of dollars in political donations.

He was released on a $250 million bond in late December, when he traveled to live at his parents’ home in Palo Alto, California.

Here are five takeaways from the account posted by Bankman-Fried on Thursday:

Bankman-Fried says he ‘did not steal’

In his post, Bankman-Fried contends that he did not steal customer funds, saying instead that he would have offered some of his own assets to help make investors whole before the company declared bankruptcy.

Federal prosecutors and government agencies accused Bankman-Fried of defrauding customers and investors in FTX as well as lenders to his hedge fund, Alameda Research.

Customers sent billions of dollars to FTX believing their assets were secure but, from the start, Bankman-Fried “improperly diverted customer assets to his privately-held crypto hedge fund, Alameda Research LLC, and then used those customer funds to make undisclosed venture investments, lavish real estate purchases, and large political donations,” according to a civil complaint from the Securities and Exchange commission.

In response to such allegations, Bankman-Fried on Thursday denied taking customer funds for personal use.

Further, he said investments made by Alameda Research did not amount to an inappropriate use of customer funds. Instead, the conduct comprised an unsuccessful but legal form of margin trading, in which an individual or institution makes an investment using borrowed funds.

“All of which is to say: no funds were stolen,” Bankman-Fried said.

Customers can still recover their money, Bankman-Fried said

After denying wrongdoing, Bankman-Fried said that he could help undo the damage that resulted from the alleged fraud: Billions in customer losses.

If the company had tried to raise money from new investors before declaring bankruptcy, it could have restored funds to its customers, he said.

Gretchen Lowe, acting director of the division of enforcement at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, estimated last month that FTX customers lost more than $8 billion.

According to Bankman-Fried, the company received billions in offers of additional liquidity when it declared bankruptcy in November, and more than $4 billion came in afterward.

Before FTX declared bankruptcy, Bankman Fried was willing to offer up some of his own wealth, he said. “Nearly all of my assets were and still are utilizable to backstop FTX customers,” he said.

“I think it’s likely that FTX could have made all customers whole if a concerted effort had been made to raise liquidity,” he said.

Bankman-Fried does not provide details of the supposed billions in potential investments.

Moreover, the reliability of Bankman-Fried’s account defies characterizations of shoddy record-keeping at FTX from current CEO John Ray.

Ray, who oversaw the dissolution of Enron, testified before House members on Tuesday that FTX lacked corporate controls to an extent he had never witnessed.

“I’ve never seen an utter lack of record keeping,” Ray said. “Absolutely no internal controls.”

A market crash brought down Alameda Research and FTX, Bankman-Fried said

Financial impropriety is not to blame for the downfall of Alameda Research and FTX, Bankman-Fried said on Thursday. Rather, a crash in the crypto market sent the firms reeling, exposing their leverage and forcing a series of losses that they could not reverse, he said.

“FTX International and Alameda were both legitimately and independently profitable businesses in 2021, each making billions,” Bankman-Fried said. “And then Alameda lost about 80 percent of its assets’ value over the course of 2022, due to a series of market crashes.”

Alameda Research failed to adequately hedge against such losses, leaving the hedge fund with no way to offset the crunch, he said.

While the market downturn likely hastened the demise of FTX, the issue stands apart from the alleged misuse of customer funds.

A tweet from a rival CEO delivered the final blow to FTX, Bankman-Fried said

Bankman-Fried attributed the ultimate failure of FTX to a post on social media from Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of rival crypto exchange Binance.

On Nov. 6, Zhao, often referred to as “CZ,” said in a tweet that he would sell all of the company’s holdings in FTT, a token created by FTX.

The major exit from a crypto heavyweight triggered a wider sell-off, akin to a bank run, placing immense pressure on FTX to meet the sudden demand for customer withdrawals. Due to a lack of funds, FTX halted customer withdrawals altogether.

In his remarks on Thursday, Bankman-Fried described the social media post from Zhao as “CZ’s fateful tweet.”

The message of caution from an industry titan brought about “an extreme, quick, targeted crash,” Bankman-Fried said.

Bankman-Fried did not run Alameda Research, he said

Bankman-Fried asserts that in recent years he did not run Alameda Research, which he founded in 2017.

The contention rebukes allegations that Bankman-Fried abused his role as the de facto head of Alameda Research, the hedge fund that traded with FTX customer money.

The statement from Bankman-Fried conflicts with testimony last month from Ray, the current FTX CEO.

Ray, who is overseeing the company’s bankruptcy proceedings, told House members that no separation existed between the operations of FTX and Alameda Research, a crypto hedge fund also founded by Bankman-Fried.

“There were virtually no internal controls and no separateness whatsoever,” Ray said.

“The owners of the company could run free reign,” he added, noting that Bankman-Fried owned 90% of Alameda Research.

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(NEW YORK) — Consumer prices rose 6.5% last month compared to a year ago, extending a months-long slowdown of price hikes and bolstering hopes that the U.S. can avert a recession.

Year-over-year inflation has fallen for six consecutive months since it reached a peak of 9.1% in June. Despite the slowdown in price increases, inflation continues to hover near a 40-year high.

Economists had predicted a CPI increase of 6.7%.

The Federal Reserve imposed a string of aggressive rate hikes last year that aim to slow price increases by cooling the economy and choking off demand. The approach, however, risks tipping the U.S. into a recession and putting millions out of work.

A further slowdown in price increases would allow the Federal Reserve to taper off interest rate hikes, positioning the U.S. economy to avoid a severe downturn, Dana Peterson, chief economist at The Conference Board, told ABC News.

“If inflation continues to slow and especially is slowing in areas that the Fed has the most control over, then that’s a good thing,” she said.

In early February, the Federal Reserve will decide whether to raise interest rates again and, if so, how much. At a meeting last month, the central bank raised its benchmark rate by 0.5%, softening its approach after a series of jumbo-sized 0.75% increases.

Still, Fed Chair Jerome Powell vowed to continue imposing rate hikes until inflation returns to the central bank’s target level of 2%.

“Fifty basis points is still a historically large increase, and we still have some ways to go,” Powell said last month. “We will stay the course until the job is done.”

So far, the labor market has proven resilient, buoying the hopes of policymakers seeking to cool prices without causing significant job losses.

Hiring remained strong last month as employers added 233,000 jobs and wages grew a robust 4.6% compared to a year earlier.

While the wage gains offered welcome relief for workers strained by price hikes, they marked a slowdown from 5.1% annual growth recorded in November, reassuring some observers who fear that rising wages could push companies to hike prices and deepen inflation.

The labor market has struck a balance between strong hiring that keeps Americans employed and moderate wage growth that prevents runaway inflation, Iwan Barankay, a professor of business economics and public policy at University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, told ABC News.

“We still see healthy increases in hiring month to month. It’s not too hot and not too cold,” he said. “I really don’t see any merit in scaremongering.”

Despite the robust job market, growing evidence suggests the Fed’s rate hikes have put the brakes on some economic activity.

Home sales fell for the 10th month in a row in November, the most recent month on record. Sales of existing homes, such as single-family homes and condominiums, were down about 35% from a year earlier.

Meanwhile, new orders for U.S.-manufactured goods fell more than expected in November, suggesting that consumer demand had slowed, according to Commerce Department data released last week.

Similarly, the country’s factory activity shrank for a second consecutive month in December, according to an Institute for Supply Management survey.

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