That Xcel Energy/HomeServe mailer offering insurance for exterior water lines or electrical systems? Here’s what it’s about.

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Xcel Energy customers taken aback by a mailer marketing insurance coverage for the water line and electrical systems on the exterior of their home can rest assured the offers are legitimate. The utility company previously owned HomeSmart, a monthly subscription service that offers check-ups and in some cases replacement coverage for home appliances.

Xcel, which operates in eight states, has sold its HomeSmart coverage line to HomeServe, a nationwide provider that has been soliciting homeowners with offers to cover exterior water line and electrical system repairs.

“It’s a legitimate mailer,” said Theo Keith, a Twin Cities-based Xcel Energy spokesman. “It’s co-branded between us and HomeServe. It’s approved by us. … This mailer was meant as an introduction to customers that it’s now called HomeServe.”

The two types of coverage are being advertised for about $72 annually, or a combined $130.

“The whole point of it is to minimize unexpected repairs on the customer side, because the customer owns that part of the infrastructure,” Keith said.

Exterior water, electrical lines

Homeowners may not be aware that they own the water line extending from their house, out under the sidewalk and into the public water main in the street. If that should rupture or crumble with age, they could be on the hook for repair and replacement costs, which can stretch into thousands of dollars.

Homeowners also own certain aspects of exterior electrical systems, such as a meter base, service entrance conductor, weatherhead and riser.  The weatherhead is the gooseneck-like rod, or entry point, where overhead power lines enter the home or transition between overhead and underground cables.

In an email, a HomeServe spokesman said the company works with some 5 million customers and 1,250 municipal and utility providers across North America, offering a variety of coverage types for appliances and other home repairs. Residents who may not have received the mailing can visit homesmartplans.com to see all their program offers or call HomeServe at 1-844-245-3657 for more information.

“We sold our HomeSmart service business to HomeServe because they have an excellent track record of customer service and will offer our customers a greater variety of product offerings to fit their needs,” Keith said.

The financial terms of the sale have been kept private.

Pros and cons

HomeServe’s U.S. offices are based in Norwalk, Conn., and opened in 2003. The company was founded in Britain in 1993 and has since expanded to France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Canada and Japan.

Like home warranties, subscription repair services are not without their critics.

“My main concern would be families feeling pressured to enroll in a service that seems to be coming from their utility provider when it’s actually from a random third party with little to no verifiable local presence,” said Matt Privratsky, a St. Paul-based clean energy advocate.

“It can be hard, particularly for new residents, to learn what’s truly needed and necessary to maintain your home and these kinds of services, in particular, feel tailor-made to take advantage of that fear and anxiety,” he said.

Then again, there’s something to be said for sleeping worry-free.

Consumer websites like Marketwatch.com say homeowners would do well to calculate the cost of an unused home warranty or subscription repair service over time — say, multiply the subscription cost by five or six years — and weigh that against the cost of an unexpected appliance repair and the impact on personal savings. Coverage may be less important for new or frequently updated appliances and service systems.

“You may pay a bit more in the long run by purchasing a home warranty than going without one, but millions of homeowners feel that the benefits are well worth the price,” reads Marketwatch.com.

St. Paul replacing lead lines

Some potential HomeServe customers have questioned why they would buy coverage for their water line when the city of St. Paul and water utility are currently replacing thousands of lead service lines free of charge for homeowners.

Working alongside the city, St. Paul Regional Water Services has made it a goal over the next decade to replace 26,000 lead lines servicing private homes, most of them in St. Paul.

Using state and federal aid, those replacement costs have been free to date for hundreds of homeowners, though officials have acknowledged that it will be a challenge to find full funding for what could be a $223 million undertaking over the course of a decade.

St. Paul homeowners can determine if they have a lead service line by visiting the interactive map available at StPaul.gov/Water.

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TikTok sues US to block law that could ban the social media platform

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By HALELUYA HADERO (AP Business Writer)

TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance are suing the U.S. over a law that would ban the popular video-sharing app unless it’s sold to another company.

The lawsuit filed on Tuesday may be setting up what could be a protracted legal fight over TikTok’s future in the United States.

The popular social video company alleged the law, which President Joe Biden signed as part of a larger $95 billion foreign aid package, is so “obviously unconstitutional” that the sponsors of The Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act are trying to portray the law not as a ban, but as a regulation of TikTok’s ownership.

“Congress has taken the unprecedented step of expressly singling out and banning TikTok: a vibrant online forum for protected speech and expression used by 170 million Americans to create, share, and view videos over the Internet,” ByteDance said in its suit. “For the first time in history, Congress has enacted a law that subjects a single, named speech platform to a permanent, nationwide ban, and bars every American from participating in a unique online community with more than 1 billion people worldwide.”

The law requires TikTok’s parent, ByteDance, to sell the platform within nine months. If a sale is already in progress, the company will get another three months to complete the deal. ByteDance has said it “doesn’t have any plan to sell TikTok.” But even it wanted to divest, the company would have to get a blessing from Beijing, which previously opposed a forced sale of the platform and has signaled its opposition this time around.

TikTok and ByteDance argued in the lawsuit that is really isn’t being given a choice.

“The ‘qualified divestiture’ demanded by the Act to allow TikTok to continue operating in the United States is simply not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally,” they said.

Under the act, TikTok will be forced to shut down by Jan. 19, 2025, according to the lawsuit.

The parties argued that they should be protected by the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of expression.

The fight over TikTok takes place as U.S.-China relations have shifted to that of intense strategic rivalry, especially in areas such as advanced technologies and data security, seen as essential to each country’s economic prowess and national security.

U.S. lawmakers from both parties, as well as administration and law enforcement officials, have expressed concerns that Chinese authorities could force ByteDance to hand over U.S. user data or sway public opinion by manipulating the algorithm that populates users’ feeds. Some have also pointed to a Rutgers University study that maintains TikTok content was being amplified or underrepresented based on how it aligns with the interests of the Chinese government, which the company disputes.

Opponents of the law argue that Chinese authorities – or any nefarious parties – could easily get information on Americans in other ways, including through commercial data brokers that rent or sell personal information. They note the U.S. government hasn’t provided public evidence that shows TikTok sharing U.S. user information with Chinese authorities, or tinkering with its algorithm for China’s benefit. They also say attempts to ban the app could violate free speech rights in the U.S.

Donald Trump calls Joe Biden weak on antisemitism, ignoring his own rhetoric

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By MICHELLE L. PRICE and ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON (Associated Press)

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump is accusing Joe Biden of offering a weak response to antisemitism, wielding the clashes on colleges campuses over the war in Gaza as a campaign issue. But Trump’s attacks ignore his own long history of rhetoric that invokes the language of Nazi Germany and plays on stereotypes of Jews and politics.

The latest example came over the weekend, when Trump — accusing the White House of having a role in his multiple state and federal criminal prosecutions — told Republican donors gathered for a private retreat at his Florida resort that Biden is running a “Gestapo administration,” referring to the secret police force of Nazi Germany.

Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, called it a “deliberate tactic” to attack Biden and distract from his own track record.

“It’s wholly aligned with his long history of offensive and irresponsible comments when it comes to the Jewish community, including the normalization of antisemitism,” Spitalnick said.

Biden’s campaign called it “despicable” and an attack on law enforcement.

Trump’s attempts to claim a moral high ground against antisemitism come as the Democratic president is navigating the intense divisions of the Israel-Hamas war and the resulting unrest from demonstrations. Trump and other Republicans have seized on the disruptions on college campuses, which have at times been violent, as a sign of weakness from Biden and Democrats. It’s also the latest example of Trump’s timeworn tactic of repackaging a censure he’s received and stamping it on his opponents.

As pro-Palestinian demonstrations have broken out at college campuses, some people have reported antisemitic chants and messages at and around the protests and some Jewish students have said they have felt unsafe on campus. Trump’s campaign on Monday released a video on Yom Hashoah, Israel’s Holocaust remembrance day, that aimed to contrast the 2024 presidential candidates’ responses on antisemitism.

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The video shows images of Trump visiting Israel and speeches he has given pledging to stand with Jewish people and confront antisemitism, while showing footage of the protests on campuses and clips of Biden responding to protesters upset with his administration’s support for Israel in its war against Hamas. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

One of the clips shows Biden saying, “They have a point,” but does not include the next sentence in which Biden said, “We need to get a lot more care into Gaza.”

Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary for Trump’s campaign, criticized Biden for taking “weeks to even talk about the Biden Campus Protests” and not condemning what she described as “pro-Hamas, pro-genocide mobs,” saying “the sad truth is that he needs their votes.”

“Jewish Americans and Jewish leaders around the world recognize that President Trump did more for them and the State of Israel than any President in history,” Leavitt also said Monday.

Trump also spoke about the protests as he arrived in court Monday for his trial in a felony hush money case. Noting Columbia University has canceled its main commencement ceremony following weeks of pro-Palestinian protests, Trump said “that shouldn’t happen.” He also claimed that many protesters were backed by Biden donors.

“Ok, are you listening Israel? I hope you’re listening, Israel. Hope you’re getting smart,” Trump said.

Biden has said he condemns “the antisemitic protests” and last week, he broke days of silence and called for “order” after some schools cleared demonstrators by force, leading to clashes.

James Singer, a spokesperson for Biden’s campaign, said Biden stands against antisemitism but Trump does not.

“Trump has praised neo-Nazis, dined with neo-Nazis, echoed the rhetoric of neo-Nazis, and reportedly praised the accomplishments of Adolf Hitler,” Singer said in a statement. “He cannot lead us, so he seeks to divide us with the oldest of ideas – hate, anger, revenge, and retribution.”

After white nationalists chanting “Jews will not replace us!” rallied in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 and clashed with anti-racism protesters, Trump drew some of his fiercest backlash as president when he said that there “ were very fine people, on both sides.

Trump last week downplayed Charlottesville, saying the deadly rally was “nothing” compared to ongoing pro-Palestinian campus protests.

Not long after launching his third White House campaign in 2022, Trump drew widespread condemnation for having dinner at his Mar-a-Lago club with a Holocaust-denying white nationalist and the rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, shortly after he made weeks of antisemitic comments.

He’s drawn criticism on his third White House campaign for using language echoing that used by Adolf Hitler to argue that immigrants entering the U.S. illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country,” and labeled his opponents as “vermin.”

Trump has also been accused of promoting antisemitic tropes as he’s suggested that Jewish people who vote for Democrats “ hate Israel” and hate “their religion” are “very disloyal to Israel.” Critics have said the comments evoke the drop of dual loyalty, accusing Jews of being more loyal to their religion than their country.

After Trump’s reference to “Gestapo” over the weekend, Jonathan Sarna, an American Jewish history professor at Brandeis University, said there are “great dangers” in the Nazi comparisons.

“Not only it’s historically incorrect, it’s morally offensive,” Sarna said. “The problem is looking to associate whatever you don’t like with the most evil forces, ignoring all the crucial differences. At that point, we forget what the Holocaust really was.”

Associated Press writer Jill Colvin in New York contributed to this report.

Biden condemns current antisemitism in Holocaust remembrance during college protests and Gaza war

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By ZEKE MILLER (AP White House Correspondent)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden condemned the “ferocious surge of antisemitism in America and around the world” during a Tuesday ceremony to remember victims of the Holocaust at a time when the Hamas attack on Israel and controversy over the war in Gaza have sparked new waves of violence and hateful rhetoric toward Jews.

“We’re at risk of people not knowing the truth,” Biden said of the horrors of the Holocaust, when 6 million Jews were systematically killed by Nazi Germany and its collaborators. “This hatred continues to lie deep in the hearts of too many people in the world.”

Biden’s remarks at the Capitol played out as pro-Palestinian protests — some of which have involved antisemitic chants and threats toward Jewish students and supporters of Israel — rock college campuses across the country. It comes as the Democratic president has struggled to balance his support for Israel after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack — the deadliest day for Jews worldwide since the Holocaust — with his efforts to protect civilian life in Gaza. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

Biden said that on Oct. 7, Hamas “brought to life” that hatred with the killing of more than 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians.

“Not 75 years later, but just seven and a half months later, and people are already forgetting, they’re already forgetting, that Hamas unleashed this terror that it was Hamas that brutalized Israelis, that it was Hamas that took and continues to hold hostages,” Biden said. “I have not forgotten, nor have you. And we will not forget.”

Biden, whose relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has grown strained over his government’s push to invade the southern Gaza city of Rafah, said American support for Israel is “iron clad…even when we disagree.”

Biden steered clear of the upcoming presidential election in his speech. But his address comes as former President Donald Trump has criticized the incumbent for not doing more to combat antisemitism — while ignoring his own long history of rhetoric that invokes the language of Nazi Germany and plays on stereotypes of Jews in politics.

The Capitol event, hosted by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, also featured remarks from House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Holocaust survivors, local youth and elected officials took part in the remembrance ceremony, which included a recitation of the Jewish prayers for the dead.

The campus protests have posed a political challenge for Biden, whose coalition has historically relied on younger voters, many of whom are critical of his public support for Israel.

Biden said “There’s no place on any campus in America” or any place in America for antisemitism or threats of violence. He added, “We’re not a lawless country — we are a civil society”

In conjunction with Biden’s speech, his administration was announcing new steps to combat antisemitism on colleges campuses and beyond. The Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights was sending every school district and college in the nation a letter outlining examples of antisemitism and other hate that could lead to federal civil rights investigations.

The Department of Homeland Security was moving to educate schools and community groups about resources and funding available to promote campus safety and address threats. And the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism was meeting with technology companies on how to combat the rise in hateful conflict online.

On Monday, Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris and the first Jewish spouse of a nationally elected American leader, met with Jewish college students at the White House about the administration’s efforts to combat antisemitism. He heard students describe their own experiences with hatred, including threats of violence and hate speech, his office said.

Trump’s campaign on Monday released a video on Yom Hashoah, Israel’s Holocaust remembrance day, that aimed to contrast the 2024 presidential candidates’ responses on antisemitism.

The video shows images of Trump visiting Israel and speeches he has given pledging to stand with Jewish people and confront antisemitism, while showing footage of the protests on campuses and clips of Biden responding to protesters upset with his administration’s support for Israel in its war against Hamas.

One of the clips shows Biden saying, “They have a point,” but does not include the next sentence in which Biden said, “We need to get a lot more care into Gaza.”

Biden campaign spokesman James Singer said in response that “President Biden stands against antisemitism and is committed to the safety of the Jewish community, and security of Israel — Donald Trump does not.”

Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price in New York and Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.