KANSAS CITY—The search for a missing Kansas City-area teen is over. On Sunday, Kansas City&nbsp; police reported the deceased person found Friday afternoon in Gladstone, Missouri near Englewood Road and N Broadway was that of 13-year-old Jayden Robker.

Police in Gladstone are conducting the death investigation and there is no immediate indication of foul play.

Last week,&nbsp;The FBI announced a $5,000&nbsp; reward for information regarding the whereabouts of the boy.

He was last seen Feb. 2 at 3p.m. in the are of NW Plaza Drive and NW Plaza Avenue in Kansas City. He was wearing a green camouflage hoodie, grey sweat pants, black puma tennis shoes and was riding a black razor skate board.&nbsp;

KANSAS CITY —The FBI this week announced a $5,000&nbsp; reward for information regarding the whereabouts of missing juvenile Jayden Robker.

The boy was last seen Feb. 2 at 3p.m. in the are of NW Plaza Drive and NW Plaza Avenue in Kansas City. He was wearing a green camouflage hoodie, grey sweat pants, black puma tennis shoes and was riding a black razor skate board.&nbsp;

Anyone with information on Jayden's whereabouts is encouraged to call law enforcement immediately.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/3/1678305651900.png" alt="Jayden Robker" />
 <figcaption>Jayden Robker</figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY—The search for a missing Kansas City-area teen is over. On Sunday, Kansas City&nbsp; police reported the deceased person found Friday afternoon in Gladstone, Missouri near Englewood Road and N Broadway was that of 13-year-old Jayden Robker.Police in Gladstone are conducting the death investigation and there is no immediate indication of foul play.Last week,&nbsp;The FBI announced a $5,000&nbsp; reward for information regarding the whereabouts of the boy.He was last seen Feb. 2 at 3p.m. in the are of NW Plaza Drive and NW Plaza Avenue in Kansas City. He was wearing a green camouflage hoodie, grey sweat pants, black puma tennis shoes and was riding a black razor skate board.&nbsp;------------KANSAS CITY —The FBI this week announced a $5,000&nbsp; reward for information regarding the whereabouts of missing juvenile Jayden Robker.The boy was last seen Feb. 2 at 3p.m. in the are of NW Plaza Drive and NW Plaza Avenue in Kansas City. He was wearing a green camouflage hoodie, grey sweat pants, black puma tennis shoes and was riding a black razor skate board.&nbsp;<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NEW?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NEW</a> - The FBI has announced a $5k reward for information regarding the whereabouts of missing juvenile Jayden Robker. Anyone with information on Jayden&#39;s whereabouts is encouraged to call law enforcement immediately. <a href="https://t.co/EEIvoHaie2">pic.twitter.com/EEIvoHaie2</a>&mdash; FBI Kansas City (@FBIKansasCity) <a href="https://twitter.com/FBIKansasCity/status/1633500779117166593?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 8, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>Anyone with information on Jayden's whereabouts is encouraged to call law enforcement immediately.

Police confirm body found was missing 13-year-old

NEW YORK (AP) — Governments in the UK and U.S. took extraordinary steps to stop a potential banking crisis after the historic failure of Silicon Valley Bank, even as another major bank was shut down.

The UK Treasury and the Bank of England announced early Monday that they had facilitated the sale of Silicon Valley Bank UK to HSBC, Europe's biggest bank, ensuring the security of 6.7 billion pounds ($8.1 billion) of deposits.

British officials worked throughout the weekend to find a buyer for the UK subsidiary of the California-based bank. Its collapse was the second-largest bank failure in history.

U.S. regulators also worked all weekend to try to find a buyer. Those efforts appeared to have failed Sunday, but U.S. officials assured all depositors that they could access all their money quickly.

The announcement came amid fears that the factors that caused the Santa Clara, California-based bank to fail could spread.

In a sign of how fast the financial bleeding was occurring, regulators announced that New York-based Signature Bank had also failed and was being seized on Sunday. At more than $110 billion in assets, Signature Bank is the third-largest bank failure in U.S. history.

The near-financial crisis left Asian markets jittery as trading began Monday. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 sank 1.6% in morning trading, Australia’s S&amp;P/ASX 200 lost 0.3% and South Korea’s Kospi shed 0.4%. But Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.4% and the Shanghai Composite increased 0.3%.

In an effort to shore up confidence in the banking system, the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve and FDIC said Sunday that all Silicon Valley Bank clients would be protected and able to access their money. They also announced steps that are intended to protect the bank’s customers and prevent additional bank runs.

“This step will ensure that the U.S. banking system continues to perform its vital roles of protecting deposits and providing access to credit to households and businesses in a manner that promotes strong and sustainable economic growth,” the agencies said in a joint statement.

Under the plan, depositors at Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, including those whose holdings exceed the $250,000 insurance limit, will be able to access their money on Monday.

Also Sunday, another beleaguered bank, First Republic Bank, announced that it had bolstered its financial health by gaining access to funding from the Fed and JPMorgan Chase.

In a separate announcement, the Fed late Sunday announced an expansive emergency lending program that’s intended to prevent a wave of bank runs that would threaten the stability of the banking system and the economy as a whole. Fed officials characterized the program as akin to what central banks have done for decades: Lend freely to the banking system so that customers would be confident that they could access their accounts whenever needed.

The lending facility will allow banks that need to raise cash to pay depositors to borrow that money from the Fed, rather than having to sell Treasuries and other securities to raise the money. Silicon Valley Bank had been forced to dump some of its Treasuries at at a loss to fund its customers’ withdrawals. Under the Fed’s new program, banks can post those securities as collateral and borrow from the emergency facility.

The Treasury has set aside $25 billion to offset any losses incurred under the Fed’s emergency lending facility. Fed officials said, however, that they do not expect to have to use any of that money, given that the securities posted as collateral have a very low risk of default.

Analysts said the Fed’s program should be enough to calm financial markets.

“Monday will surely be a stressful day for many in the regional banking sector, but today’s action dramatically reduces the risk of further contagion,” economists at Jefferies, an investment bank, said in a research note.

Though Sunday’s steps marked the most extensive government intervention in the banking system since the 2008 financial crisis, its actions are relatively limited compared with what was done 15 years ago. The two failed banks themselves have not been rescued, and taxpayer money has not been provided to the banks.

President Joe Biden said Sunday evening as he boarded Air Force One back to Washington that he would speak about the bank situation on Monday. In a statement, Biden also said he was “firmly committed to holding those responsible for this mess fully accountable and to continuing our efforts to strengthen oversight and regulation of larger banks so that we are not in this position again.”

Regulators had to rush to close Silicon Valley Bank, a financial institution with more than $200 billion in assets, on Friday when it experienced a traditional run on the bank where depositors rushed to withdraw their funds all at once. It is the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history, behind only the 2008 failure of Washington Mutual.

Some prominent Silicon Valley executives feared that if Washington didn’t rescue the failed bank, customers would make runs on other financial institutions in the coming days. Stock prices plunged over the last few days at other banks that cater to technology companies, including First Republic Bank and PacWest Bank.

Among the bank’s customers are a range of companies from California’s wine industry, where many wineries rely on Silicon Valley Bank for loans, and technology startups devoted to combating climate change. Sunrun, which sells and leases solar energy systems, had less than $80 million of cash deposits with Silicon Valley. Stitchfix, the clothing retail website, disclosed recently that it had a credit line of up to $100 million with Silicon Valley Bank and other lenders.

Tiffany Dufu, founder and CEO of The Cru, a New York-based career coaching platform and community for women, posted a video Sunday on LinkedIn from an airport bathroom, saying the bank crisis was testing her resiliency. Given that her money was tied up at Silicon Valley Bank, she had to pay her employees out of her personal bank account. With two teenagers to support who will be heading to college, she said she was relieved to hear that the government’s intent is to make depositors whole.

“Small businesses and early-stage startups don’t have a lot of access to leverage in a situation like this, and we’re often in a very vulnerable position, particularly when we have to fight so hard to get the wires into your bank account to begin with, particularly for me, as a Black female founder,” Dufu told The Associated Press.

Silicon Valley Bank began its slide into insolvency when its customers, largely technology companies that needed cash as they struggled to get financing, started withdrawing their deposits. The bank had to sell bonds at a loss to cover the withdrawals, leading to the largest failure of a U.S. financial institution since the height of the financial crisis.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen pointed to rising interest rates, which have been increased by the Federal Reserve to combat inflation, as the core problem for Silicon Valley Bank. Many of its assets, such as bonds or mortgage-backed securities, lost market value as rates climbed.

Sheila Bair, who was chairwoman of the FDIC during the 2008 financial crisis, recalled that with nearly all the bank failures then, “we sold a failed bank to a healthy bank. And usually, the healthy acquirer would also cover the uninsured because they wanted the franchise value of those large depositors so optimally, that’s the best outcome.”

But with Silicon Valley Bank, she told NBC’s “Meet the Press,” “this was a liquidity failure, it was a bank run, so they didn’t have time to prepare to market the bank. So they’re having to do that now, and playing catch-up.”

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. government took extraordinary steps Sunday to stop a potential banking crisis after the historic failure of Silicon Valley Bank, assuring all depositors at the failed institution that they could access all their money quickly, even as another major bank was shut down.

The announcement came amid fears that the factors that caused the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.svb.com/">Santa Clara, California-based bank</a>&nbsp;to fail could spread. Regulators had worked all weekend to try to find a buyer for the bank, which was the second-largest bank failure in history. Those efforts appeared to have failed Sunday.

The near-financial crisis that U.S. regulators had to intervene to prevent left Asian markets jittery as trading began Monday. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 sank 1.6% in morning trading, Australia’s S&amp;P/ASX 200 lost 0.3% and South Korea’s Kospi shed 0.4%. But Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.4% and the Shanghai Composite increased 0.3%.

In a separate announcement, the Fed late Sunday announced an expansive emergency lending program that's intended to prevent a wave of bank runs that would threaten the stability of the banking system and the economy as a whole. Fed officials characterized the program as akin to what central banks have done for decades: Lend freely to the banking system so that customers would be confident that they could access their accounts whenever needed.

Analysts said the Fed’s program should be enough to calm financial markets on Monday.

Though Sunday's steps marked the most extensive government intervention in the banking system since the 2008 financial crisis, its actions are relatively limited compared with what was done 15 years ago. The two failed banks themselves have not been rescued, and taxpayer money has not been provided to the banks.

Some prominent Silicon Valley executives feared that if Washington didn’t rescue the failed bank,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/silicon-valley-bank-janet-yellen-bailout-fdic-fail-failed-c224cf4d2ef07c70cd27e7d0d3be628b">customers would make runs on other financial institutions</a>&nbsp;in the coming days. Stock prices plunged over the last few days at other banks that cater to technology companies, including First Republic Bank and PacWest Bank.

Among the bank's customers are a range of companies from California’s wine industry, where many wineries rely on Silicon Valley Bank for loans, and technology startups devoted to combating climate change. Sunrun, which sells and leases solar energy systems, had less than $80 million of cash deposits with Silicon Valley. Stitchfix, the clothing retail website, disclosed recently that it had a credit line of up to $100 million with Silicon Valley Bank and other lenders.

Tiffany Dufu, founder and CEO of The Cru, a New York-based career coaching platform and community for women, posted a video Sunday on LinkedIn from an airport bathroom, saying the bank crisis was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7040727755319037952/">testing her resiliency</a>. Given that her money was tied up at Silicon Valley Bank, she had to pay her employees out of her personal bank account. With two teenagers to support who will be heading to college, she said she was relieved to hear that the government’s intent is to make depositors whole.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen pointed to rising interest rates, which have been&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-federal-reserve-interest-rates-powell-unemployment-79b7ead4530ab381a17638a6c9df2d90">increased by the Federal Reserve</a>&nbsp;to combat inflation, as the core problem for Silicon Valley Bank. Many of its assets, such as bonds or mortgage-backed securities, lost market value as rates climbed.

But with Silicon Valley Bank, she told NBC's “Meet the Press,” “this was a liquidity failure, it was a bank run, so they didn’t have time to prepare to market the bank. So they’re having to do that now, and playing catch-up.”

NEW YORK (AP) — Can Washington come to the rescue of the depositors of failed Silicon Valley Bank? Is it even politically possible?

That was one of the growing questions in Washington Sunday as policymakers tried to figure out whether the U.S. government — and its taxpayers — should bail out a failed bank that largely&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/silicon-valley-bank-svb-collapse-customers-ec0148382edb344c27c0bdfdcbd3cf66">served Silicon Valley</a>, with all its wealth and power.

Prominent Silicon Valley personalities and executives have been hitting the giant red “PANIC" button, saying that if Washington does not come to the rescue of Silicon Valley bank’s depositors, more bank runs are likely.

“The gov't has about 48 hours to fix a soon-to-be-irreversible mistake,” Bill Ackman, a prominent Wall Street investor, wrote on Twitter. Ackman has said he does not have any deposits with Silicon Valley Bank but is invested in companies that do.

Some other Silicon Valley personalities have been even more bombastic.

“On Monday 100,000 Americans will be lined up at their regional bank demanding their money — most will not get it,” Jason Calacanis wrote on Twitter. Calacanis, a tech investor, has been close with Elon Musk, who recently took over the social media network.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/svb-fed-bonds-rates-banks-inflation-a24b28b3caeede91c76cd120aa9b7966">Silicon Valley Bank failed on Friday</a>, as fearful depositors withdrew billions of dollars from the bank in a matter of hours, forcing U.S. banking regulators to urgently close the bank in the middle of the workday to stop the bank run. It’s the second-largest bank failure in history, behind the collapse of Washington Mutual at the height of the 2008 financial crisis.

<a href="https://www.svb.com/">Silicon Valley Bank</a>&nbsp;was a unique creature in the banking world. The 16th-largest bank in the country largely served technology startup companies, venture capital firms, and well-paid technology workers, as its name implies. Because of this, the vast majority of the deposits at Silicon Valley Bank were in business accounts with balances significantly above the insured $250,000 limit.

Its failure has caused more than $150 billion in deposits to be now locked up in receivership, which means startups and other businesses may not be able to get to their money for a long time.

Staff at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation — the agency that insures bank deposits under $250,000 — have worked through the weekend looking for a potential buyer for the assets of the failed bank. There have been multiple bidders for assets, but as of Sunday morning, the bank’s corpse remained in the custody of the U.S. government.

Despite the panic from Silicon Valley,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/silicon-valley-bank-failure-fdic-tech-vc-f343cdc6a8adee4a3635b756cec1f787">there are no signs</a>&nbsp;that the bank’s failure could lead to a 2008-like crisis. The nation’s banking system is healthy, holds more capital than it has ever held in its history, and has undergone multiple stress tests that shows the overall system could withstand even a substantial economic recession.

Further, it appears that Silicon Valley Bank’s failure appears to be a unique situation where the bank’s executives made poor business decisions by buying bonds just as the Federal Reserve was about to raise interest rates, and the bank was singularly exposed to one particular industry that has seen a severe contraction in the past year.

Investors have been looking for banks in similar situations. The stock of First Republic Bank, a bank that serves the wealthy and technology companies, went down nearly a third in two days. PacWest Bank, a California-based bank that caters to small to medium-sized businesses, plunged 38% on Friday.

While highly unusual, it was clear that a bank failure this size was causing worries. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen as well as the White House, has been “watching closely” the developments; the governor of California has&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/CAgovernor/status/1634634828204367872?cxt=HHwWgIDTiebtsa8tAAAA">spoken to President Biden</a>; and bills have now been proposed in Congress to up the FDIC insurance limit to temporarily protect depositors.

“I’ve been working all weekend with our banking regulators to design appropriate policies to address this situation,” Yellen said on “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

But Yellen made it clear in her interview that if Silicon Valley is expecting Washington to come to its rescue, it is mistaken. Asked whether a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/silicon-valley-bank-bailout-yellen-deposits-failure-94f2185742981daf337c4691bbb9ec1e?utm_source=homepage&amp;utm_medium=TopNews&amp;utm_campaign=position_02">bailout was on the table</a>, Yellen said, “We’re not going to do that again."

“But we are concerned about depositors, and we’re focused on trying to meet their needs,” she added.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, said on ABC's “This Week” that it would be a “moral hazard” to potentially bail out Silicon Valley's uninsured depositors. Moral hazard was a term used often during the 2008 financial crisis for why Washington shouldn't have bailed out Lehman Brothers.

The growing panic narrative among tech industry insiders is many businesses who stored their operating cash at Silicon Valley Bank will be unable to make payroll or pay office expenses in the coming days or weeks of those uninsured deposits are not released. However, the FDIC has said it plans to pay an unspecified “advanced dividend” — i.e. a portion of the uninsured deposits — to depositors this week and said more advances will be paid as assets are sold.

The ideal situation is the FDIC finds a singular buyer of Silicon Valley Bank’s assets, or maybe two or three buyers. It is just as likely that the bank will be sold off piecemeal over the coming weeks. Insured depositors will have access to their funds on Monday, and any uninsured deposits will be available as the FDIC sells off assets to make depositors whole.

Todd Phillips, a consultant and former attorney at the FDIC, said he expects that uninsured depositors will likely get back 85% to 90% of their deposits if the sale of the bank’s assets is done in an orderly manner. He said it was never the intention of Congress to protect business accounts with deposit insurance — that the theory was businesses should be doing their due diligence on banks when storing their cash.

Protecting bank accounts to include businesses would require an act of Congress, Phillips said. It’s unclear whether the banking industry would support higher insurance limits as well, since FDIC insurance is paid for by the banks through assessments and higher limits would require higher assessments.

Philips added the best thing Washington can do is communicate that the overall banking system is safe and that uninsured depositors will get most of their money back.

“Folks in Washington need to be forcefully countering the narrative on Twitter coming from Silicon Valley. If people realize they are going to get 80% to 90% of your deposits back, but it will take awhile, it will do a lot to stop a panic,” he said.

US, UK move to stop potential international banking crisis

HERMANN, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri police officer was fatally shot and a second officer was seriously wounded in an overnight shooting that was followed by an apparent police standoff with the suspect, police said.

The Missouri Highway Patrol announced early Monday that Detective Sgt. Mason Griffith with the Hermann Police Department died of his injuries at a hospital after being shot at a convenience store in the small town about 9:30 p.m. Sunday.

The highway patrol said a second Hermann officer who was shot remains hospitalized in serious condition. Highway patrol spokesman Corporal Kyle Green told&nbsp;<a href="https://fox2now.com/news/missouri/hermann-police-confirmed-dead-after-sunday-shooting/">KTVI-TV</a>&nbsp;the wounded officer was brought to a St. Louis hospital for treatment.

Authorities have not released details describing what led to the shooting or said whether officers returned fire.

The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/st-louis-county-man-sought-after-one-hermann-mo-policeman-killed-another-injured/article_78c79bd3-ba93-5ce6-a7c3-b3f26cf0a920.html#tracking-source=mp-homepage">St. Louis Post-Dispatch</a>&nbsp;reported the highway patrol identified the shooting suspect as Kenneth Lee Simpson, 35, of Eureka, Missouri, and that police were involved in an apparent manhunt near a house in Hermann along Highway 19, not far from the convenience store where the shooting happened.

Police surrounded the home and yelled at the alleged gunman to come outside. Officers earlier had searched near a motel in Hermann, where Simpson and his girlfriend may have rented a room Sunday, the Post-Dispatch reported.

Online Missouri court records show Simpson faced previous criminal charges involving drugs, weapons offenses, assault and property damage. A St. Louis County judge issued a warrant for his arrest in August when Simpson failed to show up in court in a drug possession case, the Post-Dispatch reported.

GASCONADE COUNTY —The Missouri State Highway Patrol issued a Blue Alert late Sunday after two police officers were shot in Hermann, Missouri.&nbsp;

EMS transported both injured officers to area hospitals. Detective Sergeant Mason Griffith died of his injuries. The second officer is in serious but stable condition, according to MSHP Troop F.

The suspect has been identified as 35-year-0ld Kenneth Lee Simpson who drives a Black 2014 Jeep Wrangler with license plate RF5A0P. Police were unsure whether Simpson was on foot or driving the vehicle when he fled. Hermann is located three hours east of Kansas City.

A Blue Alert is issued to give police an early warning of threats against police officers and to aid in the apprehension of suspects who have killed or seriously injured an officer.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/3/1678704628117.png" alt="Simpson photo MSHP" />
 <figcaption>Simpson photo MSHP</figcaption>
 </figure>HERMANN, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri police officer was fatally shot and a second officer was seriously wounded in an overnight shooting that was followed by an apparent police standoff with the suspect, police said.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/3/1678710673722.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>The Missouri Highway Patrol announced early Monday that Detective Sgt. Mason Griffith with the Hermann Police Department died of his injuries at a hospital after being shot at a convenience store in the small town about 9:30 p.m. Sunday.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/3/1678710817088.png" alt="Detective Sergeant Mason Griffith" />
 <figcaption>Detective Sergeant Mason Griffith</figcaption>
 </figure>The highway patrol said a second Hermann officer who was shot remains hospitalized in serious condition. Highway patrol spokesman Corporal Kyle Green told&nbsp;<a href="https://fox2now.com/news/missouri/hermann-police-confirmed-dead-after-sunday-shooting/">KTVI-TV</a>&nbsp;the wounded officer was brought to a St. Louis hospital for treatment.Authorities have not released details describing what led to the shooting or said whether officers returned fire.The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/st-louis-county-man-sought-after-one-hermann-mo-policeman-killed-another-injured/article_78c79bd3-ba93-5ce6-a7c3-b3f26cf0a920.html#tracking-source=mp-homepage">St. Louis Post-Dispatch</a>&nbsp;reported the highway patrol identified the shooting suspect as Kenneth Lee Simpson, 35, of Eureka, Missouri, and that police were involved in an apparent manhunt near a house in Hermann along Highway 19, not far from the convenience store where the shooting happened.Police surrounded the home and yelled at the alleged gunman to come outside. Officers earlier had searched near a motel in Hermann, where Simpson and his girlfriend may have rented a room Sunday, the Post-Dispatch reported.Online Missouri court records show Simpson faced previous criminal charges involving drugs, weapons offenses, assault and property damage. A St. Louis County judge issued a warrant for his arrest in August when Simpson failed to show up in court in a drug possession case, the Post-Dispatch reported.--------GASCONADE COUNTY —The Missouri State Highway Patrol issued a Blue Alert late Sunday after two police officers were shot in Hermann, Missouri.&nbsp;EMS transported both injured officers to area hospitals. Detective Sergeant Mason Griffith died of his injuries. The second officer is in serious but stable condition, according to MSHP Troop F.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/3/1678710673722.png" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>The suspect has been identified as 35-year-0ld Kenneth Lee Simpson who drives a Black 2014 Jeep Wrangler with license plate RF5A0P. Police were unsure whether Simpson was on foot or driving the vehicle when he fled. Hermann is located three hours east of Kansas City.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/3/1678710817088.png" alt="Detective Sergeant Mason Griffith" />
 <figcaption>Detective Sergeant Mason Griffith</figcaption>
 </figure>A Blue Alert is issued to give police an early warning of threats against police officers and to aid in the apprehension of suspects who have killed or seriously injured an officer.

Update: Missouri officer killed, 2nd hurt in shooting; suspect fled

SEDGWICK COUNTY—A Kansas man is going to&nbsp;prison for the stabbing death of his disabled cousin.

On Wednesday, District Judge Jeffrey Syrios sentenced Jason Payne, 41 of Wichita, to 19-years in prison for the death of 52-year-old Michael Montgomery who was disabled and in a wheelchair, according to the Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett.

On January 13, 2021, officers were called to the intersection of 13th and Oliver in Wichita and found Payne lying in the lanes of traffic. He told an officer that he had killed his cousin. Police went to Payne’s apartment in the 900 block of N. Oliver and found an empty wheelchair and several discarded latex gloves. In a crawl space, officers discovered a black, nylon duffel bag containing the body ofMontgomery. 

An autopsy showed the victim had died of multiple stab wounds to the head and torso. Payne admitted to police he became angry with his cousin when Michael told him he had molested some people in the past. Payne said he got a “throwing knife” out of his room and began stabbing his cousin. He said he continued to drink and do drugs until the time he decided to surrender himself for the murder.

On July 29, 2022 Payne pled guilty to a charge of 2nd degree murder. 

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/1/1610628823403.png" alt="Payne-photo Sedgwick County" />
 <figcaption>Payne-photo Sedgwick County</figcaption>
 </figure>SEDGWICK COUNTY—A Kansas man is going to&nbsp;prison for the stabbing death of his disabled cousin.On Wednesday, District Judge Jeffrey Syrios sentenced Jason Payne, 41 of Wichita, to 19-years in prison for the death of 52-year-old Michael Montgomery who was disabled and in a wheelchair, according to the Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett.On January 13, 2021, officers were called to the intersection of 13th and Oliver in Wichita and found Payne lying in the lanes of traffic. He told an officer that he had killed his cousin. Police went to Payne’s apartment in the 900 block of N. Oliver and found an empty wheelchair and several discarded latex gloves. In a crawl space, officers discovered a black, nylon duffel bag containing the body ofMontgomery. An autopsy showed the victim had died of multiple stab wounds to the head and torso. Payne admitted to police he became angry with his cousin when Michael told him he had molested some people in the past. Payne said he got a “throwing knife” out of his room and began stabbing his cousin. He said he continued to drink and do drugs until the time he decided to surrender himself for the murder.On July 29, 2022 Payne pled guilty to a charge of 2nd degree murder.

Kansas man sentenced for killing his disabled cousin

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — An 85-year-old suburban Kansas City man convicted of killing an attorney is not competent to move forward with sentencing, a judge has ruled.

David Jungerman will be committed to the Missouri Department of Mental Health, and his competency will be reevaluated in six months following the ruling on Friday,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kctv5.com/2023/03/10/jungerman-be-committed-mental-health-facility-after-judge-rules-him-not-competent/">KCTV-TV</a>&nbsp;reported.

Jungerman was found guilty of first-degree murder in September for the 2017 killing of 39-year-old Tom Pickert, who was shot in front of his home after he returned from walking his children to school.

A judge in November ordered that Jungerman undergo a mental competency evaluation. At a hearing on Friday, experts testified that they found Jungerman incompetent. His lawyers had said Jungerman has an unspecified neurocognitive disorder.

Prosecutors didn't call any witnesses but previously presented evidence from their own expert who determined Jungerman was competent for sentencing.

At trial, prosecutors said Jungerman shot Pickert because he was upset the attorney had won a $5.75 million judgment for a homeless man who Jungerman shot in 2012 because he thought the man was stealing from one of his businesses.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/9/1663893726992.png" alt="Jungerman-photo Jackson Co." />
 <figcaption>Jungerman-photo Jackson Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — An 85-year-old suburban Kansas City man convicted of killing an attorney is not competent to move forward with sentencing, a judge has ruled.David Jungerman will be committed to the Missouri Department of Mental Health, and his competency will be reevaluated in six months following the ruling on Friday,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kctv5.com/2023/03/10/jungerman-be-committed-mental-health-facility-after-judge-rules-him-not-competent/">KCTV-TV</a>&nbsp;reported.Jungerman was found guilty of first-degree murder in September for the 2017 killing of 39-year-old Tom Pickert, who was shot in front of his home after he returned from walking his children to school.A judge in November ordered that Jungerman undergo a mental competency evaluation. At a hearing on Friday, experts testified that they found Jungerman incompetent. His lawyers had said Jungerman has an unspecified neurocognitive disorder.Prosecutors didn't call any witnesses but previously presented evidence from their own expert who determined Jungerman was competent for sentencing.At trial, prosecutors said Jungerman shot Pickert because he was upset the attorney had won a $5.75 million judgment for a homeless man who Jungerman shot in 2012 because he thought the man was stealing from one of his businesses.

Man who killed KC attorney ruled incompetent for sentencing

KANSAS CITY (AP) — When U.S. officials at the U.S.-Mexico border stamped the Ukrainian passports of Mariia and her daughter last April and gave them permission to stay for a year, she figured she would return home within months.

Now with that year almost up and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-bakhmut-a9f4d5c3d3b1c6f6fcc7e9abc69cc7b6">the war that caused them to flee still raging,</a>&nbsp;their permission to stay in the U.S. — known as humanitarian parole — is set to expire April 23.

“The word `worry’ doesn’t capture what I’m feeling,” said Mariia, who spoke through an interpreter and asked that only her first name be used over concerns that speaking publicly would hurt their immigration case. “This is something that frightens me, mainly because of my daughter and my daughter’s future.”

The 46-year-old woman and her daughter, now 13, are among 20,000 Ukrainians in a similar situation, according to resettlement agencies.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-caribbean-united-states-europe-mexico-6e12c9998ee0d167f327cd28880b3a94">Most arrived to the United States at its southern border after fleeing to Mexico,</a>&nbsp;where it was easier and faster to get a visa to enter the country in the first months following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Mariia's parole is tied to her work permit, enabling her to earn a living as a nanny, and makes her eligible for food stamps and other public assistance. Her husband flew to the U.S. to join them in July and received humanitarian parole for two years.

The Biden administration has said it is working on a fix but so far has issued no official guidance on what Ukrainians should do, according to advocates helping the Ukrainians. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment.

Jewish Federations of North America, which provided support for the agency that helped Mariia’s family get settled, is among the organizations that have written to the&nbsp;<a href="https://cdn.fedweb.org/fed-42/2/Ukraine-HP%2520advocacy%2520sign-on%2520letter_FINAL_SIGNED%255B2%255D.pdf">Biden administration</a>&nbsp;to quickly renew humanitarian parole for Ukrainians.

Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, the CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, said people are scrambling to figure out what to do. One option would be to apply for asylum, but a war doesn't necessarily qualify someone for that.

"Even short-term solutions like individual parole extensions are unclear since there’s no uniform guidance, which leads to delays and confusion,” she said.

Some Ukrainians have considered returning to the U.S. border crossings where they entered to ask for an extension, but that leaves the decision up to the port director, O’Mara Vignarajah said. It can also be expensive to travel and requires time off work, advocates said.

Some have been told by officials to write across the top of the government's parole form “Re-Parole," since there is no option to check for an extension, according to advocates.

“It highlights how ad hoc the process is,” O’Mara Vignarajah said. “These requests often go unanswered or are transferred to different agencies, and because there is no clear process in how to handle them, sometimes they are simply denied.”

The government turned to humanitarian parole as a quick fix to deal with the fallout from the many world crises that have occurred as the U.S. refugee system that was dismantled by the previous administration was being built back up. Now numerous groups are facing their permission to remain in the United States expiring in coming months, including tens of thousands of Afghans.

“Humanitarian parole was never meant to be over relied on at the expense of refugee resettlement or asylum protections," said Meredith Owen of Church World Service.

Liliia Lukianchuk, a Ukrainian mother of four, has applied for asylum with the help of Lutheran Social Services, but she and her husband have not gotten an answer. Their parole expires April 16, and it is tied to her husband’s mechanic job in Jacksonville, Florida, where they live. She fears that if they're sent back, her 17-year-old son will end up on the front lines as a solider.

“Of course, I’m worried because the worst-case scenario would be to be returned to Ukraine, but I have to be strong for my family,” she said through an interpreter.

Mariia and her daughter arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border after trying to settle in four different countries. The lines at Poland's border were too long. In Hungary, they could find a hotel room for only one night at a time and were told by locals that the government was not in favor of hosting Ukrainians. They went on to Belgium, where many Ukrainians were arriving, but the local school had no room for her daughter. Then in Spain, they were told it would be difficult to find work and an apartment. That's when Mariia decided to go to the United States and was told Mexico was the best way.

Jewish Family Services of Greenwich helped her find a job, enroll her daughter in school and get settled in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Mariia said only recently did she and her daughter start feeling hopeful about rebuilding their lives.

“To be honest, the first five months, my eyes to that were closed. My primary goal was to just make sure my child was OK, to calm her down and reassure her that she was safe,” she said.

Tania Priatka of Jewish Family Services said Mariia's family is working with a lawyer who has advised them to wait for guidance from the government. If that doesn't happen soon, they plan to go to the nearest airport and ask Customs and Border Protection officials there for help.

For now, Mariia tries to stay hopeful, but struggles when her daughter asks what will happen.

“I feel lost. I feel hopeless." Mariia said, her voice shaking as she grew emotional. "As a mother, I should be able to give my child an answer that she will be well and that she will be safe.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/3/1648233118305.png" alt="In March of 2022, Topeka business, government and community leaders are forming a task force to consider how to assist refugees fleeing Russia’s assault on Ukraine. Millions of Ukrainians have been displaced by the fighting. (Kansas Reflector screen capture of Topeka poster on Ukraine)" />
 <figcaption>In March of 2022, Topeka business, government and community leaders are forming a task force to consider how to assist refugees fleeing Russia’s assault on Ukraine. Millions of Ukrainians have been displaced by the fighting. (Kansas Reflector screen capture of Topeka poster on Ukraine)</figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY (AP) — When U.S. officials at the U.S.-Mexico border stamped the Ukrainian passports of Mariia and her daughter last April and gave them permission to stay for a year, she figured she would return home within months.Now with that year almost up and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-bakhmut-a9f4d5c3d3b1c6f6fcc7e9abc69cc7b6">the war that caused them to flee still raging,</a>&nbsp;their permission to stay in the U.S. — known as humanitarian parole — is set to expire April 23.“The word `worry’ doesn’t capture what I’m feeling,” said Mariia, who spoke through an interpreter and asked that only her first name be used over concerns that speaking publicly would hurt their immigration case. “This is something that frightens me, mainly because of my daughter and my daughter’s future.”The 46-year-old woman and her daughter, now 13, are among 20,000 Ukrainians in a similar situation, according to resettlement agencies.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-caribbean-united-states-europe-mexico-6e12c9998ee0d167f327cd28880b3a94">Most arrived to the United States at its southern border after fleeing to Mexico,</a>&nbsp;where it was easier and faster to get a visa to enter the country in the first months following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Mariia's parole is tied to her work permit, enabling her to earn a living as a nanny, and makes her eligible for food stamps and other public assistance. Her husband flew to the U.S. to join them in July and received humanitarian parole for two years.The Biden administration has said it is working on a fix but so far has issued no official guidance on what Ukrainians should do, according to advocates helping the Ukrainians. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment.Jewish Federations of North America, which provided support for the agency that helped Mariia’s family get settled, is among the organizations that have written to the&nbsp;<a href="https://cdn.fedweb.org/fed-42/2/Ukraine-HP%2520advocacy%2520sign-on%2520letter_FINAL_SIGNED%255B2%255D.pdf">Biden administration</a>&nbsp;to quickly renew humanitarian parole for Ukrainians.Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, the CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, said people are scrambling to figure out what to do. One option would be to apply for asylum, but a war doesn't necessarily qualify someone for that."Even short-term solutions like individual parole extensions are unclear since there’s no uniform guidance, which leads to delays and confusion,” she said.Some Ukrainians have considered returning to the U.S. border crossings where they entered to ask for an extension, but that leaves the decision up to the port director, O’Mara Vignarajah said. It can also be expensive to travel and requires time off work, advocates said.Some have been told by officials to write across the top of the government's parole form “Re-Parole," since there is no option to check for an extension, according to advocates.“It highlights how ad hoc the process is,” O’Mara Vignarajah said. “These requests often go unanswered or are transferred to different agencies, and because there is no clear process in how to handle them, sometimes they are simply denied.”The government turned to humanitarian parole as a quick fix to deal with the fallout from the many world crises that have occurred as the U.S. refugee system that was dismantled by the previous administration was being built back up. Now numerous groups are facing their permission to remain in the United States expiring in coming months, including tens of thousands of Afghans.“Humanitarian parole was never meant to be over relied on at the expense of refugee resettlement or asylum protections," said Meredith Owen of Church World Service.Liliia Lukianchuk, a Ukrainian mother of four, has applied for asylum with the help of Lutheran Social Services, but she and her husband have not gotten an answer. Their parole expires April 16, and it is tied to her husband’s mechanic job in Jacksonville, Florida, where they live. She fears that if they're sent back, her 17-year-old son will end up on the front lines as a solider.“Of course, I’m worried because the worst-case scenario would be to be returned to Ukraine, but I have to be strong for my family,” she said through an interpreter.Mariia and her daughter arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border after trying to settle in four different countries. The lines at Poland's border were too long. In Hungary, they could find a hotel room for only one night at a time and were told by locals that the government was not in favor of hosting Ukrainians. They went on to Belgium, where many Ukrainians were arriving, but the local school had no room for her daughter. Then in Spain, they were told it would be difficult to find work and an apartment. That's when Mariia decided to go to the United States and was told Mexico was the best way.Jewish Family Services of Greenwich helped her find a job, enroll her daughter in school and get settled in Greenwich, Connecticut.Mariia said only recently did she and her daughter start feeling hopeful about rebuilding their lives.“To be honest, the first five months, my eyes to that were closed. My primary goal was to just make sure my child was OK, to calm her down and reassure her that she was safe,” she said.Tania Priatka of Jewish Family Services said Mariia's family is working with a lawyer who has advised them to wait for guidance from the government. If that doesn't happen soon, they plan to go to the nearest airport and ask Customs and Border Protection officials there for help.For now, Mariia tries to stay hopeful, but struggles when her daughter asks what will happen.“I feel lost. I feel hopeless." Mariia said, her voice shaking as she grew emotional. "As a mother, I should be able to give my child an answer that she will be well and that she will be safe.”

Ukrainians who fled war face end of temporary US sanctuary

VATICAN CITY (AP) — So much for a short pontificate.

<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/pope-francis">Pope Francis</a>&nbsp;celebrates the 10th anniversary of his election Monday, far outpacing the “two or three” years he once envisioned for his papacy and showing no signs of slowing down.

On the contrary, with an agenda full of problems and plans and no longer encumbered by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-retirement-papacy-dcca464e7c1fd910568d07d6bf4d9994">the shadow of Pope Benedict XVI</a>, Francis, 86, has backed off from talking about retiring and recently described the papacy as a job for life.

History’s first Latin American pope already has made his mark and could have even more impact in the years to come. Yet a decade ago, the Argentine Jesuit was so convinced he wouldn’t be elected as pope that he nearly missed the final vote as he chatted with a fellow cardinal outside the Sistine Chapel.

“The master of ceremonies came out and said ‘Are you going in or not?’” Francis recalled in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “I realized afterward that it was my unconscious resistance to going in.”

He was elected the 266th pope on the next ballot.

Francis had a big learning curve on clergy sex abuse, initially downplaying the problem in ways that made survivors question whether he “got it.” He had his wake-up call five years into his pontificate after a problematic visit to Chile.

During the trip, he discovered a serious disconnect between&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/2018-the-year-in-review-pope-francis-ap-top-news-chile-international-news-1d175bccdb364e5387956fc0e0672bf2">what Chilean bishops had told him</a>&nbsp;about a notorious case and the reality: Hundreds or thousands of Chilean faithful had been raped and molested by Catholic priests over decades.

“That was my conversion,” he told the AP. “That’s when the bomb went off, when I saw the corruption of many bishops in this.”

Francis has passed a series of measures since then aimed at holding the church hierarchy accountable, but the results have been mixed. Benedict removed some 800 priests, but Francis seems far less eager to defrock abusers, reflecting resistance within the hierarchy to efforts to permanently remove predators from the priesthood.

The next frontier in the crisis has already reared its head: the sexual, spiritual and psychological abuse of adults by clergy. Francis is aware of the problem — a new&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-religion-vatican-city-736fadac67811722f2a33ef94d1e789a">case concerns one of his fellow Jesuits</a>&nbsp;— but there seems to be no will to take firm action

When the history of the Francis pontificate is written, entire chapters might well be devoted to his emphasis on “synodality,” a term that has little meaning outside Catholic circles but could go down as one of Francis’ most important church contributions.

A synod is a gathering of bishops, and Francis’ philosophy that bishops must listen to one another and the laity has come to define his vision for the Catholic Church: He wants it to be a place where the faithful are welcomed, accompanied and heard.

The synods held during his first 10 years produced some of the most significant, and controversial, moments of his papacy.

After listening to the plight of divorced Catholics during a 2014-2015 synod on the family, for instance, Francis&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/b67e0b339b9d46fab29cb0ef642d5ed7">opened the door</a>&nbsp;to letting divorced and civilly remarried couples receive Communion. Calls to allow married priests marked his 2019 synod on the Amazon, although Francis&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ap-top-news-international-news-pope-francis-latin-america-europe-c7f3dd10f458cb02fa9fa725c096d7db">ultimately rejected the idea</a>.

His October synod has involved an unprecedented canvassing of the Catholic faithful about their hopes for the church and problems they have encountered, eliciting demands from women for greater leadership roles, including ordination.

Catholic traditionalists were wary when Francis emerged as pope for the first time on the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica without the red cape that his predecessors had worn for formal events. Yet they never expected him to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/latin-mass-pope-francis-restrictions-benedict-6f50b9bc219d423f99267fddcdf23cf6">reverse one of Benedict’s signature decisions</a>&nbsp;by reimposing restrictions on the old Latin Mass, including where and who can celebrate it,.

While the decision directly affected only a fraction of Catholic Mass-goers, his crackdown on the Tridentine Rite became the call to arms for the anti-Francis conservative opposition.

Francis justified his move by saying Benedict’s decision to liberalize the celebration of the old Mass had become a source of division in parishes. But traditionalists took the renewed restrictions as an attack on orthodoxy, one that they saw as contradicting Francis’ “all are welcome” mantra.

“Instead of integrating them into parish life, the restriction on the use of parish churches will marginalize and push to the peripheries faithful Catholics who wish only to worship,” lamented Joseph Shaw of the Latin Mass Society’s U.K. branch.

While the short-term prospects for Francis relenting are not great, the traditionalists do have time on their side, knowing that in a 2,000-year-old institution, another pope might come along who is more friendly to the old rite.

Francis’ quips about the “female genius” have long made women cringe. Women theologians are the “strawberries on the cake,” he once said. Nuns shouldn’t be “old maids,” he said. Europe shouldn’t be a barren, infertile “grandmother,” he told European Union lawmakers — a remark that got him an angry phone call from then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

But, it’s also true that Francis has done more to promote women in the church than any pope before him, including&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/world-news-voting-rights-pope-francis-f89395f9d9a5e721d6b56af7b7f6116b">naming several women to high-profile positions in the Vatican</a>.

That’s not saying much given only one in four Holy See employees is female, no woman heads a dicastery, or department, and Francis has upheld church doctrine forbidding women from the priesthood.

But the trend is there and “there is no possibility of going back,” said María Lía Zervino, one of the first three women named to the Vatican office that helps the pope select bishops around the world.

Francis' insistence that long-marginalized LGBTQ Catholics can find a welcome home in the church can be summed up by two pronouncements that have book-ended his papacy to date:&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/archive-pope-benedict-xvi-pope-francis-7b465b60945f40deb3a68b3de742f84a">“Who am I to judge?”</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-gay-rights-ap-interview-1359756ae22f27f87c1d4d6b9c8ce212">“Being homosexual is not a crime.”</a>

In between making those historic statements, Francis made outreach to LGBTQ people a hallmark of his papacy more than any pope before him.

He ministers to members of a transgender community in Rome. He has counseled gay couples seeking to raise their children Catholic. During a 2015 visit to the U.S., he publicized a private meeting with a gay former student and the man's partner&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/f27eb8dd7bf744aa9fb11572c15748f4">to counter the conservative narrative</a>&nbsp;that he had received an anti-same-sex marriage activist.

“The pope is reminding the church that the way people treat one another in the social world is of much greater moral importance that what people may possibly do in the privacy of a bedroom,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for greater acceptance of LGBTQ Catholics.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/10/1603292366279.png" alt="Pope Francis image courtesy CSPAN" />
 <figcaption>Pope Francis image courtesy CSPAN</figcaption>
 </figure>VATICAN CITY (AP) — So much for a short pontificate.<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/pope-francis">Pope Francis</a>&nbsp;celebrates the 10th anniversary of his election Monday, far outpacing the “two or three” years he once envisioned for his papacy and showing no signs of slowing down.On the contrary, with an agenda full of problems and plans and no longer encumbered by&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-retirement-papacy-dcca464e7c1fd910568d07d6bf4d9994">the shadow of Pope Benedict XVI</a>, Francis, 86, has backed off from talking about retiring and recently described the papacy as a job for life.History’s first Latin American pope already has made his mark and could have even more impact in the years to come. Yet a decade ago, the Argentine Jesuit was so convinced he wouldn’t be elected as pope that he nearly missed the final vote as he chatted with a fellow cardinal outside the Sistine Chapel.“The master of ceremonies came out and said ‘Are you going in or not?’” Francis recalled in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “I realized afterward that it was my unconscious resistance to going in.”He was elected the 266th pope on the next ballot.SEX ABUSEFrancis had a big learning curve on clergy sex abuse, initially downplaying the problem in ways that made survivors question whether he “got it.” He had his wake-up call five years into his pontificate after a problematic visit to Chile.During the trip, he discovered a serious disconnect between&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/2018-the-year-in-review-pope-francis-ap-top-news-chile-international-news-1d175bccdb364e5387956fc0e0672bf2">what Chilean bishops had told him</a>&nbsp;about a notorious case and the reality: Hundreds or thousands of Chilean faithful had been raped and molested by Catholic priests over decades.“That was my conversion,” he told the AP. “That’s when the bomb went off, when I saw the corruption of many bishops in this.”Francis has passed a series of measures since then aimed at holding the church hierarchy accountable, but the results have been mixed. Benedict removed some 800 priests, but Francis seems far less eager to defrock abusers, reflecting resistance within the hierarchy to efforts to permanently remove predators from the priesthood.The next frontier in the crisis has already reared its head: the sexual, spiritual and psychological abuse of adults by clergy. Francis is aware of the problem — a new&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-religion-vatican-city-736fadac67811722f2a33ef94d1e789a">case concerns one of his fellow Jesuits</a>&nbsp;— but there seems to be no will to take firm actionSIGNIFICANCE OF SYNODSWhen the history of the Francis pontificate is written, entire chapters might well be devoted to his emphasis on “synodality,” a term that has little meaning outside Catholic circles but could go down as one of Francis’ most important church contributions.A synod is a gathering of bishops, and Francis’ philosophy that bishops must listen to one another and the laity has come to define his vision for the Catholic Church: He wants it to be a place where the faithful are welcomed, accompanied and heard.The synods held during his first 10 years produced some of the most significant, and controversial, moments of his papacy.After listening to the plight of divorced Catholics during a 2014-2015 synod on the family, for instance, Francis&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/b67e0b339b9d46fab29cb0ef642d5ed7">opened the door</a>&nbsp;to letting divorced and civilly remarried couples receive Communion. Calls to allow married priests marked his 2019 synod on the Amazon, although Francis&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ap-top-news-international-news-pope-francis-latin-america-europe-c7f3dd10f458cb02fa9fa725c096d7db">ultimately rejected the idea</a>.His October synod has involved an unprecedented canvassing of the Catholic faithful about their hopes for the church and problems they have encountered, eliciting demands from women for greater leadership roles, including ordination.LATIN MASSCatholic traditionalists were wary when Francis emerged as pope for the first time on the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica without the red cape that his predecessors had worn for formal events. Yet they never expected him to&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/latin-mass-pope-francis-restrictions-benedict-6f50b9bc219d423f99267fddcdf23cf6">reverse one of Benedict’s signature decisions</a>&nbsp;by reimposing restrictions on the old Latin Mass, including where and who can celebrate it,.While the decision directly affected only a fraction of Catholic Mass-goers, his crackdown on the Tridentine Rite became the call to arms for the anti-Francis conservative opposition.Francis justified his move by saying Benedict’s decision to liberalize the celebration of the old Mass had become a source of division in parishes. But traditionalists took the renewed restrictions as an attack on orthodoxy, one that they saw as contradicting Francis’ “all are welcome” mantra.“Instead of integrating them into parish life, the restriction on the use of parish churches will marginalize and push to the peripheries faithful Catholics who wish only to worship,” lamented Joseph Shaw of the Latin Mass Society’s U.K. branch.While the short-term prospects for Francis relenting are not great, the traditionalists do have time on their side, knowing that in a 2,000-year-old institution, another pope might come along who is more friendly to the old rite.ROLE OF WOMENFrancis’ quips about the “female genius” have long made women cringe. Women theologians are the “strawberries on the cake,” he once said. Nuns shouldn’t be “old maids,” he said. Europe shouldn’t be a barren, infertile “grandmother,” he told European Union lawmakers — a remark that got him an angry phone call from then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel.But, it’s also true that Francis has done more to promote women in the church than any pope before him, including&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/world-news-voting-rights-pope-francis-f89395f9d9a5e721d6b56af7b7f6116b">naming several women to high-profile positions in the Vatican</a>.That’s not saying much given only one in four Holy See employees is female, no woman heads a dicastery, or department, and Francis has upheld church doctrine forbidding women from the priesthood.But the trend is there and “there is no possibility of going back,” said María Lía Zervino, one of the first three women named to the Vatican office that helps the pope select bishops around the world.LGBTQ FAITHFULFrancis' insistence that long-marginalized LGBTQ Catholics can find a welcome home in the church can be summed up by two pronouncements that have book-ended his papacy to date:&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/archive-pope-benedict-xvi-pope-francis-7b465b60945f40deb3a68b3de742f84a">“Who am I to judge?”</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/pope-francis-gay-rights-ap-interview-1359756ae22f27f87c1d4d6b9c8ce212">“Being homosexual is not a crime.”</a>In between making those historic statements, Francis made outreach to LGBTQ people a hallmark of his papacy more than any pope before him.He ministers to members of a transgender community in Rome. He has counseled gay couples seeking to raise their children Catholic. During a 2015 visit to the U.S., he publicized a private meeting with a gay former student and the man's partner&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/f27eb8dd7bf744aa9fb11572c15748f4">to counter the conservative narrative</a>&nbsp;that he had received an anti-same-sex marriage activist.“The pope is reminding the church that the way people treat one another in the social world is of much greater moral importance that what people may possibly do in the privacy of a bedroom,” said Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, which advocates for greater acceptance of LGBTQ Catholics.

Pope Francis at 10 years: A reformer's learning curve, plans

NEW YORK (AP) — The financial institution best known for its relationships with high-flying world technology startups and venture capital,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/svb-fed-bonds-rates-banks-inflation-a24b28b3caeede91c76cd120aa9b7966?utm_source=homepage&amp;utm_medium=TopNews&amp;utm_campaign=position_01">Silicon Valley Bank,</a>&nbsp;experienced one of the oldest problems in banking — a bank run — which led to its failure on Friday.

Its downfall is the largest failure of a financial institution since Washington Mutual collapsed at the height of the financial crisis more than a decade ago. And it had immediate effects. Some startups that had ties to the bank scrambled to pay their workers, and feared they might have to pause projects or lay off or furlough employees until they could access their funds.&nbsp; Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sundty the federal government won't bail out Silicon Valley Bank, but is working to help depositors who are concerned about their money.

How did this happen? Here's what to know about why the bank failed, who was affected most, and what to know about how it may, and may not affect, the wider banking system in the U.S.

<a href="https://www.svb.com/">Silicon Valley Bank</a>&nbsp;was hit hard by the downturn in technology stocks over the past year as well as the Federal Reserve's&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/federal-reserve-powell-inflation-rates-economy-debt-89c49a1032527f2d2f1d6d674bafe187">aggressive plan</a>&nbsp;to increase interest rates to combat inflation.

The bank bought billions of dollars worth of bonds over the past couple of years, using customers' deposits as a typical bank would normally operate. These investments are typically safe, but the value of those investments fell because they paid lower interest rates than what a comparable bond would pay if issued in today's higher interest rate environment.

Typically that's not an issue, because banks hold onto those for a long time — unless they have to sell them in an emergency.

But Silicon Valley's customers were largely startups and other tech-centric companies that started becoming more needy for cash over the past year. Venture capital funding was drying up, companies were not able to get additional rounds of funding for unprofitable businesses, and therefore had to tap their existing funds — often deposited with Silicon Valley Bank, which sat in the center of the tech startup universe.

So Silicon Valley customers started withdrawing their deposits. Initially that wasn't a huge issue, but the withdrawals started requiring the bank to start selling its own assets to meet customer withdrawal requests. Because Silicon Valley customers were largely businesses and the wealthy, they likely were more fearful of a bank failure since their deposits were over $250,000, which is the government-imposed limit on deposit insurance.

That required selling typically safe bonds at a loss, and those losses added up to the point that Silicon Valley Bank became effectively insolvent. The bank tried to raise additional capital through outside investors, but was unable to find them.

The fancy tech-focused bank was brought down by the oldest issue in banking: a good ol' run on the bank. Bank regulators had no other choice but to seize Silicon Valley Bank's assets to protect the assets and deposits still remaining at the bank.

There are two large problems remaining with Silicon Valley Bank, but both could lead to further issues if not resolved quickly.

The most immediate problem is Silicon Valley Bank's large deposits. The Federal government insures deposits to $250,000, but anything above that level is considered uninsured. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said insured deposits would be available on Monday morning. However the vast majority of Silicon Valley Bank's deposits were uninsured, a unique characteristic of the bank due to its customers being largely startups and wealthy tech workers.

At the moment, all of that money can't be accessed and likely will have to be released in an orderly process. But many businesses cannot wait weeks to get access to funds to meet payroll and office expenses. It could lead to furloughs or layoffs.

Two, there's no buyer of Silicon Valley Bank. Typically bank regulators look for a stronger bank to take on the assets of a failing bank, but in this case, another bank hasn't stepped forward. A bank buying Silicon Valley Bank could go a long way to resolving some of the problems tied with the money that startups can't get to right now.

IS THIS A SIGN THAT WE COULD REPEAT WHAT HAPPENED IN 2008?

At the moment, no, and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-business-united-states-government-federal-reserve-system-financial-markets-d5182432ffb51114d779c085fd1506b9">experts don't expect</a>&nbsp;there to be any issues spreading to the broader banking sector.

Silicon Valley Bank was large but had a unique existence by servicing nearly exclusively the technology world and VC-backed companies. It did a lot of work with the particular part of the economy that was&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/microsoft-job-cuts-18fe0c9b8c9ff856e932e075161b1f43">hit hard in the past year</a>.

Other banks are far more diversified across multiple industries, customer bases and geographies. The most recent round of “stress tests” by the Federal Reserve of the largest banks and financial institutions showed that all of them would survive a deep recession and a significant rise in unemployment.

However there might be economic ripple effects in the Bay Area and in the technology start up world if the remaining money can't be released quickly.

NEW YORK (AP) — Regulators rushed Friday to seize the assets of one of Silicon Valley's top banks, marking the largest failure of a U.S. financial institution since the height of the financial crisis almost 15 years ago.

Silicon Valley Bank, the nation’s 16th-largest bank, failed after depositors hurried to withdraw money this week amid anxiety over the bank’s health. It was the second biggest bank failure in U.S. history after the collapse of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/08aeb5a6c9d542ccb6d6154d4fa1e3a6">Washington Mutual</a>&nbsp;in 2008.

The bank served mostly technology workers and venture capital-backed companies, including some of the industry's best-known brands.

“This is an extinction-level event for startups,” said Garry Tan, CEO of Y Combinator, a startup incubator that launched Airbnb, DoorDash and Dropbox and has referred hundreds of entrepreneurs to the bank.

“I literally have been hearing from hundreds of our founders asking for help on how they can get through this. They are asking, ‘Do I have to furlough my workers?’”

There appeared to be little chance of the chaos spreading in the broader banking sector, as it did in the months leading up to the Great Recession. The biggest banks — those most likely to cause an economic meltdown — have healthy balance sheets and plenty of capital.

Nearly half of the U.S. technology and health care companies that went public last year after getting early funding from venture capital firms were Silicon Valley Bank customers, according to the bank’s website.

The bank also boasted of its connections to leading tech companies such as Shopify, ZipRecruiter and one of the top venture capital firms, Andreesson Horowitz.

Tan estimated that nearly one-third of Y Combinator’s startups will not be able to make payroll at some point in the next month if they cannot access their money.

Internet TV provider Roku was among casualties of the bank collapse. It said in a regulatory filing Friday that about 26% of its cash — $487 million — was deposited at Silicon Valley Bank.

Roku said its deposits with SVB were largely uninsured and it didn’t know “to what extent” it would be able to recover them.

As part of the seizure, California bank regulators and the FDIC transferred the bank's assets to a newly created institution — the Deposit Insurance Bank of Santa Clara. The new bank will start paying out insured deposits on Monday. Then the FDIC and California regulators plan to sell off the rest of the assets to make other depositors whole.

There was unease in the banking sector all week, with shares tumbling by double digits. Then news of Silicon Valley Bank's distress pushed shares of almost all financial institutions even lower Friday.

The failure arrived with incredible speed. Some industry analysts suggested Friday that the bank was still a good company and a wise investment. Meanwhile, Silicon Valley Bank executives were trying to raise capital and find additional investors. However, trading in the bank’s shares was halted before stock market's opening bell due to extreme volatility.

Shortly before noon, the FDIC moved to shutter the bank. Notably, the agency did not wait until the close of business, which is the typical approach. The FDIC could not immediately find a buyer for the bank's assets, signaling how fast depositors cashed out.

The White House said Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was “watching closely.” The administration sought to reassure the public that the banking system is much healthier than during the Great Recession.

“Our banking system is in a fundamentally different place than it was, you know, a decade ago,” said Cecilia Rouse, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. “The reforms that were put in place back then really provide the kind of resilience that we’d like to see.”

In 2007, the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression rippled across the globe after mortgage-backed securities tied to ill-advised housing loans collapsed in value. The panic on Wall Street led to the demise of Lehman Brothers, a firm founded in 1847. Because major banks had extensive exposure to one another, the crisis led to a cascading breakdown in the global financial system, putting millions out of work.

At the time of its failure, Silicon Valley Bank, which is based in Santa Clara, California, had $209 billion in total assets, the FDIC said. It was unclear how many of its deposits were above the $250,000 insurance limit, but previous regulatory reports showed that lots of accounts exceeded that amount.

The bank announced plans Thursday to raise up to $1.75 billion in order to strengthen its capital position. That sent investors scurrying and shares plunged 60%. They tumbled lower still Friday before the opening of the Nasdaq, where the bank's shares were traded.

As its name implied, Silicon Valley Bank was a major financial conduit between the technology sector, startups and tech workers. It was seen as good business sense to develop a relationship with the bank if a startup founder wanted to find new investors or go public.

Conceived in 1983 by co-founders Bill Biggerstaff and Robert Medearis during a poker game, the bank leveraged its Silicon Valley roots to become a financial cornerstone in the tech industry.

Bill Tyler, director of operations for TWG Supply in Grapevine, Texas, said he first realized something was wrong when his employees texted him at 6:30 a.m. Friday to complain that they did not receive their paychecks.

TWG, which has just 18 employees, had already sent the money for the checks to a payroll services provider that used Silicon Valley Bank. Tyler was scrambling to figure out how to pay his workers.

"We’re waiting on roughly $27,000," he said. "It’s already not a timely payment. It’s already an uncomfortable position. I don’t want to ask any employees, to say, ‘Hey, can you wait until mid-next week to get paid?’”

Silicon Valley Bank's ties to the tech sector added to its troubles. Technology stocks have been&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-amazoncom-inc-europe-software-business-b23cd72310f20ce2320a36eadc26eded">hit hard in the past 18 months</a>&nbsp;after a growth surge during the pandemic, and layoffs have spread throughout the industry. Venture capital funding has also been declining.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/3/1678567122405.png" alt="Silicon Vally Bank branch in Santa Clara, California -Google image" />
 <figcaption>Silicon Vally Bank branch in Santa Clara, California -Google image</figcaption>
 </figure>NEW YORK (AP) — The financial institution best known for its relationships with high-flying world technology startups and venture capital,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/svb-fed-bonds-rates-banks-inflation-a24b28b3caeede91c76cd120aa9b7966?utm_source=homepage&amp;utm_medium=TopNews&amp;utm_campaign=position_01">Silicon Valley Bank,</a>&nbsp;experienced one of the oldest problems in banking — a bank run — which led to its failure on Friday.Its downfall is the largest failure of a financial institution since Washington Mutual collapsed at the height of the financial crisis more than a decade ago. And it had immediate effects. Some startups that had ties to the bank scrambled to pay their workers, and feared they might have to pause projects or lay off or furlough employees until they could access their funds.&nbsp; Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sundty the federal government won't bail out Silicon Valley Bank, but is working to help depositors who are concerned about their money.How did this happen? Here's what to know about why the bank failed, who was affected most, and what to know about how it may, and may not affect, the wider banking system in the U.S.WHY DID SILICON VALLEY BANK FAIL?<a href="https://www.svb.com/">Silicon Valley Bank</a>&nbsp;was hit hard by the downturn in technology stocks over the past year as well as the Federal Reserve's&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/federal-reserve-powell-inflation-rates-economy-debt-89c49a1032527f2d2f1d6d674bafe187">aggressive plan</a>&nbsp;to increase interest rates to combat inflation.The bank bought billions of dollars worth of bonds over the past couple of years, using customers' deposits as a typical bank would normally operate. These investments are typically safe, but the value of those investments fell because they paid lower interest rates than what a comparable bond would pay if issued in today's higher interest rate environment.Typically that's not an issue, because banks hold onto those for a long time — unless they have to sell them in an emergency.But Silicon Valley's customers were largely startups and other tech-centric companies that started becoming more needy for cash over the past year. Venture capital funding was drying up, companies were not able to get additional rounds of funding for unprofitable businesses, and therefore had to tap their existing funds — often deposited with Silicon Valley Bank, which sat in the center of the tech startup universe.So Silicon Valley customers started withdrawing their deposits. Initially that wasn't a huge issue, but the withdrawals started requiring the bank to start selling its own assets to meet customer withdrawal requests. Because Silicon Valley customers were largely businesses and the wealthy, they likely were more fearful of a bank failure since their deposits were over $250,000, which is the government-imposed limit on deposit insurance.That required selling typically safe bonds at a loss, and those losses added up to the point that Silicon Valley Bank became effectively insolvent. The bank tried to raise additional capital through outside investors, but was unable to find them.The fancy tech-focused bank was brought down by the oldest issue in banking: a good ol' run on the bank. Bank regulators had no other choice but to seize Silicon Valley Bank's assets to protect the assets and deposits still remaining at the bank.WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?There are two large problems remaining with Silicon Valley Bank, but both could lead to further issues if not resolved quickly.The most immediate problem is Silicon Valley Bank's large deposits. The Federal government insures deposits to $250,000, but anything above that level is considered uninsured. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said insured deposits would be available on Monday morning. However the vast majority of Silicon Valley Bank's deposits were uninsured, a unique characteristic of the bank due to its customers being largely startups and wealthy tech workers.At the moment, all of that money can't be accessed and likely will have to be released in an orderly process. But many businesses cannot wait weeks to get access to funds to meet payroll and office expenses. It could lead to furloughs or layoffs.Two, there's no buyer of Silicon Valley Bank. Typically bank regulators look for a stronger bank to take on the assets of a failing bank, but in this case, another bank hasn't stepped forward. A bank buying Silicon Valley Bank could go a long way to resolving some of the problems tied with the money that startups can't get to right now.IS THIS A SIGN THAT WE COULD REPEAT WHAT HAPPENED IN 2008?At the moment, no, and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-business-united-states-government-federal-reserve-system-financial-markets-d5182432ffb51114d779c085fd1506b9">experts don't expect</a>&nbsp;there to be any issues spreading to the broader banking sector.Silicon Valley Bank was large but had a unique existence by servicing nearly exclusively the technology world and VC-backed companies. It did a lot of work with the particular part of the economy that was&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/microsoft-job-cuts-18fe0c9b8c9ff856e932e075161b1f43">hit hard in the past year</a>.Other banks are far more diversified across multiple industries, customer bases and geographies. The most recent round of “stress tests” by the Federal Reserve of the largest banks and financial institutions showed that all of them would survive a deep recession and a significant rise in unemployment.However there might be economic ripple effects in the Bay Area and in the technology start up world if the remaining money can't be released quickly.--------NEW YORK (AP) — Regulators rushed Friday to seize the assets of one of Silicon Valley's top banks, marking the largest failure of a U.S. financial institution since the height of the financial crisis almost 15 years ago.Silicon Valley Bank, the nation’s 16th-largest bank, failed after depositors hurried to withdraw money this week amid anxiety over the bank’s health. It was the second biggest bank failure in U.S. history after the collapse of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/08aeb5a6c9d542ccb6d6154d4fa1e3a6">Washington Mutual</a>&nbsp;in 2008.The bank served mostly technology workers and venture capital-backed companies, including some of the industry's best-known brands.“This is an extinction-level event for startups,” said Garry Tan, CEO of Y Combinator, a startup incubator that launched Airbnb, DoorDash and Dropbox and has referred hundreds of entrepreneurs to the bank.“I literally have been hearing from hundreds of our founders asking for help on how they can get through this. They are asking, ‘Do I have to furlough my workers?’”There appeared to be little chance of the chaos spreading in the broader banking sector, as it did in the months leading up to the Great Recession. The biggest banks — those most likely to cause an economic meltdown — have healthy balance sheets and plenty of capital.Nearly half of the U.S. technology and health care companies that went public last year after getting early funding from venture capital firms were Silicon Valley Bank customers, according to the bank’s website.The bank also boasted of its connections to leading tech companies such as Shopify, ZipRecruiter and one of the top venture capital firms, Andreesson Horowitz.Tan estimated that nearly one-third of Y Combinator’s startups will not be able to make payroll at some point in the next month if they cannot access their money.Internet TV provider Roku was among casualties of the bank collapse. It said in a regulatory filing Friday that about 26% of its cash — $487 million — was deposited at Silicon Valley Bank.Roku said its deposits with SVB were largely uninsured and it didn’t know “to what extent” it would be able to recover them.As part of the seizure, California bank regulators and the FDIC transferred the bank's assets to a newly created institution — the Deposit Insurance Bank of Santa Clara. The new bank will start paying out insured deposits on Monday. Then the FDIC and California regulators plan to sell off the rest of the assets to make other depositors whole.There was unease in the banking sector all week, with shares tumbling by double digits. Then news of Silicon Valley Bank's distress pushed shares of almost all financial institutions even lower Friday.The failure arrived with incredible speed. Some industry analysts suggested Friday that the bank was still a good company and a wise investment. Meanwhile, Silicon Valley Bank executives were trying to raise capital and find additional investors. However, trading in the bank’s shares was halted before stock market's opening bell due to extreme volatility.Shortly before noon, the FDIC moved to shutter the bank. Notably, the agency did not wait until the close of business, which is the typical approach. The FDIC could not immediately find a buyer for the bank's assets, signaling how fast depositors cashed out.The White House said Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was “watching closely.” The administration sought to reassure the public that the banking system is much healthier than during the Great Recession.“Our banking system is in a fundamentally different place than it was, you know, a decade ago,” said Cecilia Rouse, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. “The reforms that were put in place back then really provide the kind of resilience that we’d like to see.”In 2007, the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression rippled across the globe after mortgage-backed securities tied to ill-advised housing loans collapsed in value. The panic on Wall Street led to the demise of Lehman Brothers, a firm founded in 1847. Because major banks had extensive exposure to one another, the crisis led to a cascading breakdown in the global financial system, putting millions out of work.At the time of its failure, Silicon Valley Bank, which is based in Santa Clara, California, had $209 billion in total assets, the FDIC said. It was unclear how many of its deposits were above the $250,000 insurance limit, but previous regulatory reports showed that lots of accounts exceeded that amount.The bank announced plans Thursday to raise up to $1.75 billion in order to strengthen its capital position. That sent investors scurrying and shares plunged 60%. They tumbled lower still Friday before the opening of the Nasdaq, where the bank's shares were traded.As its name implied, Silicon Valley Bank was a major financial conduit between the technology sector, startups and tech workers. It was seen as good business sense to develop a relationship with the bank if a startup founder wanted to find new investors or go public.Conceived in 1983 by co-founders Bill Biggerstaff and Robert Medearis during a poker game, the bank leveraged its Silicon Valley roots to become a financial cornerstone in the tech industry.Bill Tyler, director of operations for TWG Supply in Grapevine, Texas, said he first realized something was wrong when his employees texted him at 6:30 a.m. Friday to complain that they did not receive their paychecks.TWG, which has just 18 employees, had already sent the money for the checks to a payroll services provider that used Silicon Valley Bank. Tyler was scrambling to figure out how to pay his workers."We’re waiting on roughly $27,000," he said. "It’s already not a timely payment. It’s already an uncomfortable position. I don’t want to ask any employees, to say, ‘Hey, can you wait until mid-next week to get paid?’”Silicon Valley Bank's ties to the tech sector added to its troubles. Technology stocks have been&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-amazoncom-inc-europe-software-business-b23cd72310f20ce2320a36eadc26eded">hit hard in the past 18 months</a>&nbsp;after a growth surge during the pandemic, and layoffs have spread throughout the industry. Venture capital funding has also been declining.At the same time, the bank was hit hard by the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/inflation-federal-reserve-interest-rates-powell-unemployment-79b7ead4530ab381a17638a6c9df2d90">Federal Reserve's fight against inflation</a>&nbsp;and an aggressive series of interest rate hikes to cool the economy.As the Fed raises its benchmark interest rate, the value of generally stable bonds starts to fall. That is not typically a problem, but when depositors grow anxious and begin withdrawing their money, banks sometimes have to sell those bonds before they mature to cover the exodus.That is exactly what happened to Silicon Valley Bank, which had to sell $21 billion in highly liquid assets to cover the sudden withdrawals. It took a $1.8 billion loss on that sale.Ashley Tyrner, CEO of FarmboxRx, said she had spoken to several friends whose businesses are backed by venture capital. She described them as being “beside themselves” over the bank's failure. Tyrner's chief operating officer tried to withdraw her company's funds on Thursday but failed to do so in time.“One friend said they couldn't make payroll today and cried when they had to inform 200 employees because of this issue,” Tyrner said.