text:
Coca-Cola on Wednesday pledged to offer low and no-calorie drinks in every region it serves, cease all marketing to children under 12 years old and provide nutritional information on all of its packaging.
The Atlanta-based company, which makes Sprite, Fanta and Minute Maid, already offers diet drinks in most markets. But those diet drinks are not always as readily available in emerging markets such as China and India as they are in the U.S.
With sugary drinks coming under fire for fueling obesity rates, Coca-Cola Co. has been more aggressive in trying to convince customers its products can be part of a healthy lifestyle. That campaign has included the company touting its wide range of lower-calorie offerings. But Coca-Cola has also stood by its full-calorie drinks, saying that physical activity plays an important role in fighting obesity.
“We’re beginning the next phase of our journey to promote better health and well-being,” Muhtar Kent, CEO of the Atlanta-based beverage giant, said Wednesday in unveiling the health initiatives on the company’s 127th anniversary.
Meredith R. Tyzinski, clinical dietitian for the heart and vascular units of Miami Valley Hospital, called Coke’s pledges “a great start,” and said she is hopeful the company’s initiatives will have a beneficial impact as part of an overall increasing awareness of nutrition and obesity issues.
“Like it or not, Coca-Cola is a part of daily life for a lot of people,” Tyzinski said. And sugary beverages, snack items and other prepackaged foods contribute an unhealthy proportion of calories to those who are not physically active and obese. Wednesday’s announcement suggests Coca-Cola is accepting accountability for its products’ role in the world’s obesity problem, the clinical dietitian said.
Richard Cohen, registered dietitian with Kettering Health Network’s Kettering Weight Loss Solutions, also praised the Coca-Cola initiative.
“I particularly like the direction not to market to children under 12,” Cohen said. “This is a vulnerable group that needs to establish healthy eating habits. I wish all food companies would adapt similar polices.”
The strategy is part of a long-term positioning by Coca-Cola to encourage better habits, partly so that customers are healthy enough to continue drinking both the company’s sugary drinks and its more nutritional options, industry experts said.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Thank you for reading the Springfield News-Sun and for supporting local journalism. Subscribers: log in for access to your daily ePaper and premium newsletters.
Thank you for supporting in-depth local journalism with your subscription to the Springfield News-Sun. Get more news when you want it with email newsletters just for subscribers. Sign up here.


text:
Bitcoin surges past $7000 to extend record rally
One of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges has been down for hours and its clients are starting to freak out. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin speaks at the Economic Club of Washington about the need to make sure consumers are not hurt by cryptocurrencies. The biggest investor in Atlantic Power Corp. Crime may not always pay for criminals, but fighting it does sometimes. Here's one more way cryptocurrencies are mimicking the dot-com frenzy as they capture popular attention: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he will work with the Group of 20 nations to prevent cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin from becoming the digital equivalent of an anonymous Swiss bank account and ensure bad people cannot use these currencies to do bad things.
An Austrian cryptocurrency miner that mints bitcoins with green energy is weighing an initial public offering to fund an expansion outside its home country. Who Wants to Be Bitcoin's Watchdog? Commodity Futures Trading Commission has raised its hand. Some think it's going too fast.
Bitcoin mining, the computing process that makes transactions with the cryptocurrency possible, is about to become more expensive for some after China ordered mining facilities to close. MoneyGram Gets in on the Cryptocurrency Craze. He speaks with Bloomberg's Emily Chang on. At least a dozen Chinese listed companies have issued statements this week playing down links to blockchain technology amid signs regulators are trying to limit the kind of speculative surges seen bitcoin surges past $7000 to extend record rally other markets.
Financial technology startups are grabbing a greater share of capital from investors. Now Bono is getting in on the action. Bitcoin slumped again on Friday, leaving the largest cryptocurrency heading for its worst weekly performance in three years as regulators around the world step up scrutiny out of concerns ranging from investor losses to strains on power systems. The allure of cryptocurrency is so high that one venture capital firm has decided to go all-in on the currency for its next fund.
Fear of missing out on the bitcoin craze has some underfunded investors placing bets with plastic. Marshals Service will auction off 3, bitcoins seized in connection bitcoin surges past $7000 to extend record rally federal, civic and administrative cases. Ripple, the startup looking to help the financial industry speed up payments with blockchain technology, said MoneyGram International Inc.
Crypto-currencies can always pop up elsewhere, but Korea-style regulatory threats still hurt. Bitcoin slumped as South Korea's justice ministry reiterated a proposed ban on cryptocurrency venues, fueling concern that a government crackdown will erode one of the world's biggest sources of demand for digital currencies.
The global power needed to create cryptocurrencies this year could rival the entire electricity consumption of Argentina and be a growth driver for renewable energy producers from the U. Bitcoin may seem like a solution in search of a problem in the U. But in developing countries, digital currencies could succeed as a real form of money, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Bloomberg's Julie Verhage explains why bitcoin's arbitrage trade is a lot tougher than it looks.
The race for the first bitcoin ETF has hit a regulatory speed bump. A company offering some of the riskiest trades in financial markets is hedging its exposure to bitcoin, making it one of the biggest players in the embryonic cryptocurrency futures market. Add Mike Novogratz to the list of investors looking to Canada for a quick route to public markets to tap the latest crazes: Canadian entrepreneur Anthony Lacavera, best-known for shaking up the country's wireless industry by founding Wind Mobile, plans to take a new company public that's focused on the latest technology craze: Jamie Dimon is having second thoughts about wading in to the bitcoin controversy.
It's the kind of market anomaly that savvy traders usually devour in fractions of a second: Securities and Exchange Commission may have hit on a foolproof way to boost its popularity: Piggyback the passion for blockchain. How China's Stifling Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies: China, home to the world's biggest community of bitcoin miners, is cracking down on cryptocurrency activity -- more so than most other major economies.
From a halt to virtual currency trading on domestic exchanges to banning initial coin offerings, regulators have taken a proactive role in shaping the stratospheric rise of bitcoin and its peers. The country's moves come as President Xi Jinping targets financial risk in the economy following a decade of booms and busts in everything from stocks t BTC.
Bitcoin Slides Amid Regulatory Concerns. Bloomberg's Justina Lee reports on the latest news about crypto currencies. She speaks on BTC. Shares of Seagate,the largest maker of computer drives, are surging after a little-followed blog contributor suggested the company may have a stake in Ripple, the company behind the third-most-valuable cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin surges past $7000 to extend record rally Taylor Riggs reports on. A Hong Kong-based company whose stock benefited from cryptocurrency fever to jump more than percent last year had trading in its shares suspended by U. For years, the owners of an unprofitable iced-tea company watched their stock tumble.
Last month, they saw it almost triple in a day after a simple name change, and the timing couldn't have been more convenient. President Nicolas Maduro on Friday said Venezuela in the coming days will issue million units of an oil-backed cryptocurrency known as the petro, which will be worth the price of one barrel in Venezuela's oil basket.
The legion of microcaps that have booked massive share-price gains after changing their business to focus on the crypto craze are now looking to cash in. The roller coaster that is the cryptocurrency market is alive and well. International Business Machines Corp. With the amount of money pouring into bitcoin and other crytocurrencies, the Bitcoin surges past $7000 to extend record rally of England has drawn attention with reports that it is -- or isn't -- planning to launch its own version as soon as this year.
The bank itself says it isn't, and it may not ever have planned to. As China's crackdown on cryptocurrencies broadens to bitcoin miners, some of the industry's biggest players are already shifting operations overseas.
How Likely Is a Bitcoin surges past $7000 to extend record rally in Bitcoin? The rise in bitcoin last year looks very similar to its rise in when it hit record highs, only to suffer a bitcoin surges past $7000 to extend record rally decline.
Will history repeat itself? Chinese stock investors don't seem to share the global enthusiasm for companies jumping on the cryptocurrency bitcoin surges past $7000 to extend record rally.
Haasbot looks like the most professional trading bot on the market. Amazon is spending bitcoin surges past $7000 to extend record rally adapting to a fiercely contested market of 1. BTC Robot is covered by a 60 day 100 money back guarantee, however, making it a safe bet for an exploratory foray into the world of Bitcoin trading bots. Jika TCO ICO ini sudah bisa masuk market besar seperti Poloniex dan Bittrex, sudah dapat dipastikan coin tersebut akan mengalami kenaikan harga yang pesat.
Thread by: carlaBitcointrading Nov 18 in forum: General Discussion.

domain: news


text:
SINGAPORE, Oct. 17, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ – Relictum PRO is an advanced blockchain platform that represents an ecosystem of services and applications. The platform token was listed on the LBank exchange on September 29. Users can buy or sell GTNs on the exchange, share them in the Relictum Node wallet or use them for purchases on the NFT market, relictumnft.market.
The Relictum NFT Market is a platform for authors, where everyone can display their work and patent it. All the essential NFT positioning factors are considered: price for placement, copyright protection and traffic.
Artists can add hidden content, promotional files with presentations or a video about the process of creation of the work. There is no gas on relictumnft.market – there will only be a 3$ fee when selling the token. The creation of the token in the blockchain will cost the author as little as $10, while payment for unlimited storage of the token in a decentralized storage is $1 per mb. The NFTs stored in the storage are reliably protected against hacking and theft.
Competitions, promotions, offers and other events for the community are held on a regular basis.
Alexander Strigin, CEO, explains the purpose of the platform and its value:
“The myth that NFTs are ordinary images of millions has already collapsed. Speculators took a break during the cryptocurrency bear market, but the technology lives on. Non-flippable tokens reveal their potential as business tools: anti-counterfeiting, resale monitoring , metaverse workflows, the entertainment gaming world, the fashion industry, etc. This is the result of the efficient use of non-slingable token technologies. Of course, the digital art market has received a new breath thanks to the great interest in NFTs, and artists have a better got a chance to get recognition for their work. Still, there are not many talented specialists in media art, and the existing ones still need to find new opportunities to earn their talent. The demand for specialists in the industry is high. This is very important for talented designers, animators and artists to declare themselves at the moment to be noticed and a successful career as early as possible getting started in the cryptocurrency industry.”
The Relictum NFT Market has an intuitive interface. Authors can find video tutorials on Youtube to quickly understand how to publish their works on the market:
• How to Create an NFT Token on the Relictum Pro Blockchain —
• How to Import an NFT Token to the Relictum NFT Market —
More details can be found on the website https://relictumnft.market
Alex Strigin, CEO
The rest of the NFT market
+7 919 635-57-10


text:
Camera firm gears up for surge in rentals | VIDEO
A major camera-maker this month rolled out an important but expensive new model for professional and serious amateur photographers.
Those are ideal conditions for LensRentals.com, a Memphis-based business that already has been outgrowing its space near the northeast edge of Shelby Farms Park in Cordova.
Many wedding photographers, photojournalists, independent filmmakers, amateur enthusiasts, advertising agencies and others will want to try the Canon 5D Mark IV before spending $3,500 for the digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera (body only) that also offers the high-resolution video-recording.
With LensRentals.com, photographers can rent the camera five days for $148. FedEx shipping is another $25, but not for those lucky enough to live around Memphis. Local customers can drive to 7730A Trinity Road to pick up and return equipment.
“It’s going to be a high-volume camera for us,’’ said Tyler Beckman, one of the owners of LensRentals.com.
The company claims to be the largest business of its type in the U.S.
LensRentals.com had stocked up on 100 of the Canon 5D Mark IIs when that game-changing camera — it combined high-quality still-photography and video capabilities — came out in September 2008. LensRentals bought 300 of the next-generation 5D Mark IIIs when that model emerged in March 2012.
“You can kind of guess the 5D IV is going to be 400,’’ Beckman said. “It’s going to be 400 or 500 by the time we’re done.’’
LensRentals had bought its first 150 copies of the new model just for the initial rental shipments two weekends ago.
A decade ago, Roger Cicala was a Memphis physician and amateur photographer who had built up an impressive stock of quality lenses in part because he had no convenient way to rent them. The problem gave Cicala the idea to start LensRentals.com.
By 2014, the company employed 62 people and leased 17,000 square feet in the flex, or industrial/office, space on Trinity Road. Today, LensRentals employs 95 people, leases 40,000 square feet and needs more room.
“I’d love to have 50,000 square feet,’’ said Beckman, who oversees the operations with Drew Cicala, Roger’s son. “... Hopefully, we’ll have our own building within three or four years.’’
Among its employees are 16 customer service representatives. Most are photographers, and each works at a station equipped with large and small computer screens while wearing the ever-present headsets.
“There are lots of new questions about the new camera,’’ said Jon Lancaster, customer service manager. “We field a lot of calls like, ‘What it can do, what it can’t do.’ ’’
“Technicians tested the cameras before we sent it out to make sure they understood how it worked so then they could point customers in the right direction,’’ Lancaster said.
Roger Cicala led the testing himself. As he’s done before with other equipment, Cicala took apart the 5D Mark IV and wrote about it with photos on a LensRentals.com blog post called “LensRentals’ Canon 5D Mk IV Teardown.’’
His teardowns have become a reference source for internet exchanges in the world of photography. By midday Monday, the post had drawn 47 comments.
“People who are buying those $3,000 cameras like to read it (to know) ‘Oh, it’s well made’,’’ Roger Cicala said. “It doesn’t drive us traffic, but it leaves everybody with the knowledge that those guys know their cameras inside and out.’’
Among Cicala’s conclusions from dissecting the camera: The Mark IV may look similar to the Mark III on the outside, but inside “there’s a lot of newness ... new circuitry. The number of new connections is astronomically higher.’’
He also concluded the new model is sturdier than ever; new fastenings made the body more difficult take apart.
With quality camera equipment costing thousands of dollars, the LensRentals leadership believes the company will continue to grow. Video equipment accounts for a growing portion of the company's sales.
“They may want to try it before plunking down $3,000 for a camera,’’ Drew Cicala said. “Because there’s no local camera store in most markets anymore, there’s no way except for renting that you can actually pick up that camera and understand how it fits in your hand and how much it weighs and what the buttons do.’’
Historically, rentals for a new model remain strong about six months. “We’re going to see 20 to 30 more orders per week than we would otherwise’’ because of the 5D Mark IV, Beckman said.
And LensRentals has an effective way to reduce its stock once rentals start slowing down for a new piece of equipment. It sells used cameras and lenses through its affiliated business, LensAuthority.com.
“If we own 300 of these and 150 are on the shelf and none of those 150 are making money, we’ve got to figure out what we’re going to do. And that’s when it goes to Suite 105,’’ Beckman said, referring to the LensAuthority space.
“We’re able to move those relatively young units that are still popular really easily. We can liquidate them usually within a week,’’ he said.


text:
Vietnam’s inaugural hybrid gala celebration powered by world-famous pioneers in the manufacture of real estate, building and construction solutions
Relive the grandest night for Vietnam real estate in the official photo album here: Flickr.com
What do you get when you have the support of the world’s premier makers of high-quality kitchen and bath products; furniture fittings and architectural hardware; paint solutions; and construction materials, among others?
The result is a night of success at the 7th Annual PropertyGuru Vietnam Property Awards, celebrated 26 November as an exclusive hybrid gala event at the Park Hyatt Saigon in Ho Chi Minh City. The festive occasion, which also marked the premiere of the awards’ virtual broadcast presentation, was presented by Kohler and supported by Häfele, Dulux Professional by AkzoNobel Paints Vietnam, and Saint-Gobain Vietnam.
Now marking five years as platinum sponsor of the PropertyGuru Asia Property Awards, Kohler congratulated the developers and real estate professionals receiving honours in Vietnam for 2021.
“The awards give recognition to excellent projects throughout the property industry in Asia,” said Leo Leong, general manager for Kohler Kitchen & Bath South & Northeast Asia, adding that the programme is a good platform for showcasing great projects in Asia Pacific.
Kohler takes pride in the awardees’ achievements as well as its own. At a time when hygiene, sanitation and wellbeing are top of mind for property seekers, the celebrated maker of designer kitchen and bath products continues to innovate on its product range.
Recently, it introduced the Vietnam market to smart, contactless products like the Eir intelligent toilet, Modern Life touchless toilet, and Malleco touchless faucet.
Such bold innovations stem from Kohler’s “strong heritage and mission of contributing to a higher level of gracious living,” according to Leong.
Kohler was founded 148 years ago today in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.
As gold sponsor of this year’s awards in Vietnam, Häfele was also instrumental in making the country’s biggest night for real estate possible. The global provider of high-end smart home solutions cherishes its long-standing partnerships with developers, architects and contractors in Vietnam, and those to come.
“Therefore, it is an honour for us to be part of the PropertyGuru Asia Property Awards [and] sharing our latest Complete Home Solutions and Products to the industry experts at the event this year,” said Dominik Fruth, the general director of Häfele Vietnam.
With almost 100 years of game-changing innovations—the company was founded in Germany in 1923—Häfele expanded in 1998 to Vietnam, joining over 150 nations that have been touched by the company’s products.
Since then, the company has introduced Vietnamese developers and designers to sophisticated furniture fittings, architectural hardware, home appliances, sanitary wares, and electronic access control solutions, all made to the highest German standards.
Adding colour to the awards this year is silver sponsor Dulux Professional by AkzoNobel Paints Vietnam. One of the world’s most recognisable names in paint and coating products, the company renewed its confidence in the PropertyGuru Asia Property Awards as the most trusted, prestigious programme of its kind in Asia Pacific.
“Since the first time we joined as silver sponsor in 2019, we have been overjoyed to contribute to raising standards across the real estate industry for the benefit of homebuyers and investors,” said Pamela Phua, general director of AkzoNobel Vietnam.
Dulux Professional by AkzoNobel Paints Vietnam builds on 200 years of heritage as a powerhouse in protecting and beautifying surfaces worldwide.
“As the leading provider of paints and coatings in the industry, AkzoNobel and Dulux Professional have been conscientiously working to bring more value to homebuyers, investors, and developers through our sponsorship and high-quality products and premium consulting services,” Phua said.
The 2021 awards also earned the generous support of silver sponsor Saint-Gobain Vietnam. The company is known for supplying builders with a comprehensive range of construction materials, giving rise to some of Vietnam’s most marvelous built spaces.
“Partnering with the PropertyGuru Asia Property Awards provides Saint-Gobain Vietnam with an excellent opportunity to connect with the best developers, architects and designers in Vietnam, as well as Asia Pacific,” said Nguyễn Trường Hải, chief executive officer of Saint-Gobain Vietnam.
“Together, we will build a growing Vietnam and will continue fostering stronger collaborations and partnerships with the developer, designer, and architect community to achieve even greater things on a higher level.”
Part of the global conglomerate Saint-Gobain Group that dates to 17th-century France, the company has truly come a long way from its origins providing glass for the palace of Versailles. Taking its business into the future, Saint-Gobain Vietnam has been responding to the global call for climate action by expanding its green and sustainable offerings.
The hybrid gala celebration in Ho Chi Minh City treated guests to a live screening of the programme’s virtual red carpet and awards presentation, which premiered worldwide on AsiaPropertyAwards.com/tv-podcast and multiple digital platforms.
Highlights of the celebration will be broadcast on the History Channel. The famed network serves as the official cable TV partner of the awards.
The awards are organised annually by Asia’s leading property technology company PropertyGuru Group. Batdongsan.com.vn, Vietnam’s leading property website, served as the awards’ official portal partner.
In addition to the aforementioned sponsors and partners, the 7th Annual PropertyGuru Vietnam Property Awards were supported by local partner Oriental Media Vietnam; official magazine PropertyGuru Property Report; official PR partner T&H Communications; media partners Deluxe Magazine, Oi Vietnam, Vietnam Heritage, and Vietnam News; official charity partner Right To Play; official ESG partner Baan Dek Foundation; supporting association Asia MarTech Society; and official supervisor HLB.
Meet the dynamic duo putting waste to work in Indonesia
Indonesian entrepreneurs Ovy Sabrina and Novita Tan have made a meaningful mark with their firm Rebricks
Wind power: The Philippines spearheads Asia’s clean energy revolution
The Philippines has set aside its history of rejecting renewables and is setting its sights on becoming the region’s top green power producer
Singapore explores electric avenues
The pace of installation and consumer sentiment are still lagging as Singapore aims to meet its 2030 EV ambitions
Arkitek MAA shapes the nation
The firm's knack for crafting landmark transport hubs and socially sustainable developments has established it as one of Malaysia’s foremost practices


text:
Fast food chain KFC eyes up site in Cumbrian town
Last updated at 11:38, Monday, 02 September 2013
Fast food chain KFC says it would “love” to open a restaurant in Workington and is once again looking for suitable sites.
Earlier this year the company dealt a blow to the town when it announced it was no longer planning to build in the near future.
But the popular food outlet has now revealed it has its eyes on Workington once again.
It was two years ago when the company first showed an interest and submitted plans for a restaurant and drive-through opposite Morrisons Supermarket at Derwent Drive Retail Park.
But in September 2011, four months after submitting a planning application to Allerdale council, it withdrew the proposal saying that it would be resubmitted – but it never was.
Immediately after, the company vowed to still come to the town and said it was looking for other suitable locations and the public was even asked to suggest possible places.
But a KFC spokeswoman said in March it would not be happening in the “near future”.
However, a new statement issued by the company says: “We’d love to open a restaurant in Workington. We’re currently looking for a suitable location.”
First published at 11:35, Monday, 02 September 2013
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk
Have your say
Is this KFC story a worthy news item? God help us.
can nobody in Workington cook a meal the town centre is nothing but charity.betting Chinese indian sandwich shops as well as coffee and ordinary fish shops all patronised by the most unfit looking people I have seen I don't know what other towns are like but if they are anything like Workington its a bad outlook.
View all 19 comments on this article


text:
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prof. Wangari Maathai has written a fascinating article posted on opendemocracy.net titled "An African future: beyond the culture of dependency".
Maathai writes that as a result of the G20 London meeting where leaders pledged more funds for development aid to Africa, she was concerned that this injection may not be effective in enabling Africans to rise out of the poverty they live in, as the money may not in this case be spent effectively.
Maathai goes back to one of the root causes of poverty naming powerlessness or disempowerment as a key factor in its perpetuation. African leaders in the past, and some today have been deified to the point where they took all the power, leaving the common African more or less dependent on them to make all the decisions. Almost forgetting the power they yield through the ballot in those countries that allow democratic elections, even at the grassroots level any form of community self-help had to be led by a local or national leader either as Chairperson of the Committee or Patron.
This in turn resulted in a feudal scenario where the common man was beholden to the mweshimiwa (Honourable person) for almost everything ranging from allocation of relief food, to ensuring jobs for relatives in the public sector (which through this nefarious nepotistic activity resulted in the disintegration of many civil services) to handouts for school fees.
Maathai posits that this disempowerment has infected the psyche so that even one's self esteem and dignity have been derogated. She writes:
"Disempowerment - whether defined in terms of a lack of self-confidence, apathy, fear, or an inability to take charge of one's own life - is perhaps the most unrecognised problem in Africa today. To the disempowered, it seems much easier or even more acceptable to leave one's life in the hands of third parties (governments, aid agencies, and even God) than to try to alleviate one's circumstances through one's own effort."
She terms this as a syndrome that has been so far neglected by policy makers and development pundits. And it is this same alienation of the common man, that has allowed corruption as Maathai says to seep right down to Africa's (grass)roots.
A matter of survival
Maathai gives an example of the macadamia nut industry where a group of farmers in her constituency (pre-2008 when she was a Kenyan Member of Parliament) approached her for assistance. For those who care to look, the macadamia industry is a growing sector and not only for its edible attributes. The nut's active ingredients have been recognised as being able to be used for many products ranging from skin lotions to sexual dysfunction aids. Kenya is placed in the fortunate position of being climatically suitable for growing macadamia trees, so of course it was not surprising that many farmers have entered this sector.
This should have been the vehicle to prosperity for the farmers who approached Maathai when she was their Member of Parliament. However and this also applies to the plight of Africa's youth entrepreneurs, disempowerment is what caused their macadamia nut project to flounder and is also what causes many young enterprises not to last more than 12 months.
Brokers, middle men and "connections" agents
Due to their lack of resources, most small enterprises have to go through brokers, middlemen or whatever other names they go by. For the macadamia farmers they had to go through a broker to link them up with an exporter. In the case of the young entrepreneur starting out, if they want to get some work from a large company or even the government, they too need a middleman who then sub-contracts the work out to them. They are thus not masters of their own business, having to share profits with these brokers, who for the most part hardly incur any costs of their own.
However, as also in the farmers case, asymmetry of market knowledge in the broker's favour translates to a higher "brokerage" fee which if not paid means the end of that enterprise.
The green eyed monster
Maathai's macadamia farming constituents also complained that as their standard of living began to overtly manifest the effects of increased household income, they became targets for theft from neighbours. This theft had serious repercussions on sales:
… the farmers were unhappy. When we met, they explained that, because there was so much money to be made in the macadamia nuts, their neighbours, also farmers, had begun to steal. Now, macadamia nuts need to be fully ripe to be ready for processing, and they are not fully ripe until they fall to the ground. But some people (the farmers told me) had started shaking the trees before the nuts were ripe, in order to make them fall … In the end, the greed had become so enormous that some individuals had simply crept onto the farmers' land at night, cut down the trees, and hauled them away, so they could harvest every single nut for themselves.
This same avarice and wanting to reap where one has not sown is what has brought many young businesses to come to an abrupt end. In a scenario where an entrepreneur seems to be climbing the financial ladder, they also have to face their peers ostracising them (though not always to their face). Comments such as "I wonder how so and so made so much money in such a short time, they must have stolen it" begin to emerge.
Jump aboard and hijack the product
Eventually as even the macadamia thieves started selling poor quality nuts, the middle-man told the farmers he wouldn't buy any more nuts from them again. So what began as a very promising income generating activity that would have eventually enriched the entire community simply crumbled.
Taking a walk through African cities, one notices that the enterprises being operated by the youth are generally service oriented, and fall within a narrow category of retail business types. There is hardly any manufacturing and even more disturbing is the lack of innovativeness on the part of youth entrepreneurs. Just how many pirated DVD shops can a city have? The answer to that question depends on how many young entrepreneurs there are. This may sound cynical, but if one just strolls through Africa's business districts patterns of mobile phone accessory shops, small clothing stalls and the emerging number of cramped cyber café's tell the story of an over-saturation of enterprise but no individual firm growth. It's no wonder most of these outfits hardly last a year, when the young entrepreneurs venture into the next big thing in small business.
The failure of a colonial developed education system
Education has also failed Africans. In countries such as Kenya and Nigeria, the education system was geared towards creating employees and not employers. Farming and agriculture have also been variously frowned on as backwards. So as such as Maathai writes: Such farmers may have little or no formal education, and may therefore be functionally or actually illiterate. Even if they are able to read or write, they lack access to written materials or the internet to inform themselves about the crops that are their primary source of income.
Likewise, the formal education system has let down young entrepreneurs. By not inculcating financial literacy, business and personal management skills, how then can a person of say 19, 25 or even 35 years be expected to start and grow a profitable enterprise?
Maathai also decries the state of support from the Kenyan government for farmers in her words to "empower him in the international marketplace". For the youth, yes the Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF) is a great initiative to empower the youth, however, young entrepreneurs need some form of ongoing business support, not just financial. Also the Fund can be a conduit to push youth-owned products and services both onto local and international markets.
Working together for the greater common good
Apart from institutional challenges the macadamia farmers faced, ultimately Maathai writes that it was "own failure to understand the consequences of its self-destructive actions. Instead of working together to further the common good of their communities, each person pursued his individual interests - and all lost."
Just as how the macadamia thieves ruined this entire industry, so have unethical entrepreneurs also sullied the name of business. So often cases are brought to our attention at Yipe.org of ruthless contractors or middle-men who give out work to young entrepreneurs and yet do not pay them their just dues.
However mainly due to a sense of powerlessness, young entrepreneurs who believe they are at the mercy of these thugs and on the promise of more work remain silent, writing off these debts by taking on more expensive loans to service them. Similar to the macadamia farmer case, as Maathai writes this is corruption, nothing else. It doesn't matter whether it is at the State House or the local kiosk, unethical business where one lives off the sweat of another is corruption.
One new media group in Kenya has stood up to fight these criminal entrepreneurs by forming a facebook group called People Against Corruption in Kenya. The group is a platform for any person that has been cheated or defrauded out of their just dues to place a complaint so as to assist other young entrepreneurs from falling into the same trap.
Because most young entrepreneurs are small fish compared to the big fry that conned them in the first place, this group is a more user friendly way of at least ensuring justice in the form of awareness raising and preventing fellow entrepreneurs being conned. It beats waiting for the judicial system which takes too long, and is itself prone to corruption, and once it grows, it will probably serve as an business integrity rating system.
So as Wangari Maathai writes there is an ethical revolution in the making. And young entrepreneurs are sure to be in the fore-front of this change.


text:
NY man sentenced in Atlanta for selling unsafe supplements
ATLANTA (AP) — Prosecutors in Atlanta say a New York man was sentenced to serve more than 11 years in prison following his conviction on charges related to the online marketing and sale of unsafe dietary supplements.
U.S. Attorney John Horn says 44-year-old Chenhsin “Paul” Chan, of Elmhurst, was sentenced Friday to serve 11 years and three months. A jury in May found Chan guilty of 30 felony counts.
Prosecutors say Chan owned and operated The Wholesale Source, LLC, which sold supplements online.
The FDA in April 2004 declared supplements containing ephedrine alkaloids to be adulterated because they carry an unreasonable risk of illness or injury. Prosecutors say that from at least July 2005 through August 2012 Chan sold supplements containing ephedrine alkaloids, even after FDA investigators told him it was illegal.


text:
Proposed Changes to Controls on Pricing of NHS Medicines
On 15 September 2016, the UK Department of Health published its response to a consultation on proposed changes to the legislation that controls the price of branded medicines supplied to the NHS. At the same time the UK Government published the Health Service Medical Supplies (Costs) Bill, draft legislation that—if passed—will allow the Secretary of State more closely to align the statutory pricing arrangements with the voluntary arrangements under the 2014 Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS). However, no changes to the current statutory pricing regime will take place until the proposed Bill becomes law.
The Bill also seeks to prevent companies who are members of a voluntary scheme from escaping statutory controls on those parts of their product portfolios which fall outside the scope of such voluntary scheme, as well as empowering the Secretary of State for Health to enforce payments due from PPRS member companies under the voluntary scheme even after they have left the PPRS.
The Secretary of State’s powers to control the prices of medicines used for the purposes of the National Health Service in the UK (health service medicines) derive from the National Health Service Act 2006. These powers may currently be exercised, in particular:
- where there is a voluntary scheme in existence between the Secretary of State and the relevant industry body for the purposes of limiting the prices which may be charged or the profits which may accrue from the manufacture or supply of health service medicines; and
- by the Secretary of State making a Statutory Scheme for the purposes of limiting the prices which may be charged or the profits which may accrue from the manufacture or supply of health service medicines, although such Statutory Scheme may not apply to a manufacturer or supplier to whom a voluntary scheme applies.
The prices of most branded health service medicines are currently controlled through the voluntary Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS). All manufacturers and suppliers of branded health service medicines who are not members of the PPRS are automatically subject to a parallel Statutory Scheme. Prices of unbranded health service medicines are controlled via Schemes ‘M’ and ‘W’ (for manufacturers and wholesalers), but there is, at present, no Statutory Scheme applicable to such products.
The current version of the PPRS, which came into effect on 1 January 2014, represented a substantial change from previous versions of the scheme, which involved price reductions and profit controls. The 2014 PPRS retained the profit control element, but focused on a form of budget control for branded medicines, namely a requirement for scheme members to make retrospective PPRS payments to the Department of Health reflecting the extent to which growth in expenditure on branded health service medicines supplied by PPRS member companies exceeds a set target.
In contrast, the current Statutory Scheme for branded health service medicines controls prices simply through imposition of mandatory price reductions from a specified baseline date. The Department of Health has expressed concern that the level of savings obtained from Statutory Scheme members is less than that from members of the PPRS, encouraging companies to transfer from the PPRS to the Statutory Scheme.
In September 2015, the Department of Health issued a consultation on its proposed revision of the Statutory Scheme, with the stated aim of bringing it into line with the 2014 PPRS and to achieve a comparable level of savings. Its response to the Consultation was published on 15 September 2016, and was accompanied by a proposal to change the powers of the Secretary of State under the National Health Service Act 2006—the Health Service Medical Supplies (Costs) Bill.
The Health Service Medical Supplies (Costs) Bill
As indicated above, the Department of Health has concluded that companies participating in the Statutory Scheme should (like those in the voluntary PPRS) make payments to the Department of Health based on their sales of branded health service medicines, rather than simply imposing additional price cuts. However, as the Secretary of State’s powers under the legislation underpinning the Statutory Scheme only allow him to impose limits on prices or profits, the Department of Health concluded that:
“amendments should be made to the primary legislation (the National Health Service Act 2006) to put beyond doubt that the Secretary of State has the power to require a payment mechanism in the statutory scheme to limit the cost of health service medicines”.1
The new Bill therefore provides that, in addition to limiting prices or profits, the Secretary of State may exercise his powers under the 2006 Act for the purposes of providing for any manufacturer or supplier to whom the Statutory Scheme relates to pay him an amount calculated by reference to sales or estimated sales of any health service medicines.
The Government has also taken to the opportunity to address a number of additional areas under the 2006 Act:
- The introduction of a mechanism for enforcement of sums owed under the PPRS: At present, the only enforcement mechanism available to the Secretary of State in relation to a PPRS member is to issue a notice that the scheme is no longer to apply to that company. The Bill creates a statutory basis for recovery of amounts payable under the PPRS, which may be subject to a demand by the Secretary of State and enforced through the Courts in the same way as sums due under the Statutory Scheme.
- Controls on price increases for unbranded medicines: The Government has also taken the opportunity to close a loophole in the National Health Service Act 2006 which provided that manufacturers or suppliers who were members of a voluntary scheme could not be subject to statutory price control. This exemption had been relied upon by some PPRS member companies to increase prices of unbranded medicines (which are not controlled under the terms of the PPRS). The Bill resolves this by allowing the Secretary of State to control the prices of products supplied by a member of a voluntary scheme where such products fall outside the scope of the voluntary scheme.
- Provision of information: In order to try to prevent future abuses, the Bill includes a new power allowing the Secretary of State to require information on sales and purchases of health service medicines and other medical supplies from any person who manufactures, distributes or supplies them. Again, the details will be subject to further consultation. The intention is to improve the Department of Health’s ability to collect data, enabling more informed decisions on pricing and reimbursement across the supply chain.
- Prices of medical supplies: The Bill increases the scope of the Secretary of State’s powers to controls prices to include medical supplies other than health service medicines.
The new Bill must be debated and approved by both Houses of Parliament and receive Royal Assent before taking effect.
Response to the 2015 Consultation on the Statutory Scheme
The Consultation response published on 15 September states that a further consultation in relation to the form of the Statutory Scheme will take place once the Health Service Medical Supplies (Costs) Bill becomes law. However, the response to Consultation provides a clear indication of the Department of Health’s present intentions:
- The Department of Health referred to the fact that, since the commencement of the 2014 PPRS, £157M of sales have transferred from the PPRS to the Statutory Scheme. This supports its view that the current mandatory 15% list price reduction under the Statutory Scheme should be replaced by a payment mechanism linked to value of sales in order to align more closely with the PPRS. Sales of “new products” launched since 1 December 2013, currently excluded from the mandatory price reduction under the Statutory Scheme, would also be subject to the payment mechanism.
- The exemption for companies with sales of branded health service medicines less than £5M in the previous year, will be retained.
- The Statutory Scheme will continue to apply only to prescription-only medicines; and GSL and P products should be excluded from the payment mechanism and the calculation of sales for the purposes of the small company exemption.
- The payment mechanism will not apply to sales of products procured under framework agreements made under the Public Contracts Regulations 2006 on or before the date of coming into force of the new regulations or following a tender which closed on or before that date. However, the Consultation response indicates that the Department of Health is not planning to exclude sales under future framework agreements, which had not been entered into when the regulations are brought into force. Companies will therefore have to take into account the payment mechanism when submitting tender responses after that date.
- Price increases may be permitted where necessary as a result of supply difficulties.
- The Department of Health intends to proceed with its proposal to increase transparency of pricing by publishing lists of current maximum prices for health service medicines and is currently liaising with the NHS Business Authority to develop the proposed lists.
- In addition to the proposed new legislative controls on pricing of unbranded generics, the Consultation response indicated that where there was no competitive market to control prices the Department of Health will continue to work closely with the Competition and Markets Authority and alert them to cases where there may be market abuse. The Department may additionally consider with the representative bodies for relevant stakeholders, the need for amendments to existing health service supply pricing arrangements.
The new Bill must be debated and approved by both Houses of Parliament and receive Royal Assent before taking effect. Assuming it is passed, the Department of Health will carry out further consultations seeking views on the operation of the proposed payment mechanism, the level of payment percentage, the need for exemptions from the Statutory Scheme price controls, and the arrangements for enforcement and sanctions.
The Department of Health has indicated that these consultations are likely to take place in spring/summer 2017, and as such changes to the current Statutory Scheme are expected to be implemented in late 2017/2018.


text:
Key points from Maclean’s January 11, 2017 article
By Toronto Celiac
Children raised eating only a raw, vegan, non-GMO, unprocessed diet get a rude awakening when they enter school and find a whole new world of food: jello, fruit loops and many other foods have never been seen before. Dietitians agree that diets can be dangerous for children.
“Once you start restricting food groups or large chunks of food groups, you start running into problems like vitamin and mineral deficiency.” Karen Kuperberg, RD states that “In general, any diets for kids aren’t recommended. You want kids to eat a variety of foods from all food groups.”
Dr. Peter Green, an expert in Celiac Disease, is all in favour of going gluten-free if it’s medically required. Parents should not self-diagnose themselves or their children however. Parents who are committed to diets do have the advantage of paying close attention to what their children eat. However, the article warns that imposing adult lifestyle choices on infants and children is ill-advised.
Alternative medicine choices for children may mean undiagnosed serious diseases are being missed. “You cannot afford to make any mistakes when it comes to your children.”
If you know someone putting their child on a gluten-free diet as they seem to be bothered by gluten, suggest that before they do that, that they have their child tested for Celiac Disease first. If diagnosed, they can then get the proper information from a Registered Dietitian to ensure that vitamin and mineral deficiency does not become an issue. Their child’s health is at risk.
Read the full article at: http://www.macleans.ca/society/health/gluten-free-baby-when-parents-ignore-science/


text:
DETROIT — Mining company executives. Non-automotive suppliers. Engineers. Battery supply chain and purchasing experts. They've all found a seat at General Motors' table as the automaker reinvents the supply chain for electric vehicles.
"When we define what our value chain will be, it will look nothing like the value chain that exists today," said Shilpan Amin, GM's vice president of global purchasing and supply chain.
GM brought in outside experts, along with cross-functional internal teams, to inform its battery development plan and ensure that battery materials, such as lithium and cobalt, are sourced responsibly and economically.
None of the experts alone is a silver bullet for GM's strategy, Amin told Automotive News. GM needed an array of perspectives to assemble its plan. Once the automaker developed a consortium to learn from, "all of a sudden the pieces started to fall together," Amin said.
The auto industry's move toward electrification, including GM's commitment of $35 billion in electric and autonomous vehicle development through 2025, has emphasized efficient and responsible sourcing of the materials that make up batteries to power EVs. Today, GM and its peers rely on a longstanding supply chain with Tier 1 through Tier 4 suppliers coordinating to meet the automaker's needs. The battery landscape marks new ground, without a map of familiar suppliers, and Amin says the network is ripe for innovation and reinvention.


text:
Company's philanthropic arm plans major upgrade from tents
It sounds like the set-up to a really bad joke—the world's refugees are going to start using shelters from Ikea. But the idea actually has the potential to do a world of good, reports the Christian Science Monitor
. The shelters from the Ikea Foundation, the furniture maker's...


text:
– On Sunday, the world’s largest fresh produce market in Paris, France caught fire and burned nearly to the ground.
The warehouse blaze ignited near a massive produce market that supplies the Paris region with much of its fresh food. The market bills itself as ‘the largest of its kind in the world,’ ABC News reported.
“Firefighters urged people to stay away from the area in Paris’ southern suburbs, as 100 officers and 30 fire engines battled the blaze at the Rungis International Market,” ABC noted.
The cause of the blaze was unknown but will be investigated, Le Moine said.
The wholesale market employs 12,000 people and it sells fruit and vegetables, seafood, meats, and dairy products from around the world.
Learn More: https://beckernews.com/worlds-largest-fresh-produce-market-catches-fire-and-people-are-starting-to-ask-questions-47074/
Your Support of Independent Media Is Appreciated:
If you want to stream, Sign Up! https://dlive.tv/r/refer/streamer?name=dahboo7
UWN Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/DAHBOO7/


text:
Mangaluru, June 10, 2015: With an excuse that heat wave that killed more than 17 million birds recently, chicken breeders, taking the lead from their counterparts across the country-have increased the landing price of live birds to Rs 105 per kilogram.
Live broiler chicken is being sold at Rs 120 to Rs 135 per kg. Chicken is selling at Rs 125 per kg. In the past two months, the live bird landing cost was between Rs 80 to Rs 89 per kg. There are four large breeders and plenty of small ones in DK and Udupi, enough to meet the demand, the price has been hiked simply because of the trend somewhere, according to a retailer.
Retailers have been facing hard times since they under estimated obligations to supply poultry meat to hotels and restaurants. The retailer noted that cartelization has led to this phenomenon with breeders taking the minimum of the prevailing price to determine rates here though the production cost is the same and has not seen an increase over the years.
Local farmers are working on the rates from rest of the markets. When prices go up, they hike. Price stabilisation will come only when monsoon start. Hopefully we will have seen the worst with the matter cooling down.


text:
U.S. catfish processing down from last year
Farm-raised catfish processed in the U.S. during June totaled 38.6 million pounds round weight, down 2 percent from June 2009. The average price paid to producers was 78.9 cents per pound for June 2010, down 0.7 cent from last month but 2.6 cents above a year ago.
Net pounds of processed fish sold during June totaled 19.9 million pounds, up 5 percent from the comparable month in 2009. Sales of fresh fish, at 6.75 million pounds, were down 3 percent from June 2009 and represented 34 percent of total sales. Frozen fish sales, at 13.2 million pounds, were up 9 percent from a year ago and accounted for the remaining 66 percent of total fish sales.
Sales of whole fish represented 18 percent of the total fish sold, fillets accounted for 59 percent, and the remaining 23 percent were mostly steaks, nuggets, and value added products. The total end of the month inventory increased 3 percent from last month and was up 5 percent from a year ago.
The total fresh and frozen average price for June 2010 was $2.43, down 8 cents from a year ago. The average price received by processors for total fresh fish was $2.44 per pound, down 3 cents from last year. Prices for fresh whole fish were $1.58 per pound, down 6 cents from June 2009. Prices for fresh fillets were up 5 cents from a year ago at $3.27 per pound. Total frozen fish averaged $2.43 per pound, down 10 cents from June 2009. Prices for frozen whole dressed fish were unchanged at $2.19 and frozen fillets at $2.95 per pound were up 4 cents from a year ago.
Freshwater imports for consumption of Ictalurus spp., Pangasius spp. and other catfish of the order Siluriformes for May 2010 totaled 9.97 million pounds, down 14 percent from the amount imported in May 2009. Imports were from Brunei, China, China-Taipei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Spain, Suriname, Thailand and Vietnam.
The Ictalurus spp. imports totaled 656,000 pounds, which were from China, Indonesia, Mexico and Suriname.
Fresh, boneless catfish fillet exports totaled 47.3 thousand pounds, with all going to Canada. Exports of frozen, boneless catfish fillets reported for May 2010 totaled 20.5 thousand pounds, going to the Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands, Canada, the Netherlands and the Netherlands Antilles.
To sign up for Mississippi Business Daily Updates, click here.
FOLLOW THE MBJ ON TWITTERMy Tweets
Twang & Tourism: The Country Music Trail
Top Posts & Pages
- Officials set hunting dates for birds; expands dove season by 20 days
- Brandon man hauls in record 756-pound alligator
- Is cotton looking too good? Farmers facing weaker prices
- Woman found guilty of murder in buttocks injection case
- FLIPPING OUT — Flipping houses is popular in much of the country, but in Mississippi ...
- REVVING UP — Motorcars of Jackson is preparing to open its first-ever showroom on I-55
- Nehi Bottling Company has been a Cleveland fixture for 85 years
- Mississippi judge dismisses lawsuit seeking to overturn Sen. Cochran's GOP primary win
- Healthcare Marketplace to look much the same in 2015


text:
Today's conversations around customer experience typically center on the ideas and strategies for improving marketing and merchandising, seamlessly moving the customer through various channels, and providing exceptional service in-store and online. Very rarely do we hear customer experience conversations happening around the topic of e-commerce returns. However, with the holiday season and inevitable post-holiday returns pending, it's time to take a closer look at how retailers can optimize the returns process.
With millions of Merry Christmases and Happy Hanukkahs on the line, it's important that omnichannel newcomers like Wal-Mart and Sears adjust for the effects of increased online shopping. One solution is for retailers to offer more products, while simultaneously ensuring faster delivery by transferring the shipping responsibilities to the manufacturer or supplier via drop shipping.
If you're one to predict if the holidays will be successful by how many seasonal employees companies hire, than this year we're going to be seeing a lot of happy retailers. Several companies have announced that they’re ramping up their seasonal hiring for the holidays.
This is the first time FedEx has announced its Ground increase prior to UPS. In the past, UPS would set the Ground increase and FedEx would quickly match it. The industry now turns its attention to UPS in anticipation of its 2015 general rate increase announcement in the coming weeks. Does UPS match the FedEx rate increases, or will it change pricing to compete with new, sharply discounted USPS Priority Mail pricing?
Through careful evaluation, shippers that add the U.S. Postal Service to complement private carriers like FedEx and UPS can significantly drive down costs and improve service.
It's never too early to start preparing your warehouse for a surge in orders throughout the holiday season. You'll be ready to tackle any bottlenecks in the months leading up to and during the holiday season by following this easy checklist:
With memories of the well-publicized 2013 Christmas delivery failures still fresh on the minds of consumers and retailers alike, leading brands have already begun preparing a shipping strategy for the 2014 holiday rush. While it's not too late for proper planning for holiday shipping, it's certainly not too early. Here are four tips to improve the delivery of orders to your customers this upcoming holiday season:
By now it's likely you've heard that both FedEx and UPS are revising pricing policies for ground packages, moving from weight-based to pricing based on package size starting in 2015. Currently, both parcel carriers apply dimensional weight pricing only to ground packages measuring three cubic feet (5,184 cubic inches) or greater. The elimination of the three cubic foot exception is effective Dec. 29, 2014 for UPS, and Jan. 1, 2015 for FedEx.


text:
I liken it to SUV envy, though on a much larger scale.
Osceola County commissioners look in their neighbor's driveway and see the massive Orange County Convention Center. It's the equivalent of a Hummer, and they want one, too. But they know they can't afford the payments on a monster like that -- not enough bling-bling to go around -- so they're looking for something more practical. Maybe, they'll settle for a Cadillac Escalade, a Porsche Cayenne, or a Lincoln Navigator. If worse comes to worse, they'll deal for a Chevrolet Suburban or Ford Expedition. They can always trick it out with the equivalent of new rims and a custom sound system later.
A key question in this quest is can the county afford to co-sign the loan for the car? Does it make sense to commit for years when a better project might come along tomorrow, next month or next year?
I think not. But commissioners want their SUV, with leather interior, please. It's a common malady of municipalities that have or plan to build or expand convention facilities. And there are plenty of shopping showrooms.
Number crunchers are still looking at plans for a convention center and hotel. There hasn't been much news on efforts to secure financing, but a recent story about the finances of such deals in USA Today is relevant.
The piece chronicled the growing use of government bonds to finance convention-center hotels as private financing for such projects dries up. A professor at the University of Texas-San Antonio calls it "hotel socialism."
Efforts to build a convention center somewhere in Osceola's tourist corridor have stumbled, slipped and staggered for years. Plans call for visitors to begin paying more taxes on hotel rooms in July to help push the project along.
The latest deadline for private financing is May 1. FaulknerUSA, the Texas company picked for the convention-center project, must line up money for the center and an 800-room hotel planned for Osceola Parkway and State Road 535 by then. The county is involved in the deal through a nonprofit corporation that would issue tax-free bonds for the entire cost of the project.
The corporation -- whose members will be county commissioners -- would own all the buildings and land for the project but would deed the convention center back to the county while holding a 50-year lease to operate the center. Very confusing, but it essentially puts the county deep in the deal.
I would like to see some money from partners such as Hilton, though the company no longer finances large hotels.
"We don't believe it's attractive for us to spend our own capital," Vice President Marc Grossman told USA Today.
Why bother when government will find a way to make these projects happen?
I still have to wonder whether such a facility is really feasible. Osceola's leaders may think they have too much at stake to walk away from a convention center. They want their own SUV in the driveway next to Orange's Hummer.
Stay tuned for what happens over the next few weeks. It could be make-or-break time for the deal.


text:
Finland's Nokia is abandoning its foray into health hardware and services, selling off that unit to Eric Carreel — one of the founders of Withings, which was acquired just two years ago to form the core of the division.
Continuing a pattern of reviving older designs in an attempt to stay relevant in the mobile phone industry, Nokia has resurrected one of its more famous designs, bringing back the Nokia 8110 as a feature phone with a bigger screen and a sleeker appearance, while still retaining its well-known physical slide-out design.
Less than two years after Nokia bought health and fitness gear maker Withings for $192 million, the major investment appears to be problematic for the Finnish company, as a new memo suggests its health business may not last much longer.
MSI's Creator Z17 notebook is billed as a productivity workhorse with a sleek design. On paper, it's even capable of taking on Apple's creative powerhouse, the 16-inch MacBook Pro. Here's how they compare.
The new Surface Laptop Go 2 is a thin and light Windows notebook at a low cost, and has been positioned by Microsoft to be a competitor to Apple's latest M2 MacBook Air. Here's how the ultra-portable notebooks compare.
The "iPhone 14" lineup is expected to be incredibly similar to the iPhone 13 with minor changes like increased RAM and a new "max" model. Check out the rumored "iPhone 14 Max" in AR and find all the details here.
With Samsung on the cusp of releasing another generation of foldable smartphones, questions are popping up about if it is too late for Apple to be a big mover with a foldable iPhone. Here's how Apple might approach it.
In the terms of their new patent dispute resolution, Nokia revealed it will be providing network infrastructure products to Apple — a partnership that one Wall Street analysts could see Nokia significantly grow its IP router business by supplying Apple's datacenters.
Apple and Nokia on Tuesday said they have reached settlement in a five-month legal dispute over patent licensing practices, with the Cupertino tech giant agreeing to a multi-year license on the former top cellphone maker's intellectual property.
It's hard to escape the media pronouncements that iPhones are now boring again after Samsung unveiled its latest Galaxy S8, Apple's Mac business is being overshadowed by more exciting Surface Windows PCs from Microsoft and that Apple Watch is a disappointing dud. But they're all wrong, here's why.
Apple and a handful of partner cellular carriers are the target of a new lawsuit leveled by Acacia Research subsidiary Cellular Communications Equipment, which alleges the iPhone maker infringed and continues to infringe on four patents developed by Nokia covering messaging, emergency alerts and other key cellular technologies.
Nokia is making a bigger push into the healthcare market, announcing at Mobile World Congress that the health and fitness accessory maker Withings will rebrand its products under the Nokia name, as well as revealing a "Patient Care Platform" that appears to directly compete against Apple's HealthKit.
Nokia's legal action against Apple appears that it may be a defensive measure, as Apple has also filed suit against nine Nokia-aligned patent aggregators, alleging that the group is guilty of trying to squeeze money out of Apple with abusive licensing terms for standards-essential patents.
Nokia announced on Wednesday that it has filed a number of complaints against Apple in Germany and the U.S., alleging that despite a 2011 omnibus patent licensing deal, a variety of Apple products including the iPhone and iPad infringe a number of newly acquired Nokia patents.
Apple has finally given Mail the ability to unsend an email, or schedule one to be sent at a later time, in macOS Ventura. There are limitations, though, so here's how to do what you can — and how to work around what you can't.


text:
Teenagers are getting up at 5am to strip supermarket shelves of an energy drink created by two YouTubers.
PRIME Hydration was launched by social media influencers KSI and Logan Paul, and bottles have been selling out in minutes across Asda stores in the UK.
Shoppers have reported “madness in the aisles” as youths scramble to get hold of the £2 sports drinks as soon as new stocks arrive.
Fans have been getting up before sunrise to queue outside shops before they’ve even opened.
Some outlets have had to limit each customer to three bottles.
It comes as footage emerged on TikTok of youngsters storming an Asda in Bournemouth, Dorset, on Sunday to get their hands on the beverage.
The video shows excited teens charging into the Castlepoint Superstore and scavenging through shelves.
One Asda employee said: “On Sunday we finally had a fresh delivery and there were about thirty kids outside before we had opened.
“At 9.30am we had a member of security outside trying to keep it all under control. As soon as the doors opened they sprinted for the energy drink aisle.
“It was chaos, they cleared the shelves within minutes and were pushing and shoving each other to get their hands on some.”
One disappointed customer said: “I was really looking forward to getting some PRIME, I was looking forward to it all day. I’ll keep trying to get some.”
A spokesman for Asda added: “Prime is available in all of our larger superstores and we are pleased that customers are enjoying it.
“We know how popular this product is and we would like to assure customers that our stores are regularly receiving stock.”
British entertainer KSI told an episode of podcast The Fellas in August that the product is only supposed to be available in the UK at Asda supermarkets and Arsenal FC’s Emirates Stadium.
But such is the demand that a “black market” has sprung up.
The 29-year-old, from Watford, Hampshire, said: “It’s always sold out man. Honestly, people are selling it on the black market.
“I sh*t you not, the only place you’re meant to get PRIME is Asda and Arsenal stadium.
“But people are getting it at petrol stations!
“Asda employees aren’t even fg putting it on the shelves anymore. They’re shipping it out lowkey. They’re like ‘what’s the point, I put it on the shelf and it’s gone instantly. F*k it, I’m just going to sell it on the black market myself.’”
He added: “That’s what they’re doing bro, and then people are making p’s from it because you can’t get it anywhere! It’s not like we’re not supplying enough, we’re supplying loads!”
The drink was banned from schools in the UK due to students selling it themselves.
In response, KSI – real name Olajide Olayinka Williams “JJ” Olatunji – offered schools an entire “truckload” of PRIME for pupils who weren’t allowed it.
Flavours of PRIME include Meta Moon, Ice Pop, Blue Raspberry, Orange, Tropical Punch, Lemon Lime and Grape.
Its website said: “Prime Hydration was developed to fill the void where great taste meets function. With bold, thirst-quenching flavours to help you refresh, replenish, and refuel, Prime is the perfect boost for any endeavour.
“We’re confident you’ll love it as much as we do.”
It launched in the US in January and finally arrived in the UK in June.


text:
Yota Devices is on the verge of releasing a revolutionary YotaPhone dual-screen device that will combine a smartphone and eReader.
The company plans to release the YotaPhone internationally in December to capitalise on the Christmas sales period, according to TechCrunch, with the device set to shake up the market with its unique dual display design.
As far as technical specs are concerned it has a 1.7GHz dual-core processor with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard memory. The front screen is a 4.3in 720p LCD display with the back side of the device featuring a 4.3in 360x640 EPD grayscale display with a touch zone below it to allow gesture controls.
The device has a 13-megapixel back camera with a 1-megapixel snapper on the front, an 1800mAh battery and runs on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. It weighs in at 146g and the dimensions are 133.6 x 67 x 9.99mm.
When it comes to price, earlier reports stated the device would cost €500 [£419] with the firm yet to confirm definitive pricing except for a report in Russian publication Itar-Tass that states retailer Svyaznoy will launch sales of the device in November at RUB 20,000 [£380]. It suggests that the device will be priced around £400 when released in the UK, which is expected to take place during the first release stage.
The YotaPhone first appeared at the mobile industry’s large trade shows earlier this year with the Mobile World Congress [MWC] in Barcelona playing host to a booth based on the device.
A hands-on review of the device at the same event showed just how useful the back-screen can be at saving battery life and can be used to store items for use later such as plane boarding passes or website articles. It remains to be seen, however, whether the back screen is enough to tempt consumers away from the established smartphone manufacturers.


text:
Farm shop to serve Harry Potter inspired afternoon tea
- Credit: Archant
A farm shop is expanding its monthly themed teas including a Harry Potter tea later in November.
Farmers Kitchen, a farm shop and eatery in Harleston sold out places in 24 hours when it announced the magic franchise-themed event on Tuesday lunchtime.
However, due to the extreme popularity of the still-to-come afternoon, Kitchen manager Kelly Denny has announced that the tea will be repeated in the new year, and that more themed teas including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Tiger Who Came to Tea will be coming soon.
Dreamt up by Farmers Kitchen chef Luke George, the Harry Potter Afternoon Tea will feature child and adult options, including 'cauldrons' full of jelly, shortbread wands, and golden snitch macaroons.
Farmers Kitchen has previously put on afternoon tea for Mothers Day and science-themed children's parties, and this year a successful first Halloween event.
You may also want to watch:
On December 7 and 8 the eatery will also put on a festive themed tea.
The tea will take place on November 17 at 3pm, adult price £17, children under 12 £10. To find out more about future teas search Farmers Kitchen on Facebook.
- 1 New landlords relaunch pub with three-course dog menu
- 2 Norfolk care home leads fight against loneliness
- 3 47 new homes planned for Suffolk village
- 4 People 'driving across the county' to new Indian street food van
- 5 'Vindicated at last' - Pension compensation on the horizon for WASPI women
- 6 Primary and secondary schools join forces under new leadership
- 7 All you need to know ahead of the Old Buckenham Airshow 2021
- 8 New Covid variants may require jabs for children, UEA experts warn
- 9 Pings and exemptions: What are the rules around self-isolation?
- 10 Diss war hero reaches final 10 in Brave Briton Awards


text:
First the pandemic, now the war in Ukraine with rising inflation and rising fuel prices, and all the while the pressure to move away from plastic. Amid such turmoil, what does the future hold for paper packaging growth?
Neil Osment, managing director of paper packaging industry analyst NOA, talks to Packaging Europe about his forecast.
Demand for paper-based packaging, whether corrugated or folding cartons, has been on the rise across Europe for at least two years.
But, if you look at recent numbers, you could be forgiven for thinking something went wrong. In the first three months of 2022, demand for corrugated cardboard has declined across Europe, and all the growth that occurred in 2021 has now collapsed. We were at +7% corrugated in the UK in 2021 and are now at -8% (and the figures for Europe are similar).
So what caused this fall?
One of the factors is the destocking of finished boxes and cartons, as well as cardboard. Because there had been such a shortage of product (remember all the news about supply chain issues, packaging shortages, and truck driver shortages?) – and fearing getting caught in new – packaging companies, brand owners and end users had all over-ordered in 2021. For the first three or four months of 2022, they used this stock. Packaging companies that supply producers of FMCGs, in particular, have maintained higher than normal inventory levels because their customers have had such high demand for the product.
The consumption of corrugated cardboard, and to a lesser extent cardboard, had started to slow down in the second half of 2021, as we no longer worked from home, moved or ordered products online.
Also, after June 2021, we might again be spending our money on dining out and vacationing, so we’ve diverted our spending to events, experiences, and getting away from it all rather than ordering tangible products online. Anyone trying to book a coastal rental property for a holiday last year will remember how hard it was to find – and we’re talking all over Europe, as well as the UK.
In the first half of 2021, growth in paper packaging products was around +10%, but in the second half it slowed to +2% – a good growth rate for paper packaging, but more modest.
This year, in 2022, the trend of spending more of our disposable income on vacations has continued. We can now go abroad, and all over Europe – as we have seen – airports and ports are packed, people are scrambling to get away and we haven’t even reached the high yet season. It seems that we prefer to visit the real Amazon, rather than shopping on Amazon! In fact, Amazon’s sales numbers are down 15% in 2022 from last year – a huge indicator of people’s mindset.
In addition to all of the above, you have to consider the rising cost of energy across Europe, as well as inflation, which is forcing us to tighten our belts. We’re just not spending like we did at the start of the pandemic. Indeed, at NOA, we believe the impact of reduced consumer spending has yet to be fully felt across all sectors, including paper packaging. He will start biting very soon.
But before we get too gloomy, let’s recall that 2021 has been a banner year for growth for most sectors of the paper packaging industry. Things have cooled down, but that doesn’t mean they’ve gone backwards. Demand for corrugated board is still up 2-3% from 2020 – that’s nice steady growth.
The trajectory is still upward, thanks to a combination of natural growth and an overall increase in packaging used to promote and distribute products; there has been a boom in the use of ready-to-use packaging, especially at discount stores like Lidl and Aldi, which are absorbing increasingly large shares of national supermarket spending.
And there is a third factor: the green wave. Innovations in paper packaging are noteworthy: cardboard sleeves for cans of soup or baked beans in multipacks, paper trays for tomatoes and a very recent innovation from Smurfit Kappa: a paper laundry box with childproof. What else is going on? We watch this space with interest.
Cardboard has a longer latency time than corrugated cardboard, which reacts much faster to market forces. In the cardboard industry, like a supertanker, it may not act as quickly or as sensitively, but we expect it to follow the same path as corrugated cardboard. Currently, in 2022, the folding box market is as buoyant as it was two years ago.
This is due to a number of factors. First, a high percentage is destined for the food and beverage market; second, a lot more inventory is held in the supply chain, which hasn’t caught on yet; and thirdly, there is not much production capacity available for the paperboard needed to manufacture the paperboards, which keeps the demand high. Cartons are growing at +4-5% currently and the green wave is having a very positive impact on the demand for cartons, so again, watch this space.
So what happened in the world? The Far East has seen strong demand, but this has cooled recently, particularly due to the impact of Covid on China; more than 100 million people are estimated to be still isolating at home (and unavailable for work). Other parts of the Far East could experience the same. America has fared slightly better than Europe in terms of growth in 2020/22, and Africa and South America have tended to mirror Europe.
And where are we now?
In the short term, the impact of the war in Ukraine on the markets is likely to cause great disruption to the system, as producers turn to alternative sources of energy and minerals, rather than relying on Russia. Wheat starch in Ukraine and Russia is used in the corrugated board process, which will impact production as alternatives are sought from places such as the United States and Africa. Russia is a major supplier of wood, used for pallets and paper pulp, to Scandinavian paper mills. Again, alternative sources will need to be secured, and again, the United States is a likely option.
After that ?
For the remainder of 2022, we expect the -8% for corrugated in 2022 YTD to improve as consumption recovers on its own as the overstock issue eases . By the end of the year, we risk being at -2 to -4% or, at best, at equilibrium. But it’s important to remember that this still represents overall growth from 2019/20.
Looking ahead, in 2023, the necessary supply realignment triggered by the war on Ukraine will still be felt. However, by 2024 markets are expected to stabilize and we expect steady but more modest paper packaging growth of between 2% and 2.5% for the next few years. This will be due to natural growth and the green wave.
That’s right, the conflict in Ukraine is hitting the green wave’s momentum – stores in Iceland, for example, have admitted they won’t be able to keep their promise to be plastic-free for their own-brand products by 2023 – but the environmental pressure is still there, and growing.
And there is another factor to consider. The supply chain has proven to be of paramount importance and the reliance on China for the supply of goods is impacting the western world. We anticipate that we will see a gradual shift in the offshoring supply of our goods away from China and into other Western countries like America, plus India and Africa, and, of course, to the Europe too.


text:
Caleres sets environmental materials goal
All leather used in Caleres footwear will need to meet the Leather Working Group’s Gold or Silver standards.
Image © lucafabbian| iStockphoto.com
A new report from footwear producer Caleres reveals that 75 per cent of the shoes manufactured by its partners in 2022 were made from what it terms ‘environmentally preferred materials’. The company has set a target of using 100 per cent of such materials in its products by 2025.
All the leathers that are used to make its footwear will reportedly be required to meet the Leather Working Group’s Gold or Silver standards. Any fabrics incorporated into Caleres’ shoes are to be ‘natural’, include over 20 per cent of certified organic content, or contain more than half of certified recycled content.
Whereas during 2022 the company’s consumption of fabrics increased substantially year-on-year and surpassed pre-pandemic levels, the report into its environmental, social, and corporate governance performance in 2022 noted that Caleres’ use of leather decreased during 2022 compared to the previous year and was considerably less than the figure for 2019.
Last year, Caleres used 24.2 million square feet of leather, a decrease of 11.9 per cent over the previous 12 months’ figure and, in comparison, the total for 2022 was down by 27 per cent over the 2019 pre-pandemic figure of 33.1 million square feet. The document also announced that 85 per cent of the leather it consumed during that year was in keeping with its criteria of using environmentally preferred materials.
This article was originally published on page 3 of the May 2023 issue of SATRA Bulletin.
Other articles from this issue »


text:
Subagames’ Lucent Heart Open Beta Now Live
Subagames launched its open beta for Lucent Heart this Friday, January 10th, and activities are in full swing for the colorful MMORPG (previously published by Gamania/beanfun) – including a leveling contest with an Alienware reward.
Subagames is working actively since the game’s weekend launch, from pushing its Steam Greenlight campaign to fixing in-game issues. Closed beta testers waiting for their rewards will have to wait until the Item Mall officially launches. Meanwhile, if you’re planning on jumping in, make sure to check out the event calendar for January!
Articles You May Enjoy
- Guardians of Middle-Earth Steam Launch Review
- While there is more to the game than simply marching up the three lane map (there is also an optional one lane map) and mowing down enemy towe...
- Perfect World and Cryptic Announce Magic: The Gathering RPG
- Perfect World Entertainment and Cryptic Studios today announced the development of a brand new RPG based on Magic: The Gathering.
- The West: Drama Queens enter the online RPG
- InnoGames just started a large new quest series for their online role-playing game The West.


text:
What's the next best thing to being there?
Some of the world's largest media companies are betting that it's virtual reality, where consumers strap on goggles to watch TV shows, video games and maybe even movies down the road in a 360-degree panorama that puts them right in the action.
Fans of the America's Cup sailing competition leapt into a boat sponsored by Land Rover, thanks to virtual reality, heeling to one side of the tilted boat as its crew battled the heaving spray of the Caribbean Sea. In one scene viewers were thrown overboard.
The film was produced by Palo Alto start-up Jaunt, which has the backing of Walt Disney, Alphabet's GV start-up and other major media and technology companies as it makes its bid to dominate the virtual reality world, which many experts predict could be entertainment's next big play.
Backed with nearly $101 million in venture capital, Jaunt has built a library of nearly 300 pieces of mostly short-form VR content that includes a 360-degree view of a concert by former Beatle Paul McCartney, a panoramic of "The Lion King" on Broadway and a bullet-splattered "Escape of the Living Dead" video segment.
Watching the world through goggles may not be everyone's cup of tea, but analysts at Goldman Sachs recently projected an $80 billion industry by 2025, with $45 billion spent on goggles and other equipment and $35 billion more for the content to play video games or watch sports and entertainment in VR.
"It ultimately will change entertainment," says digital media consultant Bernard Gershon, a former Disney strategic planning executive. "VR will be an immersive experience impacting all the senses – sight, sound, motion, touch, smell."
Gershon figures the cost and size of headsets need to come down before there's widespread adoption of the technology.
Jaunt's game plan is to feed content to the growing numbers of users of mobile devices that can be outfitted with headsets such as Samsung Gear VR or Google Cardboard, says George Kliavkoff, the former NBC Universal and Hearst executive who joined Jaunt in September as its president and chief executive.
"It's a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation," says Kliavkoff, who helped launch the Hulu video streaming service. "We intend to offer an immersive technology and the content that will help drive consumer adoption."
Jaunt co-produced "Invisible," a six-part supernatural drama series created by "The Bourne Identity" director Doug Liman's 30 Ninjas company that premiered on Samsung's VR service before being shown on Jaunt's VR app, YouTube, Facebook and co-producer Conde Nast's "The Scene" digital video platform. "Invisible" tells the story of a powerful New York family with the supernatural ability to make themselves invisible.
In January, Jaunt announced a slate of five new series to be produced at its 10,000-square-foot Santa Monica, California, studio, including a six-part stoner comedy series "Bad Trip" and a series based on the 1992 cult horror movie "The Lawnmower Man." Klaivkoff won't say when the shows will be making their debut.
The company is also building out the distribution network for VR content with commercial-like programming, like the Land Rover video, that it makes for companies that want to use virtual reality video to promote their products. Jaunt has made videos for more than 50 "brands," the company says, including those for Budweiser, Google and Mattel.
More from CNBC Disruptor 50:
Inside the Warby Parker "Optical Lab" in tiny Sloatsburg, New York
Meal delivery start-up Blue Apron files to go public, revenue growing fast
'Street Fighter' moves into the mobile eSports market for gamers
The company made a four-minute VR short starring Danny DeVito and other cast members of the FX sitcom "Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia," which took viewers along a ride on a smoke-filled motorcycle stunt — or allowed them to swivel in another direction to watch a scantily clad young woman who stopped just short of a doing a striptease. The VR segment played on FX's site as well as Jaunt's VR app and Facebook.
Sky TV used Jaunt's equipment for some of the programming when it introduced its SKY VR app. Among the shows were "Sky Sports: Closer," hosted by soccer legend David Beckham, and a performance of the English National Ballet's production of "Giselle." The satellite service also gave away thousands of Google cardboard headsets.
Kliavkoff says Disney, which in September 2015 led Jaunt's $65 million Series C round, will soon offer its fans a 360-degree online trip to Pandora, the mythical planet in James Cameron's film "Avatar," which is also the backdrop for the media giant's new "Pandora—The World of Avatar" attraction at its Disney Animal Kingdom in Orlando, Florida.
"We constantly strive to create standout experiences for our customers through our partnerships," said Mark Cameron, Jaguar Land Rover's brand experience director of global marketing, in a statement about the America's Cup video. "By using Jaunt's cutting-edge VR technology, we were able to give unprecedented access to the team and America's Cup sailing in a thrilling firsthand experience."
The big prize, of course, will come if virtual reality takes hold with consumers who want to immerse themselves in the action on the big screen. That's coming slowly. IMAX, which operates a chain of giant-screen movie theaters, is rolling out a dozen IMAX VR centers in major markets, including Los Angeles, New York and Tokyo, for goggle-wearing consumers to watch shorter-form VR content for about $1 a minute.
Jaunt doesn't yet have a deal with IMAX. But it's venturing into China, the world's second-largest market, where its joint venture with China Media Capital and Shanghai Media Group will soon distribute more than 80 pieces of VR content, says Kliavkoff, including some from Jaunt's library.
Virtual reality is already taking hold in China. By 2020 the government's China Electronics Standardization Institute projects companies will be selling 55 billion yuan ($8 billion worth) of goggles, headsets and content in that country alone.
Jaunt also hopes to cash in on one of America's biggest televised events — next year's winter Olympics from PyeongChang, South Korea. The company is already talking with NBC, says Kliavkoff.
"We've got nothing to announce, but we're very interested," he says. "It's just the right kind of event for us."
— By Ronald Grover, special to CNBC.com


text:
September 7, 2018
Minnesota Man Manipulates App to Steal Tesla: Police
A Minnesota man is accused of stealing a Tesla from Trevls, a Tesla rental company, Fox 9 reports. Mall of America security footage caught the alleged thief on CCTV moments before using his phone to unlock a Tesla.
John Marino, owner of Trevls, said the 21-year-old man was a regular at his rental company. Police suspect the man somehow manipulated the Tesla app to unlock and start the vehicle, and disabled the GPS. However, every time the man stopped to charge the car, police could see his location due to Tesla's data collection.
“Tesla is not the car to steal,” Marino told the news station. “The amount of data Tesla collects is actually kind of creepy."
Mark Lanterman, a computer forensic specialist, said it's most likely that the man somehow convinced Tesla to add the vehicle's VIN number to his personal Tesla account.
The man was arrested three days later near Waco, Texas.


text:
Mayor Jenny A. Durkan transmitted legislation to the City Council to allow more flexibility in permitted uses for empty downtown storefronts as Seattle seeks to revitalize the heart of the city with new shops and businesses. If passed by the City Council, the new temporary proposal would provide flexibility for businesses, artists, and other organizations to activate empty storefronts by allowing art installations, museums, and a greater variety of businesses, among other new options.
More than 450 downtown businesses have shuttered due to loss of foot traffic and other economic stresses during the pandemic, according to the Downtown Seattle Association. Many storefronts remain empty or closed. Before this legislation, downtown businesses had to abide by a much narrower set of permitted uses for storefronts.
“Downtown is Seattle’s economic engine and heartbeat, and it’s up to us to help it come back better than ever for all those who live, work, or visit. As part of our effort to revitalize downtown, we’re making it easier than ever to pursue new, innovative uses for storefronts, like art installations or museums,” said Mayor Durkan. “This temporary change to allow more uses for our storefronts will help restore the vitality of our downtown. Building on my plan to invest in downtown small businesses and recovery, I hope the City Council swiftly passes this bill.”
“When our city is at its best, Downtown is where Seattleites congregate on a daily basis to work, recreate, enjoy the neighborhood’s 14,000 small businesses, or live,” said Councilmember Andrew J. Lewis, who represents Downtown. “Before the pandemic, 170,000 Seattle residents visited Downtown. By temporarily allowing new uses to activate empty storefronts, we can re-welcome our friends across Seattle to this unique neighborhood while helping out some of the people who were hit hard economically over the last year,” said Councilmember Andrew Lewis (District 7, Pioneer Square to Magnolia).
“I am excited to provide Downtown storefronts with the flexibility they need to recover from this pandemic. In February, I provided flexibility for entrepreneurs to incubate their ideas and dreams in their garages and grow their small businesses to fill brick and mortar storefronts. This legislation opens a pathway for new businesses and new opportunities downtown,” said Councilmember Dan Strauss (District 6, Northwest Seattle).
The new ordinance would allow more flexibility in storefront uses on downtown streets that had once enjoyed the most foot traffic. Under this proposal, for the next 12 months, the City would allow permit applications for new businesses to provide a wider range of activities and services, including medical offices, gyms, art installations, and bike parking. Businesses that received a permit and invested in a new storefront under this temporary ordinance could remain indefinitely, but they would not be able to expand their footprint in future years.
This new flexibility will be available on the main shopping streets in the commercial core, Belltown, and Pioneer Square, where new options for permitted businesses would also include food processing, horticultural operations, and crafts manufacturing. Chinatown-International District businesses already have this kind of permitting flexibility through the International Special Review District.
“Where we shop, dine, and gather generates cultural life in our community,” said Rico Quirindongo, director of the Office of Planning and Community Development. “As we pursue an equitable recovery, we want to support a lively, attractive streetscape that welcomes people back to downtown with unique and memorable experiences.”
“I strongly encourage small business owners to take advantage of the new opportunities currently available in the Downtown Seattle corridor. This is a moment when culture and community can courageously activate their visions and ideas to elevate their product positioning for scale and expand their audience and customer base, especially creators who are Black, Indigenous and People of Color who desire to grow their businesses,” said Veronica Very, founder and co-owner of the new Wonder of Women art gallery now located in Pacific Place. “When we pursue these opportunities, we not only heal our communities, but we make the sacrifices and the struggles for social justice count!”
The Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI) would administer these emergency provisions. To ease the transition for businesses seeking to establish new locations downtown, SDCI is also adding a permitting facilitator to support applicants through what can be a complicated, multi-agency process. SDCI would also prioritize downtown street-level permit applications in its existing review processes. As this permit facilitation effort continues, SDCI may seek to expand it to serve businesses seeking permits in other areas of the city.
“This temporary legislation would expand the range of business types allowed at street-level downtown,” said Nathan Torgelson, director of the Seattle Department of Construction an Inspections. “We must continue to provide targeted permitting support as our businesses recover, which is why we’ll also be providing a new single point of contact and prioritizing the process to assist with street-level permitting downtown.”
As part of the City’s $9 million investment in downtown recovery, last week the Mayor announced that the City would spend at least $500,000 to support storefront activations – providing resources for small businesses and arts and cultural organizations that want to come downtown and bring new life to the streetscape. In the coming weeks, the City will announce additional efforts to activate empty storefronts, including potential matchmaking services for small businesses or artists to find empty storefront space, as well as additional financial supports.
The City Council will review this legislation in the Land Use & Neighborhoods committee in July.