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Innocor Inc., a supplier of flexible polyurethane foam components and finished products, has named William Redmond Jr. president and chief executive officer.
Redmond succeeds Carol Eicher, who now serves as nonexecutive chair of the board of directors and continues to play an important role in the strategic direction of the Red Bank, New Jersey-based company.
Redmond has substantial experience in the chemicals and manufacturing arena. During the past 12 years, he was CEO of GenTek Inc., General Chemical Corp. and Zep Inc. He began his career in 1981 at Procter & Gamble, followed by 10 years at the PepsiCo. Inc.
“I am excited to join Innocor and work with the senior leadership team to grow the business by focusing on innovation, product development, customer satisfaction and efficient operating platforms,” Redmond said. “We will continue to invest in bringing innovative new technologies to manufacturers and consumers that deliver unrivaled comfort and quality across our broad range of products.”
Eicher said: “As the board and I discussed Innocor’s next phase of growth, we agreed this is the right time to bring in a new CEO to the lead the company. Bill has extensive experience in the chemicals and manufacturing arena and a deep understanding of the needs of customers, which will play a vital role as we work to deliver innovative foam technologies and deepen relationships in both the commercial and retail channels.”
Stephen Thomas, a member of the Innocor board said: “We are grateful for Carol’s dedication and contributions to Innocor and are pleased that she will continue to support the company’s progress in this new role. We are excited to welcome Bill and look forward to his leadership in continuing Innocor’s track record of product innovation and excellence in serving customers.”


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DALLAS – Thieves with stolen usernames and passwords have broken into customer accounts at American and United airlines and in some cases booked free trips.
The airlines say the incidents happened in late December. American began notifying affected customers by email on Monday.
American says 10,000 accounts were affected and some have been frozen while the airline and customer set up new accounts. Spokeswoman Martha Thomas says the airline isn't aware of anyone booking a free trip.
But at United, a spokesman says thieves booked trips or made mileage transactions on up to three dozen accounts.
Representatives from both airlines say nobody hacked their systems and that the thieves got usernames and passwords somewhere else, and tried to use them to log into American's AAdvantage and United's MileagePlus.

domain: news


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MUMBAI: While most data analytics companies are figuring out ways to grow at a faster clip in traditional markets in the West, Blueocean Market Intelligence is betting on rising demand from India and other emerging countries. To that end, the Mumbai-based firm is ramping up its headcount to over a thousand from the current 700 and is also scouting for acquisitions.
The company, which bought UK-based analytics technology platform Cognicient earlier this year, is looking for businesses that would help it scale. “We don’t want to acquire for size,” Ashwin Mittal, president of the company said. “We would look for technology platforms, or companies that would help us scale up in the financial services and automotive space.” Blueocean has strong offerings in the technology, consumer goods and life sciences space, Mittal said.
Technology platforms will also help the firm drive revenue without having to add an equivalent number of employees, what is called non-linear growth in IT industry parlance and is much sought after in the sector. For analytics firms, with industry attrition rates north of 20% and a limited number of possible recruits, breaking the link between revenue and employees is key to future success.
The acquisition of Cognicient gave the firm a foothold in the UK market that it will look to grow further. It currently has offices in Dubai, the United States and India. WhenÂ Blueocean was set up in 2000, it had expected to focus on the Indian market for data analytics. Then, the market in India was not large enough and the firm focused on the much bigger US market, which now accounts for about 80% of its revenues.
“The US does account for the bulk of our revenues but as we grow in other markets, the share of the US to our revenues could come down to about 60% in the next three to six years,” Mittal said. He, however, declined to give the company’s revenue but said the company was growing rapidly.
The market for data analytics is huge. Research firm IDC says the big data analytics market will be worth $24 billion (Rs 1.4 lakh crore) in 2016. And everyone from specialist analytics services firms such as MuSigma to IT players like Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys are gearing up to get a piece of the pie. Blueocean said it is seeing an increase in interest in analytics in India.
“The market here is small but it is increasing in size. So far, our focus has been on the US but now we will look to grow in the Indian market as well,” Mittal added. The Indian market is currently being sized by the company and the National Association for Software and Services Companies for the annual data analytics report, which will be released in June in Hyderabad. (Source:ET)


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Austin's 3 hottest neighborhoods, plus the week's most popular stories
Editor's note: It's that time again — time to check in with our top stories of the week. From Redfin's picks of the city's hottest neighborhoods to new details about Austin's anticipated public market, these are the stories that captured our attention over the past seven days.
1. Austin's 3 hottest neighborhoods revealed by real estate authority. Real estate brokerage Redfin released its annual ranking of the hottest neighborhoods to watch in 2020 and included picks for the country's largest metros. Austin's top three are located all over the city, but all have one thing in common — they're very, very popular with homebuyers.
2. World-famous Austin gelato shop gets scooped out of Rosedale due to rising rent. Austin's rising rent prices have claimed another popular eatery. But it's not all bad news. Teo fans can still scoop up the award-winning gelato in area grocery stores.
3. Home goods retailer throws in the towel on South Austin store. According to a corporate release, Bed Bath & Beyond suffered a rough third quarter last year, leading the company to close stores across the U.S., including one in South Austin. Don't throw those 20 percent off coupons away just yet: the Mueller-area location is still open.
4. Austin's beloved Zilker Park tiny train 'permanently closes' after 20 years. Austinites were steaming mad when news broke that the Zilker Park tiny train was closing. That's not the whole story though. As the week continued, details about the city's plan to hire a new operator were revealed.
5. Austin's anticipated public marketplace announces 2 more restaurants and new opening date. They say good things come to those who wait, so we predict St. Elmo will be fabulous. Though the project is, ahem, slightly behind schedule, it hasn't stopped an all-star group of local restaurateurs from joining.


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Today is Starbucks’ 40th birthday, and with it comes the official roll-out of the coffee chain’s new textless logo. You may have heard this was happening. Along with the new identity, Starbucks is celebrating with something called “Tribute Days.” This Thursday, Friday and Saturday, you can get a free “Starbucks Petites” treat when you order any drink between 3 and 5 p.m. (The Petites, also rolling out today, are small sweets—which somewhat clashes with the chain’s new theme line, “It’s bigger than coffee,” but never mind.) There’s also a new Tribute blend of coffee. As for the new mermaid-heavy logo—is it growing on you at all, or should it still be thrown back in the sea? Via Brand New.
Don't miss the Brandweek Sports Marketing Summit and Upfronts, a live virtual experience Nov. 16-19. Gain insights from leading sports figures on how they navigated a year of upsets and transformation and what's in store for the coming year. Register.


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Does CR-V Hybrid mean an electrified Odyssey, Pilot on the way?
Earlier this year, the 2020 Honda CR-V made its debut with a new powertrain variant. Dubbed the CR-V Hybrid, the model will likely be able to go around 500 miles between fill ups, when optioned in its lightest variant in optimal driving conditions.
With the addition of the CR-V Hybrid and Honda's recent commitment to electrify two-thirds of its global automobile unit sales by 2030, it's reasonable to assume that the clock is ticking on electrified versions of two of the company's most popular U.S. models, the Odyssey and Pilot.
With electrification, there are a few ways for manufacturers to go. There's a more traditional hybrid, with a battery attached to one to four motors that uses mostly gasoline in combination with an electric power boost. There is also a plug-in hybrid electric (PHEV) powertrain, which allows customers to plug in their car's battery to an outlet and receive electric power to be used instead of gasoline while allowing the customer to retain their gasoline fuel tank for use for when the electric power runs out, or to supplement power availability at high speed.
Many futurists see PHEVs as being a good next step for buyers looking to have the best of the EV and gasoline-powered world.
"AutoPacific's data suggest that Odyssey customers would really respond to a plug-in hybrid powertrain," said Kim. "Our 2019 New Vehicle Satisfaction data show that 41 percent of 2019 Odyssey owners are willing to consider a plug-in hybrid powertrain next time, compared to just 24 percent of all new vehicle buyers this year. Honda has long had a reputation for powertrain efficiency and innovation, so a high-tech fuel efficient PHEV powertrain for Odyssey could make for an excellent brand fit."
Place your bets on Honda offering electrified powertrain options for the Pilot and Odyssey in the not too distant future. Photo courtesy of American Honda Motor Co., Inc
Honda builds the Odyssey, Pilot, Passport, and Ridgeline beside each other at Honda Manufacturing of Alabama. The current Pilot generation was launched first, in 2016. It underwent a facelift for the 2019 model year. The Ridgeline was re-introduced in 2017 and the current Odyssey generation debuted in 2018. Passport was added back to the Honda lineup in 2019.
Consumers are likely about three years away from seeing a redesigned Pilot and even further from a redesigned Odyssey, but could be closer to seeing new powertrain choices introduced as the company pushes hard to that 2030 goal. This would be a similar formula to what Honda has done with the CR-V, which had its current model introduced in 2017 and got a refresh this year.
"We are expecting a mid-cycle refresh for [Odyssey in] the 2021 model year," said Ed Kim, Vice President, Insights, AutoPaciifc. "We think the PHEV powertrain is likely to come out with the mid-cycle change, so a fall 2020 introduction wouldn't be impossible."
The Pilot and Ridgeline have a flat load floor that sits relatively high off the ground. This type of setup allows for slightly easier electrification design, because the battery pack can be situated along the bottom of the vehicle. However, the Odyssey only has 4.5-inches of ground clearance which, on the surface, seems like an impediment.
"A minivan actually makes really good sense for implementing a plug-in powertrain," said Kim. "Due to the lower sliding door tracks, the floor is a bit higher, and that leaves room under the floor for batteries. This is exactly what Chrysler did with the Pacifica Hybrid, mounting its batteries where its Stow-n-Go second row seats would normally go under the floor. It's easy to imagine Honda doing something similar with Odyssey; like the Pacifica, Honda should be able to incorporate a battery pack under the floor in a way that doesn't impede on interior space. And, in a minivan, interior space is of course extremely important."
Chrysler already sells a PHEV version of the Pacifica, the Pacifica Hybrid, so it makes sense that Honda would be exploring electrified versions of its minivan.Photo courtesy of American Honda Motor Co., Inc
There are significant fuel-saving and quickness advantages to driving hybrid or PHEV vehicle. Honda says that the 2020 CR-V Hybrid, "brings quicker off-the-line performance and is anticipated to achieve a 50 percent higher city fuel economy rating than the non-hybrid CR-V." These advantages are likely to carry over into any future Honda vehicle development.
It's important to note that Honda designs its vehicles unlike most manufacturers, from the inside out. This means that customers are likely to see benefits from hybrid or PHEV powertrain adoption rather than the sacrifices, like the higher-riding rear seats and diminished cargo space, some automakers force consumers to make should they want to choose an alternative powertrain. However, hybrid and PHEV models tend to come at a higher price than traditional gasoline-powered models.
Currently, Honda sells the electrified Accord Hybrid, Insight, and Clarity in the U.S.
When contacted about this story, a spokesperson for Honda said, "We don't comment on future products."
- Acura wins IMSA title using same engine tech that's on dealership lots ›
- Honda celebrates 60 years in the U.S. with 15 builds at SEMA ... ›
- Ranked: 20 best-selling new SUVs in the U.S. in 2020 - AutomotiveMap ›
- 2021 Honda Pilot gets special edition, new standard features - AutomotiveMap ›
- Honda reveals refreshed 2021 Odyssey with added safety tech, new styling - AutomotiveMap ›
- 2021 Honda Odyssey gets $1,000 starting price bump, but one grade gets a big decrease - AutomotiveMap ›
- Honda SUV e:concept shows what's up next for the company's EV plans - AutomotiveMap ›


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Grassley, Baucus Urge the President to Highlight U.S.-Japan Trade
WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Committee on Finance, along with Sen. Max Baucus, ranking member, Rep. Bill Thomas, chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, and Rep. Charles Rangel, ranking member of the Committee on Ways and Means, yesterday sent a letter to the President urging him to continue to underscore that trade between the United States and Japan is a high priority. Grassley, Baucus and their House counterparts strongly requested that the President continue to work with Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi on important economic issues including Japan’s need to deregulate, reform its banking system and open its markets to U.S.goods, services, and farm products.
The text of the letter follows.
June 3, 2003
The Honorable George W. Bush
President of the United States
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
We are writing to respectfully request that you continue to underscore to Japanese PrimeMinister Koizumi that U.S.-Japan trade is a high priority for your Administration and for theCongress. Although we understand that your recent meetings with the Prime Minister includeddiscussions on economic issues, we urge you to press Japan to continue to deregulate, reform itsbanking system, and open its markets to U.S. goods, services, and farm products.
In challenging economic times, it is important for America’s trade strategy to focus on majoroverseas markets that provide the most potential opportunity. Despite recent economic reversals,Japan is the world’s second-largest economy and America’s third-largest trading partner. It remainsa highly affluent society, a huge customer for American agriculture, a powerful global competitor,and accounts for over 70% of Asia’s GDP. Under Prime Minister Koizumi’s leadership, there hasbeen some progress on deregulation and market opening, but there is still a long way to go. U.S.goods, services, investors, and farm products continue to face protectionist trade barriers anddiscriminatory and non-transparent regulations, and U.S. business continues to suffer from Japan’sprotracted economic weakness. Measurable progress by Japan on non-performing loans and long awaitedfinancial reforms, and meaningful deregulation and market opening would be a win-winsolution, which would expand markets for American products, benefit Japanese consumers, andaccelerate a Japanese economic recovery. Indeed, spurring a virtuous cycle of reform and growthis the best way of avoiding a downward economic spiral, both here and in Japan.
Strong U.S. leadership is required. While U.S. exports to Japan totaled over $51 billion in2002, this represented over a 21% decline from 2000. Japan is a major customer for Americanagriculture, but U.S. farm exports in 2002 were down 20% from their peak in 1996. In recent years,Japan’s interest in addressing U.S. concerns regarding improving market access for autos, financialservices, flat glass, meat, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, blood products, and telecommunicationsappears to have waned. As a result, the U.S. continues to run substantial bilateral trade imbalanceswith Japan, including a $70.1 billion deficit in 2002. Japan accounted for 11% of U.S. exports in1996, but this has fallen to only 7% today.
We recognize Japan is an important friend and strategic ally. Prime Minister Koizumi is astrong leader who is committed to pursuing comprehensive de-regulatory initiatives that havepreviously been blocked by powerful, protected domestic political interests. As the U.S. and Japanrecognized in launching the Economic Partnership for Growth, meaningful deregulation, financialreform, market opening, and change would create new opportunities for America’s exporters and forJapanese consumers and entrepreneurs.
Further, while we are encouraged by Japan’s engagement in the Doha round of tradenegotiations, we remain very concerned that Japan is not taking the necessary forward-leaning roleregarding several key issues, most notably agricultural reform and elimination of non-tariff barriers.
We strongly request that you stress the importance of Japan’s movement on these issues to the PrimeMinister, and that he should take into consideration the overall benefits to Japan that result fromfurther trade liberalization. Japan will continue to benefit from trade liberalization as long as it takesthe appropriate steps within the Doha round to further open its food and agricultural market as wellas its markets for U.S. goods and services.
Your next meeting with the Prime Minister offers yet another opportunity to expand marketaccess for U.S. products, accelerate Japanese de-regulation, enforce Japan’s commitments underexisting trade agreements, and reinvigorate our bilateral trade agenda.
We look forward to working with you to build a new and positive era in U.S.-Japan traderelations.
Charles E. Grassley
Committee on Finance
Committee on Ways and Means
Committee on Finance
Committee on Ways and Means
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While manufacturers have been aggressively pursuing digital transformation to compete and win in the marketplace for years, 2018 is poised to be a big year for manufacturing.
A top priority this year will be creating an outstanding user experience from beginning to end for manufacturers looking to optimize and scale their supply chain. Although many companies will focus on expansion and efficiency, they likely won’t introduce radical changes to pricing models. And finally, companies will ramp up their transformation to embrace new technologies that have the potential to change the industry landscape.
Here are five manufacturing trends poised to take off in 2018.
1. Digital platforms will look to the future
In 2018, digital platforms will become a central focus and important tool in creating new customer experiences and value chain efficiencies. Digital platforms will be leveraged for both the enterprise value chain and the extended supply chain, and they will serve as critical hubs for the incorporation of key emerging technologies, such as 3D printing, blockchain, and IoT-enabled products.
2. Value chain execution efficiency will fund transformation
The initial financial investment needed for a successful digital transformation might appear steep, but companies will realize that the costs associated with falling behind could prove detrimental to their business. This year CIOs will begin to work with both existing CEO and Chief Digital Officers (CDOs) to ensure that value chain processes are aligned with a clear strategy and that applications directly support these requirements. While this won’t necessarily fund the costs of digital transformation, it will release 10 to 20 percent of IT application costs. In turn, it will also allow a similar figure of enterprise resources to be redirected to the new digital groups from other areas of the business.
3. Legacy applications will become integral to transformation
Legacy applications will shake off their bad reputation this year, as they prove to be a necessary part of a digital transformation. The fact is, valuable processes, business logic, data stores, digital histories and other key resources reside within legacy systems.
Manufacturers will quickly appreciate this reality in 2018 as they look to replace aging applications with agile or nimble apps. To enable digitalization – without the lengthy process of replacing historical records and processes – these legacy applications will be accounted for and will play an important role in digital transformation.
4. The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) will take center stage
The IIoT has made it possible for manufacturers to become smarter; now almost every manufacturer has introduced smart manufacturing concepts and technologies to at least one production zone, if not an entire plant. Most organizations, though, have not yet fully scaled smart manufacturing technologies globally.
In 2018, enterprises will expand smart manufacturing practices, moving from small or single plant deployments. Although predictive maintenance and energy management are typically the first initiatives pursued, the industry will put a larger focus on more complicated initiatives, such as in-line predictive production quality, which requires complex algorithms and generates even greater benefits. These AI-oriented implementations will streamline processes and offer benefits including faster cycle times, improved quality, zero downtime operations, lights-out manufacturing and labor cost savings.
5. Pricing models will remain the same… for now
Connected products and services won’t be used to drive outcome-based pricing for most manufacturing segments… yet. Although medical devices and pharmaceutical companies may be moving to an outcome-based pricing model, purchasers of industrial equipment will still need to make capital expenditures for new equipment
Although the outcomes-based subscription model concept continues to be predicted as the outcome of connected products, the company that is typically used as a model, GE, hasn’t seen its market share grow or its stock price increase. This will cause most companies to continue to examine the feasibility, but not implement the practice in the near term.
As the new year begins, supply chain and manufacturing professionals should expect to see digital transformation throughout the manufacturing industry – and will benefit from keeping an eye out for these trends in 2018.


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By Hank Russell
The Village of Patchogue is known for its various restaurants and shops in the heart of downtown, Now, a new flavor has been added to the taste of Patchogue: bubble tea.
YAAAS TEA opened up its fourth location at 38 South Ocean Avenue in Patchogue. The bubble tea shop celebrated with a ribbon cutting on July 13 that was attended by members of the Greater Patchogue Chamber of Commerce, the Patchogue Village Board and members of the Suffolk County and New York State Police Departments.
The store was founded by Kelly Zhou, who is also its chief executive officer. She currently operates three other locations in Hauppauge, Huntington and Farmingdale and intends to expand into Great Neck, Rockville Centre, Stony Brook and New Hyde Park. She said “there will be many more” locations opening up afterwards. “We’re going to take this brand worldwide.”
Her reason for opening her newest bubble tea shop in Patchogue was the community. “It’s a great community with a diverse population,” Zhou said.
YAAAS TEA serves up a wide variety of bubble teas, fresh fruit drinks, iced teas, milk teas, ice lattes and tea cakes. “Everything is fresh,” she said. “We serve the boba every hour on the hour. Every hour, we have a pot of fresh boba.”
Zhou said she chose the name because the word is associated with the best and that is what she strives her brand to be. “We try to achieve the best, bringing people together and sharing these sweet moments by providing the most advanced technology, the best customer service and the best products,” she said.
The idea for a store came for her love of boba, a tapioca pearl made from tapioca (or cassava) starch. “I like the sweet boba,” she said. “I’m very crazy about those, but I couldn’t find any on my own, so I decided to [create boba flavors] on my own.”
The road to entrepreneurship was a long one for Zhou. At the age of 14, she emigrated from China. “There were a lot of hardships [then],” she said. She later attended Stony Brook University, where she studied computer science and business. While in college, she developed an affinity for coffee and, after graduation, she took her love for tea, coffee and desserts and combined that with her business and technology acumen to start up a local chain of bubble tea shops.
Zhou said YAAAS TEA has already developed a strong relationship in the community with the Suffolk and New York State police departments. “It’s about helping out, giving back to the community, and supporting law enforcement,” she said. “Everybody [on the police force] is looking out for us.”
YAAAS TEA also offers catering and delivery. For more information, visit www.yaaastea.com.


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Fans of Major League Soccer may be pleased to hear that Apple TV+ is actively pursuing becoming the home of Pac-12 football in the near future.
According to the New York Post, the newspaper is reporting that Apple TV+ has emerged as a favorite to acquire the Pac-12 football rights.
It is reported that with ESPN, Fox Sports and Amazon Prime Video undecided on the league, Apple could end up broadcasting the games.
Broadcaster deal up in the air
The report also claims that Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff could present Apple as a possible broadcasting platform to the colleges soon.
The terms of the deal and whether the universities would be interested in the all-streaming deal is unclear.
Moreover, it also remains to be seen if the deal would be good enough to prevent the participating schools from moving on to other conferences.
Apple MLS Rights
Recently, Apple TV+ had started streaming live baseball games on Friday nights.
Apple TV had acquired the rights to broadcast the MLS from this season as the tech giant reportedly paid $2.5 billion to show every MLS match worldwide for the next 10 years as part of a global deal.
This season is the first of MLS’ 10-year partnership with Apple.
MLS season pass
The MLS Season Pass is available for fans at $99/year, as an all-inclusive package with in-depth coverage including pre and post-match shows of the league.
We had also reported earlier that DirecTV will be covering the action of the new MLS season across 300,000 locations, including several commercial establishments, such that fans can catch the action of their favorite teams.
It is believed that an all-in similar deal could be plausible with Pac-12.
Should Apple ink the deal with Pac-12, the streaming service may broadcast more than just conference football for its viewers, and, likely, the production services of the Pac-12 Network could also be used.
Very recently, Apple had put too much emphasis on minor details in contract negotiations, resulting in the agreement with the NFL for the Sunday ticket package failing to materialize.
The deal with Pac-12 may not be easy as the report claims, but it is possible a solution can be reached.
Photo credit: IMAGO / ZUMA Wire
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Compared with its sister events in Munich and San Francisco, the Intersolar India, which took place for the first time in Mumbai, is rather quiet. 143 exhibitors presented their products in a hall at the exhibition center in the Indian metropolis. Some 6,000 trade visitors’ interests were peaked by the offerings. Not only were the stands belonging to Centrotherm, Gehrlicher, Coveme, Schueco, Phocos, M+W and SMA swarming with activity to the end, but they also kept the energy till the final bells rang. Several other companies like Eltek and the joint venture Minitec Krisam introduced new products and services.
However, it appears that the Indian solar market is still stuck in the beginning buzz and it is a challenge to hit the expansion target of 20 gigawatts of installed PV capacity on a sustainable basis by 2020, as formulated by the solar mission. In the current year, only 14 megawatts have been installed. To reach this goal, the branch is putting pressure on prices and costs and above all, the tenders round for major projects. At the bidding, the feed-in tariff slipped from the regular 17,19 Indian Rupees per kilowatt-hour (approximately 30 euro cents) to INR 10,97 (approximately 20 euro cents).


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Employees in Jesup, Georgia, partnered with first-grade teacher Kristyn May and James E. Bacon Elementary (JEB) to develop an outdoor classroom for the school’s garden project. The space is part of JEB’s Georgia Shape Grant initiatives promoting good nutrition and physical activity.
A video of a mantra ray and a British diver swimming in a sea of plastic off the coast of Bali went viral in March 2018, fueling public discussion on the issue of rampant and global plastic pollution. Mismanagement of plastic waste—and its subsequent journey into the world’s oceans—has long been a hot-button topic in global development, but its renewed exposure is giving way to a movement to reduce plastic waste.
Water is a fundamental human need – yet one in nine people lacks access to clean and safe water. Learn how the Caterpillar Foundation, together with its nonprofit partners, is helping to bring awareness to this issue.
More species of plants and animals live in the forest than any other land habitat. 1.3 million people depend on forests and trees for things like employment and forest products. This is why HP is partnering with World Wildlife Fund to restore, protect and conserve 200,000 acres of forest in China and Brazil.
This article series is sponsored by Smithfield Foods and produced by the TriplePundit editorial team.
There is a good reason why Smithfield Foods was the first major protein company to measure its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The protein supply chain is front-loaded with GHGs long before livestock arrives at the processing facility. A lack of uniformity among suppliers adds another layer of complexity to the already daunting task of tracking emissions.
HP announces it has recycled more than 1 million pounds of ocean-bound plastic bottles in Haiti; HP commits to including ocean-bound plastic material in all new HP Elite and HP Pro desktop and notebook computers launching in 2020
NEW YORK CITY (Sept. 25, 2019) /3BL Media/ – HP Inc., a member of NextWave Plastics, announces today the launch of the HP Elite Dragonfly, the world’s first notebook with ocean-bound plastics. The HP Elite Dragonfly is the world’s lightest compact business convertible, weighing less than one kg. Its speaker enclosure component is made with 50 percent post-consumer recycled plastic including 5 percent ocean-bound plastics.
At ON Semiconductor, we place a high importance on sustainability and doing our part to take care of the planet which is why we celebrated global Clean Up the World day this past weekend (September 20-22, 2019)! Clean Up the World was established in 1993 and is one of the largest community-based environmental programs in the world. Their vision is to inspire a billion people across all continents to tread lightly, clean up and conserve the planet.
PARIS, September 23, 2019 /3BL Media/ – Sodexo, world leader in Quality of Life services, confirmed its objective to reduce its carbon emissions by 34% by 2025 (base year 2017) with approval from the Science Based Targets initiative, joining the global movement of leading companies aligning their businesses with the most ambitious aim of the Paris Agreement, to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C above


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Now could just be the right time to buy that new set of wheels
The drop in the Aussie dollar against the American green back to a ten-year low this week suggests we’ll see price rises on new vehicles in the not too distant future. And with Australia caught in the cross fire of the U.S trade war with China it seems inevitable that many imported cars will suffer a price rise by year end. The Australian dollar has now been devalued by as much as 30 percent against the American dollar and the Japanese yen since 2015 – with a third of our car imports coming from Japan the impact of that will soon be felt on the showroom floor. It’s no different with Thailand, keep in mind most utes are now sourced out of Thailand – top sellers like the Ford Ranger, Toyota Hilux, Mitsubishi Triton and Holden Colorado. We also have to factor in the possible effects of a no-deal Brexit in October which could well lift the price of European imports. Now could well be just the best time to buy that new set of wheels you’ve been saving for rather than waiting to year end.
I’m David Berthon
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Promoting ‘slow fashion’ in Halifax
Clothing shop counters mass chic with vintage apparel
March 3, 2023, 3:43 pm ASTLast Updated: March 17, 2023, 8:13 am
Jam-packed to the ceiling with vintage jackets, Doc Martens and 501 Levi’s jeans, a small shop lies tucked away in the Historic Properties mall on the Halifax waterfront.
KingsPIER vintage catches the eye of passerby with its warm-toned lighting and the drifting smell of cedar and linen. The throwback retailer has come a long way from its rural origins.
Laura MacNutt opened the doors to her collection in 2013 in a small barn off the first exit to Wolfville, N.S., surrounded by sheep, goats and leather jackets. Her collection has been growing for over 30 years. Educated in textiles and fine arts, MacNutt first started collecting vintage apparel through her work in films such as locally-produced Pit Pony in 1997 where she was art director and production designer.
“When I started, slow fashion was not a word that existed,” MacNutt told The Signal at her shop on Upper Water Street.
“Vintage was not anything, secondary clothing was relegated to the bins of Frenchy’s and Value Village.”
KingsPIER vintage is not a well-known location; most customers told The Signal it was their first time setting foot in the shop.
However, MacNutt said profit was never the reason she opened her doors. She said she’s fighting to save the planet from “fast fashion,” which is the production of clothing by mass-market retailers to keep up with trends. According to the UN Environment Programme, the fast-fashion industry is the second-biggest consumer of water, with global carbon emissions of between two and eight per cent.
MacNutt expressed her love for vintage, which is a style she said isn’t achievable through fast fashion.
“Whether it reminds you of somebody else or it was somebody else’s, you embrace it,” she said. “Those things are important, opposed to just picking out four T-shirts made in Bangladesh at the hands of some poor woman desperately trying to make a living.”
She said interest from young adults piqued recently when some of her in-store stock was featured in TV shows such as The Man in the High Castle and My Little Eye, and films including Books of Blood, all filmed in Canada. James Taylor, the pop-folk star and six-time Grammy winner, also bought clothing and apparel from the shop, MacNutt said. He stumbled across KingsPIER vintage one night on his most recent tour to Halifax in 2022, said the storeowner.
Vanessa Lockerbie, an employee who has been working at the shop for years, told The Signal that one of the highlights of her job is watching clients have fun while trying on different pieces.
“I never know what Laura’s going to bring in,” said Lockerbie. “It’s always an exciting day when she brings in a new bag of items.”
MacNutt said she hopes to rent a kiosk on the Halifax waterfront this summer with a goal of raising awareness about sustainable fashion. Fighting against wasteful worldwide fashion practices might sound like an ambitious goal but MacNutt said she’ll focus on one boot at a time.
Have a story idea? Let us know


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I've been looking through the AdMob report for April 2010, which includes some of their own stats and other metrics made publicly available.
According to Gartner, iPhone and Android platforms combined to sell 25% of smartphonesworldwide in Q1 2010.
According to Google, 100,000 Android devices were getting activated each day as of May 2010.
According to Apple, 85 million iPhones and iPod Touches have been sold over the past three years as of April 2010.
And here's a great Admob chart of mobile phone market in the US and global.
Source: Admob April 2010 Report


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MY VIEW: Dan Crippen
In today's Washington Post, CRFB board member Dan Crippen makes the case for closing the tax loophole for online retailers.
Mr. Crippen argues that the tax break harms local retailers that pay state and local taxes, create jobs, and contribute to the local economy and community. He also points out that because online retailers can escape sales taxes, "state and local governments will be forced to rely more heavily on personal and corporate income taxes, undermining consumption taxes that economists mostly favor." He concludes:
"States are under enormous fiscal pressure. All states must balance their budgets, and the erosion of the sale tax base means less money for education, transportation, infrastructure and the myriad services that states uniquely provide.
There are thousands of organizations focused on Washington, trying to preserve federal funding for their specific programs while Congress tries to cut spending. Constituents might be well served if lawmakers closed this glaring loophole so states can collect what they are owed, and helped prevent the creation of other special-interest exemptions."
Click here to read the full op-ed.
"My Views" are works published by members of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, but they do not necessarily reflect the views of all members of the Committee.


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OnePlus 6 notch rumours are true, as officially revealed by OnePlus just now. The next OnePlus flagship smartphone will come a notch up top to accommodate the front camera and the sensors, according to the official OnePlus 6 renders revealed by the company itself.
The OnePlus 6 was expected to come with a notch display after multiple rumours and leaks pointed at it weeks before the official teaser today. The full specs of the upcoming smartphone are all but known at this point, and the firmware files have also revealed the presence of the notch. Additionally, some rumours have suggested that the OnePlus 6 could be based off the Oppo R15 that was announced earlier this month.
OnePlus 6 specifications
According to the latest leak, the OnePlus 6 is expected to sport a similar rear camera setup as the OnePlus 5T. So, the OnePlus 6 might come with a 16MP primary camera with a 20MP secondary sensor and both the sensors will come with f/1.7 aperture. However, the front camera will get an upgrade to 20MP from the 16MP seen on the last two flagships.
As confirmed by several leaks and CEO Pete Lau as well, OnePlus 6 is expected to be powered by the Snapdragon 845 SoC, along with 6GB/8GB RAM, and 128GB/256GB inbuilt storage. The battery might also be getting an upgrade from the current 3300mAh capacity of the OnePlus 5T to 3,450 mAh. The phone will run on the latest version of OxygenOS on top of Android 8.1 Oreo.
OnePlus 6 price
A recent leak suggests that the OnePlus 6 will cost about CAD $749 (approx. Rs. 38,000) for the base variant. Comparing it with the price of OnePlus 5T 8GB variant (Rs. 37,999), the OnePlus 6 will be slightly expensive but still way cheaper than the other flagships like the iPhone X and Galaxy S9.


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Tobacco manufacturers will have years to adapt to a menthol-free industry, if a menthol ban ever takes force, according to several analysts responding to the Food and Drug Administration’s plan to ban the flavoring in traditional cigarettes and cigars.
The FDA said Thursday that product standards are projected to be unveiled in 2022.
After that, a smooth rule-making process still requires the FDA to submit its proposal, receive comments, consider comments and prepare a final proposal, “which could be a multi-year process,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Nik Modi said.
That’s not counting expected multiple rounds of lawsuits, some of which could advance to the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve.
The FDA has said 30% of all adult smokers and more than 40% of all youth smokers consume a menthol style. About 85% of Black smokers prefer menthol flavoring, compared with 30% of white smokers, the agency said.
The FDA likely will face multiple lawsuits from tobacco manufacturers and anti-smoking groups considering that in 2009, Congress exempted menthol from banned flavorings in traditional cigarettes in the federal Tobacco Control Act.
Piper Sandler analyst Michael Lavery said “we consider the U.S. regulatory environment to be manageable. We expect any menthol ban, if one comes, to be years and years away.”
Goldman Sachs analyst Bonnie Herzog noted that the FDA didn’t also announce plans to dramatically reduce the nicotine levels in Thursday’s announcement.
“It is not surprising to us given less urgency around this issue, i.e., no court-imposed deadline, but we still think there’s a possibility that something could be announced in the coming weeks/months ahead ... as the critical premarket tobacco application process for e-vapor unfolds,” Herzog said.
“Both issues entail a complex and lengthy process that, based on precedent, will likely take several years to be successfully implemented, if at all.”
Modi said some of the issues facing the FDA include “unintended consequences having to be considered, such as will consumers self mentholate and does a ban encourage illicit trade?”
Modi noted Reynolds American Inc.’s revenue exposure is greater than rival Altria Group Inc. since Reynolds owns top-selling menthol traditional cigarette Newport, along with Camel menthol styles also being popular among smokers.
“We estimate 18%-20% of Marlboro sales are derived from menthol,” Modi said.
Modi said because nicotine is the addictive element in cigarettes, he projects smokers will just shift to traditional tobacco-flavored cigarettes rather than quit smoking.
“Banning menthol in cigarettes and banning all flavors in cigars will help save lives, particularly among those disproportionately affected by these deadly products,” acting FDA commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock said in a statement.
“With these actions, the FDA will help significantly reduce youth initiation, increase the chances of smoking cessation among current smokers, and address health disparities experienced by communities of color, low-income populations and LGBTQ+ individuals, all of whom are far more likely to use these tobacco products.”
Analysts and industry experts anticipated the FDA clamping down on menthol flavorings as one dramatic regulatory shift from the Trump administration to the Biden administration.
In December, the Trump administration’s FDA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not list banning menthol cigarettes or reducing nicotine levels in traditional cigarettes among its 2021 priorities.
Woodcock said Thursday the FDA has “full support from the administration.”
A ban on menthol traditional and electronic cigarettes could deliver a major financial blow to the tobacco industry, in particular to British American Tobacco Plc, which owns Reynolds.
Newport also is the No. 2-selling traditional cigarette with about a 15% market share.
Reynolds has about 2,500 employees in Forsyth County, primarily at its 2-million-square-foot manufacturing plant in Tobaccoville.
Reynolds said in a statement Thursday that “the published science does not support regulating menthol cigarettes differently from non-menthol ... nor does it support that menthol cigarettes adversely affect initiation, dependence or cessation.”
“Reynolds will evaluate any proposed regulation and will participate in any consultation and the rulemaking process by submitting robust, science-based evidence.”
On Wednesday, retiring BAT chairman Richard Burrows told shareholders that “any such regulation (of menthol cigarettes) would be highly complex and could take many years to implement.”
“We support regulation that is clearly founded on scientific evidence and which considers all unintended consequences” that could include a potential expansion of the black market for menthol traditional cigarettes.


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Zynga announced three new partners for its social games platform at the Game Developers Conference, two of which come from the console games industry. The revenue share for all Zynga partners is 70 percent of whatever is leftover after Facebook takes its 30 percent cut of Credits transactions.
By Brandy Shaul From games.com
With the Zynga Platform Partners system, companies like Row Sham Bow and Mobscience have already joined on to gain access to the 240 million monthly active players across Zynga's current catalog of games, using features that Zynga provides to improve social engagement and growth.
As the platform starts to take off, you can see three more companies sign on to be official Platform Partners with the Big Z: Konami Digital Entertainment, Playdemic and Rebellion. Playdemic is arguably most known for the Gourmet Ranch Facebook game, while Rebellion will use the Zynga platform to release its first ever social game in the coming months.
"We're very excited to be working with a company of Zynga's caliber," said Jason Kingsley, CEO and creative director of Rebellion, via a company press release. "Our goal is to bring Rebellion games to a broader audience while learning from Zynga's mastery of the social gaming space. Through the Zynga Platform, we'll release our first-ever social game. We can't wait to show players what we've been working on."
And that seems to be the consensus among these developers. While releasing games independently may work in the short term, Zynga's platform will allow for long-term growth via maximum exposure to a vast group of individuals that are already proven to be gamers, and dedicated ones at that. With big names like Konami now latching onto the Zynga platform program, it will be incredibly interesting to see how far it can go from here.
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Zhanjiang to develop national logistics hub
Zhanjiang was recently listed as one of the 127 cities to host national logistic hubs in a plan released by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Transport.
"Logistics hub" refers to logistics facilities complexes and logistics activity organization centers that engage in the distribution, storage, allocation and transfer of cargo. Those with national status are regarded as core infrastructure of the logistics system and have a wider reach, stronger aggregation power, better services and higher efficiency.
The 127 selected cities are tasked with developing a total of 212 logistics hubs divided into six categories – land ports, harbor ports, airports, service-oriented ports, commerce and trade-oriented ports and land border ports. Zhanjiang will focus on the establishment of a harbor port.
An aerial shot of the burgeoning Zhanjiang. [Photo/VCG]
According to the plan, about 30 hubs will be established by 2020 and another 150 by 2025, reducing the ratio of total logistics expenses to GDP to about 12 percent. A national network of logistics hubs is planned to take shape by 2035 in response to China's modernized economic system.


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Columbia’s Conquest officially enters the barrel-aged beer game on Saturday, August 23 with the release of a version of its barleywine that’s been aging in Four Roses bourbon barrels since March.
Conquest has been working to build up a barrel program for some months, picking up a Pappy Van Winkle barrel courtesy Brewery 85 and a couple of Four Roses barrels as well. (Port barrels are reportedly on the way, as well as others.) Back in March, the brewery dumped its 10.25% Ophel’s Lowly barleywine – a big hit among Columbia drinkers – into one of the Four Roses barrels, where it’s been since.
The brewery is getting ready to move that beer into bottles for a release party on August 23. They’ll be releasing 200 bottles for $15 a pop and four per person, along with a keg on tap for those just wanting a sample. It’ll be the first brewery-only release since The Finisher dropped back in January.
Following that, Conquest will be dropping a few other barrel-aged releases throughout the year. A few barrel-aged variants of The Finisher should also pop up next January.


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Netflix is reportedly planning to expand its service offering to include video games. A report by The Information says that the company is looking to recruit an executive to head the division. The report claims that the video-streaming app has already approached a number of “veteran game industry executives” regarding the new position.
Netflix is allegedly looking to launch a “bundle” video game service that will allow users access to a number of video games at a monthly rate.
Some of Netflix’s most popular series including The Witcher, DOTA: Dragon’s Blood andCastlevania are based on video games.


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New twist in the Telegraph saga
LORD Black is to appeal against the decision of the American court that blocked his attempt to sell the Telegraph newspapers to the Barclay brothers.
Black will appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court against the decision of judge Leo Strine who two weeks ago prevented him selling Hollinger Inc to the Barclay brothers for £263 million. It controls Hollinger International which in turn owns The Daily Telegraph.
Hollinger Inc said: 'As we previously indicated, Hollinger Inc and Lord Black respectfully disagree with Vice Chancellor Strine's view of the facts and equities in his decision. Accordingly, we are exercising our right to seek review of the decision by the Delaware Supreme Court.
'Notwithstanding our challenge to the decision, we continue to support the efforts by Lazard [investment bank] to achieve full value for shareholders.'
The group has a 72.4% voting stake and a 30% shareholding in Hollinger International, which owns the Telegraph group. Black controls Hollinger Inc through his personal investment vehicle Ravelston.
Meanwhile, the auction of Hollinger International and its assets continues.
Potential bidders, who have the option to combine to make joint offers for Hollinger or its assets, include the Daily Mail & General Trust (publisher of The Mail on Sunday), venture capital groups Candover, 3i, and Apax, USA Today owner Gannett, and Daily Express publisher Richard Desmond.
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VANCOUVER, BC – Red Truck Beer Company has announced the release of three new seasonal beers, as well as the launch of a new series of limited edition one-offs, and a test run for a potential new year-round brand.
Now available for the spring and summer months are Haulin’ Some Mass New England Hazy IPA (6.5% abv, 45 IBU), El Space Camino Dry Hopped Pale Ale (5.0% abv, 25 IBU), and Baja Bound Mexican Lager (5.1% abv, 18 IBU).
Kicking off the new limited edition series is Espressway Northwest Coffee IPA (7.5% abv, 40 IBU), which will be followed by ‘Round the World Belgian IPA (6.7% abv, 40 IBU) on April 15th, and Deli-Cinq Citrus Sour later this spring.
Finally, May 1st will see the debut of Seas the Day Pacific Ale (4.5% abv, 20 IBU), a session ale that will have a limited release in advance of a possible placement in Red Truck’s core line-up.
For more details, see the Red Truck Beer website and Facebook page.
Source: Red Truck Beer Company press release
Photo: Brian K. Smith Photography/What’s Brewing (via Red Truck)


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US new-home sales hit a record
NEW-HOME sales in America jumped 5.7% in November to the highest monthly level on record as house hunters - motivated by some of the lowest mortgage rates in decades - turned into homebuyers. The Commerce Department reported that sales of new single-family homes climbed to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.07m in November, representing a 5.7% increase from October's level.
The increase suprised analysts who forecasting sales would fall. New-home sales dropped by 4% in October to a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.01m, but even with the decline sales were at a brisk level.
The housing market is one of the bright spots of this year's uneven economic recovery, due largely to low mortgage rates. In November, the average interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage was 6.07%, down from 6.66% for the same month a year ago. This week, rates on 30-year mortgages dropped to a new low of 5.93%.
Low mortgage rates have been feeding a flurry of mortgage refinancing with the cash homebuyers are saving helping to support consumer spending, which has been the main force keeping the US economy going this year.
'Applications for refinancing, while off their peaks, remains high,' Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said. 'Moreover, simply processing the backlog of earlier applications will take some time, and this factor alone suggests continued significant refinancing and into the early months of 2003,' he added.
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Someday I’ll write a cheery piece about an Internet sector bursting with promising investment opportunities for value-hungry stock traders.
But it won’t be today, because we’re looking at ISPs/Access Providers, a sector facing major consolidation as countless struggling ‘Net service providers succumb to that toxic mixture of high overhead, tiny margins, deep losses and dwindling market caps.
The challenge facing the sector is that basic Internet access is becoming a commodity – at least in this country – hence the pricing pressure that leads to red ink and rapid cash burn.
And while high-speed access is still in great demand (market penetration is only about 5%), broadband ISPs are waging a bloody, losing war with powerful Baby Bells in the DSL arena.
Of all the Internet sectors, this may be the one where size matters most. After all, how can small ISPs serving local markets compete against America Online
, which not only offers users worldwide unlimited Internet access for $21.95 per month, but also its own highly popular, user-friendly interface and exclusive content, not to mention popular services such as instant messaging? They can’t compete with AOL or Microsoft’s MSN on price, and they can’t outmarket them.
So smaller ISPs have been forced to adopt risky (and dubious) business models – free access – or carve out specialty niches. There’s PNV, which sought to be the premiere provider of Internet access to the nation’s truck stops. The company ceased operations last week after filing for bankruptcy protection in December. No wonder: In the third quarter, PNV had revenues of only $5.5 million, down slightly from the previous quarter – and a net loss of $18.2 million, or $1.14 per share.
Then we have Netpliance
, which made a big splash with its I-opener desktop Internet appliance. The company’s strategy was to sell the device below cost and make a profit through monthly Internet access fees and e-commerce revenue. In December, an investor group led by Netpliance executives offered 65 cents per share in a bid to take the company private. NPLI was trading at 56 cents per share on Thursday, or 98% below its 52-week high of $26.13.
The free access providers, amazingly enough, have been unable to generate enough revenue to get into the black. NetZero
, which gets its revenue from banner ads, direct marketing deals and e-commerce, has seen sales decline and losses grow ($28.9 million in Q3) for the last two quarters. Rival free ISP Juno Online Services
barely grew revenue in Q3, though it did reduce its net loss to $29.3 million from $42.9 million in the second quarter.
Turning back to broadband, the losses incurred by many of these high-speed providers are staggering. DSL.net
, for example, had a net loss of $30.2 million in the third quarter (revenue was $5.9 million). In early December, the company announced it would lay off 28% of its staff.
, which offers DSL service to businesses and wholesale DSL service to other ISPs and telcos, lost an astounding $195 million in Q3 and announced this week that it is having trouble collecting payments from customers.
On the global front, I don’t know of any international ISP trading in the U.S. that is close to profitable.
So is there anything for investors to look at in the ISPs/Access Providers sector?
There’s AOL, if you want to consider it an ISP. It’s the largest access provider in the world and solidly profitable. And with the Time Warner merger finally being completed on Thursday, AOL now is a leading broadband provider, eliminating the one chink in its access armor.
is one of the biggest revenue generators in the group, with $249 in sales for the third quarter. But it’s another bleeder, with a Q3 net loss of $72.5 million.
er, with the capital markets tight these days, only those access providers with large war chests will be able to survive the lean times. That means AOL and the large telcos. The pure-play ‘Net access providers have yet to prove they can survive, never mind thrive.


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Recently, hundreds of people across the country have been sent to hospitals for severe lung damage linked to vaping. According to the New York Times, nobody, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration, actually knows why vaping is causing these illnesses in the first place.
Professionals are urging consumers to avoid buying vapes from the streets, as some individual sellers could potentially be modifying or adding certain chemicals to vape products originally purchased from stores. The FDA is particularly cautioning against THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), the psychoactive chemical in marijuana.
But why is this epidemic happening now, when vaping has existed for years? The strongest theory at the moment blames the sudden wave of lung-related illnesses on the introduction of some new chemical or combination of chemicals into vape products. Unfortunately, officials are still unaware of what exactly these new substances even are.
Another theory is that these incidences have been happening for a while, but people did not make the connection to vaping until now. Perhaps as vaping has become increasingly popular, more and more cases have been occurring.
For now, the safest option is to avoid vaping altogether. In fact, on September 11, the Trump Administration announced their plan to ban the sale of most flavored e-cigarettes in America. This could potentially be an effective route, as one of the key attractions of vaping to teenagers is its kids-friendly flavors like strawberry and cherry.
However, some critics are calling the ban futile, saying that cutting off mainstream access to vape products could push many current e-cigarette users toward actual cigarette products. Ironically, what was once a product meant to help smokers wean quit cigarettes may now actually become a gateway to them.
Information comes from the New York Times


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National Survey Reveals More Than 100 Million Americans Miss Pre-Pandemic Exercise Routines Resulting in "Basement Burnout"
Orangetheory® Fitness Health Science & Research expert, Dr. Rachelle Reed, shares consumer tips on increasing motivation, accountability and recovery
BOCA RATON, Fla., June 2, 2021 // PRNewswire // - After more than year of working out in front of computers and televisions, ordering new fitness equipment and searching for motivation to keep going, Americans are ready to shake off their "Basement Burnout," a new national survey found. Orangetheory® Fitness, the global fitness brand known for its results-driven and science-based full-body workouts, partnered with Kelton Global to survey Americans on national sentiment around the pandemic's impact on consumers' fitness routines.
The State of Personal Fitness
Fourteen months into the pandemic, 70 percent of exercising-Americans admit they miss their routine before COVID-19, with more than 30 percent missing being inside a gym; having access to different fitness equipment; or having variety in their workouts. Research also found that 68 percent of Americans report that their fitness regimen in general took a hit, despite their best efforts and intentions.
After a year of limited options, almost half of Americans (41 percent) are suffering from the monotony of the at-home fitness regime. The data reveals a strong desire among consumers to return to pre-pandemic fitness routines, swapping at-home workouts for variety, community, motivation and accountability offered by studios and gyms.
According to the survey, nearly half (43 percent) of Americans reported suffering from a lack of motivation to exercise and 32 percent specifically miss the real-life connections their pre-pandemic exercise routines afforded.
Ready for a Change… Ready for More
Looking ahead to the remainder of this year, an overwhelming majority (85 percent) of Americans are eager and excited to make positive changes to their physical activity. Forty-three percent of respondents specifically noted they are planning to set and achieve new fitness goals. Nearly one in three Americans are keen to take their exercise routines outside of the home more often, including returning to a fitness studio or gym – or joining one for the first time. The study also highlights how consumers are looking forward to the support of workout coaches and camaraderie that's often a large part of the studio/gym experience.
Preventing "Basement Burnout"
Dr. Rachelle Reed, Senior Director of Health Science & Research for Orangetheory Fitness, suggests "Basement Burnout" could stem from a lack of variety in physical activity, excessive training at the beginning of the pandemic, to not enough recovery time in between workouts.
"Orangetheory intentionally crafts its workouts to help members progress their fitness over time and achieve desired results without experiencing burnout," explains Dr. Reed. "Our science-based programs are continually varied and meticulously tested, re-tested and perfected before our members experience them. Our commitment to perfecting the overall workout experience allows our members to experience more – more in our studios – but even more outside of them. It is why Orangetheory outperforms at-home routines and classes offered by other studios."
Dr. Reed's Tips for Preventing "Basement Burnout"
- Self-monitor and track progress. Behavior change research indicates that tracking one's exercise sessions and individual progress – including improvements in performance, body composition shifts to how you feel during and after a workout – may help you stay the course
- Add variety to at-home fitness routines, such as studio classes led by a certified trainer or coach who can provide expert guidance and motivation to help achieve desired results
- According to the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, adults are more likely to participate in physical activity when they feel supported by others. Create or find an accountability system, such as a class or studio; having a partner or community offers social support to motivate and further achieve desired results
- Ensure adequate sleep, proper nutrition, hydration and stress management to help prevent the psychological and physiological stressors that ultimately lead to burnout
- Allow the body enough time to properly recover between workouts; American College of Sports Medicine recommends about 48 hours for recovery between heavy resistance training sessions
Orangetheory is helping consumers come out of their "basements" and into the light of its results-driven studios to experience science-based workouts that provide the accountability and motivation needed with a special one-month free offer for those who sign up for an Elite or Premier membership by June 30, 2021.
"As the country begins to reopen after more than a year of COVID-related restrictions, it is obvious we are made for more than what has been available to us during the pandemic," said Kevin Keith, Chief Brand Officer of Orangetheory Fitness. "Orangetheory Fitness welcomes those looking to emerge from their home gyms and break their monotonous exercise routines in exchange for the excitement, communal motivation, accountability and results we are known for. Now more than ever, we understand the importance of our health and wellness and the role it plays in our daily lives. Orangetheory is doubling down as a resource and partner helping members achieve more results, more energy and more life."
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Wonder Woman 1984 has had a long storied journey. Originally set to be released in theaters worldwide on December 13th, 2019, the film was then delayed/moved around five times–where it has now seemingly made it’s final landing. Earlier this month, Warner Brothers announced that it would be debuting Wonder Woman on their service on December 25th, Christmas day. Alongside it’s arrival on HBO Max, the film will also make it to theaters concurrently–making it easily the biggest movie to hit the big screen all year, even if it is in a limited capacity.
Well now we have even more news. Not only will Diana Prince bring her epic presence to HBO’s streaming service, but she will be the first to grace the platform with 4K HDR (alongside Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos). The announcement was made via director Patty Jenkins’ official twitter feed, which you can see embedded below.
It’s exciting that Wonder Woman 1984 will finally be bringing 4K HDR to HBO Max. It being 2020, it was all but a failure that HBO Max launched without any 4K support–something that has caused me to avoid the service on more than one occasion. So it’s great to see HBO catching up to the times.
Wonder Woman 1984 won’t be the only new release on Christmas day this year. While it currently isn’t planning on hitting the theater circuit, Disney Pixar’s Soul is hitting Disney+ the same day–albeit for a premium price. While Soul may be the more expensive launch, at least Disney+ actually launched with 4K HDR. Looking at you HBO Max.


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Lady Antebellum’s Hillary Scott Launching LaBellum Fashion Line
The country singer has revealed that she recently teamed up with HSN for a new fashion line, appropriately called LaBellum. The clothing line will launch on April 1 as part of HSN's Music City Nashville event.
LaBellum is described as "bohemian, chic styles with decorative details to flatter every woman, giving them the confidence to live their best stylish life." The 22-piece collection includes fringe wraps, peasant tops, acid-washed denim and studded moto jackets, Women's Wear Daily reports. Prices for the collection range from $49.90 for a hi-low knit tank top to $169.90 for a beaded canvas jacket.
Country Tours Hitting the Road in 2017
Scott is scheduled to appear on HSN on April 20 and 21 to promote her new fashion line.
“Fashion is such a fun expression of yourself, so I’m really excited,” she says in a press release. “HSN has completely embraced my ideas and has helped bring to life a line that hopefully every woman will love. I’ve already started wearing some of my favorite pieces and can’t wait to share the entire collection!”
Scott and her bandmates will be keeping busy this year. The trio recently announced a tour with Kelsea Ballerini and Brett Young, as well as dropped their brand new single, “You Look Good.” They are set to release their sixth studio album, Heart Break, on June 9.
Lady Antebellum Say Another Artist Had Their Song First


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IoT devices could be used as weapons if security and privacy best practices are not followed
BELLEVUE, Wash. and BOSTON, Mass. – The Online Trust Alliance (OTA), the non-profit with the mission to enhance online trust, today announced that every vulnerability or privacy issue reported for consumer connected home and wearable technology products since November 2015 could have been easily avoided. Specifically, OTA found had device manufacturers and developers implemented the security and privacy principles outlined in the OTA IoT Trust Framework, the recently reported susceptibilities would have never occurred.
“In this rush to bring connected devices to market, security and privacy is often being overlooked,” said Craig Spiezle, Executive Director and President of the Online Trust Alliance. “If businesses do not make a systemic change we risk seeing the weaponization of these devices and an erosion of consumer confidence impacting the IoT industry on a whole due to their security and privacy shortcomings.”
The OTA Trust IoT Framework is the first global, multi-stakeholder effort to address IoT risks comprehensively. It includes a baseline of 31 measurable principles which device manufacturers, developers and policy makers should follow to help maximize the security of and privacy of the devices and data collected for smart homes and wearable technologies. OTA began developing the framework in February 2015, and released it formally in March 2016. This release reflected feedback from nearly 100 organizations including ADT, American Greetings, Device Authority, Infoblox, Malwarebytes, Microsoft, the National Association of Realtors, Symantec, consumer and privacy advocates, international testing organizations, academic institutions, and U.S. governmental and law enforcement agencies.
“The Online Trust Alliance’s IoT Trust Framework includes valuable principles that companies should embrace to make sure consumer smart home technology is secure, private and sustainable for the future,” said National Association of REALTORS® President Tom Salomone, broker-owner of Real Estate II Inc. in Coral Springs, Florida. “Device vulnerabilities need to be understood and addressed in order to protect what is near and dear to anyone using smart and connected device technology in their home.”
To come up with its findings, OTA researchers analyzed publicly reported device vulnerabilities from November 2015 through July 2016 to determine if an OTA IoT Trust Framework principle could have averted them. The “IoT Trust Framework Resource Guide” includes examples of the reported vulnerabilities and respective principles, can be found at https://otalliance.org/IoT. OTA found the most glaring failures were attributed to:
- Insecure credential management including making administrative controls open and discoverable
- Not adequately and accurately disclosing consumer data collection and sharing policies and practices
- The omission or lack of rigorous security testing throughout the development process including but not limited to penetration testing and threat modeling
- The lack of a discoverable process or capability to responsibly report observed vulnerabilities
- Insecure or no network pairing control options (device to device or device to networks)
- Not testing for common code injection exploits
- The lack of transport security and encrypted storage including unencrypted data transmission of personal and sensitive information including but not limited to user ID and passwords
- Lacking a sustainable and supportable plan to address vulnerabilities through the product lifecycle including the lack of software/firmware update capabilities and/or insecure and untested security patches/updates
“Security starts from product development through launch and beyond but during our observations we found that an alarming number of IoT devices failed to anticipate the need of ongoing product support. Devices with inadequate security patching systems further opens the door to threats impacting the safety of consumers and businesses alike,” said Spiezle.
OTA is revealing its findings today at the American Bar Association’s 2016 Business Law Section Annual meeting in Boston, Mass. OTA has also been asked to share its IoT Trust Framework and today’s findings in speaking engagements across the United States and Europe over the next couple months. Those can be found at https://otalliance.org/IoTevents.
The Online Trust Alliance (OTA) is a non-profit with the mission to enhance online trust and user empowerment while promoting innovation and the vitality of the Internet. Its goal is to help educate businesses, policy makers and stakeholders while developing and advancing best practices and tools to enhance the protection of users' security, privacy and identity. OTA supports collaborative public-private partnerships, benchmark reporting, and meaningful self-regulation and data stewardship. Its members and supporters include leaders spanning the public policy, technology, ecommerce, social networking, mobile, email and interactive marketing, financial, service provider, government agency and industry organization sectors.


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Friday was the first business day of the year for most Japanese companies. In a New Year tradition, many company presidents gave speeches to their employees. This year, they stressed the need for new strategies to recover from the economic downturn.
Company bosses are hoping 2002 proves to be the year of recovery. Many electronics-makers posted their first losses, and pulled out of some business sectors because of the technology slowdown last year.
The president of electronics firm NEC, Koji Nishizaki, tells his workers on their first day back at work on Friday that he aims to foster a corporate environment, in which workers are not afraid of failure. "When we look at our rivals around the world, they are also badly affected. It is a good opportunity for us to come up with a better strategy. The NEC group needs to carry out structural reform and have a recovery this year, so that we can be regarded as a global company of excellence," Mr. Nishizaki said.
Japan's airline industry also hopes for a better year. The already struggling industry has weakened further since the September 11th terrorist attacks in the United States.
The president of Japan's second largest airline group, All Nippon Airways, Yoji Ohashi, told his employees he hopes the airline will make a turnaround.
Mr. Ohashi said "workers may feel insecure about the company's future, after the terrorist attacks and the alliance of two domestic competitors. However, he thinks that it is a big chance for the airline, and that the company needs to come up with a new strategy." Japan's financial daily, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, reports that the country's top automaker, Toyota, plans to export several low-priced compact cars to the United States to target younger consumers. In the United States, data on national auto sales showed Toyota had its best year ever, with U.S. sales rising 7.5 percent in 2001.


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Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has had discussions with Uber regarding boosting cooperation and the initial results of a study for offering new budget mobility products in support of Dubai Vision 2021 with a view to meeting the needs of customers seeking affordable mobility solutions.
Smart Mobility Deployments ME
Global coffee colossus COSTA has selected Dubai for its innovative testing of its revolutionary new 'drone delivery' service. COSTA embarked on the trial due to customer demand - 82% of its UAE customers said they would use a drone to deliver food and beverages directly to them, and COSTA subsequently decided to undertake a unique trial in Dubai with its 'Drone Drop' service.
Saudi Arabia, the only country in the world that forbids women from driving vehicles, will soon lift the controversial ban - a move that has been welcomed by human rights groups around the world. A decree was issued by Saudi Arabia's King Salman. The announcement comes shortly after the kingdom allowed access to internet video calling services.
UAE ride-hailing services company Careem has invested $500,000 in a start-up entity which focuses on connecting commuters with private buses in the Egyptian capital city of Cairo. Careem, which is seen as Middle East rival to global ride-hailing colossus Uber, acquired the minority stake in SWVL after weeks of negotiations. It has also been disclosed that in addition to the investment, CEO and co-founder of Careem, Magnus Olsson will also join the board of SWVL.
Dubai has established itself as one of the most modern cities in the entire world. Twenty years ago, it was a very different place, but the government decided to embrace technology and innovation to completely transform the city. However, it doesn't intend to rest on its laurels, and the Government of Dubai has expressed its desire to make Dubai the 'smartest city' in the world.
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An online travel agent has accused JetBlue of making it difficult to compare its prices against competing airlines. Fareportal, which powers sites including CheapOair, has brought a lawsuit against the airline for not allowing its products to be searched through its portals. However, JetBlue has hit back, saying the claim is ‘frivolous’ and without merit.
Online travel agent unhappy with JetBlue’s withdrawal
In normal times, plenty of us loves searching around for great deals on airfares. However, booking through a third party is not always the best means of securing a travel deal. In recent months, we’ve heard plenty from Ryanair regarding screen scrapers and third party agents, with many of its customers left out of pocket in the situation where flights have been canceled.
Now, it seems New York-based JetBlue has fallen foul of the third party travel agency issue. But this time, rather than the airline complaining about the agent, it’s the agent that is lodging a lawsuit against the carrier. Fareportal, an online travel agency (OTA) which powers sites including CheapOair and OneTravel, has filed a lawsuit against JetBlue, alleging it is engaging in anti-competitive pricing.
The lawsuit, filed on January 5th, claims that the airline is making it hard for passengers to comparison shop JetBlue’s airfares against its competitors. The OTA says that, where JetBlue dominates a route, it has blocked sites like CheapOair from displaying its content. In the lawsuit, Fareportal wrote that,
“Amidst the turbulence of the global pandemic, JetBlue is quietly pursuing a scheme to make it harder for American consumers to save money when they book air travel. JetBlue’s goal is simple: to make it difficult for consumers to comparison shop when they want to fly.”
The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Frederick Stein, Fareportal’s Chief Legal & Compliance Officer, wrote in a statement,
“JetBlue is trying to force customers to book tickets on its website where the lack of price comparison with fares from other airlines will allow JetBlue to raise ticket prices for price-sensitive travelers.”
The suit specifies that JetBlue is attempting to raise fares on its key routes, including New York, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Boston, Los Angeles, and San Juan, Puerto Rico.
JetBlue says the claim is ‘frivolous’
The airline has disputed the claim, saying that it is ‘wholly without merit.’ It maintains that it is common practice for airlines to choose where they sell their products and that several other major airlines do not make use of Fareportal’s platforms.
In a statement to Simple Flying, JetBlue said,
“The allegations in the complaint filed by Fareportal are frivolous and wholly without merit. It is common industry practice for airlines to choose where to sell their products. We are currently one of several major airlines not selling via Fareportal’s platforms.
“JetBlue guarantees that customers will always find the lowest JetBlue fare on jetblue.com, and currently, over 10 aggregator and OTA sites offer customers the ability to compare JetBlue fares. JetBlue is recognized globally as a unique airline committed to competitive fares and superior service.”


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CAPE GIRARDEAU, MO (KFVS) - Do you shop garage sales or thrift stores? What if we told you started next month everything you buy for children must be brand new? That's the implications of a new law that goes into effect February 10, 2009 aimed at keeping lead filled products away from children.
Once it goes into effect, all products sold for kids under 12 would have to meet lead testing requirements before they are sold. That means items in stores manufactured before February 10, 2009 would have to be tested or thrown away and thrift store owners say they could shut down. It would affect not only thrift stores, but charities like the Salvation Army and Goodwill.
Moms like Danielle Driskell depend on resale stores like Kids Wear Again in Cape Girardeau.
"I don't know what I'd do without these places," Driskell said.
She says if she's not shopping here she's shopping yard sales and thinks the new law is crazy.
"I can't afford to put my child in brand new everything," Driskell said. "That's ridiculous, and I shouldn't have to."
Under the new law, anything not tested, is considered hazardous. That means every hair bow, button, toy, and piece of clothing would be sent to the junkyard.
"The law has good intentions to protect kids but it is extremely flawed," said Crissy Batchelor, owner of Kids Wear Again in Cape Girardeau.
Crissy says if regulations are enforced, it would shut down her family owned business. She says they monitor all safety recalls, but there's no way any resale shop could pay to test all items for lead.
"It's just a crazy thought," said Batchelor. "It would cost thousands."
Andrea Russell shops and sells second-hand items. She says amending the law to require testing on items manufactured after February 10, 2009 would make more sense.
"It would just give more time to start changing everything over," said Russell. "Instead of making it sound like everybody needs to go out and burn their old stuff. It's ridiculous."
Batchelor says while she's concerned, she will operate business as usual. She's urging other sellers and shoppers to take action.
"We just want everybody to be informed," said Batchelor. "And, if they don't like the law, contact their congressman to get it changed."
Again, stores have no intentions to close.


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NY North americans sign up for approximately fifty dollars billion in payday advances each year, each racking up several hundred dollars in fees and interest. But a small and cultivating services which enables the consumers to consider an advance for their commission could be supplying the pay day loan sector a run due to its dollars.
San Francisco-based financial technology company actually earned statements later a year ago when Walmart, the nation’s premier exclusive employer, established it could get started on providing actually’s assistance during their staff amazing benefits package. Besides delivering gear that permit workforce to trace their particular expenses and conserve money, actually characteristics Instapay, enabling users to advanced some of their then salary around 13 era before pay day. Due to the fact many individual try making use of the person’s currently built up times, Even doesn’t recharge the personnel interest regarding progress.
Even is one of a small number of technological innovation businesses have got jumped awake lately trying to get earnings to employees quicker as well as on demand. Companies like FlexWage treatments and instantaneous Financial supply on-demand give, but those facilities are often tied to a debit credit given because providers in place of a member of staff’s key bank account.
Also founder Jon Schlossberg states publicly that an element of the organization’s mission should place the payday loans industry history, claiming they exploits the monetarily weak. The man revealed inner consumption data entirely with The related Press that presents, at the very least preliminarily, that also consumers are generally less likely to https://cash-central.net/payday-loans-az/ touch the payday loan market place when they sign up for send out facilities.
“You’ve this entire industry of banking institutions making the most of Us citizens striving to reside in paycheck to paycheck, and payday loan providers are absolutely by far the most predatory,” Schlossberg explained.
Paycheck financial institutions declare they provide an essential solution, with many People in america not able to think of dollars to pay for an urgent economic crisis. And also they declare they bring towards country’s the majority of hopeless, that usually the top possibility for not paying right back the borrowed funds. But critics say the charge and charges become exorbitant that can also lure the purchaser in a cycle of personal debt that survive period. The Consumer financing cover agency, in federal government, would be wanting to regulate the payday loaning markets countrywide, but in Trump management the bureau provides begun the entire process of treating those guidelines.
Also’s information reveal that about 28 % of the consumers got an instant payday loan during the months before you sign upwards for all the assistance. Four season after enrolling in also, that body declines to under twenty percent. Also determined the figure by mastering practices actions of their users from December 2017 until Sep 2018.
Even is able to tell which users continue using pay day loans because Also individuals link their own checking account within the app. The company is then able to determine what kinds of dealings a user is definitely producing, and whether they keep the features of a quick payday loan deal or name a payday lender due to the fact other gathering.
Schlossberg acknowledges that Even can be absent some payday loans transactions, especially kind where a check can be used in the place of an immediate debit from a customer’s accounts. Your data can be tied to the point that Walmart, definitely the most significant buyers, merely launched with the product or service on December 15, 2017. Schlossberg claimed the firm are employing academic experts the efficacy of Even’s Instapay product versus payday loan usage, with the goal of publishing sometime in 2019.
Walmart certainly is the sole organization that widely claims they uses Even, but an Even spokesman states it provides “more than” 10 companies sign up at present, with 400,000 productive members. Even should price Walmart people a $6 fee every month to use the top quality attributes, incorporating Instapay.
Shoppers recommends, who’ve lengthy focused the payday lending business, said these were pleased to find options to payday advances available but urged extreme care regarding their use.
“The decline try interesting and potentially guaranteeing but too soon to-draw any conclusions,” explained Scott Astrada, director of federal advocacy at the left-leaning middle for Responsible credit.


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2 November 2018Auckland One of the country’s largest logistics and transport firms, TIL Logistics Group, is upgrading its in-vehicle regulatory telematics technology to EROAD’s Ehubo2 to make the most of advanced electronic health and safety compliance services.
TIL Logistics CEO Alan Pearson said the company was using its contract renewal with EROAD to ensure all its fleets were equipped with the latest hardware, enabling it to provide its drivers, fleet managers and customers better support throughout the logistics supply chain.
“Looking after our people as well as our customers is at the heart of how we operate. EROAD’s second-generation driver support, vehicle monitoring and other health and safety services are an important part of this,” he said.
Mr Pearson said the contract with EROAD covered up to 2,000 vehicles and trailers across TIL Logistics’ business units.
Health and safety regulations emphasising chain of responsibility meant that operators needed to know with much greater certainty what was occurring in these work environments, and EROAD’s services enabled both better support to drivers and more transparent accountability and compliance, said Mr Pearson.
EROAD’s chief executive Steven Newman said the company was delighted to extend its partnership of six years with TIL Logistics Group and to further enhance services to its fleets.
Mr Newman said that the regulatory telematics space continued to evolve rapidly. Regulatory compliance would increasingly rely upon electronic services and digital communication,” he said.
“The move from paper-based checks and monitoring to more reliable and easier to manage electronic systems is at the heart of this.”
For further information contact:
Phone: +64 6 7559457
General Manager ANZ
Phone: +64 21 847 931
About TIL Group
New Zealand-owned TIL Logistics Group is one of the country’s leading domestic freight and logistics companies, headquartered in New Plymouth, New Zealand, offering freight, transport and warehousing services throughout New Zealand, and co-ordinated freight movements offshore through international alliances. The Group’s specialist road tanker division one of the largest operators in the New Zealand fuel delivery market. Transport and logistics services include:
- Domestic – General Freight – from LCL to FCL shipments, Flat Deck, Container Transport, Storage / Warehousing & Distribution throughout New Zealand,
- Specialised – Bulk Liquid Haulage – Petroleum, Crude Oil, LPG, Bitumen,
- International – Imports, Export, Customs clearance services.
EROAD introduced the world’s first nationwide electronic road user charging system in 2009 in New Zealand, enabling road carriers to obtain distance licences for their vehicles and pay road user charges (RUC) electronically, on a platform that also supports superior fleet and vehicle management. EROAD’s focus is on making our roads safer, through offering easy-to-use, accurate and reliable technology solutions to answer complex transportation problems. More than half of heavy vehicle RUC in New Zealand is collected electronically and EROAD collects more than 80% of heavy vehicle eRUC. EROAD has also seen a rapid adoption of its health and safety compliance services, in both heavy and light vehicles, including driver feedback and behaviour, to help operators improve safety outcomes and meet chain of responsibility commitments. EROAD’s data analytics help improve road design and maintenance.


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Perfume is our biggest export to Azerbaijan... after Jedward
Right now Ireland's biggest export to Azerbaijan is of course Jedward -- but Ireland also sells more than €3.5m- worth of other stuff to the oil- rich ex-Soviet state -- especially, for some reason, tens of tonnes of perfume.
Figures from the CSO show we export €1.39m or 27 tonnes of "essential oils and perfume materials" to the Eurovision 2012 host country.
After machinery and equipment worth €500,000, the third-biggest Irish export there is dairy produce -- 75 tonnes of it a year, worth €250,000.
Exports were down 25 per cent from €4.85m in 2010 €3.65m to in 2011.
Sunday Indo Business


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DUBLIN, Va. – Gov. Ralph Northam created the COVID-19 Business Task Force to seek advice on how to safely and responsibly create guidelines for businesses to reopen.
Southwest Virginia has a seat at the virtual table in the form of Franky Marchand, the vice president and general manager at Volvo Trucks Dublin plant. He said he was excited to get the call to join the governor’s new task force.
"It’s a privilege. It’s an honor. So I said, ‘Yeah sure, why not? What do you need?’” Marchand said.
The task force has two dozen members who represent different industries in Virginia: manufacturing, salons, theaters, fitness centers, restaurants, wineries, etc.
Their task is to advise the governor on how to ease restrictions on businesses, which could differ for companies that work with directly with the public and those that don’t.
“We’ve been comparing what matters to each one of our businesses,” Marchand said. “You have to look for the solution and try it and be open to constantly changing. And get the feedback of people: This is what works; this doesn’t work as well, and what else can we do,” Marchand said.
Another task force member is George Hodson of Veritas Winery in Nelson County.
“What we’d like to be able to do is advocate for the opportunity to operate safely,” Hodson said.
At Volvo, Marchand said adapting to COVID-19 has been difficult and things change all the time.
Volvo has slowed production so they can make sure employees social distance, but they’ve been open on-and-off for the past five weeks.
There are about 2,575 employees at the plant currently. Volvo said it has staggered shifts and temporarily laid off workers due to the decreased demand.
All employees get their temperatures checked before walking inside and they have to wear masks.
There is also a UV light to disinfect objects like masks and phones.
There are still a lot of unknowns about what the economy will look like and no clear cut answer for every single industry in Virginia. That’s why Marchand said all businesses will have to adapt.
“We need to make sure that we have a good, safe .. for everyone.. everybody can get to function,” Marchand said.
The governor’s office hasn’t released any specific steps or guidelines for businesses to reopen, but did release the Forward Virginia blueprint, which details Phase I of reopening the commonwealth.
That blueprint states that the governor would wait to ease restrictions until there has been a 14-day downward trend in confirmed COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
The governor’s office is working closely with the task force, health, state and local officials to come up with a reopening plan for businesses. They expect to release those guidelines at the beginning of May.