text:
European agrifood unions and Irish minister warn of crisis, call for aid23 Apr 2020
Restricted movement and closed borders across the European Union have led to concerns about the stability of the agri-food economy in Europe. To prevent irreparable disruption in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak and continue to supply citizens with sustenance, food manufacturing trade groups and state government officials are turning to the European Commission for help.
Recently, Northern Ireland’s Minister of Agriculture Edwin Poots warned of a ‘crisis’ brewing in the industry and pledged to bid for £100m to support agri-food, BBC News reported. Similarly, the trade groups FoodDrinkEurope, farmers association COPA-COGECA and Celcaa, the European Liaison Committee appealed to the European Commission in a joint statement to do “everything in its power” to preserve the EU Single Market and ensure an uninterrupted flow of food and beverage products through countries.
“Following the important and necessary emergency measures taken by EU Member States, our members are reporting increasing difficulties in their business operations,” the joint statement by the trade groups warned.
Despite the lobbying from the associations, there is ongoing disruption caused by prolonged trade bottlenecks in the highly-integrated supply chain that operates across borders. The continued closure of EU member states has put pressure on producers, manufacturers and distributors that are struggling amid closures of restaurants and other foodservice facilities. Increases in supermarket sales have not been sufficient to offset the losses resulting from these closures. The BBC reported that farmers have been experiencing drops in prices paid for animals since the beginning of April and manufacturers are seeing both domestic and export markets disappear.
EU Agricultural Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski sent a letter to all EU agriculture ministers in mid-March where he cautioned that the lockdown that was enacted across the Eurozone will cause “extreme hardships” to the agri-food sector.
In Northern Ireland, those hardships are beginning to show. Processors are estimating that beef is down £200 a carcass and dairy prices are predicted to fall from the already meager 25p per liter, The BBC reports.
In addition to prices plummeting, there are fears that closed borders will prevent the flow of workers and result in a labor shortage that could further affect the supply chain if crops are unable to be harvested and manufacturing plants are short-staffed.
Restarting the food economy in Europe will remain difficult as long as circulation is restricted. “Our ability to provide food for all will depend on the preservation of the EU Single Market,” emphasized the statement. “The food supply chain should be regarded as an essential sector in all EU Member States.”
JBS: Cyber-attack hits world's largest meat supplier
10 Jun 2021
Last week, the world’s largest meat supplier, JBS, experienced a cyberattack that temporarily shut down some of its operations in Australia, Canada and the U.S., leading to fears of a meat shortage. In the days following the attack, the Brazilian meat ...Read more
Fortuna Cools develops sustainable coolers made from coconut husks
9 Jun 2021
Filipino startup Fortuna Cools announced the closure of a seed funding round led by the investment arm of the Asian Development Bank ADB Ventures and Katapult Ocean Fund with additional participation from Pasudeco Development Corporation, the Manila An...Read more
Cultivated meat firm Magic Valley to be first in cultivated lamb
8 Jun 2021
Australian-based startup, Magic Valley is the “world’s first cultured lamb company,” according to a press release from the company. This startup is working to cultivate lamb protein using animal cells grown in a nutrient-rich culture but without the us...Read more
Frozen food and e-commerce emerge as Asia’s COVID-19 retail winners
7 Jun 2021
Frozen food and e-commerce channels have been two of the food industry success stories to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and nation-wide lockdowns that triggered significant shifts in shoppers’ behaviour in Asian markets.Read more
Nestlé’s Sweet Earth moves into snacking aisle with plant-based jerky
2 Jun 2021
Nestlé-owned Sweet Earth Foods has a new plant-based jerky on supermarket shelves that come in two flavors: Spicy Kung Pao Jerky and Sweet Korean BBQ. While the Kung Pao flavor is now on sale, the company announced that the Sweet Korean variety will be...Read more
European Parliament allows ‘buttery’ adjectives on dairy-free products
28 May 2021
In a u-turn from its policy last fall, the European Parliament dropped Amendment 171 and will allow manufacturers to use descriptive terms like “buttery” and “creamy” to describe plant-based products.Read more
Cultured meat startup Eat Just gets $170M
27 May 2021
Eat Just announced its Good Meat division, which is responsible for producing the world’s first commercially-available cultured meat product, received $170 million in funding from UBS O’Connor, Graphene Ventures and K3 Ventures. With this influx in fun...Read more
Plant-based chicken maker Daring raises $40M in latest funding round
26 May 2021
Plant-based chicken making Daring announced it closed a $40 million Series B funding round led by D1 Capital Partners. Additional participation came from Canadian rapper Drake as well as existing investors Maveron and Palm Tree Crew. This funding round...Read more
Access in the spotlight this World Hunger Day
21 May 2021
The Hunger Project has made huge progress in reducing global hunger, but Covid-19 has worsened poverty and limited food availability in many communities. This World Hunger Day, the focus is on access – to food, but also to essential resources like educ...Read more
Equinom and Dipasa partner to produce a high-protein sesame seed
20 May 2021
Israeli plant-based nutrition company Equinom teamed up with Mexican sesame processor Dipasa to create a high-protein sesame concentrate. Equinom will use its AI technology to develop the new variety while Dipasa will process it and deliver it to the m...Read more
Are you a supplier?
Here's what we can do for you
- Generate quality leads for your business
- Stay visible for 365 days of the year
- Receive product inquiries and respond to meeting requests directly
- Improve company online presence through Search Engine Optimisation


text:
Announced some five months after the security vendor exited Dell Technologies to become an independent company once more, the new offerings arrive amid rapid growth for its SecureFirst partner program.By Rich Freeman
SonicWall Inc. has opened the doors to a new online training school for its partners and launched a new trio of demand generation campaigns for its products.
The education service, called SonicWall University and available immediately worldwide to all enrollees in the Santa Clara, Calif.-based security vendor’s SecureFirst partner program, includes in-depth information about the latest threats and exploits, along with best practices advice on using SonicWall solutions to mitigate them.
“SonicWall University is all about bringing together our digital resources, technology, and expertise and applying it to the new cyber frontier that’s happening today,” says SonicWall president and CEO Bill Conner.
Content for the new training service, which comes not only from within SonicWall itself but from outside security experts and the company’s most experienced resellers, is updated continually to reflect the most recent developments in a constantly shifting threat landscape. The system presents customized selections of that content to users based on their role and specializations.
“Once you come in and we know what your job function is, we’ll serve up a specific curriculum for that. It’s not one-size-fits-all,” says Steve Pataky, SonicWall’s vice president of worldwide security sales.
SonicWall account managers and support staff are now required to utilize SonicWall University for training purposes too, to ensure they and SecureFirst members share a common understanding of current risks and product offerings.
The new marketing campaigns introduced today focus on three potent security hazards: Ransomware, SSL and TLS encrypted exploits, and email-borne attacks.
Each campaign includes an end-to-end set of white papers, demos, event marketing toolkits, and other resources designed to help partners establish themselves as thought leaders with potential customers and then guide those prospects through the sales funnel to completed deals. SecureFirst members can apply for market development funds in support of their outreach efforts as well.
“We’re making a major investment to help our partners market these solutions,” says Bill O’Dell, vice president of marketing at SonicWall.
Materials for the new campaigns draw on findings from SonicWall’s recently published 2017 Annual Threat Report. Based on real-time data collected by the vendor’s Global Response Intelligent Defense Threat Network from over 1 million sensors, it states that ransomware attack attempts mushroomed 167 times on a year-over-year basis in 2016 to 638 million.
On the other hand, the report also says that freshly discovered malware signatures targeting point-of-sale devices dropped from 14 in 2015 to just one last year, suggesting that security vendors and partners are making progress in some areas even as they continue to face significant challenges elsewhere. According to O’Dell, SonicWall’s demand generation campaigns share a “fear less” theme informed by that mix of good news and bad that’s deliberately aimed at cutting against the more alarmist grain of competitor’s marketing efforts.
“Most of the other vendors in this space are about doom and gloom,” he says. “We’re going to be more about confidence and how having the right education and the right solutions and the right support with the channel can help you fear less.”

domain: news


text:
Blog / vintage
March 13, 2013
In his 50 year career, Bob Mackie has dressed just about every prominent star in the Hollywood pantheon and those he has not, according to Jamie Lee Curtis Taete, "are unworthy." The legendary designer spoke candidly to Taete of VICE magazine about his fascinating history, what he thinks about the state of style today, his favorite star to dress, new projects, and much more. Ever wondered where Bob got his inspiration for some of the characters he created for the Carol Burnett show came from? Surprise: It's the mall! And where do you think the worst dressed people...
January 14, 2013
A classic never goes out of style. Case in point, Bob Mackie's timeless designs. Last week, two very popular sources for fashion highlighted wearing vintage Mackie to amp up your current style. Refinery29 included a dress from Bob's 1984 Resort Collection, which has more information at 1stdibs. Touting vintage frocks as a "way to stand apart from the ready-to-wear masses," R29 echoed the Bob Mackie motto of "When a woman wears a Mackie, she dares to be noticed." Here's the original picture from back in the day and the dress as it appears on 1stdibs now: Nasty Gal, a...


text:
Georgian Bay Milk Co., based in Barrie, Ont., would buy milk from a clutch of farmers operating outside Canada’s tightly controlled supply managed dairy industry and ship it to dairies in New York state.
The business was profitable, and it generated jobs and exports – everything the federal Conservative government says it’s all about.
But the Ontario Superior Court declared the exports illegal, ruling in 2008 that farmers must sell their milk exclusively through the province’s official dairy marketing board, the Dairy Farmers of Ontario.
“We could be exporters of milk and cheese, instead of importers,” laments Chris Birch, a former dairy farmer who started the now-shuttered company. “It’s ridiculous.”


text:
This is your normal every day story about controversial themes in video games, a baying mob placing pressure on a company with claims that are economic with the truth, a baying mob not grasping that there are serious concerns about said content and trolls emerging from beneath the bridge to spread heinous vitriol.
Target Australia have announced : Target Removes Grand Theft Auto 5 From Shelves. The announcement says :
Target General Manager Corporate Affairs Jim Cooper said the decision was made following extensive community and customer concern about the game.
“We’ve been speaking to many customers over recent days about the game, and there is a significant level of concern about the game’s content,” Mr Cooper said.
“We’ve also had customer feedback in support of us selling the game, and we respect their perspective on the issue.
“However, we feel the decision to stop selling GTA5 is in line with the majority view of our customers.”
GTA is of course a controversial game and has extremely adult themes. However it’s rated as an 18 rated game, although parents all too often haven’t grasped that 18 rated games mean it’s only suitable for people 18 and over and in extreme cases like GTA, it’s questionable whether it’s suitable for all people as young as 18. However this isn’t helped when a company such as Target Australia advertise a game like GTA V next to Peppa Pig and Barbie in the toys and games section of an advertising brochure.
However it’s disappointing to see Target Australia bow down to the baying mob, just as it was disappointing when Intel bowed down to the baying mob over advertising on Gamasutra. However both companies have every right to take business decisions they consider to be suitable. Target Australia feel they are a family friendly store but in the case of the latest hoo-ha, one can’t help but feel Target Australia are missing the target by a country mile. when you look at the next part of the announcement, it all gets a bit baffling :
Mr Cooper said Target would continue to sell other R-rated DVDs and games.
“While these products often contain imagery that some customers find offensive, in the vast majority of cases, we believe they are appropriate products for us to sell to adult customers.
“However, in the case of GTA5, we have listened to the strong feedback from customers that this is not a product they want us to sell.”
The Warehouse in New Zealand consider themselves to be a family friendly store, in November they took the decision to remove all R18 rated games and DVD’s off the shelves. GTA V was also at the heart of this decision, but The Warehouse took a consistent approach to these issues, as The Warehouse chief executive Mark Powell explained :
The recently released Grand Theft Auto V, which contains graphic sex scenes and violence towards women from a first person perspective, has acted as a catalyst for our decision to totally exit the R18 games and DVD market.
We considered simply ‘de-ranging’ this product, however that would require us to judge the merits of every R18 product on an ongoing basis, which we are not in a position to do, nor do we see as our role.
The arguments that follow over Target Australia’s decision will rage on about The Warehouse’s decision too but at least The Warehouse displayed a fine degree of consistency in their approach, the same cannot be said for Target Australia. I’m not quite sure why they think it’s fine to sell other content that contains sex and graphic violence but have decided to single out GTA V as not being suitable. The cynical side of me suspects a marketing gimmick to get eyes on the prize. They did indeed get a lot of eyes on their Facebook page and are still getting a lot of eyes on the prize, they are also busily deleting thousands of dissenting voices, many of which are polite and to the point rather than vitriolic and rude.
Continue reading »


text:
The CEOs of Apple, Google and Amazon offered praise for Donald Trump after a meeting with the president at the White House on Monday, Breitbart reported.
The session was attended by a number of tech industry CEOs — including Google’s Eric Schmidt, Apple’s Tim Cook and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos — as well as roughly two dozen business experts.
Advertisement – story continues below
In the aftermath of the meeting, the three CEOs came out with praise for the president.
“I’m absolutely convinced that during your administration there is going to be a huge explosion of new opportunities because of the platforms that are getting built in our industry,” Google’s Schmidt told the president.
Schmidt said that “huge” growth due to entrepreneurship, immigration and skilled workers was “going to happen soon during your leadership.”
Advertisement - story continues below
Schmidt was far from the only one predicting growth… [CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE]


text:
At Google I/O 2018, Google unveiled more details about Android P, its next major Android operating system. One of the areas that Google is focusing on is something called “digital wellness” which aims to help users spend their time on their mobile devices in a more healthy manner, basically trying to curb smartphone addiction.
We’ve also seen some signs that Instagram could be introducing something similar, along with YouTube. This is why it doesn’t come as a surprise to learn that Apple could be looking to do the same as well, at least according to a report from Bloomberg whose latest report rounds up what we might be able to expect at Apple’s WWDC 2018 which takes place later this month.
According to the report, one of the things that Apple is expected to focus on is something they’re calling Digital Health. This isn’t to be confused with health tracking or digital medical records, but it will be focused on helping users better monitor how they spend their time on their devices. This is actually not the first time we’re hearing about concerns of smartphone addiction.
Earlier this year Apple investors Jana Partners LLC and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System criticized how addictive Apple’s products are. Apple responded by saying that they would be adding more robust parental controls in the future, which now we learn could possibly be revealed at WWDC 2018.


text:
According to the findings of a new report from Nielsen, those who predominantly access Twitter via mobile are 1.2 times as likely to engage daily as average users.
While close to 60% of users access the platform multiple times daily, mobile is still the primary gateway to the microblog.
It was discovered that 80 per cent use Twitter on their smartphone, while 70 per cent say that mobile is the main way that they access and use the social platform.
“There was also good news for marketers,” The Drum reported in response to the published data, “as it was discovered that 62 per cent follow brands and that one in four use Twitter whilst shopping.”
To learn more about how mobile seems to boost user engagement on social, check out the infographic shared below.


text:
(NaturalHealth365) Steak lovers have been deceived about the quality of their meat. Those “prime” beef cuts sold in supermarkets and restaurants may contain “transglutaminase” (TG), known in the industry as “meat glue”. Naturally, the United States federal government says meat glue is safe – but many health experts disagree.
Shocking video report reveals the hidden danger of eating commercial beef
Grainne Trainor, a restaurant owner, warns “meat is something you buy at your neighborhood local butcher shop. Glue is something you buy at Home Depot. Those two words just don’t belong in the same sentence.”
Save your family and friends from the pain of disease – share this video (below):
TG, approved for use in the United States and European Union, has been used to create imitation crab meat and chicken nuggets. But, thanks to the internet, food industry insiders are getting nervous about the idea that people are waking up. After all, an “educated consumer” is their worst customer.
The business connection between meat and MSG
TG, also known as thrombin, is a coagulation protein which together with the fibrous protein can be used to develop a “meat glue” enzyme used to paste together different pieces of beef. Obviously, this is a great technique to increase industry profits – at the expense of public health.
Transglutaminase is manufactured by Ajinomoto North America, the corporation that also brought us aspartame and MSG (monosodium glutamate). While those are known to be dangerous to human health, tranglutaminase hasn’t been studied long enough to know the effects. I, for one, will not be waiting around for the test results.
The risk of food poisoning in every bite
When pieces of meat are glued together, like a jigsaw puzzle, it gives bacteria a better chance to grow. According to Keith Warriner, a teacher of food science at the University of Guelph, “if there is a bacteria outbreak, it’s much harder to figure out the source when chucks of meat from multiple cows are combined”. If you want to avoid getting sick – buy organic food and look for grass-fed beef.
Since bacteria grow on the surface of a steak, cooking it well would mean than most of the bacteria is gone and this is true even if the inside is quite pink. But, if the steak consists of glued together pieces, then the story is different because the outside surface may now be the interior part of the meat.
This binding enzyme is made by cultivating bacteria from the blood plasma of cows and pigs. To make matter worse, there is nothing in place as far as transparency; no regulatory agency demanding that food producers reveal the process they use to create beef products.
No matter which way you cut it, you are ingesting a substance that may be foreign to the body. These foreign substances trigger the immune system to react causing food allergies; autoimmune dis-ease and outright food poisoning.
Save your life by making smart food choices
We are constantly bombarded with deceptive advertisement and marketing campaigns. Major food corporations have turned into profit hungry, junk food pushers. Now, more than ever, it’s important to know where your food comes from and to support local, organic food producers. Ask questions and do your own research before buying any food products.
Avoid buying commercially-produced hot dogs, sausages and chicken pieces – especially all the garbage sold at fast food restaurants. Meat glue, synthetic hormones and antibiotics will only create an internal environment ripe for disease to grow. The next time you are offered a “happy (value) meal” – just laugh and say “no thank you”!
About the author: Blanche Levine has been a student of natural healing modalities for the last 25 years. She had the privilege of working with some of the greatest minds in Natural Healing including Naturopaths, Scientist, and Energy Healers. Having seen people miraculously heal from all kinds of dis-ease through non-invasive methods, her passion now is to help people become aware of what it takes to be healthy.


text:
Age UK Isle of Wight expands digital support service for islanders aged 50+
Published on 01 October 2018 12:33 PM
A local service which aims to promote independence, access to information and communication, is expanding its support services across the island.
The Digital Inclusion Project, delivered by Age UK Isle of Wight, as part of the Ageing Better programme, has been offering 1-to-1 digital support and drop in sessions for those aged 50 and over since April 2015. Demand for their services has been so great that the team has recently expanded, and the range of support has been increased.
The newly formed service offers tiered levels of digital support ranging from staying safe online and basic internet navigation, to help with smart technology, online banking and cloud storage. In addition, tutors now offer charged-for training and workshops to businesses and organisations, as part of the service’s sustainability plan.
The team of volunteers and tutors work from various drop-in venues across the island, as well as offering 1to1 support in clients’ homes, and at the charity’s office in Newport.
Dan Taylor, Digital Inclusion Project Development Officer at Age UK Isle of Wight commented, “As an island with a high percentage of residents aged over 50, there is a huge demand for day to day digital support. Technology can be such a useful tool regardless of age, and can make a huge difference to people’s lives, for example, we regularly help clients to get connected with relatives who live abroad via Skype or social media, so that they can enjoy regular contact. The expansion of our service means that we will be able to assist even more older and vulnerable residents, to help them stay happy, healthy and connected”.
This updated provision will also contribute towards the sustainability of this vital service (currently funded by BIG Lottery until 2020), with clients being asked to make donations wherever possible, for the support they receive.


text:
Kampong Chhnang, once bustling with activities thanks to an abundance of tourist visits has taken a turn for the worst, no thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The smiles of the villagers here have long gone. They used to beam with happiness as they welcomed visitors and people to the Kampong Tralach Leu community. They were happy to provide transportation for tourists who arrived through river cruises.
A highlight of tourist visits was the experience of travelling on oxcarts as they visited century-old temples. But all that is now a distant memory.
The port has gone quiet. Cruise boats don’t dock at Kampong Chhnang anymore. The oxcarts are just left under their houses built on stilts. Many have sold their oxen or cows as the tourist dollars have dried up.
The tourist transportation activities completely stopped after the government announced the temporary closure of the border between Cambodia and Vietnam to stem the Covid-19 outbreak after Cambodia found cruise passengers infected with the novel coronavirus.
Kampong Tralach Leu’s Oxcart Association director Teuk Troeung tells The Post that after the closure of waterway between the two countries, some 140 cows in the community were left in their sheds.
“Villagers now sell their cows to slaughterhouses because, aside from transporting tourists, the animals had long not been used to plough farmland,” said Troeung, who used to lead his community in transporting tourists by oxcart at least three times a day.
Siem Reap’s Chhreav Agro-tourism Cambodia used to have as many as 350-400 visitors a day under various programmes.
Activities included shopping at the local market, visiting local schools, buying some local vegetables, learning to cook Khmer cuisine, bird-watching, enjoying food with local families and riding on oxcarts to experience village life.
But all these have also come to a standstill.
Krouch Ly, the president of the Information Centre for Cambodia at the Chhreav Agro-tourism Cambodia says: “From dawn, tourists used to catch amazing sights and take pictures of beautiful birds flying in from various places to land on green rice fields in Chhreav and Pea Reang Lake.
“After this, waiting oxcarts transported them to explore the villages. As part of the routine, the oxcarts parked next to the people’s backyard plantations to get a glimpse of how they farmed their land.”
Each day, between 20 and 30 pairs of oxcarts worked to offer tourists such experiences they couldn’t get anywhere else. And the villagers in Chhreav’s community enjoyed their company too.
But now, with tourism practically non-existent, the animals are sold for their meat.
Troeung said the situation became dire as the villagers could not afford to feed their adult animals without getting back any benefit from their existence.
So with the money they now earn from selling their cows, the villagers have enough for their subsistence and to buy some calves to raise for better times when the oxcarts once again transport tourists.
“An adult cow that weighs between 300 and 400kg costs about $500. A pair of them we can sell for about $1,000,” says Troeung.
Troeung, who also has a pair of cows, says a calf needs between 18 months and two years to grow to adulthood and be sold for meat.
Aside from Kampong Tralach Leu’s Oxcart Association and Chhreav Agro-tourism Cambodia, many other communities and resorts had offered such oxcart services to tourists as traditional transport.
While the cows have been put up for sale, the carts are left to wither away through the ravages of time.
The Oxcart Association in Kampong Tralach Leu village was founded in almost two decades ago to preserve this centuries-old transportation and promote Khmer culture to local and international tourists.
They used to arrive at the Ka’am Samnar checkpoint through boat cruises, mostly from Vietnam, Phnom Penh, and Kampong Chhnang’s Kampong Tralach Leu village.
After their visit, they usually continued along the Tonle Sap Lake to Pursat and Battambang provinces before heading back.
“Though our oxcart drivers charged between $4 and $5 per trip for each ride, we are happy to take our passengers to explore and visit old temples for a tip,” says Troeung.
He adds that some high-spending tourists used to give them tips ranging from $10 and $20 per trip, which is a tidy sum.
Troeung says sadly that if they don’t have tourists visiting, they not only lose a large chunk of their income but even more devastating is that the oxcart culture can fade away.
Kampong Tralach Leu village is located just 60km north of Phnom Penh. And Troeung is hopeful that after Covid-19 has run its course, things will get better, “and who knows, we might even rebuild our tourism from local visitors from Phnom Penh and nearby areas”.
Covid-19 has not only affected the national economy, but the lives of people across the Kingdom and around the world.
It is important to continue social distancing, staying home more and doing all the things advised by the Ministry of Health for one’s safety and protection.
This is the only way to put an end to new infections and ensure the economy and the lives of all those affected are put back on the track to normalcy.
Failing this, more jobs and livelihoods will be lost, just like those of the oxcart drivers.


text:
Bali has been knocked off the top spot in the Post Office Travel Money’s annual report on prices in long-haul destinations.
Instead Cape Town leads the field in this year’s Long Haul Holiday Report for being the cheapest of 34 resorts and cities, with a cup of coffee averaging £1.10 and a glass of wine £2.74.
Jumeirah Beach in Dubai is the most expensive, with a cup of coffee coming in at £4.26 and a glass of wine at £10.64.
Tokyo remains third cheapest, but is closing the gap on Cape Town and Bali with a cup of coffee averaging £2.06.
Using prices researched by long-haul tailor-made specialist Travelbag, Cape Town proved the clear winner in the ninth annual survey.
At £48.89 for a “basket” of 10 tourist items, including meals and drinks, the South African city ranks significantly cheaper than Bali (£62.56), where the cost of eating out has increased by more than 50% in the past 12 months.
Tourist prices there are now 28% higher than in Cape Town.
Competition between shops, restaurants and bars in Tokyo has reduced prices in the Japanese capital, and countered the effect of a 24% surge in the yen’s value against the pound.
An 8% fall in local prices means Tokyo is challenging Bali for second place, with the basket costing £63.87.
Although tourist prices are up by an average of 25% across all destinations once the sterling exchange rate (as of September 8, 2016) has been factored in, Tokyo is among the 40% where local prices have fallen below what they were in 2015.
In Orlando, prices are 12% higher than a year ago after the exchange rate is applied – half the overall average rise across the destinations surveyed. At £79.76 for the 10 items, Orlando has entered the best value top 10 in ninth place, its highest ranking in three years.
Washington DC (£142.22) was the most expensive of six American destinations surveyed.
Cancun (£74.26) is up to sixth place on the back of a relatively weak Mexican peso, just behind Kenya’s Mombasa coastline (£69.41) and Colombo, Sri Lanka (£70.61).
Mexico’s most popular resort has led a Latin-American charge in which Lima in Peru (£78.52), a new introduction to the 2016 survey, has entered the top 10 in eighth place, while Tamarindo (£87.03) ranks in 12th place.
All three Latin American destinations eclipsed the six Caribbean resort areas surveyed for the report.
Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic was the cheapest of the six, ranking 15th overall, with a cost of £91.24 for the 10 tourist staples.
St Lucia, Jamaica, Barbados and Antigua were far more costly. At £157.60, English Harbour in Antigua was 73% more expensive than Punta Cana.
Grand Baie in Mauritius (£83.70) made the Post Office top 10 for the third consecutive year, perhaps proving true the island’s claim to offer “affordable luxury”. Prices in Grand Baie are down 16% on five years ago.
Andrew Brown of Post Office Travel Money said: “Costs may be higher in long-haul holiday resorts this year for UK travellers but the good news is that local price cuts in many of the most popular ones will help to lessen the impact of the weaker pound.
“More than ever before, it will pay dividends to do some holiday homework before booking to find out where meals and drinks are cheapest.
“This can make a big difference to the overall cost of a holiday.”
Travelbag cites South Africa, Bali, Phuket and Mexico as destinations that are growing in popularity due to the combination of good-value packages and good prices in-resort.


text:
NEW YORK (CelebrityAccess) – Pandora and SiriusXM have today (July 30) announced that the Jonas Brothers will perform an exclusive concert in New York as part of Pandora LIVE on August 20 for Pandora listeners and SiriusXM subscribers. Ava Max will open the show, which is set to take place at Webster Hall.
Fresh off the biggest comeback of the year with their hit single “Sucker,” which spent 16 consecutive weeks in the Top 10 of the Pandora Top Spins Chart and was predicted to be one of Pandora’s Songs of Summer, the Jonas Brothers are gearing up to kick off a national arena tour next month in support of their recent No. 1 album, Happiness Begins. Meanwhile, opener Ava Max has been a constant on the Pandora Trendsetters Chart with her debut track “Sweet But Psycho.” The song recently topped the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart and also cracked the Top 10 on the Hot 100 chart.
The event, which will be hosted by SiriusXM’s Nicole Ryan, Stanley T. and Ryan Sampson, marks the culmination of Pandora’s Sound On Summer campaign that kicked off in May with the announcement of songs of summer predictions and exclusive live events across the country with DJ Khaled, Thomas Rhett, Maren Morris, Natti Natasha and Lady Gaga.
Pandora listeners who are 18+ can RSVP for the free event HERE. SiriusXM subscribers are able to listen to SiriusXM Hits 1 channel on SiriusXM radios, and those with streaming access can listen online, on-the-go with the SiriusXM mobile app and at home on a wide variety of connected devices including smart TVs, Amazon Alexa devices, Apple TV, PlayStation, Roku, Sonos speakers and more. The performance by Jonas Brothers will broadcast over Labor day Weekend on SiriusXM’s Hits 1 (ch. 2).


text:
The Washington Post examines the idea that the economy will help Donald Trump squeeze thru for a second term... They find that idea could have holes that one could drive a TRUCK thru that would derail any second term.... The economy was better in November, almost 6 months … [Read more...] about Will the economy help Donald Trump next year?
After a year of his Tariff war going no place .... A year in which China has actually INCREASED imports to America ..... Republicans are working hard to get Donald Trump to give up his effort to squeeze more money out of importing countries ... They ARE afraid that an … [Read more...] about Republicans want Trump to end his Trade War….
Include me in THAT feeling.... Americans are afraid — and not just about the recent volatility in the stock market. Nearly one quarter (23%) of people say a lack of emergency savings is the one financial issue that keeps them up at night. Some 22% who say they don’t have … [Read more...] about Two-thirds ofAmericans believe the economy will get worst….Survey….
Trump's trade throw down and possible war is scaring corporate America and is gonna cost them money, which will end up cost people jobs.... And an economy... Trump's party members in Congress are still sitting on their hands.... It could cost some of them their … [Read more...] about The American President vs American corporations…
You could see this coming.... Gas prices are up to around $3.00 a gallon from a around $2.50 a few months ago...... Last time gas prices went up? The price of just about everything went up also... Same thing is going on.... And Donald Trump is talking about making … [Read more...] about Stuff costs more…Consumer Prices Up…..


text:
Sky are giving away TVs and tablets while putting prices up
As you'll already know, Sky are putting their prices up. As a sweetener, they've decided to give some free things away, like TVs and tablets.
What exactly? Well, if you're a new customer who signs up before the 21st April, you can get yourself a 32" LG television as part of your bundle.
If you're not too fussed about getting a new television set, then you can also opt for a £100 Amazon or Tesco giftcard, £100 loaded onto a prepaid Mastercard, or a Samsung Galaxy Tab E. While this is good news for anyone who is thinking of becoming a Sky customer, this is a bit of a kick in the teeth for existing customers.
Furthermore, packages are going to be cheaper for new customers. For example, the Sky Movies bundle is £29 per month for half a year instead of £38 per month.
Either way, this particular offer is available across six bundles: The Original, The Complete, The Family, The Variety, Sky Movies and Sky Sports. You'll have to take out a 12-month contract, by the way.
As for the price increase for existing customers, Sky says that this has happened to fund more investment in content and customer experience. Basically, they're going to throw some money at Sky Atlantic programmes, and show more Premier League games. Sky have said that, should you be unhappy with the price rise, and you're no longer in the minimum term of your contract, you can cancel your contract.
You'll need to give 31 days’ notice and can cancel by calling Sky customers services.


text:
Between 2014 and 2020, according to Allied Market Research, usage of NoSQL will register a compound annual growth rate of 35.1 percent.
Use of NoSQL both in web applications and data storage and analysis are the major driving forces. North America will represent two fifths of overall industry revenues by 2020.
But the Asia Pacific region is also set to generate serious revenues, growing at a CAGR of 41.3 percent during the same period.
Allied said that document databases are the most used application. Couchbase, MongoDB, Amazon and MarkLogic are signing partnerships.
The report said companies including MongoDB, Riak and Amazon are offering their NoSQL databases for download at no charge. Licences come later.


text:
Sunday newspaper share tips
Each week we round up the Sunday newspaper share tips. Read the latest tips and archive of Financial Mail's top stock-picker: Midas archive.
Supermarket giant Sainsbury's reported steady Christmas sales last week despite gloom elsewhere in the retail sector. Although its shares are sharply down on last year - when the chain was buoyed by bid interest - chief executive Justin King has performed well in turning around the previously-struggling retailer, which has seen its 12th consecutive quarter of like-for-like growth.
Investors are urged to keep their nerve and the shares are rated a long-term buy at 385p.
RWS Holdings - a firm which translates patents into different languages - looks a good bet amid signs of a slowdown.
It translates thousands of documents into dozens of different languages on behalf of major companies such as drugs firm AstraZeneca. Although agreements limiting the number of patent translations needed could hit European earnings, the firm is expanding into other markets. Buy at 328p.
Conferencing business ITE Group offers multinational firms the chance to sell into countries formerly part of the Soviet Union. The firm has long-standing relationships with venue-owners in Russia and already has 60% of this year's revenues booked. ITE operates in fast-growing economies and looks a good bet at 148p. Buy
Most watched Money videos
- Ferrari launches new green supercar: 296 GTB plug-in hybrid
- Land Rover unveil prototype hydrogen powered Defender
- Discover the water-resistant interior of the new Ineos Grenadier 4X4
- Take a look at £3.3 million Bugatti Chiron Super Sport hypercar
- Volkswagen reveals stylish hybrid, seven-seater, family bus
- E-Type UK Unleashed transforms classic cars using modern features
- Stunning Lotus Emira unveiled as company's last petrol car
- Why UK smaller companies can profit in the recovery
- 1937 Bugatti Type 57: One of the most valuable pre-war cars
- Futuristic zero-emissions electric Ioniq 5 from Hyundai
- Are investors too worried or too complacent about inflation?
- Vauxhall to make electric Opel Manta GSe ElektroMOD concept car


text:
E-mail this story
The startling spirit of Malacca, Malaysia
What traveler hasn't landed in a dreamed-of destination and found it crawling with tourists, fast-food franchises, name-brand stores and dollar-a-beer bars? The good bones of Charleston, S.C., which made the World Monuments Fund's list of imperiled cultural sites this year because of cruise ship congestion, may be intact, but when commercial tourism runs amok you've got yourself a tourist trap.
Susan Spano, Special to the Los Angeles Times
November 27, 2011


text:
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is known for its remarkable branding and marketing their product in a way ahead of its time. However, if the company can’t even make the product, there is no amount of branding that could save the product. Apple is reportedly running into issues building its next iPhone, which could hurt the “super cycle” that many analysts expected to happen in the fall with the release, which would throttle the moneymaker back to sales growth.
According to multiple analysts this week, Apple is running into issues with its new fingerprint sensor, which many are expecting an upgrade to, to match the new “Infinity Display”-esque screen that the phone is projected to have.
Apple is supposedly launching a new iPhone cycle, consisting of three new phones, one that is said to be superpremium with an OLED display. Because of this, the fingerprint sensor would have to be intelligently placed either on the back or sides of the phone, or underneath the display – which there is no reliable technology currently for.
With these problems still occurring, and the release of the phone eminent, the company might opt into a settlement, and use facial recognition instead of fingerprint technology as their main unlocking feature, although the “Touch ID” that Apple has is likely to be much more advanced than the facial recognition software.
Apple is said to have been investing in third party engineers to try and develop a solution for their specific problem.
Apple iPhone unit sales declined for the first time last year and with their scheduled report results for the third quarter coming in August 1st, we can expect more clues about the iPhone launch and how Apple perceives it.
Regardless of this fact, consumers are itching for a new innovative phone by Apple, and reportedly are ready to tackle the premium iPhone’s $999 price tag jumping from 25% of consumers interested in April to 28% now. Even with this larger base of users, however, analysts are predicting only a 5% growth in this cycle.
Nonetheless, shares of Apple went down less than 1% Wednesday, while shares have hovered, gaining 2.6% in the past three months, under-performing the S&P500 which increased 4% in the time period.


text:
Version 4.3 of Unreal Engine has added a variety of new features, including support for Apple’s Metal API.
Announced last month, this API allows developers to achieve more with high-end graphics on iOS devices without increasing the processing costs. Epic Games even demonstrated the technology working with Unreal Engine 4 in real-time during Apple’s keynote.
Metal will be part of iOS 8, which launches this autumn. It will not be enabled by default un Unreal 4.3 at first, but devs can activate it via their game’s project settings.
Other new features include SpeedTree integration, new rendering settings, world composition tools, time-warping for Oculus Rift and a preview of Paper2D, Epic’s new 2D toolset.
You can find a full list of Unreal Engine 4.3 features at the official website.
Unreal Engine 4 was announced and launched at GDC 2014 back in March. It introduces a new subscription model, giving devs access to Epic Games’ technology – including the engine’s source code – for $19 per month.
It was ranked as the most popular engine by industry tech experts in Develop 100: The Tech List.


text:
BlackBerry, which sold off its mobile business to TCL Communication last year, launched the company's swan-song phone — KEYOne — with proprietary QWERTY keypad in Barcelona on Sunday, February 26, on the eve of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2017.
BlackBerry KeyOne comes with a gorgeous design language with a compact form having a good blend of glass and metal. It boasts aluminium-based shell on the back and comes covered in Gorilla Glass 4 with 'impact resistant nature' and physical QWERTY keyboard having fingerprint sensor on the spacebar and also capacitive touch sensors on the entire keyboard for scrolling, at the front.
It also boasts top-of-the-line camera. It houses 12MP auto-focus large pixel camera with Sony IMX378, same as seen in Google Pixel phone, which is touted as the best camera phone in the market. Up front, it features an equally impressive 8MP camera with a wide angle field of view and full HD video-recording ability.
Another interesting aspect is that the phone comes packed with a 3,505mAh cell, the biggest battery for a BlackBerry phone to date. It also comes with QuickCharge technology, which can power up the phone from zero to 50 per cent in 36 minutes.
Under the hood, it is quite under-powered as it comes with mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 octa-core processor backed by 3GB RAM, 32GB inbuilt storage and Android 7.1 Nougat OS.
BlackBerry KEYOne costs $549 (approx. Rs 38,584) in the US, €599 (roughly Rs 42,158) in Europe and £499 (around Rs 41,433) in the UK and will hit stores in April.
With the launch of BlackBerry KEYOne, the Canadian mobile firm will no longer make or design phones and will now on focus on developing mobile-security software. Having said that, the new owner of the BlackBerry's mobile business — China-based TCL Communication — will continue with the legacy of the former smartphone pioneer both in terms of selling and servicing of BlackBerry-branded mobile phones.
Watch this space for latest news on BlackBerry, TCL Communication and MWC 2017.
Key specifications of BlackBerry KEYOne:
|Display||4.5-inch IPS LCD screen with 1620x1080p resolution
|OS||Android 7.1 Nougat|
|Processor||2.0GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 octa-core processor|
|GPU||650MHz Adreno 506|
|Storage||32GB flash, expandable up to 2TB|
|Battery||3,505mAh; 4.4V non-removable Lithium Ion with Quick Charge v3.0 technology ( can power the phone from zero to 50% charge in 36 minutes)|
|Add-ons||Fingerprint sensor, On-scree/ white LED indicator, Type-C USB v3.1 port, Bluetooth v4.2 LE, Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n; dual-band: 2.4GHz&5GHz), FM radio, NFC (Near Field Communication); proprietary BlackBerry security softwares|
|Dimensions||149.3 x 72.5 x 9.4 mm|


text:
The Sprint Nexus S 4G smartphone has just launched earlier this week, hitting the shelves of Sprint and Best Buy on May 8th. Rumors have been floating that Samsung was working on an AT&T version of this pure Google phone, and today further evidence has surfaced.
A white Nexus S showed up on Samsung’s website today for a brief moment before being pulled. The guys at PocketNow were able to get a screenshot of the page, which clearly indicated the carrier would be AT&T.
Listed as ‘pearly white’ the device is actually two-toned, with the back side being white and the front face being black. It is also listed with the model number GT-I902A instead of SGH-Ixx7 as is normally expected from a Samsung smartphone sold directly through the carrier. This could mean that this Nexus S is slotted for retailer-only distribution.
No details on pricing or release date have been confirmed, but Best Buy’s $99 subsidized price for the T-Mobile Nexus S is a good indicator of what to expect. Also considering the recent AT&T 4G controversies, it’s also not certain whether this device will be HSPA+ and HSUPA enabled at launch like the recent Samsung Infuse 4G.


text:
3 August 2010
As the relief effort gears up in Pakistan, members of the public can now donate goods to British Red Cross shops for resale to benefit people affected by the severe flooding.
When items including clothes, books, shoes and household goods are donated to Red Cross shops, the donors are able to specify that the proceeds of their sale should go to the British Red Cross’ Pakistan Floods Appeal, launched yesterday. [Update 5 August: Since the launch of the DEC's appeal today, the proceeds of the sale will benefit the DEC Pakistan Floods Appeal.]
Shops will be accepting stock in this way for two weeks, from 3-17 August. Donated goods will not be sent overseas, however.
Paul Thompson, British Red Cross head of retail, said: “This is a great way to donate if you’re strapped for cash, or just looking for another way to help the survivors of Pakistan’s floods.”
Read more about the goods donation scheme
Meanwhile, aid is reaching thousands of families in the affected areas in Pakistan. Pakistan Red Crescent volunteers have already provided 20,000 people with food parcels and distributed other relief items, including tents, hygiene kits, jerry cans, kitchen sets, tarpaulin sheets and kerosene stoves.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has deployed disaster management specialists to the area and has launched an operation to provide 175,000 people with emergency water and sanitation, healthcare and shelter, as well as food and other relief items.
The International Committee of the Red Cross was already working in many of the affected areas, including Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Kashmir and the federally administered tribal areas (FATA), and is conducting relief operations there.
Reservoirs are reaching their limit, which could cause further flooding. In addition, more monsoon rains are predicted over the coming days and the situation is expected to get worse. There is also concern that water-borne diseases could spread.
Pete Garratt, British Red Cross disaster relief manager, said: “With more monsoon rains predicted over the next two days, the situation is going to get considerably worse. Thousands of people already have lost their homes and livelihoods, crops have been destroyed and whole villages have been washed away. Roads and bridges have been affected, leaving some areas cut off, and with the flood levels due to rise there is a risk that many more people could find themselves homeless.”
Read Pete’s blog about Pakistan
The British Red Cross has already released £50,000 from its Disaster Fund to provide immediate relief to survivors. Tesco has given £20,000 to the Pakistan Floods Appeal. The Freemasons’ Grand Charity has also contributed £25,000 to the appeal.


text:
October 6, 2016, Detroit, MI— Michigan’s top corporations and MBEs gathered this week at the Michigan Minority Supplier Development Council’s 33rdAnnual Awards celebration, the ACE (Ambassadors Championing Excellence) Awards and the Hall of Fame at the Detroit Marriot at the Renaissance Center to honor those who champion excellence in business.
ACE Award winners were:
Minority Supplier of the Year – Class I: Jim Roberts Enterprises LLC
Minority Supplier of the Year – Class II:Mac Arthur Corporation
Minority Supplier of the Year – Class III,V2Soft, Inc;
Minority Supplier of the Year – Class IV, Dakkota Integrated Systems, LLC
MBE Luminary Award: Frank Venegas – Ideal Group
Corporate Buyer of the Year: Francis T Lebryk – Johnson Controls
Jethro Joseph Advocate of the Year Award: Kevin Bell – Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles
President’s Award: Leon Richardson — Chemico
Corporation of the Year Automotive OEM: Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles (Tie)
Corporation of the Year Automotive OEM: General Motors Company (Tie)
Corporation of the Year Commercial Products: Herman Miller Inc.
Corporation of the Year Consumer Products Petrochemical, and Energy: DTE Energy Company
Corporation of the Year Financial & Insurance Services: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan
Corporation of the Year Manufacturing/Automotive: Lear Corporation
Corporation of the Year Professional Services & Staffing: Kelly Services, Inc
Volunteer of the Year: Teresa LeFevre – Comerica
Executive of the Year: David Drouillard – General Motors Company
Hall of Fame Inductee: Hank Aguirre – Mexican Industries
Hall of Fame Inductee: Ron Hall, Sr. — Bridgewater Interiors
“We recognized corporations, minority businesses, and individuals who excelled in engaging, mentoring and advocating diverse suppliers this past year,” said Michelle Sourie Robinson, President & CEO of MMSDC. “Our Ambassadors are true champions of excellence in minority supplier development.”
Boasting an attendance of 850, the ACE Awards is one of the most prestigious business events that takes place annually in our state where the top leaders, executives, and visionaries in the region gather to celebrate the people who are making significant contributions to minority supplier development. At this event, minority business enterprises (MBEs) are honored for their excellent service in the past year as well as corporate members for their commitment to supplier diversity and supporting minority-owned businesses through purchasing contracts.


text:
MAS warns Singapore consumer prices to continue rising
SINGAPORE — Consumer prices in Singapore are set to rise further as businesses pass on accumulating costs to customers amid firm demand conditions and sharply higher commodity prices, the central bank said.
The core consumer price index — which excludes private transport and accommodation costs — is projected to pick up in the coming months and peak in the third quarter, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said in its half-yearly macroeconomic review on Thursday (28 April).
One major factor is the recent surge in energy prices, which will filter through to electricity and gas tariffs in the third quarter, according to the report.
Sharply higher global commodity prices and renewed supply disruptions as a result of both the Russia-Ukraine crisis and the regional pandemic situation are adding to pre-existing global inflationary pressures.
Against this backdrop, consumer price inflation in Singapore is expected to increase and remain elevated for some time.
Notably, the surge in global energy and agricultural commodity prices will raise domestic inflation for fuel, electricity and gas and non-cooked food, which will in turn feed into higher inflation for transport and food services over time.
Underlying price pressures could ease towards the end of this year, on the assumption that global commodity prices stabilise and global supply constraints loosen to some extent, the central bank said.
Higher food costs
However, the higher level of global food prices will eventually be fully reflected in domestic food prices. Elevated global food prices are therefore expected to continue to exert pressure on Singapore’s food inflation beyond 2022.
Singapore's core inflation rose to a 10-year high of 2.9 per cent year-on-year in March, up from 2.2 per cent in February, driven by higher inflation for food and services, official data released on Monday showed.
For the whole of 2022, MAS core inflation is forecasted to come in at 2.5 per cent to 3.5 per cent, up from the previous forecast range of two to three per cent.
The headline, or overall inflation, which includes private transport and accommodation, is forecast at 4.5 per cent and 5.5 per cent for the year, up from an earlier range of 2.5 per cent to 3.5 per cent.
This is due to a backlog of construction delays in residential projects pushing up home prices and elevated Certificate of Entitlement premiums and petrol prices.
Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore


text:
SEASIDE HEIGHTS, N.J. (WPVI) -- A brand new roller coaster is up and running at the jersey shore just in time for Memorial Day weekend.
New Jersey governor Chris Christie cut the ribbon at the "Hydrus" Friday on the boardwalk in Seaside Heights.
It replaced the "Jet Star" coaster that was destroyed by Super storm Sandy more than 4 years ago.
"Hydrus" carries riders at 45 miles per hour along more than 1,000 feet of track.
If you dare to take a ride, it will thrill you with its steep inverted drop and a full loop.
Cutting the ribbon at the "Hydrus"


text:
'Smash Ultimate' DLC Character Leaks: 5 Possible E3 2019 Nintendo Reveals
Sorry, it's not Waluigi.
Nintendo’s big E3 2019 event is still a day away, but we may already know one of the biggest surprises the company has planned. No, it’s not the Pokémon Sword and Shield starter evolutions, it’s the next downloadable content (DLC) character coming to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Right after the official Nintendo 2019 World Championship Tournament at E3 2019 on Saturday, Smash Bros. series director Masahiro Sakurai dropped a big hint in a pre-recorded message, saying, “I’ll be continuing my work on the next DLC fighter and more information regarding that will be shared in the Nintendo Direct for E3 2019 so I hope you’re looking forward to it.”
That pretty much confirms the news is coming, but who is the next Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC character? We don’t know for sure, but we have plenty of educated guesses based on previous leaks.
Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC: Erdrick (and Minecraft?)
The most recent Smash Ultimate DLC leak comes from perennial fighting game leaker Vergeben, who posted a comment on Reddit last month revealing what he knows about Nintendo’s upcoming DLC plans for Smash Bros. Ultimate:
I have not talked about E3 Smash stuff yet. All I currently know about the DLC is what I have said before… which is that Erdrick is a fighters pass character and Minecraft content of some kind will be added.
Erdrick is a character from the Dragon Quest series from Japanese video game developer Square Enix. The games primarily release for Nintendo consoles and have a larger following in Japan. So it makes sense that Nintendo might use Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC to introduce the franchise to even more players.
As for Minecraft, it’s unclear if this collaboration will mean a new character, a level, or something else entirely. However, it’s possible the DLC could coincide with the release of Minecraft Dungeons next year.
Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC: Doomguy!
Based on other previous leaks, the next Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC character might also be Ryu Hayabusa (Ninja Gaiden) or Doomguy (Doom), which would line up nicely with the upcoming release of Doom Eternal. Those options came from a December leak that accurately predicted the news of Project 5 R, giving it a bit more credibility.
Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC: Sora!
Another fan-favorite that’s been supported by leaks is Sora, the protagonist from Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts games. These leaks haven’t been as credible, though it would work well with the incoming Kingdom Hearts III DLC release this winter.
Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC: More Fire Emblem Fighters?
However, the most likely option may be the least exciting: Another Fire Emblem anime sword boy (or girl). With the release of Fire Emblem: Three Houses coming in late July, it seems likely Nintendo will celebrate the launch by bringing one of the game’s new characters to the world of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It might not be the most inspired decision, but we can’t say it will come as a surprise.
Whatever Nintendo has planned, we should find out soon. The company’s E3 2019 presentation begins on Tuesday, June 11 at 12 p.m. Eastern.


text:
Are you ready for the visit from Pope Francis!?! Here’s what comics you’ll be reading while staying off the roads or moving your car to a new spot….
We’re aproaching that halfway point between Made in America being in town and the Pope showing up! Let’s see what comics will be on our shelves this week (9.16.15)
It’s September and the kids are all going back to school! Let’s see what’s coming out!
Happy Birthday to Jack Kirby and a list of the comics coming out this week!
Three years ago today our Old City shop was busy moving locations! Whew…thanks the comics gods we’re not doing that again right now!
Today’s Doctor Who Day at both of our shops! Save on Whovian items galore. Also here’s what’s coming out on Wednesday!
This Saturday is Dr Who Day and you’ll be able to save on all things Doctor!
This week there’s a new Batgirl statue, a comic series from DC based on Variant covers and fan art, an issue of Secret Wars and my very own personal fave…a Predator: Concrete Jungle anniversary figure from Dark Horse! Also Magic News!
Well technically tomorrow is August but whatever…here’s what’s going on and coming out this week (the first new comic day of August)


text:
Dad’s Day Spending to Drop
National Retail Federation
Americans are expected to spend an average of $90.89 on Father’s Day gifts this year versus $94.54 last year, according to BIGresearch and the National Retail Federation.
MORE ON THIS STORY...
MORE RETAIL NEWS HEADLINES...
Check out RetailWire's Engaging Online Discussions Featuring Our Exclusive Braintrust!
©2022 RetailWire LLC. All rights reserved.


text:
Anyone hoping for a trading update from M&S this week has had their hopes dashed with news that the under-pressure chain won’t be giving out the current-trading details that we’ve become accustomed to at its AGM.
Canadian retailer Hudson’s Bay Co. has responded to reports that it is selling half of its European business to Signa, confirming that the companies are in talks but denying that a definitive agreement has been reached.
Watch specialist, Watchfinder & Co has opened its first store in the West Midlands, at the Bullring, as the shopping centre continues to attract top names that are expanding their physical stores footprint.
The Islamic fashion e-commerce brand has launched a UK strategy that will see it open its first bricks-and-mortar concept store and a number of pop-ups in London. It follows the launch of an online store this month.
Superdry continues to progress despite challenging sales in its physical stores. But a focus on e-tail, wholesale, womenswear and other key product extensions means it's staying confident for the year ahead.


text:
According to the information from China Telecom, China Telecom is starting to prepare for the sales of the iPhone 5 and conduct staff training. It will accept orders for the iPhone 5 earliest at the late September, and China Telecom will begin to sell it in October. It is revealed that the difference between Telecom version iPhone 5 and iPhone 4 is the machine-card separation. A company insider said that iPhone 5 should begin to accept order in the mid September, but it was put off.
Additionally, on the basis of some reports, a LED screen at the a branch of China Telecom, Chang’an Road, Suzhou, had already posted advertisement of the forthcoming debut of the iPhone 5 and welcome customers to order it.
An authorized distributor of Apple products, Tiannuo said that though it has not information of Apple launch time for iPhone 5, it has already started to accept advance bookings for it, and the booking fees were 2,000 yuan.
According to the information of China Telecom insider, after reference of iPhone 4 subsidies of China Unicom, China Telecom prepares to spend 1.5 billion yuan for the marketing of the iPhone 5 under a plan named as “Dragon Plan”. Statistics show that in the half year of 2011, China Telecom has already owned 108 million subscribers, which has surpassed American Verizon Wireless and become the world’s largest CDMA operator. At present, China Telecom has high-end users between 13 million and 15 million, with potential to generate revenue of $8-9 billion.
Since the beginning of this year, China Telecom offers written code service (known as burning crack number) for parallel CDMA version of iPhone 4.
Some analysts predict that at the end of 2011, China Telecom may sell 1.06 million iPhones in total. Meanwhile, according to Wang Xiaochu, company chairman, this company will increase subsidies for its mobile customers with the introduction of iPhone 5.


text:
Designer Tom Ford has come under fire for launching a new range of phallic necklaces in the shape of a cross.
The pendants on the controversial necklaces are in the shape of a penis. The charms, available in silver and gold, are priced at $790 and are advertised as large, small and medium 'penis pendant necklaces'.
The pendants have been released in time for Christmas and are touted as an alternative kinky Xmas present.
But the controversial designer's latest stunt has provoked outrage amongst Christians who described the necklaces as 'unbelievably offensive' for combining a phallic image with a religious symbol.
God will punish Tom Ford for making that necklace
— Ovie (@ovie52009) December 13, 2014
Taking to social media to condemn the designer one person described him as "sick" and other said he could "rot in hell" as king "is he insane?"
Writing on Twitter @ovie52009 wrote: "God will punish Tom Ford for making that necklace."
Expressing her disgust Susan Swift wrote: "Just in time for Christmas, a way to say "screw Christ," the saviour of the world. This is sick. Just sick."
Kevlyn Hall said: "How dare you use a phallic symbol in the Christian cross! You insulting piece of trash! HOW DARE YOU!"
The designer is used to courting controversy, with fashion ads being banned for being too explicit. An advert in 2007 for a men's fragrance launched by Tom Ford, featured a bottle of perfume between a model's open thighs.
A self-professed provocateur, Ford is also renowned for his sexed-up collections, most notably SS15's nipple-baring sheer tops and he showcased the highest of thigh splits with velvet-topped stockings.
In 2003, a controversial campaign for Gucci featuring the fashion house's iconic G shaved into a model's pubic hair was banned.


text:
Triumph Motorcycles | New Bonneville PR & Press Launch
A series of activities staged over 2 days at the newly opening Bike Shed Motorcycle Club in London Shoreditch. The new Bonneville launch was the most important product launch in Triumph recent history and saw the reveal of a completely new line-up of this iconic motorcycle. Global lifestyle and motorcycle press were invited to hear from the brands senior managers and see the entire range close up in a series of presentations. The programme culminated in a PR event that saw Influencers, bloggers press and celebrities celebrate the one of Britains greatest brands.
Client: Triumph Motorcycles
LIVELee role: Project management, design and production


text:
Hyundai Motor America has dropped a policy requiring that some warranty coverage disputes between customers and the factory be settled through arbitration. In other words the carmaker is taking arbitration clauses out of the contracts. Until last month, Hyundai included the clause in its new-vehicle warranty contract, which also gave customers the ability to opt out of the arbitration clause within 90 days of a new-vehicle purchase. A report about the unfairness of arbitration clauses appeared in the Dec. 6 issue of The New York Times. Shortly after that article was published, Hyundai issued a statement saying the policy would be dropped. So both the Times for writing the article and Hyundai for responding to it in the right manner are to be commended for the result, which is good for Hyundai customers.
The Hyundai arbitration policy had been in place since 2006. In a statement to the Times in response to its article, Hyundai said it was dropping the policy “because we don’t want people to be misled and think we don’t stand behind America’s best warranty.” Proponents of binding arbitration clauses in contracts – common fixtures in everything from mobile phone plans to credit card agreements to medical insurance policies – claim arbitration is a faster, less expensive alternative to litigation for settling disputes. That’s as far from the truth as anything you can imagine. Forced arbitration favors Corporate America, hurts consumers and is totally anti-consumer in every respect.
In fact, arbitration, forced on a consumer, limits that person’s options in pursuing a grievance with a company. The clauses typically require consumers to waive their right to take a company to court – give up their constitutional right to a jury trial – and instead settle grievances through a process overseen by private firms hired by the company. Hyundai says it has used arbitration to settle warranty disputes about 10 times since 2006. A spokesperson says that arbitration has never been used by Hyundai to handle disputes involving product liability or personal-injury claims. Hopefully, both statements are factually correct. In any event, Hyundai – for whatever reason – did the right thing when it removed the arbitration clauses in this instance.
Contact us today for a free legal consultation with an experienced attorney.
Fields marked *may be required for submission.
If you would like to subscribe to the Jere Beasley Report digital edition, simply visit our Subscriptions page and provide the necessary information or call us at 800-898-2034.
Attorney Advertising - Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.


text:
As Director of Content Marketing and Social Media at Autodesk, Dusty DiMercurio oversees their award-winning publication, Redshift. Get a behind-the-scenes peek into how he works with industry experts and journalists to create best-in-class content.
What we spend on says a lot about who we are, and banks are rich with consumer data that can reveal our everyday behaviour. In Singapore, DBS Bank is trying to use this data to make their customer’s lives better.
Karen Ngui, Head of Strategic Marketing & Communications DBS, and her team discuss their success in better connecting with customers through their franchise, SPARKS.
We sat down with Circles.Life’s Carrie Sim to learn more about the strategies behind their successful viral campaigns and their take on providing great customer experiences.
This is how Juniper Network’s Yash Suresh won the lead generation game.
Seven years after its launch, FRANK by OCBC is still charming youths till today. Their Head of Youth Segment Genevieve Gay reveals how marketers can go further to improve customer experience.
Telling compelling stories with data can give your customers tremendous value. Think With Google APAC’s Editor-in-Chief, who oversees 14 markets across the region, shares her lessons with us.


text:
At around 8 a.m. on Jan. 26, a group of officers from the Santa Ana Police Department (SAPD) lined the shopping center at the intersection of Jefferson Place and 17th Street with yellow caution tape. That same morning, a separate group of officers broke down the door of Sky High Holistic Collective and began to raid the dispensary.
Over the next several hours, law enforcement from Santa Ana’s drug division confiscated all the cannabis products in the store, seized the computers and removed the safe. The police also raided another dispensary in the same shopping center. By 9:45 a.m., empty display cases from both dispensaries were sitting on the sidewalk, waiting to be dollied into a city-operated moving truck, then placed in storage.
Unlike the infamous Sky High raid of May 2015—for which SAPD didn’t have a search warrant and were caught on camera throwing darts, abusing a paraplegic, and looking and acting suspiciously guilty of eating pot edibles—this cop invasion took place before the store’s operating hours. As the clock inched closer to the collective’s opening time of 10 a.m., a woman wearing an oxygen mask arrived with her caretaker. A broken expression fell across her face when she realized what was happening to her go-to clinic. She wasn’t the only one disappointed; more patients who were members of the collective arrived, only to realize they wouldn’t be getting their meds from Sky High that day.
As word about January’s raid of Sky High spread, employees from surrounding collectives flooded the area like vultures circling for prey. Groups of people representing different dispensaries—from both the licensed and unlicensed shops—stood in different parts of Sky High’s shopping center, an area that borders Santa Ana’s Floral Park. They waited for patients to show up to the closed collective so they could hand them flyers advertising their dispensaries.
Some stood at the entrances of the parking lot, while others waited closer to the boarded-up dispensary. They waved down people in cars who drove into the parking lot, approached people who looked like they might be walking toward Sky High and stood on the street corners to catch patients from a different angle.
“Hey, you should check out our collective,” said a smiling man who approached a woman as she got out of her car. He handed her a flyer with several emoji faces and the word “LOL” on it—the name of another unlicensed shop in Santa Ana. “We’re about 10 minutes away from here.”
* * * * *
Matthew Pappas, an Orange County cannabis attorney who represents Sky High and a handful of other unlicensed shops, released a statement shortly after the January raid saying the operation took place approximately 10 days after he filed suit against the city, seeking $650,000 in damages for three prior raids. The reason the city hadn’t returned or paid the requested amount of money, according to the suit, is because Santa Ana PD “lost, destroyed or otherwise converted the property taken” from the raids. Among the property, according to Pappas, were display cases, cannabis, computers and patient records—the same items that were taken in the January raid.
Less than 12 hours after SAPD boarded up Sky High, a statement was released announcing that a Los Angeles cannabis attorney named David Welch would represent the members of the Santa Ana Cannabis Association—a coalition of the Measure BB-compliant dispensaries in the city—in a civil suit filed against 14 unlicensed shops in town. The Santa Ana Cannabis Association’s mission is to help ensure medical-marijuana businesses are in compliance with the laws, as well as to facilitate safe access to legal medical cannabis for the citizens of Santa Ana.
“Measure BB was established to provide guidelines for the operation of a medical-marijuana dispensary, including the requirements for obtaining a license to operate such a business,” Welch says in the statement. Aside from not obtaining a license, he argued, those facilities don’t pay city taxes; provide proper onsite ventilation, which negatively affects the air quality of surrounding communities; or perform background checks on their employees.
Pappas immediately released a response saying he and his team at McGrath, Pappas and Pinchiff Law would represent the 14 unlicensed dispensaries. “These lawyers are suing dispensaries who did not engage in bribery and corrupt actions, unlike those who were involved in the corrupt lottery system,” Pappas said. “The actions taken by Welch and his partners to protect the profits of their clients who obtained licenses through political contributions and anti-competitive methods are not only improper, but [also] designed to harm the patients for whom medical cannabis was provided by the voters. Those patients who have been harmed by Santa Ana will fight back to stop the corruption.”
Fast-forward six months, however, and the suit has yet to be served. “I think the point of that lawsuit was a publicity stunt,” says Pappas. “I’m fairly certain that the raid of Sky High was meant to be coordinated with the filing of that lawsuit for the press because they did a press release of the raid, which you just normally don’t do, and then Santa Ana PD went into Sky High early in the morning before the dispensary was open, and they took absolutely everything.”
The Weekly scheduled a phone interview with Welch, but he ended up being unavailable and unable to reschedule. According to Pappas, he and Welch used to work together. “They know my address. They could have served [the suit], and they never did,” he says. “There’s a chance it’s even been dismissed by now.”
This low-level war between rogue shops and licensed dispensaries in Santa Ana began in November 2014, when Measure BB beat Measure CC, a grassroots-backed and more expansive legalization initiative, in a special election. Although Measure BB allowed medical-marijuana dispensaries to operate in Santa Ana, the city’s measure capped the number of licenses at 20—a number much less than CC aimed for. That’s when the city held its infamous lottery to determine who’d get ownership of those storefronts.
Santa Ana’s pot lottery is now the stuff of cannabis folklore. From the eyewitness reports of shady people showing up at City Hall with bags of cash to purchase 100 to 150 lottery balls at $1,490 apiece to allegations that Mayor Miguel Pulido’s personal lawyer was going into dispensaries and offering his private consulting services, evidence that the process wasn’t exactly fair quickly piled up, leaving many would-be dispensary operators frustrated. Nearly three years later, both licensed and unlicensed shops exist in Santa Ana. Although the amount of rogue shops has substantially declined since 2014, perhaps the most fundamental reason the Measure BB-compliant owners want the rogue shops shut down is because the legal shops lose a lot of business to their unlicensed competitors.
“No one is winning here,” says Robert Taft, CEO of 420 Central, a Measure BB dispensary in Santa Ana. “Not a single store is winning—they’re all only surviving. And there are some that aren’t surviving. For example, the Reserve OC has changed hands several times. . . . Then there’s Hand n’ Hand, which changed owners and is now Cookies OC. These stores aren’t surviving, and they are being sold, which technically isn’t allowed either.”
* * * * *
One problem is that the rogue and Measure BB shops sell exactly the same products. “They have all the same edibles, vapes, everything—they sell the same things we do,” says Justin Shivley, the CEO of New Generation, a Measure BB dispensary. “And the reality is that they’re also clean. I know they’re clean because we require batch numbers and test results for every product—which are the same products they sell, too—that comes into the shop. . . . We get everything from the exact same vendors.”
Additionally, the rogue dispensaries sell the products for much less. Cannabis goes for as low as $25 per eighth of an ounce instead of the usual rogue price of $30 to $35. On the flip side, however, there are licensed shops selling eighths for nearly $80, a colossal ripoff. Shivley says he has received a lot of heat from the BB community for selling the lowest-priced eighths in town among the legal stores: $35. According to Shivley, that’s the lowest he can go without jeopardizing the livelihoods of his staff, still being able to afford New Generation’s rent—which is upward of 300 times the amount per square foot rogue shops have to pay because of zoning, taxes and overhead expenses.
Meanwhile, rogue operators are quick to accuse BB shops of using city permits to justify high prices that exploit patients. “Have you seen the cars some of those BB guys drive?” asks Kevin (not his real name), a member of a board of supervisors for several rogue shops in Santa Ana over the past decade, including one the city shut down in February. “Some of them own Ferraris, Aston Martins—what is that? I mean, yes, a lot of patients come in who are recreational users. But the majority are patients who are genuinely sick—and you’re telling me all those cars have all been paid off via recreational patients? Bullshit.”
Kevin says the real difference between the rogue and licensed shops is that the rogues are giving patients—people who are genuinely ill—their meds for what they actually cost. “More sick patients go to rogue shops than licensed shops because of cost, especially in an area like Santa Ana because it’s low income. The BB stores are taking away from people who are sick and don’t have money because it’s all been spent on their various forms of treatment,” he says. “It’s fucked-up shit.”
New Generation’s Shivley, for his part, agrees that some of the legal shops are severely gouging patients. “I’m not here to rip people off,” he says. “I understand that [patients] all work hard for their money. I’m not here to charge them $13 a gram or $50 an eighth. I don’t want to name any names, but there are definitely some other licensed shops in Santa Ana that are ripping people off.”
The BB shop owners also argue that the rogue dispensaries don’t pay taxes on anything, whereas licensed shops have to pay taxes on everything. “The BB shops are being taxed on everything from a business-license tax to a city tax to a state tax, and we pay taxes on all the money we make in a year, as well as legal taxes,” Taft says. But when it comes to rent, he says, the rogues’ rent is cheaper for a reason—and that’s on the city. “That’s what happens when you do a regulatory scheme: The properties in the zoning areas double in price.”
Pappas, however, argues that all of his rogue clients pay business taxes—and not because they’re required to like the BB stores, but rather because they’re taking it on themselves to be as compliant as possible. “All my clients are unlicensed, but they’re all in compliance with state law,” he says. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t represent them. They all pay state sales taxes, which is required by state law. But in regards to cities like Santa Ana or Long Beach who charge 10 percent to 15 percent or 20 percent tax on medical marijuana, it’s beyond outlandish.”
Pappas contends that when someone goes to the pharmacy to get Oxycontin—a pharmaceutical opiate that’s killing more people in this country than any other drug, legal or illegal—patients don’t have to pay any sales tax because pharmacies are exempt from charging taxes. The same should apply for medical cannabis. But the rogue shops do pay state sales tax.
“When the cities say that my clients aren’t paying city taxes, even though they’re paying state taxes, I have to say: But what about CVS and Walgreens?” he says. “They don’t pay taxes either, and they’re handing out drugs that kill people. My clients aren’t paying a 10 percent to 20 percent surtax that’s put on top of medical marijuana.”
Another major reason the Measure BB dispensaries are losing business to rogue shops is because the licensed shops are, as Taft puts it, “handcuffed.” According to the Measure BB ordinance, the shops are only allowed to legally operate between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m.—a time frame in which 90 percent of people are at work. The rogue shops, on the other hand, are open anywhere from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m., seven days per week. Although every rogue shop has different hours of operation, they’re all open after 8 p.m.
“Most of the BB stores are failing,” says Kevin, who is now on the board of directors of a spiritual church in Orange County that uses cannabis as a sacrament. “If you close your doors at 8 p.m., you’re losing 65 percent to 70 percent of your traffic. . . . So, literally, after 8 p.m., people have no choice but to go to rogue shops if they want to get their meds.”
The hours of operation have been a hot topic at the past several Santa Ana City Council meetings. After allowing the rogue shops to dominate the market after-hours for years, the City Council has finally decided to allow for the extension of Measure BB dispensary hours. Although this should help one aspect of the licensed shops’ problems, the BB owners are still scrambling to not let their shops go under. “Everyone thinks that if you’re a BB shop owner, you’re rich,” Shivley says, then laughs and rolls his eyes. “No, not even close. I’m struggling right now compared to when I had my rogue shops. But as soon as regulations kick in, I think it will get better.”
* * * * *
One crucial issue the City Council has yet to address is cultivation, which under Measure BB is currently illegal. Thus, the licensed and rogue shops get their supplies from the same place. Taft explains that, in essence, the best thing that happened to the black market was the approval of Measure BB. First, it opened up a larger demand for black-market growers. Second, it gave these growers the opportunity to sell their product at higher prices to the BB shops—another way these legal shops feel that they’re being gouged. “Unless we have cultivation in Santa Ana, we’ll continue to feed that same black market,” says Taft. “I understand the council gave us extended hours, but what that does is give us more hours to sell black-market cannabis.”
Randall Longwith, a cannabis attorney who represents several Measure BB dispensaries, including 420 Central and New Generation, believes that dispensaries should be treated like any other business, in that licensed businesses should stay open and illegal unlicensed shops should not. That same concept, he believes, is applicable to cultivation. “The way to contain and allow a dispensary to maintain safety protocol is to cultivate or at least allow cultivation, just like what Long Beach is now doing,” says Longwith. “I think that’s what Santa Ana should be doing. The problem with Santa Ana not allowing cultivation is that they’re not committing to safety. . . . We’ve said from the beginning that we want safe access—this is part of that safe access, which is to allow us to cultivate and mandate that it be tested and safe.”
The city of Santa Ana prohibits cultivation because it believes growing legal cannabis will negatively impact the community rather than benefit it. “There are several health and safety concerns regarding indoor cultivation, including the use of chemicals, mold, faulty electrical work, and a susceptibility to burglary and robbery,” a city spokesperson said. “Indoor cultivation requires significant space. Commercial cultivation requires the use of large, industrial/commercial structures to grow marijuana. Legalizing cultivation would most likely impact the cost of rent at these structures and may have the unintended effect of driving other legitimate businesses out of the city. . . . The city may be better served by waiting until January prior to considering whether to permit commercial cultivation.”
Although cultivation is a big issue, perhaps the larger obstacle the licensed and unlicensed shops face is related to Weedmaps. Known as the “Yelp for weed,” the Irvine-based advertising company provides ads for both the BB and rogue dispensaries. This not only contributes to the licensed shops losing business to the rogue stores, but it also essentially keeps the unlicensed shops open. “I’ve used most of my savings on getting [New Generation] built; that’s why I don’t spend $10,000 on a billboard and pay Weedmaps $30,000 in advertising,” says Shivley. “I give them $420 a month because I literally have to in order for us to stay on the map, but I won’t give them any more than that. It’s wrong what they’re doing. They’re promoting all these other rogue guys at insanely low costs—way lower than what they offer [the licensed shops]. . . . It’s bullshit.”
Of course, Yelp, Google, Leafly, the Yellow Pages and even the Weekly also offer dispensary listings for licensed and unlicensed shops. That said, when your business is backed by millions (and millions) of dollars—like Weedmaps—your platform automatically becomes the most effective of the lot.
Longwith asserts that Weedmaps shouldn’t advertise rogue shops in cities such as Santa Ana that have opened up their borders to licensed shops. “Advertise all you want with regard to dispensaries in cities that do not have ordinances on their books to allow for licensed dispensaries,” says Longwith. “But with regard to those cities that do have ordinances, they should respect that and not advertise for businesses that don’t have licenses. . . . Weedmaps has an obligation to respect cities that have allowed dispensaries to operate legally.”
Those on the rogue side who participated in the lottery feel backstabbed by Weedmaps. Kandice Hawes-Lopez, an Orange County cannabis activist and founder of the Orange County chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) told the Weekly last year that when NORML started working on an initiative to get a measure passed, they initially failed. So Hawes-Lopez and the NORML team talked to the dispensaries—all of which were rogue at the time—and got a group together to approach Weedmaps. They asked them if they wanted to be a part of the group, but Weedmaps said no because they didn’t want to get political.
Not long after, Weedmaps allowed OC NORML to hold its meetings at the company’s office, saying it supported the initiative Hawes-Lopez and NORML were driving. But several months later, Hawes-Lopez discovered that Weedmaps had actually contributed cash to gather support for the rival, city-supported initiative, Measure BB. “Weedmaps paid $30,000 to the city’s campaign instead of ours, which was shocking because we thought they were supporting us the whole time when, in fact, they jumped ship and went behind our backs, on top of still letting us have meetings there,” she says. “We felt spied on.”
That experience soured many medical-marijuana activists about Weedmaps, Hawes-Lopez explains. “I think that’s what first ignited the passion and distrust that revolves around Weedmaps and why groups of people in the medical-marijuana industry and community believe that it’s all some kind of conspiracy.”
But things have changed a lot for Hawes-Lopez in the past year. As an activist who fought alongside the rogue dispensaries, she’s now doing community outreach for Bud and Bloom, a Measure BB dispensary. As an activist, her goal is to begin mending the broken community. “I kind of have an interesting perspective because I fought the fight for years and donated thousands of hours of time,” she says. “But these legal shops are the reality of what we have, and we’re going to have state licensing, too, before we know it—like, in a blink of an eye. I think people need to start worrying about that and getting together to try to open up other cities.”
Although Pappas and Taft are on opposing sides of the divide, both allege that Weedmaps has been and still is involved with the Santa Ana City Council. “Everybody knows that Weedmaps campaigns and lobbies at the city of Santa Ana,” says Taft. “It’s not a secret. . . . If you don’t know, it’s because you’re not paying attention.”
(A request to Weedmaps for comment on their role in Measure BB, lobbying and their stance on rogue shops in the city wasn’t returned by press time.)
Pappas explains that the reason he supports the rogue shops and their patients is because he ethically can’t support a scheme he knows is rooted in corruption. “I’m just not going comply with a system with laws that were enacted by the city council and mayor who were in cahoots with one another and Weedmaps to create a system so that people could bribe their way into a license.”
Then there are those few Measure BB shop owners who operate both compliant and rogue shops. They not only take away business from the licensed shops, but they also contribute to the corruption by double dipping, raking in heaps of cash. “How can you say they aren’t out for money?” asks Kevin.
“I don’t own rogue shops anymore,” says Shivley. “I shut them down as soon as I got a license. It’s not even a question—it’s what needed to be done. If I want to stand for something and believe in something, I have to be a part of the example. And I’m struggling now. But I’d rather struggle than be a hypocrite.”


text:
Bitcoin surges to its maximum cost every coin since the ridiculous end of 2017: What’s behind the latest boom and is it going to continue?
Bitcoin has risen eighty seven % year-on-year to more than $13,000.
It has been buoyed by news which is good like PayPal thinking drivers might pay by using it.
JP Morgan sometimes said its had’ considerable upside’ in the long-range and that it could participate with yellow as an alternate currency.
A surging appetite for bitcoin price today since the end of September has noticed the cost of the cryptocurrency soar to levels last seen in January 2018, with one of America’s premier banks actually implying it might prove an alternative to gold.
At one stage on Wednesday, it virtually touched the $14,000 barrier – but in spite of a small dip since, it’s risen through $10,500 a coin at the end of last month to more or less $13,000 these days, or £10,000.
The steep climb of the cost since mid-October will mean the cryptocurrency has risen eighty seven a cent in value earlier this week compared to last year, with the total value of the 18.5million coins in blood flow now $243billion.
The price tag of Bitcoin has hit more than $13,000, the greatest it has been since January 2018 +4
The price of Bitcoin has hit over $13,000, the highest it has been since January 2018
Though Britain’s monetary regulator announced at the beginning of October it will exclude the sale of cryptocurrency-related derivatives to informal investors from next January with the prospective damage they posed, the cryptocurrency has gotten a string of excellent headlines which have helped spur investor confidence.
Previous Wednesday PayPal mentioned from next year US customers would be in a position to purchase, hold as well as easily sell bitcoin inside the app of its and use it to make payments for a fee, instead of just with PayPal as a method of funding purchases from the likes of Coinbase.
While individuals who ended up being paid the fashion will see it converted back into regular cash, the media watched bitcoin shoot up in worth by around $800 in 1 day, as reported by figures from Coindesk.
Glen Goodman, an authority and writer of the book The Crypto Trader, called the news’ a genuinely great vindication of Bitcoin from mainstream finance.’
Meanwhile Twitter founder and chief executive Jack Dorsey’s payments company Square announced it had bought $50million worth of coins earlier in October.
Even though many investors remain to discover bitcoin basically as a speculative advantage to test and make money on, crypto devotees were likely buoyed to see much more probable instances in which it might actually be used as a payment method in the future.
Analysts at JP Morgan recommended a fortnight ago on the back of the news from paypal and Square that the’ potential long-term upside for bitcoin is considerable’, and that it could even compete’ more extremely with orange as an alternate currency’ due to the better recognition of its with more youthful users.
The analysts added that:’ Cryptocurrencies derive value not only since they work as retailers of wealth but probably due to the energy of theirs as means of payment.
‘The far more economic elements recognize cryptocurrencies as a means of payment down the road, the higher the energy of theirs and value.’
The comparison with orange, even though the FCA described cryptocurrencies as having’ extreme volatility’, is equally likely an additional reason behind the increase in bitcoin’s price since worldwide stock markets fell drastically in mid March.
Gold is viewed as a store of value due to its limited characteristics, while the 21million coin cap on bitcoin may’ appeal to some investors as they see Government deficits balloon’, Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell said.
Central banks across the world were pumping money into the economies of theirs as they need to help companies and governments through the coronavirus pandemic by having borrowing costs low, and that others worry will lead to rampant inflation and a decline in currencies which include the dollar.
Goodman included he felt the prices has’ been mainly driven by the money printing narrative, with central banks – especially the US Federal Reserve – expanding the money source to counteract the effect of coronavirus on the financial state.
‘The dollar has been depreciating as a direct result, along with a good deal of investors – and perhaps organizations – are actually beginning to hedge the dollar holdings of theirs by diversifying into “hard currencies” as gold as well as Bitcoin.’
This particular cocktail of great news posts and action by central banks has meant that bitcoin has extremely outperformed the small cost rise found ahead of its’ halving’ in May, which cut the treat for digitally mining bitcoin and constricting its supply.
Although data from Google Trends indicates this led to far more searches for bitcoin in the UK than has been seen during the last month, the purchase price did not touch $10,000 until late July, 2 weeks after the event.
But, even if enthusiasts are increasingly excitable about bitcoin’s future as being a payment method, it is possible that a great deal of the fascination is continually being led by gamblers, speculators and even those hoping the purchase price will basically keep on going up.
Ed Cooper, head of cryptocurrencies at the banking app Revolut, said:’ As retail investors see the retail price climbing, they tend to end up being much more bullish and this additional raises upward cost pressure. It then contributes to more news stories, extra curiosity, and thus the cycle repeats.’
Certain 47 a dollar of individuals surveyed by the Financial Conduct Authority in a report released in July stated they had never used cryptocurrency for whatever, with £260 purchased on average largely’ as a gamble that could help make or perhaps lose money’.
As well as JP Morgan’s analysts cautioned that in’ the near term, bitcoin looks quite overbought and weak to profit taking’.